Category: digital culture

digital cultures, digital lifestyles – you name it

Conference in National Museum

Conference in National Museum
Originally uploaded by FransBadger

Today will be spent in Helsinki, in the National Museum where I am presenting a short talk about games, virtual worlds and what these developments in digital culture could matter to museums and other institutions of cultural heritage. Rather than just focusing on ‘canonised culture’ (traditional national treasures and art of the analogue world), I am also calling for initiatives to maintain the digital memories, artifacts and some significant virtual environments for the future generations. (Pictured: some canonised art by Gallen-Kallela in the museum entrance lobby dome.) Link to conference pages: http://www.accessibility2007.info/

Tokyo Game Show blast

They start it small
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

This year’s Tokyo Game Show (TGS) was bigger than ever; with its expected 180 000 visitors, 1 550 booths and 54 000 square meters of show-floor space, this is certainly as loud as games cultures get today. No moment of rest for a gamer, even if personally I’d prefer to sit down in somewhere more quiet and focus in only a game or two, rather than drifting inside a torrent of visitors past hundreds screens, demos, show sessions, all shouting over each other. But, hey — quickly taken, it was fun!

More pictures among my Flickr travel photos, see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fransmayra/1426977592/

Edit: I did read later (from The Asahi Shimbun, 29-30 Sept. weekend edition) that the total number of exhibitors was 217 and number of visitors 193 040 — wow!

TLS on contemporary culture(s)

TLS (Times Literary Supplement) has hold a central place in the literary lives of educated Englishmen from the year 1902 when Times first started featuring it. An interesting sign of times, even this ivory tower of analogue culture is taking into account some current discussions around the digital domains. See e.g. a review of Andrew Keen’s book The Cult of the Amateur) on the differing concepts of ‘culture’ that surround the ongoing debates on blogs, for example. To us who are also drawn into the realms Tolkien created, irrespective of the medium, TLS also offers something in its recent installment, including a piece discussing Diana Pavlac Glyer’s work The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community and the glimpses to the lives of the Inklings it offers.

Future technologies

Predicting future is hard, but fun job. Here is a pick of videos from YouTube:

There is something slightly comical in this line of techno-futurism and excitement about the future, if you keep on watching these long enough. On the other hand, optimism is sweet. One-sided, but still sweet.

Wonderful world of home video

Sony DCR-SR52EStricken down by a persistent summer flu, I have got time to browse the Internet in bed and tweak my system. Particularly the VNC remote desktop has been open a lot (upgrade of my server into Ubuntu Feisty Fawn did give some nasty errors and sorting them out has taken days — and the mail system still does not work). On more positive side, we finally got the digital video camera that I have been thinking about a lot. Originally I considered an AVCHD camcorder for the hi resolution benefits, but after looking a bit into the downsides (and price) of that technology, I decided to go for SD instead. The corder we got is Sony DCR-SR52E, a 32 meg hard disk model, which we picked up mainly for the interface: a touch screen and good usability makes this a nice choice for those occasional family clips. I have now tested the image quality and bundled software a bit, and (after some Vista specific upgrades) everything seems to be ok now. Projected to the large screen of my media room from a processed and compressed archive DVD the screen is blurry, but directly plugged into the living room television, I get sharp and colourful image. Some more tweaking is still needed to see what is the optimal way to archive. (These HDD camcorders use MPEG2-PS standard for recording, which means compression taking place when compared to DV tapes.) There would already have been some MPEG-4 camcorders on the market, aimed squarely at Youtubes and other net videos, and I suppose much of delivery to our extended families will also take place trough such online services. (Much easier for everyone involved if I send an email link rather than organise an entire evening of home video watching 😉

Blade Runner Ultimate

Yes, I am that much of a fanboy, I definitely could go for this — any more details available anywhere? This Binary Bonsai/EzyDVD leak still the only detailed data?

Blade Runner Ultimate Collection

Disc 1 – The Final Cut (2007):

  • Ridley Scott’s definitive new version of his science-fiction masterpiece includes added & extended scenes, added lines and new and cleaner special effects.

