-
Dear Everyone,
May I please invite your attention that, Jin Shang is going to present a talk on the title of 'Creative Cuppa: An Induction Tour' in the upcoming event, 'Social Media: Use or Abuse'. At the time, Jin would give a brief introduction about the project 'Creative Cuppa', he would also like to generate a follow-up discussion with other participants, in terms of the question how the latest web 2.0 technologies (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Xphone, etc.) can be well used and organically incorporated with the real world social activities (i.e. group meetings and social networking of membership, etc.), in order to achieve specific goals for framing and organizing an effective and inclusive 'digital community'.
For more details about the project 'Creative Cuppa', please visit our websites at http://creativecuppa.com, or
you could always join us in the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60675201456
Many thanks for your attention!
Best wishes,
Jin Shang
Creative Cuppa Working Group (CCWG)
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
25 June 2009
--------------
http://usesandabuses.wordpress.com/programme/
(One Day Seminar - Social Media: Use or Abuse)
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Creative Cuppa Official Website Launced (New!)
-
Dear Everyone,
I'm pleased to announce that Creative Cuppa has recently launched its 'official website' at ( http://www.creativecuppa.com ). It means that from now on we would be able to access to our own independent 'official space' online. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your great effort and support to us. We look forward to seeing you soon next week!
Best wishes,
Jin Shang
Project Manager
& Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series (CCSS)
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
Dear Everyone,
I'm pleased to announce that Creative Cuppa has recently launched its 'official website' at ( http://www.creativecuppa.com ). It means that from now on we would be able to access to our own independent 'official space' online. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your great effort and support to us. We look forward to seeing you soon next week!
Best wishes,
Jin Shang
Project Manager
& Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series (CCSS)
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Creative Cuppa 8th Coffee Meetup
-
Creative Cuppa 8th Coffee Meetup
(Event completed & newsletter coming out soon...)
Theme: Creative Technologies & Contemporary Cinema
Time: 12:00pm - 13:00pm (Tuesday, 23rd June 2009)
Venue: KE 526 (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester
Guest Speaker: by Dr. Anna Claydon
Event Coordinator: Jin Shang
Event description: Dr. Anna Claydon
Technology has shaped cinema: it is an invention of the 19th century created by science played out at the fairground and in the flea-pit and twenty-first century cinema is no different... only now the scientists are 'imagineers' and the forum is the IMAX cinema or the online download.
When Edison and WKL Dickson first developed the Kinematograph in the early 1890s, their aim, explicitly, was to create an audio-visual experience, conjoining the phonograph with moving images. This was not possible then but inventors worked on this until the 1920s, when Vitaphone finally won the competition. Similarly, colour and ever increasing realism and expression was sought from the very beginnings of cinema and so frames were handpainted, then tinted and by the 1930s, coloured with Technicolor's 3 colour system. When sound was introduced, some thought it would be the death-knell of creativity in cinema; when colour illuminated the screen, audiences were reputedly shocked by the invasion of their space with the too red and too green hues with which they were faced: and in the 1950 and 60s, as cinema audiences globally began to die, it was to technology and science that the industries turned once more. Cinerama, 3D, vibrating seats, electric shocks and 'smellovision' were the tools of a desperate industry trying to seduce audiences: the 'cinema of attractions' was all the more a cinema of effects.
In recent years, despite many excellent movies being made, the cinema industry has been facing another challenge and production has fallen. The audience is changing and how they consume has altered. What they expect of action has been transformed by computer games and what was once a believable effect is now automatically hyper-real: the impossible appears made possible. Thus, in the face of criticism about a paucity of original film narratives (as evidenced by the large numbers of remakes) and the love of the new, filmmakers push the boundaries of film with every movie they produce and try to re-acquaint the spectator with what made film special: the fact it could not be experienced anywhere else in quite the same way. In this session, we shall examine how creative technologies contribute to contemporary cinema narrative and style and debate the impact of these technologies themselves upon creativity and quality in the cinema.
