The Ideology of Scarface, Community as PoMo masterpiece, Present Shock reviewed, etc.

I posted a video from the PBS Idea Channel on Baudrilliard and hyperreality a while back, and hadn’t kept up with the channel since. I recently came across a couple of their other videos and enjoyed them enough to want to share. This video assesses the TV show Community as a postmodern masterpiece: And in … Continue reading The Ideology of Scarface, Community as PoMo masterpiece, Present Shock reviewed, etc.

Next-gen gaming with Oculus Rift, McLuhan on surveillance state, Rushkoff on viral media

Brian Phillips at Grantland thinks spy movies present a fantasy of tourism: The spy is the ideal tourist because he represents an inner self perfectly contained within an outer self that is adapted to any possible location or circumstance. Travel can broaden him by the width of a new sexual conquest, but for the most … Continue reading Next-gen gaming with Oculus Rift, McLuhan on surveillance state, Rushkoff on viral media

Multiple angles on gaming’s Ebert, Kubrick, and Citizen Kane

Roger Ebert ruffled some feathers a few years ago when he declared that "video games can never be art". One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome. Santiago might cite a immersive game without points or rules, but I would say … Continue reading Multiple angles on gaming’s Ebert, Kubrick, and Citizen Kane

In medias res: Semiology of Batman, economics of attention, hypodermic needles, magic bullets and more

So I've decided to headline these posts with interesting (to me) media-related content from around the web "In medias res". Not very original, I know, but "in the middle of things" seems appropriate. I came across the semiotics-centric site Semionaut via this post: "Semiotics and non-verbal communication". It looks to have a practitioner-oriented angle but … Continue reading In medias res: Semiology of Batman, economics of attention, hypodermic needles, magic bullets and more