DTC 355 past and potential projects

I really like the simple layout of the Dove project. The alignment/sequence of pictures and text really make it clear what the site is about. The instructional text is clearly separated from others ensuring that the viewer knows how to use the site. I like that pictures of the different webtexts are used as the links. Much more interesting and cleaner than naming all of them separately.

My only criticism is that the text on the front page is a little too low. I think the large dove logo in the middle is unnecessary especially because it's already in a link just above it.

           

I think this site is very clever given the topic. They made a web comic analyzing web comics...mind blown. The way the character is telling us about the project is almost like a presentation. Also, not having too much text on the first page is good because the comic immediately attracts the viewer and makes them want to click to the next page.

One problem may be the amount and size of the text in the captions. I understand that it's a project so there has to be a lot of text but maybe space it out a bit more. Or maybe allow the user to click on the bubble and the text appears larger on the screen.

            

The last link didn't work for me :/ I'll add it to this post later if it gets fixed!

           

I want my first page to be relatively simple without any major text. A background picture of a person performing Hamlet holding a marijuana leaf instead of a skull is going to be the primary visual. The only text will be a title to give the viewer a clue what the website is about. Something along the lines of "To blaze, or not to blaze... what both sides are doing to win your vote!" Pictures along the right hand side are going to be the links to other pages and a small home, contact, etc. bar will be located at the bottom. Links to the anti-pot sites will reflect their views or maybe sample thumbnails from their sites. The pro-pot websites will get a similar treatment. 

At the moment I'm not sure if I want to dedicate a page to each text or organize them by similarities, differences, success vs failures, etc. I figure that will become apparent through the research. 

DTC 356- WSU regulations

Fair Use. Such a simple idea that is incredibly hard to define. We have our four rules:

1 The purpose of the use (commercial versus educational),

2 The nature of the work (imaginative or entertaining versus factual or reportorial),

3 The amount and substantiality of the portion used (most of the work or the heart of the work versus a small portion of it), and

4 The effect on the market (is the creator losing a potential audience versus is the creator gaining a potential audience).

but even with these guides, many works are increasingly hard to define. At the university level this becomes more muddled because most work begins as educational but many then go on to serve more purposes. The University has rights to certain levels of regulations. If they want to block websites that allow downloading that's fine because they provide free internet. Anyone using this should have to respect their rules because other options are available. If you can't handle the restrictions, McDonalds also gives free wifi without any regulations. Also, it could be said that WSU is simply trying to protect themselves from ending up like the young man Lessig mentioned. These standards are fine. The most interesting relationship is between professors and their students.

 Alex Jarvis described himself as a 'Voluntarist' meaning that human actions should be voluntary. I think that this philosophy should be applied to work created by students and professors. By Lessig's, (and the law's), definition anything I create in a fixed form is mine. If I create a blog and use it to respond to questions from class, I have copyrights to those words. Now if a professor wants to use some of this writing as an example, should he have to ask my permission? I think this would depend on the use. Most of the time I think students should grant someone like a professor fair use. If they are using it to further the education system that a student is already a part of, then it should be free. Quotes from work, screen shots of a blog, etc. Attribution should be required but no monetary compensation. People should allow educational works to enhance further educational works. However, when the Professor makes money from a textbook he wrote using some work from his students, what happens then? Again, if he quotes a student and references their work, then it should be ok. If he takes an idea from the student's intellectual property and then writes and entire chapter based on that idea, then maybe the student should receive compensation.

           

We will always have copyright laws. They are unavoidable and so in that regards we need more regulation but the right kind of regulation. There are so many types of intellectual property and the uses differ even greater and the law needs to account for these subtleties. We should stay away from large general policies and focus on defining what situations are considered stealing. As a culture we should decide to what extent sharing/borrowing/stealing ideas should be allowed.

