sorry for the improvisation...
Computation and the humanities. Data design and management. Databases, complexity, neural networks. Why these are crucial concepts - and always have been for the Humanities.
Issues at Stake:
Standards
- For consistency
- Infrastructure changes need to be considered -- need to have a long-term vision for market-based, short term recording media
- Archaic standards still in existence -- qwerty keyboard
Uses for computational humanities:
- Organizing information -- Tree diagram
May 5th class
- Childhood games - gaming technologies are being directed towards educational ends
- Oregon Trail
- Math Munchers
- Mario Teaches Typing
- Sim Ant
- Realism isn't always related to photorealism
- Data design and management
- Subscription based model - Itunes sharing
- Great Britain and the BBC - taxation for television
Simulation vs. Shoot 'Em Up
- "America's Army" as an example of interactive recruitment --> blending the virtual, inconsequential world with the war of the most consequential nature
- "Simulation" games are increasingly prevalent...the goal is no longer to escape reality but to mimic it, thus creating an equally real space for interaction
Simulation vs. Shoot 'Em Up
- "America's Army" as an example of interactive recruitment --> blending the virtual, inconsequential world with the war of the most consequential nature
- "Simulation" games are increasingly prevalent...the goal is no longer to escape reality but to mimic it, thus creating an equally real space for interaction
May 11th class -- Intellectual Property
Management of Reproduction
- This became significant when there was a growth of an educated middle-class
-->
The Public Sphere -- Consuming / Producing Media in the Public
- All dependent on readership / audience
- Ephemeral Printing key to public discourse
Creative Commons
- Tension between individual and group control, attention
- Authorship increasingly a vital issue given how technology is more collaborative
Copyright
Issues in contention:
- State upholding ownership vs. "fair use"
- Perpetuating the production of quality content (via economic incentive) vs. limiting creativity
- Digital technologies threaten this
Threats to Culture
- All culture is "remix"
- "90,000 years of human culture is about plagiarism"
- Therefore, there is no such thing as cultural creativity because we are constantly talking and building off each other
- Digital technologies tool to push human culture to near unfathomable heights of expression
Solutions
- Creative Commons / Variable Copyrights vs. "Digital Rights Management"
- Creative Commons recognizes contradictory nature of copyright law (opt out), and seeks to bridge gap between digital anarchy and constraint
