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The Need to Communicate

The Need to Communicate

You don’t have to be a science buff to be familiar with the English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. His telltale robotic yet endearing speech quality can be recognized by anyone who is at least a little attuned with pop...
The Internet as a Culture of Equality and Opportunity

The Internet as a Culture of Equality and Opportunity

The digital revolution not only introduced new means of economics and power, but also introduced radical changes in the social aspects of life, acting as a catalyst for the emerging virtual world. We no longer can imagine our lives...
The Digitization of DJing: From Analog Vinyl Records to Time-code Systems and Video Plug-ins

The Digitization of DJing: From Analog Vinyl Records to Time-code Systems and Video Plug-ins

“The personal and social consequences of any medium -that is, of any extension of ourselves- result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology” (McLuhan, 1964, p.203)....
Remediation in Grand Theft Auto

Remediation in Grand Theft Auto

Remediation is definitely one of those well-known concepts that new media scholars can discuss about for hours. According to Bolter and Grusin, remediation is the representation of ‘old’ media in new media. Characteristics of television and radio, for instance,...
The Issues of Winning The Ecosystem War

The Issues of Winning The Ecosystem War

“WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A COLD WAR BETWEEN THE LARGEST TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES IN THE INDUSTRY*”, boldly states tech journalist Dieter Bohn in his overview of Apple’s, Google’s and Microsoft’s battling ecosystems . This “war” won’t be won...
Open Knowledge and Visual Information

Open Knowledge and Visual Information

Open knowledge takes root What exactly is at stake with the advent of open knowledge and widely shared information? Let’s take ourselves back just over a decade to a time in which information and especially creative information was being...
Digital Comics in the face of DRM

Digital Comics in the face of DRM

With the dominating presence of smartphone and tablet technologies within todays current market, it is clear to see why major comic book publishers have placed large amounts of focus and resources into the digital publishing frontier. Both interactive elements...

Web Aesthetics ‘book adaption’ on Facebook

By: Basri Hoogstrate, Jeroen Rademakers, Jules Mataly and Juliana Marques The Wild Card Symposium, part of our Master Degree at the University of Amsterdam gave us the occasion to read a book as a group, discuss it and came...
Second Chance Serendipity: Missed Connections on Craigslist

Second Chance Serendipity: Missed Connections on Craigslist

“Had I said anything at the time, it would have come out as a disorganized mix of the different things going through my mind. So, opting for ‘better to be thought of a fool than to open one’s mouth...
Do Not Disturb – Smartphone Etiquette

Do Not Disturb – Smartphone Etiquette

 We’ve all been there. That moment that you wake up, I’m sorry no – have a small panic attack, because your (social) network decides that three o’clock in the morning is the best moment for: emailing, telling you things...
When the audience becomes the hero…

When the audience becomes the hero…

Annette Mees on theater and transmedia Annette Mees is director and co-artistic director of Coney in England. By using various media she creates special plays in which the audience is the hero: “The experience starts when you first hear...
Memeification of the News

Memeification of the News

Internet memes (specifically image memes) have taken the role of a media format for civic journalism, ever evolving and reproducing cultural/political concerns which reflect our social condition. As an amalgamated entity, memes are constantly integrating themselves within social platforms...
Forgotten Realms: Revisiting the Classics

Forgotten Realms: Revisiting the Classics

The revisiting of favourite films and novels is a common practice, in fact for many, the notion of ‘re-reading the classics’ can be even more enjoyable and enlightening than their initial interpretation. Yet for gaming, which has always and...
NIMk: Yes, they’re still open!

NIMk: Yes, they’re still open!

Before closing its doors for good at the end of this year, the Netherlands Media Art Institute dedicates an exhibition to one of the key terms in online culture: openness. Getting lost is one of the annoying, yet inevitable...
Digital Activism, Revisited.

Digital Activism, Revisited.

At the end of March, 2012, I attended the Unlike Us conference, organized by the Institute of Network Cultures. What followed was a series of conferences and insightful discussions. Unlike Us brought together activists, academics, students whom all discussed...
TL;DR – Language Shifts in Social Media

TL;DR – Language Shifts in Social Media

A pedantic Semantic Introduction Media has shaped the language we use in conversation since the unprecedented invention of the printing press which allowed for the emergence of mass media. Content found in news feeds, published articles and gossip columns dictate...
Exit Through the Webshop

Exit Through the Webshop

The following is an interview with the founder of dutchdamage, Matthijs van der Meulen, currently head of the digital media department at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Q: How did Dutchdamage come into being? A: In 1996 I started taking...
On the Nature and Culture of Photography

On the Nature and Culture of Photography

The praxis and technology of photography has seen dramatic transformations over the last century. The most obvious transformations taking place in the last decade of the 20th century, marking the shift from analog to digital photography. Yet another shift...
Thanks For Sharing; Gratitude to Social Recommendation and Cool Friends

Thanks For Sharing; Gratitude to Social Recommendation and Cool Friends

“Knowledge sharing and creation is at the heart of innovation in all fields – science, art and business – and innovation is the driving force for wealth creation... Information can be transferred in great torrents, without any understanding or...
Do you remember the first time? Music and the rise of the ‘scented candle’

Do you remember the first time? Music and the rise of the ‘scented candle’

I grew up listening to Pulp. I vividly remember lying outside my older sisters’ bedroom as she played Different Class from her multi-CD changer Hi-Fi, while I pushed myself up against her door, devouring Jarvis’ every word. Outside, unbeknown...
SNS research proposal; Flickr

SNS research proposal; Flickr

Now that the use of social networking sites has become pervasive in our daily lives, the deluge of images floating around in the cloud is growing larger then ever. The Internet has moved from a mostly text-based medium to...
The Public Sphere, New Media and Politics

The Public Sphere, New Media and Politics

According to Metareporter, a student blog for BA-student Media en Culture about new media in newspapers, a lot of articles in Dutch traditional media are about new media subjects. The top 3 tags that are being used are:  Twitter,...

Downvoting god – atheist discourse and anonymity on social recommendation platforms

Introduction We are all witnessing, in the last few years, a new wave of secular thought permeating different spheres of society. As the mediatic discussion of religious fundamentalism is on the rise, its dialectic opposite also gains momentum, as...
“What are your religious beliefs?” – a question of if religion becomes public again in social networking

“What are your religious beliefs?” – a question of if religion becomes public again in social networking

Events of April 2011 sparked much controversy as the French government declared the public wearing of niqabs and burqas illegal for the first time. The response to this was defiance by many in France who define themselves as Muslim...