Come along and share your creative ideas with others. Everyone is welcome. Beverage & snacks are served for free. You can pop in and drop out anytime. Most importantly we hope you feel fun, relax, and really enjoy being with everyone of us!
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60675201456
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
June 14, 2009
-
Creative Cuppa 8th Coffee Meetup
(Event completed & newsletter coming out soon...)
Theme: Creative Technologies & Contemporary Cinema
Time: 12:00pm - 13:00pm (Tuesday, 23rd June 2009)
Venue: KE 526 (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester
Guest Speaker: by Dr. Anna Claydon
Event Coordinator: Jin Shang
Event description: Dr. Anna Claydon
Technology has shaped cinema: it is an invention of the 19th century created by science played out at the fairground and in the flea-pit and twenty-first century cinema is no different... only now the scientists are 'imagineers' and the forum is the IMAX cinema or the online download.
When Edison and WKL Dickson first developed the Kinematograph in the early 1890s, their aim, explicitly, was to create an audio-visual experience, conjoining the phonograph with moving images. This was not possible then but inventors worked on this until the 1920s, when Vitaphone finally won the competition. Similarly, colour and ever increasing realism and expression was sought from the very beginnings of cinema and so frames were handpainted, then tinted and by the 1930s, coloured with Technicolor's 3 colour system. When sound was introduced, some thought it would be the death-knell of creativity in cinema; when colour illuminated the screen, audiences were reputedly shocked by the invasion of their space with the too red and too green hues with which they were faced: and in the 1950 and 60s, as cinema audiences globally began to die, it was to technology and science that the industries turned once more. Cinerama, 3D, vibrating seats, electric shocks and 'smellovision' were the tools of a desperate industry trying to seduce audiences: the 'cinema of attractions' was all the more a cinema of effects.
In recent years, despite many excellent movies being made, the cinema industry has been facing another challenge and production has fallen. The audience is changing and how they consume has altered. What they expect of action has been transformed by computer games and what was once a believable effect is now automatically hyper-real: the impossible appears made possible. Thus, in the face of criticism about a paucity of original film narratives (as evidenced by the large numbers of remakes) and the love of the new, filmmakers push the boundaries of film with every movie they produce and try to re-acquaint the spectator with what made film special: the fact it could not be experienced anywhere else in quite the same way. In this session, we shall examine how creative technologies contribute to contemporary cinema narrative and style and debate the impact of these technologies themselves upon creativity and quality in the cinema.
Come along and share your creative ideas with others. Everyone is welcome. Beverage & snacks are served for free. You can pop in and drop out anytime. Most importantly we hope you feel fun, relax, and really enjoy being with everyone of us!
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60675201456
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
June 14, 2009
-
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Newsletter for 7th Creative Cuppa Meet-up
-
On the 28th May, Creative Cuppa had its 7th meet-up in ATT SB2.07 (Attenborough 2nd FLR), City Campus, University of Leicester. Many thanks to Amit Chandraker, Aoeline Tao, Chih-Jung Fan, Ebruhim Hasum, Hongsuda Sornhlin, Li Jun Zhang, Patama Satawedin, Naparat Prueksuralai, Sarah Cameron, Zidong Huang for their participation. We would also like to express our special gratitude to those who came from the School of Management and Department of Engineering. This time, our discussion was focused on the future possibilities of communication development and the technologies mediating its development, with Zhang Lijun, Chih-jung Fan and Tony O'Tierney respectively discussing their own experiences and views on the different new media as emerging technologies and future modes of communication; below are their contributions to the 'collaborative' work of the newsletter (including Sarah Cameron's comments on the event).
