Saturday, November 30, 2002
:: Love/hate relationship? ::
What do Guiness, Apple, the Metropolitan London Police and Star Wars all have in common? Their advertising has either been critiqued in blogs or had links to their spoof ads from Mad Magazine or "Dave from Canada" showcased in blogs during the last month.
I wonder why it is that so many bloggers seem to have a love/hate relationship with advertising? It seems curious, given that a big part of the appeal of reading blogs is the ad-free nature of the vast majority of them.
What's the connection? Where's the intersection? Is it because of the ad-heavy nature of the commercial Internet? Is it because so many of the people who create the ads are, as a consequence, online? Is it because advertising has become so important to our 21st century culture that it has become popular culture in its own right?
Questions abound, as do possible assumptions, but no concrete answers are to be found to date.
Have an opinion? Voice it in the new weekly poll, over there at the left.
What do Guiness, Apple, the Metropolitan London Police and Star Wars all have in common? Their advertising has either been critiqued in blogs or had links to their spoof ads from Mad Magazine or "Dave from Canada" showcased in blogs during the last month.
I wonder why it is that so many bloggers seem to have a love/hate relationship with advertising? It seems curious, given that a big part of the appeal of reading blogs is the ad-free nature of the vast majority of them.
What's the connection? Where's the intersection? Is it because of the ad-heavy nature of the commercial Internet? Is it because so many of the people who create the ads are, as a consequence, online? Is it because advertising has become so important to our 21st century culture that it has become popular culture in its own right?
Questions abound, as do possible assumptions, but no concrete answers are to be found to date.
Have an opinion? Voice it in the new weekly poll, over there at the left.
:: Birth of the blog ::
The following is a creative essay entitled "The Birth of the Blog" that I did as a way of explaining to my fellow students the historical context behind blogging, online activism and the image versus text representation debate from Communications/Cultural Studies.
This essay was read in class as a lead-off to my November 28 oral presentation on blogging as a form of active response against online corporatization.
For a copy of my presentation, drop me a note.
The following is a creative essay entitled "The Birth of the Blog" that I did as a way of explaining to my fellow students the historical context behind blogging, online activism and the image versus text representation debate from Communications/Cultural Studies.
This essay was read in class as a lead-off to my November 28 oral presentation on blogging as a form of active response against online corporatization.
In the beginning there was the word.
The word begat sentences.
Sentences begat paragraphs which strung together
into a language that the people
could use and create themselves.
Through this, language begat communication
and communication begat meaning.
Meaning became understanding
and understanding gave birth to pleasure.
Thus did the people look at the word,
the beginning of it all.
They said the word and proclaimed that it was good.
Then along came someone who asked,
why can we not represent what we see exactly?
Why do we have only words
to show what we see is real and around us?
And the Image was born.
And along with the Image came the Company.
The Company begat a Brand
and the Brand begat the Message.
Through the Message came its offshoot, control.
Because of control
born of the Company and its Message,
Image began to wall off itself from the word.
Image began to compete with the word.
Image used colour and motion
to illustrate to the people that only the Company
could be trusted to provide their meanings and pleasures
in the online world.
The people saw the image,
experienced the motion
and they believed.
They turned their back on the word.
Until, one day, it happened.
Another person came along and said,
see? In this place, controlled by the image,
the word is still alive.
It is there, it has meaning.
But the meaning is yours to create,
yours to control, yours to decide.
Take the word, go out there and multiply.
Bring the word to the people,
for them to decide
their meanings, their pleasures in the online world.
And so they did.
For a copy of my presentation, drop me a note.
Friday, November 29, 2002
:: Let it snow! ::
I love how the light looks on an evening when it's snowing. It's brighter outside then usual for this time of November night, almost as if there is a bit of sparkle in the sky.
And the snow! It's so beautiful right now, before the people start marking it with footprints and the cars start churning it into grey-beige furrows. Everything is cloaked in this light fluffy cloud of snow, edges softened, colours muted. The trees look like they're wearing a light coat of starry whiteness and there is the smell of of crisp winter in the air, tinged a bit with the scent of woodsmoke from my neighbour's wood-burning fireplace.
Nights like this make me want to be a kid again, whose only care is whether or not Mom would let me take my Crazy Carpet out to the dike behind my childhood home to zoom and swoosh down the steep hill, over and over and over again.
