Time & Space Annihilated: Innovation, Communication & Society

Time & Space
Annilihated:
Innovation, Communication
& Society
©Ann DeMarle
demarle@champlain.edu

Champlain College
Emergent Media Center
Master of Fine Arts in Emergent Media

Saturday, April 14, 2012

• Communication’s history is a story of Few to the Many.


• Technological Innovation removes Boundaries.


• Technological Innovation removes Boundaries.
• Multiple inputs require Reﬂection and Choice.


The history of
communication is a
story of
Few to the Many.


Coalescing Community

Image: Prof saxx , Photography of Lascaux Animal Painting, Feb 2006

“The shaman’s vision gives meaning to the
hunting and killing of animals on which these
societies depend.”
—Karen Armstrong, “The Case for God”

Image: Prof saxx , Photography of Lascaux Animal Painting, Feb 2006

“He has faced death, come out the other
side, and is now psychologically prepared to
risk his life for his people.”
—Karen Armstrong, “The Case for God”

Image: Luc-Henri Fage, "Borneo, Memory of the Caves", 1999, http://www.kalimanthrope.com/Borneo_Memory_of_the_Caves.html

1.Sumerians & Egyptians 3000 B.C.E.
2.Chinese 1300 B.C.E.
3.Mexican Indians 600 B.C.E.

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer


Maintaining Order



Maintaining Order
Restricted to scribes employed
by king or temple for:
1. propaganda,
2. myths,
3. clerical records.


Maintaining Order


Maintaining Order
“Ancient writing’s main function was to
“facilitate the enslavement of other
human beings.””
—Claude Levi-Strauss
—Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fate of Human Societies”


Mycenaean Linear B (1400 B.C.E.) to
Classical Greek (740 B.C.E.)

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dipylon_Inscription.JPG


Poetic Expression



Poetic Expression
the dancers now d ances lightly he
“Whoever of
shall ge t me as his prize.”


Hierarchal power

Image: Jovhannes manuscript of 1053 C.E. (Ms. 3793). At the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia. Photo by Rafﬁ Kojian.

Hierarchal power

“The patterns of textual survivals were shaped by their usefulness
to the severely constricted literate group of Christians.”
—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript

Image: Jovhannes manuscript of 1053 C.E. (Ms. 3793). At the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia. Photo by Rafﬁ Kojian.

Technological Innovation removes Boundaries.


Replication & Revolution

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metal_movable_type.jpg

““...allowed scientists of all fields to compare their
findings with others. Scientific theories started to form
on a large scale because more supportive evidence was
accessible. In mathematics, a field which relies heavily
on uniform systems, mathematicians were able to build
upon other works as they became available.””
—Welch, Killeen, Davidson, ”Inventions That Changed History” Ch 1,
http://www.scientiareview.org/pdfs/126.pdf

Replication & Revolution

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metal_movable_type.jpg

“The surface of the earth will be networked with wire, and
every wire will be a nerve. The earth will become a huge
animal with 10 million hands, and in every hand a pen to
record whatever the directing soul may dictate! No limit
can be assigned to the value of the invention.”
—Sydney Morse to his brother
—Johanna Neuman: "The Media's Impact on International Affairs, Then and Now,"

Time and Space is Now Annihilated

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_First_Telegraph.jpg

“The surface of the earth will be networked with wire, and
every wire will be a nerve. The earth will become a huge
“We are in 10 million hands, and in everymagnetic to
animal with great haste to construct a hand a pen
telegraph from Maine to Texas, but Maine and Texas, it
record whatever the directing soul may dictate! No limit
may be assigned to the important to communicate."”
can be, have nothing value of the invention.”
— Henry David Thoreau
—Sydney Morse to his brother


Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_First_Telegraph.jpg

“" Just imagine what could have happened if the passing
success of the Lyons silk workers' insurrection had been
known in all corners of the nation at once!" argued a
horriﬁed member of King Louis-Philippe's court.”



Global Mass Transmission
“The eventual total cost of the commercial was $250,000 - an unheard of price in
1971 for an advertisement.” (approximately $2 million in today’s dollar)
—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'd_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing_(In_Perfect_Harmony)#cite_note-coke_hilltop-0


Emergence of the Internet

“...nothing was happening until
the mid ‘90s when seemingly
out of nowhere, the world
wide web & email exploded
into view.”
—Ray Kurzweil
www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html


Computational Media:
• Encyclopedic,
• Procedural,
• Interactive,
• Networked,
• Participatory,
• Personal expression.


