Tag Archives: Reflection

Tutorial Discussion

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Today we discussed the worksheet handed out in tutes last week regarding the landscape we are working in now and how we can understand its direction.

“It’s a jungle out there…”

Best things we have learnt:

  • Changing roles of creatives/artists – we need to be multi-skilled and competent.
  • Death of the author
  • Fan culture/Fandom
  • Participatory culture influencing the direction of media – we have become creators of our own media and there are multiple platforms we have to be across to get a fuller understanding of the world of the show.
  • Split screen culture

Issues that will face the media:

  • Globalisation
  • Hybridisation
  • Amateur culture/new production models undercutting experience
  • Digitalisation of culture/augmented reality
  • New TV
  • Innovation is a struggle for Australia because we are always playing catch up.
  • Copyright Laws – Spotify is a middle way
  • Ratings are no longer accurate because they don’t count online viewers/downloads
  • House of Cards – you don’t pay for content, they pay you to watch the ads.
  • How can we make media sustainable with the prevalence of downloading? What are new advertising and revenue models?
  • Viral content/ Hype.
  • Defining the ethics of the digital space and creating a community bound by more than the circumstance of being online.

Things we can do:

  • New funding models that focus on younger makers and specific contexts/ Utilize fan culture
  • Focus on the auxiliary skills studying the media brings – it now surrounds us so much its vital to understand it – we can read the language and speak the language.
  •  National Broadband Network
  • Understand the new markets and the new narratives we must create 

Self Assessment; it’s all over.

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

1.  Attendance

Throughout this half of the semester, I have maintained a consistent level of attendance in both lectures and tutorials. As outlined in my original matrix, merely attending class was not enough, I aimed to be an active and attentive class member who consistently contributed to discussions and asked questions. I feel I have definitely met this area of my self-assessment. I was an enthusiastic member of class discussions and participated in debates on the readings and offered a lot of considered opinions during discussions of the major project. I tweeted during lectures and reflected on the ideas via my blog. I pinpointed key areas of interest and elaborated on them further including experimentation with how I could apply the theories to my own practice. I also took my interaction in the Twitter feed one step further, by engaging in dialogue with guest lecturers and other class members in order to troubleshoot, strategize and get feedback on proposed ideas and pieces of work I was in the process of producing.

 Overall Mark: 96/100

 2. Textured/Consistent Blogging.

I really focused on quality in my blog and developed a range of different posts that reflected my own personal journey through the theory and ideas posed to me. I think my blogging really improved this semester as it was a lot more analytical rather than me simply recapping the ideas I found interesting and engaging in dialogue with them – this time I went further and really looked at the ideas and how they could be seen in the work I was producing. My blog has a lot of images I find inspiring and have used to further my ideas and explorations into the journey we took with our major assignment. I think my blog provides a lot of insight to my own personal journey through the major project and the theory, and my voice has developed a lot more, developing a distinctive tone of informed fascination with the ideas I’m engaging in.

 Overall Mark: 95/100

 3. Online Presence.

Developing and maintaining an online presence proved to be the most difficult task in the outset of the course. However, as I progressed, I found myself drawn to the new platforms I had begun to experiment and engage in.  Participating in their dialogue has become sewn into the fabric of the way I use the Internet and form connections with others in the media world. I have become particularly active on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr as the three work in wonderful harmony together allowing a textured representation of me to develop online. Twitter has allowed me to form connections with industry professionals that would have otherwise been unlikely. In forming these connections, I have opened myself up to a range of potential collaborations in the future. I feel my online presence has been enhanced by my knowledge of hash tags and tagging all my updates, which has been directly influenced by my engagement in the online world. By developing a glossi page, I can also combine all my social media activity into one space that I feel ‘sums me up’ in an aesthetically pleasing way. In my matrix I said I wanted to find a community and find places to show and develop my work, and I feel this is definitely I goal I have managed to reach beyond the confines of the course. I could have experimented more with other platforms and gone beyond the major three I was instantly drawn to, but I felt that by using the ones I most enjoyed engaging in, I would be able to produce more consistent and quality driven posts that were relevant to me.

