Category Archives: Homework Tasks

Profile of a potential heavy contributor.

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In this kind of participatory project (where people are asked to submit work in a variety of ways and also given the freedom to submit whatever they feel meets the criteria), we are bound to receive a varying degree of enthusiasm by certain ‘types’ of participants.

Different types of contributions will obviously come from different platforms and we as a group have to gauge where the kinds of responses are coming from, and what kind of marketing best works to those types of contributors.

For example, the biggest sound community we have so far discovered is on ABC POOL. Although Soundcloud is inhabited by far more users, ABC POOL has much more of a focused interest group surrounding documentaries, whereas Soundcloud is dominated by musicians and remix artists. Further, people on ABC POOL are a lot more focused on contributing and collaborating, whereas Soundcloud is more of a place for commenting, critiquing and remixing rather than actively making an individual work for another project or person.

We want to create a wonderous collation: an experience of the land and us. We want it to be engulfing project: an immersive excursion. 
The final piece will be archived for all to access online, so that you, and not only us as creators, are privy to the stories of others. There is potential for the piece to be played on radio, and perhaps soar to greater heights. 

 

This project lends itself really well to the medium of sound whether it be documentary, oral storytelling or soundscape.

EXAMPLE PROFILE:

This is a constructed email of a sound artist idea for ongoing contibution/collaboration on the project; it characterises a ‘heavy contributor’ because it offers a lot more than a one off contribution.

To Read/Land,

After seeing your pitch on Twitter, I was instantly intrigued by your project and felt incredibly inspired by its enthusiastic call for any kind of contribution. I am a sound artist living in a rural area of the Northern Territory. I don’t know if you guys have ever been in the middle of the outback at night, but the silence can be deafening, beautiful yes, but there is this hum that pervades the otherwise smooth and gorgeous night air. I live alone and work all night as a security guard in container yard. I sleep during the day, and felt I honestly missed the sounds of the daytime – the animals, the activity going on around my property, and just those sounds you hear by day that soften or mute at night. I began to hate the  clamour and resent the invasion I felt it had upon my space. I decided to set my little home recorder up during the day and record what I missed during the day as I slept, and play it back at night in the little cabin I sit in all night ‘guarding’ a place with nothing in a 100km radius but has been broken into four times in two years – yes i’m still alive and very well paid. As I began listening back, I was surprised at what I heard during the day – I live in a fairly quiet street but there was SO MUCH NOISE, I wasn’t used to it. Old ladies walked past chatting, not about the lastest womens weekly recipes or how old Fred was doing at the nursing home – they bitched about their husbands, and their kids and even their grandkids. Bands of drunks threw rocks at my windows. Dogs barked, kids squealed and threw sporadic, seemingly pointless series of tantrums. Trucks drove down my street – I didn’t even know trucks could FIT down my street. A world of chaos and racket opened up and I felt kind of, glad that I could turn it off as I sat in the silence of my cabin at 4am. It scared me a bit.

Anyway, your project inspired me to think about doing something with all these recordings and I was hoping to contribute a sound piece once a week that will form a visual description of my street, I would like to intercut these pieces with accompanying audio of me reflecting upon them in the silence of my cabin. This is my Australia, its a world of extreme contrasts – at work I am threatened by the task and deafened by the silence, yet at home I am oblivious to the chaos that surrounds as I sleep through the day.

I hope this is the kind of thing you might be looking for, and I hope my contributions will be able to be submitted weekly, I have the freedom to edit and record at work. Please let me know if your interested,

Kind Regards,

Benjamin Paul.

***

Benjamin is the kind of collaborative partner we would love to have on board, as he is clearly interested in the ideas of the project, and set on contributing a progressive story rather than a stand alone piece of work. As our piece is exploratory, this kind of contribution would be ideal as the work could be moulded by us as it took shape – who knows, the shape of his project could mould our work.

Anyhow, this is what we would describe as a ‘shaping contributor’, because it is their work that will inevitably form the foundations for the direction of our explorations and influence it’s flavour the most profoundly.

Moonrise Kingdom Review.

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This is a review I wrote of Moonrise Kingdom for my writing class….