Shifting Paradigms—Participation

Broadcast Media + Digital Media = Personal Media
Newspapers + email = Blogs
Television + digital video recording = YouTube
Encyclopedias + online research = Wikipedia
Music + MP3s = iTunes
Radio + iPods = Podcasting
Disney Land + code = Video Games


Shifting Paradigms—Participation

Mass Media Personal Media
Main Info Source TV Web

Location Living room Anywhere
Main Entertainment Form Movies Electronic games
Location Theater Anywhere
Experience Watch, consume Participate, create
Producers Few—power—$$$ Many individuals
Delivery method Push Pull


Image: http://technorati.com/weblog/blogosphere/

http://www.boingboing.net/

Image: http://technorati.com/weblog/blogosphere/

Image: http://images.businessweek.com/mz/07/24/0724_6insiid_a.gif

Multiple inputs require Reﬂection and Choice.


Personal


Poetic


Career Oriented: Christina Rosalie
http://www.mytopography.com/2012/03/28/small-rituals-holding-steady/

Community Outreach: Steve Keetle, Bernie Sanders


Activism: Arab Spring, SOPA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/tunisian-president-ﬂees-country-protests
http://sopastrike.com/

“It has shown me that it is not about how good your soccer
skills are. It is about attitude, teamwork and determination.
What you do when you are not on the pitch is important as
well.”
—Foluso, age 13, England

Global Citizenship: EMC, PMC, UNFPA


Global Citizenship: Ronny Edrie
http://www.middleeastvoices.com/2012/03/israelis-iranians-on-facebook-make-peace-not-war-80285/

Global Citizenship: Ronny Edrie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mYjuUoEivbE

Global Citizenship: Piotr Czerski
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/we-the-web-kids/253382/

disregarding the ones which do not seem credible. We select, we filter, we
remember, and we are ready to swap the learned information for a new, better
one, when it comes along.

To us, the Web is a sort of shared external memory. We do not have to remember
unnecessary details: dates, sums, formulas, clauses, street names, detailed
definitions. It is enough for us to have an abstract, the essence that is needed to
process the information and relate it to others. Should we need the details, we can
look them up within seconds. Similarly, we do not have to be experts in
everything, because we know where to find people who specialise in what we
ourselves do not know, and whom we can trust. People who will share their
expertise with us not for profit, but because of our shared belief that information
exists in motion, that it wants to be free, that we all benefit from the exchange of
information. Every day: studying, working, solving everyday issues, pursuing
interests. We know how to compete and we like to do it, but our competition, our
desire to be different, is built on knowledge, on the ability to interpret and process
information, and not on monopolising it.

2. Participating in cultural life is not something out of ordinary to us: global
culture is the fundamental building block of our identity, more important for
defining ourselves than traditions, historical narratives, social status, ancestry, or
even the language that we use. From the ocean of cultural events we pick the ones
that suit us the most; we interact with them, we review them, we save our reviews
on websites created for that purpose, which also give us suggestions of other
albums, films or games that we might like. Some films, series or videos we watch
together with colleagues or with friends from around the world; our appreciation
of some is only shared by a small group of people that perhaps we will never meet
face to face. This is why we feel that culture is becoming simultaneously global
and individual. This is why we need free access to it.

This does not mean that we demand that all products of culture be available to us
without charge, although when we create something, we usually just give it back
for circulation. We understand that, despite the increasing accessibility of
technologies which make the quality of movie or sound files so far reserved for
professionals available to everyone, creativity requires effort and investment. We
are prepared to pay, but the giant commission that distributors ask for seems to
us to be obviously overestimated. Why should we pay for the distribution of
information that can be easily and perfectly copied without any loss of the original
quality? If we are only getting the information alone, we want the price to be
proportional to it. We are willing to pay more, but then we expect to receive some
added value: an interesting packaging, a gadget, a higher quality, the option of
watching here and now, without waiting for the file to download. We are capable
of showing appreciation and we do want to reward the artist (since money

Global Citizenship: Piotr Czerski
stopped being paper notes and became a string of numbers on the screen, paying
has become a somewhat symbolic act of exchange that is supposed to benefit both
parties), but the sales goals of corporations are of no interest to us whatsoever. It
is not our fault that their business has ceased to make sense in its traditional
form, and that instead of accepting the challenge and trying to reach us with
something more than we can get for free they have decided to defend their
obsolete ways.

disregarding the ones which do not seem credible. We select, we filter, we
remember, and we are ready to swap the learned information for a new, better
one, when it comes along.