Overall Mark: 90/100

4. Readings

I completed all the set readings of this half of the semester and did so with a great deal of reflection as evidenced on my blog. I think I managed to apply the ideas posed in the readings to my own work and show the implications of their suggestions in the evolution of my perspectives on the media landscape and how I can be an active driver of content. Harold Jenkins theories on Media Convergence were particularly thought provoking and I think my engagement with the ideas is very evident in the progression of my blog.

Overall Mark: 95/100

Add it up…

(96+95+90+95 = 376)/400 = 94

 Overall Mark = HD

ReadLand and Twitter.

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Using twitter to promote our participatory project has proved to be the least successful platform for acquiring contributions. We have found Twitter to be useful in ‘touching base’ with another audience, who can use quick informal links we post to access our Facebook page, which has been by far the most effective platform.

 

Early on in the semester I identified Twitter as a space for quick, immediate statements, it does not leave space for reflection or elaboration, often, the 140 characters you send out is lost in the plethora of tweets and forgotten the moment it is read. We have used Twitter to link people to Facebook so that they have time to read our callout, to respond to it, and hopefully to submit a contribution.

Posts such as the one above have been really helpful in anchoring the focus of our project, as it’s quite ambiguous in its defining terms, we are being purposefully open in what contributions should look like. Twitter allows us to make subtle suggestions and provide an avenue into the project with quick little bursts of inspiration via imagery.

Example contribution.

Twitter has also been extremely useful in connecting with likeminded networks, the ability to tag people (@) in posts, and directly tweet to them has proved to an invaluable tool and one that is quite unique to the Twitter platform.

Example of an interaction with radio documentary makers Paper Radio.

Twitter also allows us to thank contributors publicly and keep a good sense of momentum, other users may see a Tweet sent out from ReadLand thanking a specific contributor and click on our page, and then become inspired by the project. Alternatively, followers will be inspired by the contributions of others and feel compelled to contribute themselves.

Reflection.

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Well, it’s week eight in semester two and things are progressing well; the two major things we need to keeping up with in IM2 are our blogs, reading and major assignment.

My blog is progressing well, i’m really happy with the amount of posts i’m doing and I think they are varied and well textured and show the way I’m progressing through the course work and keeps a good record of the ideas i’m exploring independent to the set tasks.

These are the two readings we have to do over the next two weeks//

Although the second part of the IM2 assessment is quite abstract, I think the group is doing a good job of finding some anchors to tie parts of the assessment Matrix toward.

Group project receiving the highest grades will//
• Have a vibrant, engaging and interesting online project – In gaining this, I think we need to set up a central online space which we can start to collate things in order to encourage contributions. At the moment, our Facebook is generating quite a lot of attention, as it it a good place for people to post their contributions and allows others to comment on them and elaborate.
•  Have a rich, informative, well-documented project journal – Our Tumblr is our own personal space which I think shows our own journey into the project and personal responses to the task.
• Have produced innovative, tailored seeding material and demonstrate a strong understanding of how to shape a participatory project –  I think perhaps this is where we need to find a bit more clarity. The seeding material is quite wordy and I think would benefit from some solid examples and more instruction around what we actually want from contributors.
• Have devised and trialed strategies for developing the project audience (as evidenced in the project journal – We need to do some profiles of potential contributors and how they will interact with the work. We need to develop strategies from there.
• Show excellent knowledge of both extremes of developing a user community – ‘dry’ marketing development and ‘wet’ collaborative production – No idea what this means, need to investigate…
• Have maintained micro-deadlines at all times – the project (and project journal) develops and is experienced (by tutor and users) in a meaningful way over time – this means recording deadlines, reflections and keeping a real sense of the progression of the project and how it is collaborative.
• References and uses legal content from a wide variety of sources – we need to start sourcing content ourselves, each group member should select a medium – EG) Film, Sound, Image etc and research it.
• Demonstrates a deep engagement with a variety of ideas explored in lectures and tutorial discussions- Alternate blogging after the lectures with relevant ideas we can use in the project – schedule in Monday’s Meeting.

