First real post in a while to my poor neglected blog! A bit heavier, more niche, but maybe someone will be interested?
I went to Shiny Media's Brands & Blogs conference today and heard speakers talk about the power blogs had to strengthen brands, consumer response to brands connecting with them online, differences of advertising in blogs to traditional media, and how existing media groups like the Guardian adapt to the changing online atmosphere.
Most of the talks were familiar material, but I did pick up on some new good points. Learned a new term--"mavens"-- I hadn't heard used yet, being said in America to describe new influentials who are catalysts in seeding trends and creating content to help others out. Classic influentials are closer to the point of purchase by reading reviews and telling their friends.
I learned about other media groups besides Weblogs, Shiny, and Gawker Media, including b5, Blogo, Sugar, Demand, and Magicalia. The question that I didn't get a chance to ask (well, was too shy to raise my hand) was, with blogs being viewed as independent "trusted content", does the trust change at all when it becomes commercialised through sponsorships, when it's linked so closely to brands?
Since I was there with my qubox hat on, I also found the discussion on moderation of comments/content interesting. Brands are much more transparent nowadays with consumers having the ability to have their say. The kind of commentary though--to what extent is it to be trusted, whether by independents or commercial blogs, and is there a way to make this transparents as well? I think qubox technology offers a solution in filtering types of responses with likeminded-ness. It's only too bad my timidness in entering this arena in public for the first time caused me to miss a few opportunities to speak! Nonetheless, I met loads of great people today and I'm even on this video saying my bit about what makes blogs/Web 2. great!
[Brands&Blogs]
Labels: advertising, brands, conferences, shinymedia, social media
Labels: event, mashup, mastersproject, music
[Good Magazine via Eatmail]
Labels: pornography, video, viral, youtube
OSMOSA
Published by Miso on 07 May 2007 at 9:12 AM.
click for Flickr set"Started by students at Brown University in April, 2007, OSMOSA is the Open Source Museum of Open Source Art. Here, "open source," means that the museum is entirely in the public domain. Anyone can add, modify, or remove art from OSMOSA. Likewise, anyone can add, modify, or remove elements of the OSMOSA building. The goal of OSMOSA is to reimagine definitions of art, artist, curator, museum, culture, and open source. This project is underway in a virtual reality called Second Life."click for larger image
The image above portrays Manet's Olympia with space helmets replacing the heads of the figures in the image. A discussion ensued after a commenter stated:"I realize you see this as a “mash-up” but I’d call it art vandalism. Someonw, Manet’s painting has gotten into the public domain, and that means it is open to this sort of ‘mash-up’, yet it’s hardly what Manet would have wanted..." (rest of the comments can be viewed at this blog)
This particularly interested me since my Masters research is exploring a similar theme about mash-up in contemporary culture. While making the juxtaposition of the mixtape with the protocol of most classical music concert programming, reactions have been disapproving. Criticism tends to focus on honouring the intentions of the composer or the demands that art-music requires, assuming that my message is to trivialise the music or the form by making it more accessible. Of course not. I won't get into that now though. But as far as accessibility goes, I think it's rather a benefit. I loved OSMOSA's response, which they posted in the exhibition:
"Claude Monet had his say. He electrified the Salons of his day by being a bad boy, by breaking the rules inside the system. We love him for this. Why chide an artist for being rightful heir to the culture? Whether it is called appropriation, collage, mashup, vandalism tells more about the viewer than the artist who quotes history. Did you try to understand the message of the new work, or can you only see the old one?"
(or they could have said Manet, the painter of this work, who also shocked and electrified the public as well with call-girl Olympia and her direct unabashed gaze on the viewer and also with Luncheon on the Grass)
I guess Second Life has its uses... ...
Labels: art, mashup, mastersproject, second life
Labels: advertising, climate change, environment, marketing, sao paolo
Sweet. London Scala June 7th, £12.50 tickets, post-finals...though I'm desperately skint, thought I could afford a treat. He's a solid musician and I've heared he's a great live act, so I'm pretty stoked. It only took hearing the first pentatonic figure in 'Heretics' to know I'd found something special. Andrew Bird makes sophisticated indie-folk-rock, blending finely harmonised vocals, with violin, guitar, and percussion. Quite yummy songwriting, flavoured with hints of blues and other genres of music, and also takes advantage of the timbres and techniques of the instruments, like the pizzicato violin in 'Skin Is, My'. Check his Myspace page for more tunes, tour dates and locations, which include shows in LA and San Fransisco within the next couple weeks.
"Second Life: John Edwards Assaulted by Poo-Slinging Communists", "Virtual Drugs To Get Your Avatar High", "Duran Duran To Gig in Second Life","Second Life Has Had Its First Terrorist Attack", ... are just a few of ludicrously fantastic headlines I read daily on the virtual world and recently it's been announced, "cK IN2U Will Be First To Launch Fragrance In Second Life ".
I've kept from blogging about this on here because besides that it thoroughly creeps me out, it kind of saddens me. I understand that it expands people's capacities for creativity, opens up productivity channels for business, starts marketing initiatives, and it's simply fun. I'm also in wonder of the program itself.
I do feel uneasy about all the crossover of real-life things into the unreal-life however. Why would you want to worry about politics, social acceptance, stock market, terrorism, and other unpleasant things about the real world you'd want to make disappear, in a virtual world? And I can't help but think, "get a life". Perhaps I'm missing the point. So for the sake of research, I've become a "resident". Enter Isla Cattaneo. Ha. Cattaneo, for the fabulous house DJ, Hernan Cattaneo, and Isla for... well it was the best option on the drop-down menu. Sounds like "island cat". I like.
"Get A Third Life" KitKat advert
Intro to Second Life. I love the voice-over on this.
Labels: introduction, kitkat, second life, video, virtual reality, youtube
