Dale's Blog

Space in virtual worlds

dbowers24 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:54:05 +0000

Social landscape, especially public places, is how people interact. Depending on the settings of the place, people can connect. People try to connect with people in settings they feel comfortable in, even if it online in a virtual world. These factors can be how open a place is or how crowded a place is. There is an example that something that looks simple on the outside can be complex on the inside. Objects in places can influence how and if people interact. For example, if there is a couch, people can sit together. Places can also reflect a person’s personality. They can design their house to how they live. All of these factors contribute to how people can interact.

Trust/Communication in online friendship

dbowers24 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:44:05 +0000

This article is about the value of trust and personal communication between people looking for online friendships. The authors state that there is a closeness, intimacy, and familiarity with trust. People feel more comfortable with people they know or at least trust.

Second Life Places

dbowers24 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:26:38 +0000

Siggy’s Waterworks Island is a fun water park. You can dive off cliffs. There are swimming pools but you can’t really swim in them, just walk. Prim Hearts is an amusement park. I could not figure out how to ride anything. There is the standard assortment of theme park rides. One horror type car ride is pretty cool. It has ghosts and other things that aren’t scary but fun. There is also a teleport machine. Lagna Art Museum showcases works of art. I liked this place but it was confusing at first figuring out how to get on the higher floors. Art Mecho Museum starts with some weird Asian looking girls giving peace signs. There is a mosaic which is pretty cool but it is hard to make out what the pieces of art are. Tender Care Maternity Clinic is exactly what it sounds like. It doesn’t seem as educational as I thought it would be. However, I don’t know the purpose of the place. The Shelter has games and free costumes. It seems weird and I don’t know if shelter is just the name or if its like a shelter for certain types of people. Asagao Memorial Park is the most peaceful place. I am not sure that that is the purpose of it. It is obviously a memorial park. St. Paul Catholic Chuch is one of the strangest places. It has a lot of images of semi-nude woman. It seems like it is some type of body image representation. There is some type of church with pews. Holocaust museum is another place that is exactly what the name says. It also was a little confusing because the landscape made it hard to navigate around the land. Princeton University did not let me teleport. It said that the link will not let you teleport to the place.

Database Society

dbowers24 — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:48:39 +0000

This is a confusing article because of how much information there is and how it is said. It seems that the article is about how technology has made it possible for people to communicate with anyone in the world. From this, people that use the technology have become a digital society. The author of the article says that all of this networking is based on a database system. Some people take the virtual world very seriously. In some cases they think of it as their real life. In the virtual world people can live out their life however they want.

Second Life and Avatars

dbowers24 — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:21:16 +0000

Social networking has become a big hit since internet became readily available for people of all backgrounds. There are a lot of different networking sites. Some of these social networking applications use real identity. Other networking requires people to use an avatar or some other type of representation of themselves’.

This is all based on new technologies and building on new uses of the internet.

Facebook and Myspace are based on people using their true identity. Many video game platforms use some type of avatar for personal identity. An example is the people used in Sony Playstation Home. However, Home is more realistic than others such as Second Life. People in Second Life can use realistic representations of themselves’ or they can let their imagination run wild. They can create avatars that aren’t even human.

dbowers24 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:27:09 +0000

keep3.sjfc.edu/students/djb03121/flash/patricksday

podcast site

dbowers24 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:19:55 +0000

http://dbowers24.podbean.com/

Digital Art

dbowers24 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:56:14 +0000

At first I chose the piece labeled, davidflash, becomes none of the other links seem to work. However, after watching it and the others that worked, this one seemed the most interesting.

Many people would probably agree that it is pretty different than most standard art and not just the fact that it is digital art. It would probably be considered avant-garde. Others might agree with me that it seems funny, even if that isn’t the purpose of the piece.

The piece is presented using a St. John Fisher College website. The website name doesn’t try to hide the fact that it is college website. After entering the website, it automatically starts the piece. One interesting thing to note is the face there are no controls to speak of such as pause or replay.

It starts with music at a low volume and a beach with two chairs. Within a few seconds it beings. A seagull or some time of bird walks across the screen. Then six crabs form as one and walks across the beach sand. Michelangelo’s David and another statue are behind the two beach chairs. They are in beach clothes. They walk off the screen.

They are then seen in pirate clothes in a row boat and an octopus takes down a ship. They are seen in party type clothes in a hotel. The music grows throughout the piece. The movements of everything are very smooth and unrealistic.

Most people after finishing watching this are probably confused. Many people that aren’t open-minded would probably instantly hate it. Its not that open-minded people won’t dislike it, it is just that they will probably think before judging it.

I could be misinterpreting the whole piece but it seems to me that it has a political message. It seems that in the first part of the piece, the six crabs coming together to form as one is a statement. That is if the six continents with people could form as one, we would have a perfect beach or perfect world.

The pirates seem to be the only really significant political part of the piece. I think it has to do with all the recent pirate activity in the Asian, African, and European waters. The news stories online are about how pirates have been holding ships ransom. Some countries pay, others don’t. Some countries are taking military action to stop it. It seems like this might be bigger news than other issues. That could be a reason why it is in this piece.

I am not sure if the third part of the piece continues the same political meaning. It could be that with a perfect would and with no pirates, it would be like going to a fancy party at a fancy hotel.

Everything in life is viewed differently in other cultures. Even though people usually don’t understand other cultures, it seems that art is something that people can at least relate to. Not knowing the artist, many would have to assume that piece was created by someone from American culture.

Many people will probably misunderstand this piece, regarding their culture. It is confusing because it digital and because it is avant-garde like. It is probably not the normal art of any culture.

Depending on the meaning of the piece, other cultures might agree or disagree with the potential meaning of the piece. If the meaning is about world peace, I think might other cultures would agree with it. If it is like a terrorist culture, it probably wouldn’t agree with this and might take it as a shot against them

I don’t think many artists really care whether or not non-educated people like or dislike certain pieces of art. Artists make art for themselves’. In this particular case it seems to hold true, that the artist didn’t make this for other people, they made if for them.

Digital Media

dbowers24 — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:42:00 +0000

Digital media has changed many the way people use data. Throughout the article, the idea of cyberspace is mentioned. In the article, cyberspace is described as a place where digital technologies occur. One of the main parts of the internet is Web 2.0. This is the idea that all people that use the internet are participating, whether they checking e-mail, buying something online, and other various tasks. It seems to be implied that these technologies are made for people of all ages. The technologies can also be use for more than just data, leisure. Gaming is an example. The end of the article states that with new technology, digital or cultural imperialism will take of other cultural mediums. Will the internet make other mediums obsolete? What other types of digital mediums will possibly take over digital media culture?

Art In the Digital Age

dbowers24 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:25:04 +0000

This article seems to about how people find and follow art online. Some popular photo/video sharing sites are FLICKR and YouTube, respectfully. People use these sites because they are relatively easy to find things they might like. The article mentions that they use complicated algorithms to characterize and group similar things together. This is really useful for searching for something that someone might want to find. Another thing mentioned in the article is interactivity with the author. On these sites, people can communicate with the author/artists and other people. It is like a comment section on blogs and other personal sites. These technologies are converging because it makes things generally easier. Most people can use these. With sites like istockphoto.com be able to replace photographers? Do people use these to get there art/work out to the public or more for personal gain?