New communication technologies have influenced visual arts in many forms. They have changed the way art is created, viewed, preserved and replicated throughout history and re-invented societies perceptions of what “art” really is. The dictionary defines visual art as, “Art work, such as painting, photography, or sculpture, that appeals primarily to the visual sense and typically exists in permanent form” (Answers.com, 2008). Technological advances can be seen today to be allowing art to break the boundaries of this statement, as can be seen with new media art, which is an impermanent and an ever-changing creation, and these advances will continue to expand the concept of Visual Art further in the future.

In ancient society, art was seen as a trade not a creative outlet and “painters and sculptors differed merely in their competence or capability in applying the rules of their trade. They were admired for how well they mastered the rules, for their technique and skills” (Witcombe, 1997).

As new technologies were slowly introduced to the world of visual art, societies attitudes towards arts changed and artists began to be recognised for their creative efforts, as musicians and poets had previously been in Ancient times (Witcombe, 1997).

The introduction of photography is an important event relating to societies perceptions of art as this technology…” freed the hand of the most important artistic functions which henceforth devolved only upon the eye looking into a lens”(Benjamin, 1936). Which is an example of the importance of the physical technique and talent of the artist diminishing and simply the creativity of the artists mind and their mastery of the new technology playing a role in the creation of art. The effect of new technologies influencing artists has caused societies concept of what should be considered “art” to be pushed to its very limits in the post modern era. (Danto, 1997), supports this claim when he states, “after Andy Warhol exhibited simulacra of shipping cartons for Brillo boxes in 1964, anything could be art. Warhol made it no longer possible to distinguish something that is art from something that is not.” Technology has forced visual arts away from its traditional roots and into an increasingly more abstract form.

The advent of the computer is an important date in art history, “The first computer-generated images were created in the early 1960s. They were simple, abstract drawings and animated images. Since then, digital art has evolved into a sophisticated and highly elaborate art form” (Haywood, 2004). Digital Art, has now gained acceptance in the visual arts world, “Digital art in all its forms is gaining prominence among artists, curators and audiences. There have been several recent exhibits focusing on different subsets of digital art, including Internet art..”(Berwick, 2001). Forms of internet art can include avatars which are images created by users to reflect a part of themselves and to communicate with others in an online environment (Liao, 2008). Avatars can be seen to be the new self portrait as they can encapsulate characteristics of their creator. Even the online environment that people use to communicate utilizing their avatar (such as “Second Life”) is claimed to be visual art as it is an ever-changing visually stimulating entity created and manipulated by the users. These are all parts of new media art. “New media art encompasses the use of digital technologies and the Internet as media, but new media art is more than these. It is both a hybrid production and an interplay between art, technology, and humans…” (Liao, 2008).

New communication technologies have affected the environment in which we view traditional art and also its availability and convenience. For example, the Internet has allowed us to view an image of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” in our own home at any time (Blog, 2006). This has also opened a window for fine art parody as we see in the manipulated images of the Mona Lisa, which portray her as an alien or “The Scary Lisa” (Blog, 2006).

Recently, traditional art techniques have been incorporated with new technologies. Today “…even paint on canvas can be controlled digitally. Using common illustration software such as creol draw, adobe illustrator, Maya, and many more, you can actually paint an entire painting using only an electronic pen hooked up to a pad….”(Freeman, 2006).

Popper(1997), states that “New technologies not only provide artists with new ways of expression but also involve artists in every facet of life”
 and so it has been suggested and supported in this essay that although new technologies have changed the original definition of “Art” and the way it is created and viewed, this has been a credit to artists, as it has fostered increased creativity and specialization, and has allowed visual art to be enjoyed by the wider community, more frequently and conveniently. 

REFERENCE LIST:

ANSWERS.COM (2008) Dictionary Definition for Visual Art.

BENJAMIN, W. (1936) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

BERWICK, C. (2001) The new new-media blitz. ARTnews, 100, 1.

BLOG, A. N. (2006) Famous Paintings – The Mona Lisa Painting.

DANTO, A. C. (1997) After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History, Princeton: Princeton University Press

FREEMAN, N. (2006) A Brief Evolution of Art and the Influence of Technology on Photography:

The Accident of Art.

HAYWOOD, C. (2004) Exhibit explores how technology has influenced art.

LIAO, C. L. (2008) Avatars, SECOND LIFE®, and New Media Art: The Challenge for Contemporary Art Education. Art Education Reston, 61, 5.

POPPER, F. (1997) Art Of The Electronic Age, Thames and Hudson Ltd.

