Is it reasonable to consider computer games as art?

a) How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?


According to Adams's " Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art Form?", art should contain some moral values, but games are just activities.Also,art contains ideas,and  must have meanings.
We should consider if the focus is on how it's used this is not an art.Art has content and it has aestheic values.


I think the definition of Adam is quite clear.I think we can use it as references.But sometimes the definition changed from time to time.And "art"can be very different from different persons because of their experiences.I think an art must contain some meanings.


b) According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered
as art?


I think videogames are new medium to us.Some people may not consider videogames as art.
From Adam's point of view,video games should contain formal beauty, ideas and contents.He said that art was a way which the artist communicate with the viewers.If we just have fun,and cannot learn anything from the games,the games cannot be regarded as an art.

References:Ernest W. Adams, “Will Computer Games Ever Be a Legitimate Art Form”. In Clarke and Mitchell (eds), Videogames and Art, 255-264.

   

Tilman Baumgärtel, “The Ludic Hack: explorations of computer games”. In Tom Corby (ed), Network Art: Practices and Positions, London and New York: Routledge, 2006, 57-67. 

  

Axel Stockburger, “From Appropriation to Approximation”. In Clarke and Mitchell (eds), Videogames and Art, 25-37. 

  

Anne-Marie Schleiner, “Cracking the Maze”. In Clarke and Mitchell (eds), 80-81.

Francis Hunger, “Perspective Engines: An Interview with JODI”. In Clarke and Mitchell, Videogames and Art, 152-159.

Just playing-the ethics of digital games

a)    According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

     For the pros,people can play as professional players if they are good at playing games.And this is actually a game industry because lots of people are enjoying and buying games;so there are a lot of new games produced.It is good for the game making companies and the gamers.

     For the cons, there are some bad contents from the games,for example,murder,rape...According to the film, the 14 year-old boy killed 8 peoples.He did this terrible thing because he was addicted to the violent games.He learned the violence from the

    b)   According the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

     I partly agree with it.According to the film, a 14 year-old boy killed 8 peoples because he was addicted to the violent games.It showed that digital games could anti-social actions.But for most of the people, they just play games in their free time.The digital games can do no harm to them.And some games can be educational.

c)Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?

The government should have the right to do so.Some may argue that everyone should have the rights to do the things that the like.It is true to a certain point.But the game companies should be very careful to the contents because this can harm our society.Take, for example ,the game Rapelay,has been banned by New York City Council.It was because the game contain the contents such as rape and abortion.We believe that this kind of protrayal will affect the players. According to the research from Dr.Karen Dill ,"exposure to sexually objectified and demeaned women in video games causes males (but not females) to be more lenient towards a real-life act of sexual harassment. "So I think it is the responsibility of the government to ban this kind of games.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Peolpe nowadays have been playing video games quite often.Many of the games are about playing sports.I think this can be enjoyable.But people will neglect the importance of going out and playing sports outside.

Reference:

Thomsen, Mike. "A Brief History of Videogame Controversy". IGN. http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/979/979079p1.html. Retrieved 2010-12-03.

Inter Dis-Communication Machine

1.I think the Inter-Discommunication machine is the most interesting.
2.According to the youtube video,it is a equipments 'which exchange views between two persons'.I think in our daily lives,we tried to tell other people what we were actually seeing.Are the listeners really understand that?This equipment let people experience what the others actually 'saw'.From the youtube video,it is interesting to see that after putting on the glasses ,the user tried to touch the other user which seemed a bit difficult.One person wear a pair of white wings and white glasses while the other person wear a pair of black wings and black glasses, to show the contrast. To me, the equipment is a bit clumsy.Actually, it is innovative at that time.The artist recevied many awards ,for example,Category of Exhibition Awards in 1993,from this work.I think the artist will improve the work with more advanced technology in the future.The idea is very great.

Source from http://www.petworks.co.jp/~hachiya/works/shi_ting_jue_jiao_huanmashin.html

Online Identity

How many online identities do you have ?What are they like?
I have about 5 identities online.I have different accounts.They are different from msn,facebook,school web site,xanga and yahoo.
In what ways are they different to our "in person"identities"?
I always use my real name ,for example,in facebook and my e-mail to let my schoolmates or teachers to contact me.I also have a xanga account without using my real name so I can express my feelings freely.
What are some benefits of expressing one's identities online?
I think the benefits of expressing one's identities online are making new friends and sharing.Sometimes we can use the facebook to add some new friends or connect with our friends.It is good to see how others' lives and activities.Sometimes,good use of sharing can make us famous.Take,for example,a 11-year-old girl Tavi Gevinson set up a fashion blog Style rookie in 2008.She described herself as“ Tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats. ”Since then she became very popular and famous.


