I would first like to discuss memes. Memes exhibit variability. Variability is when a certain object has basic elements to it, but the user can add their own flare or creativity to this object. In the case of memes, there is a basic format whether this be a specific image or the type of font used which everyone follows. Each user can however add their own saying to the meme. This makes it so their is a wide variety of sayings on the same meme. Automation can also be used to describe this. Automation is basically a website or other page generates a template and then you can add to that template. There are meme generators that give you the basic meme and the correct font, all you do is type in what words you want to put on it.
Videos show the principle of viralness. When something goes viral, it becomes extremely popular and many people are sharing the item with others. This chain of sharing continues until eventually it dies out. Youtube videos are a great example because they become popular then many people share them on Facebook or other social media sites. This chain continues until the video loses it's popularity and just becomes a regular video. Videos also show variability. There can be several parody videos of the same show or movie, but they all have their own twist on the topic.
Fan art is a great way to illustrate the principle of art and the artist in digital culture. The idea of art and the artist has to do with how the image is rendered. Art can now be made with computer programs or edited with computer programs. Many images now are taken with digital cameras and edited on the computer. The other thing is that the artist and the art can be manipulated by someone else. People take images like a picture of the Fantastic Four and put their face on one of the characters. This changes the piece of the original art drastically. The art and the artist are changing all the time online. They do not always stay the same. Online fan art is represented by numerical representation. This means that the image is made up of code based on 0's and 1's.
Online memes, videos, and fan art are all examples of numerical representation and transcoding because they are made up of 0's and 1's.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Monday, November 3, 2014
Five for Figh--Zelda
My website will have five pages: intro, memes, music, fan-fiction, and Zelda video game walkthroughs.
I chose to include meme's because they are a classic example of digital media, and there are some excellent Zelda meme's that range from inside jokes only the Zelda nerds would know to more general true to life things that anyone could relate to. And they usually come in a humorous package which is most of the fun of memes.
Music may actually be my first page just because it is such an integral part of the Zelda games. Two of the most popular Zelda games are "Ocherina of Time" and "Twilight Princess" and while they are far from the only games in the Zelda series that use music they are two of the games where the music has become very well loved. so loved, in fact, that fans have taken the basic rhythms and tunes of the original songs and reworked them into techno, medleys, and more. Which I think is also a very good example of modularity because fans break down the original songs and rebuild then into something that's new, but still recognizable as a Zelda classic.
The next is fan-fiction. This one is one I'm still on the line about. It does show how gripping Zelda is to its fans because they like it enough that they want to write in it and share that writing. And I think fan-fiction fits into new media principles under the idea of transcoding. Although fan-fiction is not the only aspect to this, I believe fan-fiction is one of the things that highlights the cultural layer of Zelda, while the video games stay mostly on a computer layer. The game itself is man vs. computer and- unless you're playing Link in Super Smash Bros- doesn't really pull in a community on its own. It's not until you start getting things like fan-fiction and memes, etc, that a community starts to be built around a common interest, in this case Zelda.
The last is Zelda video game walkthroughs. This was also a topic I was kind of on the line about. However, I've chosen to include them because they are an integral part of the Zelda video game. There are written walkthroughs for when you get stuck or just want to find extras like heart pieces. There are also video walkthroughs that, in a weird way, kind of tie into automation. In automation, a ground work is laid and things are set up so that the human can intentionally be removed. With Zelda walkthroughs someone will record themselves playing the game and post it on the internet. After they have laid this groundwork anyone who wants to "play" the game, but doesn't want to play the game can watch the game of their choice with the click of a button. Or, many buttons really cause an uncut walkthrough can rarely be done in one video.
Post #7: Website Pages
Besides the intro page, I intend to have pages for Music, Videos, Characters, and Artwork. The selection of these four topics was done carefully to focus on the fan-based production of the Dr. Who television series, which I feel most lends itself to many of the ideas discussed in the Manovich text.
The first section, music, was selected because the show relies heavily on a supportive soundtrack, largely consisting of character motifs. The way that a song (especially one without any lyrics) can be produced and marketed in such a way that it makes a connection with a character on screen is a very interesting aspect of the way that this show functions. The music, when made available to the fans, undergoes even more change, often it is remixed, added to, or simply performed in different ways. I think that most of the topics I have chosen could be associated with Manovich's discussion of viralness, but the ability to send out, in digital form (Numerical Representation) the music used for the show, creates a system by which the fans may edit and adjust it however they want to.
The second section, Videos, is meant to target the large amount of speculation, criticism, and reaction to the show in the form of home-made videos. The amount of such videos is extremely high, and range in quality, both of content and of production, from very good to terrible. Every season there is an uproar within the fan community surrounding the season finale, especially if it means that the main role, that of The Doctor, is going to be re-cast.
