Blog 4

Blog 4

Hey everyone!!!

Today’s lecture was about Wikipedia. So, you thought Wikipedia was a reliable source! Wrong! Wikipedia can be edited by anyone who has access to the internet. It should never be treated as a source for a university assignment. It should only be used as a quick overview if needed.

Lee Cox’s information is an example of just how unreliable Wikipedia really is. Stephen Stockwell edited the information to suit him, and wrote completely untrue claims.

So what exactly is the truth?

Correspondence Theory: Just the facts - observable, measurable
Coherence Theory: Does it fit together and make sense?
Performative Theory: I do declare
Social Theory: What can we agree on?

The Matrix study showed gave us a glimpse into the future, in that machine’s take over controlling society. It asks us whether machines have already taken over society in the present day.

Many people have tried to distinguish the line between virtual world and reality, but often it is becoming so blurred it is impossible to distinguish between the two. The following people have come up with their own terms of explaining the phenomenon.

Guy Debord = 'Society of Spectacle'
Umberto Eco = 'Hyper-reality'
Jean Baudrillard = 'Simulacrum'
William Gibson = 'Cyberspace as Consensual Hallucination'
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari = 'Becoming Media'

Tutorial Task
How do the ideas from Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" apply to contemporary digital media?
Walter Benjamin explains that Mass production enables all people to view digital movies and not just the elite sort. This type of production is much better suited to today’s society. A quote from the article I like is “Quantity has been transmuted into quality,” basically saying that over time we have supplied much more quality in digitally enhanced films.

There was a time when "Art" was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Now that anyone with a computer can create things digitally (music, images, videos, etc), what does that mean for "art"?
This now means that art can be seen by anyone and created by anyone. Basically everyone’s ideas of what art it can be seen. It can give people the chance who don’t normally publish art to do so.

Is a photoshopped image "authentic"?
Of course a photoshopped image is not authentic. How can something in a magazine which has been airbrushed to the max be called real?

Do digital "things" have an "aura" (in Benjamin's terms)?
Media such as music, images and video are a form of art which is expressed by mass media. The “aura” refers to people’s sense of awe they have to these such productions. These digital medias provoke feelings and opinions, and so are considered to have an aura.

I have also chosen my topic for my essay:
Perez Hilton. Amateur Blogger or experienced Journalist?

I'll chat again next week, when my assignment is further down its track!!!!!!!!!!