Flow Conference "New Technologies" Panel @ 12:45pm

BTW, these are roundtable discussions and my notes will be kind of odd, but I think it will be fun

This is a table moderated by American Studies student Carol Kocurek -- proposed by Ken McCallister.

The idea is to look at how media artifacts of the past are placed in future media arenas. Whnat are the implications of this

Caitlin Benson-Allott (Cornell, Ph.D. Candidate) - I wondered what goes these new media innovations are working towards and what is it that happens when we have a relentless pursuit of entertainment. Looking from Apparatus studies and reception studies. She is really interested in obsolete media, in particular the VCR and the effects it has on the reception of film. Concerned that there is a move away from technology and it came from certain set of problems. What is the value of newness and the value of newness in the position of thinking about the past and the present.

Christorpher Hanson (USC, Ph.D. Candidate) -- Interested in secondary and ancillary devices and how they influence the dominant forms of media (VCR for example, etc). This is an odd set of success and the success of VHS over Beta and this had to do with time one could record. Now he is looking at the influence of game consoles with PS2 is in 120 million homes. This has to do with the BluRay trojan horses and these secondary devices are key.

Lou Rutigliano (Ph.D. Student at UT Austin) - In reading the response papers I was looking at the new media and the idea of the weblog is key for him. He is interested in Weblogging in Journalism and how the industry is changing, The user generated content movement raises issues about the society. Quotes Carloynb Marvin in "When Old Technologies Were New" -- the idea of the historical developments that come about the utopia of decentralized power of blogs was also key in thinking about eletrification. We need to look at the rise for the rise of legislation and control of these for power and control.

Ken McCallister (Assoc Prof at University of Arizona in Rhetoric) - One of the cool things about a conference like this is that it is actually pleasurable and this is key. We have an emphasis on trasndisciplinarity looking at issues of power, identity and the like. And there is an emphasis on media specificity as well. But this key ... one of the things that got picked up where both multyipurpose and one needed to understand political economic questions as well.

Discussion --

Carol -- what makes something a new technology?

Ken -- Lou, you look at the subversive aspects of "new techs" - do we think that?

Lou -- yeah, I do think of it as that. And this seems to be up for grabs in some way. When that fades that tech loses its interest for me. It is in that early stage when you can participate in it

Audience -- What about when a tech is developed by a company like AT&T who set up cell phones. One of the things that picked this new tech up was the drug trade. Is this subversion in a way that is fostered by large institutions.

Lou -- Look at the use of YouTube right now and the way that this is being used to document what is happening in Iraq and the potential is part of the use of the technology.

(I make a comment on CDs)

Carol -- I have a problem thinking about this in terms of subversive. CDs and BETA is sold as subversive sometimes... these are not necc the case.

Chris -- Look at the YouTube

Ken -- What about repurposing? Look at Machinima [MashUps]

Caitlin -- again, what is new? Is it new techs? Is it new purposes?

I make a comment about User Generated Content

Audience - When do hit the point where we cross over and hit web2.0 is the key here

Caitlin-- Thinking of Canon formation -- indymedia did not generate the hype among scholars and it predated youtube.

Chris -- New Media are always informed by the old. CDs and Vinyl

Me -- I make a comment on stereo and 78rpm records

Ken -- Does New media generate new theories about old media

Caitlin - Well, sure, that is my research about the necessity about researching appartuis theory and VHS. What does that mean for us in the way we think about the "darkened room" aspect of apparatus theory

Chris -- Ok, the old media stakeholders care about repurposing in making a hit

Lou - How do we think about User-Generated content here?

(Cross talk about mash ups and machinima)

Ken -- Microsoft has sanctioned the use of Red Vs. Blue Team and this is interesting

Chris -- The Xbox 360 comes with a red vs blue episode -- this is interesting

Carly -- where is the line between the user and a producer?

Patty Zimmerman -- Many people argue that we need new ways of thinking and the user/producer argument is key here. The new media argue about issues and this odd - Let's goi back to Caitlin now and let us de-americanize this outside of this . Take an eexample of images of torture made possible through new techs and the institution of the military can kill the internet connections. Indymedia starts in 1999 that is after Seattle and this is key and the way of thinking about the world. Let us think about the use of technologies and cellphones and this is key in many cases.

I make a comment on rights

Audience -- About he user generated content abd it allows the uiser to generate copyright in their designs. These designs can be generated for real cash. However, Lingam Lab can control these.

Caitlin -- How can new media be a forefront in capitalism? Is this simply capitalism? Are we simply at the heart of empire. How can this work for us in the material success. Also, how do we use the terms new and obsolete. I mean, video isn't obsolete in South America. It isn't obsolete in Africa. This obsolescence of this is only cultural.