THINGS TO FOLLOW UP ON//

  • Develop some succinct examples of contributions and perhaps put out another call that is shorter – we are planning to make posters calling for written mail so this could work well for this part of the project.
  • Develop some profiles for potential users/Strategies to get people involved. Perhaps a projection of the kinds of people we would like to have contributing at certain stages in the project
  • ‘dry’ marketing development and ‘wet’ collaborative production – What is this??!!
  • Production Schedule – Do during Monday’s Meeting.
  • Start sourcing content ourselves like blogs, books, art etc – each group member should select a medium – EG) Film, Sound, Image etc and research it.
  • Alternate blogging to the Tumblr after the lectures with relevant ideas we can use in the project – schedule in Monday’s Meeting.

Feeling Reflective.

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!I guess it’s that time – time for reflection. It’s week 4 and I guess I’m still in that stage where I’m feeling like i’ve just gotten back in the routine/gist of uni life. This semester has been really different from the rest, both academically and personally. I guess I have decided that I have to do more for myself and stop putting so many expectations/pressures on myself. This spans to everything in my life – friends, work ethic and above all perfectionism. I think I have alleviated myself of a lot of angst and upset when I feel scorned by putting in effort and getting nothing in return.

This sounds negative, it’s not supposed to be – it’s a learning curve I think everyone has to go through – you don’t have to lose yourself in order to become the person you always wished you could be – thats counterintuitive, wrong and does little to gratify hard work.

To be honest, I feel a bit lost in IM2, I’m still not entirely sure what it’s asking of me or even what it’s telling me – but I have grasped this week that it’s about telling stories, and I know I can do that well – damn well actually, in fact, it’s what I base a lot of my creative effort upon, so in this respect, I know I’m capable of achieving at least one area of the course outcomes.

I think I have done well to enhance my own online presence via social media platforms and I have been reminded of the importance of having a presence and being active in both the blogosphere and on more immediate platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. I have really tried to build up my own presence on Twitter especially as I think it’s an important tool of this time due to its ability to connect us all together in organic, public conversations that are relevant to what we are exploring. I have begun to realise the importance of Twitter simply due to the active nature of the beast – once you start/discover/establish a hashtag, it actually gives you a specific space to send your thoughts. This is different to Facebook which, as a platform does not provide any kind of ‘hierarchy’ in information – everyone gets everything – no matter if you want it, or even if its relevent – Twitter is a lot more of the mentality ‘you only get out what you put in’.

In a nutshell; I’ve gone from a Facebook feind to a Twitter beginner, been re-enchanted by Tumblr, had my aesthetic mind inspired by Pinterest and summed it all up on Flavours me - pretty good for four weeks?

What i’m loving about the course – It’s taught me that social media is by no means, a waste of time.

The ends not near, its here…

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It’s weird, we are nearing the end of the semester already, and it feels like so much has changed. I didn’t really even fully notice the quite profound shifts in thought until we did our participation class yesterday. For once, we didn’t return to our initial ‘criteria’ we wrote for ourselves at the beginning of the semester, because as Adrian noted, to do so would be pointless because our progression through this course should really make those critera obsolete.

One of my main ‘things’ I wanted to achieve this semester was to become ‘better at techincal/nerd stuff” – this concept was quite obviously to do with the content I was aiming to produce. At the start of the semester, I considered my work to inferior to everything, that it could never ‘stack up’ to the work that surrounded me.

I feel so much differently now, and honestly, it’s been one of the most liberating experiences I have had to far as a ‘maker’ – I have felt like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders and have felt so much freer to just go out and ‘be’, even in a world which is based so much on comparison to others. The main thing I have learnt this semester, and I hope to retain for the rest of my working life, is that monument does not define greatness. Working with what you have, making things that you want to make is where the magic happens. I feel I have become much more open to my own ideas and have been able, by sheer will, to produce things that I feel I have permission to be proud of, despite where they stand in relation to other works.

