GO BREWERS!

Non-Places and Solitude

Marc Auge wrote the book Non-Places: An Introduction to an Anthropology to Supermodernity. This week, I had to read a portion of his book. The portion that I read dealt with the difference between a “place” and a “non-place”. His references to non-places are that they distance the people from the place. These non-places are not places that people invest emotional value into them. It is just a place where people go, to either get to another place or use that place for a specific purpose and then leave. Some of the examples that we talked about in class are terminals, lecture halls, elevators, a drive-thru, and a bus.

My assignment was to go to a non-place and write my reflections onto my blog. Since I live far away from campus, I have had to use the Madison Metro bus system. So the last time I road the bus I paid particular attention to the people and what goes on in the bus. When I ride the bus I feel like I am not connected to anyone. I put on my headphones, listen to my I-pod and wait until I get to my destination. As I look around, I see that almost everyone else is doing the same. Some people are listening to their I-pods, some reading, and some doing homework. Even people, who get on the bus together, rarely talk. We had coined the term “shared solitude” in class and I think that it fits for this specific example. There are no relations on a bus; the riders are just using this service as a means to get where they want to be. In the side notes of my reading, my professor wrote that people “can become accustomed to non-places (if it is frequented enough)”. This is exactly how it was for me and the bus. I had never ridden on public transportation before I came to Madison. At first I felt really awkward, I didn’t have an I-pod so I had nothing to listen to and I didn’t know the “rules” or norms that are followed when riding the bus. Sometimes I felt like talking to people that I didn’t know but I never could because people are so engrossed in their own activities or rarely make eye contact. As time went by I became acclimated and accepted the fact that I would just mind my own business until I got off of the bus.

One question that I had about Auges’ book was on Page 87, when he talked about the difference between movement and solitude. I had a hard time trying to connect to the message that he was trying to get across.

Also, this week in class we are watching Lost In Translation by Sofia Coppola. So far I find it very entertaining. The first half had been a story about how Bill Murray, who plays a movie star, and Scarlett Johansson, who plays a newlywed, are strangers who meet in Tokyo and become friends. To me the movie makes fun of non-places and portrays them to an extreme. I think that knowing what non-places are, makes the movie better.

Spring Break

I just got back from Spring Break and I am finished putting away all of my stuff. I went home last Thursday and had to go to work right away. Then on Friday I had to work at The Greens, a restaurant/bar in my hometown that my mom manages. During work, I helped with bussing, doing the dishes, waiting on tables, and cooking. Then, the bartender wanted to leave so I had to bartend until closing time.

On Monday, I went to two movies. First, I went to the Hills Have Eyes 2. I don’t really know why I went to it but I went to the first one so I wanted to finish off the sequel. I don’t know if anyone else has seen it, but I thought it was pretty bad. It was totally predictable. At the beginning of the movie, I guessed who was going to still be alive at the end of the movie. But the bad part, is that they left it open to make a Hills Have Eyes 3. The second movie that I went to see was Blades of Glory. It was much better. But I didn’t think it was as good as I had heard. Everyone told me that it was really great but I don’t think it wasn’t even close to Will Ferrells’ best movie.

On Wednesday, I went to see TMNT with my nephew and my brother-in-law. I wasn’t expecting much because it was animated. But I had to see it because the cartoon is awesome and the first three movies are even better. I thought it was pretty good but I think that if someone didn’t really like the turtles they wouldn’t like the movie.

Then on Thursday, I got to go to La Crosse to see some of my friends that I haven’t seen in a long time. I had a really good time. I got to drink three different kinds of beer that I have never had before. I had a Scottish beer called Skull Splitter, Red Stripe, and a variety of Samuel Adams.

Then I had to work on this last Friday night. We were really busy for the fish fry because it was the last Friday of Lent. Then after work, I got to go out in Sparta with my sister and my brother-in-law.

Then today, I went to church and then I had brunch with my family up at our cabin. We had so much food up there and I ate way too much. That was about all I did over break. I worked and got to see my friends and my family. The bad part, is that I had a lot of homework to do and I didn’t get any of it done. Oh well, I guess I will just have a busy week. Now, I am going to finish watching Boondock Saints.

Networked Telecommunications

This week I read a chapter called “The Web” from the book Writing about Cool by Jeff Rice. He talked about how the internet has transformed the media. Rice said that corporations use digital media to: “establish a common customer base” and “advertise two or more products simultaneously” (page 140). It is obvious how much advertising is being used on the internet. You can’t go to a site, unless made for personal use, without finding multiple advertising pictures or slogans. The subliminal messaging is phenomenal. Rice also talked about how the internet is highly interactive, while talking about McLuhan and his “hot” and “cold” media. I felt like this chapter was an updated, albeit shortened, version of Understanding Media by McLuhan. Rice talked about how the internet is a definite “cool” media.

