Category: Unlecture

Unlecture discussions-Integrated media

  1. What is the point in redefining narrative as anything more than ‘cause and effect’?
    Something can still be cause and effect without being narrative. As Adrian explained, most of the things that exist in this world rely on cause and effect. We as humans have become accustomed to stories being narrative and told to us.  Because we have ways of telling stories, such as cinema, we assume we must ‘tell’ a story. Narrative in film is the depiction in the medium of film, of a series of events in the cause and effect relationship. Narrative media uses a story as its main motivation. When you begin to play with the ‘story’ and meaning behind the film you slowly begin to lose the narrative meaning.
    We can portray something in an abstract form in cinema that still uses cause and effect, however, make the meaning more ambiguous. When the story line isn’t clearly narrated we are forced to contrive meaning ourselves, putting together moments to create meaning.

  2. Ryan notes ‘we can never be sure that sender and receiver have the same story in mind.’ Korsakow films allow for greater freedom of interpretation. Do you see this as a positive or negative? How can the filmmaker control interpretations?
    We can never be sure sender and receiver have the same story in mind, however, the sender can provide all relevant information to aid the receiver to understand fully what the message they are trying to send means. Korsakow is a medium that we use for the purpose of allowing interpretation by the viewers.
    Korsakow is about giving viewers the ability to interpret what is presented to them in the way that they feel. In the lecture, Adrian said interpretation is like flirting. Funnily enough that made me fully understand what this question is about. Jasmine stated is Korsakow the only way of presenting a story to someone and allowing them the freedom to create their own interpretation. Korsakow has different portals to its story.
    There may be five different interface’s to click on, not every person is going to follow through the same imagery, thus, they will not generate an identical meaning. This is a positive for Korsakow because the whole purpose of Korsakow is ambiguity and emotion. We can feel like we understand the piece without understanding the cause and effect.

 

 

 

Questions from Symposium 04

1. Bordwell and Thompson state that after watching Railroad Turnbridge a person “cannot see bridges in the same way” thus experimental films are not just art for arts sake. Can/are Korsakow projects art for arts sake, or can they effect the way people see things? Or like Rail Road Turnbridge are they both at once?

Korsakow films aren’t necessarily art for just art’s sake as they provide new ways to view what we see. They give you the ability to look at something in a new light, in a way you haven’t looked at them before through non narrative film. (Richard Serra, A Translation) states that “the physical turnbridge is the support of this experience, not its subject.”

Instead of focusing on the bridge itself, we focus on the movements of the bridge and around the bridge. We begin to focus on the visual effect it has on us. I begin to forget that I am looking at the movements of a bridge, and think that I am just looking at aesthetically pleasing movements. But then I still look at bridges the same way, just because I have been presented with an alternative view of bridges, I don’t forget what bridges are about. The film is beautiful and I like what I am watching, but it doesn’t change the way I look at bridges.

I have split views on the ‘art for art’s sake’ when it comes to the Rail Road Turnbridge and Korsakow.

Firstly, I think that, well, maybe this film is just ‘art for art’s sake, same with Korsakow. We want to make things for the fun of making them and we make them to please us, they may have no meaning what so ever. I tend to find myself drawing and painting, not because I want to convey a meaning, but because that is what I feel like doing at that time. One can look at any piece of artwork and make an analysis on what the artist’s meaning was, but sometimes there just isn’t any conscious meaning behind something. And Korsakow films, in particular the one that I watched Bright Splinters was beautiful and aesthetically appealing. And maybe that’s all it is.

But then I think, well, maybe it isn’t ‘art for art’s sake’.

If an emotion and response is provoked from the Korsakow, or any form of art, then it has done its role in connecting with people. Railroad Turnbridge was created with the purpose of  making us look at something differently, and just because it is aesthetically pleasing to watch, does that make it meaningless?

I don’t think I can make up my mind, so I guess I shall just go about my days, until I can decide.

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Today’s lecture QUESTION TIME

Today the important people at the front of the class discussed and answered the questions that the Tuesday 2:30 class created.

Why has reality TV become so popular?
Keeping up with the Kardashians, Geordie Shore, Jersey Shore, The Real House Wives of New Jersey and many more bring ‘real’ drama to our homes. Reality TV is a guilty pleasure that many can shamefully admit to enjoy. We enjoy watching something that seems ‘genuine’, although it rarely is.
When one thinks of reality show, the reaction most of the time will be either ‘Reality TV is sooooooo bad’ or an embarrassed ‘Yea reality TV is my guilty pleasure’.
This got me thinking of Jersey Shore and all the ‘bar fights’, ‘bitch slaps’ and drunken hook-ups and I found this video of a man who PROVES TO THE WORLD that everything we are watching in Jersey Shore is fake.

