What is Modern 'ART'

I'm a week late on this post. But without further ado, here it is...

With reference to Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", is technology allowing anyone to be an artist?? Applications such as; Photoshop, iTunes Garage Band, Illustrator, iDVD etc (basically anything mac shop pro) are allowing users to edit and create their own version of art.

Is it wrong. Is it Art. Is it crap.

In most cases, I would say that it is a version of art. One that I and others may not truly appreciate as much as art found in the louvre and museums... But 'art' all the same. Music is art, film is art, photography is art. they are all forms of art, but perhaps not at quite the same discerning level.

I have wondered if the popularity of consumer generated media could have anything to do with the progression of 'art' and contemporary digital media. The evolution of art has been brought down to the 'anyone can be an artist' level. How? Through marketing i believe. Marketers know consumers, saw the increase in demand for consumer generated opportunity and then they did anything they could to make it as mainstream as possible. 'Create our ad starring you', 'upload pics of you wearing our jeans', 'put your band on MySpace and get signed'. Film, photography and music........ created by the consumer ........ labeled 'art' by marketers.

So I have just gone off on a tangent, but to bring it all back together. I think art, as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Wiki, I'm the expert..?

Soooo, choose a topic that I have a fair amount of knowledge on and then search for it on WIKI.

The topic I chose...... Google Adwords.

So, what did i find?? Not nearly as much as I thought I would have. When first signing up to Google Adwords (as a part of the call of duty for work) I researched and researched and researched how to use the God Damn thing. And believe me, the research lead me to realise that everyone thought they were an expert. Every article I read put forth the notion that they had cracked it, that they had the answers for how to maximise ROI with Google Adwords!!! Alas, they didn't. After a good 18months of managing accounts for our clients, I feel that I am now a fairly competent 'Adwords Professional'. (so our clients would hope anyway). ANYWAY, when i searched 'Google Adwords' on Wiki a relatively brief synopsis appeared. Not nearly as comprehensive as I had imagined it would be. I read through it, and the rather general explanation offered mediocre information. None of it stood out as particularly incorrect, so I decided to simply add to it.

Recently Google Adwords introduced a change to the URL policy, which I thought might be worthy of addition to the Wiki World. It reads as follows:

Policy and Restrictions
As of April 2008 Google AdWords no longer allows for the display URL to deviate from that of the destination URL. Prior to it's introduction, Google paid advertisements could feature different landing page URL's to that of what was being displayed on the search network. Google expounds that the policy change stems from both user and advertiser feedback. The concern prompting the restriction change is believed to be the premise on which users clicked advertisements. Users were in some cases, being mislead and further targeted by AdWords advertisers.

So there you have it..... may the Wiki World continue to grow.

No Google, No Wiki...eeek

okay so here goes, a series of answers to a series of questions... without the helping hand of Google. (I feel like a traitor to my beloved Google, yet feel somewhat charitable to underdog Yahoo).
1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus? Onel de Guzman
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/29/philippines.lovebug.02/index.html

2. Who invented the paper clip? Johan Vaaler
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpaperclip.htm

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name? "The virus gets its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized."
http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola-virus/from-what-place-did-the-ebola-virus-get-its-name.html

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake? Southern Chile
http://www.seismo-watch.com/EQSERVICES/NotableEQ/May/0522.Chile.html

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte? 20
http://kb.iu.edu/data/ackw.html and http://www.math.com/students/calculators/source/basic.htm

6. Who is the creator of email? Ray Tomlinson
http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/email.htm

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it? The Storm Botnet is a distributed computer network consisting of computers remotely controlled without their owner's knowledge. Up to 5 million infected.
http://what-is-what.com/what_is/storm.html and http://antivirus.about.com/od/virusdescriptions/a/stormworm.htm

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly,
what is the most efficient way? Call Kevin Rudd - Phone (02) 6277 7700
http://www.directory.gov.au/osearch.php?ou%3DPrime%20Minister%2Cou%3DMinisters%2Co%3DPrime%20Minister%20and%20Cabinet%2Co%3DPortfolios%2Co%3DCommonwealth%20of%20Australia%2Cc%3DAU&changebase

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School
of Arts) a member of? The Black Assassins
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words? I see 'web 2.0' as a term that refers to the second generation of the world wide web. It is more focussed on enabling online communities and consumer generated content. In addition, improved applications support information sharing and site features have moved away from static pages to far more engaging and dynamic formats; eg. flash.
www.zoesmind.com.au

wow, kind of difficult, but still achievable. Lucky for me Yahoo refuses to throw in the towel.

Marketing, Gen Y...INTERNET

It seems that 56% of Gen Y's prefer to be marketed to via the internet... it is said to be indispensable. Well Dah!

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/18825.asp

The Blogging Split

So who pokes around on these things anyway. A PEW study found the following:

- how i ENGAGE -

New communication technology and me...
The way in which i see myself interacting with new comm tech is, for the most part, a convenience tool for staying connected.

Using applications such as messenger, myspace, facebook, email and flickr allow me to stay in the 'loop' more easily. Once upon a time the way i viewed communicating with friends was through a landline...this then changed to mobile and now has expanded to the world wide web.

I LOVE IT!!

Perhaps i am just another sucker of the net generation. But quite frankly, i don't care. I use each of these sites ALOT for social purposes, work and family.

Predominantly I would say my consumption is socially based. I find the greatest advantage of it to be that you can show friends you still care about them and what they're up to even when you don't have the time to catch up in person. It seems that lately our lives are becoming more and more busy!!! After all we did just beat out America in having one of the worst work and life balances in the world. (not actually happy about winning this title, the future is beginning to look bleak).

hmm well that's my thoughts on new comm tech for the momento.

Online destinations, five categories...

Where do Facebook and Myspace fit in.... it would seem that they only fit in the nooks, crannies and crevises. Online destinations can be broken up into five paramount categories: search, content, commerce, communication and community.

'42.7% of consumer time online is spent with content sites, 28.6% is with communication sites, 16.1% with commerce sites and 5% on search sites.'
(Nielsen Online Data, AdAge)

- ONLY 7.5% OF THEIR TIME IS SPENT ON COMMUNITY SITES -

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=125623