Evaluative Report

Digital is the internet, communication or computers. The digital world is fast. Whether it be to communicate with someone, to find information, retrieve content such as music or video. It makes doing all these things easier, and makes the real world almost feel smaller. Digital enables mass exposure for any individual who deserves or craves it. If a music artist gains enough plays on a site such as myspace, the chances of an unsigned artists getting signed is greatly increased. The myspace phononomen is somewhat outdated in 2010, but other sites such as Twitter mean that if a music artist or celebrity have a large number of followers, the their exposure through other mediums can become huge. Digital enables greater freedom of speech. This can be both positive and negative. Anyone can create a blog, write anything they wish and then publish their thoughts or views in a matter of minutes. The relative ease of doing this and the amount of people that can then consume this information means that blogs are becoming more and more common. As if often the case however, the negative views often are brought into the public's knowledge such as pro anorexia websites. Digital enables the producer and user to become one. This is highlighted in sites like Flickr. The flickr website allows users to upload photos for everyone to view, and sometimes use and even purchase. The issue is when does a professional become a professional? An example of this is if someone is looking for a photo of Big Ben for example, they go to the flickr website and choose the photo best suited to their need. This could have been taken by a professional photographer or by any one of the thousands of tourists who visited London and uploaded to Flickr. Where does the line of professionalism lie? Digital also enables access to high technology every day. This statement was brought up in discussion and was received with some confusion and deabte. To me it means access to the internet (as it was meant to be consumed, e.g in true colour and video capabilites). This can be accessed through mobile phones or using laptops and mobile wi-fi or wi-fi hotspots. Access to the internet on the move means that the user can access popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube away from home and the computer. The most exciting thing about mobile internet is how we receive our news. BBC and CNN both have Twitter accounts and publish many of their main news stories through the site. It is thought that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai were broken through twitter with a user tweeting that they had heard loud noises coming from inside the hotel. As time goes on I think this way of breaking news will become more and more common, all across the world. It is only a matter of time before constant broadcasting of one’s live becomes as common as email. This statement is true, but could be fast becoming outdated. Personally I have multiple email addresses, a facebook account, and a twitter account. I use all three services, but if i want to write a personal message to someone I will use facebook - not an email. The chances are the recipient will check their facebook far more regularly than their emails. However having looked at the feed which shows the number of facebook status updates, tweets and emails sent- the number of emails being sent is around twice as many. this maybe due to the fact that facebook and twitter both send the activity on ones page in an email. I think with the introduction of these services on a mobile platform will continue the shift further. The ability to post a tweet on the move is much more easy and accessible that to log on on a desktop computer or even a laptop. As more and more people own phones with mobile capability, the trend will continue. As to whether this is this a good thing or not - I'm not convinced. The figures about the social networking sites are interesting. Having discussed around this subject in the elective, we came to the conclusion that we all had facebook, but few of us had twitter, and all of us had abandoned myspace. There seems to be a continuous shift to the 'next big thing'. So although myspace occupied a place in the top ten of most visited websites, it certainly won't be there forever.

Digital environments create the possibility for...

• Faster communication
• Better communication
• Equality for expression
• Freedom of expression
• Collaboration of individuals
• Producers and consumers become one
• Bigger exposure
• Diluted power structures
• Access to high technology everyday

Digital Is Dangerous?

chris + keir

On week four we had a presentation from three artists - Chris Poolman, Keir Williams & Jonnet Middleton. Chris & Keir presented some collaborative work they have worked on. Their work was mostly performance based, with ideas often sparked from digital concepts. They presented a project which materialised from a video that Chris posted on YouTube. He then received an email from a man in Canada that accused Chris of copying his idea and duplicating his video. This then spawned a e-mail exchange between the two which got more and more bizarre. Chris + Keir then created a character called 'Rob Ring' and made a series of videos around this character.

Digital is..

the internet, communication, computers,

the digital world is fast. whether it be to communicate with someone, to find information, retrieve content such as music or video. it makes doing all these things easier, and makes the real world almost feel smaller.

Manovich essay

What do you make of Manovich’s statement, ‘ it is only a matter of time before constant broadcasting of one’s live becomes as common as email’?

I think this statement is true, but could be fast becoming outdated. Personally I have multiple email addresses, a facebook account, and a twitter account. I use all three services, but if i want to write a personal message to someone I will use facebook - not an email. The chances are the recipient will check their facebook far more regularly than their emails.
However having looked at the feed which shows the number of facebook status updates, tweets and emails sent- the number of emails being sent is around twice as many. this maybe due to the fact that facebook and twitter both send the activity on ones page in an email.
I think with the introduction of these services on a mobile platform will continue the shift further. The ability to post a tweet on the move is much more easy and accessible that to log on on a desktop computer or even a laptop. As more and more people own phones with mobile capability, the trend will continue. As to whether this is this a good thing or not - I'm not convinced.

First part of the essay has lots of statistics about media use, can you add any personal experiences to support or contradict these facts?

The figures about the social networking sites are interesting. Having discussed around this subject in the elective, we came to the conclusion that we all had facebook, but few of us had twitter, and all of us had abandoned myspace. There seems to be a continuous shift to the 'next big thing'. So although myspace occupied a place in the top ten of most visited websites, it certainly won't be there forever.