Tony discussed some issues surrounding the ID card debate, showing the views of politicians and journalists on the topic. The group discussed some arguments countering the proposed benefits from the scheme. There was lively debate over the validity of public concerns, with some suggesting that the ID card scheme is consistent with practices in other countries while others saw great disparities. Jin suggested that some of the fears people have regarding the controversial ID card database might be eased by the appointment of a third party overseer to monitor its implementation. (by Tony O'Tierney)
Zhang Lijun shared her original experience of using Pbworks to do a group work. It is a good tool for collaborative works, especially in the aspect of recording all the project process in one page. Some ideas were discussed in the meeting. Firstly, the security problem was considered. It is true that there may be encounter such issue because of the uncertainty of technology. Secondly, some people think it is more or less the same as public forum or Google Docs. However, it has its main focus on law, design & marketing, Consulting, Educational, General and personal aspect. So some people may say it is more like an intranet service outsourcing. Anyway, it has its advantage on improving productivity and efficiency. More exploring is needed to find more about it. (by Zhang Lijun)
Chih-Jung mentioned that television might become 'YouTube' alike in the future. It might have influences on the funding of broadcasters and viewing behaviour. It also raised the discussion on the regulation aspect. If everyone can upload the content, how could the regulatory body regulate the content? The censorship system might have to change. Regulation would become an important issue in the digital age. Regarding to the interactive functions, such as telephone and recording service, it would depend on the faster transmission infrastructure. The government and media (or telecommunication) companies need to invest more on the construction of the internet infrastructure. (by Chih-jung Fan)
The meet up was really interesting and productive. The presentation of pbwiki showed how it can be a very useful research platform. The discussion about digital television allowed us to think about the future possibilities for programming, audience behaviour and advertising. The discussion about ID cards was really engaging, I have strong beliefs about the issue which is also related to my own research. It was a good session and though people disagreed about issues (which is what makes a good debate!) we all acknowledged that technologies can be of great benefit or detriment to us, depending largely on the nature of usage, user intent, wider social and political backdrops and most fundamentally I believe, on power structures. (by Sarah Cameron)
This time, we successfully tried a collaborative work, with almost everyone making their own contribution to the event. From the feedback, we’ve also received our best comments since the project commenced. Next time, we will focus on the topic of Creative Technologies & Contemporary Cinema; and we’re very pleased we have invited Dr. Anna Claydon to give a talk about technology's impact on the transformation of contemporary cinema, and Anna would like to share her own thought on how technologies, both 'old' and 'new', are used to shape the footage in the process of filmmaking today. Again, we would like to thank everyone who has made enormous contributions to Creative Cuppa. We look forward to seeing you all next time!
Video links: http://pbworks.com/academic.wiki (PBworks)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LONA3Acc5js (Channel 4: No to ID cards)
Yours sincerely,
Jin Shang
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
June 2, 2009
-
On the 28th May, Creative Cuppa had its 7th meet-up in ATT SB2.07 (Attenborough 2nd FLR), City Campus, University of Leicester. Many thanks to Amit Chandraker, Aoeline Tao, Chih-Jung Fan, Ebruhim Hasum, Hongsuda Sornhlin, Li Jun Zhang, Patama Satawedin, Naparat Prueksuralai, Sarah Cameron, Zidong Huang for their participation. We would also like to express our special gratitude to those who came from the School of Management and Department of Engineering. This time, our discussion was focused on the future possibilities of communication development and the technologies mediating its development, with Zhang Lijun, Chih-jung Fan and Tony O'Tierney respectively discussing their own experiences and views on the different new media as emerging technologies and future modes of communication; below are their contributions to the 'collaborative' work of the newsletter (including Sarah Cameron's comments on the event).
