Tuesday the 23rd of October Nathaniel Tkacz will give the first talk in the fifth series of Research Seminars at Coventry University  on ‘Open Media’. The seminar series is accompanied by a blog that provides more information about the speakers, the theme and the seminars. You can find it here.

Underneath the full program for this term. All be welcome!

– OPEN MEDIA –

A year-long series of research seminars on the theme of openness in media in all its forms organized by Coventry University School of Art and Design, Department of Media and Communication. All the seminars are free to attend and open to all.

For more information see: http://coventryopenmedia.wordpress.com/

Programme: October — November 2012

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October 23rd:

Nathaniel Tkacz (University of Warwick) – ‘From Flame Wars to Frame Wars: The Structure of Conflict in Networks’ (Read More)

November 13th:

Matt Johnston (Coventry University) – ‘Online/Offline: How Digital Media Facilitates and Encourages the Generative Experience’ (Read More)

November 20th:

Caroline Bassett (University of Sussex) – ‘Silence, Delirium, Lies: An Uncoded Response to Social Media’ (Read More)

November 27th:

Eva Weinmayr and Lynn Harris (AND) – ‘Men Meets Machine’ (Read More)

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When: 12:15-1:15pm on selected Tuesdays in October and November

Where: ET 130 (Ellen Terry Building)

Coventry University

Jordan Well
Coventry
CV1 5FB

All seminars are free to attend and open to all

For further details on how to get to Coventry see:
http://wwwm.coventry.ac.uk/university/maps/Pages/Travelinformation.aspx

All enquiries please contact:

Janneke Adema | Email: ademaj@uni.coventry.ac.uk|
http://www.openreflections.wordpress.com | http://twitter.com/Openreflections

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Digital Media have become ubiquitous. Our experiences are on the verge of being mediated and augmented non-stop via mobile and web-based recording devices which offer the possibility to merge, mix, and mash up texts, images, sound and other data formats. In the digital age we seem to be no longer confined by the boundaries that have governed traditional media. Notions of authorship, expertise, authority, stability, ownership and control from above are being challenged by the prosuming multi-user and crowd-sourced use of borderless multimedia applications. People can produce and publish their own books via Lulu.com, promote their art on online gallery sites, and advertise their music via Myspace and Youtube. They can follow an education via iTunesU, call friends abroad via Skype for free, connect and update the world via Facebook and Twitter and fund projects via Kickstarter.

These developments have led many to claim that the web and digital media offer unprecedented democratizing options for media producers, consumers and critics. However, reality is more complicated. Many (public and tax-funded) media are still behind pay-walls. Our private data are hosted and distributed via commercial social media platforms. Blogs are still not taken seriously in the academic world. Google is digitizing our books. Music mash-ups are sued for copyright infringement and fears for ebook piracy rule the literary world.

The concept of openness forms a radical critique against the closed-off worlds of what we might call the ‘traditional media’. It urges for the right to transparency, the ethics of sharing, the value of re-use and the benefits of connecting. However, openness also has its drawbacks. If cultural products are freely available, who pays the producers? Do open data pose security risks and who gets to control these data? Who governs our creative output? In what way can we control and keep check on the media we use? Is there still a place for authority and expertise in open media or are these notions explicitly being challenged? In which way can media be open, and can they really be truly open? Where does openness end or should we focus on aspects of openness? How can we compose a media critique when media are constantly updated and changed, including our critique itself?

In this lecture series various examples of aspects of openness in media will be explored. Special attention will be given to what the benefits and drawbacks of openness are and what kind of possibilities openness offers for the future of media production, use and critique.