COM257: Media History and Theory

In this text, Tom Farley describes the history of cellular phones. A
cell phone, Farley states, is "a mobile telephone [that] is a wireless
device which connects to the public switched telephone network and is
offered to thegeneral public by a common carrier or public utility". Farley says that 'public mobile' telephony began in the mid-19 th century post-World War II, but notes that some "primitive
mobile telephones existed before the War", which were more like two-way
radios. The U.S. was able to begin developing cellular devices soon
after WW II unlike much of the rest of the westernized world, which was
in ruins from war. The first "true cellular radio system formobile
telephony" took place in December of 1947 in Bell Telephone
Laboratories. In July of the following year, Bell Labs made public its
revolutionary invention of the transistor, which brought all
electronics into a fundamentally modern era. Large mobile devices were
being released by the late 1950s. In 1958 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments created the integrated circuit. Kilby
created a complex circuit from a single piece of germanium. The idea of
cellular radio was widespread amongst telecommunications companies by
the end of the 1960s.
    Bell Systems released the cellular radio publicly in January 1969. Passengers aboard the Metroliner
train could make paid calls while the train was in motion, detached
from any wires. Farley states that, "the first cell phone was a
payphone" versus a mobile device for private use. Motorola had a patent
filed for a cellular radio in 1973. Motorola's market mainly focused on
dispatch radios for taxis and public safety officers. The first
commercial cell phone system of its kind was released by The Bahrain
TelephoneCompany in 1978. INSMARSAT began in 1979 and focused
on telephony via satellite, but later connected their network to land
and aircraft equipment. New services were released by Bell Laboratories
and other companies after the government split American Telephone and
Telegraph apart.Throughout the 1980s, wireless infrastructure with a higher call volume capacity
was developed. By 1990, the cell phone network of North America began
to use IS-54, a "formally adopted digital standard" which "worked with
existing AMPS systems". The first texting device was released by Nokia
in 1996. During the 1990s cell phones became "as small as practically
possible" because "the keypad and display limited any more reduction in
size". By the year 2000, Sharp released the "first integrated camera
phone".
    Farley states in his article that by 2005, the number of
cell phone users would hit 2 billion. I found on the United Nations
website that an estimated 4 billion people were using cell phones by
2008. A technology which took half a century just to gain a few million
users doubled from 2 billion to 4 billion in only 3 years! The first
cell phones I remember were the in-car units that were awkwardly tied
into a car's stereo system. They never seemed to work well and users
went into roam after just an hour or so of driving. My Dad purchased a
"bag phone" like the one shown on page 30 when I was in elementary
school. It had a clumsy magnetic antenna that had to be placed on top
of the car to work--if it even worked at all. Now we consider phones
"clumsy" when they have a half inch antenna protruding from them. It is
amazing to see how much cell phones have changed in the past 10 years.
It is also amazing to see where they are headed in the future.

--Carter Neely

    In this text, Juul defines games, video games, and also gives a
brief summary of his book. Juul states that "to play a video games is
therefore to interact with real rules while imagining a fictional
world, and a video game is a set of rules as well as a fictional
world". Video games have been played for nearly half a decade now and
started with the invention of Spacewar! in 1961. Juul notes that video
games are still a relatively new media when compared to television,
film, and print. He calls this media a "comparatively new cultural
form, intimately linked to the appearance of computers, postdating
literature, cinema, and television". Juul isn't interested in the
question of how old video games are, but instead is interested in "how
video games are games, how they borrow from non-electronic games, and
how they depart from traditional game forms".
    Juul begins the
chapter by explaining concepts of games. Games exhibit emergence and
progression. A game has emergence--the "primordial game
structure"--when a small amount of rules has a large number of outcomes
in which players create strategies in order to win. Progression is
"historically newer" than emergence, in that it came from adventure
games. Games with progression contain sections where the player must
execute a "predefined set of actions" to accomplish goals in the game.
Game players approach with their "repertoire of skills" and increases
the effectiveness of his repertoire throughout the game. Juul states
that "to play a game is to improve your repertoire of skills".
   
