Week 2 Reading – Bruce Sterling “Design Fiction”

Although this reading was a bit shorter than the usual length of readings, it was very informative and a nice change of scenery to read it from an interview format. Bruce Sterling sounds like a man that is passionate about science fiction writing and raising awareness for this new concept of thinking, “Design Fiction.”

The useful definition that Bosch includes in the opening paragraph about “design fiction” is that in order to think about the future, there is “an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling.” It means that an individual has to think about speculatively on potential inventions and ideas that could have an impact in the future world. Sterling also explains that design fiction is about getting people to concentrate on thinking about this next-generation theory instead political trends or geopolitical strategies.

The interesting element of design fiction is that it has real applications in the real world and it actually works. I’m amazed by how inventions and ideas that have been created or realized in own time was predicted and thought about decades before in science fiction novels and films. Inventions like the iPad and the mobile phone have been predicted accurately in the sense that will one day it will be invented.

But like all great concepts of thinking, there is “bad” design fiction. It is thinking about ideas that are unrealistically achievable or too creative/out there to be taken seriously. Like what Sterling said, no one wants to aspire to copy an individual with a “stupid” idea.

To conclude, the importance of design fiction. I think it would be a very beneficial way of providing the future with a tool to think differently. Our future needs new thinkers and I think design fiction can go a long way of helping them.

Unlecture Week 1

Well, it’s week one into Networked Media. I was mildly surprised and intrigued by the title of the lecture being called an “unlecture” when I saw it in the course guide. It was an interesting experience, very informal and casual instead of talking heads and lecture slides filled with information being thrown as me. I gotta admit the slides Adrian shown was really simple in terms to lack of long sentences and paragraphs, having a few dot points om each slide and using colourful imagery.

What make the unlecture flowed a bit more smoothly was Adrian’s charisma and his stance on conventional university learning process. With an interesting team of lecturers at the helm of an unique subject, it thrusts upon me the opportunity to be slightly less lazy, more creative and experiment with my writing. I hope that this subject can give me valuable skills for the media industry and the confidence I need to let others look at my written stuff.

Week 1 Reading – Chris Argyris

Well, Week One’s required reading was very text-heavy and full with big scientific jargon that makes my head spin. But it did provide me with an insight into the theories of our learning processes and how human beings create their actions in difficult situations.

Single Loop Learning. If I understood it correctly, single-loop learning is the most common learning style which dominant in the area of mental and physical problem solving. So, using the governing variables of goals, values and beliefs and executing them with action strategies and techniques, it ends up as results and consequences. So by learning the results and consequences, we can use problem solving create new action strategies and techniques.

Now, it’s time for Double-Loop Learning. It’s pretty much similar to single loop learning  but extended with extra steps to undertake. Using the acquired results and consequences to increase our understanding of what we learnt, we reevaluate and reframe the existing goals and values. This learning style provides more problem-solving than single-loop learning.

It makes me think, do humans have a instruction manual?
Were we created to be predictable? Or to be the most complex piece of machine ever?

Week 0 Reading – The Boat…

Well, this is my first (belated) blog post for COMM2219 – Networked Media. I was surprised and terrified at the same time about the thought of starting a blog for uni. With my naturally lazy personality, I didn’t like the challenge of starting up a blog and committing to it. I’m pretty sure if I made a New Year’s Resolution to start a blog, I would have failed that promise right from the get-go. Sigh. But under these specific circumstances, I guess I’m backed to a corner now. Now, I gotta fight back and try to beat this challenge. Hrm, I keep forgetting if this is can be a diary or not, well… since it’s a place where I can gather my thoughts and put it down on (electronic) paper… I guess I’m okay to think so…(?)

Right, I just rambled on and on…. Back to the original reason of this post like it says on the title “The Boat”, the reading for Week Zero. Hrm, when I finished it, the image of the Titanic pose keeps popping into my head (cue Celion Dion’s My Heart Will Go On). LOL. RIGHT, SERIOUS MODE ARGHHHHHHH…

Since my brain is failing me to come up with serious questions, I’ll answer the suggested ones. I guessing it would be a very turbulent and seasick experience, naivgating the rough seas of the media universe of knowledge. I would need the basics and reasoning of networked media to allow me to float across the semester 2 seas. It is a visual metaphor for me, imo. It describes me stranded in this boat within the Internet ocean of information. I hope I would eventually learn and teach myself how to navigate this ocean and survive in the end.

I guess this is long enough for a first blog post. First down,  more to go.

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