D. Travers Scott's Blog, page 9

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New article on "Web 2.0"

An article I wrote on the name "Web 2.0" is freshly published in the new issue of Rocky Mountain Communication Review, "New Media, New Relations," edited by Daren C. Brabham. My essay examines the history of the name "Web 2.0" as a marketing buzzword, and different online critiques of the name as both a descriptor of functionality and social movement.Big thanks to David Silver, Mary Madden, and

Electrotherapy Museum Movies

The very groovy Turn of the Century Electrotherapy Museum (my new #1 reason to go visit South Florida) has lots of cool stuff online -- violet ray wands (aka portable Tesla coils), quack medical devices, turn of the century patents -- but they also have a whole page of movies, where you can see these and other old electro-medicinal devices and inventions sparking away in all their ethereal glory.

A Brief International History of Homosexuality

The British discovered homosexuality.The Germans made it medical.The Americans made it political.The Australians made it mandatory.

MySpace Isn't the Issue

I'm so sick of this:MySpace victim's mom disappointed by rulingThe girl was not a victim of MySpace. MySpace did not kill her or drive her to suicide. This issue is not MySpace.The issue is that a young girl felt so dependent on the approval of a boy and social group that she killed herself when she thought she'd lost it. The issue is that another's girl's mother was so crazily enmeshed in her

Pina Bausch, RIP

I'm not a big dance fan (or "movement" as we called it in the performance art world), but German choreographer Pina Bausch took my breath away, especially her film Complaint of the Empress, which convinced me that dance could be cinema. Sad to learn today that's she's gone.

Story collection: Auto-Archeaology

So this week I sent off the manuscript for my new story collection, Love Hard. (Btw that title is sort of humorous -- you can read it in the sexual sense of "hard loving" -- and, although there is sex in the book, it's really much more about how love is difficult. Imagine hearing the title grunted in a gruff, masculine voice like Frankenstein's monster: "Love hard.")(Begging the question, do I

Optics & Color

Was forwarded this yesterday -- a striking color optical illusion reposted at the Bad Astronomy blog at Discover magazine. Somewhat shocking demonstration of how the eye and mind process information about color -- great example for teaching ideas of "reality" defined by sensory perception. (Would've been apropos at the Media Ecology conference).Also good for teaching 1960s abstraction, and not