Tony discussed some issues surrounding the ID card debate, showing the views of politicians and journalists on the topic. The group discussed some arguments countering the proposed benefits from the scheme. There was lively debate over the validity of public concerns, with some suggesting that the ID card scheme is consistent with practices in other countries while others saw great disparities. Jin suggested that some of the fears people have regarding the controversial ID card database might be eased by the appointment of a third party overseer to monitor its implementation. (by Tony O'Tierney)
Zhang Lijun shared her original experience of using Pbworks to do a group work. It is a good tool for collaborative works, especially in the aspect of recording all the project process in one page. Some ideas were discussed in the meeting. Firstly, the security problem was considered. It is true that there may be encounter such issue because of the uncertainty of technology. Secondly, some people think it is more or less the same as public forum or Google Docs. However, it has its main focus on law, design & marketing, Consulting, Educational, General and personal aspect. So some people may say it is more like an intranet service outsourcing. Anyway, it has its advantage on improving productivity and efficiency. More exploring is needed to find more about it. (by Zhang Lijun)
Chih-Jung mentioned that television might become 'YouTube' alike in the future. It might have influences on the funding of broadcasters and viewing behaviour. It also raised the discussion on the regulation aspect. If everyone can upload the content, how could the regulatory body regulate the content? The censorship system might have to change. Regulation would become an important issue in the digital age. Regarding to the interactive functions, such as telephone and recording service, it would depend on the faster transmission infrastructure. The government and media (or telecommunication) companies need to invest more on the construction of the internet infrastructure. (by Chih-jung Fan)
The meet up was really interesting and productive. The presentation of pbwiki showed how it can be a very useful research platform. The discussion about digital television allowed us to think about the future possibilities for programming, audience behaviour and advertising. The discussion about ID cards was really engaging, I have strong beliefs about the issue which is also related to my own research. It was a good session and though people disagreed about issues (which is what makes a good debate!) we all acknowledged that technologies can be of great benefit or detriment to us, depending largely on the nature of usage, user intent, wider social and political backdrops and most fundamentally I believe, on power structures. (by Sarah Cameron)
This time, we successfully tried a collaborative work, with almost everyone making their own contribution to the event. From the feedback, we’ve also received our best comments since the project commenced. Next time, we will focus on the topic of Creative Technologies & Contemporary Cinema; and we’re very pleased we have invited Dr. Anna Claydon to give a talk about technology's impact on the transformation of contemporary cinema, and Anna would like to share her own thought on how technologies, both 'old' and 'new', are used to shape the footage in the process of filmmaking today. Again, we would like to thank everyone who has made enormous contributions to Creative Cuppa. We look forward to seeing you all next time!
Video links: http://pbworks.com/academic.wiki (PBworks)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LONA3Acc5js (Channel 4: No to ID cards)
Yours sincerely,
Jin Shang
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
June 2, 2009
-
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Creative Cuppa 7th Coffee Meetup
-
Dear Everyone,
Thanks for coming today. Actually it was a pretty good cooperative work we did this time. Also thanks for those who came from Management School and Engineering Department. So hopefully we would send out the newsletter early next week. Thanks again for all your wonderful contribution today. I'll see you all next time!
Best wishes,
Jin
-------------
Creative Cuppa 7th Coffee Meetup
(Event completed & newsletter coming out soon ... )
Theme: The Future of Communication / Future Technology
Time: 12:00pm - 13:00pm (Thursday, 28 May 2009)
Venue: ATT SB2.07 (Attenborough 2nd FLR), City Campus, University of Leicester
Guest Speaker: Zhang Lijun, Chih-jung Fan & Tony O'Tierney
Event description: by Tony O'Tierney, Chih-jung Fan & Zhang Lijun
Event Coordinator: Amit Chandraker
Over the last decade we have seen how increased computer networking has transformed society in unprecedented ways. What will be the future implications of such networking and other emerging technologies? How will developments in new sciences such as Nanotechnology alter our lives or those of our descendants? This time our discussion would be focused on the future possibilities of the communication development and the technologies mediating the development.