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) takes viewers on a nostalgic childhood adventure which finds joy, turmoil and aims for lasting love in a world which fails to fully acknowledge the intricate serious of losses that characterise growing up.

Review written by Zoe Annabel.

In his aesthetically dreamy 1960’s style masterpiece Moonrise Kingdom, director Wes Anderson brings to life his two central characters and their mutual dissatisfaction with worlds they inhabit and invites us to join their construction of new brighter one with gusto and sentimental charm. His latest foray into the theme of beauty in escapism does not disappoint and for viewers, is much like re-entering the playful, sunny world of childhood. Anderson imbues his youngsters Suzy Bishop, the heavy eye-lidded, blacksheep of her family (Kara Hayward) and Sam Shakusky, an orphaned oddball boy scout (Jared Gilman)  with a sense of naive charm while still managing to finding welcome balance with moments of genuine emotional honesty and realism. Despite the cinematic the beauty, there are moments of palpable sadness and regret and legitimate disenchantment with the banal elements of existence. Suzy and Sam escape their respective worlds of alienation and dissatisfaction and set out on an orchestrated adventure equipped with a cat, a record player and some library books, each relics which facilitate the beginnings of their precocious bond. The fleeting nature of their escape is unimportant, for the two share moments of such deep understanding and connection, finding the kind of tenderness absent from the lives of the adult characters who each harbour their own respective turmoil and disfunctionality.

The adult characters in the film remain confusing to Suzy and Sam and seem to complicate everything. In a particularly poignant scene, Suzy explains to her mother simply, that she loves Sam and wants to be with him. What’s so wrong with that, she asks? Her mother (Frances McDormand) is unable to respond, which is a particularly telling moment in the narrative as it points to Anderson’s overarching concerns of growing up which span his entire body of work. With the absence of any role models, the audience is invited to understand the need for escape and entranced by the beauty of Anderson’s yellow and mustard toned world. Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) who despite an affair with Suzy’s mother exhibits a genuine empathy for the orphaned Sam and ends up saving him and Suzy from peril during the highly contrasting, climactic storm scene at the films closure, providing perhaps a sole moment of adult selflessness. The film is at it’s best when exploring the rift between adults and children, and ironically points out that in times of moral uncertainty or personal conflict, the young characters often respond in a far more logical fashion than their adult counterparts.

Anderson manages to find moments of charm in each one of the colliding worlds he constructs. His wonderfully satirical depiction of the Khaki boy Scouts is carried by the brilliant performances of both the boy scouts and Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton). Norton conveys an endearing seriousness which is taken on by the boys who are almost solider like in their drilled efficiency, but again, there is a lingering sense of genuine emotional connection between the scout leader and his boys which enables some of the most touching moments of boyish mateship in the film. There are moments of hyperbole but these balance out among the slow, unobtrusive camera work, poetically sharp dialogue and meticulously detailed mise en scene Anderson crafts. The scenes that take place at Suzy’s home convey an isolated, confined existence which contrasts beautifully with the impending scenes of endless beaches and yellow fields she and Sam escape to.

Managing to maintain high brow focus while finding a consistent sense of childlike joviality, Anderson’s film is a joy and is most enjoyable for audiences with a sense of imagination and who will allow Andersons imagery to wash over them as an all encompassing, visually gorgeous reminder that the power of gazing through the lens of a child can often remind us of some surprising truths.

Moonrise Kingdom is now showing in limited release in Arthouse cinemas across Melbourne. 

Online Profile.

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This is my online identity project uploaded to slide share.

ZoeAnnabel’s Online Identity. from zoeannabel

When I started thinking about crafting my online profile, I felt a lot of pressure to formulate one that was professional in an academic sense. However, I wanted it to accessible at the same time. I began by thinking about myself as a professional and realised there was no point in trying to make myself something I wasn’t. I started thinking about my personality and the best way I could make social media work for me and where best to position myself in a space so already occupied with people far more established professionally than myself.

 I’m young, i’m a student and I’m interested in Art, Audio and Images. I wan this to come across via a textured and aesthetically driven ID which is backed up by my love of writing. I began examining the best spaces to enter into dialogue about my work and looking for likeminded people in already established communities that I could join.

