Thursday, December 3, 2009

My Schizophrenic Relationship With New Media

So, yeah, you know how Kylie said something about someone getting angry at the Bauerlein reading while running on the treadmill. Well, I was actually on an elliptical, but that was me. But I wasn't entirely angry just because of his impossibly flawed arguments. I was angry because some (very few, but some) of them made sense. And I was angry, because a ton of the things he was lamenting about young people nowadays were really true about me, although I never would have the audacity or stupidity to blame them on new media.

So, while I found Ito et al. to espouse everything I want to believe about new media, and all of the great, informal learning that goes on there, I found Bauerlein to point out all of things I want to ignore.

Which brings me to studio time last week. You know how a few blogs ago I whined about how noisy studio time was, how I couldn't get any "real" work done, how I hate constructionism and blah blah blah. Well, guess what. I've been born again. Because this past week, I had a plan to work that INVOLVED OTHER PEOPLE. I interviewed you guys. I got David to help me with Movie Maker, and Steve helped me when I couldn't find my video files because I'm, well, me. I was so durn productive, I got all but like 30 minutes of work done on my final studio project.

Which brings me to my last studio project. Finally, I found something that was easy, that was fun, that felt meaningful. Scratch was cool, but so demanding on my nonexistent skills. And computational textiles, well, that involved SEWING . . enough said. So to be able to use a tool that took little brain power, like a flip camera, and another tool that took just slightly more brain power, windows movie maker . . . it felt like vacation . . . it felt like oreos and milk . . . it felt like-- how everyone else has been feeling studio time all semester.

So, I hate to end on such an embarrassingly positive note, but I've got to. Because sometimes I love new media, and sometimes I hate it. And most of the time I recognize the tremedous help new media can be in accomplishing some pretty cool things. And I ALWAYS admire people that do these pretty cool things.

As for my little movie, I don't think I'd quite rank it as a pretty cool thing, but it's definitely closer to a pretty cool thing than my daughter's Halloween shirt with half a battery sewn in is. . .

And, no, I'm not going to post it. Premier showing this coming Tuesday, the 8th.

Don't miss it.