Video Remix

Hello, Internet! We meet again, and hopefully not for the last time. I hope you enjoy this short video I made using a program called Camtasia. Its a pretty nifty App, tell me what you think.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjrCfHzCRnc

Is Digital Media Bad for Us?

Today, the digital world is at its peak. Sixty years ago, the far off vision of the 21^st century was a world of computers that could fit in your hand, tiny machines inside your heart that kept it pumping blood, and super jets that could fly from New York City to Paris in three hours. Since then the digital age has allowed us to do this and so much more and people have a right to be scared as technology becomes fully integrated in daily life of 2011. Today, due to the internet and cordless phones, people are connected to one another at all hours of every day, removing a 'user's sense of self. That is to say, those who do associate with this digital nation project an image of themselves through a barrier of technology, leaving that ideal image that they've created. But is our physical and mental integration anything to be frightened of? Technology breeding new technology has changed the way we interact with our peers, allowed us to fabricate individualism, and created a digital shield of protection.

Thanks to the advances made in technology in the past decade, humans are globally connected, which is something we've aspired to do for years. At the click of a mouse, we can see our loved ones faces across an ocean from our living rooms through the power of Skype.

It's become evident that humans have developed a reliance on all that is digital, but whether or not this is a bad thing is debatable. I myself partook in a digital fast that denied me access to my cell phone or internet and four days yielded not a single urge although I am an avid internet user regularly.. One popular opinion on this issue is that children brought up on technology are not learning how to read properly using conventional methods. That children's attention spans are being pressured by technology to be more disjointed, but a different method of learning is not necessarily less effective. Technology is designed, as mentioned before, to make our lives easier and only long term data will prove whether children are learning less or more from using computers rather than books. Technology is an vehicle for science and global communication and that education is only a byproduct and thus, its hard to say whether it should be implemented as a full on replacement to textbooks and binders. That being said, technology, especially the internet has provided us with the greatest research tool we could possibly need. “It was around this time that I started hearing talk of something called the internet, a mysterious 'network of networks' that promised, according to people in the know, to 'change everything'” (Carr, 14) The World Wide Web. 5 million terabytes of data at the click of a mouse. Who could be skeptical about that?

Ashton Kusher said, “Whether you like it or not, the digital age has produced a new format for modern romance, and natural selection may be favoring the quick-thumbed quip peddler over the confident, ice-breaking alpha male” This implies that with technology, a time has finally arrived where natural selection does not choose the strong over the weak, where all humans on a digital plane are equal. At last, humans can part from the barbaric survival of the fittest genome as technology levels the playing field. This is powerful. This means that technology is actually shaping the way we think, the way we interact with others and the way we interpret information. As we live the feeling of progression is almost tangible, but of course, we are only just adjusting. A time will come when our entire bodies are completely immersed in machinery, but until then, technology is a vehicle for communication and information. Imagine you are riding a bus, as soon as you step on, you start to evaluate everyone else on the bus looking at their clothes, jewelry, etc. At the same time you appear as you want to appear, you'll walk straighter, you either smile or won't, you'll have one ipod earbud casually flung over one shoulder to exude an air of carefreeness. This is the image you put out to the world, and likewise, what you are seeing of those that are conscious of you is the image they've put out. The internet makes this infinitely easier. Your 'About Me' section on Facebook (at 500 million users) is carefully worded to send out an ideal of yourself that you want others to see. Every comment you post can be phrased to make you sound any way you want, eliminating the spontaneity of casual conversation. Technology has come to point where we are isolated even when we are connected, but this is only the very beginning. Already programs like Skype have broken down this barricade and with the rapid growth in technology, 'users' existing on digital planes will begin to more closely represent their living counterparts.

We are at the pinnacle of something huge, executing ideas that have been in motion since early this century, thanks to the digital age. We have made great strides in discovering the science behind why we all exist and our place in the universe. Thanks to science, rational thinking has shrunk creationist numbers worldwide as different space agencies begin the exploration of all the other floating rocks in our galaxy. Technology is what has taken us there and back safely. It is what warns us of an earthquake or an eruption. It has created an interconnectedness of people and the quality of life where there is technology, is better than its ever been. People are behind the times, technology is inevitable, although this is a debate that will rage on with every groundbreaking creation. There is no escaping people like Nicholas Carr and the writers of Digital Media, in fact, the very same skeptics are all around us every day. The amount of progress that can be made in the lifetime of a single person, especially nearing the end of that person's life are undoubtably going to leave them bitter, but that's just human nature. The Youth are waiting patiently for what comes next.

The Montagnard Post

For those who don't know who the Montagnard people are, they're definitely worth googling. An indigenous people of Vietnam, the Montagnard (Dega) have survived in the face of oppression for hundreds of years and its a wonder the culture has thrived for this long. But you wont have any problems searching for them online as they still live in Vietnam and a large demographic has moved to the United States as well.

