When In Doubt – Procrastinate

I have been trying to wrap my brain around some material that I am supposed to submit to my advisor by Friday for a Monday morning meeting. I have everything in bits and pieces, but have no real idea as to how to get the ball rolling (a continuation of my earlier post about flood gates etc..). Every day, I look at the bits and pieces, and theoretically I KNOW what I have to do, but for some reason, I am blocked. I read and re-read my 4 page proposal outline, and think that it is simply a job of fill in the blanks (since the outline makes pretty good sense). If I “know” what to do – why can’t I do it?

In response to my brain blockage, I spent some more time on Amazon.ca, and bought a few more books. I am not sure when I will have time to read them what with my reading heavy PhD seminar on The Figure in Film, a new writing project that I will chat about once I am able, and my chosen duties for getting gameCODE into full swing for the fall semester. Nonetheless, they will be fun to have around for those days when all I can think of doing is procrastinate.

Today’s book list: Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games by Barton; Gamer Theory by McKenzie Wark; How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics by N. Katherine Hayles; Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft® Reader (edited collection) Hilde G. Corneliussen (Editor), Jill Walker Rettberg (Editor); Bodies in Code: Interfaces with Digital Media by Mark B. N. Hansen; I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life by Mark Stephen Meadows.

Book Launch


CISSC BOOK LAUNCH
GROWING UP ONLINE:  YOUNG PEOPLE AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

When: October 7th, 16h00 – 17h00
Where: LB-612 (McConnell Library Building)
Concordia University, Montreal, QC Canada 

 SANDRA WEBER AND SHANLY DIXON  

In this cutting-edge anthology, contributors examine the diverse ways in which girls and young women across a variety of ethnic, socio-economic, and national backgrounds are incorporating and making sense of digital technology in their everyday lives. Contributors explore issues of gender, identity, access to technologies, social and parental regulation, and cultural issues allowing cell phones, blogging, the production and consumption of websites, social networking and gaming to take on new significance in current theories, public discourse, and policy issues. The voice of youth culture resonates throughout the book as they adapt, adopt, and blend new technologies, providing valuable insight into their experience and challenging some currently held notions

.Author Bio (at time of writing):
Sandra Weber is Professor of Education,Concordia University.
Shanly Dixon is a PhD in Humanities candidate, Concordia University.
 
 

 

Reading ‘n Writing

I bought two new books this week – both of which should have already been on my bookshelf. Mind you, the list in my “to buy later” section of amazon is a little old and a little long. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to reading (in full) Andrew Darley’s Visual Digital Culture: Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres and Anne Friedberg’s Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern. I have read other works by Friedberg and quite enjoy her writing style, so I think it will be a fun book to go through.

In ‘writing’ news, I am working on piecing together something comprehensible for my advisor to see where I am at in terms of my thesis outline, research direction, and relevant reading notes. The trouble for me is that I am having a hard time knowing where to begin (towards comprehensibility). I have always been the type to flounder in chaos until the the moment the dam breaks and I become incredibly productive – but working towards breaking that dam is always the hardest challenge I seem to face. While I have always been one to take as many classes as I could, and load up my schedule, the course on the figure that I am taking is pre-occupying me (in a good way). There is alot of reading weekly (as any PhD course should be) and since alot of it is new to me (damn me for switching disciplines at this stage! lol) I am finding it alot of work to go from reading as new information (sponging up everything I reading) and being able to approach the readings with a critical mind. I do think in the end, come December, it will all come together. I see alot of material in this course (and area of study) that could be very useful for some parts of my thesis.

Last year, I had commented a few times about how my program often talked about the “death of cinema” at the merciless hands of the digital (sometimes directly, sometimes this was my impression of the paradigmic shfts we discussed…). Last week, I read an article that, while seeming painfully familiar, I really enjoyed. Thomas Elsaesser’s “The New Film History as Media Archeology” in the journal Cinémas. For me, it is refreshing to talk about change in technology from a non-linear perspective, and to approach the introduction of new technologies simply as movement – but not necessarily negative (or positive).. just .. different .. Thats not quite what Elsaesser says, but I walked away from reading that article feeling satisfied with the direction the article was headed.

Virtual Reality International Conference

There is a full day symposium titled “THE PHILOSOPHY OF IDENTITY IN THE VIRTUAL” (April 23). It is part of the 3 day conference on Virtual Reality. Although there is a design / technical slant, I am absolutely excited about the potential of the symposium.  Directly from the symposium’s website, here is the preamble:

Topic:
Difference, Relation and Identity are three notions that are fundamentals for the success of Virtual Reality technologies (VR and AR). The aim of this symposium is to conceptualise the Identity of an individual as a scientific concept whilst acknowledging the fact that Identity cannot be studied without considering the other two notions. The pros and cons of designing identities for or within VR become obvious upon admitting that representating any Self will be interpreted at some point by someone having his own values, opinions and experience in life. Members of our society that self-procure, attribute or redistribute Identity in the Virtual World bring about psychological enquiries in relation to user intentionality, specific uses of VR applications or general modifications to our ways of communicating. Usability issues addressing the problem of Identity have not yet been integrated into long-term visions of society and our needs. The Chair of the session is thus open to all existential, ethical and epistemological issues having to do with Identity in Virtual Communities.

gameCODE, Fall 2008

The first meeting of the fall semester for gameCODE takes place this coming Friday (Sept, 12th), 12:00pm, 11th floor Hall Building, Concordia University, Rm H-1122 (i am pretty sure!). This meeting aims to be an informational meeting to meet and greet new faces, discuss the goals and itinerary for the fall and any other relevant ramblings, followed (of course) by drinks at McKibbins. If you are interested, and in Montreal, feel free to drop by.

