Link of final work：

Mediafactory Vimeo：https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/556115415

Reflection:

In this project, our group focuses on the pollution caused by human beings for the vegetation cover and the climate changes brought by it. The main purpose that we formulated this theme is to project the pollution and climate changes caused by it in people’s daily life onto the screen through the production and practical technologies of media, which have been existing but are not emphasized or have been ignored, so as to arouse the attention of viewers to climate changes and environmental problems. In the work of our group, with the scenes of vegetation as the principal line and people’s daily life as the branch, pollution brought by human behavior to vegetation has been amplified, e.g. garbage pollution, industrial pollution and daily emissions, after shooting and editing those scenes through different methods, the climate changes caused by pollution are finally alternately presented, so as to remotivate the cognition of viewers of climate changes and environmental protection. We hope that viewers could feel the damage and pollution caused by the other role of “human beings” to vegetation as well as the final result of climate changes caused by such pollution immersively from the perspective of the parties instead of onlookers when appreciating this work.

Through rethinking of our work based on details, I summarize the best advantage of it as the selection and use of shooting and audio track. The aspect of shooting is reflected on the completely detailed shooting of materials and frames, which has been closely integrated with the theme. Demos, Scott, & Banerjee, S (eds) mentioned in the book that non-linguistic coordination and communication could be realized through the production of non-fiction films. In the frames of the work, our group members have shot various different scenes of plants through extremely close, which have been presented from the perspective of the creeping of insects. A small world of plants is created in the 8-minute work, in which the tiny plants are exactly the lives that might be ignored or hurt by the human behavior of viewers in daily life. Because of the application of diversified materials and frames, I think that we have well presented the concept put forward by Gibson on the screen, that is, there are continuous changes and entry of new elements into the environment, which exist and then disappear. In the constantly changing dynamic, various kinds of plants are performing their own functions in the nature. Before the warning or remindful meaning appears, a good sense of beauty is granted to the work to attract the interest of viewers. In our post-editing, some instability of frame or imperfection of image quality is retained, which highlights the characteristics of those plants. Lam also mentioned in the book that the insufficiency of image quality was a necessary link to reflect the creating environment and appreciation of a work. Therefore, I think that those imperfect images can be connected to the human behavior, nature and pollution contained in our theme, which are also a caution for viewers. The second is the addition of audio track, during recording, our group members represent the rush and stress of people in daily life through the sound of dididi when passing the traffic light, while the sound of ‘didid’ given out by telegraph is used for frame containing human beings’ hazardous behavior, which is different from common background music, instead, it is an urgent and warning sound to appeal to viewers for their emphasis on climate changes. In addition, through my reflection, the most problematic part of our work is the unclear relation among themes. We have not presented the deeper relations of the influence brought by climate changes after the vegetation is damaged, instead, we simply linked to the phenomena caused by climate changes, which is an omission in our work.

During the production process of the work, the most important point that I learnt is to diverge my own thinking and thoroughly change the observing perspective, so as to arouse the attention of viewers to environmental changes. As the role of human beings in the natural ecology, my observing perspective and the things I notice are the same as others of the same kind, while when I need to attract and arouse the same kind of attention through the theme of climate change from the same perspective, I think it a complete change of perspective. In the work, when observing from the perspective of an insect or a reptile, I can see the increasing decrease, perishing and ruination of plants, vegetation becomes a huge object that I can rely on in “my” eyes, while when realizing that it might decrease or even die out because of human behavior, “I” will have a serious sense of constriction, so that I will pay attention to this problem. Then “I” will present the above to human beings from the perspective of insects to pursue the same effect. The switch of observing perspective makes me more creative during the present and future media technology production, so as to produce works more abundantly and appropriately.

Reference

Demos, T., Scott, E. and Banerjee, S., 2021. The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, pp.139-148.

Gibson.R, 2015. Changescapes – An Introduction，in Changescapes: complexity, mutability, aesthetics. Crawley, Western Australia : UWA Publishing, pp.1-21.

