Analysis of World of Warcraft FigurePrints

This is a beast of a post (although not as long as some others).  I am attempting to make some sense of my argument for my paper, so I am being thorough in the hope that I can get some good feedback.  Thanks in advance if you read all this.   Enjoy the journey:

Oh semiotics, you are so tricksy.

I wanted to share a little story of something that happened recently with you as an example of why I get all itchy whenever we talk about semiotics. It’s not that I don’t like semiotics outright, it’s just that I cannot escape the thought that signs only have significance in their relationships and meanings to people. While I acknowledge that when we examine a sign with respect to its relationship to relevant discourses we are putting it within a context, I feel like semiotics doesn’t acknowledge the extreme amount of interpretation required for viewing that sign in a particular manner. So here is an example that I think illuminates my point. The other day Lynn and I were driving to campus with another friend and the subject of the video “Leeroy Jenkins” came up. For any of you not familiar, here is the video.

Our friend said that she doesn’t like this video because of the racial overtones it has. Lynn and I were really surprised – we’d never recognized any racial themes to the video at all. Our friend was shocked that we hadn’t. For her, the name Leeroy automatically meant that the “character” Leeroy was black and the fact that he references chicken at the end (something I totally didnt catch until after I watched it again after this conversation) bring up all sorts of racial cues.

Lynn and I both discussed at length how to us, the name Leeroy connoted a lower class, hick type that usually, in our minds, white. A few days later our friend shared with us the urban dictionary entry for “Leroy”. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=leroy  If you scroll to definition #3, clearly more people than just our friend connote the name with the racial stereotype.

The point is that clearly before this conversation took place, Lynn, myself and my friend all would have come up with very different semiotic readings of this same video. The differences in lifeworlds meant that we didn’t view the signs the same way at all. I understand that because a semiotic reading is just that – a reading – it is not really right or wrong, but this still just does not sit well with me. I’m uncomfortable with the idea of not acknowledging lifeworlds in semiotic analysis.

Just thought I would share – happy paper writing!
Also, it’s taken me literally over half an hour to submit this post. And I can’t figure out how to get the link to be a link, sorry bout that. Not happy with wordpress right now – geeze louise.

Next Drum Thoughts

First semiotic diagram of drums

It took me a while to be able to get to this point for more thoughts from everyone here, but I wanted to show my (most likely awry and probably will get trolled for yet another long post) attempts at trying to create a semiotic diagram of the interactions I will be looking at in the final paper: the drum peripherals for Rock Band and Guitar Hero. While doing this, it was pretty exciting what I ended up finding out there, and I hope you enjoy the brain dump:

(I also left some areas here with parentheses to try to get help with what I am not sure about)

***EPIC NOTE DUMP OF ATTEMPTED SEMIOTIC READING***

other artifacts in this arena:
ion drumset (alesis – makers of pro music equipment) – 2nd from the bottom left
logitech drumset (adjustable and quiet) – 2nd down from top left
ultimate view (hacker made) – 2nd left from bottom right
zen drums (many different small drums) – pros use – 2nd down from top right
taiko drums (japanese, but still a drum controller) – top left corner
dk bongos (for children) – 2nd up from bottom left
gh5 controller – bottom left corner
korg (the stick) – upper right hand corner
rock revolution – 2nd right from upper left corner
band hero – 3rd right from bottom left corner
silent drum controller – bottom right corner
roland handsonic – to the right of rock revolution
kat percussion – to the right of roland

implied speakers
the homemade ones speak more from hackers and DIY-ers perspective
the game controllers speak from a software/engineering standpoint
the pro ones speak from musicians and sound engineers

implied “player”
the homemade ones speak to those who are crafty and want control over the music they want to make, but still want to play games
the game controllers speak to a generic gamer who wants to enjoy music games, regardless of skill
the pro ones speak of professional musicians whose job it is to use these tools to play music to make money

