ENGL 680M: New Media

Hey all,
I don't know if anyone is still active on the board or not (or if you have already begun ignoring your email for the holiday) but I finally finished my project yesterday. Peps seemed interested, and its the first thing that has really emerged on the web with my name attached to it that I feel positive ownership of... so I though, what they hey?! Post that mofo. Here you all are.... if I can find the web address...
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mreitmey/bookofshadows

Thanks for an excellent semester all,

Peace,

Mo

Here are the notes that Kristin and I made on SL/RL/FL/Education during class friday...

A miracle happened: I was able to log on to second life. I had, all the time, been blaming Vista for my inability to get onto SL, when all along it was Norton Anti Virus causing the chaos (and not letting me access the library data bases, or listen to NPR). Now that Norton is gone my computer is almost fully functional.

Hey all,

Linda Bergmann just forwarded this article to me and I thought I would toss it out there for wider consideration. What do you think about some of the claims about what Avatar selves do? In part the author seems to be talking about how the avatars both undermine the academy's bank (knowledge bank) image, but also seems to imply that in the process we loose some of our ethos. The article is interesting, and I want to fight with it a little, but I can't tell why...

http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/10/16/conway

Peace! MO!

Yes. I did it.
I bought the Wii.
There it was at best buy. Shinny and clean and contained and begging to be bought: and I went with it. Then, today, I bought two Wii games and another Wiimote too.

And then I bought a new Laptop so I can play games.

It's a dangerous thing this 'new media'.

I blame all of you if I become a game addled addict.

I'm interested in the way that Gitelman argues for how much impact gender had in the creation of mass music in the industry. Chicks not only used the music to keep their husbands happy at home (as KKL pointed out) but also because they were in charge of the cultural well being of the household. The ways that women took in music, specific music, made a difference in the overall reception of this new media. We can see this in some of the ads. Women, starting from all those early Magazines, where the bosses (economically) of mass media.

So much remediation!

This movie looks really interesting in terms of our class discussion today. Across the universe is a new rock musical entirely in Beatles songs. It could be brilliant, and it could be horrible, but I'm curious to find out...

NPR Review
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14429238

Official Website
http://www.acrosstheuniverse.com/

Remediated Mess!!!

In Remediation this week the authors (so far) have written extensively about the way that the medium tries to erase itself from our awareness of the material. If I am looking at a painting on the computer it should be like I am experiencing the painting face to paint, rather than face to screen. If I am reading a story the ultimate goal is for me to forget I am reading and be in the text. We can see this theme, this idea of direct contact, "authentic" experience, in lots of our texts.

Talking about "gendered" games, Journey to the Wild Divine (http://www.smartkidssoftware.com/ndwdn2.htm) is a game I would consider "fem" in that it is not a win loose game. Its not girl-ish (all in pink and bows) and not about shopping and dating. Rather, the game itself is about discovery and self improvement... as opposed to shooting things, or having boobs and jumping around temples. Which is not to say temple bouncing isn't valuable... Wild Divine has a different goal though. Peace,

Mo