art ed + web 2.0 + [e]merging media blog

On CNN today, there is a link to a Time magazine story about businesses that offer services of printing out and mailing (yes, as in envelopes and stamps) emails, facebook updates, pictures, etc. to people. The main customers sound as if they are older and they see this service as a way to not have to own or use computers on a regular basis. It seems like some type of patch or bridge to connect the digital natives not to the digital immigrants, but perhaps to people in a distant homeland.

It's interesting to consider how much written communication has changed. Though telephones have changed quite a bit too, you can still use a new smart phone to call an old landline attached to a rotary dial phone. But, I cannot use email to get to a person who does not have a computer. Does this set up a situation where we are more likely to communicate orally with older people? Though I used to write letters on a regular basis, I cannot begin to guess when the last time was that I actually sat down and wrote a letter (not counting holiday cards or thank you notes here).

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According to a story on CNN's site, there are folks lining up now in NYC and Tokyo to be the first to get their hands on the new iPhone. Evidently, this is a major event for folks who love these phones and there seems to be so many of them. Though I'm not much of a cell phone fan or advocate (and paying that much up front plus the hefty monthly fee is hard for me to believe) it's interesting to see how these ubiquitous technologies are having an impact in Iran with the election protests. From what I've read elsewhere on NPRit sounds like some of the information is getting out via twitter. Evidently, the censors remembered to block many of the social networking sites, but forgot about that one. Also, some people are able to link into computers in other countries via a proxy and get their images out that way. I wonder why the government does not turn off access to the entire Internet in order to control the people? Or, maybe the government is too afraid of the consequences? With all of our constant access to technology, I wonder if it will make protests and democracy building easier. From the news stories about these protests, it sounds like they are being organized largely via mobile devices.

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Recently, I received rewrites for an article for a journal in Art Education. The article is about what I learned making podcasts with groups of students. In the reviewer comments, one reviewer raised the point about the relationship between podcasts and digital stories. I had not previously considered this and it really got me thinking.

Previously, I would have said that the differences between the two related to the subscription and serialization features of podcasts. But, now there are some digital stories that are serialized and I think you can subscribe to them too. So, is there a difference and what is it? Or, maybe a better question is, do we need some new or different terms within the field of Art Education to talk about these items?

The term that I'm thinking of is (inter) active media. This implies that there are different levels of interactivity allowed by the user. It's interesting to hear some people talk about interactive technologies and they show something that does not allow for users to interact (other than in a passive way). I would call that multimedia. An example would be a screen capture set of directions that the user watches. The user cannot interrupt and ask how to do something different. S/he can only watch it and follow along. This is not really interactive, but it is more like a way to lecture over the Internet.

Any other thoughts out there? What is the difference between interactive, inter(active), multimedia, emerging, or other words used to describe contemporary technologies? Does the interaction have to be between the person and the machine? Could something be (inter) active if it promoted something happening between people in the real world (IRL)?

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Yesterday I heard a story on a local independent radio station, WRIR, about a new concept in an art show that is taking place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's called Art Prize, and it's an American Idol type of concept relating to showing art and allowing the audience to vote. The prize is enormous - $250,000 and the organizers freely admit that it's an experiment.

Within a defined space in Grand Rapids, any artist who can find a space to show her/his work is welcome to participate. Any gallery that is within the geographic parameters is welcome to participate. Any person who visits the galleries is able to participate through voting. They will allow open voting online starting in September. It will come down to 10 finalists and then there will be an additional week of voting for the finalists. It's really interesting to think about how an artist will be chosen by the people in this way. But, it's not like American Idol in that the art does not come into your home. You have to make the effort as a viewer to go and see it or to go online to look at it.

Can't wait to see how this will turn out! Maybe it's a way to leverage the power of the arts community and use it as a way to promote art and the advocacy of art throughout a community. And, kudos to Grand Rapids for coming up with such an innovative and interesting idea.

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Today I was contacted by an artist in Amsterdam named Sander Veenhof who is using Web 2.0 to create a bouquet of flowers. His press release is below. Evidently, he is harnessing the power of various people Googling, blogging, twittering, etc. about him to turn lights on and off in a greenhouse. I'm wondering though what will happen if the lights are on too much? Is it successful if the plants don't grow because they had too much light? Alternatively, not being a botanist, I wonder if plants need dark for hours in a row? Will they be able to grow if the lights go on and off constantly throughout the day? But, I do know from my gardening experience that the time from when you plant the seed to when it sprouts seems to be the most difficult. Once they sprout, they seem to be harder to kill.

However, the video that I see is grainy, so I'm not sure if this is about growing 'real' plants or some virtual ones. I'll send Sander Veenhof and email and see.

PRESS RELEASE

On July 1st 2009 Sander Veenhof (1973) is graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld art academy in Amsterdam.
To color up that occasion and to attract attention to himself in an overly busy contemporary art world, Veenhof came up with a concept to serve both purposes in harmony. He started growing a 'graduation bouquet' in an interactively controlled greenhouse hosted in the hallway of his Amsterdam home.

A custom designed greenhouse control system converts all online publicity into plant growth by switching on the grow-lights above his 'publicity plant' whenever new a weblog-posting, Twitter message or Delicious bookmark refers to the project. Bouquet growth can be monitored live through a webcam shown at the project website, which lists and thanks the online community in turn.

Veenhof's original background is in computer science. Knowing enough about the endless opportunities to control anything precisely, in his art academy career he explores the contrary: seeking challenges posed by hybrid projects involving plants in digital environments and experimenting with new, uncertain and indirect models for interactive installations.

There's two and a half months left until the outcome needs to be taken to the graduation show of the 'interaction design for unstable media' department. Whatever will be brought there, it will visualize in a very natural way the success of this project.

Website: http://sndrv.nl/publicityplant

Project title: "Publicity Plant"
Developed by: Sander Veenhof
Artist name: SNDRV
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Portfolio: http://sndrv.nl

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An email I received today from eschool news contained an article about the status of Web 2.0 integration in the classrooms. A survey was conducted of district level technology supervisors and their responses were included in this study. Interestingly, it sounds like the reasons for not using Web 2.0 in the schools are so similar to past reasons for not using other forms of educational technology. See Larry Cuban's work for in-depth explanations of these reasons. But, this article explains (according to an expert) that students prefer the online world to writing in a paper format. However, they cite some reasons for lack of adoption and implementation being that the tools were not developed for classrooms, teachers' lack of comfort with them, and the potential for misuse of them.

Is anything ever as good as the promise?

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