Catfish Response

        Throughout the semester, the topic of web 2.0 and democratized media has been a very popular point of interest in class lessons. The documentary “Catfish” sums up the dangers of web 2.0 that have been discussed throughout the semester. As defined previously, Web 2.0 is basically more user generated as well as open- source content being available on the web. This means that users are basically able to post whatever they want to a site as well as take on any alternate persona on the web. The film Catfish displays this definition adequately, and truly defines the basic ideas and values of Web 2.0.

The basic plot of the movie began when photographer Yaniv Schulman received a painted reproduction in the mail of one of his published photos. His brother, filmmaker Ariel Schulman who had already been making a documentary about Yaniv, basically kept cameras rolling for this interesting new twist to the documentary. Yaniv, who goes by Nev, soon finds out that these extremely advanced paintings are actually being reproduced by an eight-year-old-girl, Abby Pierce, who resides in Michigan with her family. Nev tries to get in touch with Abby and is able to do this through Facebook through her mother Angela.

       

After Nev’s pen- pal – like relationship takes off with both young Abby and her mother, he comes across Abby’s 19 year old sister Megan’s Facebook page. Megan appears to be an extremely fun and attractive young woman, and Nev is immediately attracted to her. The two then embark on a very intimate online relationship which leads to constant texting as well as constant phone conversations. Nev quickly becomes infatuated with Megan, and it seems that Megan feels similarly about Nev.

       

From here, Nev and his two filmmaking buddies take a trip to Michigan to surprise Megan and Abby, but instead the story takes a wild turn that is extremely unexpected. Nev soon finds out that Abby is not a painter, and Angela her mother is actually the painter of the family. To add to this, Nev also finds out that there is no Megan, she does not reside with her “family”, and is conveniently unable to talk on the phone or visit her mom while Nev is visiting. Nev soon finds out that Angela, Abby’s mother, has a voice which is extremely similar to that of Megan’s. Nev soon uncovers the chilling fact that he was being lied to by Angela all along. Megan’s facebook was completely fake and Angela was actually the one who was having the intimate relationship with Nev behind the persona of Megan.

        The film Catfish basically uncovers the world’s fears of Web 2.0. The fact that people could so easily lead a double  life and trick the world around them is something that is indeed chilling. People often criticize websites such as Facebook because it allows people to be whoever they would like to be, and could dupe or hurt others in the process. Nev was actually in love with the girl who he was having a relationship with via Facebook, and was lied to constantly throughout the film.

        I think that this film shows the effects and changes Facebook and other social media networks have had and will continue to have in the lives of many. People rely so much on Facebook, but often do not realize how dangerous and faulty it can be. Any person can take on any identity on these networks, and Catfish truly harps on this scary reality.

        Earlier in the semester, we discussed Andrew Keen and his opinion that social networking is the downfall of American society and intelligence. The documentary Catfish truly bolsters his opinion. Catfish directly shows that Americans believe everything they see online and are extremely likely to let their guard down while hiding behind a computer screen. I believe that this film is a perfect example of where our society is headed, and that it displays the dangers of the internet extremely well. The fact that Angela Pierce, one woman, was able to manage 15 different facebook profiles and consistently lie to an innocent man, shows that anyone can do anything online.

This documentary truly made me wonder what I would do if I was in Nev’s position. It also made me wonder for the first time if my information and photos that are posted online are safe. Angela used a collection of photos of a random model to form the identity of Megan Faccio and trick Nev into falling in love with this fake person. I think that this film displays the scary reality of social media and democratized media in general, and should be taken as a fair warning for viewers of the film as well as internet users everywhere.

Exit Through The Gift Shop Response

         In the film “Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop”, the whole culture of street art and graffiti is revealed by an anonymous narrator by the name of Banksy. This film was originally supposed to be directed by the featured Thierry Guetta, but when Banksy offered to edit his film, he decided to film Guetta and his first experiences and successes with becoming involved in street art. In the film Thierry goes from knowing almost nothing about the culture and how it works to actually opening his own gallery and becoming extremely successful in his endeavors despite the fact that he ripped off established artists such as Shepard Fairey and Banksy.

