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Archive for the ‘classes’ Category
Lawrence Lessig | January 8th | ColbertNation.com
October 14, 2009David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists
October 14, 2009Pitchfork: Articles: The Social History of the MP3
October 14, 2009In Defense of Piracy – WSJ.com
October 12, 2009Lawrence Lessig, “In Defense of Piracy“
free
October 7, 2009At the end of “Free” Chris Anderson writes:
But a generation raised on the free Web is coming of age, and they will find entirely new ways to embrace waste, transforming the world in the process.
What do you think it means to “embrace waste”? What does “waste” mean here?
Specifically, give an example of a category or type of “free” content on the web. Do you think that this kind of free content is sustainable (can it be free forever)? Do you think free content is “waste” or is it productive of value (for someone)?
Give a link to a website, video or recent news story that might be relevant to or inspired by these questions.
free bubble
October 7, 2009In “Free,” Chris Anderson writes that free content is the future of business. Tech analysts have been mulling this over for some time now; here is an expression of doubt about this idea, related to the music industry.
Brian McTear of Weathervane Music in a post called The Free Bubble writes:
Most FREE business models will give away products and services with the hope of generating site traffic and advertising revenue. IF advertising proves effective – that is, IF people pay for advertising and, more importantly, IF the advertising WORKS over time, then everything will be fine. But the latter, especially, is one humungous “if”. I know I don’t see advertisements when I look at my desktop. People more sophisticated than I can block the stuff that really gets in the way, and as for the things in the corner, the things that look like advertisements? Our eyes don’t even focus on them. We just don’t see them.
God forbid, if this thin path to revenue fails, then what?
[The comments to the post are also very informative; I recommend reading and relating any interesting points they bring up there as well.]
He compares the so-called “free bubble” to the dot-com bubble and the real estate bubble. What would Chris Anderson say to reassure him about the “free bubble”? Do you agree or disagree?
tactical media
October 4, 2009One of the main concepts underpinning Manovich’s article on social media is the idea of “tactics” as elaborated by the French philosopher and social theorist Michel De Certeau. Manovich defines De Certeau’s notion of “tactics” with the following helpful example:
De Certeau makes a distinction between strategies used by institutions and power structures and tactics used by modern subjects in their everyday lives. The tactics are the ways in which individuals negotiate strategies that were set for them. For instance, to take one example discussed by de Certeau, a city’s layout, signage, driving and parking rules, and official maps are strategies created by the government and corporations. The ways an individual moves through the city—taking shortcuts, wandering aimlessly, navigating through favorite routes—are tactics. In other words, an individual can’t physically reorganize the city, but he or she can adapt it to his or her needs by choosing how to move through it. A tactic “expects to have to work on things in order to make them its own, or to make them ‘habitable.’”
In contemporary art and media, the term “tactical media” has become prevalent as a way to describe some radical artistic interventions into broader culture. These interventions are seen as tactical as opposed to strategic. Here is a useful definition of “tactical media” from “An Atlas of Radical Cartography“:
At root, tactical media is about intervention – it is concerned with creating disruptions within existing systems of power and control. Less a methodology than an orientation, it is fundamentally pragmatic, utilizing any and all available technologies, aesthetics, and methods as dictated by the goals of a given action. Tactical media events are necessarily ephemeral – they exist only as long as they continue to be effective; once their utility has been exhausted, they vanish into thin air. While it may form a part of a long-term strategy, tactical media itself is concerned with temporary destabilization rather than permanent transformation.
[quoted from networked_performance]
Mike Frangos 