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AV Related Copyright/OCL Interactive Media

DIY culture

Nice summary of points from one of the speakers at a recent ICA event.

* The concepts of a ‘mainstream’ and an ‘underground’ are laid to rest by networked culture. There are only open and closed networks. Everything is flat.
* Top down control structures (like major labels) are unable to assure quality control in the same way bottom up structures can. In networked culture, quality bubbles up from the bottom, and the role of large entities (like major record labels) as arbiters of taste is undermined as a result.
* Collaborative filtering in trust-based networks is the way in which networked culture will deal with information overload.
* The printed press’ hallowed notion of ‘genre’ is under threat through the processes of user-generated metadata that describe Folksonomy.
* The concept of DIY is less relevant to networked youth culture today as it was when we grew up (with movements like Hardcore). DIT – Do It Together – which finds it’s roots in the Open Source movement’s model of production, is a far more relevant paradigm today.
* Bit-torrent is currently the most powerful distribution technology thrown up by the web.
* DIY culture was always about control, from production through distribution, performance and promotion of cultural product. It enabled people to have control over the end-to-end process of communicating through cultural products. A network of trusted people could be used to oversee all aspects of production/distribution/retail.
* DRM – Digital Rights Management – is a survivalist legal attempt from a desperate culture industry to preserve a revenue model (content ownership) which is at odds with a new medium for culture (digital networks).
* The new revenue model for cultural content in digital networks involves syndication of content with embedded, trackable advertising.

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General Interactive Media

Excel Drum Machine

A drum machine that runs in . . . . . Excel.

Yes, Microsoft Excel.

Download the ZIP, put the DLL in the /WINDOWS directory, grab the drum samples. Then rock on.

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AV Related General Interactive Media

Kusama’s world of dots – qag

This is so simple but good!

Interactive for Kids!
Coinciding with ‘Made for this World’, the Gallery launches an online interactive based on exhibiting artist Yayoi Kusama’s fascination with dots. Click to play!

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AV Related General Interactive Media

TV Art – Misbehaving TVs!

Check this great art project.

OiTV is a television set that occasionally misbehaves. Sometimes it autonomously changes the channels, other times it moves or rotates the image out of its screen. Glitches and lapses in time occur as much as playback of the live broadcasted content being slowed down, fast forwarded or rewind.

How do you treat a domestic object that doesn’t quite do what you want it to do? Does adjusting the antenna help, or possibly moving or tilting the object? Is hitting the TV in good old-fashioned manner the way to go or do you rather stroke it gently?

OiTV explores user behaviours outside the realm of prescriptive manuals. It does not fulfil the common aspiration for the perfectly working product / technology. Its erroneous and comical behaviour rather tempts you to build up a more individual and possibly even affectionate relationship with a domestic object charged with character and attitude.

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General Interactive Media

Buliding a multimedia site

Interesting story on some journalism students helping to build a historical multimedia website experience.

Categories
AV Related Copyright/OCL Interactive Media

The New Laws Of Television

This article is essential reading.

Broadcasting is facing a threat that’s not economic – it’s attention-based. Those giant networks are providing a media experience which is personal and immediate, something a broadcaster can never offer. They’ll change the face of television as well.

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AV Related General Interactive Media Mobile

New Samsung video player

Plays . . . . AND records !

The new Samsung YM-PD1

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AV Related General Interactive Media Mobile

More on the video ipod

The new video iPod is looking less and less exciting. Especially when compared to the PSP.

From the ilounge review

Is there any video bummer? Well, the big one on the hardware front is playback time. The 30GB iPod runs for only 2 hours, says Apple, when playing back video. And the 60GB iPod runs for 3. That’s considerably short of both the PSP and Zen Vision, which run for 4-6 hours – and both include replaceable batteries. Yet again, Apple dropped the ball on including that – apparently the most frequently requested iPod feature – and because of its video functionality, that’s now a considerably more relevant omission. Given that the prior iPod drains additional battery life when outputting to a TV screen, it remains to be seen whether a 30GB iPod can even last long enough without a wall charger to show a complete movie on a TV – and pity, now there’s no charger in the box.

And on those pay-for video files from iTunes (of course, NOT yet in Australia)

The other big issue is Fairplay, Apple’s digital rights management software. Fairplay permits you to transfer the videos to five devices, but not to burn them on CDs or DVDs. In two words, that sucks. Given a choice between a $38.99 box set of DVDs from Amazon or a $34.99 download of low-resolution, unburnable video clips, we’d take the DVDs any day of the week. Getting them on to the iPod might not be easy, but frankly, if we’re going to cough up that sort of cash for TV shows, we want better quality and better usage rights than that.

Still, they point out

Regardless of any review the new iPod receives, we’re convinced that Apple has a no-brainer solution for its customers: in every way except battery life and the absent wall charger, you get more this year than you did last year, and even if you didn’t think you wanted one, you’ll now have a hard disk-equipped video player for the cost of last year’s music player – or the cost of a Sony PSP with only 1GB of flash memory. The 30GB iPod is $100 cheaper than the 30GB Zen Vision, too. Unless a competitor can come up with a radically improved device, there’s no question that Apple will have the most popular – not most powerful – video player around by this time next year.

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General Interactive Media

Printable Scrabble!

This is very cool . . . . and rather silly. Print your own Scrabble set.

Categories
General Interactive Media Mobile

4gb harddrive for PSPs

Check this.

4gb harddrive for the PSP that is powered off its own battery source