Masters of Media

Cheaper Books and Violation of Copyright?The value added tax (VAT) for a Dutch digital book consists 19% instead of the 6% for a printed one. This results in only a minimal difference between both prices, where most people would expect the digital tangible version cheaper. Also newspapers can be read on most of the e-readers, which makes future classic books and newspapers unnecessary. Digital documents are easier to buy (online), transport and carry on different media devices (compatibility). Another benefit is the consequenses for the environment, especially the cutting of trees and the emission of carbon dioxide. Digital book-reading also avoids information storage by the use of big bookshelves in the future, ienvironmentn fact the digital bookfiles are easy downloadable and they can be deleted very fast. This results in a new paradigm of reading books if the Netherlands will adapt to this new technology like they did to for example: MP3.

O’Reilly published this year a new updated edition of the book Hackers: Heroes of the Digital Revolution from Stevy Levin. The book tells the history of a subculture that arose in the late fifties. The book starts in Building 26 with a boy wandering down the corridors in the middle of the night. The boy is Peter Samson, who…

Imagine the scene, it's Christmas, little Billy rushes downstairs and throws himself on the presents under the tree. He reaches out and snatches up what he thinks is the new Larry Botter book and rips off the paper in a frenzy … but what's this! It's a *bleep* eReader, not Larry Botter and the Snark of Wisdom! All hell breaks loose, he wanted the limited edition by May. K. Howling, now how's that supposed to happen with an eReader!

Mcluhan believed the medium to be the message. When we are trying to understand the effects of the medium, we ought to analyze the medium. And when the medium changes, the message is bound to transform.

Who’s utopian vision is it to carry all your files, music, films, images and “books” on an exterior device? More and more we’ve incorporated…

“At breakfast Sal reads the news. She still prefers the paper form, as do most of the people. She spots an interesting quote from a columnist in the business section. She wipes her pen over the news paper´s name, date, section and page number and then circles the quote. The pen sends a message to the paper, which transmits the

…

“Books are among the most beautifully engineered, and human-engineered, components in existence, and they will continue to be functionally important within the context of man-computer symbiosis.”The above quote is from Joseph Licklider stated in his famous article ‘Man-Computer Symbiosis’ written in 1960. However, seeing how increasingly more books are getting digitized and the number of digitally published books is still growing, it is save to say that his romantic paper vision did not come true. Yet, he did understand the importance of the computer

The heavy task of lugging stacks of books might be seeing the end of its era, for with the expanding digitalisation of textual content, EBook readers and Edocuments ( PDF files, Word Doc, podcasts etc.) are introducing a more flexible and subtle way of enjoying your reading. These different forms of digitalisation all fall under the…

Three weeks ago I blogged about Justus Bruns and the concept behind Times Square to Art Square (TS2AS). Last night was the first offline event, held in MuzyQ, Amsterdam, where Justus explained the story behind his idea, “to turn…

The Digital Divide
The common gap in internet accessibility is mainly based on socioeconomic status, determined by skills and resources.  The digital divide has often emerged along the familiar fault lines of social inequality: class, ethnicity, gender, age, and geographic location. Therefore, people from all socioeconomic backgrounds have to be taught or familiarize the skills needed to effectuate the potential…

Will fairy tales live happily ever after in the digital publishing era?

Once upon a time, electronic signatures didn’t designate us as individuals, passwords didn’t determine if we would be denied or not the access in data and emoticons didn’t constitute “the artificial warrant and guarantee of our human presence” (David Gunkel, Debra Hawhee – Virtual…

After reading an article on the Dutch Cowgirl site, about 3D printing, I wonder what the potential of this device is in the future.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a 3D printer that will be able to print everything you need? You’ll have a factory of our own and make customized products yourself. The only thing you…

In the early nineteen-eighties, computers became widely adopted by the Dutch ministries. Then, for a decade or so, the computer mainly acted as a replacement of the typewriter. The computer was primarily used for word processing and doing calculations. However, when the promise arose that the Internet would become widely used, the ministries were the first to be connected to…

Originally published on the Video Vortex #6 conference blog.Ashiq Khondker and Eugene Kotlyarenko's presentation was the most entertaining and confusing of the first day of Video Vortex #6. To begin with, their collaboration took place exclusively on the internet, after Ashiq contacted the artist to interview him about a series of videos he shot entirely with screen capture software and published online as a sort of mini-series entitled 'Instructional Video #4: Preparation for Mission'.

[originally published on Video Vortex #6 website. The original text can be found here]

(Part 2 of 2 – In conversation with Natalie Bookchin)

Mass Ornament

Click here to view the embedded video.

G: I see you’ve really chosen the audio track and it is leading you through…

[originally published on Video Vortex #6 website. The original text can be found here]

Natalie Bookchin with Geert Lovink. Photo: Anne Helmond

Artist Natalie Bookchin took time to talk to Geert Lovink about online video and her artistic practice at the Video Vortex #6…

Lets talk about the supposedly free and open Web again, not ‘again’ in the sense that it has been discussed too much or too abundantly but in the sense that maybe new and other frameworks have to be introduced or at least need to be considered. While I am not trying to speak on anybody’s behalf, certainly when following Latour’…

Computer viruses have posed a threat to the Windows operating system and its users since its earliest versions. The security update, often integrated in the infamous service packs, is the never-ending temporal solution for those that want to minimize the risk of contagion. However, as the title of a recent article on Nu.nl reads, “1.2 Million Dutch make…

Imogen Heap, two-time grammy award winner and known for her innovative online practices to connect with her fans, has just kicked off her fourth studio album with sounds from her fans, called 'seeds'.

Sam Gregory, program director at WITNESS presented his thoughts on using online video as a political tool at Video Vortex #6 in Amsterdam yesterday.

(A blogpost on Florian Cramer’ presentation, originally published @ Video Vortex #6 website. The original text can be found here )

Florian Cramer (media theorist, director of the Piet Zwart Institute) participated in the first day of Video Vortex to provide the audience with an insightful overview of the  Bokeh Porn concept. In his presentation he

…