Thierry Guetta is quite the outgoing character throughout the film, and begins to explore street art and make his own street art as well throughout the film. He discovers and discusses in the film how street art has changed immensely throughout the years. Street art was originally an illegal and frowned upon culture, but it has now become respected, valued, and desired by art galleries.

Guetta had approached Banksy, the street art mastermind, in creating a documentary about street art, how it has changed, and what it has become. Banksy suggests to Guetta that he will edit the film himself, and instead the film will feature Guetta. Banksy remains anonymous throughout the film in commentaries and in his artwork. At the same time Guetta makes a name for himself, and becomes an extremely successful street artist. He also takes on the persona of “Mr. Brain Wash” in the film. He makes many many pieces of “artwork” over the duration of the film, and towards the end of the film he holds a gallery for his artwork. The art show was held in Los Angeles, and was called “Life is Beautiful.” Tickets presold for this show at 100,000 US dollars, and this gallery set off Guetta’s whole future and success. At the close of the flim  Banksy contemplates whether or not he made the right choice in helping Guetta with this documentary because of the way in which Guetta “ripped off” Banksy’s own work.

          According to the article “Here’s why the Banksy Movie is a Banksy Prank”, this film was questioned after it premiered because many viewers and art professionals feel that this film is an outright lie, and that the artwork of MBW (Mister Brain Wash) is actually that of Banksy himself because of his anonymous personality to begin with (http://www.fastcompany.com/1616365/banksy-movie-prankumentary).  

As I watched the film, I did feel as though Thierry used Banksy’s art as well as other artists such as Andy Warhol’s orginal work as a platform for his own creations. After all, most of his “artwork” was merely other artists’ work that was photoshopped or changed via illustrator rather than his own creation.  However, Mr. Brain Wash did know how to market and promote himself in the correct manner, and I feel that this is why is work caught on so much. He advertised himself through graffiti in the street, as well as telling as many people as possible about his art show and I truly believe that this was the key to his success.

However, I do not think that Mister Brain Wash was being a “legitimate” artist or creating “meaningful” artwork per se. He happened to speak to the right people such as Banksy, and promoted himself to the right people, but he was not necessarily legitimate. Some of his most well known artwork such as the Campbell’s Soup can and Elvis with a toy gun were not original works of art and were simply altered from their original form. I also feel that much of his work was extremely resonant of that of Andy Warhol, and that he most certainly ripped off Warhol's creations.

I also do not think that the artwork of Guetta was meaningful by any means. Most artists’ work comes from their heart, and this shows in their finished product. From my personal perspective, I felt that all of his artwork was interesting to look at because it was peculiar and strange while all being too similar to other works of art I have seen in the past. I think that he just made these pictures to make a name for himself rather than his work coming from his heart, a quality that is instrumental for many other artists.

               

             

Grade Report

Vector Trace Assignment

The image above is my original. After tracing it and editing it, my final image is below:

vector illustrator remake

For my vector image I decided to remake the above Pepsi logo in a more futuristic manner by using Adobe illustrator - My final image is the image below: 

Vector Image

For my vector image I decided to choose the Pepsi logo:

Andrew Keen

1. How does Keen define Democratized media, and what are his main issues with this trend? use examples from the web in the form of links. Include this idea of "disintermediation".

       In the chapter "The Great Seduction" from the book "How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture", author Andrew Keen defines the term democratized media as a very less cultured, less credible, and less reliable form of media and the internet. He accuses democratized media as being extremely unreliable and rather dubious because it allows users to edit content without being professional editors. Keen explains that bloggers, photographers, and just plain ordinary people are able to post whatever information or "amateur work" on the web, and he feels that this is stripping us of our culture. 

