The Future and Cyborgs...

It's hard for me to believe that there will ever be a practical use for or even the creation of the types of robots we see in Robocop or Terminator. That said, I can totally see the use of cybernetics becomming more commonplace and more significant in the medical field. It is reasonable to me to see things in the future like we see in Star Wars; not necessarily on the scale of Darth Vader, but definitely things like Luke Skywalker having a new hand crafted for him, or how Jax from Mortal Combat has two mechanical arms.

One of the questions I have is if our technology will be limited by physical constraints or if there will be ethical/political boundries, like there have been with stem-cell research, stopping us from developing the most out of cybernetics...

Introducing My Second Life

In this week's reading packet I was given a few articles on my latest fascination, Second Life. In one part of the article from the SF Gate the writer talked about how some people when designing their avatars either re-create themselves or go in the opposite direction.
When I created my avatar it wasn't my intention to recreate myself but that is pretty much what ended up happening.
Meet Gwen Quimby. I'd say she's a super hot/attractive version of the real thing. I hadn't until recently decided to actually join the Second Life community. The Ars Virtua Gallery gave me some insight. Too many new and exciting things are happening in or around Second Life not to get involved.
I'm thinking about starting a blog for my character. I'm still fleshing out some ideas but I think, I would document my experience in Second Life on the blog. Just an idea.

Cyborgs and Symbionts

The word "Cyborg" was originally "coined" in the early 60s as a name for somebody that could manage to live and survive in extra terrestrial environments, and one who would be needed for future space travel. The article discusses how planet earth, or Gaia, can be seen as a Cyborg of sorts itself, with all the unnatural additions and functions men/women have added to it over time. This can also be related to humans' dependancy on technology as though it were leg to stand on, say. Not only in modern times, but in the past with other technologies as well (tools, steam power, electricity, etc.)

Cyborgs, in the Hollywood sense, may not be something too out of the question. Recall, for instance, the recent (based on technology that was already developed somewhat, but anyway) technological achievement of allowing a kid to play Space Invaders simply by moving his hand, and later, simply using his mind. Could you imagine if this technology was further developed and people could control their entire computer with their mind? Humans, sitting blankly staring at their computer controlling it. Either that, or drinking coffee, listening to an iPod, and staring at their computer as they control it.

This may not be exactly along the lines of what they're saying in the article, but it got me to thinking about this. While all this technology is fascinating, and it definitely manages to make things easier for humans, doesn't it seem as though it's "taking over" more and more (more like we're getting lazy and dependent on it), and we rely on it so much, that we ourselves are being less active, and may eventually phase out much physical interaction with objects; almost as if this technology is an extension of us. This is sort of a blanket statement, and I don't necessarily believe this, but for the sake of discussion!!

Between humans and machines

I have a lot of disputes with the authors' use of liberal semiotics in these two papers. In Cyborgology, the authors state that Western intellectual history can be seen as the overcoming of four artificial distinctions. They are:

1) between humans and the cosmos (overcome by Copernicus)
2) between humans and other life (overcome by Darwin)
3) between humans and the unconscious (overcome by Freud)
4) between humans and machines

In analyzing that list, I see one major discrepancy among the first three selections, isolating the final and fourth (which is a crux on which hangs the belief that "cyborgology is essential to mankind's intellectual process"). The first three selections are elements which mankind did not create. The fourth is something we created (although one could argue that the unconscious is a definition we created, but so are the definitions of other life and the cosmos rendering this point null).

Can you say "one of these things is not like the other?"

How can we "progress intellectually" by analyzing our relationship to something that was already the creation of our "intellectual progress." There's something about this which appears suspiciously cyclical to me.

Cyborg=Monster???

When thinking about “cyborg”, the first thing that comes into my mind is a scary monster that is half machine and half human and usually is out there to destroy the world or at least human beings. After reading the packet, I realize that cyborg isn’t limited to our Hollywood definition of this scary superhuman creature. Cyborgs can simply be people relying on machines to continue on their normal lives especially older people. As technology advanced, humans are able to enjoy things that were never possible before. However, would the over reliance on technology turn people into non-normal beings like the cyborgs we see in science fiction? I guess it is like having immunization can prevent some diseases, but by having these immunizations, we create more diseases and problem; therefore, making humans have to rely on technology even more.

Don’t get me wrong! I do think the advancement of technology is definitely improving people’s lives; however, I’m also scary of where these technologies are leading us especially with so much focus on biotechnology and wet technology now.