According to Juul, 'games' must satisfy the classical game model to be
considered games. The six requirements of the model are "1. a
rule-based formal system; 2. with variable and quantifiable outcomes;
3. where different outcomes are assigned different values; 4. where the
player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome; 5. the player
feels emotionally attached tot he outcome; 6. and the consequences of
the activity are optional and negotiable." A game, Juul says, is
"transmedial" because it is possible for it to involve several types of
media or "tools". Juul examines the purpose behind games and discusses
Ludwig wittgenstein's idea of a game. He also looks at Vladimir Propp
and Claude Levi-Strauss's claims concerning narrative and "formal
structure". Juul also discusses rules of irrelevance, narratology vs.
ludolgy, and the "cultural status of games".
    I found this
introductory chapter interesting for several reasons. One of the most
notable reasons is that 2 of the members of my presentation group
examined video games. One of my group members studied Spacewar! for her
presention. I was able to play an online version of the game using
keyboard buttons as primitive controls for the spaceship. It is
interesting to see how far video gaming has come. It is also neat that
even games as old as Spacewar! offer entertainment even 48 years later.
Juul also mentions Senet, which I studied and have learned to play for
my presentation. Senet, which is several thousand years old is also
still an entertaining game to play. It has been recreated for online
play in which the entire layout is virtual.

 --Carter Neely
    
   

     In this text, Abbate explains the entire history of internet development,
which began as far back as the late 19070's. During the early stages of
development the internet was in the hands of the military, under the
name ARPANET. Civilian participation was very low and only a handful of
computer science departments were even connected to it. Using a $5
million grant from the National Science Foundation, a new network
called CSNET was built, which allowed university computer science
departments to connect with one another. Computer scientists created a
system called PhoneNet which allowed the universities to connect
through "internet gateways between the ARPANET, Telenet, and PhoneNet".
With the development of CSNET came the exchange of messages--the
beginning of electronic mail. Civilian access to the internet grew in
1983 after the Department of Defense separated ARPANET into MILNET and
ARPANET. After this split, "the civilian and military networks
developed along separate paths".


Throughout the 1970's and 1980's, computer scientists were working to
develop personal computers. Some of the first PC's include the Altair
8800, Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80, and the Apple II. Single-user
minicomputers were also in development. Many companies and universities
began to use workstations with Unix operating systems, and with it came
the increasing demand to connect these computers. Robert Metcalfe,
developer of the Xerox PARC, devised Ethernet in 1975. He later created
a company called 3Com, and in 1980 released Ethernet products for
commercial use. These products were "eagerly adopted by organizations
with large numbers of small computers". Companies and universities
built LANs and attached their LANs to the internet through the use of
ARPANET. By the end of the 1980's, ARPANET was unable to serve the
increasing number of internet users. Major John Mark Pullen and Major
Brian Boesche of the Army and Air Force, respectively, had ARPANET
retired in December 1987. It was decommissioned on February 28, 1990
and was dismantled. The internet, which had primarily been controlled
by the U.S. government thus far, now became increasingly privatized.
Other internet networks became cooperative and "online services", such
as AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe began to emerge. Foreign networks began
to establish connections with NSFNET which allowed the internet to
become globally connected. TCP/IP began a popular internet protocol
around the world, partly because ISO standards were slow to be
introduced. English became the dominant language on the internet
because the internet originated in the U.S. Throughout the 1990's, the
internet became increasingly adapatable and decentralized and
personalized computing helped popularize the internet.


    What I found most interesting in the text was the
development of electronic mail. The developers of the internet probably
never envisioned that they were creating a medium of sending messages
which, in just 20 years, would dominate the way people around the world
communicate. Electronic mail is now such a powerful medium of
communication that it threatens the business of the postal service. I
also found it interesting that universities were very influential to
the development of the internet. Even back in the 1980's universities
were becoming increasingly involved in connecting with one another. It
would be interesting to know when NC State first connected to the
internet and when they installed the campus's first LAN.

--Carter Neely

In this
text Aarseth discusses nonlinear textuality. He defines nonlinerarity
as "the studyof the ways in which the various sections of a text are
connected, disregarding the physical properties of the channel (paper,
stone electromagnet, and so on), by means of which the text is
transmitted. Nonlinear units are comprised of textons--"a basic element
of textuality"--and scriptons--"an unbroken sequence of one or more
textons as they are projected by the text". Aarseth notes that texts
have at least one "transversal function"--"the conventions and
mechanisms that combine and project textons as scriptons to the user
(or reader) of the text". He explains that there are several "variates"
from his "Texts of Change" that can be applied to linear text. 1)
Topology: The "fundamental difference" of linear compared to nonlinear
text. 2) Dynamics: the scriptons fluctuate while textons remains the
same. 3) Determinability: "the stability of the traversal function"
4)Transiency: the passing of of a reader's time "causes scriptons to
appear". 5) Maneuverability: the amount of difficulty in accessing the
text's scriptons. and 6) User-functionality: text may have "four active
feedback functions".

