i-Anya

I’ve been a fan of bell hook’s work for a while but this is the first time I’ve seen/heard her speak about critical theory and popular culture. I love it!

There are more extensive videos of Stuart Hall and other critical theorists on these issues at the Media Education Foundation including a range of resources and study guides for teachers about Critical Theory, but I think the genius is that they released these videos free onto youtube for everybody to view.

Slatenight 1.2 is available now - in Second Life at any Slatenight kiosk, and at the website slatenight.com

Articles this issue include the following:

Deus Ex Machina: “God From The Machine” (this one is the most popular by far, discussing the nexus between science fiction and technology, projecting into the future etc)

Hope, Fear and the Future: Burning Life 2006 (related to an in world event that mirrors an offline event called the Burning Man

Kids go Global in Second Life Part 1 (about the teen grid)

The White Cube of the Virtual World Art Space, part one
The White Cube of the Virtual World Art Space, part two (two fantastic articles about remediation by Christy Dena)

Avatars, Power and the Ethics of Freedom in Second Life (this one is mine!)

August Take5 Festival Worth the Wait! (about the machinima festival last month)

Crimson Falls Asylum & Village (about role-playing in SL)

All the (Virtual) Worlds a Stage
(and another article by me about a theatre performance in SL - images featured on the cover above)

and there’s lots more about art, identity, relationships in SL, musical events, SL lifestyles and more! Phew… and issue 3 is shaping up nicely, with some fabulous articles covering the arts, education, culture, and life in Second Life.

*laughing* this is just too funny…

Over at textually.org is this very interesting post about teens, technology and fears about the lost art of conversation. I don’t quite follow the statistical line of reasoning there but I did enjoy the video clip it linked to - click the image above to see.

Yes, today I met the Second Life fashion icon and my idol, Nonna Hedges and there we are together (and with Wisper) in her modelling studio!!! I am afraid I gushed like a real groupie but she was very kind and even took me shoe shopping to her favourite Second Life store! What a delightful person as well as incredibly talented. She told me that her Second Life business is her full time job. Amazing.

And speaking of idols, here is my brother Matthew playing backing for Australian music star (and former Australian Idol winner) Anthony Callea:

and here is my niece Laura (on the right) and her friend with Anthony Callea as well (he was in Tasmania yesterday):

This giant sized image of Eva, as seen using google Earth:

A massive picture of Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, so big it can be seen from space, is gracing the dusty desert outside Las Vegas.

Maxim magazine has recreated an old cover image of the sexy star on a 33-metre-by-23-metre vinyl-mesh screen to celebrate its 100th issue.

The picture, which is so big that satellites are able to photograph it from space, took nine workers more than 15 hours to build.

It can be seen on Google Earth.

Asked about the huge picture Longoria said “I guess space is no longer the final frontier. I am flattered, to say the least, to be TV’s Sexiest Earthling.”

Right now Australia is one big blank space of nothing on google Earth. Maybe if we stuck a giant ad of a semi naked woman at Uluru we might get the satellites turning this way?

There’s been a very timely and lengthy (!) discussion on one of my email lists about teens online. Timely for me because I have just finished writing about this very topic! Today this message from W. Reid Cornwell arrived in my inbox and I think it reflects many of the things I have just been writing about (and have written about in the past) myself:

The Center For Internet Research just completed an online survey. While the results are preliminary the trends are clear and as follows:

* Links to the survey form were sent via email to 2000 Colorado teens between 14 and 18
* 1,000 were in rural settings and 1,000 were urban
* 1,123 people responded
* 610 rural kids responded (insignificant gender differences)
* 515 urban kids responded (insignificant gender differences)
* All respondents reported that they participated in some sort of real-time chatting
* All reported that they did so while doing other tasks (homework etc.)
* All reported that they preferred this form of communication rather than telephone
* All reported that they spent more time chatting online or emailing than they spent in f2f activities
* All reported that they downloaded music at some time
* All reported that they share music, links data, and homework with their friends
* All reported that they valued technical skills of their peers and it appears that kids who help them keep their devices working had certain status
* All reported that they did not perceive a peer to peer negative reaction related to computer use or skills
* All reported that kids who did not use these devices were seen as odd or different. (stigma)

According to this report, the three most commonly used words to evolve in 2005 as a consequence of the film industry are:

1. Brokeback
2. Brangelina (beating out TomKat by a long way)
3. Petronoia

Another interesting point in this article is the credit given to the internet - i.e. the power of memes to perpetuate new lexical items and add to / change our language.

