Narrative structure, presents the reader/viewer with an ordered way to take in their piece. It is the standard and norm for traditional forms of media. Now the database is said to have a possible narrative structure as well. I guess it all depends on the person, since this topic can be debated. Let us compare them… they both can tell a story. If I have to explain how traditional media tells a story, then please stop reading here, I’m slow from time to time, but if you can’t tell how a story is a story… (cricket cricket) The database however, could be looked at differently. How can it be narrative if it is computer generated? Well as I see it, the database can become a narrative but with the help of a human. Through a search through the database the collection of information can sort of, speak out to a person. You can notice trends and relatable items that show narrative. The database does not spit out a story; you can’t go to the database and expect “Once upon a time” to be right in front of your face. You need to work a little. Both old media and new media allow the uses to interpret it and then make their own analysis of what is being presented to them. Some more differences, narrative is created and organized. The difference lies in the way people understand and use it. Narrative is created, structured and organized, which database is created and structured but it is not presented in an ordered and detailed list, as a story would be. Databases are not linear while most old medias are.
Databases rule me. It is so easy to just use a database to conduct any activity on line. I’m a googler, if I’m not sure about something or I’m bored I Google. I use databases blindly on a daily bases as do most of the Internet users of the world. However it has also become a tool to help generate my own media. When working on a project databases are a foundation to show or generate a direction I want to be going. Being able to research something I’m designing and being able to look up pictures when needed is a tool used quite often. On a music direction, when I set out to cover a song I go to You Tube to look up instrumentals of songs. I also see if other people have covered the song, see what I don’t like and grab inspiration from other videos. I search for song lyrics on Google.
Media generated by society at large uses databases as a religion. It’s a way to have ones media shown to the world. Using sites such as You Tube, Flicker and many more created an outlet for one to show others their media. Those who generate media are also using database to help construct their own projects. Using databases helps the creator research and build inspiration. It is also a lot quicker to use databases, back in the day you would have to be running through a library using that card index program they had, then sit down and read through information. Now you can just search for exactly what you want and long and short pieces of information will show up.
People can also organize data using metadata. When uploading your works, you can tag it using a description. Sometimes this is helpful to other users and will represent the great ways information can be organized. However there is a little bitsy itsy problema. What is something to one person might be something completely different to another. Say something is labeled “Fun Times” and it’s a person on a cliff diving adventure, one who is afraid of heights or water might not think it is fun times to be doing that activity and might think the word scary times, or death would be more appropriate. There is the ego evolved “me” tagging, who is me anyway? Me is me, not you, so why are you tagging the picture me? Haha One of my favorites is when people label a picture “me hot” or “me good” I’m sure you get the point. It’s funny but practicable. If you are putting in your pictures for your own use and you need to pull up a good picture of yourself “me hot” is helpful to your own organization. However to everyone else it is not so much, well maybe for Internet perverts… EW! Bottom line, sometimes it’s helpful for users sometimes it is not. If anything at least it gives a general direction, and for those who are super anal and give very proper tags to what they upload, well you will just maybe get what you are looking for.
Right here right now as I write this blog I am giving into the culture Industry. Although it is continuously changing it is still the thriving industry that drives all of us. Young, Old, every race, religion, political party, sex and everything in-between are targets for the culture industry.
We are a society that has become dependant on digital media, updating your status is like putting on socks in the morning. It has become a thoughtless action where we think we are creating something that is all our own, but in reality the words we choose to write can be compared to which station we would decide to put the radio on. The culture industry creates the medium and we use the hidden choices given to us to use it. And with that it becomes a part of the norm especially in today’s technologically advanced world. Society thrives on these forms of communication, and our participation within them is what keeps it moving. It is the goal of the culture industry to manipulate us into the “2-way form of communication” to keep the medium going… well until the new medium is made. So has our status as media consumers changed? It’s changed only in the sense that we have been molded to believe that things have changed, that we do have a say in what’s going on.
I would feel a little less cynical if what people said actually mattered to the owners and creators, but it doesn’t.
