Blog

                                                                  Digital Media

On the first day of the year we were given a short introduction into the course. We where shown a short video on the Lumiere brothers video Arrival of the train at La Ciotat where we briefly discussed the development of photography and moving image which led to the modern cinema and photography we have today  .Which i have included in my website, we then talked about the creation of the internet and the first computer created. The Z1, and how the army would use this as a form of communication with the troops where they encoded messages, as the lecture proceeded we started to discuss the "rough magic"  behind technology and how technology is basically a form of magic and how the more we fiddle with technology the more we create this rough magic.
                                                         
                                                               Second Lecture

During the second lecture we were introduced to dan who helped us use flash and create buttons for our interactive poster on Flash,and we where given ancient media artefacts to research for out interactive posters which we created with ivan we kept blogs of different people which we could use to further develop the content on our interactive poster i kept blogs on F.t Marinetti, April Grieman , and other contributors to media and the ancient media object which i researched was a flip note which is an ancient form of animation, during lectures we also discussed further on Rough magic and cybernetics which is the relationship between a human and technology and the concept of a cyborg e.g a person wearing a watch could be considered as a cyborg as the watch is a physical augmentation of his/her body.
                                                                  Semiotics
we learned in this lecture about semiotics and its influences on modern media many terms which we discussed are signs/ signification/ signified , iconic / arbitrary denotation /connotation/myth paradigm/syntagm and we researched Daniel chandlers website which is a detailed guide to understanding semiotics on this website the above terms were described and were very detailed i found this website very good for my research as it made me understand the subject of semiotics very easily i would recommend it to everyone we looked at semiotics for a couple of lectures as this particular subject is very long but interesting we were given an assignment to describe the above terms and explain we also had to draw a couple diagrams for illustration

                                                               Third Lecture 

By the third lecture involved with digital media. We met Cathy and we started using HTML to create a website, By this time we were learning about alan turing and many other people which we could use for research in our website i personally dedicated my website to the origins of cinema as i found that the most interesting on my website i dedicated a page to Georges Melies and the book language of new media by lev Manovich I also included information on the "Magic lantern shows" The development of photography and  the Lumiere brothers as we got closer too the deadline we had one on one tutorials with both ivan and Cathy on the development of our website and its content we also touched of the development of newspapers prior to the start of  the development of our websites.
                                                     
                                                         Development of newspapers

In this lecture we discussed the evolution of the newspaper  we discussed how before the newspaper was invented the only form of communication between towns was the town crier then during the early mid 15th century Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press which allowed more news to be communicated at a much faster pace this allowed the whole world to communicate we then discussed the layout of the newspaper and how that had changed in the beginning there was no particular layout it was just heaps of text which would have been put on a paper the writing was tiny to fit as much information as possible this would have made reading the newspaper very hard as time progressed there was a creation of different lay out styles such as tabloid and broadcast this lecture was quite interesting and much was learned.
                                                                     Telephone 
In this lecture we talked about the creation of electricity an the telephone with Ivan, Long before the telephone, 1729 Stephen Gray (English) transmitted electricity over a wire – sent charges 300
feet over a brass wire and moistened thread 1746 Pieter va Musschenbroek (Dutch) and Ewald Georg von Kleist (German)developed a battery or condenser for storing static electricity 1753 an anonymous physician suggested that electricity might transmit messages 1753 telegraphy was then created which allowed for the use of morse code and later bell created the first telephone which he had doubts on but it later proved to be a success this is what lead to the creation of the modern telephone which we use today this lecture was very interesting.
                                                                          Radio
In this lecture we discussed the creation and use of the the radio and how this allowed more news o be spread we looked at ancient radio and how this medium has developed at an astonishing rate over the last 100 years Radio refers to the broadcast over radio waves  of an audio transmission with
no,or extensive reciprocal communication from the listener to the
broadcaster.
Today radio also describes customisable playlists from  internet sites such as
SpoRfy and LastFM, and also  radio shows on public access broadcast networks
that include phone-ins with ordinary people, hence involving
reciprocal  communication.

http://www.iphf.org/hall-of-fame/auguste-lumiere-louis-lumiere/
http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html

these are definitions and the biographies

The definition of iconic states that a recognizable representation of an object a photograph of someone can be described as an iconic sign as it is a natural resemblance of the thing it represents.

john fiskes, Arbitrary definition : They are codes where the agreement between the users is explicit and defined they are codes with a stated and agreed relationship between signified and signifier.