Side note:

A general "Don't be a dick" policy would be fantastic. People are getting too worked up about laws and retribution and they are failing to simply work together as a society. Hopefully a younger generation, built on piracy, will have better attitudes towards copyrights as they age and enter the professional market. I don't think anyone who has ever pirated a song or movie could be a jerk towards someone borrowing from them.

DTC 356 Copyright Criminals

Technology advances and so do we. So do our laws. However, we are at a stage where our copyright laws have not yet caught up with the evolution of our culture. We have a culture that is ready to create, ready to invent new things but often this means borrowing or sampling from other works. The problem isn't our culture's ability to create, it's the ability to create and actually not get sued once something is completed. Lessig mentions "Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you couldn’t easily do them legally" (105).

            In the past few chapters Lessig has illustrated several problems with copyrights' duration and scope. The duration has increased repeatedly until now where many copyrights will outlive the generation that made the work famous. I think the problem isn't the duration of copyright as much as it is the scope. Lessigs states his main purpose for this book "My claim is that the Internet should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of copyright automatically applies,17 because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright law" (140). I believe this point is shared by the video Copyright Criminals. It is what people and companies are doing with their copyrights.

            The biggest argument for sampling is that it is part of our culture. Lessig gives endless references to big name companies that demonstrated this creative thievery (most notably Disney), although these same companies will allow no one to use the same practices. Lessig notes "Every e-mail, every note to your spouse, every doodle, every creative act that’s reduced to a tangible form—all of this is automatically copyrighted." It struck me that technology is actually restricting the creativity of people as much as it is enabling them to create. The problem is that work that is essentially irrelevant in today's culture can be reused easily using technology. However, the original artist can then sue someone even though their work would ahve never resurfaced. Lessig comments that the average life span of creative work is just a couple of years. The law should be able to reflect relevant works differently than those would never make a comeback on their own. 

            Stealing and sampling without attribution is more or less wrong and most people can agree that the original artist should receive some sort of compensation. However, this doesn't mean a company should have the right to sue a teenager for hundreds of millions of dollars. Why not a one time fee, decided by the courts in order to use a sample. 1% of sales or whatever then the more samples you use, the less you make but everything is legal. And then it won't cost too much when you don't have any money. As you make more, you are able to pay your 'inspirations' more. Also, a person should only have to pay once his work results in X amount of dollars made. I'm sure people have thought of a similar solution (and probably much better ones), but why hasn't anything been done yet? As a society we need to recognize these issues and solve them as a culture with laws that reflect our culture's practices. The most striking line from the movie is that it was cheaper to cover an entire song than sample three seconds of it. Seriously? How is America ok with policies such as this?

DTC 355 post4- Project Proposal

For project 2, I will analyze online texts of organizations and individuals that have opposing views on the legalization of marijuana. It will be interesting to see how each side will construct arguments that are meant to have contrasting effects on their audience. Although, the goal of both is to acquire your vote.

Most of the texts that support marijuana reform hold onto a green theme, obviously trying to link their words to the product they are pushing for. They feature navigation bars with similar links such as: facts, organize, legal, state info, etc. The organization run sites lean towards professional rhetoric, speaking directly about legal issues, and failures of the government. Blogs take more liberty and attempt to entertain by demonizing the DEA while promoting the benefits of marijuana.

Texts that are against the legalization of marijuana are harder to find given that their target audience has already heard most of the reasons to keep weed illegal.  The reform sites, I believe, are targeted at a younger, more digitally literate group and the sites are endless. Sites against marijuana have a common theme as well: Marijuana destroys families. It is impossible to find green, unless there is a red X over it, and the rhetoric is exclusively targeted at parents and grandparents. They indicate how the reform is targeting teens but they fail target anyone in the younger demographics.

It will be interesting to see which arguments come across most successfully when accounting for the target audience. What will work on teenagers is likely to be the opposite of what convinces parents to vote for.

