blogpost6

In this reading Gardner talks about the 5 different minds. They are seen as methods or ways of thinking rather than the way in which our mind can compute. The minds are disciplinary, synthesising, creating, ethical and respectful minds.  He goes and applies each theory to examples in his life to demonstrate how we actively engage in all modes of thinking whether consciously or subconsciously. Further on in the reading Gardner asks how can we cultivate this type of thinking, saying how sceince provides alot of absolute answers but can lead to balck or white scenarios in terms of thinking and learning. The minds he mentioned are utilised daily in the work place and there should be more focus on it in the current day, but alot of the minds are merely focussed on brief occasions and work places focus less on how to think and generate ideas, but rather the skillset needed to complete the job. He finishes off by showing how if we neglect one type of mind, we also neglect the improvement of ourselves in various aspects of our life and work. I can see many parrallels between this reading and the course related work, like many rmit students we come in with a goal in mind, but many of us have become aware of the need to be multiskilled rather than focussing on one area of expertise.

blogpost 5

this reading was about the management of time within the digital age. He focusses on reformulating time, shifts focus form how devices colonises time to how we should value and spend time. WE develop tools to make our lives easier therefore an expectation of more leisurely time should be available. However the inverse has occured in almost all aspects. With this in mind, the increase in leisurely time due to the ability to multitask on multiple platforms create a sort of pseudo time. Instead of having more time to relax we have created a more accelerated society. It is reflected in our current change in the self service economy. Where we value tasks being completed now and faster and faster. Self check outs, self buying on amazon etc… exemplifies this theory. As we create more and more technology, we constantly renew and must relearn. This takes up the freed up time that we created and we as humans are unableto keep up with the constant evolution of technology. Leisurely time is not valued by our society, people see work as valuable time while any time off work is demonised such as unemployment and freetime. An interesting idea was the idea that time is gendered. Women specifically has less leisurely time as their time coincides with paternal labour duties leading to the term time poverty. ICT blurs the lines between work and leisure as they intersect at various times.

Blogpost 4

Newport talks about 2 theories that relate to honing your skills within the industry and its relation to your job. He recounts his experience with a guitarist who is trying to make it in his industry as well as compares the theorises with Steve Martin’s biography. The craftsman vs the passion mindset, it details how a person approaches their work. Craftsman mindset is how can your skill service the world. He provides an example and quotes Steve Martin ” Be so good that they cannot ignore you” which shows the mindset you should have approaching and is a more relevant to working in a job that you love. The passion mindset focusses on what the world or your work can offer you. By doing so, you focus on the aspects of work that you hate and will lead you to be unhappy. I feel this is very related to early work prospects and part time jobs where you are assigned mundane tasks. Newport advocates us to adopt the craftsman mindset as it is much more beneficial as no one owes you a career, but rather you have to earn it. By doing so you leave behind your self centred concerns and is much better for your self development.

annotated bib 2

Gifreu, Arnau. “Funding Models For Documentary. Part 1: The Audiovisual Documentary | Arnau Gifreu – Open Documentary Lab At MIT”. Open Documentary Lab at MIT. N.p., 2015. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.

Gifreu’s 3 part article explores various funding models which can be used to fund documentaries. Each part details 1 aspect and from these we can see the evolution of funding and distribution due to technology that was not present before. Even though we mainly focus on the production of documentary making, we feel that distribution and funding can also be incorporated as many new emerging platforms such as Netflix are providing novel avenues for film makers. This reference is limited in that it seems to only talk about film documentaries, where as from our research documentary making is so wide and encompassing that other forms of experimental media are not mentioned. This reference will not be the main focus of our research but more of a supplementary text is also evolving due to technology.

 

Chris Milk: How Virtual Reality Can Create The Ultimate Empathy Machine. 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.

The Ted talk’s video focusses on the power of VR to tell stories as it provides the greatest depth of empathy. In our interview with Michael Beets, he mentions this video and how his documentary “Jafri” would not be the same without Vr and also quoted that Vr is the ultimate empathy tool. IN this Chris Milk explains why and how it does so and gives a look into a case study of his own vr work. It is useful for our research since we focussed a lot on VR technology as it is a recent platform which has been garnering attention from many documentarians and film makers. It is limited in that it only focusses on VR and is sometimes quite general and does not solely apply to documentaries in some of the the mechanics and theories provided. This might also aid us in creating our own media artefact as a few of our ideas revolve around VR. Evolution of technology is our research and Milk says how Vr is new and just being explored leaving room for us to conduct further research. This may the main focus of our research in that is provides an answer to why Vr is becoming so popular for film makers and intersects with the idea of transmedia in that various artifacts can be scattered within Vr itself to aid documentarians.

annotated bib

Chris Milk: How Virtual Reality Can Create The Ultimate Empathy Machine. 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.

Gifreu, Arnau. “Funding Models For Documentary. Part 1: The Audiovisual Documentary | Arnau Gifreu – Open Documentary Lab At MIT”. Open Documentary Lab at MIT. N.p., 2015. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.

Ocak, Ersan. “New Forms Of Documentary-Filmmaking Within New Media”. Academia.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2016

Ocak explores the what is new media and asks why do we need new forms of ducmentary film making and distinguishes the different nuances between documentary and film making. He explores the potential of new media as a form of storytelling and provides specific case studies for us to explore to further understand the impact and changes of technology on current documentaries and maybe even theorise and draw connections on how newer technology may once again shift documentary film making. Many of the points discussed intersect with transmedia documentaries and their ability to interact and diversify what a documentary is. In each case study he also goes through a shows why each case study is unique and points out why these features might be a new and emerging form of documentary that we should consider. In line with our research project of the future of documentary making, some of these features may come to the forefront due to arising technology.

Documentary Film And New Technologies – MIT Discussion Panel. 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.

This video is a panel discussion at MIT where experts discuss the future of documentary under four key categories of funding, collaboration, evaluation and preservation.  With so many new platforms, funding and distribution is a key element in gaining exposure for documentaries and providing different avenues for film makers to undertake documentary work professionally. New technology also leads to collaboration with many other streams of media, this encompasses vr, games etc… how can media creatives work together in creating a unified language of work and how will it shape the media collaborative landscape. The article is useful to my research topic as it explores many areas of documentary making from the point of view of people who have funded and worked in the profession. It also ties into the readings that we have completed on megatrends and being able to adapt to a changing market through user generated content and consumer information gathered during the digital age.

Additional useful links

http://opendoclab.mit.edu/funding-models-for-documentary-part-1-the-audiovisual-documentary-arnau-gifreu

http://www.dw.com/en/latin-americas-growing-appetite-for-digital-storytelling/a-18411613

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW6gVWk7_78

http://www.cilect.org/gallery/know/31/doc/The_New_Storytellers_-_Documentary_Filmmaking_in_the_21st_Century.pdf

http://www.academia.edu/4073370/New_Forms_of_Documentary-Filmmaking_within_New_Media

http://futureofstorytellingproject.com/#iiii