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Laws of cool : knowledge work and the culture of information / Alan Liu.

Chapter 11: Destructive Creativity: Arts in the Information Age

What is 'cool' now isn't just an isolated piece of culture, but rather the result of a history of 'cool'. The future of humanities must begin to converge with art in order to bridge the gap. In other words, to be 'cool', older art forms must merge with more contemporary art forms. Society is currently so visually overstimulated that something needs to change just to get an idea from on mind to another. Destructive Creativity refers to one approach, which is reassembling the past into the future. It refers to the present aesthetic, mutation and remix culture. Creative Destruction is a slightly different approach. Critiquing culture becomes an inherently edgy aesthetic. Tradition is linked to the avant-garde through the reappropriation of familiar things. Information is a new raw material, a form a currency. The chapter gives a history of destructive art, new art's need to reject or destroy the old to move forward. After pages and pages of examples of earlier works, the chapter gets to digital works. Jodi works with the aesthetics of the internet, using a web browser as a frame. Still, inside that frame, the text is made to look like an old DOS-based personal computer, acting as a reminder that contemporary art has at least some root in the past. The self-destructive, self-activated behavior of the art is the formula for twentieth-century art.

This chapter seemly chronicles every step on the path to current existence of edgy art, which was tiresome to wade through, but certainly not useless. For every part of the current state of 'cool' that Liu describes, he provides several examples of the predecessors. Knowing more about the current state of art than the past and reading the chapter put everything into a perspective that wasn't necessarily any different, but is perhaps now more informed. What was noticeably missing from the discussion was the influence of an artist's contemporaries. Having not read the entire book, it is quite possible that Liu talks about it elsewhere, but regardless, talking about art with respect only to the past is ignoring half of what influences it.

Liu, Alan, 1953- . Laws of cool : knowledge work and the culture of information / Alan Liu. [0226486982 (cloth : alk. paper) ] Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HM851 .L56 2004

Culture of the Internet / edited by Sara Kiesler.

Chapter 7: Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality: Playing in the MUDs

This chapter discuesses the way people deal with the concept of self in virtual worlds through MUDs (Multiuser Dimensions). These MUDs are in part creations of their users, who may design their characters (name, gender, species, physical attributes) as well as the "rooms" of the dungeons themselves. They are free to experiment with identity and often choose to do so. Interactions between players parallel and sometimes overlap with or substitute for real life. One example looks at a Yale dropout who used a role playing game as a form of therapy. Her mother disowned her after she had an abortion, and through role playing, the daughter was able to understand and come to terms with what happened. Another example describes a physics grad student whose physical health was so fragile that he could not go out normally without putting his life in danger. He spends hours on MUDs socializing with people from across the world. In doing this, he fulfills a need for social interaction that he might otherwise miss out on entirely. In these virtual spaces, players often project their ideal self through their virtual identities. MUDs offer an environment similar to real life and often equally useful for simulating and processing personal issues. In some situtations, they may even serve as something better than reality. Because of the difference between real-life and online social interaction, certain issues, such as sexism and gender roles can be more visible in a MUD, allowing for discussion of such topics. The addition of non-fatal guns to one MUD was another cause for debate. Changing the dynamics of the world (some players wanted to kill for fun) led to debate, virtual laws, and even the election of a virtual sheriff. MUDs demonstrate a certain tension between the real and artificial through which we can reconstruct and examine aspects of our own culture.

The author seems particularly biased toward MUDs, probably due to his research methods: joining and participating in various MUDs. The examples she uses focus a little heavy on the fringe of society rather than the average person who happens to participate in a MUD. This suggests that the correlation between MUD culture and real-life culture is limited.

If being a part of a community, such as a MUD gives people another means of expressing who they are or defining themselves, then so too might their preferences in memes be a means of expression.

