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Berlusconi defies the very notion of parody, because he's a living paradox. The image on the left, by the way, was created by Shepard Fairey.
Also on this issue: a short article of mine on fitness games. Many called it a fad. The same people are now ordering cyberbikes and dumbbells like there's no tomorrow. The new mantra is: Get in Shape or die trying. Go figure.
Click on the thumbnail to see the full image/article.
Lo scrittore italiano Paolo Caredda ha appuna pubblicato il suo romanzo post-apocalittico Altri giorni, altri alberi grazie ai tipi di ISBN Edizioni. Ecco la sinossi:
"In una Genova parallela e fuori dal tempo, gli Alberi di Natale si scontrano in feroci combattimenti per assicurare la sopravvivenza dei quartieri che rappresentano. L’Albero tutelare di Marassi, Gustavius, è affetto da una grave malattia che contagia anche gli uomini. Riuscirà a sopravvivere allo scontro con Mascherafuturo, lo spietato Albero del quartiere avversario? E riuscirà Vinicio, responsabile della preparazione di Gustavius, a salvare Rocco e tutti i bambini dell’orfanotrofio di Mirella, la donna che ama? Altri giorni, altri alberi è una struggente fiaba per adulti, ricca di riferimenti pop e di altissime citazioni: L’Uomo Tigre, Tim Burton, Boris Vian, La città dei bambini perduti di Jeunet-Caro, Terry Gilliam, Ken il Guerriero e Iain Sinclair."
Potete leggere un'estratto qui e ascoltare un'intervista telefonica con l'autore qui.
Per l'occasione ho scritto due righe sull'immaginario postapocalittico videoludico contemporaneo.
Lo potete leggere qui.
The December 2009 issue of WIRED Italy features my story on Assassin's Creed II. I had the pleasure of talking to Corey May about the process of recreating Renaissance Italy in a digital space and reinventing the game mechanics. Playing Assassin's Creed, like the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, is a hyper-real simulation of the post-card images of the Belpaese. As I play the game, I spend more time admiring the Rialto bridge, Maria del Fiore, Santa Maria
Novella, Santa Croce than killing people... Umberto Eco would be proud.
Click on the thumbnails below to see the full image (text in Italian)
The new installment of Pacific Standard Time, my monthly column for Duellanti magazine, is entirely devoted to one of my many obsessions, Craigslist's Missed Connection page(s):
"A missed connection is an occurrence where two or more people are unable to exchange contact information or the information that is exchanged is lost. These missed connections are generally associated with romance, but they may also be business-related or otherwise. Through the use of publications and websites some people seek to reconnect with their missed connection." (Wikipedia)
Craiglist's Missed Connection pages create a virtual social network, an anti-Facebook, a space where people wish they were connected. These pages are incubators of stories, a series of possible worlds within a world. Unsurprisingly, Missed Connections has directly inspired many artistic projects, from illustrations to maps.
And let's not forget comics books...
Click the thumbnails below to see the full image (text in Italian).
Link: Pacific Standard Time #2
Link: Pacific Standard Time #1
The theme of LINK 8 is the reinvention of TV in the Web 2.0 age. Lot's of juicy stuff, including essays from Aldo Grasso, Francesco Casetti, Violetta Bellocchio, Fausto Colombo, Massimo Scaglioni, Jeremy Boxen, Michele Boroni, Antonio Dini, Aldo Romersa, Andrea Lissoni, Bucknasty, Axel Fiacco, Peppino Ortoleva, Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffé, Gregorio Paolini, Mariarosa Mancuso, Marco Vecchia, Emilio Pucci (e-Media Institute), Federico Sarica.
As always, LINK features the very best graphic design. See for yourself:
Wrtten by Mizuko Ito, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Z. Martinez, C. J. Pascoe, Dan Perkel, Laura Robinson, Christo Sims and Lisa Tripp With Judd Antin, Michael Finn, Arthur Law, Annie Manion, Sarai Mitnick, David Scholssberg and Sarita Yardi, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out Kids Living and Learning with New Media is now available from MIT Press!
Here's the summary:
"Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media.
Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings—at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. By focusing on media practices in the everyday contexts of family and peer interaction, the book views the relationship of youth and new media not simply in terms of technology trends but situated within the broader structural conditions of childhood and the negotiations with adults that frame the experience of youth in the United States. Integrating twenty-three different case studies—which include Harry Potter podcasting, video-game playing, music-sharing, and online romantic breakups—in a unique collaborative authorship style, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out is distinctive for its combination of in-depth description of specific group dynamics with conceptual analysis.
This book was written as a collaborative effort by members of the Digital Youth Project, a three-year research effort funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California." (MIT Press)Link to the table of contents and sample chapters
Click here to order the book on Amazon
Click here to order the book from iBS (Italy)
Download the flyer: Download Ito flyer
Kudos to Mimi Ito!
Related: Mimi Ito on Learning with New Media
Last year I had the pleasure to contribute to a book dedicated to David Cronenberg's magnus opus, published by Volumina. I wrote a short essay on one of my cinematic obsessions, eXistenZ, possibly the best movie ever about videogames. Now, the Film Festival of Estoril and Volumina are pleased to announce the new staging of multimedia exhibition CHROMOSOMES by David Cronenberg. Cronenberg will attend the opening on November, 10, taking a break from his latest project - he is currently working on the new film The Matarese Circle. Inside the Congress Center of Estoril, from 5 to 14 november, you can admire the images chosen and processed by David Cronenberg and the Volumina staff starting with original film frames from his most famous movies: The Fly, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ, Spider, and the recent Eastern Promises. The exhibition, curated by Domenico De Gaetano is completed by two 10-minute videos with famous sequences from Cronenberg's movies and a bilingual catalogue (English and Italian). One room is entirely dedicated to a spectacular installation, RED CARS, Cronenberg's homage to the Ferrari brand, based on the artbook created in 2005 which uses rare archival footage.
Link: Volumina
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