I like the way Jay Rosen describing the ‘people formally known as the audience as - “The writing readers. The viewers who picked up a camera. The formerly atomized listeners who with modest effort can connect with each other and gain the means to speak— to the world”.

I would like to think of myself as a member of this group of emerging, informed creative artists who are taking up the opportunities the new user generated media platform shift has allowed. I think a lot of this kind of activity happens around social media and the platforms I have been using.

 Initially, I had a whole lot of accounts on a whole range of platforms that were mostly abandoned or used purely for lurking purposes. Now I have a Glossi account which unifies all my social content from around the web into one pretty place. I started off using flavorsme but found that glossi allowed me to connect more applications and gave a more substantial overview of my presence via its summary feed of my interactions and posts on each platform. Glossi also allows me to connect with other users and form yet another community where I can promote my body of work as well as my social interactions as a whole rather than reposting things on multiple platforms.

  • Twitter – Quick informal posts. I also link some of my Tumblr posts and Instagram photos to my Twitter account if I feel they are relevant or appropriate to the audience or what I’m saying. Also use #’s to keep involved in communities and dialogue.
  • Tumblr – My personal space where I post personal material such as creative writing, thoughts, photos, inspirational material and videos. I follow and reblog other material I find personally appealing.
  • Vimeo – to put samples of professional work and maybe a few personal videos
  • WordPress Blog – this if for more in-depth observations about course related material such as research, readings logs and new ideas and directions – a kind of map of my evolution over the semester.
  • Facebook – I use a lot for keeping in touch with Uni group work, University related pages such as the Media Students page and the Media Class of 2013 Page – this keeps us all up to date with relevant happenings about campus and
  • Glossi – I use as my ID Hub and to provide links to collaborative projects such as the group blog I participate in for Writing Non Ficition & my professional photography portfolio.
  • Pinterest – Space where I trawl through photos and repin them – kind of an aesthetic gallery for my own pleasure.
  • Flickr – Pure portfolio space for my own professional work – I could probably use this better to spread my work to other likeminded communities that Flickr promotes (eg – Black and White photography community) and take up collaboration opportunities.

Each one of these platforms is extremely different in terms of it’s content and the tone that is most appropriate to it’s style. Maintaining a consistent voice is so important in building up a profile but I think it’s also important to show that, as a professional, you can take on different tones and upload content with a varied range of voices. A good example is the way in which I use Twitter – it’s informal and quick – iv’e only got 140 characters, but on WordPress which is reserved for mainly academic pursuits, I have time to delve deeper into subjects that interest me and can employ a totally different language to that of Twitter.

After delving into each of these platforms, I see myself using Twitter , Instagram and tumblr as primary platforms to structure my ID. This combination allows me to have a constantly updating picture of what I’m doing while bringing all the platforms into one ‘story’ without me having to repost things over multiple platforms as the three connect. These three tools also work well together as I can use my smartphone to connect them all via their respective applications.

 Tumblr is great for more extended or personal posts whereas Twitter is an excellent space for developing connections and a consistent voice and also provides scope for light-hearted banter to occur with followers as well as retweets and referencing relevant hashtags. Instagram works in well with these two platforms as it allows me to connect everything visually with snapshots of my life. I think images add a great texture and tone to an online identity as it breaks up more formal works and gives structure to Tweets. I think the combination of these three platforms will create a textured and well rounded online ID that is both relevant to my interests and field.

Before beginning to branch out into other platforms, I used Facebook almost exclusively to maintain my online social community. However, I was quite selective with my community, opting to reserve my Facebook as a place for close friends who I could interact with on a personal level.

When I commenced my studies at RMIT I began to use Facebook as a tool to maintain contact with peers by creating the RMIT MEDIA 2013 Facebook group and joining already established groups that keep me in the know about happenings around campus.

I also began to use Facebook to maintain regular contact with peers during group assignments. Having a Facebook group proved to be invaluable to the collaborative process as it provided a forum for ideas, instant updates and saved a lot of time when it came to physical meetings and getting queries answered quickly.