Wonder what the neighbours around the street would say at the sight of a woman making snow angels in front of her condo building at 10:00 at night?
I love how the light looks on an evening when it's snowing. It's brighter outside then usual for this time of November night, almost as if there is a bit of sparkle in the sky.
And the snow! It's so beautiful right now, before the people start marking it with footprints and the cars start churning it into grey-beige furrows. Everything is cloaked in this light fluffy cloud of snow, edges softened, colours muted. The trees look like they're wearing a light coat of starry whiteness and there is the smell of of crisp winter in the air, tinged a bit with the scent of woodsmoke from my neighbour's wood-burning fireplace.
Nights like this make me want to be a kid again, whose only care is whether or not Mom would let me take my Crazy Carpet out to the dike behind my childhood home to zoom and swoosh down the steep hill, over and over and over again.
Wonder what the neighbours around the street would say at the sight of a woman making snow angels in front of her condo building at 10:00 at night?
Thursday, November 28, 2002
:: Presenting...the blogosphere! ::
As part 1 of the two part project for which this blog came into existence, I did a presentation in my COMZ class tonight on blogging as a form of resistance against the corporatized Internet. I promised a few people that I'd post the links to the blogs I showcased in my presentation, so here they are....
And the 15th and final blog shown was this one I-Space.
It was a weird thing trying to sum up the totality of experience and activity from the blogsphere in a mere 10 minute presentation. Even with keeping the screen snaps of various blogs down to a mere 15 and showing them for only 4 seconds each (paltry and insignificant exposure given their scope), I walked back to my chair feeling sort of...let down, unsatisfied, deflated. So much more to be said. Guess that means I need to keep blogging even after the professor's vote on my scholastics are in. That way I can keep on thinking about all of this and keep on participating in the medium that is the blogging.
If any of you reading this are fellow Concordia students who were in class today...welcome! I recommend sideways-surfing through the sites above, at left or through any of their link lists. I also urge you go to Blogger.com and get your own blogspace. Doesn't matter what the topic is -- be it based on your knowledge or interest in shark attacks, truth in advertising, gender and identity, rap music, graffiti, 'zines, or whatever. Get online. Create your own meanings and pleasures. Keep the word alive.
Peace! out...
As part 1 of the two part project for which this blog came into existence, I did a presentation in my COMZ class tonight on blogging as a form of resistance against the corporatized Internet. I promised a few people that I'd post the links to the blogs I showcased in my presentation, so here they are....
- Anil Dash
- Asymmetrical Information
- The Bitter Shack of Resentment
- BookSlut
- GeeGaw
- Literacy Weblog
- Little Green Footballs
- Mikel.org
- ni vu ni connu
- NoWarBlog
- No Watermelons Allowed
- Rc3.org
- StarkDavingMad
- this boy is toast
And the 15th and final blog shown was this one I-Space.
It was a weird thing trying to sum up the totality of experience and activity from the blogsphere in a mere 10 minute presentation. Even with keeping the screen snaps of various blogs down to a mere 15 and showing them for only 4 seconds each (paltry and insignificant exposure given their scope), I walked back to my chair feeling sort of...let down, unsatisfied, deflated. So much more to be said. Guess that means I need to keep blogging even after the professor's vote on my scholastics are in. That way I can keep on thinking about all of this and keep on participating in the medium that is the blogging.
If any of you reading this are fellow Concordia students who were in class today...welcome! I recommend sideways-surfing through the sites above, at left or through any of their link lists. I also urge you go to Blogger.com and get your own blogspace. Doesn't matter what the topic is -- be it based on your knowledge or interest in shark attacks, truth in advertising, gender and identity, rap music, graffiti, 'zines, or whatever. Get online. Create your own meanings and pleasures. Keep the word alive.
Peace! out...
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
:: This meaning is obvious ::
While I don't know these two bloggers personally, the power of the blogging medium has affected them both in a rather personal way.
This is, apparently, the first known wedding between bloggers who met in the blogosphere.
The "meanings and pleasures" in blogging for them seems obvious enough.
Congratulations to them both.
[ Found via Asymmetrical Information ]
While I don't know these two bloggers personally, the power of the blogging medium has affected them both in a rather personal way.