Culture of the Internet / edited by Sara Kiesler. [0805816356 (alk. paper) ] Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HE7631 .S613 1997

SSRN-From Shakespeare to DJ Danger Mouse: A Quick Look at Copyright and User Creativity in the Digital Age by Urs Gasser, Silke Ernst

Gasser and Ernst’s essay is organized into three parts: the first focuses on digital technologies and the internet, the following is a basic description of contemporary copyright laws, and the final section focuses on the need for reformed copyright laws more amenable to the digital age. More specifically, the first section focuses on what the authors refer to as “participatory culture,” and how such a thing is facilitated by digital technologies and the internet. It examines this concept of participatory culture from both a theoretical and practical point of view. The following section discusses copyright law in its present form, focusing on key aspects of it like the right to make derivative works, fair use, and unilaterally inhibiting technologies such as DRM. Finally, the essay concludes with reform suggestions for how to enhance creativity by enabling greater participation. It discusses both why a participatory culture is desirable, and possible strategies for copyright reform that would facilitate participatory culture.
This essay is a very concise, accessible introduction to copyright law and the concept of participatory culture. One major flaw that I found with the essay, however, was its demand that new copyright law take “information quality” into account. Who, for example, will become judge of the quality of information, and upon what standards will they make their judgments? This would obviously be a contentious issue, and one that the essay only barely addresses. Also, this essay adopts a fairly utopian conception of digital technologies and the internet, a view that seems to be shared by many contemporary cultural critics. The authors see digitization and the internet as great tools of democracy that will allow for a “participatory culture” unlike any previously known. While these are nice, comfortable theoretical positions to take, that does not necessarily make things so. As regards my own project, I am more interested in how these utopian visions of the “democratization” effect of digital technologies and the internet are coerced and manipulated by larger corporate or commercial interests. For example, this essay discusses how new copyright law needs to provide for “informational autonomy,” but I am interested in how this so called autonomy is ideologically coded and oftentimes highly coercive. In addition, this article relishes in the means of production being made available to all through digitization and the internet, but I want to know how this changes and is exploited by companies like Dorito’s that broadcast user generated content. Will these democratized means of production simply be co-opted by corporate interests, or is there something truly liberating and democratic about these tools? Anyway, overall this is a great essay to read as an introduction to participatory culture and copyright law.

Bowl Advertisers Drop the Ball Online

    This article discusses how Super Bowl advertisers did a poor job managing the post-game viewing of their ads. Apparently people are using an “array of video sites and blogs” to view the Super Bowl ads after the fact, and relatively few are actually viewing them on the sites provided by the advertisers themselves. This is due to entertainment sites and bloggers using these ads to “capitalize on ad revenue generated from the traffic,” and essentially being more successful at making the ads accessible. A major flaw of the Super Bowl advertisers, as the article points out, is that they did not provide search advertising for terms like “Super Bowl ads.” The article mentions that this is not necessarily a bad thing, since the advertisers are still reaching millions of people, but that in the future they need to work with aggregator sites in order to “build relationships and promote their content” in more effective ways. Finally, the article mentions that one advantage the aggregator sites had was that they allowed for feedback, a feature that the article suggests that marketers employ on their own sites in the future.
    This piece seemed to lament the fact that the Super Bowl advertisers were not able to monopolize traffic to the ads post-game. It sympathizes with the disappointment these giant companies must be feeling over only getting several hundred thousand hits (instead, presumably, of the several million which they no doubt deserved). Then the article goes on to give the companies tips for how to increase traffic next year, and strategies they should employ if they want fully capitalize on the online branding opportunity. This article testifies to the corporate interests of many media outlets, and can only be of interest if read for what the article is doing, not saying.
    For my project, though, this piece is very relevant. It shows the way that commercial interests are sometimes subverted, and how in order to “set things right” (i.e. stop subversion of corporate interests) plans are being made to integrate the very thing that was the cause of subversion. Thus we see how the article calls for the companies to “work with” (i.e. subsume) those aggregator sites that so wickedly usurped their web traffic. This, then, is another example of how commercial interests appropriate more independent forms of media distribution.

SSRN-Internet-Based Distribution of Digital Videos: The Economic Impacts of Digitization on the Motion Picture Industry by Kevin Zhu

