Maria+Sosa

Maria Sosa



**Major:** Economics **Minor:** Business **Experience with computers/softwar**: Basic **Experience with art**: Basic experience with ceramics and photography. **Something interesting about me**: I'm an international student from Venezuela. I also lived in Europe and New York.


 * 5 Principles of New Media**


 * Numerical Representation**


 * Modularity**


 * Automation**




 * Variability**


 * Transcoding**




 * Practice Exercises**
 * Part 1 - Selecting and Inverting**




 * Part 2 - Layers**


 * Part 3 - Refining Edges**


 * __Presence Absence - First Project__**





__**Second Project - Masking**__


 * Aruba Silhouette Sun Reflection**

Beach over Beach

Venezuelan Repression Wealth Gap in Brazil Nature Shaped as New York City


 * Response to “After Effects or the Velvet Revolution” by Lev Manovich**

The article “After Effects or the Velvet Revolution” by Lev Manovich gave me a new perspective to new media. Since I was born, I have seen hybrid media everywhere I go, so I found it surprising that “pure” moving media was all that existed at a time. I found it really interesting that a software that is now relatively accessible to anyone was expensive before. These types of software, such as After Effects, are at the core of social media now. According to Lev Monovich, hybrid media mixes the techniques and work methods of previous medias to create a new moving image that is different from earlier languages of moving images. I believe that the start of hybrid media was a turning point not only in the field of media and arts, but also in every field of work. Hybrid media is integrated in every communication field. We see this type of media everywhere we go. For this reason, I was surprised when Lev mentioned that new media was at first acknowledged in the field of cinema but was not analyzed outside of narrative films. I believe visual language happens on a much larger scale and it is important to acknowledge and analyze it. The transformation of the visual language resulted in an intricate, complex, rich method of communication based on the logic of remixability. This process of remixability creates new aesthetics and a new form of media capable of consolidating other forms of images without leading to a collage-like aesthetic. Before reading the article, I never thought about the complexity of each image in hybrid media. Manovich says in the article, “in this aesthetics, the whole project- music video, commercial, short film, or a large part of a feature film- displays a hyper-real look where the enhancement of live action material is not completely invisible but at the same time it does not call attention to itself the way special effects usually did” (12). I found this point particularly important since I believe that the success of remixability lies in its capability of creating a unified image without distracting the viewer with the mix of different medias. Software such as After Effect led to the creation of new visual images that are now everywhere and essential for communicating. I could not imagine a world without them. This article gave me awareness of the long and complicated process that occurred in the past in order to arrive to media remixability. I think the Velvet Revolution did make new media more accessible, but it does not mean that it is easier to manipulate or less challenging. In the contrary, I think the Velvet revolution gives room for challenge and bigger opportunities for communicating, creating, and exploring.

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New Media – Article Response


 * Do you think that all forms of augmentation bring along an augmentation of space or influence our experience of the immediate surroundings? **

Augmented reality occurs when something virtual augments something real. I think that all forms of augmentation influence our experience of the immediate surroundings, not only augmented spaces. However, our experience can be affected in different ways. Our experience of augmentation or immersion depends on how we understand the idea of addition. We may add information to an experience or we can create a completely new experience. As a result, we are always influenced by augmentation in any kind of form but we experience augmentation differently depending on the circumstances. The experience can be processed as a combination of separate different layers or these layers can add up to produce one phenomenological experience. Any medium that combines objects, humans, perceptions, or any activity in the known world with current technology to create a uniquely blended interactive experience will influence our experience of the surroundings. For example, Janet Cardiff combined physical space with layers of data with ‘audio talks’ that instructed the listener what to do in order to follow a trajectory. Even though, she doesn't use any sophisticated computer, networking, or projection technology her walk represent the incorporation of physical space and technology in order to create a new experience for the user. Although Cardiff’s walks only create new 3-D paths placed over an existing space, rather than complete spaces, the interaction of the audio and space changes the experience of the user. The mathematical theory of communication developed by Claude Shan and others in the 1940s supports my argument. According to their theory, communication is always accompanied by noise. Any information extracted from augmented space is always accompanied by noise recognizable to us. This information needs to be interpreted and it affects our experience of augmented reality. For this reason I believe that any added information that is directly related to the user’s immediate experiment will influence the circumstance to a certain extent. As a result, it will change or create a new dynamic experience. Augmentation gives us new terms with which to think about previous ideas. This concept of augmentation and its effects can be applied to any augmented activity, not only spaces. I see augmentation as an idea and cultural and aesthetic practice, rather than a technology. For this reason, its concept can be applied to any form of augmentation. In conclusion, the phenomenological perspective of a human subject can be influenced by the overlay of information with dynamic data. Yet the result of our impact will depend on the circumstances. We can either create a whole new different experience or change a previous experience.