To us, the Web is a sort of shared external memory. We do not have to remember
unnecessary details: dates, sums, formulas, clauses, street names, detailed

Participating in cultural life is not something out of
definitions. It is enough for us to have an abstract, the essence that is needed to
process the information and relate it to others. Should we need the details, we can
look them up within seconds. Similarly, we do not have to be experts in

ordinary to us: global culture is the fundamental building
everything, because we know where to find people who specialise in what we
ourselves do not know, and whom we can trust. People who will share their
expertise with us not for profit, but because of our shared belief that information
block of our identity, more important for deﬁning
exists in motion, that it wants to be free, that we all benefit from the exchange of
information. Every day: studying, working, solving everyday issues, pursuing

ourselves than traditions, historical narratives, social
interests. We know how to compete and we like to do it, but our competition, our
desire to be different, is built on knowledge, on the ability to interpret and process
information, and not on monopolising it.

status, ancestry, or even the language that we use.
2. Participating in cultural life is not something out of ordinary to us: global
culture is the fundamental building block of our identity, more important for
defining ourselves than traditions, historical narratives, social status, ancestry, or
even the language that we use. From the ocean of cultural events we pick the ones
that suit us the most; we interact with them, we review them, we save our reviews
...This is why we feel that culture is becoming
on websites created for that purpose, which also give us suggestions of other
albums, films or games that we might like. Some films, series or videos we watch

simultaneously global and individual. This is why we need
together with colleagues or with friends from around the world; our appreciation
of some is only shared by a small group of people that perhaps we will never meet
face to face. This is why we feel that culture is becoming simultaneously global

free access to it. and individual. This is why we need free access to it.

This does not mean that we demand that all products of culture be available to us
without charge, although when we create something, we usually just give it back
for circulation. We understand that, despite the increasing accessibility of
technologies which make the quality of movie or sound files so far reserved for
professionals available to everyone, creativity requires effort and investment. We
are prepared to pay, but the giant commission that distributors ask for seems to
us to be obviously overestimated. Why should we pay for the distribution of
information that can be easily and perfectly copied without any loss of the original
quality? If we are only getting the information alone, we want the price to be
proportional to it. We are willing to pay more, but then we expect to receive some
added value: an interesting packaging, a gadget, a higher quality, the option of
watching here and now, without waiting for the file to download. We are capable
of showing appreciation and we do want to reward the artist (since money

Global Citizenship: Piotr Czerski stopped being paper notes and became a string of numbers on the screen, paying
has become a somewhat symbolic act of exchange that is supposed to benefit both
parties), but the sales goals of corporations are of no interest to us whatsoever. It
is not our fault that their business has ceased to make sense in its traditional
form, and that instead of accepting the challenge and trying to reach us with
something more than we can get for free they have decided to defend their
obsolete ways.

Worth Reading/Experiencing
• French Ministry of Culture, “Lascaux:Visit the Grotto”, http://
www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en

• Elizabeth Eisenstein, “The Printing Press as an Agent of Change”, 1984

• Marshall McLuhan, “Understanding Media”, 1964

• Johanna Neuman, “Lights, Camera,War: Is Media Technology Driving International
Politics?”, 1996

• Karen Armstrong, “The Case for God”, 2010

• Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fate of Human Societies”, 2011

• Janet Murray, “Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace”,
1998”

• Ray Kurzweil, “The Singularity is Near:When Humans Transcend Biology”, 2006

• Piotr Czerski , “We the Web Kids”, 2012

• EMC, UNFPA, PMC, “BREAKAWAY”, 2010, http://www.breakawaygame.com

• Ronny Edry, “We Love You”, 2012, http://www.indiegogo.com/israeliran?c=home


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