Cultural & Media Studies 531

As I sit here yet again in front of my computer with several tabs opened, I wonder about the Virtual World – Here I am, tweeting on Twitter, updating my profile on Facebook, posting on my online course with colleagues I have never met at the other side of the country, and checking my email besides…Am I living in a virtual world?

When was the last time I picked up the telephone and actually spoke to someone in person?  Not sure I remember…but I chat constantly online, in the virtual world.  I read blogs from strangers I have never met, watched YouTube videos of unfamiliar faces, yet I feel as though they are in my living room with me.  I am followed by strangers, I follow strangers, I move from link to link as others walk amongst the crowds at a cocktail party. …Am I living in a virtual world?    Absolutely.  Does it worry me?  Not at all.

Ollivier Dyens’ book “Metal and Flesh” creates quite a stir among reviewers – some find his stand on the status and future of the body in a machine culture too bizarre to accept.  Others find it an interesting view into the future.  Dyens sees the body as a topographical meeting ground for biology and ideology – the body no longer a biological entity, but a cultural one.  Our body is based on the machines around us, our relationship impossible to dissolve.  He envisions a world filled with potential for human-machine symbiotic relationships.

Despite several hours of frustration trying a brand new program, Adobe Premiere Elements 7, I think I have managed to create a video that sends a message. Thanks to Joe Henry for his powerful song, Stop from his CD Scar.

Here is Media Production # 1

“Space…the final frontier” and ” to go where no man has gone before” were the cues for us to run to the TV to catch the next adventure of the Starship Enterprise.  I know, this ages me, but science fiction fascinates me to this day.  It was my favourite genre for reading (1984, On the Beach, Atlas Shrugged, The Road )- any futurisitic book that described life in the future was always on my “must read again” list.  Even though most of the offerings provided a pessimistic future, I somehow possessed the positive view that technology and science would solve all these problems presented in these novels…science can fix anything….right?

The discussions about IPRs  has been very interesting.  We teach about plagiarism to our students (and often add hefty consequences for their transgressions) yet  infringe on copyright in our schools – how many of the copies at the Xerox are truly “legal” to be copied?  How many of us insert images/videos/music in our presentations without citations?  Do we really respect copyright or do we prefer to believe in the creative commons for all?

And what about copyright on the products made for our survival?  Food for example…

Musings on a question I have never asked myself before

Am I an Artist?

Duchamp created a controversy with his entry of the Urinal as Art at the Amory show in 1917.  How many times have we seen modern sculpture in public places and wondered, “They call this art?”

One of my favourite art exhibits is the combination of various “parts” of machines that are welded/fastened together to form an abstract sculpture.  I enjoy identifying the individual pieces and marvel at how the mass creates a new identity.

Hello to everyone in ETEC 531!   I look forward to the collaboration and interaction between all of us this term and  I expect to be learning a great deal as I have in 511 and 500 already!.

I taught in elementary schools for 4 years before switching to high school teaching geography to Grade 9s and 12s. I was asked to become a curriculum consultant at our central office and worked with secondary teachers in workshops on best practice for 4 years.  Then I dipped my toes into the adminstration pool and became assigned to the secondary programming department as a system principal.  This is my second year in this role and it became obvious that it was time to work on my Masters program.  So far so good!