This time, we are going to have a purely collaborative and discussion-based event. At the time, Tony O'Tierney would like to share his original thoughts on the new scheme of UK's National Identity Card; Chih-jung Fan would have a discussion about 'Digital TV', which is of his research interest at the moment. Zhang Lijun will be talking about her initial experience of creating PBwiki networks for organizing team works online. Here below are their abstracts:
The government is proposing an ID card scheme for the UK, to which there is considerable opposition. The arguments in favour of it centre mainly on its purported ability to tackle identity fraud and terrorism, as well as the claim that it will serve practical purposes as a universal proof of identity. I intend to present some arguments countering these claims, and to highlight some significant issues often omitted from the public debate. (Tony O'Tierney)
The emergence of digital television is thought as the third television revolution. The advent of digital television would bring influences in many aspects. I would like to focus on the impact on audiences, especially viewing behavior. Will audiences only watch the programmes or channels they like? Will generalist channels be vanished? Will audiences viewing behaviour have a great change? Here I hope them can help you think the future of digital television. (Chih-jung Fan)
PBWiki changed its name to PBWorks in this April 2009. It is a free workspace service which allows collaborative editing of pages and files. PBWorks can make your group work more efficiently, effectively, and productively. It can be public or private space. You can invite 1-1000 persons to join the space. Everybody can edit and share the pages. All the change and edit can be monitored and trailed. The most important thing is it's easy to start. You don't need any complicated IT knowledge. All you need is a valid e-mail address. (Zhang Lijun)
Come along and share your creative ideas with others. Everyone is welcome. Beverage & snacks are served for free. You can pop in and drop out anytime. The most important thing is that you feel fun, relax, and really enjoying being with every one of us!
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60675201456
Best wishes,
Jin Shang
Project Manager
& Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
-
Dear Everyone,
Thanks for coming today. Actually it was a pretty good cooperative work we did this time. Also thanks for those who came from Management School and Engineering Department. So hopefully we would send out the newsletter early next week. Thanks again for all your wonderful contribution today. I'll see you all next time!
Best wishes,
Jin
-------------
Creative Cuppa 7th Coffee Meetup
(Event completed & newsletter coming out soon ... )
Theme: The Future of Communication / Future Technology
Time: 12:00pm - 13:00pm (Thursday, 28 May 2009)
Venue: ATT SB2.07 (Attenborough 2nd FLR), City Campus, University of Leicester
Guest Speaker: Zhang Lijun, Chih-jung Fan & Tony O'Tierney
Event description: by Tony O'Tierney, Chih-jung Fan & Zhang Lijun
Event Coordinator: Amit Chandraker
Over the last decade we have seen how increased computer networking has transformed society in unprecedented ways. What will be the future implications of such networking and other emerging technologies? How will developments in new sciences such as Nanotechnology alter our lives or those of our descendants? This time our discussion would be focused on the future possibilities of the communication development and the technologies mediating the development.
This time, we are going to have a purely collaborative and discussion-based event. At the time, Tony O'Tierney would like to share his original thoughts on the new scheme of UK's National Identity Card; Chih-jung Fan would have a discussion about 'Digital TV', which is of his research interest at the moment. Zhang Lijun will be talking about her initial experience of creating PBwiki networks for organizing team works online. Here below are their abstracts:
The government is proposing an ID card scheme for the UK, to which there is considerable opposition. The arguments in favour of it centre mainly on its purported ability to tackle identity fraud and terrorism, as well as the claim that it will serve practical purposes as a universal proof of identity. I intend to present some arguments countering these claims, and to highlight some significant issues often omitted from the public debate. (Tony O'Tierney)
The emergence of digital television is thought as the third television revolution. The advent of digital television would bring influences in many aspects. I would like to focus on the impact on audiences, especially viewing behavior. Will audiences only watch the programmes or channels they like? Will generalist channels be vanished? Will audiences viewing behaviour have a great change? Here I hope them can help you think the future of digital television. (Chih-jung Fan)
PBWiki changed its name to PBWorks in this April 2009. It is a free workspace service which allows collaborative editing of pages and files. PBWorks can make your group work more efficiently, effectively, and productively. It can be public or private space. You can invite 1-1000 persons to join the space. Everybody can edit and share the pages. All the change and edit can be monitored and trailed. The most important thing is it's easy to start. You don't need any complicated IT knowledge. All you need is a valid e-mail address. (Zhang Lijun)
Come along and share your creative ideas with others. Everyone is welcome. Beverage & snacks are served for free. You can pop in and drop out anytime. The most important thing is that you feel fun, relax, and really enjoying being with every one of us!
