New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

Brazilian culture is free, collaborative and participatory

After only a few days in São Paulo, I could already feel the Brazilian creativity, inventiveness, the passion for free culture, collaboration, FLOSS, and alternative technology. They are positive, optimistic and embrace digital technologies for their changing and empowering...

By ellen sluis on 05/10/10 3

Cartography of migration flows

It has been acknowledged today that geography and cartography are not neutral or objective scientific practices but are ultimately about relationship between power, space and place. Yet, it was only at the end of 80s /early 90s, with development...

By Radmila Radojevic on 04/27/10 7

Visualizing the ‘invisible space’

We live in a constant struggle to steer through the big and varied torrent of data which is unleashed everyday. And “data” can cover many different things. By following the Concise Lexicon for the Digital Commons created in 2001...

By Susana Zaragoza on 04/20/10 1

Gambling With Open: A “How Bill Gates Made Money” Moment

Bill Gates is to new media as Rupert Murdoch is to old media--an atavistic force of economics, mad gambling, and vector misdirection. And right now he is lobbying hard to remove key provisions regarding open standards and open source...

By John Haltiwanger on 04/02/10 2

Space/Time Perception Through Digital Media: The Cubinator Project

Virtualization of our daily tasks, as well as of communication processes, social activity, production, economics, media consumption, etc. probably have more impact on our temporal and special awareness and sensorial processes than we normally realize. Sarah and I came...

By Marta Colpani on 03/27/10 5

Master of Media spin-off selected for EU blogging competition TH!NK3

www.ICT4Accountability.wordpress.com , one of the blogs started by a former New Media student of the UvA, is officially selected to compete in the internationally renowned blogging competition’ TH!NK3’. This blogging competition, set up by the European Journalism Centre, will...

By Wouter Dijkstra on 03/17/10 1

(Re)organizing NGOs: An Open Information System

Projeto Alavanca is one of the many NGOs in Brazil that aim at social and digital inclusion of underprivileged people. What distinguishes them from other organizations is their current project; the development of a set of web-based applications that...

By ellen sluis on 03/07/10 2

Mapping politics through art. Is it effective?

When the french philosopher Alain Badiou presented his essay “Fifteen Thesis on Contemporary Art” published in 2004, he took an artwork by Mark Lombardi, as an illustration of his talk. This artwork was a map. It was more exactly...

By Susana Zaragoza on 10/31/09 Comments Off

New Media Protocols and the Artist (Rasing his Voice?)

In my research paper – which I will be writing the next two months, I want to deepen the discussion around new media art and its relation to political and social engagement. While net.art has always taken a very...

By Marta Colpani on 10/24/09 Comments Off

One Laptop Per Child; Is That Enough?

Isn’t it ironic that we’re trying to reduce the digital inequality and poverty with ICT, while it is the ICT that caused and augments this digital divide? We’re using technology to solve the problems it has caused…

By ellen sluis on 10/13/09 Comments Off

How Can Artists Use Social Networks?

Artists and the Ontological Web “As an artist I find that social networking technology is ontological.” -Andres Manniste on Nettime, March 2008. As we use the web we construct a portrait of ourselves over time: what sites we return to,...

By Morgan Currie on 09/28/09 3

Digital activism: using social media to change to world

Online social media nowadays seem like perfect tools for initiating social change in the world. Anyone with a certain goal in mind can reach large groups of individuals, spread awareness, raise a fund and get people to feel involved....

By Marc Stumpel on 09/26/09 1