Surveillance

Nowadays you have to be very careful with what you say on the internet. Because of the increasing terrorism and weird people who are randomly shooting around, people are very alert to signs that can possibly indicate such an attack.

There are some things you just can’t do, like saying ‘Bomb’ just for fun while you’re in an airplane. What you say at home, you have to decide your own, it’s your personal space, but when you are in a public space you are obliged to follow some rules. And this is where some people get in trouble sometimes. Digital spaces like Facebook and Twitter seem to be very private and are often used by people to ventilate their thoughts, opinions or what they are doing at that specific moment. What we actually may not forget is that Facebook and Twitter aren’t private at all, they are highly public. So, unlike what everyone seems to think, not everything is allowed on Facebook and Twitter. Just like in normal public spaces there are some rules, written and unwritten. You can’t say everything you want on the internet. Especially on the internet it is difficult to know what the intentions of someone are. Maybe it is a joke, but what if it isn’t? Everything you say on the internet can have consequences in real life. For example a few months ago a teenage girl posted a tweet that she was going to blow up her school. This message was taken very seriously and the girl was arrested by the police. The girl didn’t mean to blow up the school, she was just making a joke, but based on the tweet you can’t say whether it is either serious or light-hearted. So the police won’t take the risk.

The activities of the police now include the real world as well as the internet. The internet is used to track down criminals. For instance Osama Bin Laden, when he would make a phone call, his messenger walked up to 60 kilometres or more before he put the battery into the phone to make a call. Otherwise he was afraid that people would be able to trace the location of Osama Bin laden and catch him. But there is not only police surveillance. Also other people can see what you say and do on the internet. When you are applying for a new job, the employer shall often google your name to get more information about you. When you have put something on the internet which doesn’t apply with the company’s general ideas, probably you should forget the job.

More and more we are gaining awareness of the fact that we have to be careful with what we say and do on the internet. But there are still people who put things on the internet they shouldn’t. We have to ask ourselves: shouldn’t there be a special internet police force?

By Kiyara Venner

Artificiality

Is art restricted to people or does people only call it art when people make it? The last part of this question is easy to answer because people can talk about wonders when they are surprised by nature. For example animals which are brightly coloured to frighten others away are made by nature. There isn’t always one explanation why something happened and why the nature has made these things. We can explore nature but we can’t always find the answers. And we can’t figure out why the nature has made such animals or something else. It seems to me wonders of nature and even life itself can be seen as an art.

So does making art, creating things and inventing stuff makes man more human?

It seems to be a fascination of humans to think of creations, inventions and even model life like human beings. Technology itself is invented to break borders of humanity and life. People who discovered the earth and also the human body were searching for objects usable for transport and surviving. Biological studies make our understanding of the human body greater. Studying nature develops our ideas of how things work. And all this knowledge gives us the opportunity to make our life easier.

But now science doesn’t exist only for knowledge of the world or nature, but also for making art. Inoperable knowledge of colours, reactions of substances and technology are used by artists to create new things. This way of using science creates awareness but it also gives us the chance to show beauty to the world. Showing the world that something which isn’t nature can possibly exist.

Next to it people are fascinated by creating a sort of intelligence equal to the humans. Is it a suppressed wish to play a creator of life? Or is it an utterance to figure out how the world works and to control it? Does art mean something, does it must have a cause? Is it an expression or just a discovery? And how far do we go to call technology art? Because functional technology which we use to restore human bodies, is it art or ‘just’ a trick to correct the body?

By Anne-Hilde de Boone

Representation of the human body in art and culture

Our body isn’t only a biological phenomenon but also a cultural and social construction. It’s something between a nature and cultural expression because it is used to show for example purity or pride in Africa. A woman in nations like the Masai, Bana and Hamar shows other people with bracelets and necklaces of grains and shells their marriage, children and their beauty. Religion carries much weight with the perception of the human body.

Beside of the influence of culture we also use it for social purpose. We use our body as the physical and visual aspect of our identity. We dress it up, we take care of it and we use it to show the world what we feel, like and do from our believing. We use clothes, make-up, tattoos, body piercings and some people even use surgery to get a perfect body. In some cultures it is common to carve the body for identification with a family group. The time, the culture and even the society we live in influence our perception of body.

