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

Sciencemappr: Trying to unleash the hypertextual potential of the Web

Last week I already pointed out the amazing significance and potential of the Internet to organize, structure and index all knowledge gathered across the globe. Rather than an indirect library of indexes and references, the web is equipped with...

By Frank Molenaar on 05/04/11 Comments Off

Saskia Korsten’s Thesis Abstract Voted Among Top in LABS 2011

The Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) connected with the journal Leonardo) recently announced the results of its competition for top MA and PhD abstracts submitted to its English language database from scholars around the world. Korsten’s abstract for her thesis,...

By Edward Shanken on 08/18/11 Comments Off

Media art to teach the unaware people

My first blogpost on the Masters of Media blog should be about a topic I’m interested in., but that’s not as easy as it looks, because my interests are very wide spread. The reason why I’m following the master...

By Maarten Jansen on 09/15/11 Comments Off

Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Media So Different, So Appealing?

As any illustrator should be, I am obsessed by visual culture, art, design and media. The way contemporary creative conception and expression takes on new shapes and forms, catapulted through the fibre-optic network and available for all to consume,...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 09/15/11 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

Web 3.0: Against the Semantic Web

There seems to an awful lot of speculation about where the web as a whole is heading. Whereas it's possible to make predictions and regard the web as a homegenous entity, doesn't seem to be relevant. We like our...

By Eelke Hermens on 09/12/11 5

Book review: Peter Olsthoorn – De macht van Google

What does Google know from us? Since search engines are able to track the user’s search queries, personal information can be gathered in order to improve the engine’s accuracy and provide better results. In De macht van Google (The...

By Erik van Mastrigt on 09/17/11 Comments Off

Book review: Check in / check uit – Christian van ‘t Hof, Rinie van Est, Floortje Daemen

By Annet Bos on 09/18/11 2

The State of Digitisation

Picture “Basement Books” is taken by Vaguery and published under a CC-BY license The last decade, a tremendous effort has been made to make more cultural heritage data, both metadata as well as the actual content, digitally available for...

By Joris Pekel on 08/22/12 Comments Off

For the Love of Material!

Posthumanism, Protocol and Techno-Craft at Mediamatic’s Ignite Amsterdam 10 If androids dream of electric sheep, we posthumous dream of the Jetson family’s flying car. “Posthuman” because, as foreseen by early prostheses now as natural as eyeglass, human identity consciousness...

By Kendall Grady on 09/29/11 Comments Off

Free labor? An attempt to determine the value of user generated content – for the user

Writings on the value of user generated content tend to stress the (market) value users produce for companies such as Facebook by adding content, labeling these activities as "free labor". Assuming that there must also be something in it...

By Joep Hegger on 10/04/11 1

Adding emotional value to apps: Buurtwinkels

We all use apps for practical reasons; checking e-mail, messaging, checking train departure times and much more. These apps are down-to-earth practical; they don’t bring tears to my eyes or amaze me with flashy images or unbelievable content. But...

By Leonie Nijenmanting on 10/06/11 Comments Off

The Administrator

The administrator is the boss. He is the ruler of his community. He has the power to alter his site, remove content or ban specific users. Basically one could consider him as the autocrat, the despot of the community....

By Erik van Mastrigt on 10/05/11 4

App Review: AroundMe

Where is the next cinema? Are there any pubs and restaurants near by? Where can I find the nearest points of interest? With the help of an iPhone you can answer such questions yourself within seconds. GPS and permanent...

By Jesse Oyegbesan on 10/09/11 Comments Off

From Wikipedia’s Editing to See A Birth of A New Methodology

Abstract Wikipedia is a knowledge base, whose foundation is cooperation and sharing, and used for free in network. It has established its reputation as the largest encyclopedia ever, offering and ever-growing database of free knowledge for all Internet users....

By Duohuai Zhang on 10/11/11 2

Interview met Reinder Rustema: Nieuwe Media & Politiek

Voor veel studenten Nieuwe Media aan de UvA is Reinder Rustema geen onbekende. Naast het doceren aan de UvA is Rustema een oudgediende op het vlak van Nieuwe Media en politiek. Zo maakte hij ooit deel uit van De...

By Floris Spronk on 10/25/11 1

Interview with James Robinson: Mapping the World’s Signal

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blogpost about Open Signal Maps, an application for android that maps the world’s signal. I used the application myself for several days and it worked pretty fine and gave me better...

By Daan Fliervoet on 10/29/11 Comments Off

On Tumblr and News Curation: Interview with Ernie Smith from ShortFormBlog

It’s no news that Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing networks. Latest data from Quantcast indicate that it receives 410,180,736 visits every month, mostly young audiences with a desperate hunger for content and a strong community feel. This hybrid...

By Jacobo Corujeira on 10/31/11 Comments Off

Avaaz.org: Click for Change

These are harsh times. There’s an economical crisis and a climate crisis. There’s drought in the Horn of Africa and flooding in Thailand, chaos in Libya and war in Afghanistan, protests on Wall Street and censorship in China. If...

By Floris Spronk on 10/31/11 1

City Vibes Project – A heartbeat of the city based on its BPM

We choose our music to best fit our mood, our spirit or our activities. We use it to celebrate our victories, to soothe our pain or to give us energy when we are feeling down. This is why ensuring...

By Andrei Florian on 11/01/11 Comments Off

Exit Through the Webshop

The following is an interview with the founder of dutchdamage, Matthijs van der Meulen, currently head of the digital media department at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Q: How did Dutchdamage come into being? A: In 1996 I started taking...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 11/04/11 Comments Off

Is your boyfriend cheating on you? There’s an app for that too

With new smart phones and GPS tracking, it’s possible to find and locate the position of other smart phones and the human body that goes with it. But is this legal? Does privacy still exist? Japanese women apparently don’t...

By Wouter Timmermans on 11/03/11 62

Night of the Living Dead: Future Museum

An Evening with Facing Forward: Theorizing the Future This article is a co-creation by Autumn Hand, Juliana Paiva, Kendall Grady and Mario Gesteira. The five hundred forward-thinking individuals gathered for an inquiry into Future Museum were eager to pick...

By Mario Gesteira on 03/12/12 Comments Off

Participatory Media Art

This is a report of the session on participatory art held on February 28, 2012 from 9 to 11 AM in Amsterdam. The session was organised as part of a course called Critical Media Art, itself part of the...

By Renoud Netjes on 03/05/12 4