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60675201456
Best wishes,
Jin Shang
Project Manager
& Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
Department of Media and Communication
University of Leicester
-
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Newsletter for 6th Creative Cuppa Meet-up
-------------
On the 27th April, Creative Cuppa held its 6th meet-up in 324 KEB (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester. Many thanks to Amit Chandraker, Bashia, Chih-Jung Fan, Hao Zhang, Li Jun Zhang, Mokhtar Elareshi, Patama Satawedin, Rosidayu Sabran, Sarah Cameron, and Ivy Chen, for their participation. We would also like to express our special gratitude to Dr. Gillian Youngs and Dr. Tracy Simmons for their attendance and active participation. This time, our discussion was focused on the topic of ‘Digital Avatar / Virtual Reality’, and Gillian shared her own initial experience and understanding, how ‘digital avatars’ should be taken as representatives of real ‘us’ in the virtual environment, and why this was important to the future of social transformation in the information age.
Basically the discussion was mainly focused on three aspects of the topic. In the first place, as Gillian introduced, though she’d been working in the virtual environment for over a decade, 3D was still something very fresh to her; and what made it so different from her previous experience was its non-linear mode of communication. To explain it, with the development in 3D technologies, now we could create our own ‘visualized’ identities or ‘digital avatars’ on the web; and these different and visualized ‘avatars’ would help us transact ourselves from our real life experience into a new virtual environment; and this new virtual environment was sometimes referred to as our ‘Second Life’. In contrasting to this, in previous time, such visualized images could only exist in people’s heads, which was believed having, to some extent, limited the interactivity between people and their communication technologies, such as computers and the Internet.
Within the virtual environment, now people could make more effectively use of the new media technologies for various purposes of their real lives, from learning new knowledge to solving real problems. For instance, as Gillian introduced, ‘Media Zoo’, which was a project based in the University of Leicester, could be seen as a very good example to see how educators were using new 3D technologies to ‘enhance the teaching-learning experience’ either for them themselves, or for their students. As Tracy added here, this was because the new multi-media environment would ‘articulate people more critically related to their avatars’, so that it would create some ‘more opportunities’ to improve dynamics in the teaching-learning processes. Certainly, after having being reminded by Li Jun of her question, Gillian also pointed out a big challenge in the development, which was that many people still simply treated the new communication technologies as ‘screen’ rather than the ‘infrastructure’; and this problem would tend to result in a fact that these people were more likely excluded from the benefits of the social transformation.
At last, in order to conceptualize her discussion, Gillian considered the 3D techno-social transformation as a further great push in the process of communication ‘horizontality’, which meant that the originally ‘hierarchical and vertical’ mode of communication of human society was going to be ‘disaggregated’ or flattened out; and such trend of change in the communication mode would probably hasten the emergence of a more effectively democratic and information-led society in the future. Certainly, Gillian wouldn’t refuse to accept the result of such a social transformation as a ‘plural mode’ of system in the end as Jin raised the point; and she added that, this could be the reason why we were going to be living in a more open and also more functionalized society in the future.
Generally the discussion this time was very theoretically based; Gillian’s in-depth perception and analysis has indeed improved our understanding of the new rising social phenomenon of ‘digital avatar/virtual reality’. From the feedbacks of the participants, we're aware that some people would expect more discussion time in the meet-ups; therefore, we decide to organize a strongly discussion-based collaborative event for the next time. The topic will be closely related to our discussion this time; it’s ‘the future of communication’. At the time, Tony O'Tierney would like to share his original thoughts on the new scheme of UK’s National Identity Card; Zhang Lijun would be talking about her initial experience, creating PBwiki networks for organizing team works online; and Chih-jung Fan would have a discussion about ‘Digital TV’, which is of his research interest at the moment. Again, we would like to thank you so much for all your great supports and wonderful contributions to Creative Cuppa. We look forward to seeing you all for the next time!
