POST 4: CLASSWORK. iRack Video on MADtv

Classwork on a MADtv video

The iRack

POST 3: INDIVIDUAL WORK ON 'THE IDEA OF PROGRESS' VIEWED THROUGH HIGH TECH PRODUCTS

Smart Cities

This document is a video (documentary or campaign maybe) about Barcelona becoming a Smart City. It was published in January 2014, 8 months ago so it is very a very recent project although it is already working. This video is about how big cities in the world (here, the example is Barcelona) use high technology to make the city a nicer place to live in and an easier access to it.

When you first watch the video, what catches the eye at first sight are all the new "connections" that are available in the city. We can see for example some kind of digital box and a ben which is there to show at how many percent it is filled. This, for example, is part of the enviromental progress of the city and also esthetic.

Next, the voice over says that in big cities, 40% of the trafic is caused by cars trying to find a parking place. The solution to this problem has been found and we can see it in the document: inground parkment sentors can comunicate with devices to inform the desperate driver where to find a free parking place, and how many parking places are left in a certain area. This is a big progress for cities because it means less cars moving in the cities. If you think about it twice, finding a parking place fast means using less your car, and if you multiply this by the number of cars that are used in the city, it makes a considerable change for the environment. Less cars, less polution.

Afterwords, they talk about "connecting" the city and its citizens. By installing free wifi in buses, metro, and creating these new "smart bus stops", it is more easy and less stressfull to use metro and buses, and it gives people a reason to use their car less and less. These connections, added to the apps on smartphones that already exist, give you the exact amount of time you need to wait for your bus or your metro, and helps you find the best itinerary to go from a place to another. Also, at the beginning of the video, we can see an app, on a smartphone, that can tell the weather. With wifi connection in almost all the city, citizens can know what is the weather at any time of the day, instead of waiting for the weather cast on T.V in the evening. This wifi connection also makes them feel like their are home because they have the same fast network then in their houses.

Barcelona is installing highly efficient street lights, which makes the city a safer, nicer and more ecological place. This new light technology is saving a great amount of energy, which is one of the most important upsides of these new Smart Cities.

This document shows us how we can use new technologies in the best way we can, not only for pleasure, but for social, econominc and environmental betterment. The Smart Cities give to the citizens an easier and nicer access to the city and a very modern lifestyle, but also works on preserving the planet from pollution and waste.

POST #2: VIDEOS (CLASS DEBATE): WHEN TECHNOLOGY IS TOO MUCH OR... MISSING

WHEN TECHNOLOGY IS TOO MUCH OR... MISSING

Description

This video is structured around two main narrative voices and a character illustrating what the voice-over says while a singer often merely repeats or comments on what's just been said (as in a Greek chorus).

The setting is a Christian home and church, so this particular context is very meaningful.

We can notice on various occasions that the main character is addicted to high-technology products, mostly smartphones.

He is shown as a family man unable to communicate with his wife, except through texting.

He is also shown as a church-goer incapable of attending worship without all his phones vibrating all the time, making him look like he's full of the holy spirit.

Finally, he is depicted as a computer geek whose life has become extremely complicated instead of having been simplified.

Interpretation

Basically, this video means that high technology has become a religion for many people, even Christians who are not supposed to be materialistic.

Then, in a Christian lifestyle, quite a few church-goers and believers tend to focus more on materialistic issues rather than spiritual ones.

We can add that technology reigns supreme for many people who revere it as a God enlightening his followers.

The question is, is this a real progress for humankind ?

The man in the video is building this allusion of an non-existent social life through all of his gadgets that he probably loves most than his wife or fake internet friends because he probably has no frieds in real life for spending so much time trying to connect with his virtual ones.
There is a quote that goes very well with the story of this man, which says "The best things in life aren't things."
Maybe he should turn he cellphone off and "reconnect" with the real world...

Description

Two people are stuck on an escalator in a place that seems literally empty/deserted. The man looks upset/annoyed. He might be an office worker walking to his job. The woman claims that she is already late, so for her, this is the last straw. At one point, she's about to cry and asks for a phone, then she screams for help. In short, they both look helpless, clueless, powerless and even hopeless.

Interpretation

 We can relate this situation to a fairly common one in real life : getting stuck in an elevator. The difference however, is  that in this situation, people have the right to panic/freak out/feel panicky whereas on an escalator, there is no reason whatsoever to be scared.

This video points out the increasing dependence of human beings on technology. If it goes missing, it is as if a crutch had been taken away from them, so these two people cannot even walk up the stairs, which would be the normal thing to do. We could think that technological progress makes humans lazy or at least less prone to take initiative and think by themselves, less inclined to make efforts.

This situation tells us more about this generation Y we are part of, where people start losing their humanity or their abilities to do simple things like walking, for example. They became so used to having every single task completed for them by machines that they completly forgot how to live like normal people. The absurdity of this situation is that it emphasizes very well this world of new technologies addicts we live in although neither the woman nor the man have a cellphone! 

POST #1: A CARTOON

The Fanatic Geek



The document we have here is a cartoon called The Fanatic Geek by Patrick Chapatte in 2008. It tackles the issue of technological progress slowing down the movie business.

What catches the eye at first sight is the Cannes logo we can see in the top left hand corner. The cartoon is made up of a drawing and a balloon. We can see a man, obviously a film director, who maybe looks a bit like Sean Penn with cow-boy boots and sunglasses, on the red carpet with a blond woman in a very fancy dress, signing an autograph to a fan of his. The fan is telling the director that he loves his movies and that he's pirated them all, meaning he didn't pay to watch them, doing illegal downloading by using the internet.

By drawing this cartoon, the author wants to show the world one of the downsides of the internet and technological progress.
He aims to criticize the "génération Y" as we call it in French, the generation of people born in the 90's who not only have easy access to all the new technology but grew up with them so can use them very easily. This generation doesn't go into stores to buy a CD or a movie on DVD to watch it at home on their TV. They just pirate them, which means download them for free and watch their movie on their computer. I think what the author is trying to say here is that this generation not only disrespects the art industry in general and slows it down by not buying anything, but it also cannot appreciate a good movie on a big screen with friends or family. The author is describing in only one cartoon a whole generation of loners who do not open themselves enough to the world.

I personally think it is very well thought and that the author found a good way to caricature this generation or the downsides of technological progress if you prefer because nowadays the internet and all this technological progress is seen like a blessing to our society while some sides of it are actually bad for it.

We can relate this document to the notion of progress because piracy is something we can do nowadays in the 21st century now that we have technological progress, which we didn't have in the 20th century. It shows how the progress of the movie industry for example is held down by technological progress, so this cartoon, in a way, represents 2 types of progress.