Media 1 (2016)

Week 2 tutorial focused on editing and as an activity to help the class get started we were asked to create short and endearing Haiku’s, I thought this was a very enjoyable task and was nice to set the mood for future editing.

Self Portrait Written Component – Natasha Khan

PHOTOS

LEFT (Health and Lifestyle) – I think this image represents not only one of my favorite foods but the healthy and active lifestyle I enjoy and try to incorporate in to my life. Mangos are amazing to have as a breakfast item and always seem to keep me fuller for longer, fresh fruit is so important in my life as well as keeping up good habits and enough exercise.

RIGHT (Bedroom Design) – My bedroom says a lot about me, on my main wall behind the bedrest I have presented all the tickets and trinkets from places I’ve traveled (including plane tickets) as well as concert tickets and other souvenirs I’ve picked up along the way. It represents my desire to travel and to see the world as well as a reflection of everywhere I have already been.

LEFT (Garden and Home) – I grew up in a very lush suburban area around Doncastor and I’ve always loved being able to have a garden to go out and play in as well as just sit and read, I think I’ve always loved the bush and greenery more than the city life although both play a major role in my life of course going to a University which is city based has changed how I view the city as I’ve been given time to explore it more.

RIGHT (Music Production) – As presented in my audio files music has become such an important aspect of my life, I believe this image represents my dedication to my art form and the passion I have in creating. It also demonstrates the instrument I compose on and the types of techniques you can use it for.

LEFT (Chiaroscuro Lighting and Photography) – I am a conceptual thinker and what comes out of this is my love for lighting in photography a well as trying to represent something in an image that people may not necessarily see straight away, I believe life is all about interpretation and I think this image represents my way of viewing things.

RIGHT (Art) – Again similar to photography art is a way of self-expression and for me swirling colours together is a major form of stress relief and expressing inner thoughts. This is a picture I recently painted just a few days ago that shows my love for colors as well as sunsets and rises as they present the end of one day and the start of another.

AUDIO

A song which incorporates my singing and I think represents my personality especially the Jazz, soul and blues incorporated into my music which was due to my fathers influence in mo-town.

A secondary beat takes a delve into a different genre of my music making, using more blocked chords and less of the electropop area I truly love, yet it also represents my love for melody and my technical musical background.

A synthetic pop beat is my favorite musical genre, after spending a majority of my saving on a Roland Jupiter 50 I’ve been producing music ever since, this reflects my growing stills on productions.

VIDEO
(all combined/unedited below)

Video 1: Again one of my favorite leisurely thing to do, play an instrument to relieve stress and anxiety before any event, finding ways and hobbies to help my headspace is very important I think this media piece communicates emotions in the lyrics as well as my love for my instrument and passion for creativity.
Video 2: My everyday bus on the way to work and uni, I’ve traveled this route for years, I think looking out the bus window at such a familiar environment really challenges me as when I listen to music and observe I always try to find new things to inspire me.
Video 3: A segment of me playing a different instrument, I think this piece conveys myself in a personal space in my house feeling comfortable whilst doing something I love I also think It represents my fashion style and lifestyle as a whole.

50 WORDS

Art, music, creativity
Living fully with festivity,
Always thinking of a new activity,
Something to increase productivity.

There’s a lot of aspects I could tell,
Life for me is a rapid but swell,
I think making words collide,
Is a great way for creativity to divide.

 I choose to write a poem as reflection on how innovation and creativity run my life and how I aspire to think outside the box and create ideas that haven’t been thought of before, It also is a testament to my youth as during my upbringing drama and poetry were a big influence in my life and still are they gave me confidence and self-assurance in all that I do.

The second tutorial brought together more activities for the class to interact with this included listening, watching and giving feed back to the images, video, audio and written component of people’s self-portraits. We did this by having post-it notes with different words, each word was allocated to the person giving different feedback to the sharer for example having the note with the word ‘Black’ meant I had to give constructive feedback on what I didn’t like in the self-portrait. The second main activity was learning what a Haiku was and creating one in order to practice editing for the week four project. This for me was quite fun and easy, it took barley any time to edit together but it was awesome making something abstract and artistic. In regards to the reading the class was allowed to have a short discussion on their thoughts, I thought it was an interesting read, there was a lot of terminology that I decided to look up and now understand better due to further investigation, it was also obviously another introduction into what makes up a story in regards to scenes and again editing choosing what to put in and leave out.

The activity the class was presented with was to go to a specific location and observe the different forms of Media within society. The purpose of this task I believe was to make students aware of what it is to be an active media consumer, always challenging the views and values within the media and they’re purpose. The location that I examined was Melbourne Central below is a list of media observations that were made with a few selected images as evidence.

Up High: Electronic advertisements including a massive projected one next to the elevator stairs, Melbourne central clockwork.

On the Ground: Receipts and other pieces of rubbish from products.

Mid Ground: Salesperson promoting products, volunteers handing out information pamphlets,

Background: Mirrors that reflect the surrounding media.

Foreground: People on there mobile phones whilst walking, giant lighted electronic brand names on stores,

In Your Hand: Mobile phone, applications (receiving Facebook messengers), the sound of receiving a message.