 I now use Facebook as a central tool for my studies while also maintaining it as the major place I upload photos and interact with close friends. I guess Facebook represents my ‘strong connections’  (As Boyd and Donath describe in the Readings – Public displays of connections) as my interactions on Facebook are always two way, whereas on Twitter, I often retweet media figures or writers I follow and comments on their tweets are never replied too or mentioned – these connections are ‘weaker’ and less intimate. Although, as Facebook has added more and more applications I have noticed my newsfeed has been cluttered with content that is unspecific to my interests and annoying to scroll through, Facebook has become less about my friends and more about what they like and what their friends like.

I am aiming to develop an artistically driven professional ID – I want to appear informed, intelligent and open to new ideas and collaboration with others. I am very much interested in aesthetics and storytelling via sounds, words and images and have managed to identify quite a solid community through following magazines, writers and photographers I admire. Following Frankie Magazine lead me to coming across Chloe Patakis who is probably the most ubiquitously spread identity I have come across – she seems to traverse every platform and occupy every social media space I can find!  I admire the way she maintains a professional voice even while interacting on the more informal platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. I would describe Chloe as a young professional woman engaging in an informed space about matters relating to art, music, literature, communications and Public Relations. She uses Glossi as the hub for her identity and has linked her Instagram with her Twitter account so that she provides her followers with images to accompany more personal tweets (such as photos of her clothes or food she orders for lunch). Chloe is a regular ‘tweeter’ and it gives the impression she is a busy working professional who finds time for moments of fun and indulgence in art, fashion and literature. This is the kind of atmosphere I want to create. Her linked in profile is very professional and links to her blog which is also dominated by her professional writings. Chloe uses Flickr in a similar way that I use it – as a portfolio for her own photographs and opts to use Pinterest as an overall space to store inspiration and bookmarks for visuals she admires.

I’m interested in writing and storytelling whether this be via images or text.

Twitter could be a great platform to get the ball rolling on collaborative stories. For example, a hashtag could bind a progressive series of Tweets – almost like a choose your own adventure story. Someone could Tweet the first line with the hashtag at the end, and it could progress from there. The narrative could be linked to a specific Pinterest board and then the final narrative could be uploaded to a Tumblr Blog and instantly Tweeted back to contributors.

This kind of narrative/image based research could then provide building blocks for further/more specific collaborative projects on ABC Pool.

I follow quite a specific community on Twitter which is concerned with Melbourne based writing, radio and film projects which remain slightly ‘underground’. I think this community has a great presence on Twitter and connects via mentions and hashtags which bring eachtoher into conversations about projects that are going on, inviting others to join in or contribute. A lot of writers that I follow post daily links to their own personal blogs which provides a constant link to the

Currently the #MIFF2012 is the hashtag that I have been engaging with the most. A real community has been established surrounding this tag and offers insightful information into films and other MIFF recommendations. This community has been frequented by a number of Melbourne critics and film buff bloggers offering more possibilities for myself to find more individuals I am interested in to follow and engage with.

I also use Twitter a lot to enhance my work in Radio – by using the RWAV hashtag I’m able to connect with other broadcasters and maintain a presence at RRR. Recently, during our radiothon edition, the RWAV page really helped us in promoting our show and assisted in keeping people updated via live tweeting on how to subscribe and guests we would be interviewing as well as our playlist. The hashtag #rrranswerthecall was used by RRR to promote the Radiothon and has been hugely successful in creating the kind of buzz this event needs. Since using Twitter I have grown to value it a lot more than my Facebook as I think it provides a lot more industry specific opportunities for developing connections and communities.

 ABC Pool is all about participatory culture has enabled individuals to embrace this new creative paradigm. Audiences have been offered the opportunity to engage with a range people in meaningful ways. It has allowed for people to use user generated media to expose content for the purpose of creative story telling as well as developing collaborative socially engaged.

I found that more I followed, favourite and contributed, the more recommendations for associated content appeared and I came across more and more projects that were specific to my areas of interest.