1. The Montagnard are a fascinating people, though what stood out for me the most is their religion. The majority of the Dega People practice Animism, the belief that all nature and animals have souls and there are spirits in inanimate objects. This isn't an uncommon practice in religions like Buddhism, and Hinduism, and it's a religious practice I respect more than Christianity which asks its believers to follow blindly the word of God, whereas Animism is about being aware of the world. Most people would see this as primitive, but which is more primitive? Repenting to appease an all-seeing, all-knowing man in the sky or treating all objects as if they have a soul. Its a concept we could all learn from, too often do we as humans disregard nature as a platform for our own development, rather than a being we must coexist with. Unfortunately, missionaries of Catholicism brought their religion to the Montagnards in 1850 and many reverted to the more 'modern' religion. Similarly, those who moved to the United States made the transition to Christianity upon arrival. 


"There is a universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious." - David Hume


2. Nobody in my section talked about religion when we were face to face with two Montagnard women living in Greensboro, and I wonder in retrospect if its a touchy subject. Somehow I doubt it, but given the chance I would have loved to ask why they or their parents or grandparents felt the need to change religious outlook so drastically. Does Christianity seem modern compared to tribal practices like animism? It seems like a far fetched theory. But perhaps the missionaries in Vietnam were truly trying to 'save' the Montagnards. I can't pretend to know why they did it though.


5. In order to be successful in writing about the Montagnard religion, I'd really have to talk to a 300 year old clergyman, but since that's not a possibility, I'd love the opportunity to talk to 5-10 local (as in living in Vietnam) Montagnards. In fact, the less affiliation they have with religious practices might be more informational than someone who is a devout follower of animism, to get a more objective view. 

Episode II

Here's some stuff the world might or might not be interested in. Two new programs have been successfully downloaded and utilized on my laptop and I've got to recommend them both, because its pretty cool stuff. Here's the first, MacOSaiX, which allows you to import a photo and then plug in a keyword and it creates a picture mosaic. Check it out, cause its free and it installs in a matter of seconds. The photo keyword I plugged in was cigarettes and New York City, and I think it turned out pretty awesome.

The second program is Photoshop for mac, and I got the free 30-day trial version. This program takes some getting used to, but to ease into it, the assignment was to import yourself into your place of origin. Just a warning, I think that if you're reading this blog you'll be seeing a lot of pictures of me. Sorry.

Anyways, here's a picture of me in my place of origin, the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Don't judge just yet, I know the color is off, this is my first attempt at Photoshop. :-/

The Post to Begin all Posts

Bear with me here, this is the first post on the first blog I've ever made. This whole blogging phenomena passed right by me, and while ignorance is bliss, its time to get friendly with the blogging community, if only for the sake of Digital Media. This is the beginning of what I hope will become an outlet, as I throw myself into the narcissistic world of Blog. It seems fitting that my first post would be about myself.

My name is Samuel Shumway and i'm a scenic designer at North Carolina School of the Arts, although i'm originally from Baltimore, Md, which I'll always consider home. This is my first year at UNCSA, and its been an experience like no other. I live with Adam Weiner on Hall C1, and im proud to say we have the best lighting on the hall, if not in the entire building. Here it is.

That's my side at least, ignore the mess. Underneath my bed is my "trip-cave" which consists of memory foam, pillows, blankets, and a black light, which i consider my only source of privacy at school, but there's not even much of that in there. Anyone who comes to visit (i.e. my brother, or Josh) sleeps in there. My house in Baltimore is my childhood home, with a huge barn in the back yard, even though we are very close to the heart of the city. In the Summer months we grow a produce-section worth of vegetables and spices, and next week, our yearly chickens arrive as chicks, so we get fresh eggs all Summer once they mature enough to lay in July. I got to name one, so one of the Americanas birds is name Isabella. My parents have been working on modifying the hen house all year, an now it looks more like a palace for lap dogs, with a dog door connecting the inside and outside chicken areas. But we don't get any money or anything for the eggs or birds, and my parents are by no means farmers by trade. Both of them are musicians who met at Peabody music institute in downtown Baltimore, my dad, a cellist, and my mom, a violist, which is how they earn money, through teaching and freelancing.

Art and travel are passions of mine and have been for as long as i can remember. My mom is from Sheffield, England, and my grandparents still live there, so through my childhood, I spent a lot of time in transit between Baltimore and Manchester, just north of Sheffield. This Summer, i'll be going back to explore more of Europe on my own, although i'll begin in the UK. There's a lot to do, the but top of the list is the Berlin Museum of Art. We'll see if I can manage it.

I'll be back.