Lecture 8

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Essay support

I got this email from Linn Vizard yesterday

Just wondering if you have any tips for suggested reading/websites "are analogue forms of culture on a one way trip to extinction"? The library seems limited.

If you are thinking of doing this essay, the most straightforward way of approaching it is to look at some of the data on the decline of analogue media and areas where it has been or is being seriously challenged by digital equivalents. Examples of the former might be found in areas such as the music and the latter in, film, TV broadcasting and news media. You might then move on to consider the implications of a 'digital switchover' or areas of resistance to it. This will almost certainly involve a bit of digging around on the internet (or research, as we used to call it).

You might also want to consider the relative cost and benefits to the replacement of analogue by digital and some of the wider implications globally, such as the creation of the 'digital divide'.

I wouldn't be looking for too much orthodox academic literature in your bibliography, if only because the changes have been taking place so rapidly that academics have barely got around to addressing it systematically. What I would expect to see is some empirical data on the decline of analogue media and a clear indication that you understand the difference between the two (e.g. CDs and MP3s are both digital media even though their forms are quite different).

A few good sources for data or whitepapers on the topic might be the following (but you will need to do some searching):

The Times On-line
Wired
Ars Technica
BBC Technology

Hope this helps

Website of the week 6

This week's WOW is included because I thought it might be useful for any of you involved in those pesky group collaborative projects.

Etherpad is an on-line collaborative text editor in which up to 8 users can simultaneously participate in producing documents in real time. It was devised by a couple of ex-Google employees and is wonderful in its simplicity.



I've tried it and provided your internet connection is fast enough it works like a charm. You can save the documents on-line and then cut and paste them for use in whatever word processor you happen to favour. It doesn't handle images or other objects yet, but I suspect that's only a matter of time.

For those of you who might need a more 'whiteboard' type of approach which can handle drawing you might like to try Twiddla or you can check Etherpad out here

Anyway, I'm off to celebrate Rene Magritte's birthday with one or two of these:

Lecture 7

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This is a special collector's edition of Lecture 7 since it includes new, not previously shown slides featuring the work of 0100101110101101.org which I was unable to include in yesterday's lecture due to the failure of my internet connection at home. They are definitely worth checking out.

Oh, and I almost forgot, anyone dying put the 386DX track on their Xmas party mix-tape can download it here

Course Essays

As promised I've included this entry up so you can post any queries you might have regarding the essays for this course.

Use the 'Post comment' facility to raise any questions you might have about content, technique or approach to a given topic.

The list of titles is available for download from the course website here

Supporting documents including the NCAD essay cover sheet can be downloaded here

Remember the deadline for submission is 5th December

Not quite website of the week

Barack Obama's innovative weekly address to the cyberspace electorate is not really a website but it is highly indicative of the importance of digital culture in the modern age. It seems set to catch on and it's had over 800,000 hits since it was posted on Friday which is considerably more than his previous You Tube outings.

I would have respected him more if he had turned the comments on but could you imagine Biffo Cowan doing something like this?

Website of the week 5

These contemporary drawing machines echo some of the devices on show at Cybernetic Serendipity in 1968 while simultaneously rejecting a modernist trajectory by the use, in many cases, of pre-digital technology. Some of them definitely possess a certain Victorian mad scientist chic.



I'm not sure what to make of these yokes. Are they just weird contraptions with pens attached? Is the art in what is produced, the means of the production, or a combination the two? Anyway you can check out the set here

The real art lovers amongst you might like to watch this. I think Leonardo would have approved.

Thanks to Sean Fallon at Gizmodo for this gem

Lecture 6

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For those of you who can't resist it, and why would you? the AC/DC spreadsheet video can be downloaded here. This does not mean I condone head-banging in any shape or form, especially in my lectures!