     The easiest way to achieve nonlinearity is
to write a script "forking out in two directions on a surface, forcing
its witness (the user) to choose one path in preference to another".
The author points out that we can't read a whole nonlinear text when we
look at it and when we read the nonlinear text we can't view the whole
text. Aarseth discusses the three dimensional wall-inscriptions in
ancient Egyptian temples. The Egyptians used this layout to create "a
nonlinear arrangement of religious text". Aarseth also talks abouts the
book "I Ching" (Book of Changes) in which the reader experiences
"personal communication" with the book. Author Raymond Queneau wrote
"Mille Milliards de Poems", a ten page book with each page cut into 14
strips, which can be arranged in over 1 trillion ways. Aarseth calls
this "unreadable" text.

     Aarseth also discusses hypertext, which
he believes is an "amazingly simple concept". When one positio in a
text is directly connected to another position this is called
hypertext. Aarseth discusses Michal Joyce's "Afternoon, a story" which
contains 539 textons and 950 links, though none of the links are
visible. The user can click on any word in the text and may or may not
be linked to another page. "Afternoon" is unique becase Aareth argues
that is is the "first literary hypertext" but is more specifically "a
cybertext disguise in hypertext's clothing".

     What I found most
interesting in this text were the nonlinear texts that Aarseth
discusses. I especially found it interesting that Egyptians were
already exploring augmented three dimensional spaces to store religious
text thousands of years ago. I was slightly puzzled as to why Queneau
would create a book with one could say basically makes no sense.
However, the nonlinear arrangement of this text was a very interesting
invention. Today, internet users spend hours using nonlinear hypertext.
The internet is a database connected with hyperlinks. Michael Joyce's
book "Afternoon, a story" reminded me of the New York Times website.
When reading an article on nytimes.com you can highlight any word in
the article. A question mark appears and upon clicking it links you to
a definition of the word or perhaps another article.

    In this text, Briggs and Burke discuss the history of television.
It first became popular in the United States around 1941--when the US
entered World War II. NBC and CBS began to broadcast "limited but
scheduled" programming. There was a misconception that only high income
individuals would be attracted to TV. Even though just a few programs
were offered, the amount of TV sets being produced grew from "178,000
to around 15 million between 1947 and 1952" with "more than one third
of the population" possessing one. The number of weekly movie-goers
dropped from "90 million in 1948 to 47 million in 1956" because, as
President Eisenhower put it, "it is cheaper to and more comfortable to
sit at home and look at television than it is to go outside and pay a
dollar for a ticket". Local programming styles vanished as networks
bought out smaller TV stations. TV stations were also broadcasting
re-runs with the use of newly developed magnetic videotape. TV stations
in the US broadcast film more than live shows.
    The BBC took a
different route under George Barnes, "a cultivated broadcaster, who was
more at home directing its radio Third Programme". In March of 1947,
Britain still had relatively few TV licenses, but reached one million
by 1951 with a large population of low income viewers. In 1953,
approximately twenty million people viewed Queen Elizabeth's Coronation
on TV. Briggs and Burke add that there was also a significant American
audience. The color TV was introduced to Britain in 1967 and with it
came higher license fees. The broadcasting sector began to see a mix of
private companies and public service. In the US, unlike Britain, TV
networks were "immensely strong".
    The authors continue on into
TV history of the 1980s. In a poll of Japanese and Americans, 36
percent of Japanese said that if they could take one item to a desert
island they would take a TV while only 4 percent of Americans shared
this opinion. "Television addiction had turned millions... into
imbeciles" one Japanese man said. Wars had a major influence on media.
The BBC along with news organizations in other countries produced a 26
part series about World War I. Briggs and Burke point out that the
Vietnam War had "a major influence on media history" because "it was
the first war to be seen, if in selective form, on the screens".
   
