My Techno-Bio
Hey all,
I have been enamored with computers from an early age. My dad brought home a used PC when I was ten. In those days, I primarily played around with flight sims and Doom. I began to use AOL’s instant messenger in middle school. Even at that point, I understood how important this technology was for my social life.
I bought my first “real” stereo during my freshmen year at high school. I collected CD’s until I realized that music could be obtained for free on the internet. After this epiphany, I began to sink into various internet subcultures. I got involved with a unix community and finally bought a Mac. I’v been a Macintosh-purist since.
I became a computer science major after taking CSCI 101. I enjoy programming and am proficient with Java, C, C++, Lisp, Logo, XHTML. I’m currently learning to use Ruby on Rails in my Software Development class. Currently, I tutor CSCI 101.
Last year, I started to study Sociology. It became obvious that the Internet exerted a tremendous amount of social control. I argue that decreased interest in voluntary community organizations is symptomatic of the pace of this American society. Social networking web-sites are growing at an accelerating pace. MMO’s are being played by a huge cross-section of Americans. I believe that the internet will play an increasingly definitive role in the shifting topography of American society.
Ernest
Here’s our mash-up
We dropped that intro so as to let the piece speak for itself. I also raised the volume of Alexandra’s grandmother’s voice but its was tough. She’s 99 and skype has bad audio quality.
[audio:http://muskrat.middlebury.edu/lt/cr/faculty/jmittell-lt/fmmc0246a-s08-distribution/alexandraernest.mp3]
This was my favorite piece to show everyone.
As videos are being disseminated at an accelerating pace, we are exposed to various conflicting subjective views pertaining to the same topic.This video attempts to express the way that media can effect one’s perception of foreign countries or ideals. We chose Argentina simply because Mica is from Argentina and questions the way that it is framed by both popular culture and academia within the US. We decided to call the video The Truth since we derived much of our inspiration for it from a clever political advertisement in which two conflicting points of view are presented. We do not claim that our video is the only truth, it presents just two of many truths. We tried to juxtapose a very happy view of the country with one tinged by revolt, corruption, violence and Argentinean Nazi propaganda. We set out to make people question the factual robustness of the information that they acquire through various mediums.
[youtube PGE4eZ5q2xw]
After watching the video ask yourself this question. Do you know Argentina?
Ernest and Mica
3/18/08
Here’s our game critique
We designed the mash-up to attempting to elicit individual interpretations of GTA’s contradictory content. That in itself is not a critical argument about the game but the commercial media apparatus. We chose not to include any overt criticism because this might hamper that discussion. We wanted to let it speak for itself through its re-contextualization by others.
[youtube 3Gb3R0G-vJE]
Fun with Flash!
The flash assignment posed an interesting challenge for us. Due to flash’s learning curve, we spent most of our time figuring out how to get video and audio to stop in sync. Our final piece imagines an alternative interface for Midd’s website. It would be nice to be able to click certain areas on the campus map and watch a live feed of that area. Midd already has this functionality but it is hard to find on its 1.0 site.
Here is a flash banner that I made for Sepomena
Middlebury Meta Confessional
This is a work in progress. Stephen and I envisioned a blog with some cool flash embedded. We have to wait until the admin guy returns to campus but I plan to work on the confessional this summer. I am planning to migrate it to wordpress and to allow anyone to comment on confessionals.
I had a great time this semester and would like to thank all of my partners, Jason and Joe. This was one of the most practical and interesting classes that I have had to pleasure to take. I am now addicted to flash and photoshop.
