Thursday, March 31, 2011

eyes of laura mars


How amazing does this movie look?  The Drake Hotel in Toronto is screening it Sunday night--conveniently, I'm heading back to the city this weekend.  This coincidence is too good, it's having me thinking I should probably attend.  Faye Dunaway being a serious drama queen, 70s New York (my absolute favourite time/place combination), fashion photography on film...what's not to love?  Plus, Sarah Nicole Prickett, my pseudo-idol when it comes to fashion, writing, and blogging, is hosting.  Toronto scenesters, who wants to join me??

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

bohemian princess





Abbey Lee Kershaw has quickly become a darling of the fashion industry by giving herself a seriously indie edge.  Her boho street style and introverted rock star persona (she's actually in a band called Our Mountain) have set her apart from other models, making her a favourite when it comes to darker, artier, edgier (anything that isn't full-on mainstream really) editorials.  The above are from a portrait series shot by Hedi Slimane.

Photos from Fashion Gone Rogue

fall clothes, for spring





LG Fashion Week is going on right now in Toronto.  (It's times like these that I'm happy to be going back to the city in a month.  Wait....what??)  Juma opened their show last night with some really beautiful printed tunics and dresses that look to me to be more appropriate for the spring than the fall (as in, I wouldn't mind wearing one of these now).

Photos from Toronto Life

Sunday, March 27, 2011

big jet plane


Thanks to my musically informed roommate, I've been listening to this remix of Angus & Julia Stone's "Big Jet Plane" on repeat.  It's especially good for keeping one's motivation up when writing an endless round of term papers in a freezing library (ugh).

Exhibit A

Interruption in usual programming: The following is an assignment for a class called New Media, which I'm taking to complete my minor in Communications Studies.  I am required to post my writing on a blog, and seeing as I handily have this one, I might as well post it here.  The topic doesn't entirely depart from the theme of everyday illusions: it's about The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper and the ways in which it is (or isn't, as I will try to show) new media.  In the end this is really meant for the eyes of my professor and teaching assistant, but if you're interested, by all means, read on.  Otherwise, we'll return to regular programming in no time.


