Final Signal & Specific to Site Reflection

The final project brief for specific to site was exhibited at ‘Signal’. This creative arts studio aimed to provide a space for young artists of all mediums. With the assistance of classmates, our tutor, and the employees at Signal we were able to put on an exhibition for 3 nights in the heart of the city on the Yarra. Our team worked hard and cooperatively in particular groups to prepare, promote and run the show. The different groups included the tech team, the installation team, PR, project managers and the documentation team. I was a member of the public relations team, and through being appointed this job I had a variety of responsibilities to ensure the success of the promotion of the exhibition. One of my main tasks consisted of constructing and the distributing of visual promotions. These included assisting in the construction of the website, placing of posters, and cutting and dispersing of the flyers.

Our team had a group conversation via the social media platform, Facebook, to keep in contact to keep on top of activities and to brainstorm and collaborate ideas. It was here we voted on placing posters in spaces in which are often densely populated and thus would have a higher chance of being identified. This included the library, building 80, the student lounge, RMIT connect, and the media and communications building 9. (See blog post here). However, when I asked the librarian’s permission to put up the posters, they declined kindly and informed me that we are supposed to seek permission from RUSU on where to dispense posters. After speaking with RUSU, we had permission to place posters in RMIT connect, the pillars of building 8 and we had to seek permission from individual buildings for the other places, and therefore we also placed them in building 9. Another job of mine was working with Rose on developing the website, providing potential viewers the opportunity with a link to each individual student’s Media Factory blog, blurbs for their work and a portrait of themselves. (See website here).

Overall, this semester has been far greater than semester 1, the ‘Specific to Site’ studio has taught me a lot on methods of exhibiting, editing skills and collaboration. I enjoyed being able to work and produce all forms of mediums for media, such as photography, audio and film. As the semester progressed I have a made a lot of new friends, as well learnt a lot of valuable skills such as editing for film. We were provided workshops on particular programs such as Premiere Pro, and that plus the help of classmates and my tutor I was able to learn a completely new program and work with arranging multiple footage on one screen, cropping, sizing and edits of reversing and slow-motion. The signal exhibition, the backpack projection night and Project Brief 3 for Testing Grounds really extended my skills on collaboration and allowed myself to experience working in the media industry professionally, working with real artists, and real employees of the studio art world was very valuable and a great insight to the media environment. It also allowed myself to immerse in the struggles with communication, and hardships of putting an exhibition together, especially if there is not a mutual understanding on collaboration and effort.

Furthermore, through this studio my conceptual process of creating films has expanded immensely. Robbie has expressed to me a new understanding of place, and the relevance of set, scene, and studio galleries. I was able to challenge the idea of place and non-place and match it amongst the art world. From this, I believe that any sort of space could be made into a place, depends on one’s interpretation, project brief 2 really helped me to explore this. (See blog post here). I had such a small understanding of curatoring and studios, however after being exposed to Testing Grounds and the Signal studio, I have developed a deeper understanding for galleries and exhibitions.

Moving away from conventional exhibition spaces whether it is a gallery or exhibition space, we have focused to explore more alternative spaces that would compliment our work. Although traditional exhibition spaces may offer “perfect” lighting or an ideal colour scheme, alternative spaces such as outdoors or projections from a building offer a sense of ambience or atmosphere that other spaces could simply not offer. While observing works in the outdoors, each viewer has a unique experience, while being offered the opportunity to be influenced from external factors. Making art seem fun to the public, rather than mysterious, incomprehensible and solitary, has led a growing list of artists and municipalities around the country to create open studio events (Grant, 2010). Therefore, with the influence of readings, Robbie and the Project Briefs, I have deferred from the idea of traditional projects of artwork and been exposed to more non-traditional places, redefining the “place” of artwork, and becoming more specific to the environments of production of artwork as well as the display of art.

 

References:

  1. Grant, D 2010, Selling Art Without Galleries: Towards Making a Living from Your Art, Allworth Press, United States.

Blog Post #3 – Overall Reflections

Television to me is a reward, as my favourite thing to do when I get home is to get into bed and have thousands of choices of programs to watch at the tip of my fingers. My television habits mainly consisted of me using Netflix and watching other shows via online systems, however, as the semester has come about, I have become exposed to a multitude of genres and programs and more frequently I sit down and flick through the channels on the TV, rather then pre-selecting what I wish to view. For example, I have begun watching Mad Men. I have also exposed myself to more current affairs and morning television programs, which I would usually never allow myself to do, as I would consider them boring and irrelevant. I utilise television more than just for entertainment, however as source of information, especially when it comes to news-related programs.

