!"#"$%&'()&$)*+, -."/+*,"$0'12'304.+0 5556%*$,6),046+4)6%)74"#"$%&8)&$)*+, JOURNAL OF DIGITAL RESEARCH & PUBLISHING Vol 3, Issue 1 , Semester 1, 2010 Tuesday 1pm class Journal of Digital Research and Publishing Vol 3, No 1. June 2010 This edition was created by students in ARIN6912 Digital Research and Publishing, June 2010. Digital Cultures University of Sydney http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/digital_cultures/ Lecturer: Chris Chesher Contents Refolding the fold: the complete representation of actuality in digital culture 5 Sonia Therese Chan Mind over media? A philosophical view on user­generated media and social identity 14 Romina Cavagnola Outsiders looking in: How everyday bloggers are gaining access to the elite fashion world 25 Tiana Stefanic New media revolution: personal ads expand to the Internet 33 David James Misner !"#$"%&'()#$*+$",-&./"$0%1&23"&456$7"&3"8&$8%"6$69& :; Nicola Santilli The practicality of magazine websites 48 Emma Turner A Cultural Historical Approach to Virtual Networking 58 Kate Fagan How social media is changing public relation practices 67 Katharina Otulak The 3D evolution after AVATAR: Welcome to 3D at homes 75 Jaeun Yun The interaction between technology, people and society — In the case of Happy Farm 82 Chen Chen 8 Technical solutions to business challenges: the Content Management System of today 90 Bujuanes Livermore Hidden Consumerism: ‘Advergames’ and preschool children. Parents give the thumbs up? 99 Kathryn Lewis Google’s library of Alexandria: The allure and dangers of online texts 107 Leila Chacko Google’s Taking on China:an Ingenious Publicity Campaign 115 Junying Cui <%8%4"$",&=#307(>-&&?3'6(>$",&@(%%>&A()5(#6(>%& on TheNightBloomers.com 126 Ron O’Berst Patient Advocates in the Internet Age: a threat to traditional notions of authority in health care? 137 Allison Jones Fashion Blogs: the new menber in fashion industry 153 Chi Zhang Twitter Wave Will Drown The World? 161 Jie He B+%&$"C(%"5%&7D&5(#6(>3#&8$DD%>%"5%*&7"&%#%56>7"$5&5700%>5%& EFE Yuan Shen 1PM JOURNAL OF DIGITAL R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING Refolding the fold: the complete representation of actuality in digital culture Sonia Therese Chan UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Abstract Before the internet came into popularity and digital culture became part of everyday life there already existed an anxiety about the repercussions of copy culture on the original. Benjamin Walter’s famous essay on the mechanics of photography comments on the reproductions ability to remove an image from its context and place it on an accessible medium. Walter’s dissertation has been applied to the internet’s ability to recreate objects, communities and cultures that exist in the real world. The anxiety breeds in the fear that the actual world will cease to retain its importance and the ‘aura’ of the original will be lost. This anxiety is based on a reductionist understanding that does not seek to cohesively understand objects, but to comprehend the parts in the path to conceptualising the whole. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was described as a holistic philosopher. His philosophy was based on the idea that all things in the world are connected, as folds on one piece of paper. This philosophy, when applied to the physical world, has implications for the internet. The real world is perfectly connected; any one part of the world is fundamentally representative of the entire world. Therefore any copy of a part of the world, also copies the whole world represented in that part &&&B+$*&%**39&G$##&63H%&6+%&5(>>%"6&*5$%"6$45&G7>#8&I$%G&3"8&>%I%>6&$6&)35H&67&J%$)"$KL*&'+$#7*7'+9M&B+(*&6+%& internet will be presented as a copy of a world that is cohesive and connected. Consequently any copy of a part is also a copy of the whole and thereby calming the anxiety over the detrimental aspects of copy culture. As a result, an argument can be made that the anxiety over copy culture is founded upon one philosophy that can be displaced by another. Keywords !"#"$%&'()&$)*+','(-./'()&$)*+','"0$+*0+$','&+"10"2','3-&"4$"('.3"&-4-.3/ In high school physics I was taught two ways to understand the workings of the universe. B+%& 4>*6& G3*& 6+36& 3##& )78$%*& 7D& 03**& $"& *'35%& '>78(5%8& 3& ,>3I$636$7"3#& D7>5%& 3>7("8& themselves. The second was that gravity is conceptualised as a force as well as a plane. Gravity as a force was easy enough to understand as I munched on an apple that had fallen from its tree; however the idea of a gravitational plane required more explanation. 