Now where people believe they are being diverse an original, they really are just a part of the norm. Lets take blogs for example, the writer is all like “I’m so cool and original, here me roar. I’m such a pro on life or this or that, or my life is so hard. I’m going to write about this now.” Umm hello? You and the millions of other people are doing the same thing! Blogs were conducted for people to share their thoughts and all that jazz, and for people to comment, it’s all in the design plan. Most people have blogs because it is the artist thing to do, or the kool thing to do. This is not a bad thing; it’s a cultural thing. (I’m not hating on bloggers, just trying to make a point.) In high school I had a live journal, which I made because all of my friends had one. And we would bitch and complain and be typical teenagers, do I use it now? No I use Facebook and twitter because that’s the “new technology” of the culture industry.
Green is the new black? Amateur is the new professional. But the amateur remains so, because the professionals are still decide for us. However the amateur spot light has been chosen by the industry to misguide people into the belief that they have control and that diversity thrives.
Now we have so many options presented to us. But wither we realize it or not, our options and freedoms are still being controlled. As noted in the reading everything is categorized and the options being presented are geared at certain groups of people. Lets take movies for example, we have the obvious, the big blockbusters and comedies and romance movies. We know who is geared towards them, and it’s the majority. However the minority who favor Indie films because they’re so insightful and new… welcome to a new category. The whole Indie industry is just another category of people; the movies are made a certain way so that the people will fall like putty into the group. Make sense? It reminds me of high school yet again, I was part of the “rocker” kids. I had pink hair, piercings, wore all kinds of bizarre stuff, though I was so original. Not conforming to the norms of everyone else. Oh little Bon Bon, how wrong you were. My friends and a whole bunch of other kids around the country and world even thought the same thing. This unique culture I was thriving in was just another branch of the culture industry. Thankfully I figured that out. Haha
We are all controlled. The influence is all around us. If you really think for one second that you are not part of the culture industry, you are! Your in the group that thinks they aren’t.
How refreshing another ramble on a blog, I’m so unique. SIKE! Bon Bon out.
First and foremost it should be accepted by now that film, photography and graphic images are new forms of art. So I don’t feel as though they have necessarily “changed the meaning of image.” They have just increased our artist vocabulary as we develop these new areas of art. This becomes an every growing issue when a decision of “What is Art?” arises. Images flood our lives and who are we to judge what is and is not art. Wither or not the art is good is the real issue, but lets not get into that.
So I guess the case really comes down to these mediums developing new artist fields. They have allowed creative genius to take on new levels and with each new medium under lays a foreshadowing of the next new thing. The purpose of these art forms does however serve a different purpose as it once did. These days art is used primarily as a way to gain money and fame. The new mediums have increased these desires and stripped the original value of art. So it is easy to place the “blame” on new mediums of art, when in fact these mediums were just developed and made popular in the age where the desires of money and fame dominate the culture they are trusted into.
The reason things are mass produced today is to make money. They aren’t mass produced to show the art… okay maybe somewhat but lets put it frankly can you get a great replica of a piece of work for free, very doubtful. The new forms of art such as film and photography are made to be mass produced. They are not an individual pieces were every movement made to create the piece was planned and structured for the piece. You can produce exact replicas and it does not take away from the original meaning because it’s all the same. (I just don’t know how else to say that.)
Now when it comes to machinima, I believe there is some kind of division. Yes it is a new media art form, but it is something that has more meaning to the designer. From what I grasp from the concept it is an art made by people for the passion and not for the fame and money. This has more relation to aura in the means of ritual. In some weird twisted way the “designer” is paying tribute to the game (in many cases.) Since I am not a pro on this genre, I’m more than likely 100% percent wrong, but from the brief summary I have read this is the conclusion I have come to. Machinima is a rare example in this consumer culture where art is being made for arts sake. And it’s limited in the sense of mass production because it usually does not reach a large audience. Machinima is an element that is barely known outside it’s own world.
Well that’s all I got. Till the next time BON BON out!