What are some risks?
Sometimes,the advertising company would steal our photos posted online to make money.We are being used.Also there are some fake online indentities ,we will be cheated.In some online dating web site,we click on the photos of the person that we like and have a date with him/her.At last, we found a completely different person from the web site.This is very disappointing.

References:
Epstein, Robert (2007), "The Truth About Online Dating", Scientific American Mind (February 2007), http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-truth-about-online-da

 [Accessed December 1, 2010].

Wiseman, Eva (20 September 2009). "Tavi Gevinson: The 13-year-old blogger with the fashion world at her feet". The Observer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/20/tavi-gevinson-new-york-fashion. [Retrieved December 1, 2010.]

The ethics of video games--Rapelay

I will use Rapelay as an example to discuss the issue of the ethics of video games.

The video above shows the view points of people who support or againist this game.



Story


According to the Wikipedia,"In story mode, the player rapes the three girls in the order of Manaka, Yuuko, and Aoi. The player starts off in the train station. Upon entering the train, the main character commits chikan on the female the main character is currently in the train with. After the main character finishes raping all three girls, the players has the option of free play scenes.
The story begins with Kimura being arrested for groping Aoi on a subway train. His father is an important politician, and manages to get his son released from jail. The next day, Kimura waits outside the Kiryuu family house and listens to their conversation. He follows Manaka, the youngest, to the subway and gropes her on the train. After getting off the train, he traps her in a public bathroom and rapes her, taking pictures of her semen-covered naked body with his cell phone. Kimura instructs Manaka to feign sickness the next day, and stay in her room.

The next day he follows Yuuko, the mother, from her house to the train station where he fondles her on the train. Kimura follows her to the city park, when Manaka calls Yuuko on her cell phone. As per his plan, Manaka tells her that she is in the bushes at the park, and when Yuuko walks towards the bushes, Kimura ambushes her and ties her up. He then rapes her in the park, and takes pictures of her semen-covered naked body before handing her over to his gang of helpers on the side, who detain her for him.

The third day he follows Aoi, the oldest daughter, to the train station and shows her the photo of her tied up mother. Shocked, she can only follow his orders as he gropes her on the train. After getting off the train, she asks Kimura why he is doing this, at which point she remembers he is the chikan who was arrested for molesting her. Getting on a vehicle, he and his helpers take Aoi to a hotel which his family owns, and rapes her, again taking photos.

After having his way with Aoi, Yuuko and Manaka are taken into the room via a secret door. With all 3 captured, he reveals his plans to make them his sex slaves. Of course, Yuuko tries to cover for her daughters, but breaks down in the end, Manaka breaks next, and finally Aoi as well"

What are the issues?

1.Teaching and encouraging sexual violence

According to the research from Dr.Karen Dill ,"exposure to sexually objectified and demeaned women in video games causes males (but not females) to be more lenient towards a real-life act of sexual harassment. "

There are lots of protrayals of the sex scences.Rape is a serious crime,and should not put in the content of the game.  

2.The values
"Whether any particular act or practice is wrong is assessed from a cost/benefit analysis—whether the overall costs to society outweigh the benefits" (Waddington, 2007).

Keith Vaz said that the videogames allow the players to join some kind of crime such as rape and shooting people, "[S]omeone sitting at a computer playing a video game, or someone with one of those small devices that young people have these days, the name of which I forget — PlayStations or PSPs, something of that kind –
Well, whatever they are called, when people play these things, they can interact. They can shoot people; they can kill people…they can rape women."

As we can see from the content of the game,the developers assume that the male players enjoy this kind of games.And it is targeted for male players.I don't think it is the real situation.GTA is an example of video games include sexual violence, according to The Age newspaper(June 30, 2008)

"a fitness game for the Wii console had outsold GTA IV as the top-selling console game in Australia."It is a clear example to show that a game without sexual contents can be popular too.

•"Male game reviewers and players may be less enthused by these depictions of women than game developers and marketers seem to assume" (Ivory, 2006)

References:

  

lAnderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E(2000) Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and

Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ,78(4), 772-790

lBoyd,C (2009)Virtual Violence. ACSSA Newsletter,21.Retrieved 24 November 2010, from <http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/pubs/newsletter/n21pdf/n21c.pdf>

l Dill, K. E(2010) Making a (Video) Game Out of Rape. Psychology Today.Retrieved 24 November 2010, from <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/how-fantasy-becomes-reality/201003/making-video-game-out-rape>

lHayes, E. (2007). Gendered identities at play: Case studies of two women playing Morrowind. Games and Culture, 2(1), 23–48.

lWaddington, D. (2007). Locating the wrongness in ultra-violent video games. Ethics and Information Technology, 9(2), 121–128.