When we look at human bodies as a biological, cultural and social construction it’s a small step to see the body as a piece of art. We use it for our performance: to see en be seen. We want to get recognition in the world and also gain self-confidence. We want to be visible in some way.

Visibility can be important when you want to be approved in a social environment. With the first time you  are seen people judge you on your appearance. When people think you’re sympathetic they will approach you more positive than when they think you’re haughty. Beside your appearance you will also be criticized on your behaviour: the way you act and react on several things. The appearance affected the opinion of people and it will be influenced by itself because of our cultural standards.

So is our perspective not restricted by our cultural standards? It definitely limits our expressions. Think about your childhood at the time you were playing with finger paint. Not aware of limits or mess. Just to play with your hands and the paint. The activity is a symbol for the childhood and spontaneous expressions. No limits between art and the artist because of rational approach. It seems to be that grown-ups have made the rules to control the world. My question is does this limits our perspective at bodies and representation?

By Anne-Hilde de Boone

Awareness and re-reality

Is the variety of media responsible for the way they portray a certain reality? Is it even possible to call this reality? Or is the audience responsible to be aware of how much is real on the television, the web or on other visual media?

The media does have a big influence on how society looks at the world and how we form our values. For example: The fact that America has an Afro-American for president. This was something that was inconceivable for many centuries. And yet it’s a fact. Is this acceptance stimulated by the media, like film and big public TV figures like Oprah? Portraying black presidents existed in science-fiction film scenarios in the seventies as a futuristic tint, with recently the series 24, where the black president was everything you wish for in a president. Has the way these media portray Afro-Americans influenced the public to accept eventually a black president. Or is the way that black people are being shown on TV and film the result of how they are seen by the society? It is probably somewhere in the middle, but as more and more of the “real” world is being incorporated and represented by the visual media the line between real and re-presentation is getting thinner and thinner. Facts can be shaped by the makers view and its montage. And even the thoughts of the audience can be shaped and directed by the way this is done.

Ultimately we need a certain balance between the media and the audience. In a way everybody is audience as well as media at this day and age, because of the accessibility of the media. As a society we need to grow up, learn and write rules for the new virtual reality. The creative “elites” and developers of the world often have a more open and progressive view on minorities and life in general. They are the frontrunners of society. Doesn’t bring this a responsibility of how they represent reality and bring fiction to the attention of the viewers? The creatives and forerunners in the media can have a big influence on how the world is developing.

By Muriel

Bad publicity is also publicity

In the class of last week Martijn Stevens spoke among other things about mediation and how people profile in the digital world. Many people use the internet to get attention or to profile themselves in a certain way. For example people who make films of themselves and put the films on Youtube so everybody can see them. These films are only put on the internet to get attention, to get noticed. And it works, often these films have lots of viewers and are widespread.

For example the Numa numa guy. What do we have to think about this?  Is it good that people make fun of other people. Because that is what happened, people laugh because it is so funny that the boy is acting so weird. In this manner the boy has become an image on the internet. But is it a good image? Can we perhaps speak of a form of bad publicity?

Publicity and thereby visibility are very important by creating a reputation or brand awareness. Social media like Youtube, Twitter, Facebook are more and more used for this purpose. We can create a reputation, but how do we create the image of ourselves we want that other people have of us? You can get a reputation in a good or in a bad way. We often see this happen in politics, where politicians make sure they are in the news during the election. But we can also name an example closer to home. For example; today’s elections on our own university.

This year there is a new student-party on our university, Asap. This new student-party has to get a place next to the two other student-partys Akkuraatd and Siam. Asap has to get noticed to get votes. One way Asap is trying to get attention by the use of social media. They have there own facebook page, twitter account and of course a website. When they behave normally on the internet, it’s all good publicity. But what if someone of the Asap will do something that isn’t aloud. The name of Asap will then be all over the local news and everybody would know the existence of Asap. But the question is; how will people see Asap when something like that would happen? Would it be a positive or a negative view? I think that without being aware of it, the name Asap will be stored in our brain and when we have to vote and see the name again, we will recognise the name and people are often more inclined to chose for something that is familiar.

You have an expression that says: bad publicity is also publicity. So if we want to get attention it seems like it doesn’t matter in which way. More important is that we are visible, one way or another.