Daniel Chandler Denotation Connotation and Myth

Denotation definition: Denotation' tends to be described as the definitional, 'literal', 'obvious' or 'common sense' meaning of a sign. In the case of linguistic signs, the denotative meaning is what the dictionary attempts to provide. For the art historian Erwin Panofsky, the denotation of a representational visual image is what all viewers from any culture and at any time would recognize the image as depicting (Panofsky 1970a, 51-3). 

Connotation Definition: connotation' is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) of the sign. These are typically related to the interpreter's class, age, gender, ethnicity and so on. 

Myth definition : 

can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our experiences within a culture (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 185-6). They express and serve to organize shared ways of conceptualizing something within a culture. 

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem06.html

David Crowe

syntagm definition: This is a collection of signs that are organized in a linear sequence

paradigm definition: The meaning we get from a collection of signs does not come from these linear combinations alone

Biographies 

Crow, D.

Left to right

In-text: (Crow, 2006)
Bibliography: Crow, D. (2006). Left to right. Lausanne: AVA Academia.

Google Books

Introduction to Communication Studies

In-text: (Google Books, 2015)
Bibliography: Google Books, (2015). Introduction to Communication Studies. [online] Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dmjFBQAAQBAJ&dq=arbitrary+definition+john+fiske&source=gbs_navlinks_s [Accessed 11 Jan. 2015].

Visual-memory.co.uk

Semiotics for Beginners: Denotation, Connotation and Myth

In-text: (Visual-memory.co.uk, 2015)
Bibliography: Visual-memory.co.uk, (2015). Semiotics for Beginners: Denotation, Connotation and Myth. [online] Available at: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem06.html [Accessed 11 Jan. 2015]

study task 5

                             

                                                           STUDY TASK 5


McLuhan's medium is message:
This expression by Marshall McLuhan implies that the manifestation of a medium implants itself in the message, making a harmonious relationship where the medium impacts how the message is seen.

Hot and cold media
McLuhan's hot and cold media can be useful in the determining if a smartphone usefulness is either hot or cold  for the user. If the smartphone is determined as hot then it will enhance once sense to the point that other senses of the user will not be needed  if its determined as cool then more participation is needed by the user to understand the medium McLuhan determined that mediums such as movies are hot while mediums such as TV are deemed cold
in my opinion his theory is useful as it helps us to grasp the importance of smartphone i think that a smart phone would be deemed cool because more participation is needed by the user because the smart phone has many functions apart from calling you can use the internet to acquire information. you can also use it to download apps and even as a navigator hence the name smartphone for these reasons i would deem a smartphone as cool.

                                                 
                                              Te trad of smartphone and mp3 player
                                                    
                                                                      Smartphone

                                                                       MP3 Player

Individual.utoronto.ca

What is the Meaning of The Medium is the Message?

In-text: (Individual.utoronto.ca, 2015)
Bibliography: Individual.utoronto.ca, (2015). What is the Meaning of The Medium is the Message?. [online] Available at: http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm [Accessed 11 Jan. 2015].

marshal mcluhan. (2013). hot and cold media. Available: http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/ResourcesForCourses/MarshallMcLuhan.html. Last accessed 4th jan 2015.

study task 3

                                                               
                                                                       Study task 3

Binary opposition - an idea that is a part of a major twentieth century theory of meaning called Structuralism - is an aspect of psycholinguistics, but offers us a very straightforward yet very subtle means of working out how we create meaning from language. More interestingly, it also can point to why and how those within a particular group, society or culture share important values, and how these can easily be reinforced by language use, often sub-consciously and thus unknowingly, even unwittingly.