WITCOMBE, P. C. L. C. E. (1997) Art & Artists in the Ancient World and Middle Ages.

Track changes! :

 I had never heard of this before but it turns out to be a tool that allows you to see any changes you have made to a document since you have started up the program… this could come in handy to see how different phrasing you have used and deleted compares to the present document I guess…

Mail Merge!

I found this to be a difficult and lengthy function to use but I can see how this can be handy… would never bother with it myself though!

SPREADSHEETS!

Using microsoft exel we learnt about how to do graphs which was good and I will probably utilise this in future… struggled with macros…they took forever! but in the end I finished this task!

 The next task we had to do was compare and contrast, chatting online using instant messanging such as msn and 3D chatting using sites such as “second life”

I use msn to keep in contact with friends from my home town, but I hadnt used a 3D chatting website before so I decided to try second life….

The difference I found was that on msn, your talking to people you have met before so you know exactly who they are and they know who you are.. the conversation is more intimate and more like a conversation you would have in person. On second life… you can create a persona totally unlike your own and so can project a personality polar to your own as you talk to strangers.. you also have to find people to talk to instead of selecting friends off a list like on msn…Not knowing who I was talking to on 2nd life made me feel vulnerable and the freedom of being able to say and be whoever I wanted to be was heaps weird. I can see how some people are attracted to these sites but I was just bored and repulsed?

This is quite an accurate article on my home town, with a few statements being debateable:

“There are a number of stories as to how South West Rocks got its name, but one of the most favoured is that the captains of passing ships where told it was safest to moor their vessels near the rocks, south west of Laggers Point (the point on which Trial Bay Gaol is built). ” The most favoured story that I have encountered from living there for 18 years is that Captain Cook visited the area and named it after the large rocks on what is today “main beach” which faced south and west.

and

“A new area for South West Rocks has been proposed for the land around Saltwater Creek, west of Arakoon, which will house a new shopping centre and around a thousand houses. The local council is yet to approve this application.”  I’m pretty sure this application has been denied due to protests from the community arguing that pollution from the old oil terminals will seep through the area and pollute the saltwater creek and also the beaches if this development was undertaken.

This article covers all the basic topics about the town except it does not mention the culture of the place, such as the annual “Trail Bay Music Festival”, the hosting of Triatholons etc.

This article does follow the wikipedia guidelines for a useful article such as article size, but no references or sources are used throughout the article.

This article tends to show south west rocks in a positive light and is created to be persuasive and attract tourists and new residents with the type of information included.

To Improve this article I would include information about the culture of the place, the types of native wildlife that live there (eg the threatened phascogale ), the impacts of tourism on the natural environment, and community groups existing in the town (eg. dune care, Arts Council).

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netball

My knowledge correlates with the information in this article and so I would deem it as accurate.

This does cover all the basic facts needed to be known about this topic such as:

History, demographics, positions, rules, popularity, notable netball players etc

This article needs more citations, but does follow wikipedias guidelines for a useful article such as the inclusion of an article summary etc.

This article is fair and balanced as it takes a factual approach and lacks emotive or persuasive language.

To improve this article I would include links to videos of international netball games, and a diagram of the ball used.

     There was a time when “Art” was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Now that anyone with a computer can create things digitally (music, images, videos, etc), what does that mean for “art”?

     I think the implications of this is that the physical side of creating “art” is now far less important than the creative side. For example, in the article Benjamin refers to how advent Photography…” freed the hand of the most important artistic functions which henceforth devolved only upon the eye looking into a lens”. Physical talent (eg a steady hand or years of practicing to play an instrument) are sidelined, and solely the creativity of the mind, and the limitations of the technology play a part in the creation of art.

    In Walter Benjamin’s eyes, a photoshopped image lacks authenticity as he states:” The situations into which the product of mechanical reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its presence is always depreciated. This holds not only for the art work but also, for instance, for a landscape which passes in review before the spectator in a movie. In the case of the art object, a most sensitive nucleus – namely, its authenticity – is interfered with whereas no natural object is vulnerable on that score.” My understanding of this is that authenticity arises from a natural object in its natural environment and if this is copied and/or altered, its authenticity will be depreciated.

    In Benjamin’s opinion, digital “things” are lacking in an “aura” as “ .. the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.” Digital things and reproduced things lack aura as the copies are not made within the context of the orignal therefore draining the entity of its “aura”.

