Here is my first video sketch for this week. This one is travelling away from something. Once again, I am very pleased with the result. Its extremely simple yet intriguing and kinda interesting. It flows very well and in some sort of way tells a story. I think these videos need a strong ending. If it just ends suddenly I think its too abstract and people would have no interest in watching them. This sketch, in a way, has a twist. No one expects that the thing the person is going away from is their dog. It uplifting due to the music and colouring in the video. I fixed up some of the colours in editing to make the video a little more interesting and easier on the eye. I think its creative and fits all the criteria for this weeks topic. Enjoy!!

I walk in to the lecture today and Kony 2012 is playing on all 7 screens. Sheeesh. It really has taken over. This could be my fourth viewing. Stilln ot sure what to think about it. I do know though that it highlights the power of social media. Its mind blowing.

Lets break it down (KONY 2012)

How is this different to traditional media??

• Its online video unlike if you were to go to the movies or watch it on tv. It was designed to be networked.
• Rather than just reporting on the rebel issue he makes it personal. He points out a personal relationship he has and tells the story. The journalist puts his own child in the video. Its there for the world to see. Everyone sees the birth of his child.
• He is using techniques to give it the web feel. Scrolling up and down, showing Facebook, zooming in to maps. Its in a different feel than cinema and tv.

It has no problem with drawing attention to itself – It is reflexive. Its not trying to hide anything. It doesn’t care that the person is at home with his kid. Its showing all sides of the equation. It draws attention to the making of the work.

Like the video, we are learning how to create professional work and ‘home style’ work and combining it.

Second part of the tute: Starting to critique some of the videos…

Here is one of my video sketches. It is clearly the blue one. I’m quite happy with the result actually. I didn’t think I would be but after watching the final version I realised I did some pretty good things. (well at least I think I did). But then again, there is no wrong or right in this. Its just 30 seconds. 30 seconds of stuff. And I completed the task…and so, I’m happy. The video doesn’t have a complete meaning yet I did think about what I was doing when making it. I wanted to make sure there was a clear beginning and end. And so I bookended the video…the ending matches the beginning even if it has no real point. I made it a little mystical and mysterious just to add to the poetry of the whole thing…Enjoy everything I like blue!!!

One of the most controversial, topical things going on around the world right now is the ‘Kony 2012′ Campaign. Agree with it or not, it is 100% relevant to Integrated Media. It demonstrates the power of social media and networks, whether it have positive or negative outcomes.

“KONY 2012 IS A FILM AND CAMPAIGN BY INVISIBLE CHILDREN THAT AIMS TO MAKE JOSEPH KONY FAMOUS, NOT TO CELEBRATE HIM, BUT TO RAISE SUPPORT FOR HIS ARREST AND SET A PRECEDENT FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE.”

This is the small synopsis on top of the video of Kony 2012. Regardless if its a good or bad thing, Kony 2012 is an incredible example of how powerful these social networks are. Whether it be Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo…whatever!!! This just demonstrates the potential this medium has to change the world. I believe that this is the beginning of something special, something unprecedented. This may be a small step but I think this phenomenon will become contagious and other causes will follow in its footsteps. Social Networks are the most important, powerful tools in the world and I can’t believe it has taken this long for something like this to happen.

As the video itself says:

“there are more people on Facebook than there were on the planet 200 years ago”.

This statistic alone demonstrates the power and ability this medium has. In my opinion it can seriously change the world. Over 65 million people have watched the video so far and it hasn’t even been out for a week!

I donno, this is blowing my mind. I don;t even know what to think about it. Where to even begin thinking about it!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! crazy stuff. All I know is, social media is the future. It just is!

http://kony2012.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

Participation is worth 30% and is self-assessed.

Its time to make a list of participation criteria.

1. Readings
2. Feedback in class and in blogs.
3. Having an active voice in the class.
4. Critiquing on other peoples work etc. Being PRO-ACTIVE
5. Share and support others
6. Ask questions
7. Coming to both lectures and tutes.
8. Experiment with the programs, software etc. Video sketches, Vimeo, Korsakow etc. Practice!!
9. Creativity before tech????
10. Engage in terms of an online community.
11. Embrace foreign networks.
12. Be more conscious and reflect about how you use and experiment with social networks.
13. Constantly keeping up with the Integrated blog and course content.
14. Linking blog to outside sources.
15. Extra research outside labs

BANG – apparently none of us understand what participation actually means. We aren’t grasping what it means to do well in this course. Now we have to work out 2 points that are hard and 2 that are easy.

