When I say you say

UNDERSTANDING MEDIA.

The medium is the message.

Automation does creates roles for people. and we do need to adapt.

It’s what we do with the machine and how the machine changes us and the way we interact with one another. The message is the change in how we do things. He mentions that the railroad didn’t introduce transportation, but it accelerated it.

“Whether the light is being used for brain surgery or night baseball is a matter of indifference.”

The activities mentioned above are the content of light, since they don’t exists with out it. This creates a relationship between the activity and the medium. 

“If the TV tube fires the right ammunition at the right people it is good.”

“If it works, it’s obsolete.” 

“it is the grosser and participant forms of art that seem “hot,” and the abstract and intensely literary form that seems “cool.”

“Cubism, by seizing on instant total awareness, suddenly announced that the medium is the message.”

“There is a basic principle that distinguish a hot medium like radio from a cool one like the telephone, or a hot medium like the movie from a cool one like TV.”

“whereas paper is a hot medium that serves to unify spaces horizontally, both in political and entertainment, empires.”

ELECTROACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION.

sound wave into the audio signal. physical form to digital form.

The forgery of the original sound. 

Record companies enjoy the increasing fidelity because we as consumers think it’s better.

Before electroacoustic technology sound was bound to a limited area.

Telegraph transmitted sound through large distances.

Electroacoustic repetition changes our listening attitude. background listening. leitmotif.

Storing sound breaks a time constraint. objectifying sound. We transform an event in time to a physical medium, that exists in space! CDs, Vinyls, Mp3 players. etc…

Objectifying sound is a commodity that can be bought. 

Then we can manipulate sound!

schizophonia: various examples of amplified music and voices. * the split between the original sound ant its copies.

Choice of environments. headphones.

Moosak: competing background music in shopping malls.

Orality and Literacy

My response to Ong’s Orality & Literarcy came in the form of an old experiment that I believe we have all experienced in our younger academic years. The teacher would whisper a phrase to a student and then that student would have to pass the phrase to his classmate and so on. Telephone! I thought of a variation of this experiment since Ong compares both orality and writing. I recently came across this: “Not everything is static, everything is evolving and everything is falling apart.” Now, I’m thinking of doing this experiment by passing the message down verbally and written. The message would be diverted at the point of origin by passing a written message to the right, and the verbal to the left. Now I believe as the message comes full circle back at the origin the written message would be considerably more accurate to the verbal message. If i remember correctly, as you pass a message verbally that message gets distorted very easily. This is where our ability to listen, store information, and express it verbally comes into play. I think it’s much easier to read, copy, and paste the message.

I think the only variable that can alter the result of this experiment in both transportation methods, is the crossing of cultural and language barriers. Translation between languages can definitely change the literal message and the aesthetics of the written. Character changes from one alphabet to the other changes the visual aspect of this message. I think it would look beautiful in arabic since I find those particular characters very streamline and elegant. Also the fact that it’s written from right to left is formidable. On that note the wester alphabet is visually boring compared to others such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Russian, German, etc, etc. Although I think when it comes to technology the western characters are more friendly.

Now if I could change the experiment a little by adding current technology specially on the verbal part I can call some one via cell phone to deliver the message. For the written part I could use email or blogging, but I still think that the results will be the same.

I can only image the Greek’s and their method of verbally exchanging information. They must of had superb memory and verbal skills. Since they wrote mostly poetry I think their stories have probably changed, perhaps evolved for a better understanding. I think we all learn through repetition so I’m assuming Greek epic poems must have been repeated quite a bit. I think they were more involved and it was a more personal way of transmitting stories. Through writing you some what lose that human touch that we acquire with verbal communication.

Ong mentions a concept or idea that I have thought, but in a different context. The ear-eye. I’m interested in fusing these two senses, but in a musical stand point, which is another way of sharing information. Certain people see notes through colors and vise versa. The study of synesthesia is something I would like to do while at ITP. Every time I play a note on the piano I try to think of a color to see if I can develop a connection. Through writing we can store information more efficiently, and at the same time we can read and express that information verbally. So the connection of the ear-eye has been around for a while. What really interests me is the processes that we are all used to doing of listening or reading, processing it, then expressing it. I’m sure the steps vary from person to person, but its’ a fascinating flow of information. Some one might tell me a story, but i have the choice to never express it in any form or just simply forget about it. Not all that we experience has to be passed on, and this just makes me wonder how our perception influences our understanding of information.