links for 2007-05-14
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Funny ‘PG’ version of 300. Watch for the ending!
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A parody re-release trailer for David Lynch’s 1984 cult-classic DUNE. Features redubbed scenes. (Funny re-dubbing, at that!)
Mary-Jane Watson … Likes to Wash Peter’s Spider-suit?!?
Marvel’s statues folk have really out-done themselves with these uber-sexist models of Mary-Jane:
As one would rightly imagine, there is considerable disappointment and outrage about this image. While comic books have never exact been modest in their representation of women (or men), this particular statue is ridiculously misogynistic and patronising, even by the standards of early comic books, let alone the twenty-first century. Nor, sadly, is this a unique case, evinced by more examples in ArcanaJ’s “Comics Industry Bullsh*t” Flickr set.
While such an image is clearly sexist, whatever the context, it’s doubly disappointing to see Mary-Jane, who has always been at least a strong, active figure in the comic books, reduced to the sexed-up laundry lady. The latest film, I guess, really doesn’t do much to argue with such a representation – there were moments, there, but MJ was a sadly under-developed character in Spider-Man 3. However, given the huge number of people, and especially kids, looking to find their heroes in comic-books and the films they inspire, this, and similarly images, really need to scrubbed out.
In a different way, Nancy Lorenz replies even more forcefully (and graphically) by showing how ridiculous Spider-Man would look in this pose!
[Via Falling Apart In Half Time]
Update (18 May, 9.45am): Boing Boing links to a post by artist Tom Hodges, a friend of Adam Hughes (who designed the MJ statue). Hodges post includes these comments:
Now I may be wrong, but ANYONE who complains about this piece obvious does NOT read Superhero comics. If you did, I’d consider you a hypocrite. I enjoy the Indie stuff (SiP and Lenore) but without Spider-man, X-Men and other comics, they wouldn’t exist. Do you think Terry Moore is offended by this piece? I HIGHLY doubt it!
That’s probably a fair point; most indie comics came into being on the back of the success of the superheroes comics (and funnies) in establishing comic books as a recognisable form of entertainment and (although more controversially, even today) art. Also, I think Hodges is right in that this statue is not an outlier, but rather representative of a large part of the way Marvel, DC, and many independent comic books, represent women and men. I did read superhero comics a fair bit when I was younger and occasionally pick up stuff at the moment (I enjoyed parts of Marvel’s Civil War and have been consistently impressed by the current Justice mini-series by Alex Ross et al). That said, I think that what this statue represents is the worst aspects of this tradition; I don’t think Adam Hughes should bare the blame for the conventions of much of the art in the superhero genre, but I do think his representation lacked subtlety enough to crystallize the sexist nature of many comic books, even today.
Hodges also suggests this statue may be ironic – pointing out that Mary-Jane in the comics is a far more successful supermodel. Even if that was the intention, I fear it’ll be lost on the majority of people who purchased the statue.
links for 2007-05-13
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A look at Blade Runner on the eve of its 25th anniversary, especially looking through the eyes of academia in its various flavours.
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” … it is clear that what people mostly want from public space is to be alone with their personal networks.” [Via]
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“YouTube is experimenting with inline ads, showing a text ad at the bottom of its player as a video is playing. If a user clicks on the text, a video ad expands and appears layered on top of the player.”
links for 2007-05-11
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When is child pornography not child pornography? Can an “avatar” commit a crime? What is real, and what is not? (The article is over the top, but still provokes extremely important questions which will need real and internationally legal answers!)
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“After becoming a podcasting convert, the author talked with other students at colleges and universities across North America about their iPod and MP3 use, their familiarity with podcasting, and how they see podcasting as part of the classroom.”
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A conceptual (over-)analysis of the LOL CATS memes of late. [Via]
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PC World asks, while some schools are banning iPods, should they really be focusing on how best to use them educationally?
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While, sadly, I agree, there is still some pretty rich irony in hearing George “Jar Jar Binks” Lucas saying about Spider-Man 3, “It’s a silly movie. … There just isn’t much there.” LOL
links for 2007-05-10
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“A group of students on a field trip in Toronto investigating the pros and cons of public surveillance cameras ended up catching a slice of big city street hostility on their own cameras Tuesday. The Grade 12 students caught a road rage incident …”
links for 2007-05-09
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“The US military is now posting video clips on YouTube showing US troops in combat and insurgents being bombed in a “boots on the ground” perspective of the Iraq war, officials said today.”
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While I’m not sure of his motivations, I am nevertheless delighted with the uncharacteristically large amount of money being added to Education funding in the National Federal Budget! 🙂
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Keynote talk on ‘Intermediation’ by Kate Hayles at the National Humanities Center’s 2006 Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity conference.
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$US250+ million later, MySpace solves its Photobucket dilemma by buying the company out.
