Thursday, May 27, 2010

続いているプロジェクト - Continuing Projects

(English Below - 英語が下)

1) 英会話の広告とCMの分析。電車の印刷した広告の写真とインタネットで見えるCMを分析する予定です。「Discourses in Place」と「Media Semiotics」という本を読んで、手立てを使うつもりです。
2)大衆文化と言う授業のためのミニプロジェクト:テーマは日本のヒップホップ。英語と日本語でインタネットで調べたり、桜美林大学生に調査とインタビューしたりする。
3)桜美林今日(Obirin Today)の記事案を出す。記号学の手段を使って、桜美林の広告分析するのイデアがある。
4) 日本のヒップホップビデオの字幕を作る。
5) "Umi Says" リミックス


___________________________________________________________________
1) Analysis of English conversation school print advertisements and commercials. The plan is to analyze pictures of English advertisements from trains, as well as commercials viewable on the internet. I intend to use methods from two books, Discourses in Place by Scollon and Scollon and Media Semiotics by Johnathan Bignell.

2) Japanese Pop Culture Class Mini-Project: theme=Japanese hip-hop. Do research on the internet in English and Japanese, and do a survey and interview with Obirin students.

3) Submit a proposal for an article in "Obirin Today." Semiotic analysis of Obirin's print advertisements.

4) Make subtitled videos of Japanese hip hop.

5) Remix of "Umi Says" by Mos Def.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Aeon Ads | イーオンCM

http://www.aeonet.co.jp/special/

English Video Ads on the Odakyu Line

Last night, I was riding home on the 満員終電 with two Japanese friends. They noticed the TV monitor read, "Thank you for taking the Odakyu line." 皆は『各駅停車は嫌だな!!!』と思っていた。でも、テレビ画面について話す機会が出てきた。

"What's usually on the screen?" I asked.

"Information about the next stop, or ads or something."

"あ、そう、そう、そう、そう(...soon, soon, soon...)"

けいこ偶然でアドバタイジングの話が出ってきた。

"Yeah, usually they have ads for like English school, and stuff like that" said Ryuuji.

"英会話?" I prompted.

"Yeah, that's right, English conversation schools. ECC..."

"GABA" said Kozo, a smirk on his face.

"うん、Aeon."

"Right, right, right."

僕は"面白い!" と思った。"広告もあるんでしょう。"

"そ、そ、そ..."

"でもさ〜、皆は広告気づけないよね." と言っちゃった。

Ryuji は "そうよね, 皆気づけない。でも、テレビはbusinessmenに見られている。なんか、they have money, and they need English for their job, so they watch the English ad videos."

"でも音が出ないから、ちょっと分かりにくいでしょう。"

"そうよね。”

という話ができた。

Podcast: CMS 10th Anniversary: "International Media Flows: Global Media and Culture"

Podcast: CMS 10th Anniversary: "International Media Flows: Global Media and Culture"

Touching on discourses in place.

One of the presenters from this panel:

"Jing Wang is a professor in Chinese Cultural Studies and the Director of New Media Action Lab. She is a CMS-affiliated faculty currently working on a project (NGO2.0) that brings together social media and nonprofit organizations in China."

Professor Ian Condry researches Japanese hip hop.
http://web.mit.edu/condry/www/#mm
http://web.mit.edu/condry/www/mov/KG-Shinjitsu.mov

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Notes on "Discources in Place: Language in the Material World"


Preface

"There are just three ways a sign such as a word, a sentence, a picture, a graph or a gesture can have meaning in semiotic theory. It can be a picture of the thing in the world. In that case we call it an icon. The little picture of a happy face made by email users out of a colon and the right parenthesis ( :) ) is an icon. It shows us a schematic picture of a smiling face. A sign can also be a completely arbitrary representation of the thing in the world. In thtat case we call it a symbol. A green traffic light means we can continue driving. There is nothing inherent in the color green that 'means' move ahead or keep going. It is an arbitrary association. Finally, a ign means something because of where and when it is located in the world. In this case it is called an index. An arrow pointing one direction down an street is an index which shows the exact direction in which traffic should go."(pg. vii)

This book deals mainly with indexes and the concept of indexicality, examining how signs function when placed in the material world.

Chapter 1 - "Geosemiotics"

"Geosemiotics takes four elements to be central to our undertanding of human action in the three-dimensional and multiply discursives spaces in which we live and act...:

  • social actor
  • interaction order
  • visual semiotics
  • place semiotics" (pg. 14)

"The social actor"

The social includes: "sociocultural-psychological knowledge, the social actor or agent, and the physical body in space and time."(15)

The final category "a unified physical body" is complicated in the digital world. From movies like The Matrix and Surrogates, we can already begin to see a future in which our physical selves are split into virtual and real worlds. Far from being science fiction, this split is already occurring through everything from our use of email (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/590650) to facebook to Second Life. Though this split into virtual and real selves is arguably ancient, the proliferation of new media technologies adds a physical dimension to the virtual self (i.e. virtual reality) that has been far less tangible in media technologies such as books or movies.

