11/18 Final Meeting of the Year!

Dear New Media Working Group,

Please join us for the New Media Working Group’s last meeting of the year!  The meeting will be held on Tuesday, 11/18 at 2pm in the BCNM Commons (340 Moffitt).  The topic is “The Computer and its Metaphors,” and we will be reading short excerpts of recent books on digital media, software and the interface by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (“Programed Visions: Software and Memory”) and Alexander Galloway (“The Interface Effect”).  What does it mean for a computer to be “on” a world, rather than “of” a world, as Galloway puts it?  What does it mean for a computer to be a “metaphor of a metaphor,” as Chun describes it?  The Galloway reading can be found on the NMWG Townsend Page  and the Chun reading is available through the library as an e-book (we’ll be reading the first 15 pages).

We will also brainstorm next semester’s agenda: discussion topics, visiting speakers, and a trip to an awesome new media-related place in the Bay Area.  Come for the conversation, stay for the snacks!

Next Meeting Tomorrow!

We’re excited to have Chris Goetz, PhD Candidate in Berkeley’s Film & Media department, present his current work, “Nintendo’s Fruit Snack Aesthetic,” tomorrow 11/4 at 2pm in the BCNM Commons (340 Moffitt)!

A draft of Chris’ article can be found on our Townsend Site, but Chris will be giving a brief presentation on his work so feel free to come and discuss even if you haven’t read the article.

We hope to see you there!

QGCon is Nearly Upon Us

Queerness and Gaming Conference

The Queerness and Gaming Conference, run by BCNM’s own Bonnie Ruberg and Chris Goetz, will be taking place on the Berkeley campus in South Hall this weekend.  They have an awesome lineup of speakers, panels and activities, a schedule of which can be found on their website.  Check it out!

Thank You Coye and Gail!

The New Media Working Group wants to extend a huge thank you to Coye Cheshire and Gail de Kosnik!  Both discussions were incredibly helpful and we definitely appreciate them visiting the group.  For anyone who was unable to make the talks but is interested in hearing what Coye and Gail had to say, the slides will be posted on our Townsend site.

Two Special Events for the NMWG This Week!

We are excited to have Coye Cheshire from the Berkeley School of Information and the Berkeley Center for New Media visiting the working group to discuss giving presentations to multi-disciplinary audiences, and having productive conversations in multi- and interdisciplinary settings.  This meeting will be Tuesday, 10/21 at 2pm in 340 Moffitt (BCNM Commons).

We are equally exited to have Gail de Kosknik from the Theater, Dance and Performance Studies program as well as the Berkeley Center for New Media join us on Thursday, 10/23 at 4pm in 340 Moffitt (BCNM Commons)!  Gail is going to be giving a talk on professionalizing as a new media scholar.  She will be covering issues ranging from going on the job market, publishing in top journals, and navigating the pre-tenure period.

Both events promise to be helpful and informative for graduate students from across campus.  We hope to see everyone there!

Next Meeting 10/7 in the BCNM Commons!

On Tuesday, October 7 at 2pm in the BCNM Commons (340 Moffitt), we will be discussing Cyborgs and the Post-Human, led by the intrepid KC Forcier.

We will discuss the increasing interrelationship between human beings and their digital objects.  What challenges does the cyborg pose to humanism?  What happens to the body as we increasingly become ‘post-human’?  How does the cyborg destabilize existing media?  And what is the role of the academic (especially in the Humanities) in understanding technologically mediated human beings?

As always, readings for the week can be found at our Townsend Site, and I will be sending them out to the NMWG mailing list as well.  We’re looking forward to a great discussion and we hope to see everyone there!

NMWG Meeting tomorrow!

Our discussion topic is: what is “new media”?  We will examine media from the perspective of information theory, cybernetics and symbolic processing before moving on to new media and its role in some nascent fields in the academy, like digital humanities and art practice.

 

Readings can be found at the Townsend page here: http://townsendgroups.berkeley.edu/document/fall-2014-week-1-what-new-media

Queerness and Gaming Conference

The NMWG is co-sponsoring an awesome event, run by awesome people: please check out The Queerness and Games Conference this October 25th and 26th at UC Berkeley, run by BCNM’s own Bonnie Ruberg and Chris Goetz. Check them out at qgcon.com!

Now in its second year, QGCon is a free, weekend-long, interdisciplinary event. The goal of QGCon is to create an open and inclusive environment for discussing the intersection of video games and LGBTQ issues, however you define them. QGCon brings together academics and game developers to foster dialogues that break traditional disciplinary boundaries. The QGCon organizers believe in the importance of creativity and play as tools for intellectual and personal exploration.

The theme for this year’s QGcon is Difference at Play. Some questions inspired by the theme might include: What does it mean to play differently? What does it mean to play at difference itself? In what way can “difference” speaks to questions of race, gender, and sexuality for games and those who play them?

To learn more about QGCon, see our list of last year’s amazing speakers — and consider watching some of the wonderful talks that brought together an inspiring collection of ideas and an inspiring community.

NMWG Meeting 9/23

Thank you to everyone who attended our first meeting! It looks like we are going to have some interesting discussion topics and some great invited speakers this year.

Speaking of which, our first official discussion topic will center on a basic–but deceptively difficult– question: what is new media?  Readings for this meeting will look at this question from two perspectives.  First, we will briefly look at a formative era in the history of computing, beginning around the second World War.  Then, we will look at a contemporary debate in the academy over the meaning, import, utility and value of “digital humanities.”

readings can be found on our Townsend page: http://townsendgroups.berkeley.edu/document/fall-2014-week-1-what-new-media

As always, all are welcome and we hope to see you there!