Lam, S., 2015. IT’S ABOUT TIME: SLOW AESTHETICS IN EXPERIMENTAL ECOCINEMA AND NATURE CAM VIDEOS. In: S. Lam, ed., Slow Cinema. Edinburgh University Press, pp.207-217.

https://rmiteduau-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hannah_brasier_rmit_edu_au/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fhannah%5Fbrasier%5Frmit%5Fedu%5Fau%2FDocuments%2FTEACHING%2F2021%20%2D%20SEM%201%2FSEEING%20THE%20UNSEEN%204%2Fstudent%20folders%2FGROUP%20FOLDERS%2FJacky%2C%20Lee%2C%20Yvonne%2C%20Yiming%2Ftext%20and%20rough%20cut%2FA4%2Emp4&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fhannah%5Fbrasier%5Frmit%5Fedu%5Fau%2FDocuments&parentview=4

This week we presented a short rough cut. The theme is that our group hopes to finally show the impact of industrial pollution on plants and thus climate change. We cut together the shot of plants and the destruction of the surrounding environment. From the low perspective of insects, we show the damage and pollution of the vegetation in the present. Together with the music related to natural breathing, we aim to bring a sense of oppression to the audience from the low perspective. When pollution and destruction appear so close to our eyes, it may inspire the audience to think about environmental pollution and climate change, and thus appeal to them to protect the environment. This is what our rough cut presents and hopes to achieve. The problem that our group’s rough cut faces at present is that the footage we shoot is still unfinished. Therefore, the angle of rough out is relatively single, and the scene of industrial pollution is missing. As a result, our rough cut does not show our theme more prominently. This is a part of our group that needs to be adjusted quickly.

The feedback we received was that the picture should be shot and edited as soon as possible. At the same time, industrial pollution should be more prominently reflected in the work. Only by making stronger contrast can the theme be more prominent, and then attracting viewers and triggering thinking. After that, we had a discussion and quickly made a shooting plan to get all the pictures we needed for editing. As for the shots of industrial pollution, we plan to adopt some permitted data pictures to show the damage of pollution to vegetation, and the data pictures can provide us with better professional data support. At the same time, we plan to contrast the forms of vegetation after industrial destruction with those of good growth through editing, emphasizing the negative effects of destruction and pollution on vegetation, thus causing climate problems, to stimulate viewers’ thinking.

https://rmiteduau-my.sharepoint.com/personal/hannah_brasier_rmit_edu_au/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fhannah%5Fbrasier%5Frmit%5Fedu%5Fau%2FDocuments%2FTEACHING%2F2021%20%2D%20SEM%201%2FSEEING%20THE%20UNSEEN%204%2Fstudent%20folders%2FGROUP%20FOLDERS%2FJacky%2C%20Lee%2C%20Yvonne%2C%20Yiming%2FCreative%20text

In this week’s team work, we continue to work on camera capture and shooting. So our creative test content includes personal shot clips on the theme of the impact of industrial pollution on vegetation. According to our preliminary shooting and editing plan, our lens will be under a low angle. “Low angle” means shooting not from the perspective of a normal human but from a low perspective similar to that of an animal. The low angle is aimed to attract the audience through a different perspective, so as to achieve the goal of attracting attention to climate change. Our plan for the final clip is based on an abstract kaleidoscope of low-angle shots focusing on the vegetation problems caused by industrial pollution.
Our creative test is mainly a clip of wonderful scenes shot by team members, and includes the shots taken by individuals and the editing methods used by individuals. We do this as we want to see the team members’ actual manipulation and ideas and practice of the work directly before though cut. We think that this can better integrate the editing advantages of each of us to complete the work, and we can also have our own understanding of our shot. The shot I contributed included the forests and lakes along the road during car driving on the highway. These include sparse and dry vegetation, as well as working quarries and cement factories. These shots will serve as the groundwork for the background shot in our final work to directly illustrate the impact of industrial pollution on vegetation.
By creating the test, the feedback our team hopes to get is, first, whether the shots we have shot so far need to be changed or improved in terms of angle and atmosphere, and second, whether our theme and the interest and freshness of the clip can be detected from our shots, and we also hope to get some feedback on editing techniques to improve the completion of our editing.