Organizations Against Marijuana

http://www.marijuanaharmsfamilies.com/ -a project of SaveCalifornia.com

http://www.calmca.org/ -Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana

Organizations for Marijuana Reform

http://justsaynow.firedoglake.com/2012/09/14/2012-historic-year-for-marijuana-reform-on-the-ballot/ 

-Just Say Now

http://norml.org/ -Working to reform marijuana laws

http://www.drugpolicy.org/node/3480 -we are the Drug Policy Alliance

http://www.regulatemarijuana.org/about -Campaign to regulate marijuana like alcohol

Relevant blogs

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stopmarijuana/ -petition to stop legalization

http://www.theweedblog.com/former-dea-leaders-ask-holder-to-stop-state-marijuana-reform-initiatives/ -marijuana news and info

http://sensiblewashington.org/blog/ - help legalize in washington

DTC 356 is it piracy?

For my FA 332 class last spring, we were instructed to recreate an old painting. Something done by a master of his/her field, that exemplifies the themes that consist of a specific genre of art. I chose "The Guitar" by Juan Gris, a cubist painter from the same era as Picasso. I created an image in Photoshop that was supposed to be a modern, digital interpretation of his work. It features elements of guitars, an attempt at cubist perspectives, and certain colors that were obviously sampled from the original work.  Assuming that Juan's painting was made in recent times, I certainly sampled some content from his painting; did I pirate the idea from his work? Do I owe the original composer money?

            As Lessig mentions in Free Culture, the word "piracy" isn't well defined and encompasses much more than it should. It is hard to draw the line between inspiration and copying techniques. If Samsung's devices operate the same code as Apple to create the touch screen actions, then maybe they are copying and benefitting from it. If they saw an Apple phone, thought that it was a cool idea, and use the same commands to operate their phones one could argue that they were inspired.

            Companies need to take a step back and think about what is really hurting them. Lessig mentions "We may have been born a pirate nation, but we will not allow any other nation to have a similar childhood" (63). He indicates that our country has getting carried away with our piracy concerns. If a phone company takes the idea of pinching to make pictures smaller on the phone, is that the same as me taking the various techniques used by cubists and repurposing them? The devices interfaces looks different, most of the navigation is different, but an action by the user is the same. There are a few elements that resemble one another, although the end product is considerably different.

            Following the logic of the big corporations, does their new law suit mean that Apple is paying someone for the right to make a qwerty keyboard? Surely someone designed it and everyone else likes to use it. Apple's keyboard may not be the same font, size, or contain every button that was on the original keyboard but their users navigate it all the same. Who was the first to make a laptop where the screen folds up? I don't think they sued everyone from then on the claims that "we patented folding technology".

            Brands have been imitating others for centuries. Most artists have drawn inspiration from a wide variety of works before them. Apple may claim that Samsung stole their ideas but they didn't steal their property in a physical sense. As Lessig explains "The difference is, of course, that when you take a book from Barnes &Noble, it has one less book to sell. By contrast, when you take an MP3 from a computer network, there is not one less CD that can be sold" (64). Apple can still sell their product. They can continue to use the pinch and other touch screen actions to help their users navigate the phone. I doubt that anyone purchased a Samsung phone just so they could pinch a picture and make it smaller.

DTC 356 and Futurama (super-relevant to todays class discussion)

I was watching Futurama today and the professor agrees with our class.
Its on netflix Volume 5: Ep 8 That Darn Katz!    18:30 in

DTC 356 Blog 2 Information at our fingertips

Vannevar Bush was a true visionary and in his essay "As We May Think" he describes many technological process that have come to pass and are still in use today. He was able to think about how information needs to be used and collected. The department store analogy on pg 9 was the best one for me. I take for granted everything that happens at the push of a button. Now people can just swipe a card with a smart-phone. I never really thought about how many things are included on my card. Name, dob, expiration date, account number, security number, bank name and it can also reveal my balance, transmit info directly to my account, and give the clerk all the above info in an instant. wow.