Another Semester

Cannot believe that it is September already. It’s ok – as it has always been my favorite month. Always the start of new classes, new faces, new projects… or perhaps the fact that my birthday, my mother’s and my youngest daughter’s birthday are this month (actually, they share theirs, and mine’s the day before!).

I am enrolled in my last formal class of my university education this semester, so it is a momentous occasion. I must admit, one that makes me a little nervous. It seems that I have been in a classroom, listening to lectures and preparing papers, presentations etc forever. Although I still have my comprehensive exams in January, and a thesis to write, the next time I have to sit through a class, it may very well be my own (wishful thinking perhaps? lol). I am taking a class on “The Figure” at Concordia’s Mel Hoppenheim’s School of Cinema. Below is the course description. I am a bit nervous to delve into the course material, as at the moment, I only have a layman’s idea of what “the figure in film” means. I am looking forward to though, so it should be good.

FMST 803/2 Seminar in Film and Moving Image Theory
Special Topic: The figure in film.
In aesthetic theory related to the visual art disciplines, figuration denotes the act of representing through figures, that is, shapes or forms of bodies or objects. In rhetoric and literary theory, figuration refers to the use of words to connote meanings that deviate from regular use and is closer to visual than verbal types of expression. Film scholars and practitioners have recurrently been drawn to the term ³figure,² whether as an aesthetic and formal element of films, a rhetorical strategy of cinematic representation or address, a metaphorical representation of the human body, or an allegorical dimension of film discourse and of the audiovisual culture in general.  Yet the term keeps eluding a strict definition.

This seminar examines the figure in the cinema as an element that brings together the conceptual and sensorial components and activities involved in filmmaking as an artistic praxis and blurs the distinction between linguistic and visual discourse. The course investigates the ways in which figuration-directly or indirectly-has been used as an analytic approach to film and as a specific strategy of representation in a number of filmic and audio-visual practices.

The seminar is structured into three parts. The first part illustrates the relations that the figure establishes between cinematic techniques and linguistic codes, different artistic practices and theories, various phases of the filmmaking process. The second part of the course examines the process of figuration in relation to a crucial issue in contemporary aesthetic theory and philosophy: the status and the function of the artwork in a postmodern culture that rejects totalizing or transcendental notions of representation and within an audio-visual environment that is ingrained in the virtual system of new media and information technology. In the third part of the seminar students will apply the notion of figure to a case study of their own choice, which may be a film or a filmic corpus, an audio-visual form or style, a theoretical approach to film.  The project will be presented in class and further developed in an essay paper.

Two Second Update

First of all, I am happy to say that the last two songs on GH1 that were unfinished (at expert) have been completed thanks to my oldest daughter’s lightning fast fingers.

I have 16 days left of summer holiday – and while it hasn’t been my most productive summer compared to the last few years, I still managed to get some reading done and some notes made. Notably, Brubaker & Cooper’s article “Beyond Identity”. While it has some very valid points about the vastness and often ambiguous use of the term identity, it also has a few great points that I can argue against when making my case for my using the term identity in my thesis.

I am also reading Rune Klevjer’s PhD thesis from 2006 “What is the Avatar? Fiction and Embodiement in Avatar-based single player computer games“. It is well written, clear and articulate. While not 100% on track with that I am aiming to do in my thesis (a good thing too hehe) it is a good primer considering I have always worked with multi-player games.

Finally, I have been trudging through Deleuze’s Cinema 2: Time-Image. While I admit to not reading Cinema 1 prior, it is going well (with enough post it tabs to keep me busy note-taking for a while!).

I must say, I am looking forward to getting home – to a stable internet connection and some time to get some play time in (for research of course).

RB & GH Ramblings

Over at West Karana, I read about this guitar transformation for Rock Band 2. As Tipa writes, the idea of making a ‘fake’ guitar out of a real one for a guitar simulation (of sorts) is kind of interesting. I wonder how my father would feel if we modded his prized drumkit…

I bought Guitar Hero 1 a few weeks before leaving on holiday – hadn’t had much time to play it. With a week in the city ‘sans’ kids, I had alot more free time to play. I finished it on hard in about 4 or 5 hours (with a friend) and decided to be adventurous and try Expert. We finished it all in a few hours – except 2 songs – one by Stevie Ray Vaughn and one by Pantera… I can live with that. Although I was quite proud of myself, I had to admit that after GH1 they significantly upped the difficulty level for GH2 & 3.

The Rock Band 2 set list is out and I am drooling already. When we bought Rock Band, we had opted to buy it for the PS2, since my partner no longer plays on it since he got his xbox360 last year or so. The girls and I figured that if we ever wanted a chance to play, PS2 was the safer bet, that way we could play in the living room while he plays on the xbox in my office. But after experiencing downloadable content via a few friends, and getting bored with the static set list of RB on PS2, I am seriously contemplating buying RB2 for Xbox 360… but what about the PS2 instruments… its bad enough we have 4 guitars laying around the tv (one of the buttons broke on one of the wireless guitars, so we borrowed one from a friend – who lost her wireless receiver and could not replace it at the time). I have read about ‘converters’ for the instruments – anyone know if thats possible?

By the way, I was absolutely stunned to see my 5 year old nephew actually kick ass on the drums in Rock Band – I should take a video snip. He loves to practice when the game is not on. My father couldn’t be happier since he has been wanting to teach one of his (grand)children how to play the drums (my dad has been a rock drummer all his life, playing live since he was 12). Up until now, none of us have been coordinated enough to use all four limbs at the same time.