New Media Reader, pp. 73-108

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, or Lick, was another great thinker behind the internet and new media that we have today.  He examined "Man-Computer Symbiosis" back in 1960, utilizing his varied experience with ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and a background in both behavioral science and engineering.  Many of his ideas were considered radical at the time, yet they are more common knowledge now.  We take his vision for the coexistence of humans and computers for granted, obvious.  In 1968, Lick wrote "The Computer as a Communication Device" with Robert W. Taylor, in which they put forth the concept that "In a few years, mean will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face."  Maybe it took a bit longer than a few years, but the statement was almost shocking in the late sixties, whereas in 2008 it seems like old news.  Lick was so confident in his ideas, as he should have been, the article even went so far to suggest cyber romances, a concept that must have sounded a bit wild at the time.  Now, with the popularity of dating websites such as Match.com and J Date, as well as the relevance of social networking sites like Facebook, there is no question that Lick was insightfully predicting the technologically savvy future in which we are now living.  

Allan Kaprow and Augusto Boal also set the stage for what was to come.  By establishing models of interactivity related to "intermedia" through performance, art, and the like, we see a large change in the perception of artistic "total forms."  Myron Krueger drew inspiration from Kaprow's work, going on to describe "responsive environments" found in our new media today--work considered to be art or technology depending on the audience, although often I think the two work hand in hand, as seen in exhibitions like UNTETHERED at the Chelsea gallery, Eyebeam.

I believe I had actually addressed this in an earlier blog post, but it as great to learn more about one of the lesser known great inventors of the 20th century, Douglar Engelbart.  I cannot imagine my daily life without a (touch-pad) mouse, computer windows, word processors, and hyperlinks.  He clearly was one of the forefathers of the internet.  

I really enjoyed reading William S. Burrough's "The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin" and gaining insight on the method itself.  It included an anecdote about André Breton kicking Tristan Tzara out of the Surrealist movement, which really was quite the exclusive club, if you will, for utilizing the cut-up method.  Although I do love writing, and his cutting up of words is fascinating as well as entertaining to explore, I most directly connected with Burrough's discussion of film.  He discusses that "all street shots from movie or still cameras are by the unpredictable factors of passers by and juxtoposition cut-ups."  Although the truth in this statement varies in strength based on closed sets and filming situations, I was immediately reminded of the Nouvelle Vague, and more specifically, Jean-Luc Godard's A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) in which street shots used real passersby as extras providing a very realistic feel of the streets of Paris.  Just about anyone could be walking down Les Champs-Elysées when they were shooting and could have ended up in the film.  In an uncontrolled environment such as this one, Godard utilized the cut-up method due to the unpredictability of the Parisian passers-by.  In a broader sense, I was intrigued by Burrough's essay because I want to be a film editor.  I work in Final Cut Pro, which is, in very base terms, cutting up digital moving photography and rearranging it to achieve a coherent, synergetic whole.  Two different editors working with the exact same raw footage could potentially create two very different films, just as rearranging words can change tone and even overall meaning.