The feedback from our group’s presentation on the relationship between man-made air pollution and climate change suggested that our team should combine the results of the study and focus on a co-filmed theme. After getting the feedback, our group had a quick discussion and adjusted our theme and shooting plan. In the presentation, we separately displayed the research results and the desired shooting results. I think the significance of this to the work is very low, because we did not integrate the research results of the whole team to analyze the focus of the team’s research and summarize a complete shooting effect and plan. This kind of non-integration and dispersion will make it impossible for us to have a deeper understanding of everyone’s research results but stay on the surface, which will make our works unable to achieve integrity and can not give full play to everyone’s strengths. Therefore, decentralized research is harmful to teamwork. We should integrate and refine our themes and central ideas to focus on the more detailed side of the theme, which contributes to the integrity of the work. At the same time, it can also come up with more creative ideas on a fixed center without making the work look cluttered. The dedicated and cohesive theme formulation and the summary and refinement of the research results can make our works more complete and novel, as well as include the research and characteristics of each of us.
After receiving feedback and reflection, our group quickly decided to refine the research direction after our discussion and integration, which adjusted the theme to the comparison and relationship between industrial pollution and ecological greening.We will work on the ecological problems caused by man-made industrial pollution, such as overexploitation and overexploitation, and focus on vegetation, such as pollution, logging and lack of vegetation caused by industrial development. We will shoot some static shots to look at it from a low perspective rather than from a human perspective. It’s as if outsiders in this environment observe and tell our scenes. At the same time, in terms of editing, we hope that the picture between vegetation and industrial pollution is strong and attractive to the audience. Next week, our group will mainly focus on shooting and lens arrangement, so as to turn our ideas into real works as soon as possible.

In this week, our group work conducts related research to enrich and support our theme, and then makes a presentation. Our group mainly focuses on air and plants when studying the impacts brought by climate change. In my research, I found a paper that analyzes the impact of climate change on air quality from the perspective of facts and data. The author proposed and proved the following points. First of all, air quality is largely determined by the weather because it is sensitive to climate change, and the causes of air pollution are high emissions and unfavorable weather. Secondly, climate change does have an impact on air quality because it affects ventilation, and the most important point that the author particularly emphasizes is that if man-made emissions remain unchanged, the global temperature is highly correlated with ozone events in polluted areas through experiments (Jacob & Winner, 2009). Besides, the author also proposed that air pollution caused by continuous climate change may result in soil mercury pollution in some areas (Jacob & Winner). This fact leads me to associate it with Damaged. There are injuries in every corner of the natural environment, and they will be “progressive” because the environment is always changing (Tsing, 2015). Climate change will lead to air pollution and air pollution will bring new problems. This is not only the power of Damaged but also the reason why we urgently require people to be vigilant about climate change. As human beings, we cannot fully predict what new harms climate change will bring, nor what impacts it will cause in the future.
The main reason why I study this article is that the conclusion is drawn from the analysis and calculation of a large amount of experimental data. In other words, all of the viewpoints proposed by the author of the article are based on facts and supported by solid evidence. Such strong evidence and concept references will make our works more credible and convincing. Moreover, how to make the expression of the technology using media more visual and interesting based on the charts and experimental data in this paper is also the question that I think about after studying this paper. Demos, Scott and Banerjee  mentioned in the book that non-fiction film production could achieve non-verbal coordination and communication. Therefore, I am considering taking the shots of exhaust gas from factories and people in haze or hot weather. We need to reflect the causality between climate change and air pollution as well as the seriousness of unknown problems brought by climate change, so as to enhance the public’s awareness of the risk level of climate change. Even though academic research is completed through words and diagrams, I think the collision of ideas given by such a research process is very good for the presentation of visual works. Next, our group will create more sincere and attractive pictures based on the facts.

Creative work： https://youtu.be/e6rglsLy1Ys

Reference

Jacob, D. and Winner, D., 2009. Effect of climate change on air quality. Atmospheric Environment, [online] 43(1), pp.51-63. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1352231008008571>.

Tsing, AL 2015, The Mushroom at the End of the World : On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Demos, T., Scott, E. and Banerjee, S., 2021. The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, pp.139-148.

