Week 4

Digital media has a profound affect on the way we think about space and place, both potentially harmful and helpful. One of the things that digital media allows us to do is to see the realities that other's experience and in so doing connect with their images of space and place. These allow us to connect with their place, while inhabiting our own space. Like was said in the reading, in a way this is our way of inhabiting space, not place, because we are sharing the same space, while being in two separate places. The internet especially comes to mind when thinking about this. I can learn about different cultures, different ways of life, from the comfortable space of my own place. Yet I don't really get the opportunity to experience their place. I guess the difference in my minds eye between space and place is that space is merely a facet of place. When we share space with someone else we see part of their place, but not the whole.

Yet, I feel very attracted to this idea of space, because it allows us to understand ideas and things more clearly and more easily. In fact, I almost feel that perhaps in addition to being part of another's place, space is something that is completely new and different. It is more contrived, and I believe that teaches us more about an individual then seeing them in their home place because we are seeing how they want their place to be. Perhaps more is incorrect, maybe different is more accurate. In the text, Homeplace, the author talked about how important it was for people to stay put so that they might not lose their place. However, he mentioned an author who felt that we could create place by staying put on ideas. Maybe that is the place that I more fully comprehend and the idea of space that I am trying to put into words. But then ideas have always been more important to me then simple reality.

New Media Identity Responses:

Nicholas Adams: I really enjoyed your concept of media helping us to evolve. I think that media influences us so much that it truly shapes how we grow. In addition I really appreciated how you talked about not outgrowing what we love. Because it shaped us, it has become a part of us and it will always be important to us. Often, the simplest things are those that are most influential. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Sophia Borich: I enjoyed the medium you used to tell the story of how media influenced you. It seemed to show how you captured media and then how that captured media becomes a part of you, creating your media identity. To make it more meaningful, the captions of the Polaroids seemed to help show what you captured from each meaningful piece of media. I liked how we could see what was really important to you. Great job, I enjoyed it!