MachineMachine /stream - tagged with pop-culture http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com At ROFLCon, watching memes go mainstream http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/7/3005044/roflcon-when-memes-go-mainstream What is ROFLCon? It's a biennial convention (this year was its third) held to celebrate and discuss internet memes and the celebrity that is often created alongside them. This year's invited guests included Chuck "Nope" Testa, Antoine Dodson, who became famous when he appeared on local news after a home invasion, Paul "Bear" Vasquez, AKA the "Double Rainbow" guy, and "Tron Guy" Jay Maynard. There are also internet celebs of a different ilk — people who have created loved and admired "works," like Chris Torres, creator of Nyan Cat, Matt Oswald, creator of the "Me Gusta" guy, or film editor… ]]> Tue, 08 May 2012 14:17:47 -0700 http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/7/3005044/roflcon-when-memes-go-mainstream The Web Browser As Aesthetic Framework: Why Digital Art Today Looks Different http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/digart-the-web-browser-as-aesthetic-framework-why-digital-art-today-looks-different Collective cultural memory is the foundation on which the significance of a creative practice stands. As summarized in Emerson Rosenthal’s post for #DIGART week, online collections and exhibition spaces have been around since the pre-web BBS years—artists have been online since day one, and this is not to even begin to mention the computer-based creative practices that date back to the mid-20th Century. Then why, in the face of this history, do web-based creative practices (and so too, markets) seem to suffer from a case of eternal amnesia or perpetual newness? In this post for #DIGART week, I propose that… ]]> Tue, 08 May 2012 14:14:43 -0700 http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/digart-the-web-browser-as-aesthetic-framework-why-digital-art-today-looks-different What is the Folk Web? http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/212132 I'm looking for 'Folk' Web Cultures. I am thinking of the recent take-down of Geocities, which seemed to refresh people's love of the naff, kitsch aesthetic it was famous for, as a prime example. What are some other folk cultures still lingering in the dark corners of the web? I use the term 'Folk' in the sense it is used to denote 'common people' cultures, including art, music, dance, songs and stories. The artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane collated a Folk Archive for the British Council a few years ago, it really gets to the… ]]> Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:41:30 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/212132 Philip K. Dick - Worlds out of Joint - 1st international conference http://philipkdickconferencedortmund.com//philip-k-dick-worlds-out-of-joint-1st-international-conference-home CFP - World's Out of Joint: Reimagining Philip K Dick Dortmund 15-18 Nov 2012 http://t.co/nsy4SFoj – contemporaryfiction (contemporaryfic) http://twitter.com/contemporaryfic/status/177342090890592256 ]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:48:19 -0700 http://philipkdickconferencedortmund.com//philip-k-dick-worlds-out-of-joint-1st-international-conference-home "How to Do Things with Videogames" by Ian Bogost http://www.creativeapplications.net/games/how-to-do-things-with-videogames-by-ian-bogost-books-review-games//quothow-to-do-things-with-videogamesquot-by-ian-bogost-ibogost-book-review-by-serial-consign-creativeapplicationsnet "How to Do Things with Videogames" by Ian Bogost (@ibogost) - book review by @serial_consign | http://t.co/CSJkki2Z ]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:50:57 -0700 http://www.creativeapplications.net/games/how-to-do-things-with-videogames-by-ian-bogost-books-review-games//quothow-to-do-things-with-videogamesquot-by-ian-bogost-ibogost-book-review-by-serial-consign-creativeapplicationsnet On the trail of the wild and wonderful @Horse_ebooks http://splitsider.com/2012/01/the-ballad-of-horse_ebooks/the-ballad-of-horse-ebooks-splitsider On the trail of the wild and wonderful @Horse_ebooks : http://t.co/QYGn0092 #fb ]]> Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:06:45 -0700 http://splitsider.com/2012/01/the-ballad-of-horse_ebooks/the-ballad-of-horse-ebooks-splitsider Ubik: Philip K. Dick http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/7527941832

Ubik

book-aesthete:

Philip K. Dick. Garden City: Doubleday, 1969 

First edition, first printing of this scarce title.