The interaction order

Types of interaction form "a recognizable way of being together with others in the social space as a set of agreed upon social arrangements to maintain a kind of social interaction. (i.e. conversational encounter vs. a wedding or a funeral)."(16)

Kinds of space form the places in which these social interactions take place. "Hall distinguishes among five kinds of space:

  • visual space
  • auditory space
  • olfactory space
  • thermal space
  • haptic (or tactile) space"(16)
My interest is mainly in auditory space, although these kinds of space can hardly be separated in our experience of the material world. Who controls an auditory environment, and for what purpose? Are the sounds we hear designed to make us happy, sell us something, encourage communication, make us dance, make our bodies feel good, distract us from personal and social problems, call attention to these problems, etc.??? What are the effects of our day to day sound environments the typically go unnoticed? Whose interests do the sounds we hear, and make, serve - our selves, our friends and family, our broader community(ies), a cooperative, our government or nation state, a corporation, a god, etc.? On the other hand, many of the sounds we hear are produced with no intention to manipulate auditory space whatsoever (i.e. a neighbor hammering a nail, or the noise of a crowded coffee shop), but are instead byproducts of other meaningful actions.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Technology

Kevin Kelly tells technology's epic story | Video on TED.com
"Technology is anything useful
invented by a mind."
-Kevin Kelly


Or, more simply, technology is anything useful. The mind is itself technology. In the context of usefulness, intangible biological or cultural assets can be regarded as technology:

The earth as technology.
The brain as technology.
Language as technology.
Music as technology.
Art as technology.
Science as technology.
Math as technology.

今日のメディア日記 - Today's Media Diary

(English below)

今日は友達と一緒に町田に近い高尾山を登りました。

携帯の目覚まし時計で目を覚ました。起きた時、携帯でメッセージを送った。朝食を作りながら、「アール ツイングス コンシダルデッド」というラジョ番組を聞きました。その時友達がスポッツニュースを調べて読みました。電車に乗る時、また携帯を使いました。友達と一緒に山を登っているとき、ほとんど携帯を使わなかった。帰るとき、また携帯を使いました。図書館に行って、パソコンを使いました。記事と本を調べました。家に帰る後、本を読みました。晩ご飯を作りながら、もらったCDを聞きました。また本を読んで、今のパソコンの活動を始まりました。

この日記が詰まらないかもしれませんが、覚えているメディア使い方を記録したいです。

Today I climbed Mt. Takao, which is close to Machida, with my friends.

My cell phone's alarm clock woke me up. When I got up, I sent a text message. While I was cooking breakfast, I listened to All Things Considered. And my friend looked up and read the sports news on my computer. On the train, I used my cell phone again. I didn't really use my phone much at all while I was climbing the mountain with my friends. When coming home, I used my phone again. Then I went to the library and used a computer. I looked up articles and books. After I came home, I read a book. While making dinner, I listened to a CD. Then I read my book some more, and began this computer session.

This diary might be boring, but I want to record the media usage I remember.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Media, Semiotics, and Sociology: Three Models for Analysis

These three tripartite (three part) models form social scientific cornerstones. They are derived from the fields of media studies, semiotics, and sociology, respectively. They are
related in that they all answer questions about communication and the cultural sphere. Here is the rough draft of a brief description and comparison of these modes of analysis.


THE MEDIA TRIANGLE

The media triangle is a basic tool for media analysis. Media text, audience, and production help answer basic questions about media (who?, what?, why?, etc.). This form of analysis is important because it requires a critical analysis of the producer, encouraging us to inquire about their methods and motivation of production. When considering media in a broader context of power dynamics, this sort of analysis is essential. In our hyper-commercial environments, questioning the intentions of the producer can upset the usually transparent flow of information from, say, advertiser to consumer. Considering the form of the advertisement itself can also elucidate the meanings of a media text.

Media, in the broadest sense, might include language. But in a more traditional sense, media records the thoughts, sounds, and images evoked by language. Thus, this traditional definition of media involves an extra layer of intention beyond spoken word, beyond simple utterances. Media also encompasses the will to record and preserve a particular thought or message in a particular way. This is intention is not necessarily present in the following two modes of analysis represented below.


PEIRCE'S SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE*
  • Sign vehicle: the form of the sign;
  • Sense: the sense made of the sign;
  • Referent: what the sign 'stands for'.
Charles Sanders Peirce constructed this three-part model, in contrast to the two-part model of "signifier" and "signified" created by Ferdinand de Sassure. Peirce's model is significant because it emphasizes "the sense made of the sign." In other words, it not only acknowledges one thing standing for another, it also acknowledges the process of interpretation of a sign. Thus, there is no absolute correlation between the sign vehicle and sign referent, but rather a dynamic process that leads to the sense made of the sign.

Those concerned with power dynamics will want to question who controls this process of interpretation? Who controls the sense made of particular signs? Who has the upper hand in a given discourse about a given sign? For example, in the case of a printed advertisement, the ad itself is the sign vehicle. The referent is the product or service which it is advertising. And the sense made of the sign is the meaning perceived by those who encounter it. In most cases, the advertiser has the upper hand in this discourse, aiming to create a fairly uniform interpretation of the sign that results in consumption of the advertised product or larger profit.

