Week 3

Birth of the Computer/New Media

Ø    & nbsp; Origins in various adding machines mainly developed during the industrial revolution.

E.g. Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine = calculated and printed mathematical tables.

Charles Babbage

Ø    & nbsp; Born in 1791

Ø    & nbsp; Inventor of first digital computer for complex math’s calculations. It was mechanical, not electric. Due to lack of government funding, it was no completed during his life.

Ø    & nbsp; Conceived idea of the ‘Analytical Engine’ – a massive, brass, steam-based, general-purpose math’s computer.

Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace

Ø    & nbsp; Born in 1815

Ø    & nbsp; Aided Charles Babbage with many of his ideas and inventions

Ø    & nbsp; Saw herself as metaphysician in search of poetical science

Ø    & nbsp; Conceived machine which would compose and play music

Alan Turing

Ø    & nbsp; British mathematician and scientist born in 1912

Ø    & nbsp; Was gay

Ø    & nbsp; Wrote paper clarifying compatibility of numbers and possibility of machine to compute them on COMPATABLE NUMBERS.

Ø    & nbsp; His way of working was to not necessarily look for the right answer, but eliminate the wrong answers.

Ø    & nbsp; Worked at Bletchley Park during WWII

Computers were first commercially produced by IBM in the 1950’s

These were large, expensive, machines for military, government and corporate work.

In 1965, Gordon Moore compiled ‘Moore’s Law’:

1. Capacity of the micro-chip doubles every 2 years (This has held time for 40years)


2. Because capital costs are increasing faster than revenues, financial feasibility will limit the rate of technological development.

Early 70’s

Xerox

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Developed concepts like the mouse, graphical interface and pull-down menus

=  made personal computers possible and approachable by the general user

1975

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; 1^st personal computer (PC) released called O

Bill Gates

§    & nbsp;    started writing a language called BASIC for the Altair so it could be used for simple applications (word processing, accounting, games etc.)

§    & nbsp;    Started a company called Microsoft

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; By the end of 1975, most companies had joined the PC industry

Apple

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Result of hobbyists getting together and sharing ideas on home-made PC’s

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Started company called Apple

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Produced Apple 1 – primitive machine with single circuit board, no case, no keyboard

= Apple II

IBM + Microsoft

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   1980    – product relied on “open architecture”

- involves buying shelf products from a range of computer companies and putting together in package

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;  = software

To run computers you needed = language + operating system

Bill Gated pulled it off = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$

See in detail notes on Learning@gu

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   WINDOWS = Combination of IBM + Microsoft’s own GUI

Week 2 – Lecture Notes

Media Theory

New Areas of Investigation in the last decade:

-     New Media Studies

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Cyber Studies

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Internet Studies

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Cyber culture Studies

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Websites

Study of communications started about 100years ago in France:

1900 Semiotics – Ferdinand de Saussure

Semiotics:    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;  Studied the role of signs as part of social life; Structuralist’s

Semantics:    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p; Studied relationship of signs for what they stand for

Pragmatics:    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   Studied the relation of signs to the interpreters

Syntactics (Syntax):    The formal or structural relations between signs

COMMUNICATION STUDIES:    & nbsp;   &n bsp;    USA

1920’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;        & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Bullet (Inoculation Theory)    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   =    & nbsp;   &n bsp; maximum effects

1930’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;        & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Application of Statistics Method

1940’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;        & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Minimum Effects

1950’s     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;   Looking for Effects – Connections to Psychology

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;  (Advertising, Kids, Violence, Politics etc)

1960’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;    Canadian, Marshall McLuhan focused on media effects on individuals

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; “Media is an extension of the individual” McLuhan

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; “The Media is the Message”

1970’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;        & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Mixed Effects

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; More complex than the min and max effects

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; “Cultivation Hypothesis”

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Issues were seen/heard to be a lot more than they really were, because the media focuses on them, therefore they are completely blown up.

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; “Things went up and down as to where they were on the media’s agenda” Combs and Shaw

1980’s     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;   Return of Maximum Effects

Media Studies:    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;       & nbsp;   &n bsp; UK

1950’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;        & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Raymond Williams     – wrote about culture in everyday life

o    & nbsp;  argued: “Culture wasn’t just aesthetic activities of higher classes”

1960’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;    Stanley Cohen    & nbsp;   &n bsp;    - books: “Moral Panics: & “Folk Devils”

o    & nbsp;  showed how media could construct panic

1970’s     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;   Glasgow School    & nbsp;   &n bsp; - Closely analyzed News Programs and

studied ideological news contexts

1980’s     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;   Stuart Hall, Birmingham School

o    & nbsp;  Understanding of different processes involved in encoding and decoding media texts

1990’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;    Ien Ang – Active Audiences

o    & nbsp;  “Desperately Seeking the Audience”

o    & nbsp;  Studied how audiences interpret & understand meanings and how they use them in their everyday lives    & nbsp;  

Culture Studies:    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   Europe

1930’s     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;   Walter Benjamin – “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Was a radio personality of interest to the Nazi’s

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Spent 8 years in Paris

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Associated with Frankfurt School (below)

1940’s     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;   Frankfurt School – “Reality defined by Culture Industries”

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Were on the run from the Nazi’s and ended up in Los Angeles

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; German perspective

1950’s     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;   Situationists - “Society of Spectacle”    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   (France)

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Argued for understanding of evolving society

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; People live not in reality but in the spectrum

1960’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;    Habermans – “The Public Sphere”

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Publics fear of discussion and involvement in issues because of public relations

1970’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;    Louis Athusser – “Media as Ideological State Apparatuses”

1980’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;    Baudrillard – “Simulacra”

1990’s    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;    Nancy Fraser – “Subaltern Couterpublics”

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Based on women’s movement experiences with media counter republics

-    & nbsp;   &n bsp; Communication networks that still address mass society

Alphaville

Released in 1965, the film is based in Alphaville - a French, futuristic city controlled by Professor Von Braun and his superior Computer System (Alpha 60). The protagonist, Mr Lemmy Caution (Mr Johnson) arrives from the Outlands to expose and destroy the Alpha 60 and its initiator before it completely takes over Alphaville, whitewashing its populace of all established notions of communication, love and individuality.

Indeed the film not only gives an insight into early computer technology, - making audiences’ aware of the rapid expansion and development in technology – but also presents an eventuality of the effects of this growing technology. This eventuality is a world stripped of all individuality, love and communication. This can be seen through such things as, the numbering of the citizens as a form of identity and the prohibited use of selected vocabulary and artistic expression in daily life.

It could be suggested that, future populations may be ultimately controlled by a computer, much akin to the way the Nazi’s had control over much of Germany and Europe in World War II. References to World War II are illustrated throughout the film, using symbols such as ‘SS’ (Refers to the Nazi’s) in the elevator and in other structures.

Current movies, like “The Matrix” are also representations of the link between science fiction and possible, but realistic future scenarios of the world as we know it.

In 2005, Alphaville is not a film one would necessarily consider for common entertainment purposes; however it’s eccentric, avant-garde approach, is one way of suggesting interesting future theories, regarding the continual advancement and development of computers and technology in our world and their effects on humanity.