By Kiyara Venner

Computer games for seriously cases

More often, computer games are used for seriously cases and it has become very popular in the late century. Serious Gaming is not about entertainment like most Games, but it’s all about a primary purpose, it’s designed for the purpose of solving a problem. The “serious” adjective is generally pretended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, and politics. The category of serious games for training is also known as “game-learning”.

The Ministry of Defense used simulators and computer games for soldiers to prepare them for military missions. Thanks to inventions by game developers, war situations can be simulated in detail now. Like, fighter pilots they learn to rescue themselves safely in dangerous situations. And military officers have been using war games in order to train strategic skills for a long time.

Also young doctors use virtual worlds for their prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. UMC Utrecht develop a serious game for young doctors. This game enables doctors to practice incidents that often occur in practice. Thanks to the virtual worlds doctors, military etc. are prepared for every situation.

Next to serious gaming, we know a lot of games and internet websites that have a entertaining role. Like World Of Warcraft. One of the most popular worldwide online Game. Games, like World of Warcraft are so addictive because you constantly need to come online to prove yourself to others. It’s also important because the more you are in the virtual world the more you will grow in this world and the more respect you get from others who are living/playing in this world.

The virtual world knows advantages and disadvantages. Thanks to the Serious Gaming we can learn how to solves problems that we encounter in reality.  And thanks to the internet , virtual reality has become more important from the business world to the clothing industry -and this is good for the economy-. Strange enough, we cannot live without the virtual world. Because It has become a part of our lives.  The real world is connected with the virtual world.
Unfortunately, every advantage has it’s disadvantage too. The virtual world can create a perfect world for entertainment. Because the virtual world is better than the real world, the virtual world can be used as a refuge. We hear more often about game addictions and about people who are living totally in a virtual world.

We can ask ourselves is this a disadvantage or a advantage? Will we lose taught of what’s real and what not? Technology will keep growing, the virtual world grows bigger and I wonder ‘what will remain of the real world?’ However we can’t live without the technology because we grown up with this kind of technology. So maybe the virtual world has already become a part of the real world.  Maybe we shouldn’t worry about all these questions but somehow I wonder, “where are the limits of the virtually world? And are there any limits to separate the real world from the virtual world?”

Do we care?

By Marjory Bax

What about art?

Is it a personal matter or a community good?

Today I have read an article in De Volkskrant about pieces pizza in several museums. It is an action of two people from the community Post Scripted Artists who would like to explore the borders of art. They asked themselves if you’re an artist when your works is hanging in a museum, is something automatically art when it’s in a museum?”

In my opinion this article is consistent with our Board by the central question: what exactly is art? The discussion isn’t new. Decades new artists using different perspectives on art that (not) consistent with the traditional point of view. Like Duchamp who invent ready-mades in the 20th century.

It is an issue of subjectivity. Are you convinced about the intrinsic value in art pieces? Or do you think it’s granted by the public or critics? Whether you like it or not doesn’t matter because everybody has its own point of view.

Although consensus can be reach about the appearance of art. In history, painting, theatre, music and literature were being defined as art. On my searching through the internet I have seen the sentence: “Art is form and content”. This is typically the issue of the discussion. Art will be marked by the artists (because it is an expression of something). Against it has to be recognized and characterized by others to gets its place in a museum. You may call it art or not, but it’s for most artists primarily an exploration of the world, the culture, materials and also the conventions of peoples. It’s an expression of feelings, and impression of the artists themselves. And that makes it so hard to define whether it’s art or not.

Art can show you a whole new world of interpretation and provide inspiration and even creation. To make sure art will be an experience of something you have to keep it alive. Keep space for other interpretation or art concept or art trail and you will keep people enthusiastic about art in general. Let it be the imagination to rule the world and you’ll see a whole new world which can be explored.

By Anne-Hilde de Boone

Transmedia storytelling

The interactive way of communication with the new ‘digital generation’ invites others to use the media in different ways. The diversity of media invites us to explore not only the digital market, but also the thoughts of ‘our reality’.

Our (universal) need to carry out our observations and experiences and to translate these into a material view isn’t new. It has its tracks in the Stone Age, namely the paintings in the caves. The construction where these views convert into narratives is the underlying core in making art. In my opinion, to tell a story has its influence on our perspective. Our guide in traditional classic painting, literature, theatre etc. was lead by our idea of storytelling. Even when realistic views take over the idealistic ones the tracks of different perspectives are traceable.