I’d love to know the ontology of the practice of combining star couple names together. The first one I can remember hearing about is Bennifer (followed a few years later by Bennifer 2.0) - does anybody know who the first couple was and what their media name was?

Click the image above to view a recent Australian tourism advertisement that has been the subject of much controversy here over the past week or so. The use of the vernacular word “bloody” has been deemed offensive. Here’s the spin:

Understandably, most attention has focused on the attention-grabbing slogan. Yes, we know it’s what the marketeers call “a uniquely Australian invitation”, a good-humoured piece of friendly banter, an oh-so-clever vernacular spin on a sophisticated sell. But does it sound too rude? Will potential Japanese or American visitors be offended?

I have to say I never use the word and the use of it to promote Australia is hardly sophisticated - its just as embarrassing as Paul Hogan and his barbequed prawns, but hey, other parts of the ad are just as stupid in my view - here’s the text of the ad:

We’ve bought you a beer
and we’ve had the camels shampooed
we’ve saved you a spot on the beach
and we’ve got the sharks out of the pool
we got the roos off the green
and Bill’s on his way down to open the front gate
your taxi is waiting
and dinner is about to be served
We turned on the lights
and we’ve been rehearsing for over forty thousand years
so where the bloody hell are you?

Errr…. just have a look and see what you think - would you be tempted to come to Australia from this? I always suffer a cultural cringe though because of the way the typical “Australian” is portrayed overseas (i.e. like an idiot). When people ask me where I’m from I always say “Tasmania” because it’s too embarrassing to say otherwise.

More on the “$100 million gamble” here: a rationale for the ad and its intended audience: “the experience seekers”.

Anyway regardless of what I think about the ad as an ad, I think it will make a good discussion point about the use of language, audience and context for at least one of my lectures :>

I mentioned that you tube has groups, tags, commenting and so on just like flickr. They also have ratings, playlists, and various types of “interestingness” type selections. My guess is that there may be issues with copyright but the video remixes, mashes, re-editing, home made music video clips and parodying that users are uploading are just fabulous.

For example, in one of the Brokeback Mountain playlist there are fan fiction parodies like the Brokeback to the Future I already mentioned, and others using films like Pulp Fiction and so on. There are original trailers, clips and captures from any event related to the film, like this one of Jake Gyllenhall winning a BAFTA for best supporting actor:

(also this compilation of all the times BBM was featured on the BAFTAS) and this one of the cast on Oprah:

There are mini domcunetaries on the “making of” the movie, just like you might see on DVD extras, interviews such as this interview with Ang Lee:

…and there are some gorgeous remixes of scenes put to different soundtracks to portray different viewers’ interpretations, responses and desires for alternate endings, like this one:

There are also clips taken from reviews of the movie from various television shows, clips of interviews of the stars as they walk up the red carpet and a whole heap more.

So that’s just a small sampling of what people are doing using Brokeback Mountain, the youtube.com site is running competitions for best original music videos!

For example, look at this:

Welcome to the official YouTube group for the Pretty Girls Make Graves “Make Our Video” contest. Imagine the prestige and glory of winning the first-ever music video contest on YouTube and making a video for a band who has toured the world with Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie.

In addition to adding the title “music video maker” to your resume, the winner will be given $1,000 in cold, hard cash and be flown out to New York all expenses paid to hang with the band and see them live in concert courtesy of Matador records. You’ll receive spending cash and your flight, your hotel, even your food will be paid for in this exclusive contest.

For the 20 runner-ups, you’ll get a Matador Records prize pack, including signed CDs, posters and a bunch music from artists like Mogwai, Cat Power, Mission of Burma, Belle & Sebastian, Early Man, Pavement, Interpol, and The New Pornographers.

Entering the Contest is easy:
1. Download the MP3 ‘Nocturnal House’ from the band’s upcoming record ‘Elan Vital’
2. Make your very own video to Nocturnal House
3. Upload Your Video to YouTube
4. Join the Pretty Girls Make Graves Group and add your video
5. Sit back and wait for prestige, fortune and fame!

Pretty amazing stuff - I’m loving it :>

Also, does anybody know about the copyright issues with all of this? I know many authors love their texts being used for fan fiction stuff and even, like JK Rowling, visit the sites regularly. But I’m not so sure what the deal is with video and film, or with the direct and unedited clips from Oprah or the BAFTAs for example.