Emerson campus visit

Here's the map: 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29

Examples of "reification"

Peter Schaefer in "iPod and Philosophy" mentions Marx's concept of "reification," or verdinglichung, which translates to "thingification."

That refers to the ways in which the all-powerful market reduces workers to quantifiable "labor" hours, stripping away all individuality, while simultaneously giving human qualities to the manufactured products, such as iPhones or iPods, whatever gadgets that people tend to love as much as living things. This anthropomorphication seems funny or cute on the surface but disturbing in its transference of humanity. Most of the people in China who make iPods could never afford one.

Look at this current Honda commercial, for example, which treats a car like a beloved pet:



Or this Zagg commercial for the Invisible Shield to protect an iPhone, like a loved one:



Does this raise any issues for you?

Audio projects

Here are the completed files:

"Mask of the Living Dead,"
by Jon Tanner, Linda Wylie, Linda Zandi, Phil MacArthur, Brad Martin and Danielle Berk, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "Masque of the Red Death."


"Croquet with the Queen,"
by Kerri Lingo, Jessica Stockton, Faun Scurlock, Samantha Zeiner, Barbara Melton and Nate Mannan, an excerpt from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.


"The Game,"
by Eric Hill, Danielle Chaney, Vince Paulson, Aaron May, Dale Strouse and Kaitlin Himrich, a morality play of the same name by Louise Bryant.


"Apocalypse 2.0,"
by Shawn Kepfer, Ruth Zschomler, Yasha Kehn, Alex Barry, Jerry Joiner, inspired by "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," one of Aesop's fables.

Remediation collection (Prompt 6)

If you haven't looked through the fantastic collection of remediation examples brought to class through Prompt 6 in the Google group, you really are missing out. There are way too many good ones to share them all during the class period (thank you all contributors!), so I encourage all of you to browse through the list, if you haven't done so already. In relation to our discussions and readings, particularly Jenkins, here are a few of special interest:

Audio and text:

Courtesy of Shawn Kepfer -- "V for Vendetta"



Audio and imagery:

Courtesy of Jerry Joiner -- Secret Mommy's "Kool Aid River"



Video games:

Courtesy of Yasha Kehn -- The Beatles RockBand video game

Beatles RockBand trailer

And from Aaron May -- BioShock bedtime story

Once Upon a Pixel Video Game, Bioshock | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

From short children's book to movie:

Courtesy of Linda Wylie -- "Where the Wild Things Are"



And Eric Hill's mention of R. Crumb's remediation of the Bible:

R. Crumb site

What does music look like?

Some attempts at music visualization:

The Music Animation Machine -- Beethoven's Fifth



DFR - Music Animation

Philip Glass in Portland on Nov. 3

A note from PICA:

"Philip Glass
Creativity and Collaboration: An Evening with Philip Glass

In conjunction with Portland Opera's west coast premiere of Philip Glass's Orphée, PICA and the Northwest Film Center will present a very special evening of piano, film, and lively conversation. On November 3rd, Glass will share, through music and words, how artistic collaboration across genres has influenced his work.

Afterward, PICA invites you to a special post-show reception with Glass. Reception tickets include admission to the lecture. Just select the "PICA member" category when purchasing advance tickets. You will be required to show your PICA membership card at the door.

November 3 | 7-9 pm | Kridell Ballroom at the Portland Art Museum
$25 General / $20 Member (Purchase advance tickets)
$75 Lecture and Reception (Purchase advance tickets)"

Audio narrative / radio theater resources

Dr. John Barber has compiled a great list of resources for his Digital Sound class this term at WSUV, including links to various audio narrative / radio theater examples (scroll down about 2/3 of the page, to the section entitled "Radio drama ...").

Some samples:

"Art" by Yasmina Reza, three characters talking about a white painting,



And from the Rick Emerson side project, "A.Z.," an action piece about when zombies take over the world,

Episode 6: "No Mercy"