5 1PM JOURNAL OF DIGITAL R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING So my physics teacher brought into class several balls of different sizes and a very large *+%%6M& N>M& O7+"*7"& 3*H%8& 6+%& *6(8%"6*& 67& '(##& 6+%& *+%%6& 6$,+6#9& 67& 5>%36%& 3& C36& *(>D35%& 6+36&G3*&%#%I36%8&3''>7P$036%#9&3&0%6>%&3)7I%&6+%&C77>M&B+$*&>%'>%*%"6%8&6+%&'#3"%&7D& gravity that existed in space. Then the balls were placed on different areas on the sheet 67&>%'>%*%"6&6+%&I3>$7(*&)78$%*&7D&03**M&Q35+&)3##&6+36&+%&'#35%8&5>%36%8&3&8%"6&$"&6+%&C36& plane. By the end of the experiment there were multiple dents in the sheet, some of which were small, some larger, and some larger yet having being caused by two balls combined weight. This sheet of material can be used to represent the fabric of the internet bent, dented and impressed upon by the actual world. This visualisation of the gravitational plane of the universe can be transposed upon the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German philosopher from the 17th century, who described all of matter as universal. Leibniz’s postulated that there are folds in the plane of universal matter that form the objects that exist. Therefore everything can be 8%4"%8&)9&3##&76+%>&6+$",*&3*&6+%9&%P$*6&('7"&6+%&7"%&'#3"%M This essay applies Leibniz’s philosophy of folds to the actual world. A plane that interacts with the objects that sit upon it will be presented as an analogy to understand digital culture, namely the internet, imitating the folds of actuality. This essay argues that Leibinez’s philosophy implies that all representations are copies of the folds that claim the universality of objects. Therefore the copy of any fold is a copy that encompasses all reality. Consequent implications of this theory will be explored with regard to the copy culture that arises from the structure of the internet. The Fold Leibniz’s philosophy is an attempt to understand the world in a way that is antithetical to the reductionists point of view commonly held by modern scientists. A reductionist argument would claim that the world can be understood by atomisation – breaking the world down to its smallest unit and understanding it. This understanding of the parts would then be used to comprehend the whole. So the scientist would progress from the subatomic particles, to the atom, the elements, to the molecules and so forth. This reductionist philosophy assumes a distinction between parts entails a separatist concept that dictates absolute C($8$69&3"8&3"&3)*%"5%&7D&57+%*$7"M&2307(*&8$*57(>*%&7D&6+%&*()R%56&%P$*6*&)%6G%%"&J%$)"$K& and his contemporary René Descartes who wrote ‘[that] all matter existing in the entire 6 1PM JOURNAL OF DIGITAL R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING universe is thus one and the same, and it is always recognized as matter simply in virtue of its being extended’ (Descartes 1644, pp. 175). That is that all matter is connected and exist as extensions to one another, however Descartes continues ‘[i]f the division into parts occurs simply in our thought, there is no resulting change’ (1644). Descartes and Leibniz differed in philosophies, as where Leibniz saw a pre­established harmony between mind and body, Descartes saw them as clearly distinct (Dear 2003). Descartes philosophical writings were used as the springboard that led to Newtownianism in the 1600s, which %I%"6(3##9&8%I%#7'%8&$"67&5(>>%"6&*5$%"6$45S&>%8(56$7"$*6&0%6+787#7,91. Remaining on the wayside is Leibniz’s equally and philosophically apt argument that objects are divided into $"4"$69&)9&*03##&D7#8*&6+36&>%63$"&57+%*$7"M&B+36&6+%&8%570'7*$6$7"&7D&6+%*%&D7#8*&G7(#8& reveal the connectedness of the object (Deleuze 1993). In this theory the smallest unit is the fold and the whole of matter can be likened to a large piece of paper with many folds. All things are therefore connected. It is through the large page of reality in which every fold is made, that there is a cohesion and universality to everything that exists. The folds in the paper can be recognised by the connection that it has with the other folds. The fold can also exist as a representation, as well as a verb (Deleuze & Strauss 1991). This means that the folds represent the physical and the metaphysical objects in the world, but can also speak of the process of folding and concealing part of the piece of paper. The hidden parts of the paper needs to be explored in order to understand the world and therein lies the pursuit of science. The most important aspect of viewing the world as folds on a universal piece of paper is to acknowledge that all things are connected. When one looks at a pond they are looking not just at the fold of that pond, but also at the way in which it can be likened to the folds created )9&3##&6+%&76+%>&'7"8*&$"&6+%&G7>#8M&/&4*+&$"&6+36&'7"8&$*&57""%56%8&67&%I%>9&76+%>&'7"8S&3"8& %I%>9&76+%>&4*+&$"&6+%&G7>#8S&3"8&*7&D7>6+M&B+$*&57"5%'6(3#$*36$7"&7D&6+%&57""%56%8"%**&7D& the world can be applied to digital culture by arguing that through hyperlinks connections are made between all things and nothing exists on its own.