implied cultural references
the homemade ones not only have the cultural reference of the pots and pans, but there’s also the strong nerd/tinkerer connotation
the games ones have the animal! connotation to them – just hack away at them and that’s how you define fun – the also amateurish feel to them as well from marching band
the pro ones speak to the refined musician and rocker inside of them, but have a strong pragmatic twist to them – it’s a simplified tool to make music and fun

materiality
the homemadeones are made out of “nonstandard” drum equipment – electrical equipment and sensors
the game ones are made out of plastic and practice drum heads, and foam – it literally sounds like one is practicing playing the drums
the pro ones are made out of metal and actual practice equipment, combined with a sound board type feel (remediation of professional equipment)

connotation/denotations
the homemadeones directly reflect the amount of love put into the music and the effort needed to make the drums work with the games and software – also shows their love of the game and also the showoffiness of their efforts – these are literally just controllers they have made to interface with the game, not directly sanctioned by the makers of the games, but they put it on youtube, which popularizes the games and efforts even more – may or may not connotate a level of musicianship
the game ones are tools literally to interface with the code of the games and the hardware of the video game systems – also can be used between games and show as tools online as to how to play the games – also are a status symbol of one’s acheivements in the games – for example the ions mean that you have the money for tools for gaming (it’s 250-300 bucks) and are super responsive – also reminiscent of the cobalt flux DDR arcade pads – better players play with the best equipment – so it’s almost kinda like a sport equipment piece, and the default equipment can’t get you to the upper echelons of play – reflect the whole gamut of musicianship from complete amateur to knowedlgeable pros
the pro ones directly not only reflect the amount of money and professional sounds that come through them, along with the ability to fine tune the sound to their desirable levels – the other pieces of equipment don’t get you that (except the silent drum, but even that not to an extent) – the pros don’t have the direct literal form of a drum set, which is interesting, because they are more computerish tools to craft sound, rather than to literally sit down on a throne, pick up sticks, and then start jamming – this type of jamming is professional, meant for money, as these tools will help you to get the money and respect from the music community, not the gaming community, as the other tools will get you

other form connotations
the homemade ones can take any form they want and encourage any type of play – aux perc, regular drumming, or any other type of percussive happenings – it’s sort of like the homemade ones are meant to be played only by the individual who made them – very restrictive and intuitive to one person, and may require extensive learning for those who didn’t make the original instrument (or is it?) – as far as the game concerned, it is an instrument – connotative of many of the other homebrewed instruments out there for youtube – can be combined with the games on the computer or the actual game console
the pro ones discard the traditional form of drum set – they abandon this in favor of an extension of the computer as a wave generating machine – or they utilize the “one drum” practice pad approach that one can use normal sticks on but manipulate it in the sound board way – these also connotate a professional level of play – very tight, staccato sounds that come from the drum material itself, regardless of what sound is programmed to come out of the darn thing – the level of metal and foam on them make it less likely for amateur banging on them to happen, as the toughness and the money reinforce the professional nature of these things

types of sticks involved
(i prefer 5A sticks, which are a little thinner, but i find they are pretty speedy)
homemade – any type of sticks or hands, as they are just “generically” used to hit the darn things and not have any other meaning attached to them (would have to ask people)
game ones – they come with their own sticks ( i play with my own sticks instead ), officially licensed as well, but feel too “woody” and not like a real pair of sticks that i have used and become used to hearing how they play – have to learn how to play with another particular set of sticks – just get the sound of the stick and the equipment
the pros – they are meant to be used not only with your sticks, but they are meant to also be played with your hands while playing to dynamically change and fine tune the sound, unless it is rigged to other technologies to help the musician dynamically change the music – or maybe even no sticks at all

so overall, i think this has helped me to see these as not only status symbols, but as tools that define what fun can come from drumming, along what type of sound “should” be made by drums

i guess then my language exposed is not only the intent behind the creation of these status symbols, but how they are used to satisfy the inner drummer within each of us

it also seems to me that there’s a “be all you can be” different kind of drummer evoked by each of these equipment – be the best modder and youtube star with the homemade equipment – be the best virtual drummer with the best drumming equipment for your friends online and also in the youtubes – be the best techno/pro drummer (without a “real” drum set) with the professional synthesis equipment

addresser/addressee/sender/sendee
addresser
(may need help here) success, fame, “good” music

sender
the different “companies” which manufacture the equipment (the actual modder from homemade, a gaming/software company (e.g. red octane or logitech), and the professional music companies that create the professional ones)

addressee
the “drummer” (i guess the dormant version that is within all of us)

sendee (receiver)
the actual performer (modder from homemade, video game player from gaming ones, and renowned conoisseur percussionist from pros)