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:39:11 -0700 http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/7527941832 How to fix horror, Part I: Stop trying to be so respectable http://www.slate.com/id/2297938/entry/0/ My new book Shock Value: How a few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood and Invented Modern Horror, explores how horror went mainstream by revisiting the golden age that began in 1968 with Rosemary's Baby and Night of the Living Dead and reached its zenith in the 1970s with movies like Halloween and Alien. Today the genre is bigger, more diverse, and more lucrative than it was back then, but its films rarely shock or inspire as they once did. There are many good new scary movies, but few great ones. It doesn't have to be this way. That's… ]]> Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:34:09 -0700 http://www.slate.com/id/2297938/entry/0/ A Medium for the Masses http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2011/05/05/a-medium-for-the-masses/ The word “meme” first appeared in Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” Dawkins defined a meme as being any sort of idea that spreads from person to person within a culture and catches fire. It played on the notion of a gene, as both genes and memes multiply with human-to-human contact. As UC Santa Cruz computer science professor Gerald Moulds put it, “Every idea that manages to self-replicate is a meme.” Internet memes are much the same thing. They spread from website to website, from community to community, from user to user across the Web, mutating and bonding together,… ]]> Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:25:06 -0700 http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2011/05/05/a-medium-for-the-masses/ Adam Curtis on 'Mad Men' http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/08/madison_avenue.html The widespread fascination with the Mad Men series is far more than just simple nostalgia. It is about how we feel about ourselves and our society today. In Mad Men we watch a group of people who live in a prosperous society that offers happiness and order like never before in history and yet are full of anxiety and unease. They feel there is something more, something beyond. And they feel stuck. I think we are fascinated because we have a lurking feeling that we are living in a very similar time. A time that, despite all the great forces… ]]> Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:55:00 -0700 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/08/madison_avenue.html Regulate (song) Synopsis - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulate_(song)#Synopsis On a cool, clear night (typical to Southern California) Warren G travels through his neighborhood, searching for women with whom he might initiate sexual intercourse. He has chosen to engage in this pursuit alone.

Nate Dogg, having just arrived in Long Beach, seeks Warren. On his way to find Warren, Nate passes a car full of women who are excited to see him. Regardless, he insists to the women that there is no cause for excitement.

Warren makes a left turn at 21st Street and Lewis Ave, in the East Hill/Salt Lake neighborhood[6], where… ]]> Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:34:03 -0700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulate_(song)#Synopsis Art Fag City » The Best of Web 2009! http://www.artfagcity.com/2009/12/31/the-best-of-web-2009/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ArtFagCity+%28Art+Fag+City%29 Here’s a better model for year-end link lists: Only chose one link! I asked 18 of my favorite professionals to do just this, leaving the subject matter completely at their discretion. The format doesn’t solve the inevitable difference of taste issues between readers and linkers — one person’s trash is another person’s Titian – but it at least eliminates the impossible chore of having to rate 20 unrelated items. It also creates a list in which each link is special to someone. For me, that creates a year-end list worth reflection. ]]> Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:59:00 -0700 http://www.artfagcity.com/2009/12/31/the-best-of-web-2009/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ArtFagCity+%28Art+Fag+City%29 'Back to the Futures' Finally Compared http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/07/back_to_the_futures_finally_co.php In the years between Back to the Future and Back to the Future II, Michael J. Fox visibly aged and the actress playing his girlfriend was replaced by Elizabeth Shue. Thus, to show the closing scene from the first film as the opening of the second, it was necessary to completely reshoot it. Dig? Anyway, as you can see above, someone has made a side-by-side comparison of the sequence so you can now needlessly critique how well Robert Zemeckis and crew recreated the scene. The audio is layered together as well, and for some reason hearing a duet of Docs… ]]> Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:10:00 -0700 http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/07/back_to_the_futures_finally_co.php