[csaa-forum] CCR Seminar Series 08: Ron Burnett and Kaye Shumack - 15 May

[Reena Dobson]

Apologies for cross-postings 

 Centre for Cultural Research

University of Western Sydney

 

invites all to attend

the CCR Seminar Series 2008

featuring

 

Dr Ron Burnett 

(President, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada)

 

and

 

Associate Professor Kaye Shumack

(School of Communication Arts, on placement at CCR, UWS)

 

Date: Thursday, 15 May

Time: 2.00pm - 4.30pm

Venue: Gallery Floor, Female Orphan School (Building EZ), Parramatta Campus

Afternoon tea and cakes provided 

RSVP: Ania Ajiri a.ajiri at uws.edu.au or 9685 9600

Apologies: Kay Anderson k.anderson at uws.edu.au   

 

 

 

Emerging Technologies and Social Networks

Ron  Burnett

Networked cultures have grown and proliferated through the use of different modes and models of exchange and interchange, built on the foundations of social action, cultural communications and interactivity (Blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Current.tv and so on). Internet networks make it possible for very different communities to be built and maintained over geographically dispersed areas. As a result ecologies or environments are built to sustain both the exchange and the relationships that grow from the networks. In networked peer-to-peer communications, relationships between people are defined by the time of connection and not only by expectations about content and interaction. Some of the central characteristics of social networking are:

*         The ability to pursue many different activities at once and to be able to share both the process and the outcomes of sharing files and information over the Internet through decentralized means.

*         It is not enough to just connect to the Internet through available interfaces. Networked communities are constantly involved in customizing the interfaces that they use and in designing the way that they can navigate through various Internet configurations. This is closely related to the ways in which the open source movement works (e.g., Linux).

*         Social networks are about the continual construction, decline and reinvigoration of different types of communities. One of the most important features of social networks is the way in which ideas spread. Communities appear, disappear and regenerate and then disappear in quick succession.

*         Participants in social networks collaborate and this is as important as the sharing of information and files. Collaboration is about community building, but also about developing projects and creating awareness. Artists are using social networks to pursue a variety of different initiatives. The anti-globalization movement has used social networks to develop its own news channels. Health organizations are using social networks to facilitate learning and education in rural and less developed areas of the world.

 

 

Digital Storytelling as Experience Design: Communication designing for a convergent media world

Kaye Shumack

The rapid and relentless changes taking place in internet and digital media are described as democratising processes, providing far greater access to public media contexts. This is evidenced through emerging forms of dialogue - including blogs, and pod/vod casting as 'user-generated' content. As well as this greater access to public communication forums, the parallel availability of affordable softwares to produce media content continues to rapidly accelerate. In this convergent media environment, the role of the communication designer is significantly challenged to embrace a much deeper engagement and collaboration with social and cultural contexts. Designers have new opportunities to explore different roles - as cultural activist, as problem finder, as facilitator, and strategic planner and collaborator. This presentation suggests some of the ways in which communication design can build collaborations around both research and teaching. The current design collaboration with CCR around the Digital Cultural Atlas (DCA) is discussed, involving the use of an auto-ethnographic research method with an undergraduate teaching project.

 

 

 

Dr Ron Burnett is President of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. He is a film and videomaker, photographer, web designer and writer who has published three books, most recently, How Images Think (MIT Press, 2005) and over 150 articles in journals and books worldwide. He is Chair of the Board of Knowledge Network, BC's public educational channel, and Adjunct Professor of Film and Video at York University in Toronto. 

 

Kaye Shumack is based in the School of Communication Arts, and currently on placement with the CCR. Her research focuses on two areas: art and design teaching and learning as practice-led research, and theory and practice of narratives and genres for representations of 'self' and 'others' in communication design practices.

 

 

 

Please note that there is an additional session on 15 May (12.30-1.30) featuring: 

 

Ali Abunimah 

(author, One Country: A Bold Proposal to Break the Israeli/ Palestinian Impasse and editor, Electronic Intifada)

Roadmap to Nowhere: Imposing Peace on Palestine/ Israel

 

 

 

Parramatta Campus Map and Directions http://www.uws.edu.au/about/locations/maps/parramattamap     

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