I found it interesting that the Vietnam War was the first war to be
heavily broadcast on television. Television was just gaining popularity
at the start of World War II, so the majority of war coverage--heavily
censored and rife with propaganda--was over the radio and through
newsreels at cinemas. It is amazing to think how far news coverage has
come. I recall a point during Gulf War II where Fox News shamelessly
displayed four simultaneous live images of Iraq being bombed--coverage
unimaginable during the Vietnam War. I was also fascinated by how many
hours of television Japanese were viewing. Even back in 1960 Japanese
adults were viewing television for approximately three hours, while
children viewed more than that. A recent article on CNN revealed that
Americans are now watching 5 hours of TV a day. However, CNN notes that
this is time that the average American is around the TV. They may not
necessarily be paying attention.
(http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/24/us.video.nielsen/)

--Carter Neely

     
In this text, Briggs and Burke discuss the history of radio broadcasting. They mainly focus on the history of BBC radio, or "sound broadcasting" as they called it. The authors explain how during World War II many broadcasting stations in Europe were operated by the Nazis. BBC was liberated from providing only news from the press and news agencies and took a stand as a "Voice of Freedom" during the war--an act supported by the Ministry of Information. At the climax of World War II, BBC was broadcasting in up to 45 languages. BBC's radio stations, mainly manned by non-professional broadcasters, helped keep morale high during the war. The United States also made a similar move towards non-professional broadcasting--radios even accepted volunteers to their staffs. Briggs and Burke said from 1939-1945 the microphone was a "potent weapon" in a "war of words" between democracy and totalitarianism.

     The BBC was under much more pressure from British government policies than American radio. Briggs and Burke point out that radio in America had "no signs of such policies" and "the networks remained firmly in control, although the US War Department had its own network with 1,800 outlets in 1944".
Briggs and Burke explain how John Reith became the General Manager of BBC at the age of 33--an act "inconceivable in the United States". Reith played a major role in the restructuring of a "Royal Charter" in 1926, in which BBC claimed that it would "provide information, entertainment, and education... governed by a Board of five governors, appointed by the Crown". Reith, the authors point out, "had a strong sense of mission"--a mission to creat a monopoly.

     Radio was already quite different in the United States in 1927, the year the U.S. created the Federal Radio Commission. American radio was primarily used for entertainment. The political and election attitudes of American broadcasting were different from the BBC's. British broadcasting was financed from license fees while American broadcasting was financed through advertising and listener ratings, something the "Reithian BBC" chose to avoid.. "Spill-over" of U.S. broadcasting interfered with the Canadian Radio League and spawned the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act of 1932, which created the Canadian Broadcasting Commission (CBC), which was modeled after the BBC.

     This text was interesting to me for several reasons. I work for the campus radio station so it is interesting to learn about how radio has evolved over the past 100 years. In the midst of World War II radio was very much a tool for propaganda throughout war-torn countries. The same can't be said of radio today. I also found it interesting that stations in Great Britain and the U.S. had many volunteers in their staffs. This is primarily how our campus radio station operates. The authors mention that radio hosts of the 1940's and 1950's had distinct accents, but today it is understood that it is O.K. to use your own unique voice. The radio is a powerful medium that is still evolving today.

--Carter Neely

     In this text J. Carey describes the history and the impact
of the telegraph had on communication in society. Carey begins by describing Henry
Adams' pinpointing the time when Boston became part of industrialized
America--May, 1844. Three specific advances were that a railroad linking Boston
and Albany opened, Cunard Steamers appeared in the bay around Boston, and a
message was sent via telegraph from Baltimore to Washington.

     Carey points out that the telegraph is
"unfortunate" for four reasons. First, Western Union, "the first
communication empire", had a strong monopoly in the telegraph industry.
Second, the first product of the electrical goods industry was the telegraph,
which spawned "the first of the science- and engineering-based
industries". The telegraph was the first technology to focus on "the
economy of signal". Third, in Adams' opinion, the telegraph was a "demonic
device dissipating the energy of history", though Thoreau viewed it
"as an agent of trivialization". Fourth, Carey says that the
telegraph was a "watershed" in communication. It allowed
communication and transportation to be effectively separated from each other
for the first time and communication also controlled "physical processes
actively". Communication was now unconstrained from geography and led to
what Carey calls the "transmission model" of communication.

     Carey notes that there were social consequences of the telegraph.
There was a decline in the usage of old forms of language and writing, social
interaction decreased, and "city-state capitalism that dominated the first
half of the nineteenth century was broken up". Carey points out three ways
that the telegraph and ideology are connected. There is a relationship between
the telegraph and 1) monopoly capitalism, 2) popular imagery (mainly
religious), and 3) a unity of science, commerce, politics, and religion. The
telegraph had a negative impact on journalism in that writing the "luxury
of detail and analysis" was lost, as text had to be condensed to be sent
via telegraph. The telegraph also started "the domain of empire"
because governments could now rule through a centralized system of communication.
Carey says that the telegraph "marked the decisive separation of
transportation and communication".