The lovebug virus was created in the year 2000 by Onel De Guzman

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3257165.stm

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0862203.html

http://www.nzlistener.com/default,2035.sm

2) Who invented the paperclip?

William D. Middlebrook in 1899 was the first to invent AND patent the paperclip although Johann Vaaler is claimed to have invented the paper clip in 1890.

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/paperclip.htm

http://wwlibrary.org/MAIN/Reference/refpre00.html

3) How did the ebola virus get its name?

the ebola virus was named after the river in africa where ebola was first recognised

http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola-articles-a-to-z-page-6.html

http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/Africa/04/burton/burton.htm

4) what country had the largest recorded earthquake?

Chile in 1960

http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question63269.html

http://www.extremescience.com/GreatestEarthquake.htm

5) In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?

there are 2^30 kilobytes in a terabyte

http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/

6) Who created e-mail?

In 1971 Ray Tomlinson developed the first email application

http://www.livinginternet.com/e/ei.htm

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?The storm worm originated as an e-mail born computer virus which attaches a trojan horse to the recipients computer . The number of infected computers is not known but it is estimated in the millions.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/storm.asp 

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly,
what is the most efficient way?

using this website: http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm to e-mail him and his staff, this method is faster than using his postal address and leaves a record of contact being made whilst conversation in person or via the telephone would not.

http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

9)9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School
of Arts) a member of?

The Black Assasins

http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm

10) In your own words what is web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is an internet “revolution” where users of the internet have the power to manipulate webpages. Creativity is more of a component of today’s internet. In short.. the internet is now more user friendly.

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

http://germworks.net/blog/2007/02/11/web-jargon-explained/

ask jeeves.com

yahoo.com

1) How do search engines rank stuff?

Search engines follow a set of rules called an algorithm. One factor contributing to the ranking is the frequency and location of key words on the web page, those with the key words located closer to the top are seen to be more relevant. They also find pages with the keywords in the html tag more relevant.

http://searchenginewatch.com/showpage.html?page=2167961

2) What makes a page appear at the top of the search list?

As stated before it is because of the frequency of keywords that appear in the text, (and to the top of the text) and especially the html tag, which give a page top position in the list.

3) My Favourite search engine would have to be google. I like its simple layout and its comparitively small amount of adds. I guess it is just familiar to me as that is the search engine we were taught to use in primary school.

 

 To begin with…. a photo of my whippet Neville being naughty

 New communication technologies I use everyday include:

* Myspace/Facebook

*Instant Messaging

*Mobile Phones

These new communication technologies aide me in keeping in contact with people who I am not pysically close to, but who I have actually met before. I generally don’t have “Internet friends” who I socialise exclusively with via the internet, although websites such as Facebook and Myspace are tools that can cause my relationships with people I refer to as acquaintances to grow into closer friendships.

I have been using the internet since I was about 10 years old with its use starting as just a tool for school assignments (monthly use) to that of a social communication tool which nowdays I  use almost daily. My mobile phone usage has only occured in the past few years as my mum forbode me to have one or be near any as she believed their radiation highly unhealthy and gave u cancer …which is funny because now my mum uses her mobile phone more than me and I am unsure what made her change her stance on that peice of technology?

My peers and relatives influenced me to start using these technologies, my cousin (who lives in a city) introduced me to myspace and facebook and soon my friends also joined these websites after I had raved on about them. The high usage of mobile phones and text messaging of my friends influenced me to buy one of my own so I didnt miss out on social events or social bonding.

Privacy is an issue I am concerned about with my mobile phone, I wouldn’t like someone going through my inbox that I didn’t like! Text messaging and instant messaging also brings up privacy concerns as communication I have participated yet can be saved and shown to others who the communication was not intended for. Privacy is not so much an issue on myspace and facebook as I try to censor what I say and what pictures I post (eg. I wouldnt put a photo of myself in a bikini as my display photo) as I am aware that everyone has access to everything I put on those websites.

So basicly, I use new communication technologies to learn and to socialise, but when I socialise I do it with people I know primarily from face to face contact.

   

 I come from a coastal town of South West Rocks and enjoy surfing dancing and netball… so naturally I am terrible with computers  and took this course so I can gain confidence with new technology

south west rocks

I am currently studying a bachelor of communications, with my other subjects being:

Cultural perspectives 1

Intro to Marketing

and

Business Communications.

After I finish my degree I would like to pursue a career in advertising and marketing, but if this degree does not suite me I’m going to commence a bachelor of speech pathology at newcastle next year (as it has more employment opportunities )

This page is where I will post the work we have done in our class tutorials.