Week 5: Archives- more than a boring bunch of files?

Archive: https://www.stillwhite.com.au/blog/19-archive-old-messages

Is this the first thing that pops into your head when you think of an archive?

Generally we think that an archive is merely a boring bunch of 'something' stored away for reasons most of us are unsure of. We are not interested in archives but "[they] still have a keen interest in us" (Parrika, 2013).

Little do we realise that we are in the 'Age of the Archive'; we're living in the greatest archiving time that ever was, and we ourselves are archivists. The internet is a place of activism, anarchy and archiving as the new Web 2.0 has given society the chance to be producers of content. 

We've all had it said to us, "once it's on the internet it's there forever" well in the words of Matthew Ogle, "the real-time web..captures something we might not have created otherwise: a permanent record of the event." (http://mattogle.com/archivefever/) We can't be all about fear on the web. It is a tool and it's useful. The internet, holding everything within time, has created the biggest archive available to man- though Ogle points out that we can hardly harness it- and the internet holds many more archives that have hardly began to exercise all their potential uses e.g. Twitter, Facebook.

So if it's not clear yet an archive is basically organised data that can be put to use to understand the world a little better (Murphie, 2014). The way of understanding the world, and applying theory is different for each archive. For example, lets compare:

 http://www.myschool.edu.au/ and http://www.apartheidarchive.org/site/.

The My School website is an archive of statistics on all the schools in Australia. The website describes its purpose as,

 "enabl[ing] you to search detailed profiles of Australian schools simply by entering a school’s name, suburb or postcode. On this site, you can quickly find statistical information about schools of interest to you and then compare their resources and performance with similar schools across the country."

While the 'Apartheid Archive Project' describes its purpose as,

 "an international research initiative that aims to examine the nature of the experiences of racism of (particularly 'ordinary') South Africans under the old apartheid order and their continuing effects on individual and group functioning in contemporary South Africa. Specifically, we believe that it is important for South African society to review, so as to acknowledge and deal with its past, in order to better manage its present and future."

Derrida makes this distinction of material that is either outside (outside/technical/non-living) or inside (memory, inside me, my experience/living) (Murphie, 2014). We seem to see a clear distinction here in the projects- the first being 'outside' and the second being 'inside'. However what does this distinction mean? It questions the truth that the archive attempts to present.

Does the My School website portray the archival information needed to find the 'right school'? Does it portray more truth than the Apartheid Archive portrays the reality of current state of racism in South Africa just because its data is more 'outside'?

My opinion? All I can say is that we can't deny that there is any truth in that which is a subjective account. Just because it is SUBJECT to the interpretation and experience of a person it does not mean it does not hold ANY truth within it. 

How can we be sure we have the whole truth?- like the Derrida says "there is no society without
faith, without trust in the other" (Walsh, 2010) http://crc.sa.utoronto.ca/files/2010/01/derrida-and-the-messiah.pdf

A case of the chicken and the egg: Actor-Network Theory

The development of highly integrated technologies such as the smart-phone; computer, apps, internet capabilities, social media device, phone, etc, have raised questions as to what kind of relationship there is between humans and technology which produce such features.






Are the humans the ones that drive changed in technology so that they meet the needs of human interactions or do the capabilities of technology drive social patterns and behaviours by the new ways they allow people to communicate and interact.






Michel Callon and Bruno Latour believe that both the social determinists and technological determinists are fighting the wrong battle (delukie, 2009) . Neither the egg nor the chicken came first or drive the movement of social-technological interactions but both as part of an 'actor-network'.


In David Banks' article 'A Brief Summary of Actor Network Theory' he says, "even if ICTs mark a fundamental shift in our relationship to technology, it is only another wave in a constantly evolving relationship to our own understanding of technological progress." He goes on to give the example that " Anthrax spores, Portuguese navigators, car batteries, Thomas Edison, the Renault Car Company, and scallops are all given equal treatment as nodal points within an actor-network"(Banks, 2011).


Banks does raise the question of how our relationship with technology is evolving and what is the current state of this relationship- are humans and technology on an equal footing in the ability to change this relationship?

