Welcome to the one place where EMAC is Whack!

"Attack of the EMAC" is Kevin Sharpe's class blog for EMAC 6300: Introduction to the Study of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas, Dallas. He is an educational marketing manager and runs the Newspaper in Education program at The Dallas Morning News.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Keeping Cool is the Message ...






Video response to reading is here...

Here's some more insight into the concept I introduced in the video.

The clip I mentioned regarding the 1990 Barry Levinson movie "Avolon" starring Elijah Wood is here. Just after the scene with the parade circus, is a demonstration of the point.

4 comments:

  1. I like that you did a video blog this week, Kevin. I also found your connection of McLuhan to centralized air conditioning interesting.

    I would have loved to have seen you come back, after the London and Berlin clips, and wrap it all up for us. Are you advocating that we defy this particular technology and reconnect with the community? Is community as a result seasonal in the sun belt? etc...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree it would be a great idea to come back and tie it all in and draw some type of conclusion ....but I kinda took a short-way-around-it approach and just let the audience draw their own conclusion with the visual support I provided...plus, I was kinda trying to avoid coming across as being preachy...I figured responses --- or even "excuses" --- would be pretty passionate. More or less, I wanted to avoid rambling and wrap it up..it was two minutes longer than I wanted it to be...


    I really would like to get out of my comfort zone and embrace video rather than writing for a bit....trying to be succinct and speaking exponentially is a challenge..really looking for any excuse to practice speaking in front of a camera and playing around with the editing software...to be honest...video is a lot harder than writing...(i kept saying "the air conditioning"...what the hell???)

    glad you find that approach appropriate...I was very nervous about trying it out...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Honestly, I wouldn't advocate defying this technology in order to encourage others to connect with the community. This climate creates too much of a challenge for any of us to "rough it out" in order to play frisbee golf with buddies at 4 in the afternoon...

    I would raise this point for those who would argue that other technologies such as TV, video games and Internet could be the reason why connection with community has deminished...could it be those tools keep us occuppied while we're enjoying the comfort....

    but we have adapted alternative "public spaces" to connect...ie...SHOPPING MALLS!!!! Is that the Texas version of parks....

    Talk to a Texan though, and napping in the park does seem like a foreign concept...the look on their faces show puzzlement...

    As far as the whole "missing porch lifestyle" is concerned, it can tie back to possible reasons for increased criminal acts like home break ins and descrease in "good samaritan" acts when neighbors call police when they hear sounds of domestic violence...

    The conversation could go on and on and on...

    but I'm a firm believer our sense of "community" is not universal and impacted by a variety of other factors and dynamics. I just don't want to hear skeptics poo-poo modern technology and blame it for consequences such as lack of community, obesity, crime, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would say that putting in more community/neighborhood pools would also make it easier to connect with neighbors etc. during the summer months. I know that when I was younger, we used to go to Jack Carter pool (in Plano) all the time to cool off and we always saw friends and met new people. I know many neighborhoods also have a neighborhood pool that kind of reinforces the community feeling. Interesting take on McLuhan and the AC. I liked it!

    ReplyDelete