      The term "disintermediation" also can be related to this chapter. Disintermediation is that idea that there is no middle man between who submits things to websites and who oversees the website. When Keen discusses "authorship" it directly relates to the idea of disintermediation. Keen explains that "authorship" is being ruined and exploited by the development of democratized media because it blurs the line between who owns the site, who views the site, and who has the ability to edit the site. This could include sites that share files as well as allow users to post their own non - reviewed work to a site for the world to see. Keen mentions three various forms of democratized media here to demonstrate exactly what he means and they are as follows: 

1.) Wikipedia 

2) Myspace

3) Napster

2. Compare and Contrast Keens take on Social Media with Douglas Rushkoff's. What are these differences in opinion? Which one speaks to you and your own experiences and why? You may include the ideas of such utopian technophiles as Larry Lessig, Chris anderson, and Jimmy Wales (who are these guys!?)
      Andrew Keen and Douglas Rushkoff have rather different takes on social media. Where Keen believes that social media as well as other "democratized media" is the ultimate downfall of the American culture, Douglass is not totally for it but not totally opposed to it. Douglass is wary of what may happen in the future because of these websites, however he does not feel that they will completely ruin the world.
     Personally, I agree more with Douglass. I believe that while yes, social and democratized media may not be the best thing for the American culture, I do not think that social media is the ultimate downfall of our society. I think that the internet should be monitored more, and that sites such as wikipedia and napster should have more organization and authorship to them. I know for me personally, I use websites that allow me to comment on other people's blogs such as this one as well as facebook, and I even refer to wikipedia occasionally to do a broad search on research topics. 

Responses

For this assignment I partnered with Christa Libecci. Her thesis is that  websites such as Facebook and Myspace could be an extension of a person's identity, however they could also be detrimental to a person if they get too wrapped up in the virtual element of this alternate world. ( http://christalibeccimedialit112.blogspot.com/2011/02/digital-nation-question-2.html?showComment=1299125102467#c3362161937286715249 )

Aside from commenting Christa's blog, I also commented Mike Florio's blog ( http://mikeflorio1.blogspot.com/2011/03/withering-individual.html?showComment=1299123641969#c451202460705325675) and Megan Berrian's blog (http://meganberrian.blogspot.com/2011/03/whither-individual.html?showComment=1299123117688#c8443977618855143614)

Whither the Individual

Whither the Individual:

        In terms of increasing our identity or conforming to the profiles of sites such as Facebook and Myspace, I believe that users are definitely expanding their identities rather than restricting themselves. The usage of virtual websites serves the purpose for users to have the ability to be something they aren’t in a virtual world. In the documentary “Digital Nation”, David Rushkoff and Rachel Dreztin evaluate internet usage and how technology is changing the way we live every day.

        In this documentary, Rushkoff investigates programs such as Second Life and World of Warcraft in order to see if these programs help their users become more individual or force them to act in a certain “cookie – cutter” manner in order to fit a certain profile. I believe that people are in fact exploring more facets of their identities by using these programs. Users are able to explore various things that they would perhaps not be comfortable doing in the actual world of reality. For example, according to Digital Nation, 1/3 of female users end up in romantic relationships with men that they meet in the game.

                        

Likewise, Second Life was created with the intent of improving intimacy online. Creator Philip Rosedale’s intent in creating this site was to make his users more willing to interact online with others and to solve the issue of alienation that the use of technology has caused. This film also features an 83 year old eldery woman by the name of Bubbie, who has made a cooking show in her old age through use of technology. Although she is not someone who was raised on technology, she is able to use technology in order to spread her recipes and cooking techniques to the world around her.

                   

In terms of “personal space”, I feel as though it is changing through use of this technology, not necessarily diminishing. Users still have personal profiles as well as personal identities within these virtual worlds. The difference with the idea of personal space in terms of sites like facebook, twitter and myspace is that these sites allow users to comment and contribute to other profiles, not necessarily invade someone’s “personal space”. Likewise, these profiles almost always reflect the user’s actual identity, even though it may sometimes display them in a different way.