 I have been posting quite a bit on my ABC Pool profile and have been delighted by the response. Pool is a great community as it’s just jam packed with people who have the luxury of devoting a lot of time to artistic endeavours and value contributions to the site. People seem very willing to jump on board with ideas and keen to get collaborating. Its such a supportive, non pretentious space and I feel like my work has the capacity to be noticed on Pool as opposed to being just another post in deluge of Tumblr. There is an overall tone of welcoming positivity and a sense that work is valued. I think POOL harbours a great diverse range of people and will be a valuable tool to have. However, I think it is limited in terms of the way it can be connected to other platforms and promoted via other means, it’s quite a niche community and does not offer the kind of spread other spaces do.

Self Assessment Time.

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I guess it’s time to see if I followed the recipe…

Heres my original self assessment matrix - SelfAssessmentMatrix, click on it to view the specifics of what i’m assessing myself on…

1. Attendance

This semester I have attended every class/lecture possible excluding the ones I outlined in my Matrix due to prior Room with a View broadcasting commitments. I also completed a blog post each week reflecting on the ideas discussed and concepts put forward during each tutorial. I feel I was an active member of class and prepared material to share when asked to. I had appropriate comments to contribute and had no issues engaging in discussions on the readings or in general. During lectures I was an active live tweeter, especially in the Jonathan Hutchinson guest Skype lecture and engaged consistently with the #im212 hashtag. I think my follow blog posts on ideas we explored during tutorials go beyond mere recapping and delve to explore beyond the course material.

Overall Mark: 95/100

2. Textured/Consistent Blogging

I think my Media studies blog is a highly textured space and explores a lot of related yet diverse ideas. This semester in particular, I think it provides a great map of my exploration into the world of social media with a good amount of reflection from outside. It also contains a lot of screenshots of my own work and interactions with others which I think provides a good picture of my progression as a student.

Overall Mark: 85/100

3. Online Presence

In my matrix, I outlined developing an online presence as vital yet challenging. I surprised myself with how active I became in developing my presence online and how quickly I was rewarded when I joined specific communities. I experimented a lot with different platforms at the beginning of the semester and in the last half decided on the platforms I preferred to use and began posting to them regularly. On Twitter I have built up quite a good list of relevant industry people that I follow which connects me with emerging ideas in the media industry and helps me to develop my own online ID. I think my Tumblr is another fine example of a community I contribute to regularly and receive comments, feedback and interaction from other users. My contributions on POOL is where the most collaboration has happened with other users remixing and readapting my own orignal work.

Overall Mark: 90/100

4. Readings

Once I actually figured out how to access the readings (library home page DUH!), I completed and enjoyed all of them and they definitely enhanced my understanding of the importance of developing an online identity and what being a writer in this new online paradigm of user generated content and self publishing that Web 2.0 is constructed on. I think I was able to connect ideas set out in the readings to the formulation of my Online ID Slideshow with clarity and ease due to the way I had kept a record of my responses in my blog posts.

Overall Mark: 85/100

(95+90+85+85)/400= 88

 

SELF ASSESSMENT MARK: 88/100 


Introducing Mike Williams…Pool Extraordinaire.

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Mike produces a lot of audio based projects such as ‘sound lapses’ where he will record an entire event such as Sunday breakfast and then cut cut 2-3 seconds every at consistent intervals and lay them all together  to create a compacted experience of the environment and his surroundings.

EG) http://pool.abc.net.au/media/brunch-brunswick-audio-time-lapse

Mike also acts as a kind of ‘mentor’ and helps other users by uploading tutorials showing how he has made his own content to further inspire his followers and assist them in making work they can then share.

Mike uses pool in a very specific way when it comes to uploading drafts for workshopping, he utilizes the creative community he has built by contributing works in progress in order to garner feedback, potential new directions and the opinions of his peers.

 

Drafting process - http://pool.abc.net.au/media/floating-hard-draft-1

This is an element of POOL I think we could really utilize, as many times as producers our wrk becomes very important to us and we can often loose sight of other ways we could be working, or unintentionally close ourselves off from new directions or practices. On the other hand, sometimes we get lost and the work reaches a point that we cannot seem to surpass – in both these instances, allowing drafts or rough cuts and edits to be viewed  by likeminded creators gives work the opportunity to grow and flourish in new and exciting ways. Further, by uploading fragments of work onto a platform such as POOL, you are also opening up scope for potential collaborations as other users may have a use for the work or a similar project that could be connected to a specific direction the work could take.