This is, apparently, the first known wedding between bloggers who met in the blogosphere.
The "meanings and pleasures" in blogging for them seems obvious enough.
Congratulations to them both.
[ Found via Asymmetrical Information ]
:: Online Advertising - Art or litter? ::
In my daily wander through the blogosphere, I came across a link that lead me to a site called "The Banner Art Collective" in which the site's managers/writers choose to highlight and extol the virtues of banner advertising.
Here is an extract of what they say about their site's purpose:
This struck me because it seems to me that the writer of this text is trying to make the same kind of argument for banner advertising that I make for blogging, but is turning the argument on its ear. Normally, I would argue against corporate anything and for independent, grassroots efforts, online activism and netizen empowerment. The Banner Art Collective however, employs the same type of language I would use for those purposes and shoehorns it to justify or glorify an online strategy that has created gigabytes, nay terabytes, of Internet litter.
I take particular issue with the second paragraph quoted above, in which the writer has claimed, "Banner art...forces viewers into a position of empowerment". I'm not sure of their take of the term empowerment, but in my reality, that word means, "actively having and employing power". I would argue that banner advertising does the opposite. It intrudes on my consciousness, it forces its way into my line of vision, it demands that I view it and notice it, regardless of my wishes in the matter. Some of the more offensive advertising online, the popovers and "subvertisements" to use the Collective's own terms, is particularly onerous, because it literally takes over my computer and my online browsing experience. It forces me to click the ad in order to rid my screen of it, so that I can go back to reading the content I was trying to absorb. It takes my eyeballs hostage (and sometimes my ears too) and doesn't let them go until I give it back whatever it wants - be it a click or just a few seconds time to let the banner's message worm its way into my brain.
I do not agree that online banner advertising is a poor, beleaguered medium that requires artistic examination or fresher viewing, which, upon a thorough browsing of their site, seems to be the purpose of the Banner Art Collective. The ads presented aren't so much ads as un-ads -- the purpose of them is unclear, their sales message distorted, murky or just plain absent. Of course, this is part of an online advertising trend I've noticed in the last few years: Don't tell me what your ad is about. Instead, just put up something obscurely artsy in the hopes that I will click it and you can "claim" my eyeballs as proof of a visit from my demographic when you re-sell your services to other advertisers.
(I'm getting ahead of myself -- I'm going to deal with the corporatization of the Internet in a different blogpost, tomorrow or this weekend)
In an absence of hard information on the site telling me what the true purpose is underlying this site, I can make many assumptions, the most convincing of which is that the people producing these ads are actually looking for jobs as banner ad creators for actual corporate campaigns.
I guess I'm starting to rant a bit now, so I'll stop here. As always, note that this is my opinion and yours may be different. Thus, I urge you to take this post however you will -- ignore my framing of this issue and site and create your own meaning based on your own visit to the Collective's site.
[Banner Art Collective link found via the Creative Generalist]
Have an opinion on this post that you care to share? Send it!
In my daily wander through the blogosphere, I came across a link that lead me to a site called "The Banner Art Collective" in which the site's managers/writers choose to highlight and extol the virtues of banner advertising.
Here is an extract of what they say about their site's purpose:
By creating and distributing art within the limitations of WWW advertising, net.artists are forced to work under stringent rules. In that regard, banner art follows in a historical tradition of working against and within the limitations of a strict, sometimes arbitrary, form. In exploring this form, they also explore the marginalization of net.art; in banner art, this marginalization is quite literal.
Banner art also forces viewers into a position of empowerment; as they discover banner art, they will become aware of the both the pervasion and possibilities of advertising space on the web, experience new art in new contexts, and be granted a sort of patron status, as they can host on their own websites work they find compelling.
This struck me because it seems to me that the writer of this text is trying to make the same kind of argument for banner advertising that I make for blogging, but is turning the argument on its ear. Normally, I would argue against corporate anything and for independent, grassroots efforts, online activism and netizen empowerment. The Banner Art Collective however, employs the same type of language I would use for those purposes and shoehorns it to justify or glorify an online strategy that has created gigabytes, nay terabytes, of Internet litter.
