Memes and Us

Meme's and What mean to us

Meme's have been a big part of most of our lives since we were kids. Problem is that not as many people seem to have noticed the grand impact memes and the communities that formed around them have had on our lives. I intend to reveal or at least shed some light on this not so new phenomenon!

DH Final

Convergence and Archiving: Something Greater

 My final essay for this class was on Archiving and Convergence. I wanted to show these two things go hand in hand in everyday life that people don't even know about. Enjoy!

Final Essay

For my final essay, I explored the reason's why eSports has taken off. I think to understand the reason as to why eSports has grown so much is you had to understand just how big it's gotten with many different companies investing money into eSports to let it grow, the prize money it has paid out and the streaming and television deals they have gotten. I also found out that people enjoy watching others play video games competitively because they like to be distracted, acquire knowledge about the games, the fact that is so new and the aggression that is displayed.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MdHMWuQbSBPhxnybYWe9Au4T_rj_3gkraB2baLEvwEY/edit?usp=sharing

Exhibit Response:


     One of the exhibits I thought was an interesting topic was the exhibit on "using Social Media as a Personal Archive" It talked about how people can archive their lives through social media such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. People post on these websites and keep you up to date with their lives which is a cool concept I never really thought of before. Another interesting exhibit I looked at was on the "Effects of Social Media; Kids vs Adults". It talked about how older people, like our parents never got the chance to grow up with technology we have now. Its a new way for everyone older and younger to stay connected with.

Exhibit Response

The essay exhibits that I was able to view on Wednesday were both interesting and impressive. It was fun to get a chance to hear what everybody else worked on and how their topics were relevant to today's world. One that stood out was my groupmate, Cory Geer. He talked about the evolving of E-sports.

 

This got to me because he talked about what my friend currently does for a living. He talked about how E-sports is becoming a thing of today and will only get more popular.

I was also interested because I, myself, am super into video games and watch professionals play on apps that Cory mentioned.

The Digital Humanities SharkTank

For our class we had to exhibit what we wanted to do our final project on. While looking into many different classmates projects they were very interesting. Two stood out to me the most. The first was an exhibit by Jack Shirk. Shirk was looking into the different influencers of social media.

How he explained the different types of Influencers, in my mind I could think of different people who belong in those categories.

The next one that stuck out to me was done by Chris Carder. Carder focused on how different forms of artificial intelligence could find themselves into the classroom.

It is interesting that after talking to Carder how different forms of AI could really help humans learn in a different way. I think that this would only work at the High School/College level. Overall I was very interested in his thoughts on AI in the classroom

The Binary Archive

We propose an International Archive of Programming Languages.

Just as we have saved and studied actual spoken languages of the world, it is equally important as our technology improves to preserve and study coding languages and how they can be applied for times to come. Just as spoken languages continue to develop, coding does the same. Just as language has developed from earliest civilizations that had no form of contact, Code has developed in a similar way. Coding in its earliest form began with simple switches of instructions for computers. However, as our systems get more and more complex, so must our way of communicating within them.  Just as people could not simply communicate through body language and a series of grunts and groans after building towns and villages. Objects in the world changed, and so did the way we talked about it.

While this archive would be of great importance to computer nerds in the present and future, it would also be of great help down the road when computers inevitably improve and change beyond what a lot of people are going to be able to understand. Computer literacy is increasing at an astounding rate as time goes on, and will only continue to do so as long as things are going well. If we make it possible for people to have access to different languages of code as time goes on, it will be much easier to be able to spread such knowledge to those who'd need it.

The biggest issue with establishing such a thing would be logistics, but just like spoken languages like English, German, and French, all it takes is time and practice to learn. There are already a myraid of spaces available online for people to learn coding in languages that have been around since the beginning of computing. Having a single place where all of it is accessible would just be icing on the already sweet cake.

Coding is becoming a very important skill as computers begin to expand further into our lives, if we are to understand them as much as they understand us, we must be able to learn their language, and make them better able to suit our needs. For this to happen, we believe an archive of Code is necessary.

-Vaughn, Cory, and Brendan

Quiz 10 and Datamining!

Today, we used Voyant to Datamine the blog for stuff we might've missed. After digging through one of Brendan's posts, heres what we found.
 

Turns out the guy really likes poetry, who would've thought?

The Battle for the East Allegheny

Somewhere in a world just like ours, with people just like us, there is a war about to begin. It will not claim the lives of many, and it will redfine warfare as we know it. One way or another, peace will be assured.Welcome to Penn Hills

Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh

Here's a story of the different food places during my visits to Pittsburgh do not compare, in my opinion, to my food options in my home, Philadelphia.
There's No Food Like Home

Traveling Cheerleader

This is a google maps essay of all the places I have traveled to in one cheerleading season. Every season is just like the last with a few exceptions. Enjoy!

