It seems to me that Jeff’s presentation really caused people to questions some ideas… It was a great presentation and had many great insights into a subset of our culture. I don’t know nearly as much about these subjects as Jeff and most of you. I am constantly humbled by the theories and multidisciplinary concepts presented in class. I’ve stated my ignorance as preface to the following statement: I am not convinced that we are creating culture based on new media designs or lack thereof. (I won’t be able to completely defend myself here, but I will try to continue the post throughout the week)

I’m trying to figure out why Jeff has asked us to read the papers he has assigned and why he gave it to us in the order it is presented. It is starting to present a picture and it’s causing me to rethink my initial understandings and question some items we’ve discussed.

As noted in the Phillip Smith article, culture is extremely difficult to define. Are we creating a culture or are we creating a fad? Can you establish a culture in such a short time period? These are questions I can not answer. One of Jeff’s problems for studying the AMM concept caused me to have problems with the culture creation hypothesis.

• Meaning comes from micro communities and to understand the meaning you must be a participant.

It is stated in this problem that we are discussing micro communities. I believe I understand the premise, that the ideas being generated at this level will influence the greater culture, but I don’t quite agree that it is a direct cause and effect. Several levels of interpretation and proofing take place before any single idea from a micro community reaches the greater population. For this to take place at all, several factors must be accounted for including (just to name a few): a shared concept (language again), the polishing of the idea, etc. through to the macro culture’s final acceptance. At this point, the meaning instilled by the idea may loose it’s luster after a few days. Do these micro communities of machinima and animutation really create culture by influencing a subset of our culture for a few moments in time? I have many questions here that relate to evolution, culture, philosophy…

I have many concerns, but it is midnight and I must let my brain rest. I am concerned that we are removing the human element from the mix if we continue down the path we are now traveling. I am feeling that the existentialist approach might provide an insight or two if we going to continue to look at hermeneutics and structuralism….