Bloggers Speak.

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Came across this interview by TimeOut magazine and thought it’s content might be of interest to all us bloggers. I actually found looking at the blogs to be really interesting as each has it’s own very unique voice and style of posts.

Leigh Price is the man behind the blog i liked best – ‘Melbology‘ which consists entirely of posts made up of top 5 lists of all things Melbourne. This is a great way to get people contributing as it encourages them to comment on the posts with things they think should have made the lists or items they would add.

Leigh admits -  I’m sarcastic in my posts too, so we get more sarcastic with the comments, which is great.

So want to know Melbourne’s top five kebab shops, or what not to get your mother for mothers day? How about the five worst disguised ex pizza huts? Look no further!

This blog finds it’s strength in being accessible, fun and quick to engage with – its going on my feed thats for sure.

Professional Pinterest.

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Came across this today and thought it was a really interesting idea to consider. Mark Johnson has used Pinterest Boards to create a resume online, which is a way of presenting his professional portfolio in a unique and dynamic way. Have a look, I think this is the kind of thing we need to start considering as it takes a platform and uses it to tell a story in a way that the platform may not conventionally encourage.

Profilin – again…

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For this profile I decided to ditch the questions and freestyle a lil – revolutionary…I know!

Tumblr_m873l8rsvx1qcegzdo1_500_large

This is Belle, she is 21 years old and doesn’t study. She recently returned from a year spent in Mexico where she spent a lot of time drinking, partying and enjoying being young. Since her return, she has become fascinated with tattoos. She has a keen interest in the different techniques of tattooing and ‘genres’ of tattoos that exist in different countries around the world, and the respective customs and traditions that are attached to them. Belle has primarily been using Facebook to network with others around the globe but has found it difficult to really build a community of followers or maintain a dialogue due to the singular nature of the platform. POOL would be a great resource for Belle as it would allow her to put a specific call out and connect with others who are genuinely interested in contributing to her project.

Belle is an avid user of social networks, maintaining friendships she built overseas. She prefers using the internet to communicate as she is not a very warm or approachable person – she’s brash, unforgiving and does lack a few basic social skills. Communication via the web allows Belle to choose who she talks to, when she talks to them and what she talks to them about. POOL will free Belle from having to engage in activity that will enhance her project but she is not willing to do – like approach people for live interviews – she can find people who want to do that for her!

The Wedding Dress.

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The Wedding Dress in the Lake by Susan Mahoney and Steve Wadhams (CBC’s Ideas, 2007) – I listened to this on the way home and was truly inspired by the story of how the discovery of an object led to the creation of so many other stories.

Two artists in Toronto were walking on the shore of Lake Ontario when they noticed what looked like a pile of white garbage bags floating in the shallow water. They got closer and discovered it was a wedding dress. So they pulled it out, squeezed out the sand and water, and then set about trying to uncover the mystery of who it belonged to and why she threw it away.

I love the idea that random objects that we stumble upon can become the basis of stories – this one in particular has such a mysteriously romantic aesthetic to it, so many possible narratives/circumstances could lead to a wedding dress ending up in a lake – heartbreak, passion, tragedy.

I think this is a really interesting way to get people to collaborate – find and object and ask people to tell it’s story, however they like, through whatever form or via whatever platform they like – this is an idea I would really like to try and make something out of.

Here’s a quote from the Documentary - “…but what is the true story of wedding dress in the lake? Was it cast into the water by a woman who’s marriage went sour in a hurry? Is this the dress of a bride that was jilted at the alter? was it used as a prop some crass advertising shoot, the too clever handy work of art students echoing ophelia? Or might this be evidence of a hip new trend – the post wedding finery ditched off the side of a party boat hired by the happy couple?

Here’s an article by Joe Florito of the Toronto Star - The Mystery in White about the discovery of the dress and the way it intrigued a whole lot of people and compelled them to tell its story.

I started thinking about the ways we can use different forms of media to capture stories and the way we can deconstruct traditional media to retell stories – have a look at my brain in a storm of thinking.