Friction- last blog post!

culture and data;

When we consider the distribution of data and how it reflects our social sphere, we must consider the multiple modes of publishing within media. Modes of publishing thus sculpt societies, cultures, essentially how we live life.

Data can be distributed in multiple ways-

• reassemblage (how is it remodelled to be understood in a different way)
• modulation (hop, skip and jump theory- as explained later)
• transduction (turning something completely into something else) I consider this to be done through the addition of different data or using parts of the information or an idea from the information to form completely original dat

As said above, modulation reflects the ‘hop, skip and jump’ theory as exemplified in this article, ” http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/20/google-tv ” which describes Google’s new  ‘smart-tv’ service which allows tv-viewers to surf the net whilst watching tv. This article reflects the convergence of different forms of publishing; the use of this ‘smart-tv’ service shows a shift of authority in archives, the authority that was primarily within the television is now shifted to the Google application.

The distribution of data for major global newspaper websites is now more reflective of culture and social aspects.
This is seen in the website for the New York Times which has seen a technological improvement in the maintenance of the website, now filled with applications and external links such as Application Programming Interface (APIs and Open APIS). This is expanded upon on this article, (http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/02/06/new-york-times-lets-users-build-things-with-its-content-open-api/)

“The Article Search API is a way to find, discover, explore, have fun and build new things. We’ve accumulated quite a few blocks/articles over the last 28 years — all of them tagged and labeled with loving care.”

Techdirt describes this new function as giving news an open “platform” which allows for the readers to explore more than the article itself, through relevant tagging at the bottom of the article, articles written by the same author (may have written a correlation of the same issues), highlighted organisational names (may have more articles written about the same organisation thus same issues), online section tag (articles about the genre within the paper) and a publication date (contextually similar information and articles).

The use of modern distribution of information (the everchanging manipulation of data and publishing) s is further exacerbated by Paul N. Edwards, (‘Introduction’ readings) who states that “the past, or rather what we can know about the past, changes. And it will keep right on changing. I call this reverberation of data images “shimmering.”Global data images have proliferated yet they have also converged.”

post 7- week 11 word- aggregation

distribution, aggregation and the social; open and closed

Distribution and aggregation brings light to new social groups which were previously not existing.

By definition, production is

‘In the Universal Copyright Convention, “publication” is defined

in article VI as “the reproduction in tangible form and the general
distribution to the public of copies of a work from which it can be
read or otherwise visually perceived.

When these productions are spread amongst different ‘communities’ it is considered distribution. How does aggregation come into this equation? These new relationships are formed when these distributions combine. Thus, in regards to what we are studying, forms of publishing, aggregation refers to texts, images and codes being brought into new relationships.

Books- A book can be considered a published aggregation; it is composed of different ideas, facts and fantasies that are produced within cultural distributions. These can be considered the genres of the book, such as the emotion which composes the book ie. hunger, love)
Ie. a midsummer night’s dream by Shakespeare is an aggregation of lovers within differing social classes.

News- The news is very prominently distributed and contains aggregated forms of information. The aggregation comes from its content- politics, gossip, the weather and general news is what the paper is generally constructed of. This aggregated information can be distributed in many ways; both physically and technologically. I find that the way that information is distributed changes the way that it is also aggregated. An example is the Sydney Morning Herald. I find that the actual newspaper centres more information on hard news and political information whereas the website consists of lifestyle and entertainment sections. I personally believe that this reflects the distribution; people who access the newspaper online are more likely to be of the younger generation etc. As contentshare.blogger says, print media must adopt a google-like model of content aggregation in order to reach all audiences. Much so like, integrating the old with the new.

This is further explained in the reading What is implied by living in a world of flow where socialist Danah Boyd expresses that accessing information is a process whereas producing information is a task. Broadcasted media differs from networked media which disturbs the flow of the information we access.

visualisation (socialbodies)

Questions considered in this blog-

• Where are images coming from?
• How do they relate to other modes of publishing, data, objects, processes or events?
• What’s happening to these images in this context? 
• What are the function and effects of their being published?
• What do these images assemble?
• In what are they assembled?
• How do they fold into both the general social body, and individual bodily interaction with media 

Climate change deniers vs. the consensus

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/climate-change-deniers-vs-the-consensus/

The images within this visualisation are not derived from secondary sources but are graphs which represent and thus ‘visualise’ this visualisation. This visualisation relates to other modes of publishing through the use of multiple graphs within the one graph. Such examples include a map graph- plotted points over a map, bar graphs and photo representation graphs (the image of the tree in terms of how climate change affects it’s life span) Within this context, these images act as visual representations of the information written on the left and write hand sides of the columns. Reflective of the lecture, they can be considered as ‘aesthetics’ making the information easier for us to understand and analyse through the use of images. The functions and effect of them being published is so that people can compare what science says and what global warming experts say. I find this visualisation to be quite confusing in terms of content because I thought that the information would correlate heavily but it seems that it is not the case. These images assemble the effects of global warming on our environment and how we as humans contribute. This visualisation affects the individual’s interaction with media in that through scientific evidence that our activities are resulting to global warming leads us to act upon it. 