In an overall reflection the combustion and the constant movement inside Melbourne Central made it extremely hard to focus on one aspect and to be specific one media aspect. As a place of commercialism and sales, Melbourne central makes good of this by having an increase in brand advertisements relating to fashion/clothing which is what is sold most in Melbourne central.

An example of the giant advertisement as you walk into Melbourne Central

The giant electronically lit brand name which attracts many to the store.

A representation of how many people are walking around on their phones and the volunteers promoting a cause in the background.

Core issues discussed during this week’s lectorial included the concept of what makes media as a whole and what it means to us individually, a majority of people who spoke up stated facts such as media and politics, music, to interconnect different platforms, technology but I feel what a lot of people left out and  as the lecturer discussed the personal aspect of what media means to us personally. Media is communication and I think communication is one of the most important things we should discuss when talking about Media. For me as I’ve previously mentioned the disconnection and connection through communication online is an important aspect of media.

I was intrigued to hear our lecturer talk about modern society compared to pre modern society and the reliability of ‘real’ friends compared to ‘facebook’ friends. I agreed that the people we talk to online aren’t as trusting and real as the ones we see more regularly in real life, I think you can get a false sense of security online but in your times of need the people who are most likely to be there both physically and mentally aren’t there ones you’ve been talking to through a computer screen. Although editing was discussed again during this lecture and was the prime material for reading I find the practical and theory sides of it are something I am already well versed in the concepts of Emotion, Story, Rhyme are basic aspects of an edit but as always I didn’t expect them to delve into the deep end to begin with.

Reading: Scott McCloud Blood and Gutter, The Invisible Art
This reading or comic focused on the idea of creating a story out of certain scenes in particular it related to a comic book but in general it related to how we imply and create a story without having to show all aspects, so the building together of scenes of course the comic book could be related back to a storyboard and how they are very similar in creating a running story.

When studying media I had no doubt in my mind the assessments would be related to technology so a blog was no surprise, however as dubious as this sounds I feel more disconnected when writing blog posts than when I do in a diary. I had my first blog in year eight, it was really about sharing pictures I had taken and like many teenagers my age It was on the social platforming sit ‘Tumblr’. As I grew older as a digital native I found there were things that got to me that shouldn’t have- they were caused by social media and I knew this. The fact that one of my friends wasn’t able to call me as the idea of a phone call gave her such anxiety yet she could always type out how she felt, she then told me it was because it felt more ‘natural’ to her, the Irony as It seemed unnatural to me.

I love media and technology but in terms of connection I believe it can really put a divide between how close you think you are to someone and how close you really are. I wrote in a dairy I would sometimes let the people closest to me read it, with a blog its generally everyone or no one, I use to change the privacy settings so that only the people closest to me could find it but it still wasn’t nearly the same.

I find it strange looking back onto eighties films where the main character would be chained to the wall by a phone when talking to someone whereas now it’s chained to a computer, I think loneliness is increased by technology I’m very keen to learn about how mental illness plays a role in media I really hope sometime to touch on that. I personally can feel more lonely online talking to everyone as really when I am sometimes I’m alone in a room.

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Week 1 Tutorial was an elaboration on the assessments we would need to complete during Media 1 (2016), we are expected to write blog posts four times a week as a reflection on our learning process- we must write about the following:

• One post relating to the lectorial and readings set that week (directly relate to core issues discussed)
• At least one post documenting and reflecting upon the exercise undertaken in the current weeks workshop
• At least one ‘imitative’ post connecting an idea encountered in this week’s class with a media text/production exercise/event/experience of a specific interest to you that hasn’t been mentioned in the course.

This class discussed the key to making a successful blog post and the difference between a blog and a personal diary, one being public and a used as a skill builder the other being more of a platform for pure reflection.
I didn’t find there was much ‘knowledge’ substance to learn due to this being the first introductory tutorial. The teacher elaborated that in the following weeks we would be learning technology  based skills such as editing, this I will find quite humorous having completed a Diploma in Screen and Media as well as having various paid and volunteer roles within community television (pre, production and post).
Nevertheless our first small task was to make a small bibliographical self-portrait with our own original material, I will expect within the next few posts you’ll find one relating to why I choose and created the particular media I did and how it relates back to me and the person who I am.

The first lectorial of ‘Media 1’ began with a welcome briefing and a course outline, It was also an opportunity for the lecturers to begin to stimulate the minds of their current intake of students. Topics which were raised were goals of what we wanted to achieve from the course as well as a short introduction on the reflective portfolio assessment (which is what is currently in progress on this blog at this moment).
In terms of new terminology the lecture discussed ‘Hyper attention’ and ‘Deep attention’.  Hyper attention is in essence multitasking or quickly switching from one task to another without a single dedicated focus, of course deep attention is the other focusing everything onto a single task, this could be something as simple as reading a book. The essay on which the discussion was based upon pondered on the current generation growing more hyper attentive due to increasing media stimuli.
This would be an obvious and undeniable factor as technology progresses media placement has increased and is inevitable, developing children are giving smartphones at alarming young ages as ‘toys’ and thus the progression into hyper attentiveness descends. It will be interesting to hear more about this topic and definitely would be something I’ll research into as I have a keen interest in psychology and mental illness and its role in modern media.