The reality is that humans obviously dominate the relationship. If we deconstruct any technology it is obviously composed of materials that are essential to the functioning of the object. For example the simple fax machine. Materially it is made up of wires, metal and plastic pieces, a plastic shell, screws, and not part of the fax but essential to its functioning are a phone network, toner, electricity and paper. Beyond this there are many more relational characteristics but at its most basic level the existence of the fax machine is based on the communication between humans. Most necessary to the fax machine is writing, words, language and all this coming from human thought.


It is true that objects have aspects of their characteristics that are relational to human beings. A fax machine or a chair exist apart from the human being. They have characteristics in and of themselves but one of their essential characteristics are those that relate to the human- though this is not the only characteristic- because things exist within reality, not purely relative to relations. ....AND why is the fax machine outdated? because we humans wanted a more integrated way or a faster, better way of communicating and new technologies are thus made for us!

Week 3 Techniques and Machines

Perhaps I underestimate the number of people that understand how technology has changed the way we communicate. I look back only a couple of years and realise how much I've learnt about the media in this degree. 

Take a simple look at the restrictions placed on authors of written, physically distributed works: 
http://mitpress.mit.edu/services/authors

Traditional Printing Press

Or even take a read of 'The Media and Democracy' by John Keane where he explores the history behind freedom of press. Back in the 18th century when the government undeniably controlled the press, freedom of speech was something that needed to be fought for. There were great restrictions on the availability of the printing press to the average man and even then to criticise the government was to present oneself with the possibility of being accused of treason (Keane, 1991).

The advancement of communication technologies; phone, mobile, computer, internet, etc. and the platforms that these technologies use to communicate has meant that the barriers or limitations placed on traditional publishing no longer exist within these mediums. 

Twitter, Facebook, even Blogger give anyone with internet access and a computer of any kind the possibility of publishing of exercising their freedom of speech. 

However the role of the publisher and the way in which one publishes; the techniques and expectations have changed. A majority of online publishing (including everything published on social network sites) lacks the quality of traditional publications such as newsprint, novels and textbooks. Despite this people are still expecting the same frequency of publication from traditional media. How do news companies keep up? Convergence

BBC News App on Ipad- example of media convergence

'Media Convergence' is straight forward- that media platforms converge. The Daily Telegraph is available in paper, on the internet, on your ipod or iphone, there is an application for that newspaper. It has integrated the technologies to keep up with competition but what results is perhaps poor quality from the demand for frequency.

Read more about media convergence: http://mconvergence.wordpress.com/about/

ARTS2090 - Publics and Publishing WEEK 1

Dear Audience/Public/Whatever,

in case you've been reading this blog before, which you probably haven't, you might realise that I've changed the name from 'On The Lorne' to 'Two Pubs on the Lorne'.

You might ask 'why?' and I would tell you that I started this blog last semester just because I wanted to and then I forgot about it but now a blog is a course requirement of my subject ARTS2090- Publics and Publishing at UNSW. The new name refers to the name of the course 'PUBlics and PUBlishing', and 'On The Lorne' refers to where I live.

Here I'm going to discuss the concepts that come up in my readings each week; starting today with 'History of Tools and Techniques'.

The history of tools and techniques in relation to revolution and change in society is a concept that is understood by most people in today's society- especially those in developed countries as they are surrounded by new media and technologies.

However the Elizabeth Eisensetein's book 'The Printing Press as an Agent of Change Vol. 1' looks at the history of the tool and techniques involved in publishing from the outset of the widespread use of the printing press in the 15th century.

The 'oh-so' informed yet ignorant Gen Y, myself included, are consumed by adapting quickly to the technological, diverse and divergent forms of media that we often fail to see that the changes happening today are only a part in the giant snowball that has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years since man first form of communication.

What we see is that communities and interaction has changed in that we are not as easily part of a physical community. We don't have a strong sense of belonging to a town or city in the way that it was manifested in previous centuries, even just pre1970.

Eisensetein suggests that this wasn't just a result of recently emerging technologies such as the internet or the smart phone which has revolutionised the way people interact but in fact even the printing press changed the way humans interact. She says, "As communion with the Sunday paper has replaced church-going, there is a tendency to forget that sermons had at one time been coupled with news about local and foreign affairs..."

She explains that it came down to that most villagers were part of 'an exclusively hearing public', however the widespread distribution of books and the increase of literacy due to their accessibility changed the public into a reading one thus changing the dynamics of interaction.

(secularism)
(distribution of new ideas)