aina

    The web has now become a daily part of many people’s lives and as connectivity becomes increasingly available to EVERYone - it’s effects on human social order and behaviour becomes eminent.As social beings, humans interact with each other naturally. Although the methods of such interactions can now range from personal to telephone communications to letters and now web communication. Weinberger states that ‘ the Web is binding not just pages but us human beings in new ways. We are the true “small pieces” of the Web, and we are loosely joining ourselves’. Space, distance, judgement, privacy, and at times honesty becomes insignificant in the world wide web. Each user can now enter their own opinion, imagery and any other forms of media into the web which are totally reliant on their own perception and belief. As the use of the web now includes minute tasks (shopping) to major business/corporate operations - monitoring and censorship should also improve.Nevertheless, the web is an amazing development and will continue to play an important role in human/society development - especially in the modern world.   

Greg Ulmer ~ MyStory… the discovery of a direction by means of writing.Unlike conservative profiles, character description, biographies, etc… MyStory involves practicing ‘picto-ideo-phonographic writing’ in an electronic environment.  To further make things interesting, Ulmer has not provided a definition, nor a set of guidelines or methodologies to assist in others creating their own MyStory - thus the beauty of this emerging writing genre is to allow individual authors/creators to design their own MyStory in a non-uniformed direction - in turn ’simulating the experience of invention’. As content is built into the author’s MyStory, new inventions and ideas emerge - thus assisting the author to further investigate topics and uncover materials whether it be about themselves or of a random inter-related topic.Slightly reluctant to start my own story - MyStory - who knows what i will uncover? 

Adrian Miles has pointed out the specifications of what is a ‘blog’ and its increasing use in the web. As it is now a media commonplace - blogs have been used in education, commercial media, knowledge management communities, web publishing - as well as for personal use. This is my first blog - started for my uni course - and is not just mainly utilised for class communication, but also as another communicative tool to provide my own thoughts on numerous/random issues. However, i have yet to provide links, insert videos nor have received any feedback or comments, therefore, does this mean this blog is not really a ‘real blog’? In Miles’ essay, blogs constitute of not only personal opinion, but also provide links, documentary videos and detailed commentary.

Marcel Duchamp (Dada artist) altered the classic Mona Lisa originally created by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance.  The above work of art, although some would argue if it is true art, is an example of the images produced during the 1920’s Dada avant-garde art movement. This art movement has been known to disregard the ‘fundamentals of art’ and disrespecting art culture. From looking at these artworks, some similarities have been related in the progression of electronic literacy and digital art. As we live in the midst of a ‘Global Communication Revolution’, information, communication and technology have become so important that it continues to change and alter aspects of our daily lives. As electronic culture advances as we move towards the future, electronic literature - like the Dada art movement - contradicts the conventional modes of information distribution. And along with its media aspects, the prominence of computer-produced -digital- objects/images will continue to grow in popularity in comparison to literary objects produced in the past.  ’Dada was born of a need for independence, of distrust towards unity. Those who are with us preserve their freedom. We recognize no theory’ (Tristan Tzara - a Dadaist artist). Electronic literature and art as a ‘movement’ allows for various electronic writers/digital artists from a multitude of backgrounds to freely create and distribute their work to any audience outside the conventional channels of production, via email, electronic journals, YouTube, Facebook, etc.  Interestingly, the Dada art movement only lasted for a short period of time, no doubt the future of electronic modes of communication and expression will only continue to grow. 

   Nude Descending a Staircase By Marcel Duchamp 1912 

  In today’s modern society, it is difficult to imagine how our mode of communication would differ without speech, writing or reading. These simple tasks, which we practice instinctively everyday, has evolved from unrecognisable gestures, characters, images and symbols into how it is today. From the oral culture came writing – ‘writing served largely to recycle knowledge back into the oral world’ (Ong, 1995). Furthermore, the vital invention of printing has ‘replaced the lingering hearing-dominance in the world of thought and expression’ (Ong, 1995). PRINT… has been a form of communication since the ancient times. For example: pre-historic artefacts of symbols and engraved images have given evidence to ‘ancient printing’. Throughout history, oral literature (in various cultures) has altered somewhat from the influences of writing, printing and other technological advances. Written language is a way an author can persuade their readers/audience to share their perspectives. Printing ‘reinforces and transforms’ the oral and written culture into a visual form – as Ong (1995) cites ‘print locks words into position in space’. From this, there is the ability for the reader to read/see information, either dictated loudly or within themselves and also, interpret/visualise the content according to their own judgement. With the aid of printing machinery, printed articles/books/posters/etc are now able to be mass produced and thus it can be distributed across society. Interestingly, print has ‘created a sense of private ownership’ – plagiarism!  Print encouraged the mind to sense that it’s possessions were held in some sort of inert mental space (Ong). Then came the Information/Technological Revolution, where the Internet is now a common source for gathering information in the form of HYPERTEXT – a computer mediated form of documentation to allow easy access for different audiences. And, because hypertext can also be interpreted depending on the reader’s attention, both the printed and hypertext form of literature allows audiences the freedom and right to form opinion on what he/she may have read, even though this may differ from that of the authors.