What's photography?

While lots of writing about new technologies portrays their use as revolutionary and new, here's an example of a new use retroactively affecting an existing activity. In this case, photography.

The Guardian recently ran a piece on how documentary photograph-minded users of Google Street View troll it for unintentionally resonant images of street life. They then display these found images as documentary photography.

Whatever you think of photographers (can they just sit and search for images?), this is a startling new use of an existing (new) technology, and right up the alley of really new media.

Coca-Cola? Here?

I'm the last person who expected a promotion by Coca-Cola to appear here.

But, heck yeah, I'm still clean--the promotion actually isn't by Coke, but by a re-imagining/ updating of its (in)famous "Hilltop" ad from decades ago.

Some pretty cool really-new-media thinking. Its some of the best concepting I've seen since my all-time favorite (and still living in concept only) "Durex Baby."

Stretching QR Codes

We've been told that QR codes are old hat (soooooo 2011!). And they are, due to the old-hat ways in which they are still being used.

Leave it to artists such as Yiyung Luto start to imagine new uses, and thus to bring the technology into the realm of really new media.

Integrating a QR code into each finished illustration takes users to a video stop-action animation of the making of that illustration.

See more at her website.

It Tells a Story

The best way to avoid disconnected, myopic emphasis on devices at the expense of uses and relevance is to understand how new media might fit into what one could call the relevant story.
A relevant story is something that already exists--the new media devices don't create it. But it is relevant to the market, and it meshes tightly with their lives. Because it is relevant to a target market, it is specific to it. There's no way to export a good use of new media generally, because the story it works with and within is specific, not general
Case in point is the Toyota campaign released in Belgium that works with Google Maps. It fits specifically the lives of people living in those narrow streets, and it works with their pride in living where they do, plus their desire to help put their neighborhood on the map.

Yet another technology looking for a use

Leave it to the Aussies to extend (in this case) the social-media practice of trending (back) into the real world of people, bodies, and face-to-face discussion in one big, giant buzzing visualization.
Clemenger BBDO Sydney describes its project as "Mimeisthai - the world's first spoken-word trending engine."
Drop those smart phones, and forget texting, tweeting, etc. A series of mics throughout the auditorium picked up and digitized snips of f2f discussions, then crunched them into a visual representation of topics in conversation that were trending.
Like other examples noted here previously, it represents a great potential--if only now someone figured out a compelling use beyond a roomful of tech-nerds.

Ignore the Cheesy Campaign Name

Forget the "Emart Sunny Sale" campaign. But pay attention to how it connects the medium (in this case QR codes) to the time as well as the place in which users encounter them.

The QR code can only be scanned during certain times of the day.

It's some great thinking that takes this technology and adds relevance.

Thinking the Future iPhone

Really new media need to be thought. It's not enough to simply invent a cool device then wait for someone to figure out what to do with it.

For example, pair the current craze for holograms (think augmented reality) with the craze for the iPhone.

What do you get?

Some pretty cool ideas about what could be.