He also describes the "Memex," and advanced workstation where people will be able to bring up past documents with a button and bring them up on a screen. The process he describes is no different than scanning and image into a computer and storing it on a hard drive. He then talks about the way colleagues can share this information with one another by calling it up with a button.

He can think of all the way information is used and stored but he still doesn't come up with a reliable way to call upon that information. He states that "the human mind operates by association, everything doesn't necessarily have one correct place or path" (9). While the memex provides a way to call something by name, it doesn't solve the issue of association.

I think that today we are coming closer to being able to search by emotion or idea rather than key terms. Modern examples include Pandora radio, it doesn't just play music from a genre, it works off the song before it and responds to your 'likes' and 'dislikes'. There are countless playlists on youtube that have been compiled to form list such as "relaxing study mix." The playlist may have rock, trance, instrumental, etc, because they appeal to a certain emotion or action. This may not help find a scholarly article but it's a start.

In order to perfect the act of searching for information, we need to rely on humans all over the world reading and responding to information. Like the playlists and blogs, the internet has enabled everyone to become a critic. We can log in and potentially write a review for every product we own, every book we've read, and every movie we've ever watched. I use the website RottenTomatoes every time before I go to the theatre. They give separate ratings based on the critics and users opinions. I am able to read comments and see exactly what people thought about while watching it. Furthermore, people make references to other movies and lead me down that path as well. One could argue that I have found a majority of my favorite movies through association like this. With people writing about how they feel and descriptions beyond mere summary, we are closer to being able to search simply based on emotions and associations.

In the age of technology, our information can only be harnessed by cooperating with other humans. Our social networks are growing and the number of people online is astonishing. Collaborating through these networks will be essential in utilizing the information we have at our fingertips.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l592XptAI-w

DTC_355_VisualComposition

Emphasis

1. Due to the nature of the stop motion, the first thing I see is what the author is writing. The other things in the image, laptop, phone, scissors, etc, are static and don't distract too much from  the writing. The method of crossing out the previous definition definitely makes you understand the purpose of the video however, it's very hard to see. If the author intended this, and wants the audience to watch the rest of the video to figure it out, then I believe the technique was effective. Otherwise, I would have made all of the text a little bit bigger, especially do to the scribbley handwriting. 

2. The stillness ensures that nothing distracts from the current image. The audience isn't following her hand or looking at her head. The stillness makes the image feel complete. The audience is no longer waiting for a final product but now can evaluate exactly what they see. 

3. The sound gives the video a sense of urgency. Action is taking place. The music may emphasize these emotions but I didn't think  it emphasized and specific part of the video. There was a slight transitional sound when the pages turned but if the music had also changed then the emphasis would be greater. It does make what she is writing seem much more important than if the music was simply a piano. It almost makes it feel like what she is writing could be dangerous or revolutionary. 

Contrast

1. The most obvious contrast is the style of the cartoon and the voice of the narrator. As mentioned in the lesson, the digital voice is not what you would expect from the cartoon. I would have expected a male voice, friendly, with informative tone. However, the voice distinguishes the message from the visuals of the video. The purpose is clearly something for the digital age and the font on the box also emphasizes this. Also, the color of the text stands out from the gray box but still reflects the color of the animation. This actually helps to connect the visuals to the words. 

2. The first clip shows that the words and theJUMP are connected to video. They expect multimedia projects that include both words and animation/images. This message against the black background, isolates these words from the visuals. The only thing with emphasis are the words on the screen and in fact the message is about an essay. They make it clear that this portion of the submission is supposed to be about text. 

3. If I were to design a poster it would be clear that the focus is a multi media project. Some elements would be brought together to illustrate the multimodal nature of the project. For example theJUMP logo and whatever visual aid indicates success would be closely oriented with other forms of visual communication. Pictures and words with a similar color. I would contrast these images from the requirements using spatial organization and probably color. It would show that the multimedia aspect is one part of the project and the essays are another. 

Organization

The images are organized to make people take a look at what they are dependent on.