     Carey also spends a good deal of time describing the
development of time zones in America. Cities all across the USA had different
local times which led to confusion, and often train collisions. In 1870 Charles
Dowd created a system of time zones based off of Greenwich time. Just over a
decade later William Frederick Allen created a scheme which "allowed for
the adjustment of time zones for purposes of economy and ecology". In
essence Carey believes that establishment of standard time zones was due to the
"technological power of the telegraph". The telegraph also expanded
distant markets and led to more uniform pricing of goods on the market. That
is, the price now depended on communicated information about the good versus
physically viewing the good. The telegraph allowed humans to transcend space in
communication.

     I found Carey's discussion about time zones especially
interesting. I was unaware that so many Americans were opposed to the idea of
standardized times. It is hard to imagine what society would be like today
without standard time zones. The airline industry can only exist with time
zones. There would be no safe way to navigate the sky with so much confusion relating
to time of day. I was aware that time zones were due in part to the mighty
railroad industry, but I was unaware of the telegraph's influence on time zones.

"Printing and the Rupture of Classification" -- Hobart & Schiffman



In this text Hobart and Schiffman discuss the history and philosophy behind books. The text begins in the 16th century with a detailed history of Michel de
Montaigne and his motivations for writing what the authors call "a
surfeit of books". Montaigne's many family struggles and Aristotle's
influence on him led him to seek "philosophia",
or the search for "knowledge of the ultimate causes and principles
[that serve] moral as well as ontological ends". It was in Bordeaux
that he wrote thousands of volumes of "intellectual journals" while on
the quest for philosophia.
It was at this point in history that the press began to publish a
significantly larger amount of works. Throughout Europe, the plethora
of published works and their ideas caused not only "intellectual
advancement", but also confusion, which lead to a disequilibrium
between philosophy and rhetoric. This disequilibrium ultimately
continued throughout the Renaissance where rhetoric overcame the
philosophy as the main method of "information management". Moral
categories that had previously been accepted were weakened and the
normative value of these categories was lost.
    "Information
overload" in Medieval times did not originate but was culminated
through printing. In early scribal systems, information was simply
placed on a page, though this became increasingly more complex as
"taxonomic principles" became more elaborate. The complexity was due to
the creation of "codex"--similar to formatting of a modern book. The
authors discuss the history of papyrus in writing as well as scriptoria, gloss, and "summa". "Summa"
helped to "establish a core of truth" unlike gloss which was more
unique and visual. The Renaissance and these new methods of printing
brought about what Hobart and Schiffman call "commonplace thought".
   
The authors also discuss Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero's contributions
to rhetoric and philosophy. Aristotle saw a "rivalry between philosophy
and rhetoric". Philosophy, he said, is more concerned with truth while
rhetoric is more concerned with probability. Cicero changed "common
topics" through his academic skepticism. Hobart and Schiffman discuss the Romans' method of mnemonically storing information so that papyrus didn't need to be consulted.
    Hobart and Schiffman
continue their text by discussing the "breakdown of commonplace
thought". The authors admit that focusing on notebooks and mnemonics is
a strange way to explain the Renaissance, but the authors believe that
"they embody the ideals of the humanists". Humanists were skeptics, and
willingly examined both sides of an issue, which would lead to the more
feasible ideas being accepted. During this time, and especially by the
end of the 16th
century, books were being produced in considerably larger numbers.
There was also more variety, which led to more specialized ways of
accessing the "diverse storehouse of information". Printed books were
released in such large numbers that information overload increased,
which led to shutting out or ignoring information. The authors last
discuss Descartes' questioning of the usefulness of his education.
Descartes was dissatisfied by literature's failure to "fulfill its
promise of moral guidance". Through studying mathematics Descartes came
to the conclusion that "sentia would have to show the way to sapienta". His mathematical studies eventually led to a "new science of order".
   
Most interesting to me in this reading was the history of text and the
press. Writing was initially very complex and ornate--especially gloss,
which had specialized and color coded symbols throughout its pages. It
is interesting how throughout hundreds of years text has become yet
more and more simple. I also find it interesting how the development of
the book let to the questioning of "accepted" ideas--something that is
still extremely important, yet often overlooked, today.