Lecture 5

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Website of the week 4

This week's WOW comes from Antrepo Design Industry

It consists of a series of movie posters which are a kind of reductio ad absurdam of film hype. The designs simply list the brands promoted by or integrated into the movies being promoted. In an important sense these posters open up for consideration the way commercial film has become little more than a means for pushing products on unsuspecting consumers.

It is particularly appropriate in the week following the release of the latest Bond movie, a franchise that probably did more for product and brand hyping via the cinema over the last 40 years than any other.

Lecture 4

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Website of the week 3

This, or by now last, week's WOW is Joyce Walks by Irish artist and NCAD old boy Conor McGarrigle.






According to it its maker

Joyce Walks is a psychogeographical tool which generates walking maps based on routes from James Joyce's Ulysses in any city in the world using Google Maps. The system prints maps to be used as the basis of walks exploring the city of your choice and generates mashups using your pictures and videos documenting these walks to share with other users.

Need I say more? I thought not.

Check it out and make up your own walk in the city of your choice. On a less cerebral level this could be a great tool for generating random pub crawls with literary pretensions as well.

Lecture 3

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Lecture 2

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Website of the week 2

Web without words



This week's site is an unusual, not to say strange, one. Web without words takes a popular website such as Yahoo or CNN and strips out all the text leaving only the design elements in the form of graphic blocks.

According to its creator, Paul Armstrong, WWW seeks

to visually represent my core belief that hierarchy, grid systems and uniformity ultimately lead to a more natural user experience -- to show the overall structure of any website, by striping away all the distractions of text and ads and images and showing a site for what the eye unconsciously perceives.

Whatever.... It makes for interesting viewing and his personifications of the sites are damn funny too.


Thanks to Jay Hathaway at Download Squad for pointing me towards this one

Website of the week 1

I'm thinking of establishing a 'website of the week' as a regular feature of this blog. What I wish it to do is to draw our attention to ways in which digital culture can capture our attention and reveal the world and ways of thinking the world. Hopefully it will also raise some discussion of and engagement with the topics we encounter as the course progresses.

Anyway so, this week's site of the week was developed by Laurier Rochon and Marc Beaulieu of Concordia University and involves personal hygiene, deodorant, and a usb docking station.




As the author describes it

Iamclean.org is a critique of social networking sites and devices. I was talking to a friend on msn Messenger earlier, and after pointing out that she had spent the whole day at the computer doing nothing, she added "msn, aim, icq, facebook, myspace and music. Enough to waste complete days". More specifically, this project takes aim at the idea of online "status", where you can let people know where you are at any moment in time very easily with the help of a computer and a little Internet.

Click on the link and check it out. If you have any comments insert them below.

Nominations for website of the week are also being accepted. Please email me with any suggestions and an explanation of why you think a site should be included.

Learning Support Seminar Timetable

This popped up in my mailbox last night:

The service offers three facilities:

• A series of seminars on essay writing and research held every Tuesday in H C room.@17.00
• An individual tutorial service for those students who have difficulties. Room 16 Design School (orourkem@ncad.ie) tel: (6364314) .
• A specialist support service for students with specific learning difficulties

The writing and research seminars are as follows:

• Notetaking Techniques 21 Oct 17.00 & 18.00 -HC Lecture Theatre
• Essay Writing 28 Oct 17.00 & 18.00 -HC Lecture Theatre
• Essay Writing - 4 Nov 17.00 & 18.00 -HC Lecture Theatre
• Research Strategies - 11Nov 17.00 & 18.00 -HC Lecture Theatre
• Reading Techniques - 18Nov 17.00 & 18.00 -HC Lecture Theatre
• Getting Started 25Nov 17.00 & 18.00 -HC Lecture Theatre

I know you're 3rd years now, but I strongly recommend anyone who has difficulty with any of these things to attend. It's never too late etc., etc.

Lecture 1

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Click on the play arrows to advance the slides. A printable PDF version of the presentation can be downloaded from the course website

The Future of the Book

Further to our classroom discussion this afternoon. I suggest the Luddites and paper fetishists amongst you take a look here