Video links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TMQzzFFdQ (Media Zoo)
Best wishes,
Jin Shang
Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
04/05/2009
On the 27th April, Creative Cuppa held its 6th meet-up in 324 KEB (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester. Many thanks to Amit Chandraker, Bashia, Chih-Jung Fan, Hao Zhang, Li Jun Zhang, Mokhtar Elareshi, Patama Satawedin, Rosidayu Sabran, Sarah Cameron, and Ivy Chen, for their participation. We would also like to express our special gratitude to Dr. Gillian Youngs and Dr. Tracy Simmons for their attendance and active participation. This time, our discussion was focused on the topic of ‘Digital Avatar / Virtual Reality’, and Gillian shared her own initial experience and understanding, how ‘digital avatars’ should be taken as representatives of real ‘us’ in the virtual environment, and why this was important to the future of social transformation in the information age.
Basically the discussion was mainly focused on three aspects of the topic. In the first place, as Gillian introduced, though she’d been working in the virtual environment for over a decade, 3D was still something very fresh to her; and what made it so different from her previous experience was its non-linear mode of communication. To explain it, with the development in 3D technologies, now we could create our own ‘visualized’ identities or ‘digital avatars’ on the web; and these different and visualized ‘avatars’ would help us transact ourselves from our real life experience into a new virtual environment; and this new virtual environment was sometimes referred to as our ‘Second Life’. In contrasting to this, in previous time, such visualized images could only exist in people’s heads, which was believed having, to some extent, limited the interactivity between people and their communication technologies, such as computers and the Internet.
Within the virtual environment, now people could make more effectively use of the new media technologies for various purposes of their real lives, from learning new knowledge to solving real problems. For instance, as Gillian introduced, ‘Media Zoo’, which was a project based in the University of Leicester, could be seen as a very good example to see how educators were using new 3D technologies to ‘enhance the teaching-learning experience’ either for them themselves, or for their students. As Tracy added here, this was because the new multi-media environment would ‘articulate people more critically related to their avatars’, so that it would create some ‘more opportunities’ to improve dynamics in the teaching-learning processes. Certainly, after having being reminded by Li Jun of her question, Gillian also pointed out a big challenge in the development, which was that many people still simply treated the new communication technologies as ‘screen’ rather than the ‘infrastructure’; and this problem would tend to result in a fact that these people were more likely excluded from the benefits of the social transformation.
At last, in order to conceptualize her discussion, Gillian considered the 3D techno-social transformation as a further great push in the process of communication ‘horizontality’, which meant that the originally ‘hierarchical and vertical’ mode of communication of human society was going to be ‘disaggregated’ or flattened out; and such trend of change in the communication mode would probably hasten the emergence of a more effectively democratic and information-led society in the future. Certainly, Gillian wouldn’t refuse to accept the result of such a social transformation as a ‘plural mode’ of system in the end as Jin raised the point; and she added that, this could be the reason why we were going to be living in a more open and also more functionalized society in the future.
Generally the discussion this time was very theoretically based; Gillian’s in-depth perception and analysis has indeed improved our understanding of the new rising social phenomenon of ‘digital avatar/virtual reality’. From the feedbacks of the participants, we're aware that some people would expect more discussion time in the meet-ups; therefore, we decide to organize a strongly discussion-based collaborative event for the next time. The topic will be closely related to our discussion this time; it’s ‘the future of communication’. At the time, Tony O'Tierney would like to share his original thoughts on the new scheme of UK’s National Identity Card; Zhang Lijun would be talking about her initial experience, creating PBwiki networks for organizing team works online; and Chih-jung Fan would have a discussion about ‘Digital TV’, which is of his research interest at the moment. Again, we would like to thank you so much for all your great supports and wonderful contributions to Creative Cuppa. We look forward to seeing you all for the next time!
