Wrapping up the Semester

Conclusions about Catfish


The Future of the Web:


Evolution Web 3.0



THEN MORE FROM RUSHKOFF:

Merchants of Cool
Hunting for Cool, Under the Radar Marketing, Giant Feedback Loop

The Persuaders (I believe we watched this)
Giving us what we want


If we have time, lets watch part of the documentary, Helvetica:

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70076125&trkid=2450709




REMEMBER, WE WILL HAVE A REVIEW FOR OUR TEST ON TUES, FOLLOWED BY THE FINAL TEST ON THUR THE 5TH.
SO WE WILL NOT HAVE A FINAL DURING OUR FINAL SLOT.
MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND THE FINAL TEST ON THUR THE 5TH



If interested watch the below lecture by Ray Kurzweil on the future of technology:

"The computer in your cell phone is a million times cheaper, and a thousand times more powerful, and 100 times smaller than the biggest computer at MIT in 1965.. So what used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket...
What fits in your pocket today will fit inside a Blood Cell in 25 years"

Ray Kurzweil Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil ( born February 12, 1948) is an American author, inventor and futurist.

Lets Watch Evolution WEB 3.0

continue (and finish catfish)

Start catfish at 36min...

we are going to finish this..

Due Thurs. a blog posting giving your analysis of "catfish" how does it fit in to our larger discussions of democratized media and web 2.0?

Use examples from class, other videos, and readings

equivalent to 3 or more pages..

CATFISH: a docu-reality drama... Jersey Shore meets Hitchcock

36min


Review: Catfish, a documentary that begins as a love story, shifts into a mystery, and ultimately ends as a somewhat touching and sad portrait of life.

Catfish is a difficult film to review, as the biggest moment in this documentary is also the one that can’t be revealed without spoiling it for anyone that has yet to see it.  It is a documentary from filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman that focuses on Schulman’s 24-year old photographer brother, Yaniv “Nev” Schulman, as he experiences a shocking surprise stemming from a romance that began on Facebook.  If you have seen the trailers or commercials, then you know that the film is based around this surprise, and the rest of the plot revolves around this major twist like planets orbiting around the sun.  But what you won’t gleam from the trailers is that while the surprise might be the driving force of the documentary, the film really shines in the deep and thoughtful examination of why things are the way they are in the first place.  In doing so, it elevates Catfish from the internet cautionary tale that it could have been, to something far more.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/entertainment/catfish-review/

Catfish is a 2010 documentary film involving a man being filmed by his friends as he builds a romantic relationship on the social networking website Facebook with an attractive girl, and the mysterious results  when they all go to visit her.

Plot: In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel’s brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

READ THIS FOR NEXT THUR:

GUARDIAN UK REVIEW

LINK TO FILM

http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/divxden.php?id=7jaykhwc0z0j

FINISH WATCHING EXIT

START AT 1:05


THEN WE WILL DISCUSS AND I WILL GIVE YOU ASSIGNMENT DUE THUR.

____________________________________


WAS THIS A "PRANKUMENTARY"

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article7041650.ece

http://www.fastcompany.com/1616365/banksy-movie-prankumentary 

Possible Topics:

Compare and Contrast the work of MBW to that of other street artists profiled in the film. How does it stand up?

What does the anonymity of Banksy say to the audience and to the ideas behind his work?

Would MBW's quick rise to fame have been possible without the internet or global networking?

How Did this documentary compare to reality TV?

Do you feel that "Mister Brain Wash" is a legitimate artist who is creating meaningful art?

What does the street art movement say about our voyeuristic culture of surveillance?

What do you think about Terry Guetta's idea of the importance of filming everything. Was he famous before his art? What happened to his family?

Does the fact that the work is illegal change the meaning of the work? Does it weaken or empower it?


DUE THUR.
Create a blog posting equivalent to a 3 page paper (single-spaced) that initially analyzes Banksey's Exit through the gift shop, describing the over arching meaning and point, followed by answering one of the questions from above.

continue watching exit through the gift shop

we will continue where we left last time

next time start at 1:05:29

private lives as public theater: from Wells to Banksy

Some Background into our culture of Surveillance:


In recent years, televisions's reality shows and talent competitions have offered people a conflicted chance at fame, while various kinds of Web-Based social media have pioneered new forms of communication that people increasingly use to perform their private lives as public theater.


Durning the same period, governments worldwide have asserted vast new powers of surveillance, placing unwitting "participants" on an entirely different kind of stage.


Discussion Topics:
What are some examples of Web-Based social media have pioneered new forms of communication that are used to put our private lives of public display?
How important is "fame" to the average person?
Do people follow the trends set by popular media?
Is it appealing for people to invite others to view our private lives?


Soliciting the collaboration of others with (and without) their knowledge:

Orson Wells
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_for_Fake


Culture Jamming

Culture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many consumer social movements^[4] to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Culture jamming is often seen as a form of subvertising. Many culture jams are intended to expose apparently questionable political assumptions behind commercial culture. Common tactics include re-figuring logos, fashion statements, and product images as a means to challenge the idea of "what's cool" along with assumptions about the personal freedoms of consumption.

Culture jamming sometimes entails transforming mass media to produce ironic or satirical commentary about itself, using the original medium's communication method. Culture jamming is usually employed in opposition to a perceived appropriation of public space, or as a reaction against social conformity.

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

Banksy is an anonymous British graffiti artist, political activist, film director and painter. Hissatirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world

Street Art, Situationists and 

Détournement and 

Dérive

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

And: EXIT THROUGH THE GIFTSHOP..

Watch in class

stopped at 13:25

More illustrator (and photoshop)

1. Tutorial Rasterizing vectors

show the vector text in photoshop
explain rasterization
explanation of optimization of vector graphics (rasterizing) from .ai to .jpg/gif


2. Tracing Bitmaps in Illustrator

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6229a.html

due Thurs.

1. Posting with your illustrator art on your blog next to the original graphic you reproduced.

2. a second posting, with a trace of a bitmap graphic, vectorized using the live trace option in illustrator