Archive | July 2013

My Favourite YouTube Artist

Tyler Ward.. He is one of my absolute favourite singers/songwriters/musicians, and this is the first ever video of his I came across on his YouTube page about 4  years ago. Since 2009 I have been following his progress as a musician, and it’s really cool to see him come from just being an unknown singer who posts cover videos on YouTube, to being a world wide celebrated artist, who now has his own music videos and tours around  America and Europe. He’s really great, and really talented, and deserves everything he has achieved so far.

Unclecture #2

I found yesterdays ‘Unlecture’ to be really helpful! It really was!! Before walking into it I was still a lot confused with what I was supposed to, allowed to, or encouraged to post on this blog, but after having the question and answer session in the lecture, I feel so much more comfortable and confidant with what I can do with this course and this blog.

The discussion of some aspects of Media Law was also really interesting, and I feel like the information shared in this session will be hugely useful not only with the creation of this blog, but  also in the years to come with my media degree and work life outside of uni.

some brief notes on my thoughts of the unlecture:

  • I like how the unlecture functioned
  • I feel like it was a good way for us to get the questions we want answered, answered.
  • The more general questions were really helpful.
  • I liked the explanation of Media law
  • One suggestion of something that could be done differently in the unlecture I think is for the tutors to give us a theme or general area of topic, for us to then form questions that we would like to ask. I guess this would help make the session run a little more structured and help us think of appropriate questions to do with the theme/topic.
  • yeah, that’s pretty much all I have to say.
This entry was posted on July 31, 2013, in Unlectures.

Introducing Deborah Lawrence

Deborah Lawrence is an 18 year old photography student, and one of my best friends…

““There is always something to photograph, you just have to see it.” I believe if one has an interest in photography, they must have a good eye to be able to see something and imagine something extraordinary that may come from it even if it may seem simple to someone else. Photography can not only be a form of art but it can also be used in a form of storytelling. I find these ideas and this certain understanding very fascinating which has driven me towards the study and art of photography.” – Deborah.

Deborah is a creative soul, and uses a camera to capture some of the beautiful moments, places, and people she interacts with and experiences on a daily basis. She has been passionate about taking photos since childhood and found that being born overseas in Pakistan and having a distinct cultural background, allowed her to gain the privilege of becoming multilingual. Being able to speak her national language, Urdu, allowed Deborah to see that language barrier greatly hinders communication which is one of the reasons why photography appeals to her, because everyone sees the same thing and a photograph can be understood in every language.

 ‘Since childhood, I have had a great interest in photography, as well as drawing and sketching.’ she told me.  Growing up, Deborah had little realization of the fact that she could further embed this interest into her life, developing it towards something more than just a hobby; She only realized so when she moved into higher year levels in high school. By the end of Year 12, all uncertainty Deborah had regarding her tertiary education had vanished, and in the light of her already retained skills and surging passion towards photography, she made the decision that photography is most definitely what she wanted to study ahead. There are a large number of skills required in photography and her dream is to further explore, and develop a personal style, and learn more about the art of photography.

Recently Deborah conducted a photo shoot with my friend, Andrea, and I around the city of Melbourne. Take a look at some of my favourite shots from the day:

You can also check out some more of Deborah’s photography on her Instagram –  @deblawrence 🙂

Networked Media and The Ocean of ideas…

The class reading for week 1 on ‘What is Networked Media?’ was really interesting. The paragraph of metaphorical description made this subject, and networked media as a practice out in the world, sound quite amazing. I particularly found the description of this as a small boat, on an ‘ocean of ideas’, to help myself put into perspective the actuality of any networked media around the world. The amazing ability for this boat of networked media to drift, and float, and just be – hover over an entire ocean of ideas. The ocean being what connects all the ideas together in a big jumbled way, and the boat being the mighty and powerful, being able to see these ideas and find the ones that can make a difference. However, as the metaphor identifies Networked Media with a boat, it can also be observed that this boat will drift past many various ideas, most likely bypassing some incredible ones, as it floats, possibly missing out on certain ideas and thoughts that could be useful.

The sentence form this reading that stuck with me the most is, ‘Each wave is different. Different enough to have a difference, a difference that matters.’ This sentence kind of makes me feel inspired when I read it, and makes me think of all the ideas, concepts and thoughts that are out there in the world, or in the ‘ocean,’ that matter, and in which Networked Media can find and work with to create new and amazing things.

 

Image from http://www.fansshare.com/gallery/photos/10633663/white-heather-race/

 

week 1 … Dread Vs Enthusiasm!

Coming back from mid semester holidays was a little harder than I thought it would be; I got used to sleeping in, not having to worry about anything being due, or whether I had done any readings for the next week. Not saying I wasn’t also a little excited to get into learning new things again, I was. But still, being lazy at home was slightly more appealing at the time. So, I did in fact come into semester two a little scared, yet excited at the same time…

And now, sitting here after completing my first week of Networked Media, I can say that I really did enjoy both the first  ‘unlecture’ and tutorial for this subject.

I found the Unlecture to be really interesting, and I enjoyed listening to everything that was discussed. The talk of how mostly everyone in the Western world these days has a media making product in their pocket, or in their home, was fascinating. I guess until then, I’d never really thought about it in such a sense, in my mind, creating film and television and radio, was only for the people who could afford the best equipment and crews to make it happen. I guess I, and many other people, have just been taking technology, such as the iPhone, and it’s ability to make good quality media, for granted. Listening in the unlecture this week was really easy and insightful, I feel like it was a great way to segway into the course and what we will be dealing with for the next semester.

As for the tutorial, I found it also to be enjoyable. Going over all the assessment details helped me get more organised and setting up this blog was fun. I spent a lot of the time going over ideas in my head for possible blog posts, and I guess at first, and still a little now, the thought of updating a blog every week was and is quite daunting.. In my head I keep thinking, ‘what am I going to write my blog posts about?’, ‘How will I have enough to say in order to write the required amount of posts each week?’. Yeah, I still don’t really know the answers. However, I do know that whatever happens, updating this blog will be a fun way to stay on track and learn everything I need to throughout this course, and also a fun way to talk about things that interest me not only as a media student, but as a person outsid eof university life.

So overall, after making it past the initial, ‘I can’t be bothered going back to uni,’ post holidays stage, I enjoyed what I learnt in my first week as a Networked Media student, and I look forward to everything else to come in this course!