MM2A03 Design Fundamentals: Introduction & Social Networks Robert Hamilton McMaster University

New Design Media NMD 8-22 Graphic design is the process by which textual information and visual information – words and pictures – are arranged, given form and structure, to communicate a mood or a message in an aesthetically pleasing way. Graphic design is everywhere. Design is a means to efficiently present information in a direct and meaningful fashion. Graphic design can refer to print design, layout, typography, signage, corporate identity, packaging design, information design (diagrams, charts, instructions), title sequences… Mad Men title sequence.Mad Men

Old and new Old media often refers to media created before computers and the internet were widely used. Namely: print, film and television allied with the skills of illustration, photography and graphic design. New media cannot exist without computers. Old media was analogue, new media is digital. Old media was sequential, new media is interactive, old media was static, new media is dynamic. Interactivity is a defining factor of new media. New media is not passive – TV is a passive medium (for example).

Old and new continued… “Everything that can be digital, will be” Jeff Dachis, Razorfish Bits and bytes: molecules vs. digital

Social Networks… Facebook – over 500 million users Twitter – recently reached over 5 Billion tweets Reddit – users share links, thoughts, questions… Delicious – favourite websites My Space – personal, music Flickr – photos, videos Habbo - teens

More Social networks… Orkut: popular in India and Brazil, owned by Google, over 100,000,000 users Hives: popular in The Netherlands There are 100’s of social networks… Big Question: What is a Social Network? Social Media RevolutionSocial Media Revolution from Socialnomics (Qualman)

But first, what is the “web”? Tim Berners Lee, a Prof. at M.I.T. credited with inventing the Internet in He is also the director of the World Web Consortium – W3C. He was trying to create a network that mimicked human thought. A neural network. Here is a visualization of the Internet…

Visualization of the Internet Map of the Internet Connections = Associations Semantic web A web of human ideas, of meanings, of associations Visualizations at the facebook developer conference Let’s have a look at that map again… it can be viewed in terms of being a social network.

Social Networks A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes,” which are connected by one or more specific type of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, relationships or faith. Social networks have always existed – In 1954, J. A. Barnes started using the term systematically to denote patterns of ties, encompassing concepts traditionally used by the public and those used by social scientists: bounded groups (e.g., tribes, families) and social categories (e.g., gender, ethnicity).

The idea of remediation The idea of remediation was developed by Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin.” They argue that new visual media achieve their cultural significance precisely by paying homage to, rivaling, and refashioning such earlier media as perspective painting, photography, film, and television. They call this process of refashioning "remediation," and they note that earlier media have also refashioned one another: photography remediated painting, film remediated stage production and photography, and television remediated film, vaudeville, and radio.” – MIT Press

Social remediation Social networks are the remediation of earlier forms of social communities. Facebook began in 2004 and was initially a means for Harvard students to socialize online. Initially it wasn’t clear what it’s specific value was – but it was extremely successful from the very beginning. It’s helpful to consider the brief history of social networks to determine where they could go. “Facebook facts you probably didn’t know”

Additional reading: Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship; danah m. boyd, Nicole B. Ellison Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship New Media Design; Tricia Austin and Richard Doust