                    

        I believe that these groups and sites give the world a chance to be someone they are not or cannot physically be. I think that in moderation this exploration of self could be beneficial to many, but can in some cases be harmful in terms of people becoming obsessive or addicted to these sites. I also disagree with the opinion that people need to “surrender the ego” in order to use these sites and become part of an online community. In fact I feel that people can cultivate their identities through usage of these websites rather than “surrendering” them.

Users are able to participate in these sites and learn things that they may not have known prior to using these sites.  I also think that as a “hyper- people” an online community is able to learn how to cooperate with others in a different way other than in person. This is extremely important because as Rushkoff and Dreztin mention in the video, technology will take over everything we do in the future despite the way we feel about it. According to Digital Nation, companies such as IBM are already using programs such as Second Life in order to set up international business meetings as well as regular office hours in order to make meeting time more convenient. In the future, employees will have to know how to use these programs in order to be hired because of the rapid rate technology has been taking off in the past decade.

In conclusion, I do not believe that these websites and programs are “whithering” the individual per se, but are allowing individual people to shape themselves in a different way than they are normally used to. Personal space can now be displayed online, and individual profiles can be seen by other users of these programs. Likewise, people are able to take on different roles and do things that they may not be able to do in their real lives. I think that these programs can help cultivate an individual by showing them a different side of what they are used to in everyday life. The idea of a “hyper- people” actually requires people to be individual and unique in order to contribute to these virtual worlds.

           

           

Web 2.0 questions

1. In terms of advertisements and television shows appearing to be more "homegrown" and "amateurish", I believe that this issue will eventually disappear over time. I feel that technology is constantly getting more and more advanced everyday, and different forms of technology will become more affordable over time. Companies will be able to buy various devices to improve their appearance in the long run because technology easily becomes outdated and more and more affordable. I also feel that the people who are being hired at these agencies will become more tech savvy over time, because younger generations are much more able to use  technology more efficiently than other generations.

2. For me, the social media site that I use most often is definitely facebook. I use it so often because it is a way for me to stay connected to people from my hometown as well as share information with friends. The chat feature is something that is very attractive about the site because it makes it easy to talk to others instantaneously. I also enjoy the photo feature because it is a good way to organize my photos as well as view the photos of friends and family that I do not get to see often.
     I think that facebook is much more successful than myspace because is has a much broader user base. When myspace was at its height of popularity, it was predominately used by teenagers under the age of 20. Facebook started as a bit of a higher quality social media site with just college students, and then spread to both older and younger demographics. I definitely think facebook is here to stay because the company is constantly making improvements to make their site better. I also believe that the site is here to stay because it is a way to constantly be connected to the world around us, and has integrated with twitter and youtube to make it easier to use as well. According to the article "Facebook's future and why its here to stay" site founder, Mark Zuckerberg has managed to harness something real, our interpersonal connections, and give us a forum to digitally display and enhance them." This article bolsters the argument that facebook is in fact here to stay because of its innovative and competitive nature. ( http://www.rev2.org/2008/02/24/facebooks-future-and-why-its-here-to-stay/ )

3.  Transparency is extremely important in the online world. I feel this way because making things public as well as being open is much easier online than in person. Likewise, many mistakes  social media companies make are due to transparency and astroturfing. Companies who try to "make fake grass root blogs" are guilty of astroturfing according to an excerpt from Social Media and Web 2.0. Astroturfing is a tactic that could be used by politicians or companies in order dupe online users to use a product or become a follower of a certain politician.
    A perfect example of why  online transparency is important is the incident that occured with facebook  in 2009. When facebook changed many of their privacy settings and announced that they "owned" all parts of the site including the photos of their users, the company received much backlash. Also, facebook has also been accused of giving advertising agencies their users information when users click on certain links according to the article "Facebook takes its time, but responds to advertising privacy issues." ( http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/05/25/facebook-takes-its-time-but-responds-to-the-advertising-privacy-issues/ ) Social media sites need to be very aware of transparency because of issues like this, because they can cause many problems for the company.

