Generation Flash Response

Lev Manovich pulls together many aspects of art in his essay, "Generation Flash." I enjoyed how he explored the Internet, image, animations and media( to name a few) so in depth. When flash began a few years ago everyone was in awe by the new techniques out there. Today we don't think twice when we take part in this phenomenon. In fact most of the time we don't even notice. We download music, pictures, and t.v shows everyday. We are capable of editing them too. We are definitely part of something big and Flash is the right name for it.

"Think sample verses the whole work. If we are indeed living in a remix culture does it still make sense to create whole works--if these works will be taken apart and turned into samples by others anyway?"

I do not know the answer to this question, but I thought it was interesting and wanted to see if anyone else had and idea. =]

"Suddenly programing is cool." aka software artists are not geeks.


Flash is a big part of our culture and it continues to converge in different aspects of media.

"The Mechanics of World-Making" response

"The Mechanics of World-Making" seems to be analyzing the amount of people who play video games. Well, I think that it is pretty much impossible to have a group of friend and not have at least two or three of them be obsessed with video games. I think that says something about our culture. In a section of this chapter it speaks about how virtual worlds and fantasy lands are becoming "synthetic worlds" and more and more people are beginning to view them as a part of there everyday lives. This scares me because no matter what it is a video game, the real world is still out there, and no matter how close the game appears to reality it is not.

I'm sorry if you are one of those people who would rather play fantasy land all day, but come on, there is a real world out there. I understand that some people may use this worlds to escape real life, but I find that thought kind of terrifying. One day they may wake up and find that real life has passed them by.

"Television and the Patterns of Mass Culture" by T.W Adorno

"Television and the Patterns of Mass Culture", by T.W Ardono talks about media throughout different time periods, placing a an emphasis on television. When writing about media in today's society he states,"...popular culture is no longer confined to certain forms such as novels or dance music, but has seized all media or artistic expression. " I completely agree with Adorno when he says that is is "almost impossible to dodge" popular culture. No matter what class you're in or whether you're rich or poor you are somehow affected by this phenomena.

The audience has changed much over the years and with that has become less demanding of facts and perfection. I do not know when we lowered our standards for the media, but it is really starting to take hold with reality t.v and shows like "Gossip Girls" giving people an unrealistic portrayal of life. " The more inarticulate and diffuse the audience of modern mass media seems to be, the more mass media tends to achieve their integration." Ardono believes that the media is sending us hidden messages to tell us what and what not to do. It is in a way. What we see on TV and read about in books and papers affect our everyday lives whether we want it to or not.

Media has changed quite a bit over the years, but as Adorno points out, it still affects us no matter what. It sucks you into its shows and commercial gimmicks all to make money for the industry. The basics have stayed the same over the years I think. TV still has hidden signals just like it did in the 1950s; the messages have just changed to fit the times.