Month: December 2013
Everything Connects
The material that I’ve touched on in my recent posts each connect to one other in numerous ways. They’re all creators. Each person, team, or group has been able to connect to our culture through art, or their own projects. They each care strongly for the society and its needs. I realized that each topic strives to increase a stronger more collaborative nation by encouraging things like sharing your work, coming together, protesting against something you want to see changed, and becoming a more vocal individual. One who isn’t scared of voicing their opinion, but is excited about movement, and ground-breaking ideas.
My blog fits into the context of this course in that it was very expressive. Throughout my posts for Harnessed Energy I’ve voiced my opinion, especially in my post Join Twitter Today! where I note why and how Twitter is so useful and bid you to join it. I’ve provided my audience with sites like CHEEZburger so they can expand their creativity and engage in others’. Licensed my work under Creative Commons to let others use my work, and have built on community by engaging and reflecting on my classmate Sarah’s blog.
Anonymous Overview
“We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” Anonymous is a leaderless group of hackers and anarchists who are well known for their attacks against government, religious, and corporate websites, according to Wiki-Anonymous. Key ideas of Anonymous include their hate for computer and network surveillance. Their support of Creative Commons, online activism, and trolling.
“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice. If you are a man, you take it.”-Malcolm X
“Anonymous shows that our society is having a crisis of trust and communication, leaving the group to do the talking for us when that is society’s job.”-PolicyMic
“The irony of the situation is that Anonymous is not a group that can be traced to a building or to a country. They are dispersed around the world — they have no offices, no leaders, they do not follow a strategy.”-Coast Report Online
In December of 2010, 13 Anonymous members plead guilty to an attack on the online site PayPal. Eleven of the “Anons” were men, and two were women, they were taken to federal court. The groups focus was to make the site unavailable to users because PayPal denied Wikileaks from making any online donations. PayPal was against Wikileaks after they presented a great amount of classified material to the public, according to the Time article, Anonymous Hackers Plead Guilty to PayPal Cyber Attack.
In Information Week’s article, “Who is Anonymous: 10 Key Facts” they make it clear of who they are and what they stand for. They’re more than a group of pedi hackers, their goal is to “expose government and establishment hypocrisy.”
Ashley Fantz’s, CNN reporter, describes Anonymous as being “Everyone and No One.” In her article, “Who is Anonymous? Everyone and No One,” she provides the opinions of others on Anonymous, and gives us a very simple way of how to join the group. She informs us that Anonymous members can be on a laptop anywhere around the world causing havoc. She even says that during their chat room talks, anyone could participate for a little, and then never return to the room again.
Many times people think the objectives of Anonymous are detrimental to our society, but in Dylan Love’s [reporter for SFgate] article “8 Things That Anonymous, The Hacker ‘Terrorist’ Group, Has Done For Good,” he disregards those allegations. Two for example are in 2006, the group hacked into and shut down Hal Turner’s white supremacy website. In 2007 they began their protests against the Church of Scientology, a “cult-like religion which allegedly imprisons its dissident members.”
PolicyMic describes itself as “our generation’s platform to make our voices heard.” In their article “What is Anonymous? Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Shadowy Internet Group,” They describe Anonymous as being somewhere between villains and heroes, which I think is a great way of putting it. It says that since our society lacks communication and trust amongst each other, Anonymous is there to speak up for us. But in actuality, that’s each of our job.
Why We Protest is a site that Anonymous members can go and create an account to find out information on new projects, ideas, and even chat with one another.
Tired of the fawkes mask you always see Anons wearing, and want to know who some of its members are? Betsy Isaacson, Huffington Post reporter, reveals some of its members in her article, “7 Anonymous Hackers Who Have Been Unmasked”
All Eyes on Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei has many titles. Not only is he an artist, photographer, blogger, political activist, and architect; he is most notable for his criticism and resentment against the Chinese government and their views on human rights and democracy, according to Wiki-Ai Weiwei. He strives to install leadership, individualism, and freedom of speech amongst the Chinese citizens.
“Blogs and the Internet are great inventions for our time, because they give regular people an opportunity to change public opinion.”-Ai Weiwei
“There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.”- Ai Weiwei
“Freedom is a pretty strange thing. Once you’ve experienced it, it remains in your heart, and no one can take it away. Then, as an individual, you can be more powerful than a whole country.”-Ai Weiwei
Chinese authority discontinued Weiwei’s blog on May 29, 2009 because he posted episodes of police surveilling him. He had also published the name of each child that died during the Sichuan earthquake. Since he took to Twitter in 2009, he’s gained over 200,000 followers, and is constantly engaging with them through mentions, retweets, and informing them on present events, according to Complex: Art & Design.