McLuhan Photoshop Final Post

         For my photoshop assignment, the new form of media that I chose to use was smartphones. Of all new media, I feel that this is the most important form because almost everyone is switching over to a smartphone whether it is the iphone, droid, or blackberry. The power of these phones is remarkable. I believe that the use of smartphones will one day make using computers obsolete because of their capabilities. As seen, I took an image of a smartphone and placed icons on it that I feel are crucial to the "content" of smartphones. Most smartphones are capable of connecting to skype and facebook, and can also allow users to listen to music of their choice. The image of the laptop is also one that I felt was important to include. Most smartphones also have the capability of a laptop and allow people to access the internet, send emails, and write documents when needed. Lastly, I included an image of a man and woman speaking across the world. I think that this is also extremely important because it is one of the main "messages" of these devices. These phones have finally made it possible to communicate and constantly stay connected with people who may be on the other side of the world. The overall message of these phones is that they have capabilities of most computers and I believe will take the place of them in the future. 
     Aside from these images , I placed the phone on top of an image of a person's hand as to coincide with the phrase "The future is in your hands".  I believe that this is also part of the "message" that McLuhan is trying to describe. The future of computers and technology really is in the palms of the hands of many with the use of these phones. Lastly, I included the arrow pointing toward the smartphones to be very specific in the type of technology that I was referencing.

Smartphone Photoshop Assignment

  

        For my photoshop assignment, the new form of media that I chose to use was smartphones. Of all new media, I feel that this is the most important form because almost everyone is switching over to a smartphone whether it is the iphone, droid, or blackberry. The power of these phones is remarkable. I believe that the use of smartphones will one day make using computers obsolete because of their capabilities. As seen, I took an image of a smartphone and placed icons on it that I feel are crucial to "message" of smartphones. Most smartphones are capable of connecting to skype and facebook, and can also allow users to listen to music of their choice. The image of the laptop is also one that I felt was important to include. Most smartphones also have the capability of a laptop and allow people to access the internet, send emails, and write documents when needed. Lastly, I included an image of a man and woman speaking across the world. I think that this is also extremely important because these phones have finally made it possible to communicate and constantly stay connected with people who may be on the other side of the world.
     Aside from these images, I placed the phone on top of an image of a person's hand as to coincide with the phrase "The future is in your hands." The future of computers and technology really is in the palms of the hands of many with the use of these phones. Lastly, I included the arrow pointing toward the smartphones to be very specific in the type of technology that I was referencing.

New Mediums

As time goes on, technology is rapidly changing. In Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message", he explains that the content of the message is not what we should be paying attention to, but  the way in which the content is transmitted through technology and how this effects our lives. Here are three examples of new technology that I feel have and will continue to effect the world.

1. Facebook
Content: Digital photographs, text, html links, digital video, chat
Message: In my opinion the "message" of facebook is that people are constantly connected with one another. When one of your facebook friends updates something on his or her page, it appears on your personal feed. This helps users stay connected to one another even if they do not speak in person. Also, the chat aspect of the website allows users to instantly get in contact with one another given that they are both logged into the site.



2. Smartphones
Content: Text messaging, phone calls, camera, digital photographs, video, digital video, internet access, applications, instant messaging, e- mail.
Message: Blackberries, droids and iphones are all included in the category of  smartphones. More and more people have progressively decided to switch over to one of these phones because of all of its capabilities. The fact that you could have the power to be on the internet at the tip of your fingers at anytime and anywhere is further making usage of the desktop computer and even the laptop obselete. These phones have and will continue to gain popularity because of  their various capabilities.


3. Twitter
Content: Comments, text, html links
Message: I believe that twitter has changed social media itself as it has gained popularity. It has increased the speed of news and how accessible the news can be. It is also integrated into other mediums such as online news articles as well as other forms of social media. I think that this is really a great feature because you can directly attach a link to your twitter and this helps expedite the delivery of news to the world.