Wikipedia Assignment

When the only option of access to an encyclopedia was having a printed version of it, access to information was somewhat difficult. Now not only we have access to encyclopedias via the Internet, but when Wikipedia was created it facilitated the access to real-time updated articles of different countries in English language and in other languages. Even though Encyclopedia Britannica is also available online and it has a good degree of credibility, there you can not find many of the articles that you find in Wikipedia, especially articles about local issues in different countries or recent matters. Differently from Britannica, Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopedia, meaning that any one that has access to Internet and a computer can create or change its articles, making it possible to access information from any where in the world.

Not only Wikipedia has the advantage of being open-source and therefore global, but a study has shown that “Wikipedia is about as good a source of accurate information as Britannica” according to News.com in the article “Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica” by Daniel Terdiman. The reason why Wikipedia is considered accurate is because there is a working staff on Wikipedia that revise the articles that are recently published, and there are also collaborators who are dedicated to revising articles.

For this assignment, I have chosen to compare the entry “Blekinge Institute of Technology” in Wikipedia and in Encyclopedia Britannica. While in Wikipedia I found a short entry with general information about our university, it was not possible to find anything about it in EB. In Wikipedia anything can potentially become an article and, because of that, we are able to share information about any local subject to a global audience.

Digital Art & Literature Seminar - Continuation

3. It is a kind of LARP (live-action role playing), which is an evolution of ARG (alternate reality game). It says on the website (http://bees.netninja.com/staticwiki/beewiki/TheFAQ) that originally people used alternate reality games (ARG) to pretend to be characters of a story and to create a narrative together as a group. If the players were in disagreement with what was going to happen next in the story, dice were rolled and other rules were applied to resolve the matter. The next step was LARP, where people started recreating the stories they made together: they started to act out these stories in public. The players in LARP can either be themselves or characters, and a coordinator is chosen to show the players the mysteries that need to be solved.

4. The project Implementation uses Internet art, conceptual art, situationist theatre, sticker art among other arts. It is basically a novel that deals with the notion of place as well as many other concepts, and it is demonstrated by placing different pieces of texts in chosen locations in order to produce meaning.

Digital Art & Literature Seminar

1. The website http://rhizome.org/ supports new media art and literature, while http://artport.whitney.org supports two types of new media art: Internet and digital arts. In Internet art, artists use the Internet as its primary medium. In digital art, however, the art is also created via computer but Internet is not required for its creation.

When looking at some of the artwork, a few seemed interesting to me. The Battle of Algiers by Marc Lafia and Fang-Yu Lin (http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/battleofalgiers/BattleofAlgiers.shtml#) is an example of an original artwork. It works as a response to an Italian movie with same name that deals with the Algerian nationalist struggle for independence. It is interesting how the cells intersect and create a video that shows each side’s tactics in the film, however I find it to be somewhat disturbing to watch it.

I also like the idea that Grégory Chantonsky had when creating Flussgeist (http://incident.net/works/islanders/). He uses small satellite images together to demonstrate that people from different sides of the world are now connected through the Internet. Space is not conceived as it once was.

2. New Media Art referes to art created with new media technologies (computer graphics, animation, the Internet, robotics, biotechnologies etc) while digital art refers more specifically to the new media art created with a computer. Internet art, however, uses the internet as its primary medium.

Works Cited

Unfortunately it is not possible to have a proper works cited list on the blog.

My thoughts on simulated worlds

Simulated worlds made available to the public the possibility to connect with people from all over the world that share the same objective: to participate in a world that is not marked by the limitations of the physical world. In a simulated world, you can be whoever you want, do whatever you want, visit places that you could not visit otherwise, meet people and do activities together. And not only that: now these places also offer great business opportunities and the possibility of creating your own world from scratch. An example of that is Second Life, a metaphysical universe where almost anything is possible.

In massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) it is possible to be part of a world with dragons, elves and other fantasy characters, such as in World of Warcraft. But there are also games where you can do real life activities, such as The Sims. The possibilities in these games are immense. But now with Second Life, you not only can be whoever or whatever you want, but you can also build your own world from scratch, leaving it all up to your own creativity. Differently from MMORPG’s, in Second Life there is no set narrative, no set goal: everything is up to you.

