Category: Supplementary Viewing

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Brieya Walker Computer Story

My story is about how I found out about my allergy to nuts and it was a complex story with a lot going on. I can see my story being told through gifs that would condense it to a much shorter story, which in a way eliminates the suspense but gets straight to the point. Using gifs fits into my idea of computer technology because it contributes to displaying how quick and instant almost everything is. For example, how fast and simple the process of sending messages has become. From mail being transported on foot to now sending a simple text message that someone receives right away. Unfortunately, the telling of the story with gifs would eliminate sharing many of the details but it would still get the message across. One can relate that to almost anything involved with technology though. Ideally technology is supposed to makes things much simpler and easier. I feel like it would be the same with computer technology.

(has pecans)

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Marshall McLuhan on TV

Class!

As we enter the domain of Marshall McLuhan — the hot and cool media — the terms might seem a little whacky and hard to follow. It’s important to know that his arguments were relatively shocking for scholars of the 60s AND they were extremely popular (in the sense that he was a household name — not just in academic circles).

In fact, he was famous enough to warrant this cameo in Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall (1977).

His major works include The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), Understanding Media (1964), and The Medium is the Massage (1967), an collage book which illustrates his ideas through experimental design.

McLuhan_The_Medium_is_The_Massage (here’s a pdf!)

Like many media theorists, McLuhan states ideas boldly and sometimes polemically — argumentative in order to stir up a “new” way of thinking.

For tomorrow, we are going to think about how this notion of media evolution may or may not continue the colonial advance. McLuhan addresses a notion of a global village in his writing, and also responds to generalizations about gender. While one might argue that he would be the first to say that cultural understanding is context specific, might our contemporary ways of knowing undo some of his claims? Do you think we currently pattern match or define categories?

In class we will be doing an activity to consider how our ideas get to us and how we change ideas.

-Jojo