Using IT for Culture Work

Technology and culture define or form each other. Even a basic examination of changes in media technology (e.g. moveable type printing) show that it changes culture.  Likewise Information Technology (IT) demands awareness in order for one to work with culture. Our awareness of technology is often a passive state that can be attained with consumption and participation in commodification. However, there are obviously deeper levels for using IT for culture work. It is here we encounter the ‘tool paradigm’: where media, digital technology (software, hardware and techniques such as coding) become the means to achieving desired ends or results.

Anyone working in culture today, no matter what the topic area, should have an awareness of the uses and implications of digital media. The applications for this awareness can be

1. Analytical

2. Consumption

3. Production

Ignore terms like 'social media' or 'virtual' and just think about what it is a digital artifact says or does for you. I have written these sorts of analyses:

Facebook

Mobile Blogging

Twitter

Event Management

Analyzing digital media is not just about interpreting words and images, but it includes design, multimedia (audio, architecture, video), composition and perspectives. When analyzing digital media you must consider affordances.

Affordance (After Gibson): An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling.

Different definitions of the term have developed, as explained in the following sections. The original definition described all actions that are physically possible. This was later adapted to describe action possibilities of which an actor is aware. The term has further evolved for use in the context of HCI to indicate the easy discoverability of possible actions.

The term is used in a variety of fields: perceptual psychology, cognitive psychology, environmental psychology, industrial design, human–computer interaction (HCI), interaction design, instructional design, science, technology and society (STS) and artificial intelligence.

Affordances are not meaningful in themselves until the are provided with contexts. A context can be the action that is made possible by the object, the role the object has in daily life, who is allowed to use the object in particular situations or the effect use of the object has on other people.

Information Technology is often experienced via the use of objects. These can be websites, hardware, apps, tools and platforms. There are so many that it is impossible to even describe the range of them. You probably use several digital devices already today. You are looking at one right now; the results of the HTML based Blogger blogging platform. Just blogging is one set of contexts that make an object (this blog) meaningful beyond just the words expressed upon the screen. 

Following the lecture, over three 2-hour sessions (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), we will explore the uses of IT for culture work, create a presentation on an aspect of the use of IT and use a digital platform or tool in which to present it with.

PowerPoint

Take Another Look Around from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations. With 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million page views, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.

Kulturanalysprogrammet, termin 2, moment 3, VT 2013

Examinerande sökuppgift

Skapa en valfri fiktiv men realistisk bakgrund: föreställ dig att du jobbar åt ett företag, en organisation, en myndighet eller en förening, som sysslar med utredningar. Välj ut ett av exemplen nedan eller hitta på ett eget. Detta fiktiva uppdrag medför (i denna uppgift) att ni måste samla material och information från skilda källor. Tänk därför på vilket eller vilka perspektiv den fiktiva bakgrunden ger er!

Ni kan välja att arbeta i par eller individuellt. Kravet för att få godkänt är att ni har nyttjat, eller åtminstone undersökt möjligheten av, olika typer av källor och resurser. Informationssökningsprocessen skall redovisas muntligt och med hjälp av PP under 10 – 15 minuter och innehålla en beskrivning av hur källorna sökts fram, samtidigt som källornas relevans motiveras ur ett ämnes- och källkritiskt perspektiv.

Exempel på fiktiv bakgrund

•       Polisväsendet skall lägga fram en plan mot sexuella trakasserier

•       Två av UmeåRegionens största företag genomför en fusion/företagssammanslagning

•       Umeå universitetssjukhus planerar en arbetsmiljöutredning

•       Norsjö kommun har planer på att bygga en flygplats

•       Socialdepartementet ska ta fram ett program för hur man bäst undviker kulturkrockar mellan svensk vård och invandrare

•       AFF, Alliansen För Funktionshindrade, ska arbeta fram en informationsskrift om bemötande av funktionshindrade

•       Skolverket ska ta fram en ny plan som har till syfte att minska mobbing

•       Ett unikt hällristningsområde har upptäckts i Åsele. Nu vill en del marknadsföra fyndet medan en del vill skydda det

•       Umeå och Skellefteå ska försöka samverka bättre när det gäller olika kulturprojekt

•       Västerbottens läns landsting och Västra Finlands län vill öka samarbetet över bottniska viken

  

Exempel på vad Du behöver leta fram

•       Fakta om ”uppdragsgivarens” historia

•       Fakta om andra berörda företag och organisationer

•       Tidigare parallella exempel

•       Teorier inom passande disciplin (-er)

•       Forskningsresultat inom olika vetenskapliga discipliner

•       Utredningar

•       Folkopinionen – statistik, dagstidningar, bloggar

•       Politik, vad tycker de politiska partierna?

•       Lagstiftning

•       Internationella jämförelser

•       Mer? Kom ihåg att det till stor del är valet av uppdrag som påverkar vilket material du kommer att behöva

The Tools

Gathering Tools
http://www.downthemall.net/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/fast-video-download-with-searc/
http://www.doom9.org/
http://www.download-finished.com/ 

Sources
This is a short list of sites on the Internet where you can find Creative Commons and other open copyleft materials that can be remixed: 

Sound

http://www.opsound.org/
http://soundcloud.com/
http://www.archive.org/details/audio
http://www.ubu.com/sound/
http://freemusicarchive.org/
http://sounds.bl.uk/
http://library.open.ac.uk/find/images/ 
 http://www.freesound.org/  

Film
http://www.archive.org/details/movies
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.ubu.com/film
http://library.open.ac.uk/find/images/
http://video.google.com/
http://www.ourmedia.org/
http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger 

Print
http://www.ubu.com/papers/
http://www.archive.org/details/texts
http://www.scribd.com/ 

3D Models
http://www.turbosquid.com/
http://secondlife.com/ 

Samples
http://free-loops.com/
http://www.freesound.org/
http://bit.ly/fZsZOZ
http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/2007/199.shtml
http://bit.ly/ea60e2 

Images
http://www.picsearch.com/
http://www.cvma.ac.uk/index.html
http://images.google.com/hosted/life
http://www.flickr.com/
http://www.morguefile.com/
http://www.everystockphoto.com/

These are some of the tools you can use for remixing and manipulating sound. 

Remixing Sound
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://ubuntustudio.org/
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/cubase6_start.html
http://www.avid.com/us/products/family/pro-tools
http://www.adobe.com/se/products/soundbooth/?sdid=GPQKN&
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/
http://ardour.org/ 

Sound Machines
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/
http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/terminatorx 

Image Manipulation
http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.lunapic.com/editor/
http://www.picnik.com/

Word and Text manipulation work with few tools. Once you have written text you can record it, animate it or publish it.
Word and Text
http://www.openoffice.org/