•

Bus Uncle

1.There are about 1061196 viewers according from the youtube site.

2.I dislike this viedo.
It is of low quality but I cannnot deny that it is interesting.The director who was one of the passengers on the bus shot the film.The angles he used mainly focus on the man and the bus uncle.We, as viewers, as if seeing a narrating film .Since he was sitting on the right hand side of them.He shot the viedo instead of stopping them.The use of light is not good because he is using his mobile phone,there was no lighting.
Yes,it raises interesting socio-cultural issues.The viewers could learn parts of  the Hong kong culture from the video.The 'Bus Uncle''s famous quote was 'I have great pressure'.Most Hong kong people are unde great pressure because of the stressful lives.According to Li Sing,the director of the Hong Kong Mood Disorders Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong,"Hong Kong's high-stress working environments are spawning a city-full of "Bus Uncles".The people were under stress,they may end up using violence if they can't tackle with the problems.

3.I don't think it deserved the attention.It is not a big thing after all.It was just a conflict in the bus.The video was full of foul languages.But some people,for example,the speaker for a advertising company may say that the video shows Hong Kong people's creativity.I think it has the value originality.Sometimes,we like the reality,the case of 'Bus Uncle' is real.They are real people,not actors.It shows the actual situation in Hong Kong.This is also the reason why 'reality shows' become so popular nowadays.

4.I think they enhance creative culture.Everyone could upload something interesting onto the web sites.Although they were not professional but they share a lot of interesting things which could inspire the viewers.Jon,the man who record the video, is an example to show the power of technology.Since almost everyone has a cell phone,they can take photos or viedos of the situation and unload online.This enhance the participatory culture of internet sharing.

Examples are as follows:




People created a new version of Ocean Park ad. by mixing the music video.The video shows us the participatory culture of internet.Some of  the people were just amateurs,according to the reading of Roman Marek,the technology allows us to just use some parts of others' original clips,and recycle,mash up or edit the videos.The example that I have chosen is using the original videos and then re-mix it.At a result,we can see a new video with totally different meanings.And we will find it interesting and laugh.
Original music video:





Original Ocean Park ad.:





New version :

References:

Charles Leadbeater, We-think: Mass Innovation not Mass Production (2009), xv-xxxv (especially xv-xviii)

Roman Marek, “Creativity meets circulation: internet videos, amateurs and the process of evolution”, (Conference paper delivered at the Sydney German Studies Symposium 2009 on Collective Creativity, 23-26 July 2009).

Jean Burgess and Joshua Green, YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. London: Polity, 2009.

 

Digital or Analog technology?

        1)What are some photographic effects that can be achieved using digital or analog (darkroom, film, lights etc) technology?

         Some photographic effects can be achieved by using both digital or analog  technology.Colour filtering and Multiple exposure are examples.

2)What are some photographic techniques that can only be done using digital technology?By using computer editing,people can make photos perfect.Take Madonna for example,she hired the professionals to edit every parts of her in the advertisement.She in fact is a middle-aged woman but she looks young and have a perfect figure in the photos by using all kinds of effects from photoshop.Sometimes, we were fooled by this kind of photographic techniques ,and we might think that all female stars have the perfect figures as shown in the advertisements.


After:

Before:



After:

Before:



After:

Before:



After:



3)What is the difference between analog photography and digital photography?
Nowadays,digital photography has been more popular than analog photography.
Analog photography can be produced in the dark room.And we cannot see the photos right away.It is interesting that someone still like using the analog photography they enjoy the surprises when they finally wait and get the photos.The films are easily to damage,too.We need the skills of using the camera in order to take nice pictures.




Digital photography,however,the photos are saved in the sd card.We can see the photos immediately.
We may not need the skills of using the camera beacause we can edit the photos by using the softwares.

There are different pixels of digital cameras that we can choose. But for traditional cameras, the quality of the photos highly depends on the film.The colours of the photos of digital cameras are sharper. Traditional photography is good for the people who have professional skill.On the other hand, digital photography is more easy to use for most of us.

References:

Foley, James D.; Andries van Dam, John F. Hughes, Steven K. Feiner (1990). "Spatial-partitioning representations; Surface detail". Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice. The Systems Programming Series. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-12110-7. "These cells are often called voxels (volume elements), in analogy to pixels."