Interactive Media Students:
What cool new thing have you recently noticed in Interactive Culture?
It could be a surprising trend in social media, a radically new interactive game, a strange behavior with digital devices, a new technology for creativity, an interactive work of art you saw in a museum… or on the internet…or on the street. It should be something that ignites your curiosity about how humans and digital media interact…
You will post the short description of what you have recently noticed in Interactive Media… as a comment to this blog entry. In class I will show you how to post to the blog. (I need to approve your posts, so it’s best to do it first in class) Please include the complete URL (http…) and tell us what you have noticed and credit your source. Thanks!
Here’s a fun place to look at: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/
And here:
http://www.tangibleinteraction.com/projects
And here:
Arcade Fire / Just a Reflektor
https://www.justareflektor.com/about
Published on Sep 9, 2013
Watch the film at http://www.justareflektor.com.
In this video, we take a look behind the scenes of JUST A REFLEKTOR, an interactive short film for Google Chrome that explores the themes in Arcade Fire’s “Reflektor” through two devices simultaneously: the computer and smartphone/tablet. Directed by Vincent Morisset and filmed in Haiti, the story follows a young woman who travels between her world and our own.
Explore the Technology: https://www.justareflektor.com/tech?home
Digital Art > Interactive Media 
One growing trend that I have noticed in interactive culture, is the emergence of the website, Talent House. As stated on their website, “Talenthouse is the world’s platform for creative collaboration, connecting aspiring talent, established artists and brand advertisers.” The website uses various social medias such as facebook, twitter, youtube and even vimeo to engage an audience. There are also areas for artists to communicate and collaborate on projects. I first came across this website through Facebook, where a friend was asking for people to vote for his submission to a graphics design contest put on by a snowboarding company. As an aspiring artist myself, I looked into Talenthouse further and I found that it can be used as a marketing tool for artists to not only share their work with peers but also with potential employers who might be looking for artists such as Fox, Nikon, Microsoft and HP. With the growing trend of digital arts and social media, Talenthouse has found a niche in combining the two into one useful tool for artists.
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What’s new in the world of interactive-media today:
http://www.millwardbrown.com/ChangingChannels/2012/predictions/
It wasn’t hard to search for something that was recently done, but it was more interesting to look at something that was planning to be done and happen in the future. One thing that I came across was a social network that I go on or get notification about at least once a day, Facebook. Researchers are saying that Facebook will become more than a social network, it will become somewhat of an advertisement spot. You can allow business to advertise through your profile and newsfeed bargaining with individuals that they can get a discount or something in return for their support. I am curious to see if this will become too overwhelming at times and lose sight in the fact that it’s the individuals profile not the business and therefore annoying the customers in the end? I know right now, that I will probably not allow businesses to corrupt my home page because of the fact that it’s mine and I don’t want to help make society spend money they don’t have…in short.
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One thing that I’ve noticed recently is GPS watches. Although I’ve known about them for awhile I’ve noticed recently how much the watch tracks the user. A standard GPS running watch can track, pace, time, distance, location, calories, your personal bests, and stores every run you’ve ever gone on by using the watch. On a computer some of these watches can also give you a map of where you ran and your pace of every step of the run, which to me is very impressive, almost creepy. Over the summer, I got a Nike + sports watch to use when I run and it surprises me how much I depend on it now. Since the watch tracks my pace it keeps me honest and I notice when I’m slowing down, it helps me track my improvement, and pushes me to do more. It’s really a breakthrough for runners of any distance and I think will be something that all runners will see as a necessity some day.
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One thing I recently noticed in our interactive culture was how popular streaming music online has become. With websites like Pandora, Rhapsody, iTunes Radio, Spotify, 8tracks, Rdio, Grooveshark, and a many more, our audio world has become more personalized than ever before. Being able to pick a genre or select a playlist seems much more appealing than being bored by commercials on the radio, or logging on to an iTunes account, finding a song, and then dropping $1.99 on something free of charge on the Internet. In fact, I have found that I don’t even use iTunes nearly as much as I used to…I don’t even have any music uploaded to my phone—why would I if I can just open up an app, pick a genre, and move on with my life? Not only can you find music for just the type of mood you’re in, but online streaming has made sharing music more convenient as well. For instance, if I listen to a song on Spotify that I enjoy, I can let my friends on facebook know about it, tweet the link, or notify other Spotify users what I’ve recently been interested in.
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The thing that I noticed lately is a lot of new smartphone applications. As more and more people are getting them they are really starting to become a huge part of our daily lives. The coolest aspect of them lately is that they are becoming more and more interactive. Using your phone’s camera to scan products or places with apps like Google Goggles, Layar, or Wikitude really change they way we interact with the world around us. Accessing information about the world around us gets easier every single day. I think it’s a really cool trend and it gets more and more interesting every minute. I really like the idea of bring the virtual world into the physical world, and vice versa. I actually was researching this before this class started so I was pretty excited to learn we are going to be looking at this type of thing in class. Here is a link to an interesting article on the subject: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-augmented-reality-apps/
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I think technology has come a long way in the interactive ways. They now have interactive tablets for younger kids that are actually designed for these younger kids. They differ from regular tablets such as the iPad or any of the Samsung tablets, which are also great interactive forms of media as well. It just amazes me at the things we can do with technology now to communicate with others or even with animals. The interactive world is expanding and I’m a little afraid to ask what will be next in the interactive world of technology! Probably one of the biggest things that almost blow my mind that’s out there today is the Tech InnoTab for young kids. It makes it really easy for young kids to learn at a less complex level what we are using for many of our jobs today plus helps them to learn things on their own for those times where we are just too busy to spend a few extra minutes with them on the counting or learning their alphabet.
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What I recently noticed is BitStrips. Where you can create simple “comics” of you and your friends. The user creates an avatar and creates situations with other’s avatars. Most people find them annoying, probably because most users just use default comics. But you have some freedom in changing the scene and the meaning. The best BitStrips i’ve seen are ones people created to comment on bourgeoisie/proletariat relationship and gender roles.
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