The third section, Character, is going to focus on the representation and development of each of the characters (or species in some cases) in the Dr. Who Universe. This section will include aspects of the way in which the character developments have changed in terms of the audience's reactions, as well as their development throughout the show. Major revisions or upgrades to the ideas of characters such as those common to the Doctor and his companions, but also such as the revisions to the Cybermen in Nightmare in Silver will make up a discussion of the changing nature of the content.
The fourth section, Artwork, will focus on the fan-made production of artistic content, including that which goes beyond the imagery of the show itself in order to provide a commentary or revision of some kind. This has been done, for example, in the form of depictions of romantic relationships that don't actually exist in the show, but which fans would like to see happen. In addition to the traditional forms of artwork, I would also like to address the issue of costumes that are developed for comic-con or cosplay events, as many of them are of good quality and an interesting nature.
The first section, music, was selected because the show relies heavily on a supportive soundtrack, largely consisting of character motifs. The way that a song (especially one without any lyrics) can be produced and marketed in such a way that it makes a connection with a character on screen is a very interesting aspect of the way that this show functions. The music, when made available to the fans, undergoes even more change, often it is remixed, added to, or simply performed in different ways. I think that most of the topics I have chosen could be associated with Manovich's discussion of viralness, but the ability to send out, in digital form (Numerical Representation) the music used for the show, creates a system by which the fans may edit and adjust it however they want to.
The second section, Videos, is meant to target the large amount of speculation, criticism, and reaction to the show in the form of home-made videos. The amount of such videos is extremely high, and range in quality, both of content and of production, from very good to terrible. Every season there is an uproar within the fan community surrounding the season finale, especially if it means that the main role, that of The Doctor, is going to be re-cast.
The third section, Character, is going to focus on the representation and development of each of the characters (or species in some cases) in the Dr. Who Universe. This section will include aspects of the way in which the character developments have changed in terms of the audience's reactions, as well as their development throughout the show. Major revisions or upgrades to the ideas of characters such as those common to the Doctor and his companions, but also such as the revisions to the Cybermen in Nightmare in Silver will make up a discussion of the changing nature of the content.
The fourth section, Artwork, will focus on the fan-made production of artistic content, including that which goes beyond the imagery of the show itself in order to provide a commentary or revision of some kind. This has been done, for example, in the form of depictions of romantic relationships that don't actually exist in the show, but which fans would like to see happen. In addition to the traditional forms of artwork, I would also like to address the issue of costumes that are developed for comic-con or cosplay events, as many of them are of good quality and an interesting nature.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
top ten zelda
Parody Videos
I was planning on finding some sort of Mean Girls parody video but I didn't search for it. I just typed in "Mean Girls" to YouTube and this is the first video that came up. It is a parody of Mean Girls and Disney Princesses. It was made for humor purposes.
There are a lot of different Mean Girls parodies online and all of them are used for humor purposes. I don't really know how you would make a Mean Girls parody and not have it be humorous...maybe I'll try to do that.
Fakewood Mac
The majority of videos I could find on Youtube for Fleetwood Mac were music videos or concert videos. Even when I searched Fleetwood Mac Fan videos the majority of them were still music videos that a fan had recorded. I finally searched Fleetwood Mac parody and was able to find several fan made videos. Parody videos are videos that are imitating the topic, often to poke fun at the topic. I think parody videos show a great knowledge of the topic. If someone is able to make an entire video imitating someone or something, they have to have great knowledge of that topic.
Most of the videos were using Fleetwood Mac's songs to sing about another topic such as "Glow Your Own Way" instead of "Go Your Own Way" and "Handslide" instead of "Landslide". These parody videos are using Fleetwood Mac to parody something else. In the video I found they are mocking an interview that Fleetwood Mac did. I found the video to be extremely funny, because the history of Fleetwood Mac is so full of drama. Having someone poke fun at it makes it seem less dramatic and more silly. It lightens a tense topic.
Blog #6: Youtube Videos
This video, and many others like it, were created by fans of the Dr. Who series with the announcement of the retirement of Matt Smith as The Doctor, there was a lot of speculation as to who it would be, and people were creating mash-ups, like this one, combining the work of actors who were suspected to play the part, such as Peter Capaldi, who did indeed play the roll, and combining them with clips, music, etc. While made by a fan, I still think that this is reasonably high quality, but I am not sure about the choice of music, which was obviously chosen to emphasize the rumors, propagated by the show's writers, that the new Doctor would be much darker than he had been in previous incarnations.
Most of the videos related to Dr. Who are mash-ups of content from the series, music, critique, or speculation. The fans certainly make up a community and are passionate about the show, but I am not sure that they actually influence the writers all that much.
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