Today I recieved official notification that I have made it to the second round of interviews for the full time position here at the School of Print Media. On April 18th, I’ll be in an all day interview where I’ll present my research interests and academic development and then get poked and prodded by faculty and students alike. I’m really looking forward to it (please read that previous sentence without a hint of sarcasm — as I am really looking forward to it!).
Part of my goal for this blog is to begin to get more and more of my research work up here as an early review system. So while I still will be writing about my daily goings on (and including the occaisional photo or two), there will be a bit of a shift towards longer, more scholarly posts. My hope is to take advantage of the categories feature and present different views of the blog based on the content that you are interested in.
In the meantime, let me tell you that trying to import word documents into WordPress sucks. It took me more than an hour yesterday to get the post rendering correctly. That’s mainly due to Microsoft’s wonky specialized HTML tags. Bleh. Any suggestions on streamlining that process are greatly appreciated.
I believe in the power of print media. I also believe in its longevity. Despite some futurist’s assertions, I do not think we are nearing a print or paperless future.[1] That said, I do not know if I believe in the viability of the Printing Industry as it currently exists. American Printer and industry experts tell us that we are in a time of transition. The question is:
What does the future of printing look like? What will be the next instantiation of the Print industry be? Are we rapidly approaching a time of new industries that use print, but are not necessarily printers?
What will follow in the days, weeks, and months to come is a meditation on these questions. I do not want to present what I write as a definite or final view of the future. These writing are simply a dialog with myself, with the industry as I observe it, and with anyone else who chooses to contribute to these posts. (Click on the More below for the full article)
One thing that I???ve been thinking about recently is the space where digital distribution and publicly accessible sharing communities meet campus regulations in the age of the facebook and myspace. In particular I???m thinking about this in terms of party pictures.
During my time at RIT (back in the stone age of film) I was known to imbue the occasional adult beverage at printing social events. This was before RIT became a ???dry??? campus (though the ???wetness??? at the time didn???t really negate the fact that most of us were underage ??? sorry mom, it was bound to come out sooner or later). And there are definitely pictures of me doing so, along with other members of a certain professional group I was involved in. However, the circulation of those pictures (4×6 color glossies) was handled using quaint mano-to-mano technology. We???d pick them up from the developer and then pass them around at meetings, in labs, and, more often than not, at parties (while consuming more illicit adult beverages ??? oh the terrible cycle).
Fast forward a decade. Today???s students are more often than not equipped with digital cameras and sharing party pictures through various digital means. Among the possibilities for this circulation are social networking sites like afore mentioned facebook and myspace. Choosing these methods of distribution also means that those pictures are potentially available to a larger audience. And that audience may include not only peers but also administrators at the institutions that these students frequent.
So can students be busted for throwing a party after the fact if photographic evidence surfaces online? Existing precedent definitely suggest this is the case. There are currently investigations into LA nightclubs that allow underage stars to drink. And a star of the Harry Potter movies stirred up a bit of controversy when pictures of her apparently drinking a Corona surfaced online.
So while technology may facilitate rapid sharing of pictures from parties, social (or perhaps structural controls) enter into the equation.
Today went smoothly. I taught a lab where I tackled both a new peice of software and conditional logic (if … then … else). Tonight I’m hoping to get ahead on research and take a pass at finally writing my Bleecker response (which will be hosted both here and on Conduit — an interdisiplinary web publication at RIT).