1. The first photo depicts a foot with a bar-code on it. I believe most people will take this image one of two ways. It either comments on how the human body can be treated like a commodity or it shows how close we are to becoming a part of the technology we use. 

The next image shows 1 + 1 =2 in black and white. This could simply indicate an equation on the board or the numbers can relate to the numbers on the bar-code. When placed right next to each other, the focus is clearly on numbers. 

This theme is solidified by the next picture of the parking meter. This picture serves several purposes. It again reinforces the idea that people are reliant on numbers. Also, that people are always in a hurry in this life governed by numbers. The black and white creates a dreary tone and also continues the color from the slide before. The plain nature of these three slides set up a huge contrast between the bright colors in the fourth image. 

This picture is supposed to remind the audience  of the saying "stop and smell the roses." This assumes that the audiences understands American culture references. Without knowing however, the contrast still gives the story a more positive feeling. 

The story is concluded with an artist, seemingly inspired by flowers such as the were in the image before. The only words that stand out are "We Can Dream" which challenges the audience to do the same. Hopefully the story can remind the audience to take a break from technology every once in a while. 

2. Another argument I considered was a direct contrast between each of the images, alternating between black/white and color. However, it was harder to maintain a theme when the images were broken up. 

Another way that may provide a similar argument would be to show them in reverse order. Trying to show that we used to be inspired by art and nature, then we went to numbers, numbers brought technology, technology results in us with barcodes on our feet. 

3. Music could potentially help in conveying the tone that is determined solely by the colors. If the music starts out monotonous or menacing it convey a negative tone towards the numbers. Then music could be upbeat and help aid the positive nature of the bright slides at the end. I think having the only words on any of the images be "we can dream" produces a great effect because they are alone. Adding more words might take away from their emphasis. 

Alignment
 

1. The words were horizontally aligned but jumbled at first. Just when my eye could figure it out, the words transformed into lowercase and straightened out. The straightening is almost like an eye focusing and it brings me to the words 'Insects' without me even trying. The way the words flow into each other does create a strong relationship between the two.

2. The reflection and the background color lead me to believe that there is water at the bottom. Also, the contrails cut off the top of the screen almost forcing the audience to look down towards the moon and therefore the letters. I think other arrangements might let the eye wander and the words wouldn't have such a strong effect.

3. The words are on a different alignment to distinguish the two lines of poetry. Adding different audio further creates contrast between the two scenes. However, the vertical alignment is the same which keeps the theme the same even though the words themselves are different.

4. The placement of the words illustrates a tear welling up in the eye of the background image. This matches the tone of the man's voice from the audio. The visual connecting with the words makes them stronger and adds the gestural mode to this particular scene.

5. I think the placement is supposed to represent what the words literally stand for, rather than the meaning they reveal when played. The air is higher, next comes earth and the lowest is water. In addition the words seem to respond to the background elements, mimicking the line that cuts across the screen and settling under the moon. This alignment encourages the user to start at the top with air and follow the path down to earth and then water.

Proximity

1. I began with the title in the upper left corner in a decorative font. Then the description of the novel was placed below. They are clearly separated by different fonts and size but they are both left aligned. They are both important information indicating the content of the book. I chose the picture of the seagull flying because the novel is about flight. The author's name is isolated by proximity but is connected to the title through the font, encouraging the audience to view them together.

2. I think the most important piece of information is the title. Its importance is conveyed by its size and relationship to the other elements on the page. It is at the top and left aligned which is where a western audience normally begins a page in a book. The layout indicates that things should be clearly defined and the information can be read in an instant without any difficulty. It also shows a clear hierarchy where the most important information is at the top.

3. The difficulty is trying to convey the content of the book, or at least create interest in that content, only using  text and a static image. On a digital copy, the text that reads "a novel about flight" could fly on and off the page conveying a stronger message while the title could remain on its own. If equal importance should be given to the author, maybe the title could rotate with the author's name somehow.