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

ecoarttech: techno-art connecting people with nature

The New Media art partnership between Cary Peppermint and Leila Christine Nadir entitled ecoarttech aims to repurpose the use of common technologies (e.g. smartphones) with the intent of bringing global communities closer together, as well as local communities closer to,...

By Megan Phipps on 11/15/17 Comments Off

ArtPassport: How Virtual Reality Technology is Shaping Our Cultural Experiences

One of the most influential figures of our time, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” On the contrary, writer Evgeny Morozov believes that “Celebrating innovation for its own sake is...

By Prateeksha Bhatt on 09/25/17 Comments Off

A click away from giving up our autonomy? – A critical view on Amazon’s new Dash button

The alarm clock rings, you slowly make your way to the coffee machine since there is no other way of functioning at a time like that, but then realize you ran out of coffee yesterday. What a disaster! But...

By Mariessa Radermacher on 09/24/17 Comments Off

The Kakao Empire: The South Korean Example of a Digitalized Lifestyle

In South Korea, you can do everything with Kakao. You can send an ice cream cake to your friends, get updates about new mobile games, manage a bank account, call a taxi and much, much more. Although it may...

By Trisha Lee on 09/24/17 Comments Off

AI Algorithm as Personal Style Tracker

Design specifically with a GAN, to overcome fast-fashion and overconsumption What will happen when designers can exactly produce what consumers want and need? The generative adversarial network (GAN) founded by online shopping company Amazon can actually do this by...

By Vera Seegers on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Refugees Welcome: Network Hospitality with A Cause

Before the trending topic of current situation on the refugees crisis within Europe was gaining its media spotlight, a German-based group has invented a website named Refugees Welcome as response to the problem. The website aims to match the...

By Afra suci Ramadhon on 09/14/15 Comments Off

rMA Thesis Conference 2015: (pre)Cyberspace Perspectives on Information Technologies

The following is a modified transcript of my research presentation for the 2015 Research Master in Media Studies Thesis Conference. My thesis is an exploration of magical writing practices in contemporary digital culture. This was too much to talk...

By Rose Rowson on 05/05/15 Comments Off

Should we keep our emojis in check? Emojli doesn’t think so

On August 29th, London-based app developers Matt Gray and Tom Scott released an application that could possibly redefine the way we communicate through our digital devices forever: Emojli, a social network, where users can only communicate by using emoticons, or...

By Miles Zornig on 09/18/14 Comments Off

Instagram and Hyperlapse: Anticipated Memory

Social networks have a huge impact on how their users perceive their lives and what happens to them. Different networks influence different aspects of our lives, both social and cultural. Instagram, one of the most popular networks today, meant...

By Markéta Horázná on 09/16/14 Comments Off

(Digital) Media: Shaping human´s productive force

Social media marketing, crowdsourcing or the Long Tail – if somebody should tell how the Internet and associated digital media have changed economy, he/she would most likely describe their influence from a marketing perspective: digital media as means of...

By Danny Lämmerhirt on 09/09/14 1

The BB.Suit: Wearable Tech as Fashion’s New Playground

Borre Akkersdijk’s BB.Suit combines built-in technology with 3D printed fabrics offering an aesthetic approach to electronics that challenges the notion of wearable technology. This high tech jumpsuit is a collaboration between the University of Technology in Eindhoven, 22Tracks, CRISP,...

By Ivar Dusseljee on 09/08/14 Comments Off

We Are Here: Locating micro-social dynamics of mediation

We Are Here (Dutch: Wij Zijn Hier) sums about 220 refugees that are actively searching for security and shelter in Amsterdam on a daily basis. In their very first blog post, they have stated their core objective: We are...

By Ariadna Matamoros Fernandez on 10/09/13 Comments Off

Google Maps and Fukushima: Collective Memory and Data Visualization

As major world events unfold before our eyes at accelerated speeds, via a host of different medias how can we process these vast quantities of information? In the digital age, we consume news round-the-clock, whether we use smart phone...

By Susan Clandillon on 09/10/13 1

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...

By Katja Viarshynina on 09/10/13 Comments Off

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...

By Geoff Kim on 03/11/13 Comments Off

Spam books: How Amazon is selling you 35 Shades of Gray

Amazon’s Kindle has become somewhat of an industry leader for digital books or e-book consumption. With millions of digital books selling through the single platform reader as well as garnering a general mainstream acceptance, there is a growing concern...

By Geoff Kim on 03/04/13 Comments Off

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...

By Juliana Marques on 11/20/12 1

The experience of wirelessness: A short film

Up until a mere two decades ago, the possibility of receiving e-mail and checking status-updates on Facebook while being on the train, bus or even on the street might have seemed like a science fiction scenario. The Wireless-Fidelity makes...

By Sophie Waterloo on 10/31/12 Comments Off

School is Cool: iPad’s in classrooms

“It was absurd (…) that American classrooms were still based on teachers standing at a board and using textbooks. All books, learning materials, and assessments should be digital and interactive (…).” (Isaacson,2011, p. 264) This is a quote from...

By Jeroen Rademakers on 10/17/12 5

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...

By Massiel Sánchez on 09/10/12 1

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...

By Joseph Jackson on 09/10/12 Comments Off

Symposium “I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I Want To Be There”

A thunderous introduction by Film + Design called ‘Modern Worship’ shows a time-lapse video image of a dancing King of Pop impersonator in full glitterati, refracting the stage-lights in a multitude of sparkles and starbursts, while slo-mo moonwalking across...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 12/19/11 Comments Off

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...

By Autumn Hand on 11/01/11 Comments Off

The Cyber Cafe Is Dead. Long Live The Cyber Cafe!

In the Western world, cyber cafes are nearing the point of total extinction, but less protected as say, pandas. However, many seem to find a new lease on life in the various developing – soon to take over Total...

By Daniel de Zeeuw on 10/31/11 Comments Off