Pittsburgh Pirates Twitter Bot (Cory Geer)

This is a twitter bot that picks up on Pittsburgh Pirates tweets.
https://twitter.com/814Pirates

Human Brains a thing of the Past?

One day in the near future or even now computers will be smarter than all of mankind. The technological singularity the hypothesis that the invention of artificial super intelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. The question around this will be results of Technological Sigularity be good or bad?

 

 A futurist who has look at this is Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil is an author, computer scientist and inventor. He has hit on many predictions regarding technological advances in the past. In 1999, he predicted…'

 

… that people would be able talk to their computer to give commands by 2009. While still in the early days in 2009, natural language interfaces like Apple’s Siri and Google Now have come a long way.

 

Maybe his most important prediction is that by the 2020s, most diseases will go away as nanobots become smarter than current medical technology.

 

The biggest prediction he and other scitists have is by the year 2045 humans will be able to store their consciousness to a cloud. That just means that a human would be able to crate a digital version of themselves. The question though of doing that is, is the human actualy storing their consciousness or are they just creating a copy of themselves. Hopefully by that time we will have the correct answer to that issue.

Uncreative Writing a thing of the past?

Some people think that uncreative writing is exactly as it sounds. Something that is completely boring and repetitive that has no meaning towards writing. Our group in our digital humanities class at Pitt-Johnstown tried a form of uncreative writing. We transcribed four different youtube videos using google hangout. We used a Beyonce, Liam Neeson, Lady Gaga and Weird Al interviews. We then put it together in a poem form of what we heard from the videos. One may say that this is complete Plagiarism, I disagree completely and so does University of Pennsylvania professor Kenneth Goldsmith, who teaches a complete class on uncreative writing. Just like us, he gives the class the instruction to transcribe a piece of audio. His reasoning that this isn’t enough is because you miss the messiness of speech such as pauses and accents, it's not plagiarism it's repurposing.

DON’T SAY THAT!!

I JUST WANNA LAUGH!

i just wanna laugh...

“BEYONCE!”

Oh beyonce, don’t say that if you don’t mean it...

THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!

that makes me so happy…  you  saying that makes me happy

Bound to happen...

IT’S BOUND TO HAPPEN!!!

I FEEL IT MAN! !!it’s magic! Do you feel that!?

WOMAN!

it’s just bound to happen...

CONNECTION!

it’s a connection!

man-woman connection!

we gotta talk

we gotta talk

I DRESSED UP FOR YOU!

“I dressed up just for you!”

GOOD JOB!     

might as well dress up

I SAW OBSESSED!!!

OMG IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

it was so much fun

WHEN YOU PUNCH HER IN THE FACE!?

i’m so obsessed!

THE HEADBUT!?

A KICK IN THE HEAD!

kick in the head

grunt

kick her in the head!!

I HEARD A GRUNT!

what about the headbutt!?

lot of grunts...

ESPECIALLY ON VALENTINE’S DAY! ;)

LOVE IS JUST IN THE AIR!

YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN!!!

you've done it again...

you've done it again...

Great, another great one...

she gave me my driving lessons!

she did?!?!

she gave me my first driving lesson.

driving home...

“One day your gonna be the biggest action star..”

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT?!

have you ever been in any accidents?

i’ve never been in any accidents...

i remember this:

I hit a deer

it was....scary

I WAS ON THIS HARLEY!

harley davidson...

LIkE BRBRBRBRBR!!!

it was scary i was on this harley davidson

 LIKE  6 MILES AN HOUR!

 26 miles per hour...

Did you bruise the deer?

HEY! watch it buddy!

 DID YoU SWERVE?!

Front paws over the handlebars!

FRONT PAWS WERE OVER THE HANDLEBARS!

THE DEER WAS OVER THE HANDLEBARS!!!!!

i hit the deer and at one point the deer’s front paw

 LIKE A SCENE FROM ET

 

I USED TO DREAM OF BEING A STAR!

 lincoln grew up across from there

 they sing in the shower!

she knew i was going to sneak out

she knew I was going to sneak out

   SHE DECIDED TO CHAPERONE!

smart bit of parenting...

there was no stopping me!

   there was no stopping me!

    

THERE WAS NO STOPPING ME!!!!!

my mom was really supportive

 i have a lot of rejection

   I'd be this for a long time

I feel grateful to be here

  david letterman….

thank you!

