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

Hey Zuckerberg! You’re late!

One particular phenomenon I’ve always been very interested in is Virtual Reality (VR); a technology created in the 90s that places the user in an artificial environment generated by a computer. The goal of VR is to create a...

By Robert Silvis on 10/19/12 Comments Off

The virtuality debate

Media mention the term frequently: virtual. Think of virtual worlds (Second Life), gaming environments (World of Warcraft) or simply social network sites (Facebook). Those are places that don’t exist in a physical, touchable form, except from the hosting servers....

By Erik van Mastrigt on 09/15/11 1

Book Review: “What You See Is What You Feel” by Koert van Mensvoort

A fellow MoM’er already wrote a good review on the PhD thesis What You See Is What You Feel by Koert van Mensvoort. Read the MoM review here and download the full book here. I would like to give...

By Pim van Bree on 09/20/10 Comments Off

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

The Art of War in the Digital Age of Representation

An essay for New Media Theories which discusses some ideas considering the War Video game and its specific attributes along theories of militarization, ludification of culture and the megaspactacle.

By Rakesh Kanhai on 03/08/10 2

WAR GAMES

In the movie War Games (1983) Matthew Broderick wanted to hack a new computer game, in the process he accidently hacked the actual American defensive system. He engaged in global thermonuclear war in the process. While he’s playing a game the...

By Rakesh Kanhai on 10/18/09 Comments Off

Second Life meets FaceBook: Why do we like being part of a virtual community?

Even though Levy‘s writing style is not my favorite (and that is probably because I am getting used to the Dutch style, very to-the-point), I still can handle it (probably because, in the end, I’m Italian and his mother...

By Marta Colpani on 10/13/09 2

The Collision of Video & Print Media

I spent some time last year researching how proclaimed ‘internet television’ stations like Revision3 might or might not be remediating more traditional media like television. In other words; are they really doing something revolutionary or is it just plain-old...

By Joery Bruijntjes on 09/03/09 Comments Off

When virtual life mixes with real life

Sherry Turkle talks in ‘Video Games and Computer Holding Power’ (1984) about Jimmy, a fourteen year old. Jimmy isn’t gaming (with the game Space Invaders) and thinking of winning and losing. He wants to see how long he can...

By Arno de Natris on 11/15/08 Comments Off

Generation Geenstijl, or a Virtual Death Threat in Parliament

It's already old news (that's what I get for reading the Saturday paper on a Sunday) but I saw this article earlier: "Geenstijlgeneratie bedreigt erop los," which I'll embellish in translation as "Generation Geenstijl issues threats like there's...

By Michael Stevenson on 07/20/08 7