Media Technology 2008

The cinema of Weimar Germany…ahhh. Could there be anything more engaging to right about? Sure. But because some of my favorite films came out of this period, I decided to add what I know to wikipedia’s knowledge of this important period in film history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Germany#1918-1933_-_Film_in_the_Weimar_Republic

Here’s an onlineversion of Conner’s first and probably most famous film titled “A Movie,” which offers commentary on America’s “progress” and mankind’s use of violence. In retrospect of the remix videos that we’ve made, it’s a really great example and shows how media repeatedly comments on itself.

Here’s my Wikipedia edit. I’m writing a research paper on Bruce Conner so I did a brief edit of his surprisingly short entry. I recommend everyone here checking out some of his films (they’re available at the library circ desk). Most of his films are all found-footage: he was one of the original, and in my opinion, the greatest of the remake video artists.

…even he uses it.

Here’s a link to an interesting clip of renowned tech guru\analyst Walt Mossberg discussing how the US Government needs to get involved in bringing high-speed internet to the masses, as well as his thoughts on the future of internet multimedia…

Video Link

I think this article is very pertinent to our discussion of comics. It discusses censorship in comics in the mid-20th century in a very balanced way. One possible criticism of it is that it doesn’t separate the medium/grammar of comics from the content of comics. Anyway money quote:

In the two years after Wertham’s book came out, more than a dozen publishers and hundreds of cartoonists left the field. Those publishers that remained were severely restricted by a self-imposed code that prevented comics from publishing anything but the most anodyne kiddies’ fare. Only with the rise of graphic novels in the last few years have comics recovered from the stigma of the Wertham years. For Hajdu, the comic-book crackdown was a “purge,” a precursor to later panics over rock music and video games.