Lindsey Mc

article response

1. Crosbie article
a. According to Crosbie's article on what New Media is, my capstone project is partially New Media, (depending on my final layout of my installation). His characteristics for defining New Media are : 1) the individual messages can simultaneously be delivered to an infinite number of people 2) and that each of the people involved share reciprocal control over that content. In order to fall more precisely under this definition, I would have to allow for the viewer to have more control over what happens in the installation so that the message I want to deliver is drastically more individualized for each person.
b. I understood Crosbie's "hallmark characteristics" and think they are valid, but I feel that they are limited towards a certain aspect of New Media, which is focused on community developed projects. While these are important in New Media, I do not believe that community based projects solely define New Media.

2. Henry Jenkins' Eight traits
a. My capstone project measures a bit higher under Jenkins' eight traits of New Media. He says "the focus should not be on emerging technologies but on emerging cultural practices." I found this relevant to my project where as my project does involve technologies, but the focus is on the social/cultural issue at hand that pertains to a global population. My project may not fall under each specific trait he describes, but one thing I know I would have to do is to work on networking this project more. To get more people involved, so it is not just a one time installation but also turn it into something else as well perhaps a web site where people all over the world could access it at any time.
b. I do agree with the points Jenkins makes, however I agree with Jon that the convergent trait is misleading, and I'm not sure I even completely understand the unequal trait. However, some of the points he brings up are hard to argue by any means, especially when he states "we can no more see the layer of media that surrounds us than fish notice the water they are swimming in."

posted by LindseyMcMorrow @ 7:27 PM