Lou -- Look we have a great digital divide in our culture. One of the issues I am interested is in the library and this is key when we look at the issue of blogging in a library. Well, in real world.

I mention the digital divide

Lou -- gentrification and this is key -- you get involve how when people move into condos that are digirati and they move into old issues of technology and real realities where real people can live

Audience -- i work with people and thinking about the issue of myspace and how do you teach kids how to use the media for more than ego purposes. CTC is a great tool for this and this is space for where people can think about how people can catch up and utilize these tools. How do you do this? What are the fears of the technology.Why didn't you focus on changing the library policies

Lou -- Changing the policies in a libary is time dependent. the semester ended. How can it work?

Ken -- The group that I work does a lot of work with low-income students in this place. People look at us and are simply resistant because people think about how something like digital tech can do. You have to build up trust. What is amazing here and if you wait two years and then you can do anything. It is a trust issue.

Carly -- The issue of intimacy is key here and we think about intimacy and trust and this is a key. The idea of this is face-to-face here and how does reputation function.

Patty Zimmerman -- This is key -- we think of ourselves of Western Imperialization and this is key for us to make a set of connections -- it sounds like a NGO ... it's about who talks to whom. You need to talk about trust throughout the world. This often jettisoned. What I am curious about is how did your group go about developing your trusting relationships? How do you do it? And Who is determining how the tech gets used?

Ken -- Well we have done this in Tucson and Cambodia and we listen. This is key as we listen to people and we offer to people and we listen to theirs. They really like to hear other peoples ideas. We are very interested in the repurposing of the analogue and the cell phone. The issue is really key for us as we find. And you have to listen to everyone, not just young people. And this is a staggering education. It is one thing to look at what games mean for tribal elders and what it means for people, the tribal nation and for different age groups. The most important thing is how to listen -- we had to learn how to listen for Cambodia for instance... We are working with an organization to stop grave robbing. This is complex system. the peopple buying are tourists and sellers are locals and Heritage Watch is about teaching both locals and tourists. How do you do this. In the local are a comic book was distributed. In the game developed the issue that was developed was the S9, a heinous prison and this prison got one picture in it and we thought it was in the past and it would have a meaning but that turned out for us in AZ to be safe. But for locals that was too much and its magnitude was to take it away. This was demanded that we take it out. And this was a moment where we not simply listening to consumers. We actually learned about people.

Caitlin and Carly -- How do new communications technologies develop and form connections over them. Miranda July for example.

Caitlin -- Intimacy is a great word and was thinking about media pleasure, especially visual pleasure. This seems to be key and perhaps we need to think about pleasure may come with too much baggage. Perhaps intimacy is a better word. I mean, community is trying to do too many things and this is trying to describe geography, etc. Intimacy is a very different approach. Think about IndieMedia. The goal of IndieMedia is to deliver political situations that are key. Is intimacy a potentially helpful category for new media.

Ken - Intimacy seems to work for me. For me, the new media that form would be hard pressed to call the relationships with new media pleasurable and they seem engaging. It seems to look at .

Audience - What about that term engaging? That seems to deal with many issues in the literature.

Ken - Intimacy it suggests an emotional attachment that engagement seems to not. A gamer

Audience -- What about Play -- this may be a better way to think about it. This is usercentric

ken -- It seems useful and it ties to play and this -

Chris -- Intimacy has physical and emotional investment.

Patty Zimmerman -- What would my 13 year old boy think about this and this is something that we were talking about with a friend. The friends playing video games and they do not interact with each other. And this is odd since he is into their controls and they would exchange machines. This is funny. My son tells me that IMing is for girls and Cellphones are used by boys to go to the Y and play basketball. I mean, I cannot imagine having this for me. Gender, race and class is key throughout. Differentials in regions are absolutely key. I don't want to get hypnotized by these transnational corporations. I find this whole thing baffling as a scholar and as a mom as I think we can lose the political urgency of careful thought.

Lou -- One example of looking at class and race -- indiemedia had its conference here and a debate was about who runs the indie media site. Look some people cannot do it as we don't have time to do this. We have to work.

Caitlin -- Let's think about the trans on transnational. Is it the same as the trans in transsexual? It is important to think about the ways that electronic media mediate gender formations. I have been really interested in current formations of gender are propagated by electronic engineering and design. So I decided to take apart a VCR and we think about how they are designed in a "sexualized" way. This is a way that media reproduces this.

Lou -- Let is think about this in the dialectic -- we take it as what Marx noted is the ruthless critique of everything existing. Look outside and inside. This is real praxis.

Chris -- Think about reconfiguring the world of the film culture and VCR -- the move is into the home. Or arcades into the home -- the arcade as a safe social space.

Caitlin -- Arcades were a form of independence as well. For me as well.

Caryl -- This is a place to let it wind down. Let's do that.