In the first few weeks of study, we studied and analyzed the sketches of different subjects, and more profound and novel ideas were born during the discussion of climate change. “Climate change” has become a hot topic of discussion so far, and also an issue has to be settled urgently worldwide. Most of information such greenhouse effect, melting glaciers, population and species extinction issues that the public obtained comes from media or institutions. From the viewpoint of me, information learned from external media may be difficult to draw attention of general public and influence their daily life. The core of my assignments lies in how to arouse people’s attention to climate warming by coordination. Hence, I decide to explore how to draw people’s attention to the issue of climate warming in a simple and novel way by combining the climate issues found from a survey and the content of the studio. After talking about ideas about climate change, our group mainly investigated the environmental impact of gas pollution emitted by industrial activities by taking Melbourne and China as major subjects. The basic investigation revealed that the coal industry of these two countries have problems of exhaust emission.

In the research of the problem, the dynamic of the Week 6  gave me creative ideas. The Gibson’s article proposes that a complex system need to face various changes caused by variations in environment. Many factors and changes in the complex and open system of climate warming continuously affect various things and the system itself. It is this dynamic change of the environment that results in the continuous change of climate warming, thereby causing a variety of environmental problems. In my opinion, new problems are caused during the development of dynamic changes. The industrialization has led to exhaust emission, and the emission incurs the dynamic generation of a new factor: air pollution. Nonstop changes of air pollution negatively impact the surrounding. The evolution of all this causality is based on the openness and dynamic nature of this system. Furthermore, researching the subject of climate change by taking dynamic as a related subject is conducive to presenting a more dynamic picture, thus attracting people’ attention to the issue of climate change.

Gibson.R, 2015. Changescapes – An Introduction，in Changescapes: complexity, mutability, aesthetics. Crawley, Western Australia : UWA Publishing, pp.1-21.

According to Gibson’s article, ‘dynamic’ should be considered connecting with the elements existing in the environment. In my previous cognition, ‘dynamic’ only was used to describe one existence state of things which is static or dynamic. Gibson mentioned that ‘changescape’ not only can be used as a system to generate cognition and enrich senses, but also can be combined to consider dynamic. A complex system is open, needing to deal with the constantly changing environment which means that different things and elements exist in the system. At the same time, numerous elements will bring constant movement, such as enter, exist and disappear. The new interactions generated by these elements in the environments can be understood as dynamic. Dynamic not only expresses state, but also includes the interactions and relationships between elements in a complex open system, requiring sensory cognition and imagination. Although the state of some environments is static from a macro perspective, in fact they are also ‘dynamic’ because the elements and things inside the environment are changing and interacting constantly.

In addition, in class discussions, I learned that dynamic is closely related to imagination. Therefore, in my sketch, I extended part of the shots outside the screen through editing. For example, making the ‘dynamic’ of the lake or the sea disappear to highlight the theme of ‘dynamic’. However, reflecting on my video, I found that the most difficult part is to shoot a system and express its complexity. Apart from the visual ‘dynamic’, how to use the audio track to fit the subject bothers me a lot. If possible, I will take more shots of things in the complex system and use short flashback editing to highlight its complexity so as to show more diversified and aesthetic ‘dynamic’.

Reference

Gibson.R, 2015. Changescapes – An Introduction，in Changescapes: complexity, mutability, aesthetics. Crawley, Western Australia : UWA Publishing, pp.1-21.

No matter for the nature and any environment, ‘damage’ is a condition in which dangers and troubles will be caused. In general situations, it means that the current condition will be broken or infringed upon, and such a ‘damage’ is usually negative. According to my original understanding, ‘damaged’ refers to disordered, scarred and various dangerous conditions, and I have almost never considered the other side of it. While through an article of Tsing, I have realized that the other side of ‘damaged’ means progress. When the current situation is ‘damaged’, it means that changes will certainly happen to the current situation and original objects, no matter injuries or extinction, while at this moment, new objects and environments will enter and replace the ‘damaged’ ones, thus making space for other species or environments meanwhile bringing new opportunities and challenges. Therefore, there is a dual character even if it is a ‘damage’. In addition, the troubles brought by ‘damages’ will exist forever. In an article of Haraway, it is put forward that troubles are unavoidable, and such ‘unfair pains and happiness’ will exist forever. For environment, are a state or a process that must be experienced, meanwhile bringing a new environment and vitality. The above is the other side of ‘damage’ I learnt and felt through the content of Week 5.
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While shooting, I will shoot my understanding of ‘damaged’ as the damages faced by creatures in the landscape, e.g. the dry pools, scars in the tree trunks and the withered reeds, all of which are damages in the landscape that are caused by the mutual restrictions between creatures and the environment. I will show my understanding of ‘damaged’ with those scenes as the subject content. After finishing my work, I have made a reflection and analysis of it, on the aspect of voice and editing, I found my descriptive scenes for the ‘damaged’ in my work not that direct after completing the foreshadowing for atmosphere, which would easily lead to a blurred concept. If I may, I will express my understanding of ‘damage’ and present the ‘avoidance of troubles’ in the landscape more directly through the shooting technique of ‘close up’.