August 12, 2009, Weiwei was beat until bleeding in his Chengdu hotel room by local police. Afterward he was taken to Munich University Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage and posted this picture. Due to his injury he was unable to stand as a witness for his friend and activist, Tan Zuoren, according to Complex.
Alison Klayman is a journalist and filmmaker, whose first film was the award winning documentary, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. Klayman met Weiwei in 2008 at his art gallery opening, “Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983-1993” according to her site, and since then they’ve built on their friendship.
“I think he was very curious of what I was going to do, but he could see my approach was likely to yield something good. I was just a first-time filmmaker, so I think he had a lot of trust.”-Klayman
Gian Ghomeshi is a broadcaster, writer, musician, and the host of the talk show, Q, according to Wikipedia. Ghomeshi has been able to interview Weiwei a few times, and by that he’s became more informed about his everyday life, his motivation to remain creative, the meanings behind his works, and what have been the key points in building his art and philosophy.
Spiegel is an online magazine that knows in-depth information about Weiwei, like what he’s allergic to, pollen from willow trees, why and when he shaves his cats, and what makes him a “thorn in the side of the Chinese government.” After having a sit-down interview with Weiwei, I noted that the magazine was most interested in where around the world he’s showcasing his work, and how those works influence his daily life and activism. They still asked him the simple question, “How have you been lately?”
Big Think is a site that digs deeper into topics that are current, important, and relevant in today’s culture. Big Think has seven themes which it conducts its reporting around, New World Order, Earth and Beyond,21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.”Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable,” says its site. Big Think has written numerous stories on Weiwei, like Ai Weiwei: The Internet vs. The Chinese Government, Ai Weiwei: I’m Not an Activist, Ai Weiwei: The Price of China’s Success, and many more.
The World Policy Institute “develops and champions innovative policies that require a progressive and global point of view,” according to its site. If you’d like to know the ways Weiwei thinks social media can help spread democracy in China, what needs to be changed in China for it to become a more democratic nation, and how his activism can help shape the nations government, read this insightful interview.
University of Toronto’s article, AI WEIWEI: ART, ACTIVISM, AND THE POLITICS OF CRITICISM, informs you about the leader’s role in activism, his perception on social responsibility, and his famous art works and projects. The article says, “Many other artists currently working in China are exceptionally critical of the state, and of China’s tumultuous past, yet Ai’s work strikes a particularly poignant and also tremendously sensitive chord.”
Creative Commons Overview
According to its site, Creative Commons mission is to encourage, create, and support ways to increase the amount of creativity, collaboration, and innovation online.
“Our vision is nothing less than realizing the full potential of the Internet — universal access to research and education, full participation in culture — to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity.”-Creative Commons About
“If you want to give people the right to share, use, and even build upon a work you’ve created, you should consider publishing it under a Creative Commons license. CC gives you flexibility (for example, you can choose to allow only non-commercial uses) and protects the people who use your work, so they don’t have to worry about copyright infringement, as long as they abide by the conditions you have specified.”-Creative Commons About
“We tend to make ourselves stronger by sharing, and I think we’ve seen that work with everything from Wikipedia to Firefox. So a lot of my work is looking at open source development models and applying that towards the arts.”- F.A.T. Lab Research Director, Evan Roth
Evan Roth created the F.A.T. Lab project, Intellectual Property Donor. Since you can sign away your organs on the back of your drivers license, Roth thought, “You should be able to sell away your intellectual property.” So he made the intellectual property donor sticker to put on the back of your license, and it was made to emphasize how unnecessary and “rediculous” copyright laws are.
F.A.T. Lab [Free Art & Technology] is a unique online group of artists, musicians, lawyers, engineers, hackers and scientists who are working to increase “open source and free ideals into popular culture,” according to its site. Its a group that values open entrepreneurship, open sources, and allows its material to be “copyfree” for the all to use.
Youtube is a platform that allows you to upload videos to your own Youtube channel; you can view others, and share your own. Like F.A.T. Lab, Youtube is also a supporter of Creative Commons. While the site does provide a standard license, if your account is in “good standing” you’re able to change your license settings to Creative Commons. By setting your license to Creative Commons you give members of the YouTube community the permission to reuse and edit your videos.
Flickr is an image and video sharing website well known for allowing its users to distribute and embed their photographs. It’s extremely popular amongst bloggers and photo researches. They enjoy using it mostly for social media, and embedding works into their posts. Flickr backs not only Creative Commons, but it allows its users six other licenses!