This semester of popular culture studies has expanded my knowledge and thinking process when it comes to understanding television cultures. I do not view television but I understand it, analyse it, and I can’t help myself. The most obvious analysis that I undergo is the flow and scheduling concepts within prime time television. Whilst watching The Bachelor, and The Bachelorette, I had begun to notice the type of audience that advertisements were appealing to. During 6:30pm and 8:30pm, usually families are viewing broadcast television and therefore advertisements such as automobile and phone companies formed televised the ads that appealed to family values, such as Optus’ family home deal plan. Furthermore, once prime time had ended, advertisements led more to a modernistic appeal, as majority of the viewers were over the age of 16, media agencies can appeal to a more specific audience.

Now watching television, it’s almost as if the “glass has shattered” (How I Met Your Mother reference) behind all the tricks and tools that TV producers employ. Behaviours and actions seem to make more sense, for example, my sister couldn’t understand why Sam from The Bachelorette, wouldn’t eliminate the dorky contestant in which she clearly did not share a connection with. It was very obvious to me that the producers of this program had included quirky contestants such as Will purely for entertainment purposes to increase higher ratings and viewers. In response to this my sister asked me how I knew that, and to me, it was the most logical explanation, television success is rated on the response from viewers and humour and empathy of the underdog is the easiest way to draw a connection through reality TV.

My favourite genre of television would have of been comedy and supernatural teen dramas, however, I feel as though my interest in specific genres has expanded throughout this semester, especially after my group assignment. Studying Keeping up with the Kardashian’s has sparked an interest in Reality TV, more specifically competition-type shows such as The Bachelor. Usually I avoided reality TV, as I preferred to rely on screenwriters who have determined particular problems, resolutions and twists to keep myself ‘hooked’ on the show. However, with this program utilising second screens, with viewers allowed to present their opinion via the show on the television screen, it fell right into the lap of popular culture, and once viewing it on a screening in a lecture, as well as studying Reality TV, I gave in, and gave it a chance. To this date, I have not regretted it, as I really drew a relatable connection to the content, especially Sam.

Overall, television cultures has been one of my favourite subjects this semester, I have learnt a great deal, and enjoyed studying, analysing and understanding the concepts, issues and genres of television. I’m very doubtful I’ll watch television the same again.

Media Studio | Wk. 12

Today is our last lesson for the year and I presented my Project Brief 4 to the class. Robbie’s feedback was very beneficial, he liked the idea of questioning gravity, and preferred the last 3 films, and to work on the second and first to match the others, to make it more abstract. Originally I thought the sound of the spring of the trampoline wasn’t good enough to use in the audio of the overall piece, however, Robbie really liked it and therefore, I’m going to go back and work on my audio again.

Media Studio 2 | Wk. 5 Wed

Today in class we presented our Project Brief 2 in class this week, we didn’t get to go through mine but i got to see majority of the classes work. It was really interesting to see how other people interpreted the assignment and the work they produced. Majority of the videos consisted of old infrastructure that was in use anymore, demonstrating the place’s lost of purpose, questioning it’s purpose as a place at all. It was interesting for people to capture places that may have come across asa “non-place” nonetheless they were still active. For example, Dusty’s film was set in a empty warehouse that seemed to no longer have it’s original use, nonetheless, the second day she went there was a knife stabbed into a cushion which wasn’t there the day before. Showing that the public, still had use of a place for this, especially the homeless, who had found a new “home”.

One of my favourite’s was Rose’s, I love how she questioned the meaning of specific places, she contrasted the action of one place on the set of polar place. Usually bathrooms are thought about to be unhygienic and private, and Rose had a young woman eating all sorts of food around the entire public bathroom, she was eating noodles on the toilet seat, lollies on the floor, and I was really grossed out by it. However, it did get me thinking about how a place can have it’s own specific meaning and certain things apply to certain places, I have always been told to not take my food into the bathroom, and to always make sure I’m very clean before I go to a restaurant, especially before I eat, and contrasting the specifics between the two sites was very interesting to observe.

FINAL BLOG POST

Overall, it’s been a busy semester but a great one. I’ve enjoyed the media course so far, and I look forward to next semester.

What have you learned?