I take particular issue with the second paragraph quoted above, in which the writer has claimed, "Banner art...forces viewers into a position of empowerment". I'm not sure of their take of the term empowerment, but in my reality, that word means, "actively having and employing power". I would argue that banner advertising does the opposite. It intrudes on my consciousness, it forces its way into my line of vision, it demands that I view it and notice it, regardless of my wishes in the matter. Some of the more offensive advertising online, the popovers and "subvertisements" to use the Collective's own terms, is particularly onerous, because it literally takes over my computer and my online browsing experience. It forces me to click the ad in order to rid my screen of it, so that I can go back to reading the content I was trying to absorb. It takes my eyeballs hostage (and sometimes my ears too) and doesn't let them go until I give it back whatever it wants - be it a click or just a few seconds time to let the banner's message worm its way into my brain.
I do not agree that online banner advertising is a poor, beleaguered medium that requires artistic examination or fresher viewing, which, upon a thorough browsing of their site, seems to be the purpose of the Banner Art Collective. The ads presented aren't so much ads as un-ads -- the purpose of them is unclear, their sales message distorted, murky or just plain absent. Of course, this is part of an online advertising trend I've noticed in the last few years: Don't tell me what your ad is about. Instead, just put up something obscurely artsy in the hopes that I will click it and you can "claim" my eyeballs as proof of a visit from my demographic when you re-sell your services to other advertisers.
(I'm getting ahead of myself -- I'm going to deal with the corporatization of the Internet in a different blogpost, tomorrow or this weekend)
In an absence of hard information on the site telling me what the true purpose is underlying this site, I can make many assumptions, the most convincing of which is that the people producing these ads are actually looking for jobs as banner ad creators for actual corporate campaigns.
I guess I'm starting to rant a bit now, so I'll stop here. As always, note that this is my opinion and yours may be different. Thus, I urge you to take this post however you will -- ignore my framing of this issue and site and create your own meaning based on your own visit to the Collective's site.
[Banner Art Collective link found via the Creative Generalist]
Have an opinion on this post that you care to share? Send it!
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
:: Exams ::
The Christmas exam period began officially for me tonight, with the mid-term exam for my full year social psychology course. After writing 2 essays on Irving Goffman's Dramaturgical Analysis model and Erik Erikson's psychosocial life stages theory, 10+ pages each, longhand, I wanted to come home and kiss the tan-putty exterior of my spiffy PC. Thank goodness for keyboarding! How did I ever do school assignments back in the pre-PC days? Sheesh -- I shudder to think about it.
As such, I'm more than a little hand-sore, brain dead and body-tired. I just want to plop down on my green couch and watch Kiefer Sutherland live his way through another hour on 24. There is no original thought or concise analysis left in me to share with you here, tonight.
Until tomorrow then...
The Christmas exam period began officially for me tonight, with the mid-term exam for my full year social psychology course. After writing 2 essays on Irving Goffman's Dramaturgical Analysis model and Erik Erikson's psychosocial life stages theory, 10+ pages each, longhand, I wanted to come home and kiss the tan-putty exterior of my spiffy PC. Thank goodness for keyboarding! How did I ever do school assignments back in the pre-PC days? Sheesh -- I shudder to think about it.
As such, I'm more than a little hand-sore, brain dead and body-tired. I just want to plop down on my green couch and watch Kiefer Sutherland live his way through another hour on 24. There is no original thought or concise analysis left in me to share with you here, tonight.
Until tomorrow then...
Monday, November 25, 2002
:: Open representations (Part II) ::
Inverting web design
In Part I of this topic, I discussed the absence of images in the blogosphere and argued that this puts stronger emphasis on the textual content of each blogspace.
In this post, I want to discuss how the emphasis on the text begins at the beginning, when a blogger is managing their blog.
Creating a blog using a system like the one here, Blogger, is suprisingly easy to do. You fill in a short registration form, choose a name for your blog, decide if you want Blogger to provide you with the space or you will use space you own from elsewhere on the net. (You'll note by the little icon down there on the left that I let Blogger host I-Space) With these three steps completed, voila! You're in.
The interface is very clean and white, rather like the word processsing packages we are all used to using. While there is a bit of HTML needed to add in fancier formatting types, the basics are provided behind buttons for the beginning blogger.
