Masters of Media

Neural Networks: The Technology Behind FaceApp

There are countless photo editing apps available online, with dozens, if not hundreds, letting you change your face through the use of filters. So what is different about FaceApp? Well, this application does not use filters as we know...

By Andy on 09/24/17 Comments Off

The Future of Mass Surveillance Is Here (and We Are Excited About It)

On the 12th of September 2017 Apple announced the iPhone X, proclaiming that “the future is here”. According to the company the iPhone X contains multiple new technologies, one of which is Face ID. This new technology is described as...

By Yamila Bollen on 09/24/17 Comments Off

“What’s mine is yours”; sharing a wardrobe with strangers online with The Nu Wardrobe

Subletting a living space on Airbnb, sharing a car as mode of transportation with Blablacar or borrowing a stranger’s power drill for a couple of hours using Peerby has become a well-established and often used practice in 2017. Enter...

By Nora Lauff on 09/24/17 Comments Off

From Leiden to Livoberezhna:  How Memes of a Dutch Statue are Supporting Digital Activism in Ukraine

Introduction: Meeting the Awaiter As the old adage goes: “love makes you do strange things.” On August 18, love compelled me to cycle for over two hours in the sweltering and sweaty summer heat, from Amsterdam to Leiden University....

By Hayden Lutek on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Natural Cycles: Where pregnancy meets privacy

People use apps on a daily basis, or as Apple would say: “there is an app for that”. Apps are used for checking weather forecasts, reading the news and even finding – online – love. Nowadays, apps are even...

By Donna Wielinga on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Facial ID scanning: An advertisers’ dream, or a consumers’ nightmare?

A couple of weeks ago, a traveler noticed a camera in one of the digital advertising screens at a train station in the Netherlands. A photo of this ‘hidden’ camera was then posted on Twitter, questioning the purpose of these...

By Els Versluis on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Is Vidme the ‘NewTube’? Why video creators are changing sides and how they feel about it

A few weeks ago on September 9, video platform Vidme’s own channel uploaded their weekly episode of ‘This Week @ Vidme’ titled ‘German INVASION’. The video refers to a sudden and significant increase of German led channels on Vidme:...

By Frederike Lichtenstein on 09/24/17 Comments Off

What Apple’s new cookie blocker says about platforms and privacy

Apple’s new built-in cookie blocker may be welcomed by most consumers, but what does it say about the power yielded by the company, which maintains vast amounts of data on its own users? If platforms are allowed to make...

By Liam Corcoran on 09/24/17 Comments Off

“Clue”: Are period tracking apps reinforcing gender norms?

About 9 months ago a close friend introduced me to ”Clue”, a mobile application she claimed to have changed her life. It is a menstrual cycle tracking app that allows you to follow your periods, ovulation and other aspects...

By Yarden Skop on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Silicone Robotic Mask: Making Computed Emotions Physical

An important aid in computing our emotions since the digital revolution is the use of emoticons. But our emotions could be captured and communicated better, by moving away from mimicking facial expressions to having roots in real physical functions....

By Nena Snoeren on 09/24/17 Comments Off

‘M’ Assistant – a New Territory For Advertising

‘M’ is an Artificial Intelligent virtual assistant inside Messenger which aims to be helpful to its users when appropriate. M Assistant analyzes their normal conversation on Messenger and pops up to suggest one of the features within the app...

By Gergana Ivanova on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Painting your password on your face: Apple´s new Face ID and its implications on the security of its users.

On the 12th of September, Apple launched their new flagship model, the iPhone X. As usual, it was either met with oohs and aahs, or it was met with cynicism. This article will not focus on the price, design...

By Jimi Cornelisse on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Managing the ‘self’: your DNA online

How to explore your inner self? You could go to a retreat in Thailand. You could ask your mother about your childhood. Or you could upload your DNA online. Awakens’ Genomic Explorer allows you to dissect your genetics by...

By Linda V. on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Goalpost in the Ozone: The Deceptively Good Intentions of #Climate

As far as scientific consensus goes, it’s tempting to label the ‘debate’ around climate change as being over. However, to do so invites complacency, a willingness to delegate responsibility to a far-off unknown authority. News organisations, politicians and activists...

By David Molloy on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Remediate The Clock: The Shift from Time to Space

Another clock? Despite its name, the Eta Clock isn’t really a clock. Well, it is shaped like a traditional clock- a rectangular piece of wood that nowadays we can probably just see in old movies- and uses clock hands...

By Giovanni Scala on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Uncredited Cruelty: Examining Anonymity’s Role in Cyber-bullying

Many platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google thrive on both the business and social models that accountability is important. From a business aspect, the data becomes more valuable if they can identify exactly who you are. From a...

By Whitney Koontz on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Authenticating Authenticity: Entrupy’s Use of Crowdsourcing and Data Mining to Authenticating Designer Bags

Alibaba’s Jack Ma caused quite the stir in 2016 when he noted that, “The problem is the fake products today are of better quality and better price than the real names… They are exactly the same factories, exactly the...

By Krista Agbayani on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Shiver Me Timbers: Did Streaming Inadvertently Pave the Way For a New Kind of Piracy?

Some time in the mid-2000s, the popular peer-to-peer downloading program E-mule once made me wait for a whole year to download the discography of an Irish blues musician – a hefty file in .rar format, which was owned by...

By Ayse B. Tosun on 09/23/17 Comments Off

ReplyASAP: A Quick Fix for Ignored Parents

It comes without question that having a mobile phone as a child or a teenager is essentially a must in today’s society. Many reasons could apply to answering why, from playing games, sending funny Snapchat videos to their friends...

By Maria Palaidou on 09/23/17 Comments Off

iPhone X: The end of privacy?

“The future is here” is a bold statement to make, but it’s one that Apple uses on their website to introduce their latest smartphone offering. The apocalyptically named ‘iPhone X’. It was unveiled this month to a fanfare of...

By Steven Ecott on 09/23/17 Comments Off

Project KOVR: the Anti-Surveillance Coat that Protects Online Privacy in the Real World

From the 22nd to the 30th of October it was Dutch Design Week (DDW) in Eindhoven, a week wherein hundreds of new design projects are shown to the public. A lot of emergent projects can be found in Eindhoven...

By Lisanne Blomberg on 12/01/16 Comments Off

Call for Applications – MA in New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam 2017-2018

One-year and two-year international Master’s programs in New Media available: MA Media Studies: New Media and Digital Culture (one year, full time) Research MA Media Studies: New Media and Digital Culture (two years, full time) MA New Media and...

By Anne Helmond on 11/14/16 Comments Off

Who owns the playground?: Urban gamification and spatial politics in Pokémon GO

“Sydney park destroyed as thousands of Pokémon Go players descend” wrote Irish news website TheJournal.ie on the first of August. This is just one example of a situation wherein Niantic’s popular augmented reality game Pokémon GO puts a considerable...

By Stefani Mans on 11/14/16 Comments Off

In The Filter Bubble: How algorithms customize our access to information

‘Mark Zuckerberg promises to do more about the circulation of fake news on Facebook’ Dutch news website nu.nl said on 13 November 2016. This isn’t the first time Facebook has been criticized lately. The social media network has been...

By Stefani Mans on 11/13/16 Comments Off