Because of the endless possibilities, many experiments have been made with Second Life. Many places have been created that otherwise would not be possible to create. Peter Yellowslees, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California decided to make a world to give the students a perspective of what schizofrenia patients suffer. He created a hospital where students can go and experience the same type of hallucinations that patients with schizofrenia do. As observed in the article “Living a Second Life” by The Economist, Dr. Yellowslees leases an island in Second Life, where he built a hospital that looks like the one in Sacramento, where many of his students practise. Some people believe that Second Life will become an important tool in long-distance learning.

Another possibility with the metaverse (metaphysical universe such as Second Life), is to develop successful business. According to CNN’s article “Second Life: It’s not a game” from January 2007, Linden Lab, that created Second Life, counts 65 companies that now use Second Life to serve real-world business customers. Not to mention that in Second Life any resident can become an entrepreneur and there are hundreds of people profiting from it. They sell clothes, properties, bikes, cars and many other items. According to CNN, about $600,000 is spent daily throughout Second Life, for an annual GDP of about $220 million.

In conclusion, simulated worlds are now an important part of society. Because of them we are able to interact with people from different locations and interests, explore fantastic places, do business, take care of real life issues, and even create our own world and invite people to visit it. Simulated worlds are now more than ever an alternative to the outdoors life. It has also changed our lives outside the computer screen and our perception of the real world.

Works Cited:

Kirkpatrick, David. ”Second Life: It’s not a game.” CNNMoney.com. 23 January 2007. Cable News Network. 11 April 2007 http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/22/magazines/fortune/whatsnext_secondlife.fortune/index.htm

“Living a Second Life.” Economist.com. 28 September 2006. The Economist. 11 April 2007 http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7963538

Brazil, the Free Culture Nation

I was researching about digital culture and Brazil when I came across this article (http://www.wizards-of-os.org/index.php?id=2313):

"Brazil, the Free Culture Nation

Brazil has emerged as the prime promoter of free culture, domestically and in international fora. „We are going to tropicalize the digital revolution." Under this motto by Brazil‘s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, the country is developing a broad range of activities for promoting digital culture. WOS 4 together with the Ministry of Culture and other Brasilian partners wants to show a representative spectrum.

Starting point is a vibrant local culture. From the poor neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro or Belem new musical genres are touching the ears and hearts of people across the globe, via Internet without any intermediary. „Pontos de Cultura" is the master-plan of bringing 600 cultural projects across the country into the digital age. Groups working with music or video, indigenous crafts or capoeira, graffiti and circus will be equipped with multimedia hardware, free software and a budget in order to produce, document and freely share with the world their cultural expressions. WOS4 will present an overview of the works coming out of these Culture Spots. Recycled hardware and free software play a crucial role as infrastructure far beyond the Pontos. The questions here as with all of WOS is: how are we going to achieve cultural diversity and financial and cultural autonomy?"

I find this project an excellent way of promoting the different aspects of our culture to a global audience, as well as helping artists that are financially debilitated. Because Brazil accommodates people from all over the world and also the original inhabitants of the land, the Indians, it has a very rich and diverse culture. If you are interested in knowing more about Brazil:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil

Digital culture as I see it

When we were asked to think about what the concept of digital cultures means to us, the first word that came to mind was union. Our culture has certainly expanded due to digital technology: we have become interconnected with other cultures. In our time, where information is spread so quickly, we have access to so much more than any other generation before our own. That is why knowing about other cultures and having access to digital technology is now an important part of our lives.

The computer is now one of our best friends: we use it for work, entertainment, socialization and a lot more. It would be hard to imagine our lives without the comfort and all the options that offered by the Internet. Due to digital technology, it is possible to meet friends in a digital world and go to a pub, to the cinema, chat about daily activities, play games together, all that even if you are on the other side of the planet. Now we have access to information from anywhere in any language in real time. That is not all: we can watch movies from any country that are available on P2P programs and even shop online (that I really like!).

In this time of technological change, it is essential that we understand how other cultures function and to know more about them. The culture of each country is now available online to a global audience, which is a good indication that the revolution of digital technology promotes and, why not, changes culture.