I think my evolution as a maker can be evidenced in this – I became a better content maker not by acquiring a ‘better’ camera or reading the user manual of FCP at night. I became a better maker by going out and doing, by taking risks, and ultimately by letting go, putting stuff out there, and accepting imperfection as  a part of the work, as an element of instability and possibility. I learnt that the less we ‘say’ the more we inspire conversation and the less we imply the more we leave for possibilities in interpretation. This is where the beauty lies, and I think so much can be said for relying on others and not being afraid to loose ownership or ‘copyright’ of your work. Sharing truly is the ultimate act of caring.

I’m at that stage now where I want so badly to wind down, but I’m trying so hard to stay on track and work hard during these last weeks of assessment, procrastination levels are at the highest they ever have been and I’m working on a film project at the moment as well as a social media campaign which are sordidly stealing my attention from the essays I have to write.

Anyway, this is the end of my collage of thoughts and reflection and angst, time for more procrastination I guess…I feel frazzled…

Korsakow Review Session.

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This morning I had my Korsakow review with Adrian, I think it was really worthwhile to sit down, with the moving work in front of us and examine it in the process of watching/exploring it.

Major points Adrian made:

  • The work was too busy. He said most people have this tendency to want to fill the entire page with ‘stuff’. For me, this is definitely an unconscious tendency and something I have to really become aware of. To me, it’s just a natural thing to fill the screen because I feel like it makes the viewer comfortable. But when works are too crowded, viewers can become overwhelmed and get into a frenzy of attempting to understand all the elements in conjunction rather than having space to view each one separately.
  • Working in a grid – This is a important design element and is all about being visually/aesthetically coherent. The bottom of the last thumbnail should align with the bottom of the SNU screen, because the amount of text changes throughout the project, yet the size of the thumbnails and SNU remain consistent throughout.

 

  • Use of Text – I think Adrian is right, I did definitely get too caught up in the textual side. It’s funny, I kind of forgot that each video had thematic connections to others before I even started using Korsakow. Like the theme of family, of introspection and of experience. I could have used these as 3 key words to connect similar videos rather than overcomplicating the work by attempting to find patterns in abstract ideas I applied to them. If i had just been able to see the patterns that were already there and work with them, I think I could have made a more accessible project.
This session was great, because it will really set me up well to approaching the final task. This subject is not anchored in my strengths, but i’m really enjoying the learning experience, and today has been another one which is quite affirming. Trust the patterns that exist, have faith in your ideas and dont be afraid of simplicity!

Best of?

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So, after Sunni linked to a post on my blog, I began to read through her blog, and came across her post which said:

…I just realised for the third time that I have to write blog posts on which video I like the most every week. Woooops..

 

My sentiments exactly…

Here we go! The nominees are… travelling towards something, away from something and being somewhere. And the winner is….BEING SOMEWHERE! Yay for being somewhere, it’s always life affirming.

Somewhere. from Zoe Annabel on Vimeo.

In this video, I took on the advice of doing something super informal, and to be honest, it was a slap dash effort, it literally took 30 seconds to film, one take on Photobooth. I grabbed a torch, waved it in the air like I just didn’t care, and shook my lap top up and down.

To add to the laziness of this, I decided to record my audio voice over in Photobooth (I have used this technique a lot when i’m looking for a tinny, echoey sound quality) but realised it actually worked really well with the grainy-ness and overall uneasiness of the short.

So, the reason I like this video is because I feel like it has an atmosphere, and a sense of dynamic in it’s message, it’s purposeful but not displaying a clear cut intention, it exists as it wishes too and doesn’t claim to be anything of importance or monumental significance. I like that it was easy to do, and kind of bowed to Adrians implorations to keep it simple and not overuse physical technology but focus on what we can do with what we have.

I feel like this is one of my more successful pieces both visually and in teaching me that things can turn out well that are off the cuff, experimental and not necessarily even that considered.

Im going to quote one of the most amazing women I think to have ever graced the earth…

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“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”