Masters of Media

The (Dis)Appearance of Purpose

"The (Dis)appearance of Purpose” is dedicated to the significance of teleology in the study of human-computer behaviour by tracing the disappearance of the concept purpose. To demonstrate how we can think of purpose in order to understand our contemporary...

By Inge Ploum on 09/06/09 1

Nike: Just Do Digital

"We don't do advertising any more. We just do cool stuff," says Pestridge. "It sounds a bit wanky, but that's just the way it is. Advertising is all about achieving awareness, and we no longer need awareness. We need...

By Sisi Yu on 09/05/09 6

YouParticipate: the politics of YouTube’s flagging system

My thesis is about a seemingly small detail of YouTube’s interface, the ‘flag’ button. I got intrigued by this function because of the politics that are at play behind it, hence the title “YouPartipate: the politics of YouTube’s flagging...

By Minke Kampman on 09/04/09 4

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

Possibilities and threats for popstars in Web 2.0

Popstars have an economic function, like filmstars. They promise a performance. They are the profit makers of the entertainment industries. From an ideological point of view, popstars maintain a myth of meritocracy. The industries and the stars themselves want...

By Arno de Natris on 09/02/09 1

Locative Media as a Solution to the Crisis in Theatre

A crisis often foreshadows a shift or indicates a need for change. In the theatre’s case, the crisis is a reflection of undergoing changes in its form. Perhaps the general categorization of theater, performance and art needs to be...

By Cornelia Scripca on 09/02/09 1

What are the ‘Music Industries’?

The term ‘music industry’ is a misnomer. In reality the ‘music industry’ is not one industry, it is several independent industries. This is an important distinction because if we say that there is a “crisis in the music industry”...

By Chris Castiglione on 08/06/09 4

Negroponte’s OLPC, a Star in Rwanda

His mother, Jael paid for the laptop in February 2009, but Collin received it in April this year. Collins claims the whole student community at the school right from kindergarten to secondary school got each a laptop. Each pupil...

By Ali Balunywa on 07/30/09 Comments Off

What is a ‘blogger’?

The definition of a blogger is commonly given as “someone who maintains a blog”. Yet on many sites, including Wikipedia and Dictionary.com, ‘blogger’ does not have its own page, 'blogger' forwards to the page for ‘blog’. This week I...

By Chris Castiglione on 07/14/09 4

Blocked in Iran: Follow-up on Armenian Bloggers

Using the data and proxies from the Internet training workshop held at the Caucasus Institute, I did some additional checking and found http://www.havadaran.net/ and http://jomhoriyat.com/ also have been blocked, but accessible from Amsterdam. These URLs are found on the...

By Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff on 06/17/09 1

Armenian Bloggers Confirm Top Websites Blocked in Iran

During the Internet training workshop held at the Caucasus Institute, Yerevan, led by Prof. Richard Rogers of the University of Amsterdam, sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Cloob, MySpace, Twitter and the BBC were are confirmed to be blocked in...

By Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff on 06/17/09 5

Anatomical Analytics: up-to-date information on the human condition

Anatomical Analytics is a personal report detailing up-to-date information about an individual’s body condition. The project details a hypothetical design for an "innovative technology" that could exist in the...

By Chris Castiglione on 06/15/09 Comments Off

WEX Machine – W139

The WEX Machine, The W139 EXtender, is a mirroring portal extending the W to the WebWebWeb. It is a new website and permanent installation for W139, an Amsterdam-based exhibition and production space for contemporary art, by Roel Wouters and...

By Erik Borra on 06/06/09 1

The Monitor’s Systems Connectivity

Gladys Buteraba works at the Monitor as the Helpdesk Administrator. The Monitor is Uganda’s other second daily newspaper (www.monitor.co.ug). It is an independent daily founded by a group of journalists. Currently, it is owned by East Africa’s biggest media...

By Ali Balunywa on 06/04/09 Comments Off

Lev’s lecture (2)

Lev’s lecture (2) Lev Manovich’s lecture on May 17 in Paradiso, Amsterdam had at least one unmistakeable feature of a good lecture: it rose controversy. Already immediately after concluding his presentation, Lev was accused during the Q&A of endangering...

By Jan Simons on 05/30/09 2

Lecture Review: Lev Manovich, “Cultural Analytics,” Paradiso, 17 May 2009

Manovich's lecture was terrible in terms of both its preparation and its intellectual content. As a member of an audience, I find it disrespectful when a speaker - the keynote speaker no less - does not have a...

By Edward Shanken on 05/26/09 10

American Podcasting at New Vision

Rebecca Jane Harshbarger is an American journalist freelancing at the New Vision newspaper. The New Vision Group is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and...

By Ali Balunywa on 05/21/09 Comments Off

MA students present projects ‘Visualizing our World of Data’

Students from the MA New Media (UvA), MA Information Science (UvA) and MA Editorial Design (MaHKU) presented their interactive visualization projects at Crea. The Visualizing our World of Data program contained eight presentations (not all of them are described...

By Anne Helmond on 05/15/09 5

Chitchat with Vision’s Website Editor

Davis Weddi joined the New Vision in 1996 as a freelance journalist. His first story was placed on the front page of The New Vision on 1st April 1996. It was a fool’s day story of vampires attacking travellers...

By Ali Balunywa on 05/04/09 Comments Off

In Memoriam GeoCities (1994-2009)

Yahoo! will soon pull the plug on the once-famous GeoCities.com. The passing of this iconic Internet site is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, GeoCities (and its competitors like Tripod and Angelfire) were an important catalyst for the development of...

By on 05/03/09 4

join Hap-poken-ing020 next weekend!

Hi everyone! Hap-poken-ing020 is happening next Saturday (May 9th) at 13:00hr. I hope you all will be there! Still haven’t subscribed yet? please, go to here and sign-up. If you want to bring any friends, but they haven’t got...

By Bas Bisseling on 05/02/09 Comments Off

The New Vision Resource Centre and ICT

Godfrey Malime is the chief librarian at the New Vision. He joined the organization in 1992 as a trainee librarian. He went through the ranks to get to his current position. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in librarianship...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/29/09 Comments Off

Development Cooperation 2.0 with the 1%CLUB

Exciting new challenges and opportunities are emerging fast for organizations within the development cooperation sector. A paradigm shift is taking place in which web 2.0 concepts and technologies prove to play a vibrant and fruitful role in providing capacities...

By Kai Henriquez on 04/28/09 Comments Off

New Vision’s Vision Revealed

For the first time since travelled to Uganda for my research, I woke up with a purpose. I was invited to attend the editorial meeting at the New Vision Newspaper to meet all journalists. Editorial meetings take place every...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/27/09 1