MADONNA R.I.P ?
Some thoughts on mock-up obituaries in view of the New Media Research Seminar’s start.
A fatal car accident. Thousands of cameras capturing the scene. Millions of mourning fans. Breaking news: Madonna has passed away.
Digital Comics: Not as Invincible as They Could Be
As a Toronto born comic book fan, I’ve probably visited my local comic book shop, Cyber City Comix, once a week for the last fifteen years. Every Wednesday I would go by and pick up the latest issues of...
Botting, Plotting and Multiboxing
A short entry on people botting, people plotting, bots multiboxing, and virtual goods adverts in games. Includes a MOVIE!
Advantages of having a ‘Second Life’ – a short essay on how MMO Games may change the World
What are MMO games? Massively Multiplayer Online games are a fresh genre to the gaming industry, as all of them require a strong and stable Internet connection. This particular branch of gaming is becoming more and more popular due...
Book Review: “Abstract Hacktivism” by Otto von Busch and Karl Palmås
Every social or cultural change in which we view the world is debatable. Everyone has his or her own opinions on how the world is perceived and which parts are important in that. That is fine, that is interesting,...
Book Review: Network Power – David Singh Grewal
Globalization is reintroduced to society in David Singh Grewal’s “Network Power”. A volume that contains so much information, it can easily be viewed as a contemporary globalization handbook. Grewal’s perspective is fresh and bold, albeit not empirically substantiated....
How do you like them Apples?
Apple is back from the dead. How does Apple try to get on top of Microsoft? How do they take this advertising war and how are they promoting... The reign of Justin Bieber
We’ve all seen him, heard him sing or heard the likes and dislikes of other people talking about him: Justin Bieber. Personally I am not really a fan: if you told me half a year ago that I would...
Lev Manovich: Studying Culture With Search Algorithms
New media theorist Lev Manovich summarized his latest contribution to the field of software studies: cultural analytics. Whereas traditional cultural analysis relies on real-world resources (human interpretation and physical storage), cultural analytics relies on the computer and search algorithms...
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,...
Book Report of ‘Ourspace – Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture’ by Christine Harold
This book really hit an personal snare with me, because I have been trying to avoid most commercial expressions by any medium for years now. I really regard it as an invasion of my privacy – I didn’t ask...
Lecture Review: Lev Manovich, “Cultural Analytics,” Paradiso, 17 May 2009
Manovich's lecture was terrible in terms of both its preparation and its intellectual content. As a member of an audience, I find it disrespectful when a speaker - the keynote speaker no less - does not have a...