Similarly, When the hit reality show The Hills finished, they revealed to the audience that everything that took place, what we thought was being filmed on the streets, was actually being choreographed in an LA studio.

When my friend saw the season finale of The Hills and how they did the ‘crazy reveal’, she was fuming. She hated that she had been lied to for five seasons and was disappointed that all the arguments were staged. This got me thinking, why is she so mad? Regular television shows like F.R.I.E.N.D.S are not real but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a brilliant television show. So why does it matter if reality television is real or not?

In answering the question, why are reality TV shows so popular these days? I would have to guess that it is because it is a guilty pleasure that we can’t help but love to watch. You don’t have to pay attention to the minor details you can just mindlessly watch it.

TECHNOLOGY TIMES

Ahhh the vast world of technology… Our lives revolve around it, we rely on it, we practically are technology. In todays tutorial we discussed Facebook and its inevitable end, the only question is when will it die out and when its new replacement will come in. The interesting topic that came up was how the recent updates in technology all revolve around social media.

Our phones are more compatible with social media in hope to make us choose to buy that phone. The iPhone let us use Facebook and Youtube without having to go on our computer which was revolutionary and thus all other companies followed by developing smart phones allowing us to do the same on their products. All new and most known technology companies revolve around social media. Not just companies like Facebook, but Skype and Face Time, instant messaging have become better so we can communicate better with one another. The new programs that have grown in popularity such as instagram, tumblr and blogger are all social media platforms where we can connect and share with one another.

I am very interested to see what new form of technology will replace our current devices that we use. For instance, the google glasses (stupid product, but won’t go into that now) have developed showing a new way to experience technology other than just on our phones and computers. The iPad came out and that was a new way to experience technology.

Technology is all about improvement on reliability and making everything easier for the public. It will be interesting to see what the new products will be like and how everyone will react.

Pass me the controller bro

 

In this weeks lecture regarding gaming and whether it can be considered hypertext narrative, we discussed gaming and how it is considered an activity we do to win. For instance, Mario kart, Grand theft Auto are games we play to win. That’s why we end up shouting at the screen as pressure rises and the game gets harder, because we want to win. However, as discussed in the lecture, not all games are designed to be ‘won’, for example Sims, Club Penguin etc. And even though this is true, we can’t necessarily get first place, we still play these games because we want to do well. In Sims we learn the cheat codes so we can get money quicker and build bigger houses and complete events so our sim can reach its goals.

A game may not be just something that has to be ‘won’, we play to do well, and on some level I guess that can make us feel like we are winning.

 

Wired 12.10 The Long Tail

This reading discussed demand and keep and the part that interested me the most was that of companies only supplying content that will generate income that will balance out the cost of rent and purchasing. A movie theatre will only show films they believe will want to be seen by the public which will make revenue and balance the cost of renting the screen. In particular how a film that was nominated for an Oscar was only opened to six theatres nationwide, similar to the popular Indian film Once upon a time in India which only opened in two theatres. This interestingly creates a desire for people to go out of their way to see a film as  a limited amount of people can fit into a theatre.

Some productions need a high amount of viewers to watch their work as they need the high revenue and return of money in order to break even on their expensive production, however productions with little expenditure can limit to a smaller audience as their return isn’t as high as for example a Hollywood film. If the production is good it will generate a bigger audience thus making more money. Interestingly there are many Hollywood films that made plenty of money but are not particularly remembered in future years as they weren’t the best. They may have been advertised and viewed in a wide spread of theatres which is why they have made money, however it does not mean the movie was good. The reading then went into how a product or production does not need to be the best in order to generate money.

“The Rhapsody demand, however, keeps going. Not only is every one of Rhapsody’s top 100,000 tracks streamed at least once each month, the same is true for its top 200,000, top 300,000, and top 400,000. As fast as Rhapsody adds tracks to its library, those songs find an audience, even if it’s just a few people a month, somewhere in the country”. This is the Long Tail.

 

Are Books dead? Week 6 Unlecture

 

One of the discussions that stuck with me after this weeks ‘un- lecture’ was the topic discussing whether or not books are dead.This is what I took away from todays discussion.

Vinyl for instance may not be the main source of listening to music anymore, however people still choose to listen to vinyls because of the aesthetic effect and style of sound that a vinyl emits. More people download music online compared to going to a music store, simply because it is easier, however it does not mean that the production of CD albums has completely stopped. It has just decreased because of the preference of downloading music as it is easier. Some people still like to have vinyl records playing simply because they prefer it for whatever reason aesthetically or maybe because they want to go against modern movement and wish to keep the traditional beauty of music alive. I think the same goes with books.