Jalou

Full disclosure: I ♥ Dolce & Gabbana and I am going to be unabashedly biased towards anything that has a D&G tag on it.

Here are a few facts:

• For those of you who have not heard about Dolce & Gabbana, it is one of the biggest (and one of the best IMO) luxury fashion houses of the world and is based in Milan.
• Sony Ericsson has collaborated with D&G and released a limited edition of their phone called Jalou. The name of the phone is derived from a french word jaloux which means jealousy!
• The D&G edition is plated with 24 carat gold and is faded-rose in color. There are other colors but they are do not carry the D&G tag on them.
• The retail price of the phone is $800 and the price of the D&G edition is undisclosed. D&G is known for it’s notriously high pricing especially since it’s a luxury brand.

Since we have been reading some fashion texts and trying to apply that to interaction design, I thought this was a particularly interesting artifact to talk about. We have talked so much about a phone like the iPhone where owning the latest tehcnology is fashion. So I was wondering how does it work when it comes to something like the Jalou. Clearly it cannot be discarded as “advertising” and “branding”. It gets even more interesting when you compare the advertisements of the same phone – one made by Sony Ericsson and the other by D&G.

Thoughts/comments?

Dolce & Gabbana

Sony Ericsson

Dear Jeff

Please post comments on our outlines so I know if I should feel smart or dumb (and so we can use your comments for our paper). Thanks.

CJ

Concurrent Discourses

In class Jeff was talking about how self is defined by the discourse and that there is no “puppeteer” real version of self that exists inside of us.

Wow.

I know Semiotics is not supposed to be looked at like religion and its a tool and it has holes, but I’m loving it. Call bullshit if you want, but think about how that changes everything when we design. I mean look at how we use personnas or scenarios. We build these tools up to work with a given circumstance. The specific ones are typically the ones that help us the most.

My question is about concurrent discourses (think ubiquitous computing or group interaction). Jeff used the example that he acts differently around his mother than other situations. We act a certain way given the context, but what about overlapping contexts. What about when you’re married to a co-worker. Or drinking with a professor. Is this a whole new discourse, or would you consider that a combination of discourses, and if so what changes?

I may be way off here, but before I was only thinking about a single discourse. That makes sense. But when we have a lot going on (as we often do) what does that mean for semiotics?

Pour Me Another

(please note that the thoughts contained herein do not reflect my own opinion of Alcoholic Anonymous, but rather those I believe are being communicated by the album art under consideration)

I’ve been kickin’ back with some truly awesome Minneapolis hip-hop lately, and I was admiring the album art of Atmosphere’s “You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having.” It depicts the artist sitting alone, bored and fuming, in what appears to be an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

But then, I realized upon closer inspection that there’s nothing in the imagery that says AA. How in the heck did I reach this conclusion? What clues were contained within this text that allowed me to interpret it so?