TBC

 

week 8- real time

Making the invisible, visible. Visualisation considers making invisible systems into visible depictions. For example, how wi-fi systems work, or someone’s thought process when buying something etc can all be described as ‘visualisations.’

 

What is the relation between information, forms of content/expression and the social?  We must consider how publics interpret information when it is given. How do these visualisations allow us to see information in a different light? Referred to as visual expression, these can also shape publics and how each public interprets information.

 

Such a visualisation allows us to assemble new ways of distributing information and as an extension, providing more ways for different publics that are unknown to be formed.

An example of a visualisation can be seen below;

 

 (reference; http://infosthetics.com/archives/2007/01/how_does_200_calories_look_like.html)

This visualisation above represents what 200 calories ‘actually’ is. I thought that this visualisation was very representative of society today. We live in a very health-aware 21^st century. Our televisions are constantly bombarded with lifestyle shows such as Masterchef and The Biggest Loser making us more health conscious.  The diagrams represented include a clear juxtaposition between the small amount of junk food that needs to be consumed to fill the 200 calorie quota as opposed to large quantities of healthy foods. This visualisation has converted this invisible data to a visible visualisation, an embodied experience from reading to interaction, thus relating back to social life. Individuals form a greater awareness by looking at the physical depiction of the issue.

 

 

 

 

(reference; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plain_cigarette_packaging.jpg)

I also consider cigarette packets a sort of ‘visualisation.’ Introduced in October of 2012, cigarette packets sold in Australia are to have standard ‘plain’ packaging which consists of white packets with black text and no colours or logos. On these packets include graphic depictions of the effects smoking has on the long run, such as emphysema.   I consider this to be a form of a visualisation as people are aware of the of the negative aspects of smoking however it has never really been put directly in front of them. This considers how visualisations reflect on society therefore influencing the individual. It is a societal function that smoking is detrimental to health. This ‘invisible’ thought has been visualised onto these packets thus influencing the individual directly whether or not they decide to smoke. 

post4- desire (but actually about assemblage)

When one considers assembling something, it’s essentially joining something together, pretty much joining the dots to make an end product. Thus there are two elements to assembling something, the actual ‘things’ to be assembled and the relationship between the ‘things.’ 
But what does this relationship entail? 

 

French thinker, Bruno Latour has divised an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) who describes that within a network there are both human and non-human “actants.” Objects act as a part of a social network. 

For example, take humans and an iPad. iPads being the ‘non-human’ actant. In order to form a social audience, an ipad and human must interact to form an assemblage. They in some way ‘communicate’ forming a human bond and interaction. This idea has been controversial as this relationship does not relate to the similarities of non-humans

For instance, a sociologist might take silk and nylon as intermediaries, holding that the former “means”, “reflects”, or “symbolises” the upper classes and the latter the lower classes. In such a view the real world silk–nylon difference is irrelevant — presumably many other material differences could also, and do also, transport this class distinction. But taken as mediators these fabrics would have to be engaged with by the analyst in their specificity: the internal real-world complexities of silk and nylon suddenly appear relevant, and are seen as actively constructing the ideological class distinction which they once merely reflected. (idea from Wikipedia)

This idea thus makes assemblages into stages. An assemblage is formed, then binding with another ‘actant’ to form another assemblage. 

• the Actor-network
  When considering this theory, the word ‘network’ is largely discussed. The ‘shape’ of the network, when considering an assemblent of something, is changing. Network refers to a transformation that is not “deformed,” which is unsupported by ANT as the many different levels of assemblages results in many different translations of the original assemblage (as described above). 

Thus, when something is assembled, all components can be considered all under the same branch of the wider-bigger assemblage

An example of this is a car-

A car is an example of a complex system. It contains many electronic and mechanicalcomponents, all of which are essentially hidden from view to the driver, who simply deals with the car as a single object.