Gizmondo?

The article about the Gizmondo handheld gaming device was pretty intriguing. To think that a car crash in Southern California could lead to a worldwide investigation seems like something out of the movies. The thing that got to me the most about the article was how much money Eriksson and Freer were making and spending within a startup company without anyone paying attention. Even though the gaming industry experts knew that the device was lackluster, Eriksson and Freer were still able to get investors to flock to the company's needs, allowing the duo to live well beyond their means with the help of loans and credit. Not only did they fool the investors, they were able to fool the public with a crappy handheld that went under a few months after its release... I feel bad for anyone who bought it.

In the end, Eriksson and Freer are just like any other mobsters, exploiting people and businesses to make money and continue their lifestyle... but it’s scary to think that the criminal world has moved from things like drug trafficking and debt collection to the previously innocent(comparatively) high-tech world and gaming industry.

Concepts, Notations, Software, Art

Computer programs get locked into black boxes, and programmers are frequently considered to be mere factota, coding slaves who execute other artist's comcepts. Given that software code is a conceptual notion, this is not without its own irony.

Cramer goes on to discuss the implcations of software as a method of art notion, which I think is fairly accurate. The comparison with Dada works is apt, however instead of thinking of software as strictly an instruction set, I tend to think of it as "potential art" in the sense that an object can have potential energy. The construction of executable code (or even pseudocode in some cases) provides a potentiality that I believe really becomes the crux of many works intentionally or otherwise. Cramer points out that it's possible to "execute" code without a machine at all by simply understanding instructions (and cites coding textbooks as an example), and in that sense it's not necessary to actually execute the code at all in many cases.

Also, I was happy to see the distinction between coding on "bare metal" (sans operating system or any high-level code) versus within a fully-realized development environment. While I don't think either is more valuable than the other, it's important to understand the differences, which I don't believe many people do from a technical standpoint. The fact is that much of what we think of as innovation when it comes to software is really the culmination in a very real way of many programmers who have come before. Software at the highest level (or even the catagory commonly known as "low level", which OpenGL would arguable fit into) is built upon a series of layers of code that feel archeological; They have depth both in relationship to their closeness to the machine but also in their age, as lower-level code tends to not be modified as frequently as high-level code.

Of course even at the machine's most basic level there had to have been someone (or more likely a series of people) who decided the most fundimental instruction set the machine would understand; Literally the "machine language" and those are the decisions that shape our lives more than we probably know.

Cory Arcangel lecture

I was really exicted to see the Cory Arcangel lecure and it really was everything I was hoping for. I had seen video of some of his previous lectures, so I sort of knew what to expect, but I was glad that we got to see some of his newer work (the Dazed and Confused dub was amazing, for example).

It was especially interesting to see him in person, though, because afterwards I was talking with Steve and mentioned that I thought much of Cory's lectures are performance in a really literal way. In fact the next day Joel (who didn't go to that particular lecture, but has seen previous ones) commented on the same thing. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it seems like there's some meta-work going on outside of Cory's projects that I'm starting to enjoy more, though I'm not quite sure what it is.

First Hand Copyright/YouTube Issue

Several years ago, I worked on a film titled "Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion," a documentary that chronicles Tibet's recent past. It was released as a full-length 35mm film, and on DVD and VHS. Just on a whim, I decided to search on YouTube for "Cry of the Snow Lion" and there it was, in 15 or so segments, there for everyone to see, and also in its entirety in one full on block of video. I've contacted the filmmakers and am interested as to what may come of this, because I'm assuming this wasn't endorsed!

Second Life (the fantasy virtual world)

When I first began to read the second life article, I was wondering why would anyone want to pay for an online vocation. I mean you don’t get to actually feel or experience all those things. However, as I read more about the crazy possibilities in second life, I began to realize the online virtual world attraction is about imagination and being able to live out of your ordinary boring life. Online people can be anything or anyone they can imagine to be regardless of their true identity in the real world. So I kind of want to ask about how would this virtual world with endless possibilities affecting the real world? And is it okay to do the craziest thing and live a little while online?

I wonder if second world is a place for people to build this fantasy world to experience what they can experience in the real world or just as an escape from all the boringness in school and stress from work. And is there any danger of being so deeply into a virtual world that only exists online?
Anyways, I was just kind of wondering about this. As you can tell, I don’t play much video games.