Adding a graphical interface that is well organized, attractive and keeps the emphasis on the content is not usually an easy feat. However, because of the way services like Blogger are setup, your textual content stays independant of the rest of your blog. That means that to add your interface, you need only browse through a list of templates and choose the one you wish to apply to your own space. A few more clicks and that's it.
So what does all this have to do with Stuart Hall and his ideas on representation? The idea of the image being dominant, of it being the controlling factor in putting out meaning, of letting it dominate text, of letting it represent the message, is thwarted in the blogosphere. With the emphasis in blogs staying squarely on the words and phrases and paragraphs and textual posts, the imagery and colour and visual organization are subordinated to the message. Their purpose, if present, is to provide highlight and organization for the words, rather than the words supporting the images, as is the case elsewhere on the corporate Internet, and indeed elsewhere generally in the media's mediums.
It would seem to me, then, that there is less chance of mis-representation. While I am not naive enough to believe that no one ever misinterprets a textual message, I do believe it is more difficult to do.
Thus, the bloggers' are able to keep the limelight focused squarely on their ideas and intentions.
In the next part of this topic, due later this week, I'll discuss how things are with images and representation outside the blogosphere.
Inverting web design
In Part I of this topic, I discussed the absence of images in the blogosphere and argued that this puts stronger emphasis on the textual content of each blogspace.
In this post, I want to discuss how the emphasis on the text begins at the beginning, when a blogger is managing their blog.
Creating a blog using a system like the one here, Blogger, is suprisingly easy to do. You fill in a short registration form, choose a name for your blog, decide if you want Blogger to provide you with the space or you will use space you own from elsewhere on the net. (You'll note by the little icon down there on the left that I let Blogger host I-Space) With these three steps completed, voila! You're in.
The interface is very clean and white, rather like the word processsing packages we are all used to using. While there is a bit of HTML needed to add in fancier formatting types, the basics are provided behind buttons for the beginning blogger.
Adding a graphical interface that is well organized, attractive and keeps the emphasis on the content is not usually an easy feat. However, because of the way services like Blogger are setup, your textual content stays independant of the rest of your blog. That means that to add your interface, you need only browse through a list of templates and choose the one you wish to apply to your own space. A few more clicks and that's it.
So what does all this have to do with Stuart Hall and his ideas on representation? The idea of the image being dominant, of it being the controlling factor in putting out meaning, of letting it dominate text, of letting it represent the message, is thwarted in the blogosphere. With the emphasis in blogs staying squarely on the words and phrases and paragraphs and textual posts, the imagery and colour and visual organization are subordinated to the message. Their purpose, if present, is to provide highlight and organization for the words, rather than the words supporting the images, as is the case elsewhere on the corporate Internet, and indeed elsewhere generally in the media's mediums.
It would seem to me, then, that there is less chance of mis-representation. While I am not naive enough to believe that no one ever misinterprets a textual message, I do believe it is more difficult to do.
Thus, the bloggers' are able to keep the limelight focused squarely on their ideas and intentions.
In the next part of this topic, due later this week, I'll discuss how things are with images and representation outside the blogosphere.
Sunday, November 24, 2002
:: Search and ye shall find ::
In the spirit of giving credit where it is due, I've just added a Google search bar at the bottom of my space, thanks to a bit of code-lifting I did from NoWatermelonsAllowed. I've tweaked the code of course so that it searches my own space. It's pretty cool. Try it out.
In the spirit of giving credit where it is due, I've just added a Google search bar at the bottom of my space, thanks to a bit of code-lifting I did from NoWatermelonsAllowed. I've tweaked the code of course so that it searches my own space. It's pretty cool. Try it out.
:: Truth and more truth ::
Considering part of the purpose of my Mass Communications course is to highlight the extent to which advertising, brands and consumerism have permeated our North American culture, I found this article in The Onion quite humourous.
And for real raw truth in advertising, check out this clip (requires QuickTime plugin and contains many obscenities - you may not want to watch it at work!)
(Found "Truth" clip via The Creative Generalist)
Considering part of the purpose of my Mass Communications course is to highlight the extent to which advertising, brands and consumerism have permeated our North American culture, I found this article in The Onion quite humourous.
And for real raw truth in advertising, check out this clip (requires QuickTime plugin and contains many obscenities - you may not want to watch it at work!)
(Found "Truth" clip via The Creative Generalist)
