Week 6 reading.. Hypertexts – The safari of Narrative.

When someone says the word hyperlink to me, I immediately think back to primary school. It was about 2002 when I was taught to embed a hyperlink into text, on this new and exciting program called ‘Microsoft Word’, have you ever heard of it?

The way in which hyper linking allowed me to network my stories about my favourite TV shows on ABC Kids to pictures on the web of the bananas in Pyjamas and Mixy the bunny, was an exhilarating concept for me that was quite peculiar compared to just the straight forward typical ‘write a narrative on a piece of paper’ type task.

 

As we have progressed not only in growth and age since 2002 but technologically this once modernistic cont of Hyper linking has developed even further into a whole new realm – Hyper texts and Hyper fiction.

 

Hypertexts basically add more complexity to the ideal of texts, and reveal a new organization of the typical narrative. These are some of the concepts that stood out for me in this weeks reading by Landow;

 

Hypertext redefines not only beginnings and endings of the text but also its borders – its sides, as it were.

 

That whilst indulged in a hypertext linearity becomes subjective to the reader, because narrative byted do not follow a typical narrative ‘page turning’ format.

 

To me, the way in which a reader is to follow a hypertext resembles a safari – an online safari! The way in which it encourages you to Explore the realms of a story and all different nooks and crannies of its content; just as I would imagine myself exploring a jungle.

 

I can only imagine what the world of ‘Hyper’ (links, texts..) will bring in the future, and perhaps looking back on this reading in years to come I will be baffled by the simplicity of a once  complex notion of Hypertexts.

READ LANDOWS COMPLEX IDEALS NOW. YOU WILL BE PERPLEXED

 

Reading #1- Dingle Souble looping learning.. wait, PARDON ?

Okay, I don’t know about you- but when it comes down to analyzing psychological processes, recognizing your brain cognitions and well essentially Thinking about thinking, it tends to leave me quite flummoxed and perplexed.

But then again, even pondering about my existence leaves me feeling like im drowning in my own brain activity. Lucky I’m studying media and not psychology or physics ey!

So when I was practically forced to read an article about this random dude Chris Argyris, and his ideals regarding theories of action, double-loop learning and organisational learning, I knew understanding his knowledgeable words wouldn’t exactly be a walk in the park, but rather a marathon situated in a foam pit (that would be a bloody challenge to say the least!).

In trying aid myself to grasp Argyris’ wisdom which in my experience felt like trekking through an infinitely vast pool of foam, I had to figure out a way in which I could not only get through to the other side of this foam pit, but also to discover a way to strategize, retain and understand this info as I trekked along- I first thought that My goal was fixed- I just get to physically read the words on the paper and then write a blog post about it. But the comprehension of the words that I read did not come along as easily as I expected and therefore the inspiration for a enlightening Blog post to impress my witty tutor Elliot (oh hey Elliot!), was hard to come by.

First of all, i thought ugh well I guess ill just read it again, and maybe after the second read I will become inspired and cover some distance in the foam pit! So reading it again I did. This approach sounded logical in theory, but it didn’t exactly hit the nail on the head when it came to understanding the intricate mind-boggling words and concepts on the screen in front of me. So, as my goal was to basically get to this other side of the reading or foam pit, I just kept smashing out this approach of reading Argyris’ words over and over and over again- reading it out load, singing it, stopping at every single word I don’t understand and pretty much operationalizing this method to make it work for my planned and fixed goal to reach the end of this bloody foam marathon.

After hours of multi tasking between talking on the phone to Mog, trying to read and watch the latest Offspring episode I suddenly realised… what am I actually doing? This approach obviously isn’t working for me. I have not even covered half of the distance to the end of the foam pit, I’m all sweaty iv pulled a hammy and have nothing to show for it. I still did not understand what on earth double and single loop learning were, and thus this blog post was not getting any easier to write.

Then I had an epiphany! It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I was being slightly lazy in my learning and quite narrow minded on how I was to achieve what I set out to do. I questioned my method- why isn’t it working? Why don’t I understand the words on the page? And honestly, why have I made such a big marathon out of such an insignificant task that ultimately is not a big deal? So, I came up with this ideal that maybe its not me that has to conform to the language of this reading, but rather the reading needs to be transformed into an easier and less intimidating format AKA ‘Georgia language’. So, as I am an extremely visual and dramatic being, I thought of this outrageous idea of comparing the reading to trekking through a foam pit! And the methods to getting to the other side were the concepts of Single and Double looped learning! CRAZY DAYZ.

Wait a second, did I just understand Argyris’ reading and write a blog post about it? Did I just feel the edge of the foam pit on the tip of my finger? Did I reach my goal? How Ironic!

This is the most confusing and paradoxical blog post in the history of blog posts.

Have a lovely day.

CLICK HERE TO GO ON A MARATHON IN A FOAM PIT YOURSLEF!

 

A Blog you Say…?

A Blog you Say…?

My Inspiration, The man himself – Snoop Doggy Dogg

Wow, okay… I have a blog now. Sick. Ive always wanted a blog! Wait… have I? I think i have. I like fashion blogs, and one of my friends from high school has a blog so they must be pretty cool right?  Apparently Blogs allow us to develop an online personal as well as a physical one and a can be  a cost effective way of ‘getting yourself out there’. So as this is all extremely exciting and i’m finding it quite hard to express my level of excitement on the subject,  I wrote a rap. It is entitled “Blog Doggy Dog”. Enjoy.

So I’m Studying this subject, its called networked media, Apparently we’re not allowed to use Wikipedia,

Instead were asked to make this thing called a Blog, I discussed this subject deeply with my best friend Mog,

We said, how . on.  earth do we make this, to make our thoughts relevant, we gotta create shit.

But sucsessful blogging doesnt just take place in class, you gotta work consistantly, put your social life last.

Were like, “Elliot Eliiot cant you see, we’re struggling with this, you gotta work with me,

We know weve gotta focus on this subjects content, but please Elli please To what extent?”

Hes like Lesson 1 : Whats a Blog? In order to conceptualize please shut up Mog!

A blog is basically a web publication, reverse chronological is the posts illustration.

Blogs- they allow us to create this medium, to strengthen  hypertexts, sorry girls bout the tedium.

This mediums loqacious, informal and capacious, and to make a really good one youve gotta be audacious.

Blogs can be conversational, proffessional, or personal, scholarly or humorous or just damn cynical.

Now to know why they’re useful we gotta move to lesson 2, how to express your online voices- ill show ya what to do.

They help you document your practise, to reflect and learn, to nurture peer support and express your concerns.

Im like ” Elliot, are blogs kind of like journals?, sorry to be annoying i just need to be verbal.”

He says yes, its kinda like a dear diary sitch, except it is a public document so don’t be a bitch!

Its sorta like youve gotta just imagine your audience, initially they aren’t there to give you ‘applaudience’.

Last but not least we gotta move to lesson 3: about the benefits of blogging- contributing the community.

but ultimately – it acts scaffoldingly – expressive ‘viroments emerge, making a networked family.

So to all you try hard hipsters out there in my tute, i hope you’ve listened carefully, don’t want a dispute!

Have fun blogging along, and singing your song, and no matter what you post just know its not wrong!

 

Peace

Miles, Adrian. “Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning.” Australian Screen Ed 41 (2006): 66–9. Print.