--Carter Neely

     In this text Hayles discusses virtuality which she strategically
defines as "the cultural perception that material objects are
interpenetrated by information patterns". Hayles' definition is based on duality. That is, there is a material side and an informational side. Hayles compares virtuality
to molecular biology and says that the content is the genetic pattern
and the body's material is the semantic structure. She discusses how
Erwin Schrödinger's book "What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the
Living Cell" explores the idea that reproduction is controlled by
"informational code". Hayles also explains the theorems of Claude
Shannon, a theorist at Bell Laboratories, who assigned a mathematical
quantity to information. A British researched named Douglas MacKay posited an different definition but Shannon's definition became the "industry standard". Hayles outlines how virtuality takes trends of postmoderism and extends and modifies them. "Possession seriates into access", Hayles says, but information isn't quantitatively. "Castration seriates into mutation," which means that theoretical inquiries change as postmodernism becomes virtuality.    

    Hayles
discusses virtual books (a book on a computer screen) and focuses on
how the computer game "Myst" manipulates this virtual text. She also
compares RomanVerostko's "Universal Turing Machine" to "Myst" because each work examines arrangements of space. Hayles explains how hypertext, such as the internet, are virtual books that use discrete units (lexia) instead of linearly bound pages. Hypertext has also expanded to technicla areas because they convey information in an interactive, "read-directed" way. Hayles also talks about proprioception
, which is the sense of boundaries of our bodies to explain how the
computer user may feel "proprioceptive coherence" while using the
keyboard. That is, experiencing the computer as if it were an extension
of the user.

    What I found most interesting in this text was Hayles' discussion of proprioception. As a student who uses a computer a lot, I can definitely relate to the feeling of proprioceptive coherence. When I browse the internet I hardly have to think about what I am doing. My fingers do the pointing and clicking almost subconsciously while I am consumed in the web-browsing process.

--Carter Neely

In this article Manovich discusses augmented space. Manovich defines
augmented space as a physical area that is covered with
information--likely multimedia--that is a constantly changing state.
Augmented spaces usually have localized features for each individual
user. Manovich begins his discussion of augmentation by recalling the
media history from the 1990s, in which the primary focus of media was
on virtual space (primarily cyberspace). New technological
developments in computing made this possible. In the mid 90s web
browsing became possible for millions of people because of a graphical
interface we browser. Manovich outlines several types of technologies
that dynamically send or extract data to physical spaces. These
technologies include: 1) Video surveillance which has proliferated
throughout our society and is no longer used only in government and
business. 2) Cellspace technologies, such as mobile phones and or
wireless media interfaces. 3) Computer and video displays (electronic
displays), which project information into a viewable form for humans.

    Manovich continues by discussing research paradigms.
These are: 1) Ubiquitous computing--a move away from desktops toward
more numerous increasingly small devices. 2) Augmented reality--a
paradigm to study augmented spaces, and 3) Tangible interfaces, in
which the entire physical space surrounding a user is part of a HCI.
Several other notable research paradigms include wearable computers,
intelligent buildings and spaces, context-aware computing, and so on.
Each of these research paradigms use different methods but all examine
"augmented space".     

     Augmention, Manovich says, is also an idea. He discusses Janet
Cardiff's "audio walks" and how she has recognized a great example of
the augmented space paradigm. Manovich also discusses how Daniel
Libeskind's design of the Jewish Museum Berlin is another type of
augmented space. Manovich draws a comparison of augmented space with
the history of art throughout the 20th-century. Artists first designed
3D art galaries by placing 2D paintings on walls in the building. Later
artists began to view the 3D space as what Manovich calls a white cube.
Artists began to truly explore 3D spaces by displaying 3D objects in
their galleries. He compares and contrasts the white cube to the black
box, which is a continuously extending field that covers "all of
physical space". Electronic displays in grocery stories, malls, and
airports are examples of the "black box". These technologies are also
used in architecture itself and in musical performances. Manovich
explains how Koolhaas' Prada New York store has made excellent use of
these technologies by implementing display screens throughout the store.
The customers can then see advertisements of their clothing line.

    The most relevant uses of augmented space to me are the numerous flatscreen displays around campus. Most of the flat screens don't display television programming or news but rather event calendars, photos, Wolfline bus tracking info, and computer availability. I finid it interesting that Manovich discusses multimedia use in entertainment because it is relevant to my line of work at Stewart Theatre. As of now we are currently restricted to the use of traditional stage lighting equipment. We use a stationary projector to project computer images onto physical space in the theatre. In the coming months we will receive several technical upgrades which will allow us to more effectively use augemented space. With the addition of some moving lights we will have the flexibility to cast different colors, patterns, and beam sizes in an infinite amount of positions and intensities. It is also possible that the moving lights will offer a VGA input which would allow us to move the projector display through the use of a computer (versus manually).
 