Although the use of ebooks are increasing books still have value, however many choose to download books now as well, simply because it is easier, cheaper and faster. When your at home and want a new book to read, it is easier to use a kindle and see the recommended books and browse through book genres and find a story that might suit your interests, rather than going to a book store and spending 30 minutes looking through the isles for a book and reading the blurbs to find a book that appeals to you.
I don’t think the use of books has died, however the platform in which we access these books has changed. It is not the book that is ‘dead’, but the book store.

 

 

Week 04: un-lecture Group Descussion

Today we have smaller computers, smaller cameras, smaller phones, all this technology that is getting smaller, better looking, cheaper and basically an all over better result. If a man came up to you and said “I’ve got two phones, an iPhone 5 and an old Nokia brick phone, choose one both are free!” You’re obviously going to choose the iPhone 5 because you can’t do jack on an old Nokia. The “latest models” are being updated and released more frequently, meaning we get new phones more often because the technology has begun to change so quickly.

So many book stores are going out of business because we have the internet and don’t have to dedicate time to going to the store and buying a book because we can literally order one online within 5 minutes.

My partner in my Wednesday tutorial brought up a point about how because owning a good camera these days isn’t a big deal anymore, the need to have a deeper meaning behind our photographs makes us good photographers or not. 30 years ago if you owned a camera, your photo would be a lot more respected because you simply were able to take that photo in the first place. Whereas in today’s modern culture were almost everyone owns a camera or technological device to capture the world around us, we need to have more meaning and structure behind our work.

 

 

Networked Media Unlecture?

I am not normally a negative person, however when it comes to this ‘unlecture’ business I don’t know if this is me just being too closed minded, but I simply just don’t get it! I get that it is a new radical way of experiencing your lecture session, however to me it just feels like another tutorial class with more people…

Some people struggle to say anything in their classes as it is because they are nervous of scrutiny or getting the ‘answer wrong’, and I feel that having a big lecture room full of people doesn’t make anyone want to speak up more as there are now more people to embaress themselves in front of. I do believe that we should all participate in class, but isn’t the purpose of having two scheduled classes in university for the same subject so that we hear everything the lecturer has to say about the weeks content, and then discuss this content in class unpacking the ideas and having the ability to have one on one discussion with your teacher.

I don’t want to ramble on because I hate ramblers, but I just feel that this idea needs to be worked on more because I don’t see the benefits at this stage of the course and it is already week 3!

I am definitely one for new approaches to learning especially considering our current learning system needs to be updated as it is an old style of learning for when we didn’t have the modern technology and abilities we have today. Networked Media’s ‘unlecture’ structure, however,  just doesn’t work for me.

Blogs in Media Education

I chose to explore Blogs in Media Education mainly because after reading Chris Argyris’s ‘theories of action, double-loop learning and organisational learning’ the encyclopaedia of informal education, I found this article to be more my range of understanding as the technical terms in Chris Argyris’s reading were too complicated and confusing for me to understand.

I was particularly interested in the mention to ‘google’ and how everyone googles everything these days and google is our source to find and discover blogs. An interesting point made was how we as employees google our employers before job interviews but don’t consider the fact that they google us too. They find our Facebooks our personal blogs or tumblr’s, and this, a lot of the time can help convince or deter businesses from employing us.

Another interesting point brought up was how when we created blogs or repost links on public forums or social websites, we rarely think of copyright and who made it. Not sure if I should be ashamed or not as I have a tumblr account which is a popular form of blogging and reposting pictures, videos, audio tracks and gifs which I frequently ‘visit’ to show a  representation of my interests and likes etc. I never think of the source of the image and simply aim to collect work (images mainly) that share similar themes and relationships, or simply because I liked the look of the work.

Interestingly, I like how universities like RMIT university are taking a radical change to their education and using blogs in classes for students which is a modern and easy way for students to post their work without having to print off and hand in their works and opinions which can be very time consuming. I have also found being a first year Media student, when I have group assignments in class, we immediately add each other on facebook and create an event in order to post comments and important notifications in relation to our project.

I don’t know if blogs are just a fad at the moment considering almost everyone has one these days, but can’t imagine what new form of media will overtake blogs. It is becoming easier and easier to create blogs as the templates are already encoded for many and all we have to do is ‘customise’ the page to make it our own. You don’t need to be the smartest cookie to create a blog page anymore which is why more and more people are creating them.