Creativity and New Media

I learned how to crochet after my friend tagged me in a post about micro-crochet. The post ended up leading me to several Youtubers that have introduced me to Amigurumi, and taught me how to crochet.

📰 The top 10 have been announced, and I just found out I wasted the last week of my summer crocheting @PlainWhiteTs pic.twitter.com/GtHAy9A2h8

— 아댄애 ϟF (@AdanneO) September 2, 2016

One of those Youtubers is Karen Bestwick.

She posts videos with patterns in the info box and you can crochet along with her so you know you’re doing it right. She is a great example of the “mashup” that new media allows. She was asked by a subscriber to post a crochet-along for baby bootie converse sneakers. She looked at all the converse bootie tutorials available and created her own simple pattern and made it available for free. She has posted patterns and tutorials to allow anyone to crochet converse for every foot size.

I have used her patterned and added the second stripe that she left out as well as making the first stripe go through the top of the toe instead of under the toe to make the booties look more realistic. I also mixed in different sole and show lace colors and added hearts instead of the converse logo. I plan on making more with owls and other decals and selling them.

Creativity

In the article 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 The new math of mashups by Sasha Frere-Jones she discusses the “mashup,” which is the backbone of new media creativity!

New media makes it easier than ever for not only musicians, but everyone and anyone to create a “mashup.” Whether you are using a video and adding new audio to it, or a piece of art has inspired you so you add your own twist to it. New media has created a wealth of inspiration to draw from and a platform to carry the resulting babies.

It makes collaboration and conceptualizing simple and accessible.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used for entertainment, training, psychological healing, virtual business and school meetings, etc.

In the article After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot? by Diane Mehta you learn that children 5-15 have created half of the 2 billion accounts registered on virtual worlds. Since it is easier for children to go online than hang out outside they have turned to virtual worlds for entertainment and friendship. The article also talks about how virtual world designer and Senior Scientist and Project Director for the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies Jacki Morie creates virtual worlds to train and heal military personnel. In the article Going to the virtual office in Second Life by Mark Tutton talks about how virtual meetings can cut company costs by allowing different branches in other states to meet without having to travel.

The biggest pro of virtual worlds is how quickly and easily they can bring people together. Instead of having to wake up, fix your face, get yourself dressed, and travel somewhere you just have to turn on your computer or pic up your phone. The biggest con of virtual worlds is how easy it is to loose yourself in them. You spend time creating your avatar, and sometimes updating it or changing its outfits/accessories. You may start building relationships online with other people and they become part of your life and soon your online life might become more developed than your real life.

Virtual worlds foster creativity because you can see what other people have created and become inspired, or discover a world that brings out talents you did not know you had.

I think the future of virtual worlds will be people getting together in person and online, putting on VR visors and playing games like escape the room, working on projects, and just hanging out.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter discussion is better than blackboard discussion, but not as effective as an in-class discussion.

On Twitter when someone @replies you as long as your settings and their settings allow you to see that someone has mentioned you in a tweet a discussion can begin.

On blackboard depending on how the professor set up their sections you may or may not know that people are even posting in the discussion, or in a group if you have been assigned a group.

In class unless you are asleep or zoned out you know that a discussion is happening and that you are expected to pay attention and participate.

Twitter discussions can be quick, immediate exchanges that last a few minutes, or long and drawn out lasting days, weeks, and even years. Blackboard discussions may never occur unless the professor makes them mandatory. In-class discussions often take some time to get started and last as long as the professor allows. While some Twitter discussions have a moderator and a set length of time not everyone in the discussion is able to be heard as well as someone participating in an in-class discussion.

In general in-person discussions will always be better than internet ones.

Social Networking Sites

I am going to discuss Facebook, Twitter, Vine, and Instagram in relation to each other as social networking sites.

I prefer Twitter as a SNS because I feel it is the best platform to get a mixture of what you are interested in. While Facebook hides and shows you posts based on other peoples popularity, payments, and things that you’ve liked in the past Twitter shows you everything you’ve told it you want to see. While Vine tends to be more comedic than informational in content compared to the other sites Instagram, especially since they launched Instagram Stories, can be entertaining and informative. An artist can post a video or photo of their work and write in detail about their process, or use “stories” to give you a behind the scenes look or tutorial you can follow. While you have to go out of your way to see Vine comments Instagram comments are displayed in order under the photos/videos. Having the comments easily accessible makes it easier for people to post and respond to posts which is a large part of what social networking is all about. Much like Facebook you can post links to Vines and Instagrams on Twitter and further the discussion on another platform, but the discussion is easier to follow on Twitter than on Facebook.