Another chapter that I had to read is called “March of the Meganets” from the book E-Topia by William J. Mitchell. I found this to be more confusing to read than the Rice text. Mitchell talked about the “digital revolution”. He feels that the “digital revolution” is similar to any other revolution that this country/world has gone through. For example, the introduction of the train to connect distant places. Then roads and interstates are made and then personal cars are sold so people can travel. One question that I had was on page 19, Mitchell talked about backbones, POPs, and gigaPOPs. I tried reading them all in context, but I couldn’t really figure out what these terms meant. Mitchell also talked about how the internet has been able to connect urban and rural lifestyles. He talked about how life conditions outside of a city were sub-par and how “rural electrification and telephone systems” have drastically improved those conditions. It also gave farmers a better selling market because it put farmers in direct contact with their buyers, even if they were far away.

Last week, we had to look at a site called Stelarc. I don’t even know what to say. The whole site is dedicated to this guy, who has successfully attached metal parts to his body. On the site, it says that his work “explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology…..”. He has attached a prosthetic limb to his left arm as an addition. So know he has use of three different arms. The site is creepy but I found his concepts pretty interesting.

This week I had to view another site called Benjamin Edwards. I don’t really understand what he is trying to accomplish. I believe he is an author/artist and the site showcased his works. On the main page, I believe there is dialogue from an MOD game, but I could be mistaken. I found this site to be very sporadic and kind of plain. Maybe it is just because I don’t understand what is going on.

What to do?

Well, now I don't know what to do with my life. Football, hockey, and basketball are all over and so ended my season tickets for each. Now, I might have to start doing more studying. HAHA. I am sure that I will be find something better to do with my time. It is sad but I am glad that for my first year here at UW-Madison, all of the sports have had relatively good seasons.

"Natural Born Cyborgs"

This week I had to read an introduction to the book "Natural Born Cyborgs" by Andy Clark. I enjoyed this reading. It was about the increasing role technology plays in all of our lives. Mostly the introduction talked about cell phones but it also talked about other forms of technology.

On page 4, Clark wrote, “The mind is just less and less in the head.” He had talked about how he had lost his laptop for a day and how he felt disconnected from the world. It was like he lost everything, when he lost his laptop. He also talked about how people feel disconnected when their cell phone batteries die.

Clark also talked about how “educationalists” fear the consequence of technology is doing the thinking of their human counterparts. I find this very true for me. If I don’t know what a word means or I don’t know how to spell it I can just go on the internet and find out. I find it easier to look something up on the internet than to think about it. I think that this could be a very serious problem if the continued rise of technology leads to a lowered state of thinking.

The last thing that I found very interesting is when Clark called a cell phone like a “prosthetic limb”. I find it amazing to see people using their cell phones to talk more than talking face to face to a person. I hate having a cell phone but I find it necessary. I was in the late majority (of getting a cell phone) in the bell curve because I didn’t think that I needed one. But now I don’t know what I would do without it.

Sampling and Appropriation

This week, I had to do a couple of readings by Steven Shaviro and Jeff Rice. The reading from Shaviro was a passage from Connected, or What it Means to Live in the Network Society. The majority of the passage that I had to read was about sampling or appropriation. Sampling is the art of taking a collage of other peoples work and putting them together to make your work. An example of this is found on youtube. Apple, make a commercial called “Think Different”. They took a variety of videos of different genius icons and put them together in their commercial, which associated Apple with the geniuses. They used words like, rebellious and not normal to make their product “cool”. Then Shapiro, talks about sampling in rap. On page 68, he says that, “….sampling in rap is a way of making new connections between the past and the present…”. He also makes reference to how sampling “revitalizes” old songs by looping the old song throughout the new song.

I also had to read a couple of chapters from Jeff Rices’ book, Writing about Cool. These two chapters were about popular culture and technology. On page 56, Rice said, “Popular culture is a realm in which a considerable amount of expression takes place. Most of us receive the bulk of our information through the media of popular culture….”. Another thing he talked about, and I found very interesting, is how major networks programs are “transformed into entertainment”. I find this comment to be very true, although, I wish that weren’t the case. Today, media can’t put on stories that are “good” because not very many people would read or want to hear about them. They only want to hear the death stories or if someone committed a crime. So the media is forced to publish gruesome stories or to face bankruptcy. Jeff Rice also talked about when you choose to sample someone else’s work, you need to have your audience in mind. An example that totally captures this idea, is when Public Enemy addresses segregation they sample Martin Luther King, Jr. It connects with their audience and emphasizes the point that they are trying to get across.

Today, as a class, we were asked if we believe that sampling is plagiarism. I think that in the traditional writing sense, it is. I think that it is illegal because I would guess that most of the time the old work, that is sampled, is not cited. But then, I also understand that if everything was protected and only in private hands then creativity would end. People have been using other people works for inspiration for centuries. I believe that the line between sampling and plagiarism is very thin is dependent on the person who is sampling.