The zone of anomaly is often used in texts in which myths and stories come into play, in a debate, which throws them in the middle but lets viewers assign them, closer to a side.

(as seen in the diagram below ive put one word in the zone of anomaly where I express my thoughts on it.)

                                                                        Diagram

                                                                      Digital media                                                            

What i did was a basic diagram showing opposites based on this diagram we are able to express theories elaborate on our thought and understand the basis of the zone of Anomaly an as the diagram proceeds i introduce the cyborg and my views and thoughts of the term it is placed in the zone of anomoly

Bibliography

Campsall, S. (2011) Binary Opposition. Available at:http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/extras/binaryopposition.htm                                                  [ Accessed on 18 November 2011] 

Campbell S. (2014). binary opposition. Available: http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/extras/binaryopposition.htm. Last accessed 8 jan 2014.

Utopia and dsytopia

                                                       Utopia and dsytopia 

Utopia is a state of perfection driven by a powerful desire for social change. It is characterized in the dictionary as a society without stress, communicated as an impeccable world in reference. From my point of view  everything that needs to be said from this quote regarding optimistic social requests without the Utopias of distinctive times, men would regardless be living in caves, sad and uncovered.It was Utopians that helped mankind to advance and assemble the first city· Out of liberal dreams come accommodating substances. A Perfect world is the rule of all progression, and the piece into a predominant future. The world has been constantly changing over the whole deal, new ideas clear ways that provoke better living. Most of the ideas are conveyed through science fiction stories composed by creators looking to change the world by one means or another. Creators begin with a thought, and after that move towards plan of thought and arrangement into  a degree a sensible reality. Writers, for instance, Philip K Dick who composed Blade runner and W. J. Stuart who wrote the famous story of forbidden planet use the stories they make as methodologies to express their thoughts that they have with the present world. What’s more situations which they accept could be conceivable later on shockingly one must ask is An ideal world conceivable in light of the fact that it appears unthinkable in our  attempt to achieve an idealistic world all we end up doing is exhausting Natural Resources and participating in graceless fighting that’s where Dystopia comes in, you see Dystopia is infact the inverse of Utopia e.g. its an undesirable and alarming circumstance dystopic movies, for example, 2012 or "The day the world stood still" all demonstrate the results of Dystopia and as much as society tries to thrash dystopia it has a powerful grasp on us as innovation progresses we will dependably see both its idealistic component e.g. Utopia and its tragic variable e.g. dystopia .A total Dystopic world doesn’t seem conceivable and a all out perfect world is not conceivable .As a balanced world is the only thing which results from advancement in technology. Everyday battles permit individuals to admire the great things in life, which help us manage stress, create another reason behind why Utopia isn’t conceivable. On the off chance that our general public had nothing terrible to offer, we would not admire our most loved recreations or our most adored food, regardless of how extraordinary they were! An alternate terrible (however fundamental) side influence our present lives offer us is stress. Stress permits us to end up mindful as we develop, on the grounds that as we age, more things have a tendency to stress us. Envision no one agonizing over work, with individuals skipping vital tasks, only on the grounds that they weren't dependable about doing it. Alternately winding up with uninformed and non-educated understudies that can't, or don't even work in light of the fact that they never tried to study for their tests! The world would just be placed in a state of perplexity.

