Masters of Media

Question time: which of your problems should Google solve?

Personalized advertisments are not enough. Google boss Eric Schmidt says, “Google is not at all done with your information problems. There are many, many examples of where it would be nice if Google had more of an ability to...

By Michael Stevenson on 06/21/07 4

Interactivity, Government and Affect

Partly in response to that stumper from a while back, ‘What’s a blog?’, this is another: What is interactivity? I’ll start with the top result from a “define: interactivity” google query: If your Web site is not interactive, it’s...

By Michael Stevenson on 06/16/07 8

Eric McLuhan- An invitation to the dance…

I received this message from dr Eric McLuhan: Dear Miss van der Klink, I have just returned from speaking at a convention in Mexico City. The students at the university there became somewhat excited about some work of mine...

By Heleen on 06/15/07 Comments Off

What is your network called? Or: a religious wireless network war?

I recently worked at a friend’s house and I was trying to connect to their wireless networked called “GORGONZOLA.” I thought that was a pretty funny name until I noticed the names some neighbors had given their networks. One...

By Anne Helmond on 06/15/07 7

Visualizing Genealogies of Philosophy

I remember feeling completely lost in my first-year philosophy course – the feeling never really goes away – and wanting some kind of map of the territory or overview . This tool maps philosophers’ influences, and while users can’t...

By Michael Stevenson on 06/13/07 3

Streetview Aesthetics?

In 1965, Ed Ruscha photographed Every Building on the Sunset Strip, in a way that may sound familiar to those following the Google Streetview release: Ed Ruscha took the photographs contained in this leporello with a motorized Nikon camera...

By Michael Stevenson on 06/11/07 6

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

I remember…: Telling stories about in-game experiences

As I was playing Zelda: A Link to the Past today on my SNES emulator, something struck me: I had an in-game deja-vu. A feeling as if I had been there before. My mind quickly tried to scan all...

By Twan Eikelenboom on 06/07/07 6

Masters of Media at Versgeperst

Twan did a great job presenting our blog at the first edition of Vers Geperst at Club 11 in Amsterdam. A New Media student from Utrecht from the audience contacted us afterwards to talk about the blog and New...

By Anne Helmond on 05/31/07 3

Illegal software allowed to be used for just cause?

On March 3rd 2005 Joseph Catterson, a British 44 year old man, was arrested in England because it was suspected he possessed child pornography on his computer. Previous to his arrest Catterson had removed all 1500 pornographic photographs and...

By Roman Tol on 05/30/07 9

Spamming in the city…

A while ago I found this flyer tied to my bike with a rubber band. First I was astonished, then it made me laugh. I have grown up in a small town in the Netherlands and of course quite...

By Heleen on 05/28/07 2

242 seconds of fame – “Vers geperst”

Graduate students Interactive Media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam are organizing Vers Geperst. Inspired by the concept Pecha Kucha, a presentation format for creative work originally devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa) in Tokyo...

By Esther Weltevrede on 05/22/07 Comments Off

Screencasts- a new method for game analysis?

At the moment I am writing a paper for the tutorial “current themes in new media”. In this paper I am analyzing whether Fraps, a real-time video/ screen capture software program, is an appropriate tool to use to collect...

By Heleen on 05/21/07 2

Wait – what’s a blog again?

In an ongoing discussion on a forum I got into a scuffle with a formidable opponent about what blogs exactly are. I tried parroting all that I had been taught in various classes during the BA and MA courses...

By Pepijn Uitterhoeve on 05/18/07 12

Fiona Raby Lecture Report: Designs for fragile personalities in anxious times

Room F201C of the University of Amsterdam’s Oudemanhuispoort building for an hour was the domain of Fiona Raby. She presented her ideas on design, which has close links to the design practice of Anthony Dunne, together they’re also known...

By Twan Eikelenboom on 05/11/07 1

The Great Global Warming Swindle?

So there’s a documentary by the British Channel Four which argues that human/CO2 caused Global Warming is a pile of steaming bollocks (smells better than excrement). It can grow to become a kind of counter-Inconvenient Truth, and contribute to...

By Pepijn Uitterhoeve on 05/09/07 1

Nurturing and death in Web 2.0

I thought I’d just try it, see what happens to myself when I don’t post for a while on my own blog. Although it isn’t that interesting for the readers of a blog, you should definitely try it. Because...

By Twan Eikelenboom on 05/08/07 1

Where do you live online?

(click map to enlarge) Lately I’ve been living mostly in the Flickr/Last FM area and on the Blogipelago but I am a vivid traveler. I have day passes to del.icio.us and Wikipedia and I always enjoy a good swim...

By Anne Helmond on 05/07/07 4

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

The Whatever Button – Now for Firefox!

No longer just a metaphor for how we consumers fall for anything, the Whatever Button is now available as a Firefox add-on (Great big thanks to Erik, who coded it). More about the button below.

By Michael Stevenson on 04/25/07 8

YouTube: If you can’t beat them, join them!

While Viacom is sueing YouTube for $1 Billion for “massive intentional copyright infringement” the Dutch public broadcasting company VPRO is embracing YouTube. After entering the Digital TV market it now sees YouTube as a new distribution channel. The VPRO...

By Anne Helmond on 04/20/07 Comments Off

Second Open-Search Workshop

For your info: What: Second Open-Search Workshop When: Saturday April 28, 2007, 13.00h CET, 11.00h GMT, 06.00h EST, 4.00h EET, 01.00h HST, 04.00h MSTDuration: official program will be 4 hours Where (physical): CREA, room 204, Turfdraagsterpad 17, 1012 XT...

By Anne Helmond on 04/18/07 Comments Off

Smart spam and stupid spam and stock spam? Spam spam spam!

I was originally going to write about smart spam but recent spam led me to write about stupid spam. Spammers are constantly improving their methods to get through spamfilters. They increasingly use random names and academic, computer and web...

By Anne Helmond on 04/17/07 5

Dutch slow to take to Firefox?

Firefox use in Europe is up to 24%, but use here in the Netherlands is at 14%. Anyone want to speculate why this is? Of the stereotypes I’m aware of, the one that best fits this figure is apparent...

By Michael Stevenson on 04/17/07 11