--Carter Neely

     In this text Kellerman discusses the history and changing technology of
personal mobilities.  Kellerman focuses on the "space-transcending
technologies" and how their relationships are changing.
Space-transcending technologies such as automobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, planes, and
boats that are operated by the
user (us). The ability to move through virtual space began with the
telephone and has advanced to include the internet and other wireless
communication devices. As space-transcending technologies continue to
grow, "technology-transcended space" is emerging. In a
technology-transcended space, the time or speed of a machine is
manipulated--versus the time of a human. That is, automobiles or
telecommunications manipulate time to travel through space. In this
chapter, Kellerman examines technologies for self-mobility; explains
uses of the automobile, telephone, internet, and wireless
communications; and also explores how these technologies are
interrelated.
    Kellerman explains personal mobility technologies by
comparing the development of the telephone and internet to the
development of the roadways. As the auto industry grew in the
early 1900s, people had a new way to transcend space--driving. As
more drivers took to the roads, more roads with a higher capacity for
automobiles were needed. The demand for road-space grew and the
U.S. government met the peoples' needs by publicly funding the growth of the
road system. Telephone and internet growth occurred differently, however.
These are both new media that allowed people to transcend space
differently, but its growth was harbored by private development, unlike
the road system. The telephone and the internet each have three layers
of structure--physical infrastructure, logical infrastructure, and
content layer--comparable to some roadway infrastructure. Internet
traffic can be managed more effectively than road traffic through the
use of hubs, which operate as junctions to transport information one
from area to another. If an internet hub goes out of service--be it a
power outage or a terrorist attack--internet traffic can easily be rerouted and
internet traffic jams prevented. Telecommunications, such as the
internet or telephone, are established through the operation of networks
which provide flows of information that can be used.
    Kellerman spends a great deal of time discussing how
humans move themselves through space, and mainly focuses on how walking
and cycling are socially and spatially significant. Kellerman examines
how different countries and cultures vary in their use of walking and
cycling in their daily commutes. Also discussed is the telephone, which
is the oldest appliance used for "personal virtual mobility". The
telephone is an advantageous form of communication because it
transcends the friction of time and space, thus making it a faster
communication tool than the automobile. In telephony, the user not only
has the power to share information but--in the absence of traffic jams
and the friction of time--also derives pleasure from it. The internet
which was originally developed in the 1960s as a communication aid in
the event of a nuclear attack only went mainstream in the mid 1990s.
"Internetness" is similar to telephony and "automobility" but has expanded
one's virtual mobility even further. Kellerman belives that the
internet is more closely related to the automobile than to the
telephone. Kellerman continues by discussing wireless technologies
which allow for mobile telephony and mobile internet use. Wireless
technology has expanded high-tech communication outdoors and into less
private social areas.
    Kellerman has broken down transportation-communication
into three eras and explains four ways in which telecommunications and
spatial movement are related: 1) substitution, 2) generation, 3)
modification, and 4) neutrality.

     Twenty or thirty years ago hardly anyone would have imagined the technological impact of what would come to be known as the internet. Users can now transcend virtual space and do many activities--such as shopping--without ever leaving their homes. It is possible that the internet is reducing the number of automobile trips taken, but Kellerman speculates that any ordering done online will put more shipping trucks onto roadways. Therefore, the net gain of automobile trips taken may not change as much as one would think. Kellerman also notes that at the time of publishing, the majority of online orders were for computer parts, but this may not be so much the case today.  Though accessing the internet through a PC or laptop is changing the way we transcend space, it is likely that wireless devices will soon become--if they haven't already done so--the most used technologies to transcend virtual space. Though this isn't the case for me yet, it seems inevitable that one day I may carry an iPhone or Blackberry to help me transcend virtual space. For now though, I'll have to stick with my laptop.