-this is considered as punctualisation 

 

Forms and platforms of publishing

Collaborative publishing-
IE Wikipedia

Lets consider Wikipedia,

When collaboratively publishing something on Wikipedia, you must be a registered user. Collaborative forms of work are emulated by

• Editing existing articles- this can be done by pressing the edit button and adding or removing existing information
• Creating an article on your user page
• Search before writing- you cannot collaboratively sculpt a page without checking to see if someone has already written the same information
• Gather references- legitimate sources should be used and noted when adding or creating a Wikipedia page. This helps with the collaboration aspect in that users are able to visit the sources to find new information from similar sites etc
• Being careful about this information is also a collaborative aspect. Steering away from controversial and/or plagiarised material enables other users to add information at ease.

Wikipedia also enables for ‘new pages’ to be marked like a construction site to enable other contributors to be aware, that the page needs much editing and the information on it may not be completely valid. This is ensured through the template, {{newpage}}  on top of the page to signify to other editors that the work is a work in progress.

Youtube publishing-

Youtube is considered a publishing platform in that many users upload their own videos. This may be any form of video at all. Videos on Youtube consist of music, vlogs, tutorials and comedy skits. Anything at all, in video form, you name it, it’s all there! Although collaborative, breaches can be made in terms of copyright and infringement in the form of stealing other peoples’ videos. This is especially apparent in music videos. Youtube however is very aware of this problem and it is very common for videos that abuse such rights to be taken down.  When considering the Charlie Brooker video on ‘How to report the news,’ it proposes Youtube as a platform for where other news stations can broadcast news. As a satire against traditional news structures, the video portrays a view that people are able to broadcast in their personal way on Youtube. The video continues to ridicule standard news features such as vox pox and editing faces of people that are being recorded.

 

word-assemblage

What, is considered publishing?

This week in our tutorials, we considered different means of publishing avenues and how such publishments affect social spaces among us.

My presentation was on macropublishing- whether work on a macropublishing platform is considered an actual form of publishment.

First, the definition of publishing must be considered. According to Nancy Breen’s Published is Published, anything is considered published work if it has been presented for public consumption. This includes

• Published on a printed page
• On the internet- where accessible to the public. Thus, this includes public sites such as Facebook. Removing a post doesn’t change that it has been published
• Work read on the radio
• Read/recorded n the internet. For example, youtube

However, Alison Prang, a journalist proposes an opposing viewpoint. Alison favours the Publishing (on Wikipedia) reading, where material is considered ‘published’ once undergone a process. This process involves, Acceptance and Negotiation, Pro-production stages, Printing, Binding, Distribution. The only form of editing in terms of Tweets on Twitter involves the 140 character limit.

 

What I found most interesting within these presentations was the experience of reading a book.

Yumi mentioned evidence that the attention span of reading a paper book was greater than an e-book. Sensory triggers are sparked when reading a book. Such triggers include the touch of turning pages and smell triggers including grass, acidity and vanilla. Such senses can be found when learning with a textbook. Textbooks encourage interaction- through interacting with images, layout and colours within a page, you are able to find a page quicker. As Will Durant states in the reading ‘Defining the initial shift: some features of print culture’ in The Printing Press as an agent of change”  publishing through text has formed a “typographical and communications revolution.” 

Tash further describes the experience of reading a book as a progressive and achievement cycle. It gives us a sense of succession and wanting to share. Creighton University favours this,

A book is a place to commiserate with the struggles of past generations, an empathetic expression of the human condition, an integration of the world relationship. The secret to this though, lies in the book and not on the screen.”

 #alphabets

Post 1 Week 1 -Publishing part 1

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature, music, or information — the activity of making information available to the general public.

A piece of work is not automatically published, the process entails a proposal which must be approved. Even after being approved, bits and pieces that suit the publisher are extracted which are then forwarded to an editorial team who wrap up the process.

Once work is accepted to be published, royalties are then discussed. This includes international rights and publication rights.

The design of the published material is a crucial element to the publishing process. Any photos used to describe the published material must be licensed and approved. Cover designs are crucial as they are the key marketing element.

The published material is then sent to be printed, a pre-press proof. This is the final stage for any last remaining errors to be found. 

The material is distributed through book sellers, subscribers and/or carriers. 

• Sub publishers

Newspaper publishing

Periodical publishing- new editions on a regular basis i.e. magazines

Book publishing

Directory publishing-  includes mailing lists, telephone books

Academic publishing- textbooks, learning journals

Tie-in publishing- VCD’s, DVD’s

 

 

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