Semester 1 of this course has been everything I expected it to be: unfamiliar, fresh, and interesting. To be studying something that interests me is what I have been looking forward to for some time. Throughout this semester, I have learnt various things about the media industry, media technologies, and media artefacts, I have enjoyed learning about each of them.

At the beginning of the semester, my understanding of media was pretty average: what is made to be seen and wants to be see. But in those first few weeks of lectures and tutorials, the actual definition of media to me became much wider. I gained an excellent understanding of what media is in our assessment #4 research, where we had to make a creative response to our ‘text’ artefact, which in truth can be considered anything and everything in media, meaning media can be anything you want it to be.

From one week’s particular topic of focus, I became aware of how I learned and how I maximised efficiency.  Hyper attention, defined as “switching focus rapidly among different tasks, preferring multiple information streams, seeking a high level of stimulation, and having a low tolerance for boredom.” I find this true in activities outside study, such as multitasking while watching television with my phone and laptop, or finding myself deeply immersed in a video game that has many components to its gameplay. This attention type has allowed me to work on my assignment requirements simultaneously, and change them to suit each other as I progress.

One of the more difficult aspects of this course I have found is the creative process, in that I often find myself unsure of what actions to take or which direction to go in. This uncertainty hinders my progress, and usually I take quite some time to get an assignment moving. With better planning and making a solid decision as to my final product, I feel that I can move past the blocks I experience and get more out of my creative process.

Curation of Posts:

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/shannon-griffiths/2015/03/18/self-portrait/

Being the first assignment for the course, I really enjoyed putting my skills and creativity into use, and explore the possibilities of the criteria. The aim to make a self portrait without showing our faces was very interesting, and got me thinking in different ways to represent who I am.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/shannon-griffiths/2015/05/28/assessment-4-draft/

This post was about the progress our group had made towards making a creative product representing our media artefact ‘text’. We were a bit stuck for ideas as how to go about it, but Dan gave us some really interesting insight and a fresh perspective, and that helped us finalise our decision for our two videos and print ads for our advertising campaign and analysis.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/shannon-griffiths/2015/04/25/assessment-3/

This assessment has the same idea as the first, but we had to portray another person. With the requirements stating that we incorporate found footage, this made me think about the construction of a video, and consider abstract methods of storytelling.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/shannon-griffiths/2015/05/05/audiences/

This lecture was particularly interesting, as the audience that a piece of media is targeted at must be selected carefully to ensure its success. The engagement of the ‘active audience’  has significant impact on the institutions, technologies and aesthetic sensibilities. This is something that be carefully considered by all media practitioners, and would be considered by me in the future.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/shannon-griffiths/2015/04/16/recording/

I have never really voluntarily made a media product focusing on sound, so the recording workshop was very interesting as I learned how to use the equipment and how to identify the more useful parts of the audio for each different purpose and intention of use. This was a very useful skill to have touched on.

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration.(URL:http://www.rmit.edu.au/students/assessment/declaration)

 

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