On February 2, 2011, News Corporation launched the first ‘newspaper’ written exclusively for tablets, or more specifically for Apple’s iPad, called The Daily.  The outlet is subscription-based, like a print newspaper or magazine, meaning that unlike most online news sources users must pay for the content.  News Corp, which is run by newspaper tycoon, Chairman, and CEO Rupert Murdoch, counts The Wall Street Journal, 20th Century Fox, and countless other media outlets as its own—in fact, the company is the third largest media conglomerate in the world after Disney and Time Warner.  It is important to note News Corp’s specific investment in print media, as it may allow for some insight into conceptions of The Daily.  This essay will posit that although The Daily is partaking in the ‘newness’ of the iPad, it is not new media in itself, and instead tries to transfer the properties of old media (namely print publications) into a new media formula.
            The Daily is an interesting app—this is essentially what it is: an app meant for the iPad that one buys through an account with Apple and possesses, virtually, on the tablet.  What is so interesting about it is the fact that The Daily is very much a newspaper or magazine.  It’s medium is undeniably ‘new’: the iPad has become a necessity for anyone who wants to participate in new technology as it has the same capabilities of a computer (most notably, the internet), plus millions of ‘apps’ that can do anything from finding the perfect hamburger joint in your neighborhood, to playing any number of addictive games, to echoing back your words in the ‘voice’ of a hamster.  And the advancements, progress, and inevitable obsolescence keep coming what with the recent release of the iPad 2 (Stern 21).  Yet, The Daily is, for all intensive purposes, a magazine that, for the most part depends on the medium, on the iPad, for any ‘new’ properties.    
            In Lev Manovich’s essay “Principles of New Media,” he lists a number of ways in which new media differs and separates itself from old.  “Old media,” writes Manovich, “involved a human creator who manually assembled textual, visual and/or audio elements into a particular composition or a sequence” (Manovich 56).  Whereas old media traditionally yields reproduced “copies,” new media “gives rise to many different versions.  And rather than being created by a human author, these versions are often in part automatically assembled by a computer” (56).  Let us return again to the fact that News Corp, which also owns many print publications, owns The Daily.  This app is attempting to do something that the publishing industry has been struggling with for years: make readers pay for digital content.  Murdoch himself has said that “new times demand new journalism,” and he is aware “that a growing number of news consumers no longer read print or even watch TV” (Schonfeld).  Yet with The Daily, old media principles are re-activated in new media form: the articles are written specifically for the ‘publication’ by “human authors” and each issue is a copy, no matter the user, with no variability or customization in content.  What is more is that the app is mimicking an old media form (a print publication) and expects to circulate it in a similar way (subscription).
            The release of The Daily has come with the maxim that the app is meant to “combine ‘the magic of great newspapers’ with the magic of technology” (Schonfeld), and perhaps this is its most accurate description.  The Daily is quite simply a newspaper on an iPad and in this, it goes against Manovich’s principles that new media is partly defined by “variability” (Manovich 56).  Rather, every day a new issue of the ‘newspaper’ becomes available (automatically if you are a subscriber) and one may read the articles as one reads a magazine.  Despite the fact that the medium (the iPad) provides the capability for the page to change through automation (53), the app stays relatively static other than the daily addition of completely new articles and content.  The “magic of technology” here is supposedly interactive—there are some videos that accompany the articles, interactive maps, games (the traditional newspaper games, Sudoku and crossword puzzles), and 360 degree photographs. 
            Jonathan Sterne identifies two kinds of ‘new’ media: “(1) the ‘newness’ of a medium with respect to other media, and (2) the so-called state of the art design and function within a given medium” (Stern 18).  The Daily fits, in some respects, under the second definition: the app is meant to be visually stimulating, and is has been marketed in a way that suggests an aesthetically pleasing user experience.  Of course, as Stern notes, this is entirely the point of new computerization: “‘New technology conjures up well-lit images of sleekly designed computers and monitors; bright colours, spotless, smooth surfaces, clear screens, and quick applications” (21).  The Daily actually mobilizes two totally different and yet well-established media; in itself it is not a new medium.  The first is the newspaper; a medium that developed out of moveable type and mechanization, and that arguably became the first ‘mass medium.’  The second is the widely lauded iPad—a technology that supports the latest in digitalization and virtual reality.  The Daily is attempting to combine the two, while simultaneously activating the consumption patterns of both—a difficult proposition when the combination is one of the oldest forms of modern media with one of the newest, polemics that print media has been grappling with since the advent of digitized news and entertainment.
            For the most part, however, The Daily sticks to what it proverbially knows, or rather, that which its parent company knows: that being print and newspapers.  As Clay Shirky said during his TED Talk in Cannes last June, “We like to create and we like to share” (Shirky).  Shirky demonstrated this in his discussion of new media tools that allow users to contribute and participate at unprecedented levels.  He compares new media to the mass media of the 20th-century, which “taught us to consume,” heralding new media as participatory culture in that users can create and share in both communal and civic terms.  The Daily, however, seems to fit into Shirky’s 20th-century model: it allows for none of the participation and user contribution that new (online) media so uniquely possesses.  Rather than utilizing iPad’s many connective capabilities, The Daily is positioned as a newspaper on a pretty screen with content you can share, but cannot actually create, change, comment on, or customize.  In this sense, the app removes itself from the online culture it is seeking to become a part of.
            The creation of The Daily is based upon the fear that the print publishing industry is dying and that online and other digital media is becoming dominant.  The problem is that, for the most part, online journalistic endeavors, though increasingly popular, have yet to become profitable in the same ways as their print counterparts.  By ‘publishing’ quality journalism that cannot be found elsewhere and charging an access fee, The Daily aims at creating a digital version of its older print forms.  Along with this, News Corp will charge more for advertising, as the company believes that with paying readers, advertisers pay more per thousand users (Schonfeld).  Therefore, “in a technological remake of the Oedipal complex, a son murders his father” (Manovich 48) as the only medium that The Daily can really claim to obsolesce is print, which is essentially the medium it is simultaneously attempting to save.  In order to maintain paid quality journalism, perhaps it is necessary to break with the old media model and gain new users through the possibilities that new (participatory, creative, virtual) media provides. 


--Emily Ramshaw
March 27, 2011
           
Video introduction of The Daily:

Video demo of The Daily on the day of its launch by Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch:



Sites of interest:
The Daily - The Daily's online platform and marketing campaign
The Daily Blog - A blog, updated everyday, with the current issue's headlines
WatchTheDaily - The Daily's YouTube channel, which includes many of the videos that are available in the iPad edition
TechCrunch: "Rupert Murdoch: 'New Times, Demand New Journalism'" - Murdoch addresses reasons for establishing The Daily
TechCrunch: The Daily Event Liveblog - A liveblog from the launch of The Daily



Works Cited

Manovich, Lev. “Principles of New Media.” The Language of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. 49-65.

Schonfeld, Erick. “Rupert Murdoch: ‘New Times, Demand New Journalism.’” TechCrunch. (Feb 2, 2011). http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/02/rupert-murdoch-new-times-demand-new-journalism/

Shirky, Clay. “How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World.” TED. (June 2010). http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html

Sterne, Jonathan. “Out with the Trash: On the Future of New Media.” Residual Media. Ed. C. Acland. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. 16-31.
  