When we accept storytelling as a (universal) need from people, we can also agree that it has participated in our perception of the world. Our identity is closely linked with our personal story. This personal story is our identity as a construct that is increasingly influenced by new experiences. We will create again and again a new idea of being. And so we’ll introduce more different narratives.

The ability to display narratives these days is also possible using the digitization. The digitalisation of it also provides a higher interactive stage between the creator and another person. Because the created narrative inviting you to experience and explore it. Then the experiencing of the impact of the narrative can influence the story. By coming into contact with each other together devise a new or different story.

The digitalisation hasn’t only affected our perspective on narratives, but also has the globalizing network traces it left behind. A story can have a closed end, but it will never be finished. The thoughts may perhaps continue a story and therefore to provide inspiration to one other. Then can be displayed differently with each view will be a contribution to the whole story.

Using the globalised networks and the digitalisation we can explore more beginnings and endings of different stories. The story never ends. (or: A never ending story…)

By Anne-Hilde de Boone

Digital safety

How do people experience the digital reality? You log in and out in the safe zone of your comfy couch or desk. And if you’re handling sensitive information you might even look over your shoulder, to make sure nobody is spying on you. The virtual world seems to be anonymous, reliable and safe. But is this feeling of safety just. Or is the way companies and other unknown entities, use digitalization, a danger most of the public doesn’t see.  Al the movements, searching and social networking you do on the world wide web leaves a digital footprint. Some company’s even have databases with all the virtual moves you make. Your private data is being munched at by unknown parties for unknown usage.  That’s something you have no control over as soon as you put it out there. Every adolescent remark or every private obscure photo, you might not even have placed it. Even so, erasing is pretty much impossible!

For example: In yesterday news we saw an item of the GPS-system TomTom that sells information of his users to third parties, which include the police. The police uses the information to see where people break in the speed limit. In this way the police knows where to do speed controls. The users of TomTom are not aware of this and they see it as violation of their privacy.

Other examples in that type are Google and Apple, two other big names in the digital environment. Google uses the information in your mail and searching for commercials and even gives out information to third parties. Apple’s “playthings” the I-pad and the I-phone register the owners whereabouts every minute and this is stored indefinitely at a database. This data is accessible to any able surfer on the digital highway.

The awareness is growing by any incident that makes the news or is rumored in private circles. The question is one of privacy.  This new virtual reality needs a new set of rules. And foremost an aware consumer, who weights out the risks of putting there life out in to the world.

By Muriel Simonis

A digital picture of a still life is more or less real than a printed picture of a still life?

Nowadays almost everyone is using a digital camera. When we say ‘cheese’ and we press the button an image is made. Instead of using light sensitive film, they use light sensitive sensors. The image is stored as a digital file, which means it exist of digital codes. So the image that we see on the screen isn’t really an image, but translated codes, which form a representation of the moment we pressed the button.

If we print the image, it appears on a paper, which we can touch. But does that make the image more real?

We think that a printed photo isn’t more real than a digital image of the photo. In fact a printed photo might be less real than a digital image for you. Because when you print an image it has to be translated from digital code to a photo. The digital file has to be translated to a picture (on a computer screen) and than the picture needs to be translated into the language of a printer before you can touch the photo.

Then we also have a painted still life. How does the painting relate to the digital and printed picture? A painting is also a representation of something in our visible reality. You can say that the image is already in the paint before it was even painted. The artist plays the role of translator. With digital photo’s you have something similar. You can compare the artist with the computer: they both translate something into another medium.  The only difference is that a painting is touchable and a digital image isn’t.

How does it come that we tend to see things that are touchable as more real? Things you can touch are often associated with things that are real. In contrast the things you see on your computer screen are often associated with non-real or virtuality. The physical reality plays an important role, because we are used to have touchable things around us, which we accept to be real.  The question that is left: how do we know the world around us, as we experience it, is real? According to the philosopher Plato, the world we see, is a world of representation. Everything we see is an image of the concepts in the ‘world of Ideas’. He also thought that art was illusional, because it represents an image of an image of an idea. If Plato had lived in the digital culture, what would he have thought about it. Would he have said the digital camera creates an image of an image of an image of an idea?

By Kiyara Venner