Video links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TMQzzFFdQ (Media Zoo)
Best wishes,
Jin Shang
Operating Director
Creative Cuppa Seminar Series
04/05/2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Creative Cuppa 6th Coffee Meetup
-------------
Dear Everyone,
Many thanks for your coming today; we greatly appreciate Dr. Gillian Young for her wonderful talk in the meet-up. we would also express our special gratitude to Dr. Tracy Simmons for her coming and participation. Hopeful we will release the newsletter by next Monday. For the next time our discussion would be focusing on a certain topic related to 'the future mode of communication'. Thanks again for all your wonderful participation today. We are looking forward to seeing you all again next month.
Best regards,
Jin Shang
27/04/2009
-----------------------------------
Creative Cuppa 6th Coffee Meetup
(Event completed & newsletter coming out soon ... )
Theme: Digital Avatar / Virtual Reality
Time: 12:00pm - 13:00pm (Monday, 27st April 2009)
Venue: 324 KEB (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester
Guest Speaker: Dr. Gillian Youngs
Event Coordinator: Jin Shang
Event description: by Jin Shang
Along with the improving Interactivity of internet technology and increasing popularity of 3D applications such as computer games, more and more people are connected to a different 'life', by projecting themselves onto the Internet and creating their own virtual identities on the web; and this is what usually referred to as the making of 'digital avatar'. Some people predict that, with technology improvement, we human beings will be living in a virtual world in the near future, in which people, and animals, are mostly represented by animated avatars and do everything from social activities to shopping; and this may lead to another social revolution, in which avatars' society would dominate the world. Some other people, however, doubt the changes, and insist that even though people could create their lives and even their world on the web, they are still who they are in the real life, and will never be replaced by their avatars. This time, Dr. Gillian Youngs will share with us her initial experience in the virtual environment, and attempt to unveil a truth of her own thoughts about the 'virtual reality'. Come along and share your ideas with us. Everyone is welcome. Beverage & snacks are served for free. You can pop in and drop out anytime. The most important thing is that you feel fun, relax, and really enjoying being with everyone of us.
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62980387435
Creative Cuppa
22/04/2009
Dear Everyone,
Many thanks for your coming today; we greatly appreciate Dr. Gillian Young for her wonderful talk in the meet-up. we would also express our special gratitude to Dr. Tracy Simmons for her coming and participation. Hopeful we will release the newsletter by next Monday. For the next time our discussion would be focusing on a certain topic related to 'the future mode of communication'. Thanks again for all your wonderful participation today. We are looking forward to seeing you all again next month.
Best regards,
Jin Shang
27/04/2009
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Creative Cuppa 6th Coffee Meetup
(Event completed & newsletter coming out soon ... )
Theme: Digital Avatar / Virtual Reality
Time: 12:00pm - 13:00pm (Monday, 27st April 2009)
Venue: 324 KEB (Ken Edwards Building), City Campus, University of Leicester
Guest Speaker: Dr. Gillian Youngs
Event Coordinator: Jin Shang
Event description: by Jin Shang
Along with the improving Interactivity of internet technology and increasing popularity of 3D applications such as computer games, more and more people are connected to a different 'life', by projecting themselves onto the Internet and creating their own virtual identities on the web; and this is what usually referred to as the making of 'digital avatar'. Some people predict that, with technology improvement, we human beings will be living in a virtual world in the near future, in which people, and animals, are mostly represented by animated avatars and do everything from social activities to shopping; and this may lead to another social revolution, in which avatars' society would dominate the world. Some other people, however, doubt the changes, and insist that even though people could create their lives and even their world on the web, they are still who they are in the real life, and will never be replaced by their avatars. This time, Dr. Gillian Youngs will share with us her initial experience in the virtual environment, and attempt to unveil a truth of her own thoughts about the 'virtual reality'. Come along and share your ideas with us. Everyone is welcome. Beverage & snacks are served for free. You can pop in and drop out anytime. The most important thing is that you feel fun, relax, and really enjoying being with everyone of us.
http://creativecuppa.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62980387435
Creative Cuppa
22/04/2009
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