Friday, March 25, 2011

jewel tones









Serious 70s goddess channeling done by Ragnhild Jevne for Marie Claire Italia. GLAMOUR OR WHAT??

Photos from Fashion Gone Rogue

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

mapplethorpe







In keeping with my love of 70s New York iconography, the above are images by cult photographer and personality Robert Mapplethorpe.  After reading Patti Smith's Just Kids last summer, I have a feeling that Mapplethorpe X7, edited by Hedi Slimane, Cindy Sherman, David Hockney, Sterling Ruby, Vik Muniz, Catherine Opie, and Robert Wilson, will be something like an illustrated companion.  Hello early birthday present!!

Photos from Vogue.com

Monday, March 21, 2011

hippie freedom











Above are some photos from Free People's March look book, which, in my mind, capture perfectly everything that summer style should be.  Summer is synonymous with freedom--freedom from winter, freedom from inside spaces, freedom from school or long hours at work--the sun is out (though not in these pictures) and it's time to play.  Loose, long dresses, mussed hair, big bags that can fit a picnic, a camera, a six-pack.  I know my countdown to summer is getting tiresome, but it's snowing in Montreal right now, so my refrain begs repeating for mental health's sake.  Come summer...now please!!  Thanks.

Photos from Fashionising.com

Sunday, March 20, 2011

loosening up




Skinny jeans are part of my uniform--I wear them almost every single day, especially when it's cold or snowy and boots are a requirement.  Spring is in the air, however, and I think it's high time for me to change up my silhouette.  I'm officially on the hunt for an elongating pair of flares.

Photos from Vanessa Jackman, Jak & Jil, and The Sartorialist

Saturday, March 19, 2011

who's that chick?



Rachel Roy and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen prove that designers can also be sartorial stars in their own right when the CFDA announced the nominees for their annual awards.  They are all seriously fashionable business women in their sunglasses and variations on power-suits.  The Row was nominated for the Swarovski Award for Womenswear, putting M-K&A in the company of fellow nominees and industry darlings Joseph Altuzarra and Prabal Gurung, which is a huge coup.  Check out the full list of nominees here.

Photos from Style.com

pumped up kicks

Foster The People - "Pumped Up Kicks" from Foster The People on Vimeo.


This is a good song...ya dig??

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

graced presence




Julie Kavanagh, an early assistant and friend, writes for Intelligent Life about fashion editor supreme, Grace Coddington.  Formerly a model, Coddington has made an indelible mark on styling and the magazine editorial as a creative art in itself.  Looking at her work in British and American Vogue, her singular vision is apparent, her pieces often taking on epic theatrical narratives conceived to bring the particular historical and social contexts of a place or piece of clothing to the fore.  Check out Kavanagh's article, it's well worth the read.

Photos from Wallflower Management and Intelligent Life

Sunday, March 13, 2011

men who bite


Hear Truman Capote read from Breakfast at Tiffany's.  It's almost as good as actually listening to it live at the 92nd Street Y on April 7, 1963.  I must read this novel as soon as I'm done with my current read, Valley of the Dolls.

Recording from The Daily What

the way the light hits your face







The clocks have changed and it was still light out at seven this evening--a revelation at the end of a sun-starved winter.  Spring is almost here, and this editorial of Arizona Muse, shot by Benjamin Alexander Huseby for Dazed & Confused, is a beautiful reminder.

Photos from Fashion Gone Rogue

Saturday, March 12, 2011

poppy


This photograph could appear in a book called "How To: Make a Socialite look like a Musician/Producer/Creative-Industry-Contributor"...I much prefer it to the sweeter duds that Poppy Delevigne's ilk usually sport.

Photo from StockholmStreetStyle

Thursday, March 10, 2011

conference call


A serious gathering of fashion's intellectual minds after the Miu Miu show yesterday.  What I wouldn't give to be fly on the wall when this was going on.

Photo from Garance Dore

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

ps fall 2011


Proenza Schouler's show is one that I always look forward to seeing and always, without fail, end up loving at first sight.  The label has just posted this video of their Fall 2011 presentation: the textures and colours of the clothes are brilliant, the coats are clean and well cut, and the shoes, well, I just love them.  (Although the practicality of sandals for fall is questionable.)

Saturday, March 5, 2011

pilgrim's progress









Not that he ever doesn't, but Alber Elbaz presented a beautiful fall collection for Lanvin.  The accessories were sobering, what with the face-obstructing hats, thin handbags, and unadorned shoes, and the clothes were luxurious, at times joyous, and full of movement.  Lanvin for the win every time.

Photos from Style.com