J. Gynoid

Librarian!
I had been considering making one or two of this kind of generator in the LMK, just for fun. Like, English major! Or, Apostrophe lover! (more…)

This is easily the best joke ever.

Edit: history of the joke

Right. So another post strictly related to class-related things would be good. (And not a post that says “Liz Weiss is a stalker!” I mean — wait, I kind of just did make one of those. Sorry.)

I was thinking today at lunch about the difference (if any) between reactions to film (specifically, non-interactive film that progresses in a generally linear way) and video games (specifically, first-person shooter was on my mind, but I guess any game which has graphics in which you control the order in which you do things to any extent at all).

Yes, people have strong reactions to video games. Do they have emotional reactions to video games, though? I will admit that I have probably been conditioned to think at least that an emotional response to a film has to be greater, but I am trying to put that aside and be at least a little bit scientific about this.

Well. Let’s start by seeing if the reactions to film and video games that have been “entered into the record” in class have anything in common at all. So, you watch a scary movie late at night. It scares you badly enough that you have to leave a nightlight on. How do you feel? Your palms are sweaty, you feel jittery, perhaps it’s even bad enough that your head feels a little swimmy. Your autonomic nervous system is having a fight-or-flight response. Consequently, there are chemical changes in your brain as well, to prepare you for danger. You label these physical and chemical body reactions “fear.” You have a physiological response to the movie.

The next day you turn on a really creepy, horror-style video game with zombies coming out of walls and hacking you with things. You have a response to this, too. Your responsiveness is heightened, you feel a tingle of adrenaline, and even after you turn off the game, you realize you are checking walls for zombies. This, too, is a physiological response.

It’s not necessarily quite the same in its origin, or at least we would say this, because you are still stuck in the alternate world. But the fact that you can’t come down from the experience of the scary movie — doesn’t that mean that you’re still stuck in that world, too? Stuck in your physiological response. We label our responses to video games and movies differently, and categorize them away from each other. But couldn’t that just be semantics?

Go on and comment; provide me with some evidence in either direction. I don’t think we have enough evidence for this, yet.

Part of me thinks I should categorize this thing, but I’ve never been a fan of labels. I’m wearing this shirt from a friend in Florida today. (I have posted a pdf of the pattern instead of a picture of my chest. I am sure you are all thankful.)

Well, actually, I like folksonomy and later, when I become a librarian, I will put labels on everything (literally and figuratively). Once I thought it might be smart in a library situation to have both an official classification (such as Dewey or LOC) and an additional option for users to put tags on things. That way, people who don’t have a “library vocabulary” can search by what other users called the thing, but users who are more proficient with traditional library classification have a more accurate tool.

(But on my own stuff? No way! No labels.)

Infospeak.org, a radio program (podcast, actually) produced by students at the University of Washington’s Information School, would have us think it performs the same functions as a lyceum.

So, what would Plato think about that? Can’t ask these speakers any questions….

For those of you who were interested in what game I’m playing when I kill my boyfriend’s char, it’s Legend of the Green Dragon. This is one server of many that hosts it. If you Google the term, you’ll find hundreds.

I also enjoy playing Kingdom of Loathing (a game which basically makes fun of games like the above) and Zork.

The game Solitary amuses me but I don’t play anymore. You can really only play once…. :) Not pr0n (despite its weird name, it is okay for public consumption) is a game that could never be played anywhere but on the Internet, and is also really only good for one play, as it’s a puzzle.

Professor Havholm’s prompt: [P]lease comment on this sentence in Nussbaum’s article:

The aesthetic activity, which takes place in a safe and protected “potential space” where our own safety is not immediately threatened, harnesses the pleasure of exploring to the neediness and insufficiency that is its object, thus making our limitations pleasing, and at least somewhat less threatening, to ourselves.

Is the online world a safe space for art? (And because of the Digital Divide, who out there can make art on the Web, anyway?)

Let’s start with this: where can you find me? I have accounts on del.icio.us, last.fm, and facebook.com (among others), but none on Flickr, MySpace, or Friendster. That narrows it down significantly, right? If you’re a Wooster student, you can find me on Facebook, and you can see my AIM name, but it doesn’t matter because I have my AIM set so you can only see me if you are on my buddy list. Here’s another hint: if you find me in facebook, that picture is also used on my page in last.fm. And if you find me on last.fm, I use the same username on del.icio.us. Still stumped? (Comment if you aren’t.)
You can actually find more information about me from Wooster’s paper directory. My facebook entry doesn’t list my phone extension. Wooster, however, has already blown my cover. In fact, asking me to name this blog with my username messes things up a bit for me too. I don’t even give out my cell phone number to most friends. I was an only child and I value my privacy. But I wasn’t always so well-hidden on the Internet as this.
All right, confession time: I also have an account on pathetic.org, an amateur poetry site. Most of the poetry is horrid stuff (yes, sure, pathetic even) and I don’t post there anymore. You can probably find me, though.

Do you know why I stopped posting poems? Art is less safe when you share, especially to large groups. Granted, if we go by Nussbaum’s definition, if it isn’t shared, it isn’t art. But when we share our creations, we invite others to have an emotional response — including one of judgment or dislike. And to me, personally, that doesn’t make my limitations — or those of my creations — very pleasing to me at all.

One of the problems with the Web is that you can’t burn the evidence. Once you’re up on a site, and Google caches your stuff, you’re pretty well cooked. Even if you request a site to take down your information, the evidence may reside in search engine caches, or perhaps the Wayback Machine.
What about the person experiencing the art that has been made? Is that always safe? Well, that stands to judgment too. If you experience a work of art that you know breaks the laws of copyright, for example, it would be harder to lose yourself in the emotional experience (or maybe I’m just speaking for me). And there will always be certain works of art where, if you tell a co-worker or a grad school admissions counselor that you enjoy them, may subject you to judgment. Hopefully, in that moment when you’re reading Lady Chatterly’s Lover (okay, that one’s actually pretty tame by today’s standards, isn’t it?), the knowledge that society will not necessarily approve of your enjoyment won’t mar the experience.

Both experiencing and creating art, then, are related to your rights. When you create art, free speech should hopefully be in play. When you experience art, it is also important that you feel free to relinquish yourself to whatever emotion you’re feeling. Without these safeties, art’s reach will be shortened.

I think it’s really funny that the software automatically adds an entry for you titled “Hello world.” I wonder how many other bloggers for Prof. Havholm’s Digital Aesthetics class know that it is customary to first learn how to make the screen print “Hello world” when one is learning a new programming language?

I am looking forward to using the linear modelling kit. I was not very good at programming in Java (though I think partially that was because I had no textbook; the publisher was over 2 months late). I do hope how to learn Perl someday — the “Swiss Army knife” of Web programming, or at least that’s what they considered it when I first heard of it. I will probably need to learn how to code in one language or another if I want to be a wired-NewGeek librarian someday, so that I can write databases.

As you can see, my blog posts tend to be very long-winded. Right.

This is Jacqui and that’s enough for now!