• The heavy metal doors symbolize a cold and impersonal public space, perhaps a gymnasium in an old school. The tell-tale green color of the doors and wall harken back to 1950s construction, represent a space that is purely utilitarian, and has not been remodeled for human aesthetic needs.
• The concrete floor furthers the cold, impersonal, depressive nature of the space.
• The windows are covered with grocery bags held up with masking tape, suggesting that whatever happens in this room is intended to be private and hidden from the outside world. However, the grocery bags are on the other side of the glass, so anyone on the outside could easily pull them down. I believe this is actually a flaw in the artistic rendering of this scene.
• The circular lock and deadbolt indicates that the door is locked, further communicating that this is a private affair.
• The rug shows that someone, probably with the best of intentions, had tried to superficially brighten up the space. The fact that it’s ugly, brown and outdated represents the futility of this effort. Rather than improving the warmth and humanity of the space, the rug instead becomes a symbol itself for the depressive nature of the meeting.
• The folding chairs indicate that this meeting is a temporary repurposing of this space. The fact that they’re covered in cheap fabric and padding further indicates a futile attempt to bring comfort to this negative experience.
• The blue folding chair on the right is at a slight angle, following the angle of the circular rug. Both of these act as incredibly subtle signals that people for this event will be seated in a circular arrangement. This implies that this is not a hierarchal meeting between, say, a panel and attendees, but a flat arrangement between so-called equals.
• The fact that the artist is smoking, in flagrant disregard of the posted “No Smoking” sign, symbolizes his rejection of this event. That there is a “No Smoking” sign posted in the first place shows that this is likely a meeting between people who may stereotypically be smokers, and that the subjects covered may be stressful to the point where people would find themselves needing to partake in a comforting, familiar habit.
• The artist’s body language further communicates his boredom and rejection of this event. It is as though the depressive superficiality of his surroundings are symbolic of his own belief of the superficiality of this event; that discussing his alcoholism with others isn’t going to do anything to change him or his behaviors.

It’s Metal

So I took a look at one of the readings for this week, and it talked about how people use language in different contexts to connotate meanings within a community. I saw this as an opportunity to share some of the knowledge I know about the metal community by showing this music video (Arch Enemy – Revolution Begins). Please enjoy! (It’s a short post)

Basically this can only be described by the following phrase: “that’s metal”. Now, I am not just saying the obvious, but I am using the awesomeness described by Zach and Ron (of epic Metalscape fame), as something that is so imbued with the spirit and experience that you feel it through your body. This is exhibited in the following ways:

(from the video)

1. flames
2. walking (stance)
3. black and sepia colors
4. usage of few video filters
5. defiance and epicness
6. pretty built (physically – like Vin Diesel) people
7. clouds

(from the music)

1. epic fast (2 handed) solo
2. very full of power (volume)
3. high energy (speed)
4. the black and red for anarchy (color)

DDR at hand

So, as some of you may know, me and Casey go play DDR just about every Friday afternoon.  As some of you might not know, Casey is insanely good at DDR.

It was funny last Friday, though… There were a couple of new interactions that happened.  First, we gave the Pump it Up machine a try… It has 5 buttons instead of 4 like DDR.  Later on, Casey gave Doubles on DDR a try.  Doubles is where you use both pads and have to dance across the whole machine.

Now, Casey is insanely good at singles/versus DDR but I noticed that he was having trouble with the other two.  So, we got into a short discussion…

Normally, Casey doesn’t even think about the DDR pad when he’s playing, but it was obvious that on the 5 button game and on the doubles he was having to look at his feet sometimes and and think about what he was doing.

This seems like a good example of going from Ready-at-hand and Present-at-hand.  We disagreed on what it was that was becoming Present-at-hand though…

Was it his mindset/DDR knowlege?  Or was it the pad?  Or was it his feet?  I argued that it was the pad because it was the tool he was using to play the game.  Especially on the 5 button machine, he had to consciously focus on the buttons because he wasn’t used to where they were.  But in the end, we weren’t too sure.

Anyway, that is all for today.

Semiotics without Phenomenology?

So I asked this in class, but I wanted to open it up on the forums.

“Can we do semiotics, can we talk about it, without using phenomenology to explain our understanding of the text?”

Jeff’s comment was that’s how they thought about it in the 60’s but they realized there was a missing piece is assuming the signifier connected directly to the signified in an obvious way. But we now know that way is not so obvious. Yet, I believe there were some people who maybe disagree and that there is a bit of separation. If that’s true, please let me know because I’m having an impossible time of separating the two ideas in my head. I feel like at this point semiotics is just a way of looking at phenomenology, you know: things as symbols or representation that connect meaning and message from a supplier to a receiver. Like how UPS delivers my birthday ( november 12th ) cookies from my mom to my house.

..jaMEs