Wired #5

Second Life

I've never been a huge fan of interactive games of this nature. Though, for the sake of conversation, I'll give my 2 cents on this one in particular.

I think among the few interactive gameplays that I know of: Second Life, The Sims, even Animal Crossing... Second Life appears to be the most thought out, interactive, creativity-savvy and many more descriptive words.

The manufacturing cube was the most interesting to me as I went through the article. With this cube, the user can create just about anything that comes to mind. They just need that little bit of inspiration and creativity to get going. To think of it in terms of real life, it seems a little ridiculous. But who knows, maybe we'll have something like that in the far [probably not mere] future. With technology these days... it can only be a matter of time before we can have whatever we want, in a blink of an eye.

The character designs was the second thing I found rather intriguing. In contrast with The Sims, I prefer Second Life. I never liked the character designs in The Sims. Given, that was I was never a fan of The Sims, but I kept an open mind about it. At a Gaming Convention last year, I tested my hand on the, at that time, the latest Sims game and didn't even get past the Character Designs before I walked away from the game. I enjoy customization, but The Sims just didn't hold my attention for more than 10 minutes. Second Life is more appealing in this category.

Finally, the aspect I found most amusing, was the sex organs option. From what I read, I'm assuming you can go to a store in the Second Life world and choose what kind of sex organs you want? And that's not just in terms of what gender you want to be... it's what you want it to look like and all that.

This just goes to show... that the possibilities are endless~

I won't be playing Second Life though. But in any case, it's interesting to see the progress with the development of interactive gameplay.

Barbie v Baby Einstein

This week in the personalized reading packets Rachel made up for us I had an article from Time Magazine. Barbie to Baby Einstein Get Over it discussed the skewed visions the media portrays of parental involvement and over achieving college students.
Barbie out sells Baby Einstein and is considered the choice of people who want their daughter to be concerned with vanity not intelligence. I'm sure playing your toddler Baby Einstein tapes does enhance it's learning from an early age, but I'm sure taking an active interest in your child's development enhances their learning as well.
Need I bring up the fact that Barbie was also a doctor, an astronaut and a business woman.
Why chose? I think just being an actual parent to your child and taking interest in their interests makes a big difference.
I also agree with the article when it said that currently parents are not as involved in teenagers high school experience. The media shows colleges as ominous institutions that only accept the best of the best cutting out high school applicants.
I can totally relate this idea.

Wired? Packet? Lecture? Whuhuh?

Okay, I'm not sure whether I should be posting about the lecture, Wired, or that stack of fantastic articles. So I'll do a little of all and see where that goes.

First off, the Cory Arcangel speak was fantastic. I really enjoyed his work; he definitely works in mediums, and does projects very similar to things that I am interested in, and can relate to. He was very clever and came off as very humble and unpretentious, which I felt was very welcome. He genuinely seemed to enjoy what he did, and did it out of pure enjoyment rather than "because people expect it" of him, which is what it should all be about.

Damn. Too bad my Commodore 64 and Atari 800 are in storage up at my parent's place. I've got my Amiga 4000 to hold me over in the mean time I guess.

Articles! One of the articles in the stack that Rachel handed out was titled "If () then ()" by Jutta Steidl (boss name!) and deals with programming language vs. poetry. It discusses poetic works from the past conforming to fit within grids, shapes, step by step like works that create images "reflecting speech as a medium in itself."

It goes on to discuss poetry done as code; which when executed by a machine will produce further text; however it is felt that code poetry requires an understanding of coding to appreciate the art form. But I believe that's like anything; you must be educated in many cases in order to fully appreciate the work.

I for one would understand the code for a "foreign" programming language about as well as I understand "classic" poetry. I don't really understand or enjoy it, but I can at least respect it, and the work the artist does. If that makes sense.

second life

I was astonished at the article on second life. Not because of the actual existence of a virtual reality world, but because this is the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. It made me think a couple things:

First, second life isn't the representation of a new virtual world, but the symptoms of a new virtual world. The rest of the world doesn't know anything about this world, nor how to learn about it. I haven't heard about this online community despite being apart of many online communities. Obviously we know there is a great deal of information out there and the internet is showing us how we can't possibly fathom the amount. But Second Life shows us that there already exists people who live online because "earth inhabitants" don't know anything about Second Life, until it is published in a mainstream magazine.