Hard: I think being able to speak up and critique other peoples work will be hard for me. Having a more present, active voice in class. Going above and beyond in terms of stuff outside class will also be hard for me. Having the motivation to work outside the course content will be difficult. It’s one thing to do what the course requires but its another to go above and beyond what is required and then reflecting, writing and talking about it.

I think its important to highlight what will be difficult throughout the semester because if one really wants to do well in this course they have to work on the stuff they find difficult. Once you get over that difficulty you give yourself a chance to do well and get to where you want to be. It isn’t good to be complacent with doing what comes easy for you.

Easy: Attending tutes and lectures will be easy for me. I tend to get up and get to most if not all classes. I think it will be pretty easy for me to experiment with the software and various programs that we need to use this semester. It’s fun for me to work out and play around with that sort of stuff. Its what I’m interested in.

After all that Seth is a little happier. Answering what we believe will be hard and easy has helped us gain a better understanding of what participation actually is. The worst thing we can do in this exercise is to put up borad strokes and not be specific with ourselves. Participation isn’t about doing what is required but going further than that. The additional things.

Four main thing we have to deal with to do well in the course! {Labs, Readings, Blogging, Artefacts}.

We need Evidence!!!!!! We have to be able to look back at this post and other posts to know at the end of semester what grade we deserve! It’s our contract.

NOW WE HAVE TO FINALISE OUR CRITERIA:

1. Being Pro-active in class. To do this I need to have an active voice in the class and I need to be able to Critique other peoples work.
2. Going beyond the course content. Find things that are relevant to the course but not set by the course.
3. Reflecting on course content and outside sources on blog.
4. 3-4 blog entries per week
5. Experimentation with programs, software etc. Try different things with video sketches.
6. Do all readings and reflect on them. Analyse them.
7. Use various social networking utilities. Twitter as a platform for ideas, Delicious as a way to filter information for course etc

A really great lecture. This is the sort of stuff I love to learn about. The fact that nothing is black and white. The fact there is ‘noise’ in almost everything!!!

Noise:

Shannon and Weaver in the late 1940’s defined a ‘mathematical theory’ of communication.

Noise was anything that interfered with the ‘correct’ transmission of the message.

Things like – Technical. Cultural. Interpretative. Subjective. Personal. Counter reading. Against the grain(to deliberately rub it the wrong way, happily make it mean something else)

A magic bullet model of communication. One that many of us still have, even where our behaviour shows us otherwise.

Bullet theory – The assumption that the receiver will just understand it immediately. We know now it is impossible.

Noise is good??

Noise introduces risk, but much more importantly, novelty. The opportunity for the new, the not yet. The possibility of change. It introduces randomness into structure.

Digital media has always been haunted by noise. It is the ghost always just under the surface.

Early hypertext and anxieties of navigation.

The early web and being ‘lost’ – in the web itself, and within a site.

Prohibitions on what you should, and should not do for ‘navigation’ which was an information architect’s way of saying ‘comprehension’.

Pictures are just noise in relation to text. Pictures can’t say no. In the early days there was still anxieties about pictures. Fear of the image.

Complaints about all the rubbish out there.

Difficulty in finding things of value.

Anxieties about lack of gatekeeping

A moral panic whether you are from education or heritage media.

It is nearly always thought to be a problem in relation to our previous institutions of knowledge and control.  BECAUSE Loss of authority?? Loss of power?? Things that don’t make sense within socialised contexts of knowing and professional performance.

Here we go again,

Participation for Integrated Media 1. We had a quick table discussion about some of the things we thought are vital when it comes to participation. Here is what we came up with:

• Come to all lectures and tutes – This matters because if you aren’t physically there you will fall behind and have no idea of what is going on. Its obvious but vital!
• Experiment with some of the software (korsakow etc.) – If we are using this program throughout the semester we have to learn how to use it.
• Experiment with our video sketches
• Consistently update and add to our blogs – We need to do this to have some proof at the end of semester about how we participated throughout the semester.
• Research the subject outside of the course – I think it is extremely important to come up with some of our own ideas and notions. Its not only about the set parameters but about us thinking for ourselves.

We had a class discussion about what participation actually is. We spoke about how it literally means attendance and how that is what it was like at school. But now at uni we speak about participation as effort. Different methods of engagement and learning. Its what we actually do in the lectures and labs. How we interact with the subject, share our thoughts and ideas.

We spoke about why we believe the participation is assessed publicly.

• Makes us accountable – we have to prove ourselves
• We have to learn how to monitor our effort. What we DO
• Honesty

Thats all for now I think!!!