The Next New Thing

One type of new media that I would like to see are live collaborations between artists online through professional digital painting programs.

There have been many programs artists use to paint, such as SAI Paint Tool, Adobe Photoshop, and Open Canvas. However, I feel like there should be an extra implementation into these programs so that 2 artists friends can draw online together at the same time with professional painting tools. There has been small examples of similar ideas, such as the game "Draw my thing" from OMGPOP where people would guess what others are drawing through basic drawing tools. A closer idea would be the very first version of Open Canvas, which is free, and where artists were actually able to live paint with each other by connecting each other's IP address through the program. But there were many issues with that because not all internet providers worked well with it and many times artists could not connect at all. The idea was then dropped in the more updated versions of the painting program which was a big disappointment. 

However, if popular painting programs begin to implement these ideas, there will be a whole new era to artists social networking online while being actively interacting with their creative skills. 

WIKI SO FAR

I have yet to contribute to the wiki page but I will be talking about the usage of technology to create art. I will be talking about the drawing tablets under the "Art" section of the Wikipedia.

An example of a drawing tablet I will be talking about is the Wacom Intuos tablet that allows users to draw on the computer instead of paper. A little different from our iPad tablets, the Wacom Intuos tablet is specifically used for creating artwork through on the computer, whether it is on PC, or on a MAC. What you basically have is a board and a pen. The pen contains pressure sensitivity and works like a mouse except you can also use it like a pen, pencil, and even paintbrush. You open a painting program such as SAI Paint Tool, Adobe Photoshop, or even MS Paint and you can use the pen to create artwork. People have painted portraits, landscapes, and RPG characters with the tablets, and it is a great alternative to painting and drawing on paper.

I will be talking about the tablets' basic usage and various programs that can be used along with it. I will show photo examples of these tablets, and actual artwork on the WIKI page.

P2P

P2P sharing is known as Peer-to-peer networking. It is a popular way for people to file-share online through software like Bittorrent, or Utorrent. File-sharing is when people transfer any type of files towards each other.  It is not necessary to have a super expensive computer in order to do P2P file sharing. It only requires  "A local area network (LAN) without a central server and in which all computers in the network have access to the public idles located on all other workstation." (Nguyen) For example, if you are downloading a video through a torrent program, how good your computer is won't matter as much. The only way for it to download really fast no matter the size is according to the amount of people "seeding" the files to "peers". The more seeders (more people providing the file to the peers), the faster the download. A person can possibly download a movie in a few minutes. Top examples of what people usually do P2P sharing of are movies, TV shows, games, music, software...and of course porn.

However, piracy issues will always be a problem when it comes to P2P sharing. Instead of buying actual DVDs or watching a movie at a theater, somebody can just easily obtain a copy of the movie, rip it to their computer, and upload it online for people to torrent in a few minutes. This will cause less sales for the music and movie industry. 

Nguyen, Bihn. "Peer-to-peer Network - What Is Peer-to-peer Network."About.com. About Tech, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. <http://linux.about.com/cs/linux101/g/peertopeernetwo.htm>.

Thompson, Clive. "The BitTorrent Effect ." Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect. Wired, Jan. 2005. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/bittorrent.html?pg=2&topic=bittorrent&topic_set=>.

PRIVACY

When it comes to New Media, usually privacy and confidentiality issues come up. Facebook is a big example. No matter what you post online and even if you private it to your friends only, and you delete it, there is always a chance it will stay online forever. People can easily save your images, screencap anything you say and possibly use it against you. This also applies to the rest of the internet. Therefore many times, there is a saying to be-careful what you post online, cause what you post online stays online and there are many terrible people on the internet. Also, I remember a time when I wrote my name on Google images just to see what pops up, photos from my Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram would show up. I was a little creeped out but this would apply to anyone who is big on social media with their full name out there. 

Another privacy issue will be on advertisements. Lets say I look up clothing on American Eagle or Warby Parker, I end up seeing ads for the products I was looking at on the side of my Facebook page. Obviously, I was being tracked by these companies as I browse around the store. Also, when people put in their addresses and credit card numbers, browsers and trackers can easily save that information if you never clear your cookies and etc, thus a bigger invasion into our privacy and confidentiality.

ADVICE TO BARUCH COLLEGE ON NEW MEDIA

My advice to Baruch College on New Media is improve their social media sites more so that they become more attractive to incoming students.

They can create a directory to include all the Baruch branch Facebook websites on their main Facebook page so that students can find easier access to all the resources that are available. Another thing is to create a new Youtube playlist with videos of Baruch College's school club life. They can be various videos about each active club and their events that they do to show off that Baruch is not only a school for academics. There can also be a separate Youtube playlist on the arts of Baruch College. The New Media Artspace gallery from the Newman Library can be filmed and documented so that more people from the public will know of its existence and visit. There can also be a Tumblr blog for Baruch College where pictures are posted about everyday events that happen around the school. There can be different categories on the Tumblr blog, the Arts, Club events, Cultural events, and much more. Finally, there should also be a Twitter for the BCTC of Baruch, where students can tweet a technology problem so IT specialists can approach them or reply to them with a easy fix over the internet.

CREATIVITY AND NEW MEDIA

New Media has allowed me to share my artwork online across many social platforms for not only my friends to see but also the general public. I have posted my artwork across Deviantart, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. It makes it more fun to know that I can share my work and get feedback from it at the same time. These platforms has encouraged meto continuously share  my artwork and creativity online. 

I use my Wacom Intuos tablet and draw through paint programs onto the computer to create illustrations. With a tablet, I can easily draw digitally and manipulate my work through Adobe programs.

As a New Media Arts minor capstone, I created an animation with video and illustration and it was exhibited in the New Media Artspace exhibit at the Baruch library. I used Adobe Photoshop, After Affects, and Final Cut Pro to create the video.

https://vimeo.com/116280084

New Media is a great way for people to expand their work digitally while gaining exposure instead of the need to print and publish work. Money is saved and views continue to increase.

CREATIVITY

New Media has encouraged creativity with more opportunities. With New Media, we have been able to share photos, videos, artwork, and even music towards a bigger audience of people.  During the time before Youtube and came about, people had a difficult time sharing themselves playing music to the world. However, with the new media age everything has changed. People would post up originals or cover songs of themselves playing their guitar and singing at the same time on video websites. Videos become viral and they would start earning millions of fans. Youtube would also pay them according to the amount of videos, views and likes they get. With this, people gain more exposure online and has the chance to become extremely famous depending on their talent. They don't need anything fancy or expensive equipment in order to get views. For example, according to Mark Vidler, known professionally as Go Home Productions, says “You don’t need a distributor, because your distribution is the Internet. You don’t need a record label, because it’s your bedroom, and you don’t need a recording studio, because that’s your computer. You do it all yourself.” (Frere-Jones, 2005)

Frere-Jones, Sasha. "1 + 1 + 1 = 1 - The New Math of Mashups." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2005. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/01/10/1-1-1-1>.