Some of the footage shown in the second episode of this Vlogovists series certainly falls in line with Tom Coates notion of “the mass-amateurization of everything”. 1 However, despite their amateurish appearance, video blogs are arguably a valuable means of social commentary and political activism.

Sam Howard-Spink’s in his article “Grey Tuesday, online cultural activism and the mash-up of music and politics” argues favourably for this kind of grassroots activism:

the emergence of digital technologies and networks that made bedroom mash–ups and their distribution possible has paved the way for a blending of cultural activity and political activism, which is symbolised by Grey Tuesday and expanded by groups such as Music For America. 2

Last week’s video blog ended with Christina coining the term “malleable memory”. She meant it in response to the idea that distributing a narrative across a digital network – one that is always upgradeable should it ever run out of memory – seems to render the narrative not in a kind of suspended animation but in a mode of perpetual flux. I argue here that “malleable memory” is in truth a symptom of the reader’s (the user’s) plane of experience. The concept that the coherency of the narrative is lost when you transpose it into a different format is one with its roots in the science and experience of reading. To wit, it is worth exploring Henry Jenkins’ (2003) idea of Transmedia Storytelling for its analogous and fundamental question; is ‘control over the narrative an enhancement of the creative process or a distraction or corruption?’

The Impact of Technology – Mobile Phones

The mobile phone originated from the invention created by Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone. It is a wireless, portable device used for mobile communication. In the early development of the mobile phone, only voice transmission was available, like a normal land line telephone. However, mobile phones today have many other additional functions such as short message service that is text only (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) to send and receive images and video clips.

The positive side of this technological device is that it creates a closer social network and accessibility around the world. Distance is no longer a factor when calling a loved one overseas via a mobile phone and communication is instantaneous. Sending images, which were taken with the in-built camera functions of the phone via MMS, can be done in real time. Impromptu outings are possible, by simply calling interested parties on the go.

The previous text post talked about doujinshi in Japan and the debates that Star Wars brought about. This week’s text post will discuss how the internet fan culture has influenced mainstream media, and how it brought about private uses of cyberspace, paying attention to fan erotica. Lastly, we will explore the issues brought about by fan participation in the game industry.

To begin with, let us look at some of the advantages that fan culture might bring us.

“What I love about fandom is the freedom we have allowed ourselves to create and recreate our characters over and over again. Fan fic rarely sits still. It's like a living, evolving thing, taking on its own life, one story building on another, each writer's reality bouncing off another's and maybe even melding together to form a whole new creation.... I find that fandom can be extremely creative because we have the ability to keep changing our characters and giving them a new life over and over. We can kill and resurrect them as often as we like. We can change their personalities and how they react to situations. We can take a character and make him charming and sweet or cold-blooded and cruel. We can give them an infinite, always-changing life rather than the single life of their original creation.”

Although my original topic for my blogs and video blogs is online communities aiding people in the arts, this week I thought it would be interesting to address idea of the internet as a an artistic tool for artists. I will address interactive art within the context of participatory culture.

The Impact of Technology – Computers

The invention of the computer has created an important method of how people communicate. Before the invention of the computer and the internet, there were typewriters and were the method of correspondence, via printed letters that would still have to be mailed via the postal service. Handwritten letters were going to be a thing of the past. With the advancement of the computer, software was developed; such as instant messaging, individual virtual folders for document archives on a virtual hard disk and for purposes of image manipulation. Anything that was physical could be converted into a virtual representation of the original. E.g. Printed texts could be scanned as an image or text file for access to students around the world.

Firstly, I want to apologize as I m not following my proposed topic as per the weekly episodes. I have chosen the topic “Bangalore ‘India”. I chose to do this because recently when I spoke to few localities about India they think that India looks like a village and the reason being, when ever India is shown on the screen, they show cows, fields, and countryside. It’s not their fault. Because you believe what you see. So I want to show one of the cities in India by name Bangalore because I come from that city. In my second blog I will show Bangalore city. The pictures and few video clips are what I have taken. Therefore I will be showing the surface not in detail.

An article in last Sunday’s Boston Globe asked what it would be like to carry around an entire research library on an iPod? (Winter, 2007) The article went on to pose the more important question of whether the seemingly boundless possibilities of the latest innovations in storage memory will render human forgetfulness obsolete. Beyond its reference to new technologies, the article seems to offer little in relation to the task I set myself to turn four chapters of Ulysses into a distributive narrative in Facebook. I argue, however, that what I am attempting is akin to the way new RAM storage technologies unlock the potential to record and remember everything. Facebook and its kin, I maintain, enable us to know, to experience, and to traverse a text in its entirety. In this view, Facebook becomes a memory bank, different from only physical RAM by a matter of degrees.

With the employment of technology becoming common place, these days the tech savvy generation of travelers are changing the structure of travel. At one time tourists were considered the norm and the notion of the ‘traveler’ was afforded to only those experienced in the art of travel. Technology has blurred this distinction as now the question of what separates a tourist or a traveler has become harder to distinguish.

Traditionally we consider travelers as those who avoid the over done tourist attractions that define most countries and vacations and instead aim for the ‘local experience’. That treasured photograph taken in front of that famous attraction, which appears on every postcard, is the familiar hallmark of the tourist.

Vox Me Up: Pro-print Opinions (text post)

So far in this blog I have highlighted the reasons why an internet medium is far superior to print, and also suggested that student press no longer has a place in a landscape rife with student bloggers and citizen journalists.  Now, I shall attempt to turn this argument around, and emphasise the superiority of the print medium, as well the continued relevance of student print.  Little academic writing has been done on the subject (perhaps because student print does admittedly range greatly in regards to both content and quality), so now I shall turn towards interviews that I myself have conducted with student editors across Australia, and I also draw from my own, personal experiences as editor of the Pelican.