*paraphrased from Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler




BERGER'S MODEL OF DIALECTIC WORLD CONSTRUCTION

Sociologist Peter Berger advances this model in The Sacred Canopy: A Sociogical Theory of Religion. The process described here is either "world contruction" or "self construction." Arguably it can be applied to individuals or a culture/community as a whole. The stages of this process are externalization, objectivation, and internalization. This process forms a loop.

When applied to the cultural sphere, this model can provide a similar analysis as the two above. Related to the media triangle, there is a direct parallel between externalization/production, objectivation/media text, and internalization/audience. Thus, in the example of advertising, a company may externalize information about a product, which is objectivated in the form of a print, broadcast or digital advertisement, which is then internalized by consumers. Naturally, both the example and model can readily be complicated. In comparison to the semiotic trianlge, there is a correspondence between objectivation/sign vehicle, externalization/referent, and internalization/sense.


Concrete examples would readily illustrate the relationships outlined above. Social scientific theory can become meaningless if it loses grounding in the real world. I'm interested in the application of these theories in relation to advertising and PR, but they can be applied to a much wider variety of media such as music, language, fashion, or visual art, to name a few.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Media-Technology Use Log

From the time I woke up this morning, I recorded each use of media technology in a log with pencil and paper. Here is an excerpt from the log:

11:14 - check cell for new messages
11:26 - begin this log w/pencil and paper
- open up computer to begin grad school research
11:35 - gmail chat from Noelle
11:45 - login to Skype
-skype with Mom, skype with Noelle
12:56 - begin grad school research on the computer
1:51 - text Erika/plug in phone
2:04 - exchange several more texts messages with Erika
2:16 - close comp to go for a walk
- unplug phone to bring

I don't expect anyone to be particularly interested in the details of my lazy Saturday morning. However, the process of creating the log was individually enriching for me. At a community level, the compilation of "technology-use logs" could prove to be a valuable source of information for social scientists, economists, businesses, etc. Consider the individual and community significance of creating a media-technology log:

Individual significance - Creating the log helped me be more mindful of my media-technology use throughout the day. Having contemplated this experiment for a while, I was eager to begin when I woke up today.

First, I had to decide which activities I would record. It was the buzzing of my cell phone that woke me up, but does that count as my use of my cell phone? I decided to record only the uses of technology that were intentional and significant to me. For example, as soon as I sat up in bed, my eyes began to catch site of all the brand logos glimmering around my room. The microphone sticker on my CD case, the books on my bedside table, my smartwool sock on the floor, the lonely-planet guidebook on my shelf. But I didn't place the objects around my room with the intention of waking up and consuming the messages they convey. These objects are part of my media-scape, conveying messages to me, whether I am conscious of them or not, that I can hardly notice or take time to notice. I suppose my real reason for not recording these mediated interactions is simply that it would take too much time. The log was intended to be a light reprisal of the choices I made about media-technology use throughout the day, not an all-consuming process of logging every haphazard interaction with text, image and sound that my senses digested. Thus, I only recorded the choices I made about which media-technology to use, or not use, today.

Second, the knowledge that I'd be creating this journal changed my behavior. For example, when I decided to go out for a walk, I considered taking my iPod with me. But I decided I'd rather be mindful of my surroundings and take the time to clear my head. I did, however, bring flashcards to study when I reached the park. Also, while outside, I didn't use my cell phone as much to check the time or send text messages because I didn't want to make unnecessary media interactions that would have to be logged later. Instead, I tried to keep things simple. And I enjoyed it.

Throughout the day, I reflected on my use of media-technology. The creation of the log was not so much burdonsome as intriguing, enriching. "Oh, I spent an hour and a half doing that..." "I turned on the computer to do this, better not get distracted by writing this email..." These are thoughts normally wouldn't occur to me, but I had fun considering them today.

Community signifiance - In the future, such a pencil and paper blog will be laughable because every digital movement (and everything will be digital) will be logged by the information powerhouses of the internet world. The Googles, the Amazons, they will know your every move. And collectively, they will use the information gathered from millions of users to filter and reprocess information to privilege the interests of the powerful.

But that is a bleak future imagined by a dark, techno-determinist who would have everybody leading Second Lives by next year and living in the Matrix. From a more neutral point of view, I would argue that a collection of user reports about use of media-technology is (and will be) valuable. This is precisesly the kind of technology that Microsoft employs when they ask you to send an error report when Word crashes, or Google uses when you search. The idea is to create kind of a wiki based on recorded behavior. This information, like all other information, is valuable. Companies want to know about your behavior on the internet, on your cell phone. So do social scientists. People want to understand what people do and why they do it. Such understanding is powerful. And in an age mediated by technology, an understanding of the use of technology is fundamental to consolodating power.

From an optomistic point of view, the creation of such media-technology logs by users could be used to empower the users themselves and their communities. Such information could be collected in a wiki or group blog. And hyper text and searching features would allow for cross-reference and analysis. It's likely such logs already exist. In any case, the control of this information by setting permissions or access would be a critical to ensuring that the information is used for the interest of users, the public interest, so to speak.