Creative Gallery

Hey everyone. Like I mentioned in class, my creative gallery is an extension on the subject of digitization and how it's affected and will continue to affect the printed book, libraries, and publishing industry. For my creative gallery, I decided to do a Google map of the history of the written word and technological developments throughout history related to writing and such. I hope you enjoy this little history lesson! :)

Here's my Google map.

Collaborative Trailer

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B7MKHLGSvZHIYThlOGUxZTktYTMyMy00ZDBkLWFkMjMtODY0NDNkNmRmYWFl&hl=en


I'm not sure how much of each individual project we need to include into the collaborative trailer, but I think the part of mine where the Kindle is basically taking over the books in the bookshelf might be what could be included. However, it might need some text to preface it simply because I've moved from just the idea of the Kindle. I would want this small section to represent all electronic readers or even the idea of digitization itself. The fact that it is taking away all of the books in its path is kind of representing the digital world taking over all aspects related to the printed book, such as publishing companies, authors, libraries, etc. Therefore, I suppose the text that could preface this small section could be something like, "The digital world is quickly making a more prominent path in our society, taking along with it everything related to reading and the printed book."


I tried to put the link in, but this was all I got:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl2jh2w3oU8

Final Essay

Here is the link for the final copy of my essay.

Creative Gallery

Some of the examples of creative galleries have been very interesting, such as the rhyming Twitter statuses, the Google maps of Twilight and Sims, and even the collaborative video of people doing graffiti on one single object. I guess, in thinking of these examples, the creative gallery is simply more of an extension of the essay/project.

I'm honestly not sure at the moment what I would be able to do creatively with my project other than what I already did with the Quicktime videos earlier in the semester. I guess one idea that would be interesting would be to publish my essay on the Kindle, but if I did that it seems as though I would need to do something more, something to also have an actual creative aspect to the creative gallery. One thing about publishing the essay, although it is free, it still does not seem as though Amazon would publish anything and everything. I guess one idea could possibly be to somehow get pictures of people reading a book on different electronic readers and actual books as well. The only thing about that option is that it might be difficult to accomplish.

Thinking again about the different possibilities for my creative gallery, I've come up with another idea. I was thinking that I might be able to kind of extend my project by simply exploring the history of the written word. In order to do this, I think the Google Maps narrative is the perfect idea. I would pick certain places on the Map where particular important events in the written world have taken place, such as when and where the printing press was invented.

Draft of Essay

This is definitely a draft of my essay. Like it says in the draft, I am not positive that will remain the title; as of now, it is generally covering digitization concerning the printed book. Unfortunately, I am still working with how I want to organize my sources. For now, I have summarized my sources for the most part and combined three of my sources together already. Therefore, I guess I would especially like any comments on the organization of my three combined sources, since the other sources are not yet organized for the essay, simply sumarized. In addition, I have not yet been able to select an argument to go along with for my essay, such as Foucault, etc.

Here is the link to my draft.

How the Author is Constructed on YouTube

YouTube is definitely different in that it's not really made for people to get to know one another. Although you do have the option of creating a profile when signing up for an account, no one really seems to pay any attention to who the "authors" are of the videos. In that sense, it seems almost as though the author is really invisible unless he or she is actually in the video. It's not like a book, where one might look up who wrote, or created, it. When people talk about a great, funny, interesting, etc. video on YouTube, they usually just say the title and let other people take a look for themselves.

However, YouTube can be used in a way for an author to express his or her ideals, their hobbies, etc. In considering those who are actually in their own videos, I guess YouTube is a way to allow the author to actually be seen to better get their ideas and thoughts out there. Wether the person is in their own video or not, YouTube is also different from Facebook in that people use their creativity more than simply writing their information down, quotes, pictures, etc. I guess the name, YouTube, definitely works to put the emphasis on the author.

Facebook

I think Facebook helps to construct the "author" through what people write on their pages, what they write to their friends, how many "friends" they have, and even the games that they play on Facebook. In some sense, it could be seen as kind of defining the person. However, I don't know if i believe people can truly get to know other people through what they write on Facebook. It seems as though people really need to be able to have physical contact and communication rather than solely through Facebook in order to get a complete sense of who the person is, their ideals, etc.

Here is the link to my diagram.