This course has taught me about the importance of cooperation and collaboration within group projects, it sometimes may be difficult, which is beneficial because it gave me experience and new ways to work on group projects to ensure that we are working as a team. Another element of learning that has occurred would be how to use the video recorder and the zoom microphone, and how to hire equipment in general. This was beneficial for me as I did not have a fancy microphone and therefore, my work was at a higher quality thanks to the IT at RMIT. I’ve also learnt valuable skills with particular programs, especially iMovie and Garageband, my tutor also pushed me to think more abstractly and to add a little more creativity with my work to make it more interesting, he was very good with advice and feedback with my individual and group work.

How have you learned?

I believe that majority of my learning came from peers and my tutorial lessons. The practical workshops were far more beneficial for my learning as I was able to hands on try everything, and speak to my tutor at the end of the lesson to ask further questions. However, when I was unable to attend my tutorials, the friends I have made in this course were extremely helpful, and they spent time with me to help me understand and keep me up to date with the workload that was being handed out. Also with our project briefs, the peer feedback, as well as the tutor feedback also was helpful for me to learn to expand my creativity and to help me improve my skills within the media realm.

What you found most challenging in the course?

The most challenging about the course was the short time we were given the projects. The first one especially took me a long time to come up with an idea, and by the time I had an idea, I had a short duration of time to put it all together, which made things a little bit stressful. Another challenge within this course was definitely the group assignment for Project Brief 4, the teamwork wasn’t there, things weren’t done in time and I had already had problems with one group member in another assignment. Therefore, this task became quite frustrating and stressful because we weren’t essentially working as a team the whole time.

What you discovered about your own creative practice?

I have discovered with my own creative practice to spend less time brainstorming for a perfect idea and to get out, attain footage and let the ideas flow as I continued to move forward. I’ve also discovered that I need to complex my ideas further, and to not stay in a similar idea, to look outside the box more. I have also discovered that I come up with my best ideas when I bounce of other people, when I was in out group assignment, the more we discussed what we wanted to do and our ideas, better ideas came about, and I think it’s very important to make sure everyone is throwing in their opinion so can maximise our opportunity to attain the best idea.

 

Here is the learning graph about Semester 1:

Learning Graph

Learning Graph

 

Links to 5 best blog posts:

Blog Post 1

Blog Post 2

Blog Post 3

Blog Post 4

Blog Post 5

Week 12, Media 1 Tutorial Reflection

Unfortunately, my group members left our class halfway through just before I arrived, so I didn’t get to share my work. Luckily though, I had completed everything I wanted to, and all I had to do was put it together. It was annoying they left, however, I was late to class. Nonetheless, I shared my advertisement and my sound introduction online and it was all okay. In class we worked on a learning graph, and I begun to start editing my podcast and putting it together, I was very pleased with the recordings, and all I shared my script to my introduction, and aim to record that in the next couple of days.

Media 1, Week 12 Lectorial Reflection

The final lectorial of the semester I was absent for due to being swamped in other assignments and therefore, I searched on the media one on media factory to observe what they discussed and it seems as though the discussed the topic “media materialism”. Discussing the natural evolution of medium theory, and I assume he is discussing the topic of technology and how our society has evolved with this as our main resource in our lifestyle.

Media 1, Week 11 Tutorial reflection

We got a little bit ahead of ourselves, and when were to present our first draft to Dan, we tried to discuss with him extra work to do, such as creating a website to support our podcast and luckily for Dan, we realised that we were doing extra work, and therefore we decided to stick to our simplistic podcast idea and try put all our creative thoughts towards that. We shared our ideas with what we wanted to record, and some of us had created a script. We decided that by the end of next week all of our recording would be done with that, and we all would have one advertisement. Hopefully everyone is successful and we have more to show next week!

Media 1, Week 11 Lectorial Reflection

This week they discussed the topic of remixes, and the controversy with copyright. It’s a difficult argument as although they are creating what may be considered “new” music, they are using works of other artists that have already been created to do so. It’s like someone has put all the effort into creating a song with lyrics and a beat, and someone has taken it and “upgraded” it, and the original may not be left with as credibility. However, a remix could actually enhance the popularity of a song, putting it out further into the commercial music industry world. It’s all about the ethics and morality that undergo when an artists wants to remix another artist’s work, and those who are ignorant to these morals are the ones that keep this debate still running.

Media 1, Week 10 Tutorial Reflection

This week we had finally come up with an idea for how we want to portray our artefact, we decided to create a podcast, and we would split the workload up into 3 segments. We split the segments up in a different way this time, I was going to discuss the relationship between music and emotions, Helena would discuss the educational use of podcasts and sounds, and Katie was going to discuss the use of radio and voice communication.

We also decided to make it more realistic we could create advertisements and a radio station to represent to spark up the creativity with our work. Hopefully it turns out well!