Reference

Tsing, AL 2015, The Mushroom at the End of the World : On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton University Press, Princeton

Haraway, DJ 2016, Staying with the Trouble : Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke University Press, North Carolina

Entanglement is the most complex and magical relationship in the world, including symbiosis and coexistence as well as the competition and development between organics. In the study of Week 4, Ingold expressed ‘entanglement’ as “growth lines from multiple sources in his article. The growth lines intertwine and grow with each other, always ‘growing’ even if the nodes are different. He proposed that the life relationship of complex organisms shouldn’t be ‘single’, but must grow along many source paths and many organisms in the environment grow in this way. For example, many plants cannot grow without water and soil and many animals cannot evolve without competitors. They entangle with each other and grow in the environment, which shapes the Earth. On the other hand, the Earth provides a place for the “environment” to live. Both the environment and the Earth are nodes of an interwoven grid, “entangling”with each other. This intricate ‘entanglement’ has prompted the formation of this world and many new life forms were born as a result. Therefore, Ingold wrote that ‘entanglement is the texture of the world’. I realized more deeply that every existence in the world can be traced back, influencing and entangling each other.

In the video, I shot the sky and clouds, trees and soil, and some creatures that interact with each other in the landscape, hoping to express the ‘movement’ and ‘entanglement’ of creatures with dynamic scene and soundtrack. When the leaves entangle with the wind, they make a sound. The creatures entangle with each other, confirming their existence in the world. I tried to express the ‘line of growth’ in the video by photographing soil and grass as well as insects and the water source used f to irrigate the grass. There are different lines and nodes in this picture, which shows the ‘entanglement’. Reflecting on my work, I think I need to improve in sound. I have a very single idea of combining the soundtrack to express ‘entanglement’. Most of them use the original sound of the filming, so the soundtrack is very monotonous. As a result, the entire video appears to be monotonous without sense of content. If possible, I will discover more ‘entanglement’ in the landscape and make more in-depth research to make my works more diverse.

Ingold, T 2011, Being Alive : Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description, Taylor & Francis Group, London.pp.67-75

https://youtu.be/SV4-4BhI32M

“Precarious” always exists in all environments. According to my understanding, it is a state, which exists in all living and non-living things. It could be temporary or eternal. In addition, the environment in which all living and non-living things live is also “precarious”. If understood in the “landscape”, “precarious” may represent every inferior place in confrontations in nature or the party in a weak position under the influence of external environment, such as crops and weeds, felled woods and fruits and vegetables infested by pests. All of them stay in precarious positions. Moreover, the author also mentioned “vulnerability”. Thereupon, I started to think if every object in the landscape would suffer from precariousness, did it mean that all these objects were characterized by vulnerability, since they had inevitably encountered natural enemies and unbearable harsh environments in their survival or growth. No objects are indestructible, and they are bound to become “precarious” or suffer from “precarious” experience.

In the “landscape” of my sketch, I tried to present images of roads crushed by cars, shallow ponds, trees and flowers swaying in the wind. What I hope to show from the landscape I photographed is the precarious state of every “living thing”. All of them lost their own energy and original appearance to some extent, and became precarious under natural power or external pressure. In terms of editing methods, I used superposition, flashback and reverse transition, aiming at presenting “precarious” more vividly. The overall style is inclined to silence and decline. However, I don’t think that all precariousness is inanimate and irreversible. I edited my sketch in line with a quiet style by combining the landscape I shot.

After reflecting on my work, I hope to take more photos and show them in the landscape, so as to diversify my work and portray my understanding of “precarious” more profoundly. In addition, I will also choose to integrate sound into the video to express the precariousness in the landscape through hearing.

STEWART, K., 2012. PRECARITY’S FORMS. Cultural Anthropology, 27(3), pp.518-525.