Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Monday, August 31, 2009

Do we really want to be psychologically analyzed by our tweets?

Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count text analysis and the Regressive Imagery Dictionary Dan Zarrella designed TweetPsych to do just that. His blog post introducing the concept, and the beta site itself, explain that users who participate in Twitter conversationally rather than using it for content distribution will receive more insightful results. Despite my account being somewhat information oriented and in the 500-tweet range (1,000 or more tweets also return better results), I ran the posts through to see what I’d get.

The summary showed my highest score in Cognitive Content / Time followed by Primordial, Conceptual and Emotional Content / Temporal References and Abstract thought. My tweets also highlight the past tense and cognitive processes like learning, thinking, knowing, etc.

Furthering the applicability of TweetPsych, Zarrella’s post today introduces characteristic rankings showing a list of the top 20 users in categories including anxiety, oral fixation, and social processes.

Despite the disclaimer that it’s for entertainment purposes only, there is something about this concept that feels off to me. I can’t tell yet if it has more to do with sectioning off aspects of identity when using different social media tools (as in revealing a different component of yourself to Twitter than, say, to MySapce, and different still from Flickr) ... or if it’s because the analysis was approached from a social media marketing standpoint.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

An article I wrote on the Obscurae Gallery project is up at JPGmag. Below is the introduction, but head on over there to see more photos and read it all.

Braddock, Pennsylvania, has a haunting beauty that draws in photographers. From those who live in nearby Pittsburgh to travelers from around the world, something about this town grabs their attention and reveals itself in their visions.

Within these photographs there is a bridge between how the small town appears to daily commuters and what lies beneath. Beneath the abandoned buildings we find brilliant colors seeping into rough, rusted metal. Green vines, weeds, and moss overtake broken remnants of what was left behind.

This divide between the view of Braddock from a distance and the beautiful details captured by photographers sparked inspiration for me and two friends: We decided to bring the enthusiasm full circle by displaying the photographs of 28 artists featuring obscure, intriguing details of Braddock in a fundraising photo lottery to support community and artistic projects in the town that has inspired so much creative vision.

Read more...

I’ve been stuck in a technology/applications posting rut. Although that stuff does fascinate me to an extent, I just don’t have the passion for it to write about it more than once a month (apparently).

So I’m going back to my roots on this blog and figuring out where that takes me. Interviews and social media will probably spring up more often.

I’ve been exploring community, not as in place or neighborhood but in regard to interpersonal bonds that form around interaction in groups leading to shared experiences and drives. There’s an academic side to it all that I’ve been burying my head in as I suss out my dissertation—but there’s also a practical side that involves some of the most vivid people I’ve ever met. It’s those people and those groups that I want to refocus on.

Why do I have that silly photo of Emilita Bambina in this entry? Because I want to look like that when I’m updating this site ... she’s my inspiration.

Monday, August 24, 2009

I’ve gotten it into my head that there are certain skills I need to have. Making pudding is one of them. Pudding from scratch that is, not the box mix with high fructose corn syrup and dye to make it look like chocolate.

So I began my search for pudding recipes as I do all my cooking experiments: online. Pulling up about 20 different versions and getting a feel for ingredients and method.

Cookbooks are great. In fact I love flipping through cookbooks. But they all suffer the same crucial flaw: only one recipe per dish. (Maybe not all, I did recently see a cookbook that promised 50 grilled cheese recipes. But then it suffers having only one dish.)

When I’m searching for online recipes I’m looking for something I can make now with ingredients (and kitchen equipment) already in my cupboards. Combining the local and the universal creates the option of immediacy. I don’t need to go shopping for ingredients, because there are always substitutions to be found. Another benefit to having the world at my fingertips: malleability of ingredients.

This convergence of local and universal access hits home weekly when I dig into my CSA (community supported agriculture) box. This year I am fairly familiar with the local produce, but last year there were some surprises in there. For instance, I had no idea what to do with kohlrabi. After researching what it is and how it can be eaten, I discovered that I like it. Now I grow it in my garden.

The 2009 Digital Future Project report showed that 80% of Americans are now online, and of those 15% participate in online communities. The most popular communities are related to hobbies and social causes. I have yet to join a cooking community, maybe because it’s not one of my more active or social hobbies, but I definitely benefit from the social networking of others who enjoy cooking. From blog posts detailing cooking successes and failures to comments and ratings below recipes with suggestions to improve the dishes, my seat as a lurker is panning out well.