    This essay examines how digital technologies, paired with the internet, will cause “significant restructuring of the motion picture industry.” Initially it examines certain digital technologies – such as video-on-demand, broadband, digital file compression, streaming media, etc. – and then speculates on the capabilities these technologies will have in the near future. Then it turns to the “motion picture value chain,” and examines each aspect of the chain (e.g. production, duplication, distribution, etc.). Following this look at the motion picture value chain the essay turns to the potential impact of digitization. The major effects this essay imagines digitization will have are cost reduction (e.g. cheaper to shoot a film in digital than film, etc.), disintermediation (e.g. video-on-demand eliminates the need for video rental stores, etc.), and a shift in bargaining power (e.g. since the means of production are lowered content producers no longer have to remain subservient to Hollywood or studio demands, etc.). Finally, the article examines the implications of digitization for “Stakeholders.” It looks at how digitization will impact movie studios (e.g. shift to blockbuster-only model, etc.), distributors (e.g. digital distribution requires no physical transfer of objects, etc.), movie theatres (e.g. emphasis on the “experience” of the movie, not the movie, etc.), and video rental stores (e.g. what will they provide?, etc.). The essay concludes with business models designed to take into account the impact of digitization on film.
   This is an amazingly concise, prescient, and illuminating essay. It details in a very systematic manner the impact that digitization is likely to have (and, considering this was written in 2004, there predictions all seem to be coming true), and the implications of this impact. One thing it neglects to address, however, is the distribution of DVDs to buy and own. Will this form of distribution fall by the wayside as well, or will things like director commentaries and other bonus features make it a desired commodity? Also, what if you can stream the bonus features – will people still want to own something tangible? Overall, though, this essay is extremely helpful for anyone interested in studying the impact of digitization on the movie studio system both from a consumer and content producer point of view.
   As far as my own project is concerned this essay is a useful account of the relationship between commercial studios and individual consumers. Also, its discussion of the impact of digitization on content producers, and the shift of power likely to ensue there, is extremely relevant to my own interest in user generated content. Further, this essay describes the “bargaining power” content producers are likely to gain as access to the means of production increases, and while this is most likely the case, for my purposes it is also necessary to examine how commercial studios will work to limit the bargaining power of producers or co-opt the work of content creators for their own commercial ends (e.g. Dorito’s Super Bowl ads, etc.).

Wired News: YouTubers to Google: Now What?

    This article came out in Wired magazine (perhaps simply in the online version, I am not entirely certain) shortly after Google bought YouTube. Naturally this was big news for a magazine such as Wired, as well as for millions of users of the YouTube site. The article discusses a small array of differing perspectives on Google’s acquisition, from mildly skeptical YouTube devotees to supremely confident YouTube and Google marketers. Some think that the shift in ownership may strip YouTube users of the “freedom” they once enjoyed on the site, while others feel that Google is a “cool” company that will undoubtedly support the “freedom” some are already lamenting. The article also discusses the fact that YouTube has already made deals with companies such as CBS, Universal Music, BMG Music, NBC, and Warner Music, which allows these companies to actively distribute marketing videos on YouTube. The article perceives this as a positive thing, because it “lets amateurs stand on equal footing with the professionals.” Finally, the article concludes with the concern that Google will allow advertising to take over the YouTube site. It mentions the fact that the YouTube homepage is already selling “top front page real estate” to advertisers, and the question then becomes: how much advertising will “YouTubers” tolerate? This question is not answered in the article.
   This article is an interesting, albeit dated, piece. It brings up some relevant concerns about what happens when community based sites like YouTube are bought up by giant corporations, and does a mediocre job of reporting the ambivalence surrounding this issue. On the other hand, this article lacks a good deal of information that seems critical for understanding exactly what it means that Google has purchased YouTube. For example, it mentions that YouTube is already selling homepage space to advertisers, and this will only increase under Google’s control, but it does not explain what space it is talking about. Are these advertising videos parading as user generated content, or simply banner ads asking you to join Match.com or other such ubiquitous internet advertisements? This would be good information to know since advertising is such a protean, mutable form. Also, the article mentions that YouTube has already made deals with several other large companies (e.g. CBS, NBC, etc.), but does not explain what these deals entail. Do these companies post fake user generated videos that are truly advertisements, or do they simply get to advertise on YouTube in some other manner? So, while this article does touch upon some interesting issues surrounding both the dot.com universe and marketing, it also fails to provide sufficient information to make it a truly useful document.
   This article relates to my own project in its focus on corporate conglomeration and marketing. Similar to how Google subsumes a digital community like YouTube, companies like Dorito’s are appropriating the work of independent, non-professional individuals. While this article expresses some fear about the implications of a company like Google buying YouTube, my project will express a good deal more skepticism about what happens when companies like Dorito’s start soliciting user generated content.

