Mary Flanagan: [domestic] 2003

Domestic is a first-shooter video game which aim to reconstruct the childhood memory by remembering the childhood space. Players can find different clues from the games in order to recall the childhood memory. There are many rooms with different settings and background, for example, hinted words on the wall. Further, since the whole dramatic event- house fire is the main theme of the games, there are a lot of fire threatening the lives of players.

According to the Definition of Adam, there is a few definition of art that match the characteristics of Domestic. 

• Art has an aesthetic
• Art has content
• Art contains Ideas
• Art make you feel Things

From my point of view, I regard Domestic as a form of art because its aesthetic value. Firstly, this game indeed provides a great variety of visualized pictures. The words in the wall is one of the example. It somehow likes a kind of typography and make people feel like your minds are filled with words only. Also, the intense growing fire in the game is a catching visual effect. One more is the interior design of the space. There are some rooms with endless ceilings, which provide some optical illusion to players. While playing the game, you will appreciate its beautiful settings and effect because it really is beautiful.

Secondly, the theme of Domestic is inspiring. Inspiration is an essential element of Art. Players need to recall their memory through playing their games. Although it is only a make up story, it does inspire players to think of themselves. Domestic does contain ideas that it inspires players to think of their own memory. 

Furthermore, Domestic provide an important message that " Blank appears in our memory all the time". Everyone may have some memory one doesn't want to remember. Domestic did make you think of your memories so it matches the definition that “Art make you feel Things”. Players will reconsider their life of living or think more out of norm. 

In conclusion, Domestic did bring a lot of inspiration and aesthetic appreciation to players. It is not merely for entertainment but a reconsideration of “Memory”. Therefore, I believe Domestic is a form of art.

"Life sharing"

This is a software aimed at sharing all the personal things of different people through the website. Every  visible things are being shared, including texts, photos, operating system etc. "Life sharing" collects all the data of every personal life so it is basically a software to share your life. 

Let me briefly talks about what is open source. Open source allows everyone to distribution to different kinds of source like software. The rise of internet facilitate the spread of open source. You can edit, share, add as a way of distribution to the open source. Wikipedia is an good example. Here comes to the argumentative question. Is "Life Sharing" an open source? From my point of view, "Life sharing" is undoubtedly an open source since it reflects the nature of open source- sharing and distributing to the source. "Life sharing"allows people to share every single details to the website. This is distribution. Through getting a glimpse from others' lives may get some inspiration to yourself. People can get to know more how other people's lifestyle is, even from different countries.

Furthermore, "Life sharing" build up an enormous and wide social network between different users, which reveals another nature of open source- having lots of participants. There is a GPS transmitter for users to find different people all over the world. People from different corners are able to see and share others' personal lives, which is quite inspiring and large-scale.

However, "Life sharing" also share the same disadvantage of open source- the excessive publicity. Using "Life sharing" can easily expose personal information to the strangers because everyone can enter your computer, read your emails etc. There is no privacy at all. Also, there is no guarantee the software is safe and no hackers will use "Life sharing" to steal important information or destroy others' computer systems. 

"Life sharing" is indeed an open source to let different people to share a lot of funny things, but proper use of "Life sharing" is also important because the openness of the website is far larger than you can imagine. No one have ideas who saw your website yesterday or who read your emails and delete your emails. The high publicity is always a problem of open source and at the same time an advantages.  

Pros and cons of the new technologies

First, let me say something about the pros. It's obvious that we all think that internet and new computer technologies is very convenient. We can do a lot of thing in the internet like communicating with your friends, making a blog etc by only a small electronic device. Further, it is user-friendly. They are not too hard to use! Just click in few buttons and you can make a lot of things by your own. Also, it is very easy to find information in the internet, like google, yahoo, wikipedia etc. You can learn new things, create new culture, find useful information in the internet by only sitting in front of your electronic devices.One more things to mention, the internet really is a good tool to gather people from different place. For example, the national eduation protest group is also grouped in facebook at the very first. Technologies make our distance becomes shorter and easier to communicate!

For the cons, the first I would like to mention is technologies are making people more lazy. Frequent users of the new technology are usaully more relutant to the physically activities. They only want to stick in the chair and sit in front of the computers all day. It's not hard to see people playing with their smartphone while travelling on the public transport, dinning with family and friends. I always want to ask them " Can you leave your cyber world for one second, please?". People are seriously addicted to the technologies! Talking about addiction to internet, some people are being addicted to the technology not just because of their convenience, but also providing a platform for them to create a new image. For instances, you can beautify your pictures, getting more time to think before you type or you reply. Some people are not good at communicating face-to-face, but they talk actively in the internet. I remember a classmate of mine talks like a total different person when he is texting. He seems to be very talkative and able to chat for any topics, but when I see him in the class, he looks very shy and seldom to talk.  This can easily lead to social disorder because they are less willing to talk to people directly in the real world. Some youngsters even cannot distinguish the identity of the internet and the real world.

In nowadays world, technology really is a necessity to us. We have to use it every day everywhere.. Like me, I use iPhone, Facebook, twitter every day, but it doesn't mean that I am cyber addict. It's just new technology is too convenient. As long as we can use technology in a proper way, it may not be a problem to us

First in the blog!

Hello! This is Sissy Lam. I'm a Year1 student who studies BA from Lingnan University. I'm active all day, talkative all day. I lives in Hall F. If u are free in the evening, feel free to find me in Rm607.

By the way, I make this blog for Digital Art. I am excited and looking forward to explore the world of Digital Art. Nowadays, there are many technologies around us. We use internet everyday. We use Facebook to stay connected with our friends everyday. We watch videos from Youtube everyday. However, I don't know too much about them. This will be a great chance for me to get to know more about the digital art world. Can't wait for the lessons!