The battles found in our present day world permit us to be glad. Due to the way the human personality is constructed, it would be difficult to tell what bliss was without encountering disaster or despondency! Battles in our lives make beyond any doubt that we admire the great things in life considerably more! In an ideal world, everything ought to be "great". Would that not mean there was no awful? What's more on the off chance that you didn't recognize what awful was, then you couldn't be glad. In the event that the general public was to be flawless, then you would need to feel content. Keeping in mind the end goal to perform this, the general public would need to have methods for making you feel despondent eventually. Also in light of this, it couldn't be known as an impeccable society, and subsequently, no perfect world. But as the idea of utopia grows in popularity societies gains will increase but society as a whole will never be perfect an example of this is in the famous book animal farm in this book the animals are carrying out errands in hope that they can finally reach a utopian styled life but this all turns around as the leader of this project gains too much power and where there is power there is greed which eventually leads to an unhappy utopia and an uprising. In todays governments we see how utopia is the one of the main aims for example in Russia the idea of communism was thought to lead to a utopian lifestyle but where utopia is present dystopia can be found and the communist system in the end failed and utopia was not reached as humankind reaches forward in politics and technology the idea of utopia grows further and further out of grasp all technology   does is make people become lazy and fundamentally ignorant and because everyone’s ideologies differ on what is considered perfect we can never come into an agreement on utopia some wealthy individuals today may have reached there own personal utopia while others haven’t so to come to the idea that everyone’s view on a utopia is the same is absurd  and is also a good reason why utopia seems impossible to reach.

Technology seems to be bringing us closer to utopia and as I said before in science fiction movies and books the writers seem to all have the thoughts that technology will eventually turn out to be bad for us. Even Steven hawking the smartest man in the world in an interview said even though technology is good it will bring us into turmoil. When you think about it technology is controversial as it strikes fear and curiosity in us but it also helps us live life more comfortable. My conclusion is that the idea of utopia is a figment of our imagination and only a balanced society is possible for humanity.

study task 2

                                                                 Study task 2

The definition of iconic states that a recognizable representation of an object a photograph of someone can be described as an iconic sign as it is a natural resemblance of the thing it represents.

john fiskes, Arbitrary definition : They are codes where the agreement between the users is explicit and defined they are codes with a stated and agreed relationship between signified and signifier.

Daniel Chandler Denotation Connotation and Myth

Denotation definition: Denotation' tends to be described as the definitional, 'literal', 'obvious' or 'common sense' meaning of a sign. In the case of linguistic signs, the denotative meaning is what the dictionary attempts to provide. For the art historian Erwin Panofsky, the denotation of a representational visual image is what all viewers from any culture and at any time would recognize the image as depicting (Panofsky 1970a, 51-3). 

Connotation Definition: connotation' is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) of the sign. These are typically related to the interpreter's class, age, gender, ethnicity and so on. 

Myth definition : 

can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our experiences within a culture (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 185-6). They express and serve to organize shared ways of conceptualizing something within a culture. 

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem06.html

David Crowe

syntagm definition: This is a collection of signs that are organized in a linear sequence

paradigm definition: The meaning we get from a collection of signs does not come from these linear combinations alone

Denotation Connotation and Myth of a news photograph 

If we see a  News photograph of car which has being destroyed, 

Our denotation at first would be that this car has being in some sort of accident due to the relevant evidence such as a smashed window, flat tire etc because these are obvious they are literal tell tale signs that an incident had occurred. Everyone's connotation would be unique based on individual ideologies and emotions but i believe most people would feel some sort of sadness and remorse if someone died in the incident another thing they might feel is shock it really depends on the individual persons point of view on the photograph a myth which could be raised from the image is that its most likely a younger person who was driving the car because in our culture most car incidents involve younger people who are usually under the influence of alcohol so without being told anything any by just observing the news photograph these sort of myths are common to arise.

Biographies

Crow, D.

Left to right

In-text: (Crow, 2006)
Bibliography: Crow, D. (2006). Left to right. Lausanne: AVA Academia.

Google Books

Introduction to Communication Studies

In-text: (Google Books, 2015)
Bibliography: Google Books, (2015). Introduction to Communication Studies. [online] Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dmjFBQAAQBAJ&dq=arbitrary+definition+john+fiske&source=gbs_navlinks_s [Accessed 11 Jan. 2015].

Visual-memory.co.uk

Semiotics for Beginners: Denotation, Connotation and Myth

In-text: (Visual-memory.co.uk, 2015)
Bibliography: Visual-memory.co.uk, (2015). Semiotics for Beginners: Denotation, Connotation and Myth. [online] Available at: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem06.html [Accessed 11 Jan. 2015]