A CBS Take on the YouTube Madness - New York Times

This article is about how CBS is now attempting to incorporate user generated content as a means to attract fans to its website. For the upcoming NCAA Basketball Tournament, also known as March Madness, CBS is inviting fans to produce videos that support their favorite team and/or denigrate other “rival” teams. The article then goes on to list other companies that are incorporating this type of user generated content, citing the Dorito’s Super-Bowl commercials that were created by consumers and the Unilever ad that ran during the Academy Awards and was also created by consumers. Also, the article mentions Anheuser-Busch and their efforts to create a promotional program that will allow consumers to create their own commercials which can then be posted on their website. Finally, the article concludes with a description of CBS-created “sample commercials” that are supposed to serve as a model to March Madness fans who want to create their own videos. CBS is hoping to attract and instruct consumers through these sample ads, and the article concludes by mentioning how this will attract more online advertisers for this year’s basketball tournament.
While this appears to be a fairly innocuous article about the future of user generated content and the marketing that companies are putting into attracting consumers to create their own video content, there are many insidious implications in this piece. For one, the article mentions how YouTube will soon be providing “branded channels,” which are essentially user generated video channels that are intended to attract consumers by allowing them to create advertisements for a certain company. Companies see this interactive opportunity as a great way to raise “brand loyalty.” Also, the article mentions the six “sample commercials” that CBS created, which are intended to “be as close to authentic” as possible. Authenticity, then, simply becomes something that can be created and produced by companies like CBS. Finally, the article mentions how CBS will be screening every video submitted “for language and appropriateness of content.” The article assures the reader, though, that CBS will “preserve their [the videos] reality and spontaneity.” There are many troubling things about this form of tacit (sort of) censorship, one being that CBS is now the arbiter of what is and is not “appropriate.” Also, the notion that “reality and spontaneity” need to be screened for is blatantly contradictory, but ultimately very telling about this so-called democratizing force known as user generated content. Read this article with skepticism and ire (i.e. critically), though, and it can be very illuminating. For this reason I think it can be useful for my project that deals with exactly what this article addresses (although approaches it from a much different perspective).

And the Verdict on Linkbaiting Is...

This article discusses the ethics of link baiting, defined here as "great content with an angle that prompts links and social media action." The term itself has a negative connotation due to its connection with bait as a way to trick people, although it has been around too long to change. Included are various quotes from media marketing firms for or against the term and offering alternative terms. Some of these terms include 'viral copyrighting,' 'magnetic content creation,' 'branding wankers,' and 'social media marketing.' The argument here is over what sounds most benign. Although the idea is to use such content for advertising purposes, the dispute is whether the nature of that advertising is to trick people or just expose them to something new. In any case, the article says that the future of advertising on the internet is link baiting, whether or not it goes by that name.

This article offers a generally negative view on the term 'link baiting' while seemingly supporting its underlying purpose. The author Brian Clark is an internet marketer, so it makes sense for him to support it, otherwise he would be in the wrong business. What the article mentions but doesn't explore in great enough detail is that such advertising is the future. Internet memes will be created deliberately through viral marketing and sent out to compete with less self-conscious creations. This has far-reaching implications that are not the subject of the article.

Are You A Master Link Baiter or Just a Flasher

This article is a response to other blog posts decrying the term 'link baiting.' Link baiting refers to the practice of creating content or a series that promotes linking. The result of such linking is popularity, spreading an idea or creation (such as an internet meme), or simply attention. Opponents to link baiting would say that it is an unethical practice because it involves deceiving people or questionable attention-grabbing. However, this article argues, that isn't what link baiting is, and real link baiting offers something to the viewer, whether it is information, entertainment, or food for thought. Furthermore, link baiting is a necessary form of promotion that anyone who wants create an idea for people to consume must do.

This article seems to be a little juvenile in the way it seems to be defending link baiting for the sake of the author's ego (so he says). While there's not much to it, the concept of link baiting is central to spreading a meme. Even for something that on its own merit encourages people to link to it (something that the article does mention), link baiting is perhaps the starting point. Whether that starting point is telling one person who will spread it to enough people or enough people that someone will spread it is a different issue.

User Generated Content and Marketing

Instant Messaging and the Future of Language.