--Carter Neely

      In this text Manovich explains how with the creation of the computer and computer storage came the database. A database is a group of single items in which each item is as important as any other. There are four types of databases: Hierarchical, network, relational, and object-oriented. Each organizes data using a different model. A so called "digitizing craze" started in the 1990's when users decided to digitize books, films, and even the human genome. Thus people were creating the first databases. The CD-ROM is a well known database. CD-ROM's were well known for their multimedia encyclopedias, though encyclopedias have shifted towards the web as CD-ROM use continues to dwindle. The internet is the most well known database today. It is nothing more than a massive database. Each website has hyperlinks, text, and images which comprise each page. Most websites are never completed but tend to keep growing, which results in a collection. Manovich also discusses computer gaming, a new media that is an exception to the types of databases. Computer gaming relies on algorithms instead of databases since it doesn't use database logic. The game player must solve the algorithm of the computer game to win.

     Without database,  I would not have been able to read Manovich's text online. It would have required a trip to the library where, instead of using an electronic database to find the textbook, I would have to use a card catalog. Web-mail wouldn't exist without the database because there would be no online means of storing messages. Clearly, the database is crucial to our new media culture.

-Carter Neely

     In this text, Manovich discusses the history of the human-computer interface, or HCI, which explains how a human user interacts with a computer. One of the most important HCI's today is the GUI--or graphical user interface--which was first made popular by Macintosh. With the invention of the GUI, the computer user no long had to be adept in computer coding. The user could rely on symbols and pictures to navigate his or her way through the interface. Since a GUI relies on the use of symbols and pictures, artists became an integral part of the programming process because a GUI couldn't exist without artists to create the symbols. The computer was designed mainly for the office and that design has clearly stuck. But with the creation of the internet, the computer moved into the home and has become what Manovich calls the "universal media machine". Manovich continues by discussing the evolution of the storage of textual documents. Text that used to be written on materials such as papyrus and clay plates is now entered into a computer as digital information. Storage of this information has thus become increasingly "fluid and unstable". For example, a clay plate could be shattered and then reassembled, but recovering data from a corrupt hard drive is much more difficult. Manovich believes that hyperlinks on the internet have further contributed to the fluidity and instability of data.

     Manovich also discusses cinema and focuses greatly on computerized gaming. Gaming, Manovich believes, is influenced by cinematography techniques. Gamers can now view characters and replays from different views and angles. Thus game design employs cinematic language. Manovich concludes that what started as cinema has evolved into HCI.

     Manovich credits the evolution of the modern screen to military and wartime developments. Surveillance technology began as early as the 19th century in France and continues to be crucial in the modern military. World War II stimulated the development of radar, which created a new type of screen. The U.S. military developed SAGE--"Semi-Automatic Ground Environment"--and designed what became known as a "light pen". The light pen--much like a the modern mouse--allowed the operator to interact with the computer. SAGE exhibited all the features of a modern HCI.

     The usage of the modern HCI is prevalent throughout our daily lives. Without the HCI our daily lives would be drastically different--there would be no ATMs, personal computers, or cell phones. Writing and viewing this blog post is only possible thanks to human-computer interfaces.

--Carter Neely

     Manovich explains how "new" media is much older than most would imagine. The history of new media began as far back as the early 18th century. Inventions ranged from Louis Daguerre's invention of the daguerrotype--the beginning of the film camera--to Jacquard's punch card loom. Jacquard's card loom inspired Babbage to develop the "Analytical Engine" in 1833 though not a single unit was manufactured (unlike the daguerrotype). Manovich continues to discuss new media of the late 1800s. The United States conducted its first census using punch-cards in 1890 using a machine called the "Hollerith tabulator". Hollerith's Company merged with several other companies and eventually became part of what we now know as IBM, a name created by Thomas J. Watson.

     In studying "new media" it is also important to understand its principles. Manovich lays out five important principles--numerical representations, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding. Manovich explores the principle of modularity and automation in some deal of depth, as these concepts are important to understanding the function of the internet--especially hypermedia. Manovich also spends a great deal of time discussing lossy compression in digital audio, video, and picture formats. Lossiness is a problem in digital media though it allows a great deal of versatility. Digital media can be endlessly distributed and allows web users with different browser capabilities (i.e. dial-up, cable, ethernet) to all see the same material, but in varying resolutions.

     As I read Manovich's text many forms of new media popped into my head. Most notable to me are Google and Youtube. Google has a phenomenal amount of customized settings one can use. On iGoogle the user can create a page with all of his or her own custom settings ranging from weather, family photos, news, and e-mail. Youtube allows users of varying bandwidths to take advantage of their services. Though it still doesn't necessarily cater to the dial-up user, youtube offers a new setting where the user can now watch movies in high definition.