Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What Would Walter Benjamin Say?
In Carr's book that we read a chapter from today, he talks about Google's strategy to provide and endless amount of free information so that they can charge advertisers based on the amount of traffic they host. Here is another really cool example. Vlad Savov wrote about Google's recent work with some of the most important museums in the world in the post, "Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, 'indoor' Street View of museums."
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After watching both the Art Project- Preview and the Art Project- Visitor's Guide I started to think back to a similar (but much smaller) project that I read about in Time Magazine. The Arcade Fire's interactive music video for the song "We Used to Wait" also incorporates the street view technology that we see in Google's Art Project. As we navigate different art museums and view close ups of individual paintings, "We Used to Wait" incorporates your home address and nearby neighborhoods to create a personalized music video.
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From what we read from Carr's book, I feel like technology doesn't have to be some sort of mind-numbing medium, but actually a way to explore our world and see what's out there. By making art more available to the public and present it in an interesting way, Google is making technology and the Internet an invaluable educational tool. And Arcade Fire, while not for a specific educational purpose, has used Google's street view to make a music video more engaging. This makes me think that it's the way we use the Internet that defines how "smart" it really makes us.
I like the connection to the Arcade Fire project. I showed the video in MCS 499 last semester when discussing the principles of new media as outlined by Manovich. What I found interesting about that project was the way it personalized the experience for each user. Though the level of images available did seem to be a bit spotty. My childhood home was available and it was neat seeing my neighborhood in the video.
ReplyDeleteThat idea of personalization is different, however, than the google art project. This is more about the type of access Benjamin was discussing and the way that access destroys the aura of the original artwork - though he views the destruction of aura as satisfactory in light of the fact that more and more people would become exposed to art. What I am wondering is if the aura has been completely destroyed at this point? Has our access to digital replications replaced the meaning and reality of the original? We will talk more about this question when we discuss postmodernism.
As for your analysis of Carr, I do think you have a point. Though this gets back to McLuhan. Does the structure of the Internet, not the content, or how we use it, have an affect on the way our brain is being rewired. This seems to be Carr's point. It isn't that we can't use the Internet in good ways, its that it rewards and encourages a type of shallow thinking at the expense of deep critical analysis.