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

Is it cyborg o’clock yet?

This year has been exceptionally fruitful for the fans of wearable technology. Last week, we were introduced to a new child of the wearable technology era: the Apple Watch. On September 9, Apple revealed its own long-anticipated smartwatch –...

By Polina Boykova on 09/16/14 Comments Off

Understanding New Media – a quick overview

By exploring the intersection of computing science, humanities and visual and performing art, new media is exploring its own path towards a science status. If the new media is affecting the way society behaves, we should try to...

By Caio Domingues on 09/08/14 Comments Off

Social Network Abstinence

In this postmodern age, McLuhan‘s thoughts about medium as an extension of ourselves seems more and more accurate. However, if the medium is us and we are the medium, how we can detach from it? Nowadays, social media is one...

By Juliana Paiva on 10/04/11 2

Book Review: ‘Voice: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media’ by Norie Neumark, Ross Gibson and Theo van Leeuwen (Editors)

I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am trying to find my voice. (Maybe I should just steal it). “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” (Polonius’ advice Laertes...

By Liam Voice on 09/20/11 Comments Off

E = Media Combinations2: The survival of the fittest

Every old medium was once new. And when something gets old we’ve got to search for a way to give it its old glance back. The printed book was once a new medium. It was revolutionary, groundbreaking. But today...

By Chris Hoogeveen on 10/13/10 3

Augmented reality as the NEW marketing tool

The back cover of this weeks Grazia magazine shows a new add campaign of United Colors of Benetton. Readers are being encouraged to interact with Benetton by signing in for the casting for the new campaign. Costumers can become...

By Jorien De Wandeler on 09/13/10 2

McLuhan in Annie Hall

In light of this weeks readings, here’s a clip of McLuhan’s short cameo in Annie Hall. Whenever his writing might seem to be a bit too…self-indulgent, it’s good to remember the man had a sense of humor.

By Onur Yilmaz on 09/11/10 Comments Off

“I’ve had the best breakfast ever” – say it using 14, 140 and 1400 symbols

Phatic communication is a term first used by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski to describe a communicative gesture that does not inform or exchange any meaningful information or facts about the world. Its purpose is a social one, to express sociability...

By Hania Piotrowska on 10/10/09 Comments Off

Chasing Away Ghosts: a Review of Brian Rotman’s Becoming Beside Ourselves

Q: “In the Far North, where there is snow, all bears are white. New Land is in the Far North and there is always snow there. What color are the bears there?” A: “I don’t know; I’ve seen a...

By Morgan Currie on 09/14/09 1

24/7 Time and Temporality in the Network Society

Real time, cyber time, machine time, clock time, chronos time, frankentime, mythic time, objective time, natural time, subjective time, present time, timeless time, being time, bullet time, internet time, chronoscopic time, global standard time, local time…are you still there?...

By Paulien Dresscher on 09/17/07 Comments Off

LOL theorists

So I was browsing this fantastic cat picture site when I found delicious links to similar projects, such as this one on presidents and more importantly, this one on theorists. It features Deleuze, Foucault, even Henry Jenkins. He caught...

By Pepijn Uitterhoeve on 06/08/07 22

Marshall McLuhan on Televised Presidential Debates

So I was browsing around YouTube and stumbled upon this video of McLuhan on the Today Show: I think presidential debates are indeed exemplary of the adage “The Medium is the Message”. It’s refreshing to see media theory from...

By Pepijn Uitterhoeve on 05/05/07 1