Disc 2 – 3 Complete Film Versions:

  • ‘82 U.S. Theatrical version

  • ‘82 International Theatrical version

  • ‘92 Director’s Cut

Disc 3 – “Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner” Documentary

  • Newly created documentary: Through interviews with the cast and crew, critics and colleagues, this feature-length documentary provides a mainstream-friendly yet meaningful in-depth look at Blade Runner’s literary genesis, its challenging production and controversial legacy. When all is said and done, this will be the definitive documentary on the film.

Disc 4 – Enhanced Content Bonus: (TBC)

  • INCEPTION – Featurettes and galleries devoted to Philip K. Dick, the birth of Cyberpunk and adapting the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

  • PRE-PRODUCTION – Featurettes and galleries devoted to script development, conceptual design and abandoned sequences.

  • PRODUCTION – Featurettes and galleries devoted to principal photography and locations.

  • POST-PRODUCTION – Featurettes and galleries devoted to deleted scenes, music and visual effects.

  • RELEASE – Featurettes and galleries devoted to marketing and reaction including Trailers, TV Spots and Promotional Featurettes

  • LEGACY – Featurettes and galleries devoted to the film’s resurrection and impact.

Disc 5 – Work Print Version & Enhanced Content:

  • Including the rarely seen Work Print version and potentially the 52 min. Channel Four (UK) documentary which was the first serious documentary created for the film.

Additionally, the set will come packaged in a limited “Blade Runner” briefcase holding the five-disc digipack with foil-enhanced and embossed slipcase. The goodies inside will include a lenticular motion image from the original feature, a collectible model spinner, an origami unicorn, a collection of photographs and a letter from Ridley Scott. Holy shit.

The street date is going to be in September. Unfortunately, the retailer is not taking international orders for this thing. However, don’t be too surprised if Region 1 gets the same thing. We’ll keep you posted.

Summertime Pong

This must be the ultimate way to play Pong the Midsummer Festival style: have the controllers integrated in your underwear. See: Master’s Student Demonstrates Thesis Project in Her Underwear.

Article on digital culture

Tarkemmin katsoenMy article discussing the character and development of digital culture has now been published in a new anthology that is focused on visual culture, titled Toisin katsoen, visuaalisen kulttuurin lukukirja (Gaudeamus, 2007). More on the book here. You can read a draft version of my piece “Viesti, kuva, peli: virtuaaliutopioista pelikulttuurien syntyyn” (in Finnish) here; if you quote, please access the final, printed version though.

Discussing the Sacred and the digital games

The age-old battle between church authority and domains of the popular, the secular and the art takes new forms: the Catholic Church of England is apparently considering of suing Sony Computer Entertainment for use of the likeness of the Manchester Cathedral as a backdrop for a scifi-horror style fantastic battle. See more discussion on this topic in Matteo Bittanti’s blog here: http://www.videoludica.com/news.php?news=639

Music for the masses

Listening and watching music yesterday evening in my ‘media cave’, I started again thinking about the value of ‘content’ and the current distribution models of music. According to some sources, already 95 % of CD sales in China are pirated, and the online distribution (legal and not-so) continues to grow in popularity (see references as http://cyberextazy.wordpress.com/tag/research-statistics/ http://www.bpi.co.uk/pdf/BPI_UK_Commercial_Music_Piracy.pdf http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/facts.asp etc.). Looking at the ubiquity of mp3 players, the problems people are having with various copy “protected” legal disks and the hassle-free, cross-device use that is associated with non-protected digital music, it is easy to foresee that the strongly protective DRM road is problematic. If, on the other hand, a CD or a media file is more like an advertisement for the artist in the future, than the actual product people are willing to pay for, where the income is going to come from? Clicking through my collection with the Vista Media Centre, one alternative quickly became obvious: the added value of lyrics, high-resolution album cover art, additional media such as music videos and photo slideshows are surely something that would provide rich experiences for those who really become interested in the artist, after listening the music. There are multiple physical services and products that provide additional value to digital music, such as concerts and large-format printed materials, high-quality archive copies in well-produced DVD/Blueray formats that would still provide revenue for the industry and the artists, even if the business models are definitely going to undergo a transition.