Second, it scares me to think of the absorption into a digital world. I kept thinking about the World of Warcraft episode of South Park. Disturbing.

The online carny show

I couldn't find anything "intelligent" to say about any of the articles I read which Rachel had recommended. That is, until I watch The Elephant Man last night. Perhaps it was just an embittered reaction towards the cruelty of the freak-show-director character, but I have to wonder if eBaum's world isn't the same defacement of humanity that has existed for centuries (or millennia?) and we still encourage and eat it up. I hardly believe that everyone looking for their 15 minutes of fame permits us to degrade humanity. Yet, what the issue is in the article about eBaum's World is copyrighted content.

I've been thinking about Google purchasing youTube. A friend pointed out to me that in Google's company statement, they claim that their goal is to provide information freely to all. In other words, abolish copyright laws. Since Google Scholar has been posting copyrighted material, Google has been (threatened?) with copyright lawsuits; what if Google is attempting the same thing with youTube: to post all content/information as free information?

Behind the Pink Door

I found out this article is quite cool. What is really behind the pink door..this is something related in commercial sex industry. Just think about pornography is a big business throughout the world, especially in Japan..with their growing technology. Well..people would spend money on pornography no doubt about it. Fuzoku is the place people would like to visit and find out because they have alot of good stuff going on with multimedia porn. I just believe this type of busniess really make alot of fast money.

Second Life

I posted this on Friday morning but there seems to have been some technical error : (

I read the article about the online game/community Second life. I am also currently writing a blurb about online gaming for an upcoming article in Access Magazine (The SJSU student mag.)

So being that Second life seems to be so popular I decided to give it a try. What I found out is to get any where in Second Life you have to be willing to compromise a lot of time in your first life.

It's sort of like an expansive version of the SIMS, only there are a million people playing, who are spending outrageous sums of money and time making sure their Second life is fulfilling.

I do enjoy shopping and editing the appearance of the character I created. But I can't really figure out if I'm supposed to get a job or how to build or buy a house. I've gone maybe three times now and I get trapped waiting for the game to load (which I'd like to add that I do have wireless, so this is especially annoying) I feel I can't get anything accomplished and before I know it two hours have gone by.

What I think is funny is that "the community" is very pro tolerance, so they have rules against violence, which I always thought was the backbone of any video game. What you can do is find your perfect mate and have sex. I have not tried this nor do I intend to. I have sex in the real world that's good enough for me, but from what I can gather you can choose your location and even the position you would like your character to enjoy.

I think if your spending time on the internet, in an online virtual community hooking up and having sex you might have issues. Is it porno for programmers?

Microsoft's Change of Pace

I found the article, "Rebuilding Microsoft" to be particularly interesting in this month's Wired. In reading the article, it was the first I had heard that Microsoft is supposedly having trouble keeping on the edge of the market; though, it sounds like the company is ready to change that. With Bill Gates moving on to devote more of his time to philanthropic efforts, he has assigned Ray Ozzie to take his old position of Chief Software Architect, and the whole business model of Microsoft looks to be shifting gears.
The idea of high-tech accessories is going to be one of the company's new primary concerns, which sounds very similar to Apple. I guess we will just have to see in the next couple years, with Windows Vista coming out and all these new gadgets and internet markets that Microsoft is getting involved in, if the company if going to reassume its position of total domination or just be "another" company trying to sell the same thing everyone else is.

Map Quest

I think most people are familiar with online maps that can tell you directions from point A to point B or GPS in cars or even cell phones. These tools made life a lot easier and people no longer have to worry about how to get to places. Most of the major websites such as Google Map, Yahoo Map, MapQuest, etc. provides digital driving directions and many with more and more new features. So is this putting old traditional paper map out of date?

Personally, I think these digital driving direction may be helpful, but they can be a huge pain, too. I have run into problem with digital directions a lot form telling me to go in the opposite direction of a one way street or only telling me directions through major highways like 101 that has a lot of traffic or telling me to change from one highway to another and another. Another problem I found with digital direction is that it wastes a lot of paper. An old traditional paper map can be reused over and over again, but the digital direction you print out is usually only being used once. So I guess without the latest updates and information digital driving direction is just like a paper map to me.

Field Trip Reminder

Just a quick reminder tomorrow we are going on a field trip! Please be on time to class so we can leave right away. I will bring maps and directions for those of you who have generously volunteered to drive. We'll drive up, get something to eat, and head over to the lecture. The lecture is free, but bring some money for dinner.

