Honors College begins series on digital age

If the first thing you do in the morning is turn on your computer, you are not alone, a panel of technology experts said.

Monday night’s “Creating & Consuming Culture in the Digital Age” panel discussion, which was sponsored by the Department of English, School of Mass Communications and School of the Arts, left faculty and students contemplating technology’s role in their daily lives.

After the Honors College received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, VCU solicited proposals for a lecture series.

“We received 15 complete proposals, all of which were excellent,” Timothy Hulsey, dean of the Honors College said at the opening of the event. “The proposal for this series was the unanimous choice.”

The proposal defined the series as a “focus on the information revolution specifically on how digital technology and the proliferation of communications media are affecting temporary culture,” Hulsey said, as faculty and students scribbled notes.

The event’s moderator, Catherine Ingrassia, associate dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences for academic affairs, introduced the panelists.

Johanna Drucker is a professor at the University of Virginia’s Department of English and Director of Media Studies.

Xeni Jardin is a technology-culture journalist and co-editor for the award-winning Web blog BoingBoing.net

John Bresland joined the panel on short notice to fill in John Kinsella’s absence. Bresland is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s writer’s workshop who works in radio, video and print.

The panelists first discussed the “niche” of media and where it fits in people’s daily lives.

Jardin said the niche may belong to individual creators.

She shared her experience as a student at VCU.

“I remember walking around the streets of this campus,” Jardin said. “We would make our own fliers, we were Xeroxing our own ‘zines. We were creating media out of paper.

“Just this idea that you can take Electra set letters and typewriters and handwritten drawings and create your own magazines and hand them out at punk rock shows – that was amazing.”

The panelists explained how easy access to technology has created endless creative opportunities.

“The magic is just figuring out how to do it yourself,” Jardin said. “It’s bringing that access to as many people as possible so great stories-the interesting stories we don’t even know are stories-get out.”

This is the power of technology, Jardin said, and Durke agreed.

“You used to have to be in the industry whether you were in film or printing or publishing. You had to have industry capabilities to have access to the means of production,” Jardin said. “I think it is democratizing production of media as well as distribution.”

Bresland, who created the popular and slightly controversial YouTube.com video essay “The Seinfeld Analog,” said it’s miraculous what everyone can now access without being in professional industries.

“I can buy a Mac for $1,000 and have a fully functioning editing studio in my room,” Bresland said. “To me that’s a huge deal, and I’m still getting used to that. I’m very excited about the possibilities.”

Privacy on the Internet was another major point the panelists covered.

Durke said the Internet “is a participatory activity.” When people post media, they receive a “rapid return rate” of feedback.

Because so many people participate in online activities, Jardin said, boundaries blur.

“There’s a boundary between the personal and the professional,” she said. “Those boundaries are becoming increasingly permeable.”

Durke explained how Internet users must “sensitize ourselves to what we make and put online.” She continued, “What we make and put online is subject to all of the searching and controlling and filtering that’s part of everything we put online.”

She explained how taking a picture of a refrigerator with a picture of someone naked and drinking beer with their friends has become “daily news” because anyone can come across it.

“That information is then available for employers and people who are checking out your profile,” Durke said. “It’s that permeability of public-private space that has really changed.”

The discussion ended with the panelists touching upon copyright laws.

For those wondering whether they’re living digitally, Jardin offered an answer:

“Living digitally is when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do, before you drink coffee or go to the bathroom, is check your mail.”

Tracy Doan, a sophomore education major, said she is living digitally and that is exactly why she attended the event.

“Technology has become so much a part of my life that it’s not even something I think about anymore,” she said. Doan enjoyed the event, saying, “It’s just good to see that even adults think it’s a good idea that we’re exploring media.”