Adapting to Digital Changes

This week we were asked to listen to, watch, and read several different links asking the question what is new/digital media. The first was an audio file captured by DigiBob. DigiBob talked about what new/digital media is and how it is growing everyday. He talked about when computers and pictures first came together forming the first analogue to digital conversion, something that we all take forgranted everyday of our lives. The next piece was two short texts by Lev Manovich, "What is New Media?" and "Principles of New Media." In these two articles Lev Manovich explained his take on new media. He talks about how anything you can find on a comp is related to new media and then explains the five main principles of media. Next was to read a one-page web piece on sampling rates and digital audio. I personally enjoyed this piece because of how it relates to my field of study, sound design, but at the same time found it all very familiar to what I have been learning in classes. We were then instructed to watch a short scene from an early Charlie Chaplin film where he is trying to keep up with a factory assembly line. Next was a short video on Youtube called "Did you Know?" Continuing on with a documentary on "Girl Talk." Then my favorite out of the four videos, a music video on Youtube called "Take Me Out" by Atomic Tom Live On NYC Subway. It was the intriguing as you watched the band Atomic Tom preform their song "Take me out" on a NYC subway using nothing more than their iphones! The film also was shot on an iphone. This was way cool and opened up my mind to all the things that this new digital age is bringing to the table and makes me think what will it be like in 20 years? This reminded me of the music video for Matt & Kim "Daylight." In this music video you see Matt and Kim playing in all kinds of crammed spaces like the closet, taxi, my personal favorite the fridge. Imagine if they were playing on iphones instead of on instruments. In the Charlie Chaplin film he is trying to keep up with the machine still we are keeping up with machines but now it's more keeping up with the computers and technology than machines.

In the end as we look at new/digital media there is no knowing where it will be in 20 years let alone in 5 years. I am personally very excited and ready to adapt to the changes that come out of this new technology.