Tutorial 10 - exploring our media ecology

Tetrad

By looking at and creating tetrads of our everyday technology, we increase our awareness of our surroundings and environment. By studying how and with what tools we use to navigate our day-to-day lives, we can come to a clearer understanding of how we shape technology and vice versa.

Old
Medium: Television

Enhances: Radio – Audio only – no non-verbal communication. Allows for the addition of visual news reporting – not just verbal reporting. Television is an extension of the human voice with the addition of non-verbal communication (body language). Cinema – addition of live (non-scripted) presentation of television content. More of an eye on ‘real life’ than pre-recorded narratives.

Reverses: Simulcasting of events on television back to radio. CNN 24hr coverage of 911 – overload. War TV – the broadcasting of video footage of war onto TV outlines an overly voyeuristic, perverse element of society. TV coverage of war highlights the desensitising of human to the suffering of others.

Retrieves: tribal ecological environments: echo, trauma, paranoia, and also brings back primacy of the spatial, musical, and acoustic. The re-tribalization (and homogenization) of culture: discussing "Seinfeld" around the water cooler at work. The common media-told stories of modern culture: Sitcom plots, the news, Superbowl, the Challenger explosion.

Obsolesces: Obsolesces wires, cables and physical bodies. The beginnings of a truly global communications environment. Makes the jump from an instantaneous "wired" network (telegraph, telephone) to an instantaneous, ubiquitous media environment: "Around the world on short wave."

New
Medium: Email

Enhances: Speed of communication. The ability to act.
Enhances the speed of communication - Email is virtually instantaneous.
Enhances world connectivity – one’s contact details are more visible and searchable than ever, it is easier to find the contact details of others.
Enhances the cost factor – email is virtually free to send communication long distances
Enhances the dissemination of ideas – email forwarding, mail lists
Enhances the ability to imprint individual personality on communications – ability to add animations, music, fonts etc. to enhance the individuality of communication.
Has enhance global feeling by the use of ‘chain mail’ (if you agree forward this onto ten people you know) type emails.
Enhances the ability to quickly respond or to initiate action in a given situation.

Reverses: Viruses, Spam, Privacy
The speed of email allows the unprecedented, rapid spread virus of virus infection eg. Love Bug (The worm began in the Philippines on 5 May 2000 and spread across the world in one day, moving inexorably on to Hong Kong and then to Europe and the US causing an estimated $5.5 billion in damage. By 13 May 2000, 50 million infections had been reported.)
Spam –unsolicited bulk email advertising. Spam averages 78% of all e-mail sent.
Privacy – Email address harvesting, use of social engineering to manipulate people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. Such as revealing credit card information.

Retrieves: Presentation of writing, Etiquette
Use of calligraphy and drawing in the past has been adapted electronically. Asynchronous nature of communication allows the ability to compose response rather than respond in real time. This has ensured etiquette of communication, despite the ‘slimmed down’ nature of email correspondence.

Obsolesces: The old postal system
Whilst hasn’t happened totally. In the future, the physical postal system will become obsolete due to the efficiency of email as well as environmental concerns regarding the need for paper.