Monday, January 14, 2008

My First Post- Class, Reading and Video games

On my way to class last week, I was struck suddenly with the question of what exactly I was getting myself into. It seemed like the answer was there in my head: MEDIA. Despite the fact that my answer is essentially summed up in one word, it didn't make it any easier for me to understand. Media involves so many things...everything really. every single mode of communication whether it be speech, art, music, can be considered media. And to add to this complication comes the idea that every specific medium that relates any form of media is in itself a form of media. So I came to the conclusion that learning about media is in a way simply learning about life through representation. Whether we like it or not, it is a media-saturated environment in which we live, and coming to terms with that is something everyone must do in some form or another. Whether it be simply accepting it and living freely through text messages and iphones and trying to keep up with the latest trends in personal technology, or condemning society for its overuse of perhaps unnecessary technologies and resolutely using the card indexes in the library as opposed to the computer, every has their own way of "dealing with it".
As I sit here typing a posting on a recently created blog, on a (relatively) new computer, with my digital camera and my ipod on my desk, I know that I am a part of that media-saturated world. But does it cross my mind everyday? Not necessarily. Recently however I have been thinking about what forms of media I use. In the readings from Remediation: Understanding the New Media(1999 MIT Press) by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, the distinction between immediated and hypermediated forms of media is described. In the glossary, immediacy is defined as "A style of visual representation whose goal is to make the viewer forget the presence of the medium" and contrarily, the definition for hypermediacy is "A style of visual representation whose goal is to remind the viewer of the medium." (1999) For some reason, as I read this, I was reminded of a particular video game I have experienced in the past known as "Pokemon Snap!" for the Nintendo 64 system. I was trying to think of this video games in terms of hyper-/immediacy, and what that meant. In this video game, the player plays the role of a photographer who is meant to take pictures of these magical creatures. I found that there are elements of both immediacy and hypermediacy in this game. In the general game play, you are viewing from the photographers perspective in an imaginative world. It is intended that you feel you are within the realm of the Pokemon, and you have the ability to see above, below, behind and to either side of you while playing. This would be the developers attempt to try to get the player to look past his or her living room and actual television set and thus make them forget that they are in a game. Within the game, you get to take pictures, which eventually become "developed" which you can look at and edit at will. This is thrusting the medium of photography into the players mind. The game is entitled Pokemon Snap! for a reason: they are playing off the idea that in this game, it will be like actually taking photographs of actual imaginary creatures. The way I see this game is hypermediacy embedded within a world of immediacy.
Thus I've come to the sort of unsettling fact that I happen to be wondering how I am intended to perceive the media I am experiencing day to day. The use of some technologies seem so common now that I think that is in a sense immediacy, for example a technology that is so simple and quick to use that you forget the way you used it but simply remember the effect. But I also think the same about hypermediacy, because maybe the companies are intending to make whatever that technology so present in our lives that through marketing they can constantly update and remind the user of a better, faster, smarter medium to use instead.

ref: Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin: Remediation: Understanding New Media Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999

2 comments:

I. Reilly said...

great first post, ben! i like how you've managed to be self-reflexive, critical and analytical in the space provided. of course, there is no formula for a great post but you've managed to touch on a number of issues that i think will help you work through some of the larger questions for the course. i also think your thoughts on pokemon are interesting, especially if you look to alberti's window (in bolter and grusin).

keep writing,
i.

I. Reilly said...

also: make sure to edit your posts.