Kickstarter is an innovative project-sharing website that allows its users [or “creators”] to construct and pitch their own creative ideas and plans on the site. Then other users have the chance to become “backers” and support the project by funding it, according to its site. Kickstarter projects range anywhere from food, to art, to games, and the best part is many of its creators have published their work under the CC license. Since 2009, $912 million has been given to projects published on this site.
SoundCloud is an audio-sharing site for artists, bands, podcasters, and makers of music and audio,as stated by its site. Many don’t feel comfortable allowing others to use and alter their music or audio, but many Soundclouders take into account the site’s strive for an online community, and accept its CC setting.
LiveBinder is a site that presents to you a style of organization by letting you file links, and all types of documents to a binder so you’re able to get ahold of them from anywhere, according to its site. LiveBinder sums CC up in this way, “I do not mind that you use my work. In fact that is why I create things to share.”
Creative Culture Online Overview
Creative culture online is a way for people to express themselves through different platforms made available on the web. Platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram are popular platforms used by millions to contribute. Some of their goals and ideas are to create a call to action, bring forth interaction and unity amongst its users, and also to generate emotions and symbolic creations.
“The people who make, and the people who watch are slowly becoming the same group. We’re all living in the exact same moment. It’s all about embracing pop culture, embrace it fully and make it something new.”- F.A.T. Lab
“Being able to collaborate with people all over the world is great…I’ve been able to interact with Clay Bolt [Natural History and Conservation Photographer] through Skype and I’ve never actually met him, but I feel like we’re beginning this collaboration. That is so different from just a few decades ago.”- Steven David Johnson
“We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” -Anonymous
Occupy Wall Street- Creative culture online didn’t make OWS come true, but it without a doubt fueled it and let people now it was an important cause. Twitter was used to generate 82.5 percent of the mentions pertaining to Occupy during its time, and a Tumblr account was made for Occupiers to show and tell their stories.
Public Domain Countdown- One of F.A.T. Lab’s projects was the public domain countdown. It’s a clock that counts down when an artist’s work will be released to the public. F.A.T. Lab made one for Michael Jackson, and Biggie, and there’s also a place online where people can create their own countdown. It shows how valuable an artists’ work can be, and how long it will take before one can alter their music.
According to its site, F.A.T. Lab is a unique group made up of artists, musicians, lawyers, engineers, hackers and scientists, who encourage open licenses, open entrepreneurship, and find ways to inform people of what they’re contributing to online. F.A.T. lab creates logos, “pop-art,” and intertwines its own ideas into “contagious media.”
According to Wikipedia, Anonymous is a leaderless group of hackers and activists that was formed on the web. They are famous mostly for their protests and hacks against the Church of Scientology. What makes Anonymous an expert is their focus on creating groundbreaking movements via internet. Anonymous is a fan of using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to reach its members. Wikipedia states its purpose is internet activism, internet trolling, internet vigilantism, anti-cyber-survalence, and anti-cyber-sensorship. It even considered them a “virtual community.”
Steve David Johnson is a photographer, and visual communications professor at Eastern Mennonite University. What makes him an expert is his experience in using innovative sites like Meet Your Neighbors, I Feel Fine, and more evidently his contribution to web design. As a web designer, Steven has made sites for himself, different organizations, and others. If you visit his personal site, you will come across numerous galleries he’s made for his many projects. Some of his other sites include A Season in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument , the Appalachian Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles, Hydrofracking Virginia, and lastly the Virginia Journal.
According to its site, We Feel Fine is a database that searches through the world’s most recent blog entries to find phrases pertaining to the way people are feeling. When a phrase like “I feel” or “I am feeling” is found, We Feel Fine records the phrase up to the period, finds the feeling noted in it, and presents it on its site along with many others. The site updates by 15,000-20,000 new feelings per day. We Feel Fine calls it “an artwork authored by everyone.”
Meet Your Neighbors is a “worldwide photographic initiative” created by Clay Bolt, and Niall Benvie. Its purpose is to encourage its audience to step outside and connect with the wildlife that surrounds them, according to its site. It defines its photography as inspiring, and says it makes its audience think, ‘I’ve got to see this for myself!’ which then makes them pursue the connection. In order to meet the site’s standards, you must photograph the subject against a white background, this is to present it as an individual rather than just a species. Some photographers work independently and submit their work, and others partner with NGO’s who make sure their work in seen.
One way of contributing to creative culture online is through memes. Memes are created to change our perspective on different events, whether they be horrifying or hysterical. They can also be used for social awareness, or to create a call to action. Meme Generator is a site that allows you to explore and create memes. It has thousands of memes, ranging from Characters, Newest, Popular, and even Socially Awkward Penguin.
Harnessed Energy 