User:Marlon/Graduate Research Seminar/thesis/draft: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:33, 22 January 2014

Thesis template

This is a draft. Reading list here.

Name/title

Abstract goes here.

Introduction

Work

(project description goes here)

Digital culture, repurposed

Previous practice, copy paste from proposal final:

During the last two years of my bachelor, a fascination with the viral workings of the World Wide Web led to a number of projects. I focused on the process of finding information, especially in the case of current news events. Via image search engines or social networking sites I collected comments or images related to a topic and then attempted to recreate these stories or reinterpret the information. Some examples:

Tsunami by proxy (2011)

This graduation piece is a collection of around 1200 postcards, printed with popular images found online that depict the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. (Natural) disasters are visual stories and the images that most accurately capture the imagination of the viewer are very popular online, even if they are stills from movies or images from other disasters.

PSYOP (2010)

PSYOP is a collection of forum posts 'published' as a poetry book. The posts are comments on the 'Balloon boy hoax' of October 2009, as I was struck by how much meaningless content was produced by the online spectators of the story. The story went viral, picked up by the traditional media and more people rushed to their computer to share their advice, opinions, links and hastily generated gifs. The book is a chronological narration of the hoax, interspersed with quotes and screen captures from news broadcasting (a lot of the same messages and images repeated - a logical effect of 24/7 news coverage).

Making visual connections

Current project. And related previous work:

At PZI, I became more interested in sharing and peer-to-peer networks. Both their social impact and how these notions are made visual. During the second trimester this resulted into an investigation that can be divided into three sections:

Pirate Bay Archive

Karel Bilek created an archive of the Pirate Bay, a website that indexes (illegal) content available for download. The archive, an 75MB .XML file (a format used to store data), contains over 1,6 million links to torrent files. That would make it possible to recreate The Pirate Bay if it would ever be taken offline. As a very simple exercise I randomly displayed one item of the list on a website, with a link to the download. This gives users access to an enormous amount of content, but without the 'search option' it loses almost all its functionality.

.NFO-files

.NFO files are a prominent tradition within the file sharing subculture. In the past the limited technical possibilities set boundaries for how the file looked and although the software used to create these files has developed significantly, the overall look of an .NFO file has remained the same, all due to its nostalgic value. I am impressed with how the creators of these files manage to construct something great with very little: a limited toolbox of white on black or black on white symbols is used to make impressive pieces of work. The files have changed from a necessity to a form of expression. It is the "corporate identity" of individuals or groups of people that manifest themselves online.

Peer-to-peer-to-Peer-to-peer

A collage of images, downloaded via Google Images and printed on separate pages, that symbolise peer-to-peer networks. The printed pages overlap, connecting the peers of one diagram to those of another, forming a larger network of peer-to-peer networks.

Peers can form a network of nodes in which they share data peer-to-peer, without any central coordination. Currently the term "peer-to-peer" is at the height of its popularity, something you see reflected in the striking amount of images visualising the system that circulate the Web. Though the system stays the same, its use is in constant development. This "evolution" can be observed when looking at these images: the older images are smaller in file-size, with low-tech graphics depicting desktop computers, while the newer versions illustrate the increasing social impact of the peer-to-peer system.

Theory

Template culture

Imitation, the norm, copy, the standard, the original, liberating or limiting?

Template

Limitations, restrictions, the mould, sjabloon, stencil, content vs form.

Lifestyle/experience design

Advertisement, promotion, trend, ...

Downloadable design

Graphic design, new image making culture, prefab, downloads, user/producer, amateur, tool, app, download.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ====Introduction====
-Introduction on methodology, copy paste from essay on method:
+====Work====
-This text examines my (recent) work, projects that started out as a fascination with Internet culture. A news story gone viral, a meme or an online community. Researching each of these subjects led to a collection of images, files or comments, extracted from the web. By placing them in a different context or environment I have tried to confront myself and others with how the Internet has changed the way we find/share (personal) information and entertainment.
-During the last two years of my bachelor Graphic Design at ArtEZ in Arnhem, the focus of my work has primarily been on the Internet and how it has changed the way we find and share information. Internet culture in its many aspects has been the source, or research material, of my projects. News stories that go viral and become online memes, the typographic elements of .NFO files – informative texts added to illegal downloads – or diagrams designed to represent peer-to-peer networks.
-This texts examines my most recent work that, while still strongly rooted in graphic design and often resulting in a non-digital, printed outcome, tries to approach critically digital culture. Most of my work focuses on a smaller aspect of it, but still tries to raise questions about the topic as a whole.
-====Previous practice====
 (project description goes here)
+===== Digital culture, repurposed =====
 Previous practice, copy paste from proposal final:
@@ Line 31: / Line 24: @@
 PSYOP is a collection of forum posts 'published' as a poetry book. The posts are comments on the 'Balloon boy hoax' of October 2009, as I was struck by how much meaningless content was produced by the online spectators of the story. The story went viral, picked up by the traditional media and more people rushed to their computer to share their advice, opinions, links and hastily generated gifs. The book is a chronological narration of the hoax, interspersed with quotes and screen captures from news broadcasting (a lot of the same messages and images repeated - a logical effect of 24/7 news coverage).
+=====Making visual connections =====
+Current project. And related previous work:
 At PZI, I became more interested in sharing and peer-to-peer networks. Both their social impact and how these notions are made visual. During the second trimester this resulted into an investigation that can be divided into three sections:
@@ Line 48: / Line 45: @@
 Peers can form a network of nodes in which they share data peer-to-peer, without any central coordination. Currently the term "peer-to-peer" is at the height of its popularity, something you see reflected in the striking amount of images visualising the system that circulate the Web. Though the system stays the same, its use is in constant development. This "evolution" can be observed when looking at these images: the older images are smaller in file-size, with low-tech graphics depicting desktop computers, while the newer versions illustrate the increasing social impact of the peer-to-peer system.
-====Related works or texts ====
+====Theory====
+=====Template culture=====
+Imitation, the norm, copy, the standard, the original, liberating or limiting?
+===== Template =====
+Limitations, restrictions, the mould, sjabloon, stencil, content vs form.
+=====Lifestyle/experience design=====
+Advertisement, promotion, trend, ...
-====Current project genesis====
+=====Downloadable design =====
-====Current project====
+Graphic design, new image making culture, prefab, downloads, user/producer, amateur, tool, app, download.
 ====Conclusion====