Blog 4

Week 5 already, time is going fast. Our lecture this week was mostly about negative and positive aspects of Wikipedia. The overall sense was that Wikipedia is not a reliable source, especially for academic research. It is more of a cultural source for diverse theories and opinions. Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at anytime. So how do we know what is truth? In the lecture notes, there were some theories that can help determine the truth:

Correspondence Theory: Just the facts - observable, measurable
Coherence Theory: Does it fit together and make sense?
Performative Theory: I do declareSocial Theory: What can we agree on?

We also looked into some of the aspects of the movie Matrix, which gave us a glimpse into the future of technology.

The reading for this week was a short story based in the 1940's and was set seven years into the future. I found it quite complex to comprehend. The lecture notes stated that the Wikipedia article for this story was 'pretty good' so I went to the Wikipedia site for an overview of the story. I guess it relates to this weeks topic of 'Wikipedia', as the story is about an encyclopedia article about a mysterious country, that is imagined by people and thereby created. It reflects our study of Wikipedia and the search for truth.

In our tutorial we shared our individual interpretation of the lecture and discussed our ideas for our essay topics. My essay topic is: Do virtual environments emulate or mimic the real world and the everyday lives of real people?

For our tutorial task, we were asked to consider the following questions:

How do the ideas from Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" apply to contemporary digital media?
Walter Benjamin explains that Mass production enables all people to view digital movies and not just the elite sort. This type of production is much better suited to today’s society.

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"?
In todays society art is not just a painting or drawing on a canvas. Art is used to express emotions and creativity in what ever shape or form. For example, an Apple turning brown once its been cut open could be seen as art. Just like most things in life, art has evolved overtime.

Is a photoshopped image "authentic"?
No, authentic means real, genuine, true relaible. Would you call a photoshopped image of a super modle real, genuine, true or relaible? No, I wouldnt. These images are not real people, they are digitialy inhanced to create the ideal or perfect person. When in relaity people dont look like that. So no, I do not belive a photoshopped image is authentic and I would like to meet someone who thought they were authentic.

Do digital "things" have an "aura" (in Benjamin's terms)?

Media such as music, images and video are a form of art which is expressed by mass media. The “aura” refers to people’s sense of awe they have to these such productions. These digital medias provoke feelings and opinions, and so are considered to have an aura.