This Video produced by the Digital Ethnography group at KSU has some really interesting things to say about cultural changes caused by web 2.0. I’ve critiqued in the past how some current applications are essentially over simplifications, but this video does a great job highlighting some of the best parts of our using these programs. Simplicity is certainly a good thing, especially if it clarifies (something the video does wonderfully I might add). But simplicity making complex ideas more accessible is not the same as simplifying complex ideas, which is one reason why I think writing compositions that are 60 seconds long is stupid.
In a compositional process, it is foolish to aim for a specific time frame because it limits where the process of composing may take you. In the end you get half ideas, clipped or meaningless statements, and in the 60×60’s case a patchwork that becomes nonsensical. The organization could get lucky and the accumulation of these short works might produce something significant, much like a school of fish creates a formidable mass, but in the end, the units are still tiny fish which when picked apart collapse into the tininess of their individuality. This is not to say 60 second works can’t be effective, but they have to end up that way after all the composing has been finished, not because that’s your timeslot.