MY MOM BROUGHT ME HERE TO CBS!!!

smart move….

when i got fired at NBC my mom brought me to CBS

Everybody in showbiz

a very bad one

I was a very bad one

i used to flirt with everybody

I USED TO FLIRT WITH EVERRRYYBODYY!

I flirted with everyone….

i used to flirt with everybody

IT DIDN’T GO SO GOOD IF THEY WERE ON A DATE!

didn't work well if they are on a date….

why you lookin at my man like that

why you looking at my man like that

WINKY FACE ;)

that’s when the soup goes in the lap!

 i knew you’d make it      

i knew you'd make it

i knew you’d make it

     what!?      

I JUST WANT YOU TO ANSWER ONE MATHEMATICAL qUESTION

A simple formula

  what is the mathematical formula!?

what is it?     

ITS ITS ITS EASY!

what is the mathematical formula...nevermind

    it’s easy!   

THE FORMULA

FIRST OF ALL

the formula is simple

YOU HAVE KNOW IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!

you have no idea what you’re talkin’ about!!

you have no idea what you’re talking bout….

SHIT!

Shit

uhhhh shit….

last year?

when was the last time you were delouced!?

HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOUR RHYME?!

breaking my heart

medical chart

POST MODERN Art

back to the start

LIGHTING A FART

blue light special at kmart   

JEALOUS MUCH!?

blue light special each day at kmart

jealous much?   

WHY WEREN’T YOU AT THE AWARDS TO GET YOUR OSCAR!???

afraid of a sock puppet?!

WERE YOU AFRAID A SOCK PUPPET WAS GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT!?!

were you afraid a sock puppet was gonna kick your butt..?

thats too bad...

have you two patched things apart or is the rap war still going on?

he think you’re a real excellent rapper.

HE THINKS YOU’RE AN EXCELLENT RAPPER FOR HIM TO POOP ON!

you’re an excellent rapper….

    

for him to poop on.

Throughout the poem, you see many different types of gramatical errors, typos and even misquoting of the video. For the purpose of the blog we thought it was important to show the authenticity of our actually work. This activity took our group four minutes. I encourage you to take a group of friends and try this it's a fun exercise that will help you understand the difference between repurposing and plagiarism.

Photo Corruption!?

Before

During

After

Self Generating Text and Creativity Bots

BOTS as are simple programs of code made to do relatively simple tasks for generally obvious purposes. Some bots gather information and present it in a desired way, others can go out of their way to flood the web with information to cause confusion, it all depends on who created them and why.

While bots aren’t exactly self-aware, they can be made to react to changing situations, and act according Bots can be very versatile in what they do. Some can be used on twitter to spam users. One called as Pentametron, and searches out tweets that are in Iambic Pentameter. 

A very serious one manages edits on wikipedia that come from the government officials in Washington D.C.

Self generating text has an endless supply of uses and possibilities. It is the definition of human creativity mixing with using the powers of the computer. It can create music lyrics, poems, and even write a book. The text is endless and goes on for ever. In my digital humanities class we looked at a piece by Nick Montifort called Taroko Ridge. THE TEXT NEVER ENDS!

Overall self generating text and bots are something that can be used for something serious like the bot that monitors wikipedia for edits or they can be something as fun and creative as something the bot that searches for tweets in Iambic Pentameter.It’s also worth saying that this technology should shine some light on just how bright our future can be if this technology is improved. However, it also raises the question of just how much automation we can incorporate into our daily lives. What roles will humans have left if robots can even be more creative than

Ask Marx for the Moon?

Ask Me for the Moon is a piece by David Zuern created in 2005. Given the medium of presentation, it was a bit difficult for me to get the story it was trying to tell. Partly because of wording, mostly because of presentation.

The poem seems to be from the perspective of a worker, or someone who has observed working conditions in Hawaii, and tells the reader about the amount of work and energy that goes into preserving the island paradise tourists continue to believe it is.

At the same time, the piece quotes and makes reference to scholars and philosophers that have commented on related topics. Marx, for instance was referenced a few times throughout the piece in sections related to the labor force and their treatment. Other scholars are referenced for their writings on how the U.S business interests handled the newly acquired land, resources and labor force.

Ask Me for the Moon is a more telling piece than what it appears to be, and because of it's usage of Hyperlinking, wordsmithing, and presentation, the message can be delivered without a reader having to need as much prior knowledge and in-depth understanding of the related topics.

I'd recommend it for any history buffs, or anyone who's generally interested in poems.