Dude, That Is SO Not Funny!!

Oh gosh; the internet video! People at work clicking all day long watching various videos of "fad" like videos. However, it's interesting to note some things that goes back to our old discussion of copyright and such with the internet.

According to the article, Eric Bauman has been receiving death threats, and has sites against him, claiming that he steals work from others and makes money, by putting cooky videos, images, and jokes onto his website that he's found elsewhere; his site gets 1.2 million visitors a day.

With google taking over YouTube, couldn't they then say they "own" the videos on their site? I'm not sure what the deatils are of uploading videos to YouTube, but in someway, can't the material become someone else's property?

As a side note, please check my blog for my ART180 project at http://spiozet.blogspot.com I'd be grateful for any input you might have!

Wired #4

I choose to read the article about Behind the Scenes of the Hospital Drama: HOUSE.

I am a HUGE fan of this show, so when I saw that it was in this issue of Wired, I immediately wanted to read up about it.

HOUSE is different than other hospital dramas like ER and Scrubs. While they are all still about hospital related things... HOUSE has an unique spice of it's own. I always saw ER as the serious hospital drama and I saw Scrubs as the comedic hospital drama.

I feel that HOUSE is a blend of both worlds. And I think that's why I love it so much.

In the article, the writer interviewed the one of the staff on the production team of HOUSE and asked him a series of questions.

He mentioned how every episode of HOUSE opens with a completely different setting. It's not even a hospital setting. So it appears as if you're watching some regular TV drama. But for anyone who's kept up with HOUSE knows that each of these openers leads to a scenario where SOMEONE in that opener is going to come down with a sickness or injury of some sort that'll require them to be rushed to the hospital immediate. The mystery behind these first few minutes is... who's it gonna be. I enjoy this first part of the show because you'll start to think... is it the most obvious person on the screen... or is it that other person! It's a mystery. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not. It's always changing and it's rare for any scenario to be repeated or close to duplication.

And what about HOUSE. The star doctor? He's not your average doctor. No... he's actually quite a jerk and you'll probably find it hard to thank him through the course of the episode. He's sarcastic, narcisstic and quite forceful. But boy... is he a genius. He'll have your heart racing throughout the episode while producing hearty laughs with his sarcasm. At the end of the episode, you'll be leaning back in your seat, thinking Wow. That man is the shit.

The article wasn't particularly long... but I have many upon many things I could say about HOUSE in general.

If anyone who's not watching this show... I suggest you give it a try. It's probably one of the best shows I've seen in quite a while~ It got me watching TV again. And I hadn't watched TV so regularly in such a long time. Now that's saying something ;D

Authenticity, etc

The important issue here is that the power of cybernetic simulations prompts a redefinition of such fundamental terms as life and reality, just as, for Benjamin, mechanical reproduction alters the very conception of art and the standards by which we know it. Casting the issue in terms of whether existence within the limits of an artificial life-support system should be considered “life” obscures the issue in the same way that asking whether film and photography are “art” does. In each case a presumption is made about a fixed, or ontologically given, nature of life or art, rather than recognizing how that very presumption has been radically overturned.

I agree with this sentiment, and I feel that many times (and not only regarding "New Media") the question of "is it art" is raised with the implication that the question is regarding the definition of "art as we know it". The fact of the matter is that some work doesn't always fit in well with whatever art practice happens to be going on at the moment. I tend to wonder about the utility of questions like "is it art" because I find that those sort of questions are usually an attempt to protect the status quo rather than re-define it. I realize, of course, that there is some real discussion to be had around the topic, but I rarely see it take place, unfortunately. Many of the anecdotes in the articles we read this week were about just that: The inability of many people to recognize machine-assisted assisted artwork as "genuine" (I found this especially interesting in in the context of Photography). Just like the question should be "What is art?" not "How does this fit into what we think of as art?", the question shouldn't be "Is this authentic?" but rather "What is authenticity?"

