The Covid Club

Posted on October 17, 2020October 21, 2020 by rmitmediastudent

The Covid Club from Media Factory on Vimeo.

Our project, ‘The Covid Club’, is a short video that aims to explore the idea of ‘self-identity’ in isolation and the effects it has on mental health between each of our group members. As we are currently in lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we have been communicating and creating media throughout the semester virtually. We wanted to take a unique turn in this virtual world and dive back in time to letter writing. Each member uses this technique of writing to one another not only to understand more about our experiences through these unprecedented times, but to mainly learn more about each other’s identities through personal perspective and reflection.

As a group, we used the Making Embodiment classes as well as Collaborate Ultra and Facebook Messenger chat to outline our plan for our final work. We collaborated very well altogether as we had regular catch-ups, set realistic deadlines, and assisted each other in getting the work done. The work was split evenly between each member, with our poster being created by Zach and the final compiling & editing put together by Aaron.

Overall, we are all extremely happy with the way our final project turned out. From completing Making Embodiment, we have gained a lot of understanding about the importance of involving the body and its senses in media work in order to emphasise the audiences’ feelings towards our project. Specifically, the ideas of perspective, sound and touch have been those that we have widely explored throughout our video to solidify the notion of isolation and letter writing.

We hope you enjoy our final project and stay well & safe during these weird times!

By Izzy Hally, Miranda Hatzimoisis, Aaron Tam & Zachary Taylor

Who am I?

Posted on October 17, 2020October 21, 2020 by sophielangley

Our work delves into the concept of identity, examining the three fundamental layers that form one’s sense of self- presence/ appearance, culture/heritage and memories/dreams. This media piece is a representation of not only our individual skill sets, styles and aesthetics, but also our personal stories and experiences of life. Embedding a range of media techniques and tools we explore the concept of embodiment and its correlation with identity, questioning how our experience of the senses is directly related to our selfhood. Having created this work, we have developed a far more profound insight into who we are and how we interact with the world around us.

Please use headphones when watching the video for best experience.

Below the media work you will also find a photo gallery, featuring our personal images of home, childhood and family.

who am i? from Media Factory on Vimeo.

Bec – ‘Sicilian decadence, featuring my mum’

Bec – ‘My Nonna dressed up for a night out in the 60’s’

Halis – ‘Views of the driveway back home’

Monika – ‘Autumn 2000, Dad and I outside our home in Vilnius

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The Complexities of Anxiety

Posted on October 13, 2020October 20, 2020 by sophielangley

Poem from Media Factory on Vimeo.

One Morning from Media Factory on Vimeo.

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What Exactly is Wax?

Posted on October 13, 2020October 21, 2020 by sophielangley

Let us take this [piece of] beeswax. It was collected from the hive very recently and has not yet lost all the sweetness of its honey. It [still] retains some of the scent of the flowers from which it was gathered. Its colour, shape, and size are evident. It is hard, cold, and easy to handle. If you strike it with your finger, it will give off a sound. In short, everything we require to be able to recognise a body as distinctly as possible appears to be present. But watch. While I am speaking, I bring the wax over to the fire. What is left of its taste is removed, its smell disappears, its colour changes, its shape is destroyed, its size increases, it turns to liquid, and it gets hot. I can hardly touch it. And now, if you strike it, it emits no sound. After [these changes], is what remains the same wax? — René Descartes

Descartes, R 2013, Discourse on Methods and Meditations of First Philosophy, Broadview Press, Peterborough, Canada.

Our media work aims to depict the subjective sensuous experience of relaxing in a bath. Additionally, this work is interested in exploring whether some modes of media are more suited to artistically representing the subjective experience than others. We posit audio and animation are more suited to this task than video. As the work progresses and changes from one medium to the next it departs from the physical world and enters into the sensuous perception of the protagonist. While all these sections hold distinct properties, they constitute a whole.