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“British Prime Minister Tony Blair took to the Internet on Monday to congratulate Nicolas Sarkozy on winning France’s presidential election. Blair posted a message on video-sharing site YouTube, praising Sarkozy as ‘a strong leader.'”
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A blog which documents and protests instances of internal academic bullying in universities. (Controversial, to say the least.) [Via]
Gail Jones shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award
A huge congratulations to my UWA colleague, Gail Jones, on being shortlisted for this year’s Miles Franklin award for her new book Dreams of Speaking; Vintage (Random House Australia). Her competition this year is pretty impressive, too: Careless by Deborah Robertson; Carpenteria by Alexis Wright; and Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey.
The winner will be announced on June 21st.
links for 2007-05-08
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ABC TV series ‘Lost’ now has an finite life-span, of three more years, with 16 epsiodes a year. It’s a clever move since it (should!) mean that the ever-expanding list of unanswered questions will have to be designed in an answerable way!
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“Many people go to YouTube to look at video clips. But what they really want to do is direct. Fortunately, for these people, God created the parody video.” (NY Times cynicism at its best…)
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“Cellphone videos that depict a teenage girl being stoned to death by a crowd surfaced online last week.” These videos sparked national protests in Iraq – as they should – but a horrifyingly large crowd appears to have taken part in the stoning.
links for 2007-05-07
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Audio podcasts of the four Battlestar Galactica papers presented at the recent MIT5.
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A new YouTuber is initially mistaken for a new Lonelygirl15 (ie a commerical product, not an authethic ‘person’ per se) only to turn out to be a naive YouTuber being gamed by the proto-gurus of piggy-back social marketing.
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Blogs: The New University Workspace? [Hosted by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences]As part of UWA’s Teaching Month I’m participating in a group blog exploring blogs as the “new university workplace”, including thinking on ePortfolios, digital literacy and writing in public.
Six Twitter Questions
Last week danah boyd posted a few questions about Twitter use. Since I answered each one in my head, I figure I’d post my answers here on the (very off) chance someone else is interested in my answers. danah’s questions are in italics …
First, the practical question. Can i quote you?
[X] Yes, and you *must* use my real name.
1. Why do you use Twitter? What do you like/dislike about it?
I love the immediacy of Twitter. I also like the fact that since Tweets are so small, people often write more personal things, letting you – over time – build a more holistic sense of them as a person not just as an academic (or whatever role that person has as their more careful public face, the face that is often more carefully maintained through other forms, such as blogging).
I don’t like the fact that, so often, I turn to Twitter only when I’m trying to procrastinate or distract myself from what I should “really” be doing!
2. Who do you think is reading your Tweets? Is this the audience you want? Why/why not? Tell me anything you think of relating to the audience for your Tweets.
I’ve got two discernable groups – firstly, Perth folks who Twitter and who knowingly form a sort of semi-web2.0 ensemble (the same folk you’d see at Perth Blog Meetups); secondly my academic and pseudo-academic ‘friends’ (and I use the quote marks since I’ve not physically met a number of the people I’d imagine in this category) who I share some interests with – be it digital culture, film, participatory culture or some combination thereof. These are both the people I imagine are reading me (or have subscribed to my Tweets) and also the people I read.
3. How do you read others’ Tweets? Do you read all of them? Who do you read/not read and why? Do you know them all?
As at 2. The only time I read new Tweets, now, is when someone I’m already reading either points to someone/something interesting or is engaged in one side of an interesting conversation and I want to hear the other half!
4. What content do you think is appropriate for a Tweet? What is inappropriate? Have you ever found yourself wanting to Tweet and then deciding against it? Why?
Inappropriate is a hard call – I’ve seen all sorts of colourful language and that seems in keeping with the immediacy and personal aspects of Twitter, but at the same time I wonder if those, aggregated, would be the sort of thing people want to be a reflection of themselves. I guess links to porn or other potentially offensive material has to be flagged as such – the use of TinyURLs means you’re less able to predict the contents of a link by it’s URL and so the onus (I think) is on the Twitterer to make it clear what they’ve linking to.
5. Are your Tweets public? Why/why not? How do you feel about people you don’t know coming across them? What about people you do know?
Mine are at present. I’m considering making them private as I’ve caught myself (only once so far) writing and then deleting a Tweet since it was venting about the workplace and the workplace could – at some distant point in the future – notice. That said, I’m never really sure how private ‘private’ turns out to be.
6. What do i need to know about why Twitter is/is not working for you or your friends?
Twitter, to me, works best in tandem with other forms. Most of the Twitterers and Twitterati I read are already bloggers, but their Tweets add a level of personality and personal depth which often isn’t visible in their blog posts (which are often more careful, especially because blogs and ‘personal profiles’ so often are synonymous in academia).