Age of Copywriting

One of the most interesting things discussed in "The Age of Cybernetic Systems" was the way that video games go through the copywriting process. Instead of providing code, software developers provide video of the game being played.
In the case of Pac-Man, this was very important when the court was deciding on whether or not K.C. Munchkin was infringing on the Pac-Man copywrite. In the end, it was decided that "A person who is entranced by the play of the game, 'would be disposed to overlook' many of the minor differences in detail and 'regard their aesthetic appeal as the same.'"
This brings an interesting question to the table though, because there are many games on the market that are"similar" to others, and I would like to know how it is decided when something is "too similar" just by looking at the video instead of reading the code.

cybernetics and collectivism

"Cybernetic systems and the cyborg as human metaphor refute a heritage that celebrates individual free will and subjectivity." What heritage is he talking about? A western heritage? I'm baffled by authors who seem to believe that individualism and subjectivity is the only school of thought available to mankind.

Software and Happenings

The 1960s and early 1970s are so awesome. I wish that artistic "Happenings" happened today. I suppose that it could be said that they do acquire, just in a modern way. It seems that today artists take old ideas and make them new, or exploit them in a way that makes the audience see them differently. How cool would it be to be apart of something totally new? And to have all these colleges who are constantly pushing the borders of traditional art?
From everything that I've read for this class that seems to be an ongoing theme. Questioning mediums and making others do the same. Bringing new ideas to the table, and the constant evolution of art.

Software

The “Software” Exhibit really is like the first or beginning of New Media Art. The idea of using technologies such as information processing systems and devices like tool or medium to express their idea and interest, which is about public’s personal responses to programmatic situations structured by artists.

It is like what we are trying to do today although you may think their ideas and fears of computer control are old school. Is this what we have been trying to figure out for our project? Trying to use technology to help us better express and show our ideas and beliefs about the world changed and influenced by technology!

I read most of the project and I think the projects are pretty interesting and most be very revolutionary at the time. (there is a few projects' descriptions are a little blurry, so can't quiet read them)

Cybernetics

Seek is a rather interesting bit of technology. While it's operated solely by computer and free to manipulate a given environment as it pleases, this brings me back to the NextFest article and that life-like lady that could be your housekeeper, talks and can probably take care of your kids. Like I mentioned before, the technology like this still has me at a safe distance. While it's really interesting and all, I think I'd always be somewhat worried or hesitate when working with these kinds of machines.

It's interesting to read about though, don't get me wrong about that.

From Software-Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art

Something that I find myself being interested is seeing how technical feats were achieved with primitive technology. That was what primarily attracted me to this article. The article discusses a show put on entitled Software, at the Jewish Museum in 1970. Several pieces were shown including Seek, which manipulated many metal cubes in an environment with gerbils, a database of sorts which is reportedly the first "publicly available hypertext," Labyrinth.

Seek seemed to be the more interesting and interactive piece as it directly put the computer in control of an animal's enviroment, something that I think people are still afraid of today; domination by technology! It's fascinating that they could have something seemingly so complex controlled and operated by a computer back then. It's also interesting to see that computer-assisted art has gone back so far; I was amazed to learn that computer generated animations date back nearly 40 years (in terms of movie shorts, etc., not statistical/scienctific displays).

I think a lot of people may look back on this article and think "so what?" but it really needs to be put into context; the thought at the time of even owning, a basically non-existant "micro computer" was rediculous, let alone letting the average Joe operate one. Interestingly enough, these days it's as if technology is developed around what needs to be done more than it is about getting things done with existing technology (e.g. , make the game player upgrade his RAM rather than write compact code and fit it into 64K!) Luckily, in a sense, technology is so cheap now, this doesn't seem like such a hassle. It's also interesting to see how much equipment was required to run pieces like this, where as something similar could be controlled with something so miniscule nowadays.

"But maybe play them like a videogame"

I was really ready to dismiss the article on Beck's newest release as another write-up on an almost-interesting, "boundry-pushing" release. Not because I dislike Beck, but because the RIAA and the record companies they represent have demonstrated time and again that they are not willing to make any substantial changes to their business model, especially in regards to new forms of content distribution.

It seems like Beck, however, had the foresight to have his contract written in such a way that's allowed him to experiment with his releases. As the article explained, his most recent release was available in a multitude of forms that allowed a broader creative license that's difficult to capture in a traditional CD release. So far it seems like it's "the album plus some stuff" most of the time (Beck's DVD release included video and a surround-sound mix, according to the Wired article), but Beck clearly is interested in really taking advantage of what's available to him as far as low-cost technologies go to produce a more open-ended music experience. I was especially pleased that he was making low-budget YouTube films not because I especially enjoy YouTube (or Beck's music, really), but because it seems to me to be a great way to break out of the strict Record Lable-mediated fan interaction.