Exciting day, well not really, today was all about how media practitioners should have ethics and we were introduced to different copyright laws. I never actually bothered about the formalities of copyrights in my previous projects as they are not a huge concern in my homeland Pakistan, although we did mention credits and reference it from where we got the material from just for the sake of making the producer of that content ‘famous’, lol.

But on a serious note, if you put yourself in others shoes, you will get the sense of being denied of the existence of your hard work if someone used your music or a footage without your permission and not getting credit for it. I’ll keep in mind of these laws and it is morally right to ask permission for using someone else’s work. Well at least RMIT has my back incase something does go wrong with the copyright issues.

It came as a surprise that there are heaps of Media texts surrounding us, I’m not sure how many i actually noticed intentionally and covered at Federation Square but here are the following:

• Huge Screen
• Welcome to Federation Square (Digital sign)
• Public event Notice
• Restaurant Name Signs and their deals
• Recycling Bin
• 7 Eleven Store icon
• On ground written texts
• Bike share sign
• Federation Square website URL
• Welcome to thai culture advertisment on poles
• Printed artwork images on chair
• Lipton tea Sign
• Formula 1 Advertisement
• Traffic lights
• Toilet Signs
• The paper and smart phone in my mind, i interacted with my smartphone all the time as i was taking pictures and recording my findings of media texts.

Here are the pictures

During the exercise, I noticed that I was more aware of different media texts, previously whenever I crossed by Federation Square, I would be avoiding every media content but today was a different story, I was consciously noticing the media around me. Secondly, by recording the images, it has made it more clear to me that this information stays longer in the mind as compared to just viewing it.

I entered late in the class but was welcomed with the famous Uncle Sam’s picture

I expected that their might be something that they (lecturer) would want us to do something in the end. Brian talked us about how Media is everywhere around us and that we have been immersed into the technological world. The minute we wake up in the morning, we find ourselves interacting with media. Cell phones, t.v, advertisement, billboard signs and even a stop sign is a particular media text that encodes us a meaning and we as the audience decode and act to it unconsciously or maybe intentionally depending upon how focused are we into that particular text. These texts as told by Brian have been changed from face to face interaction to media texts and digital format. I had to actually think that how many media texts I saw coming from home to university, its strange that there are so many texts that we avoid unconsciously but never stay to interpret it. Brian also talked about the difference of what media and reality is with the example of Big Ben shown in media and what you actually see in real life.

The second part of the lecture was fun, Rachel talked how noticing is important in media and that it helps us in future practice as we may copy or take inspirations from these media extracts. It also acts as a learning agent for a media practitioner. We had a small ‘silence’ exercise’ inspired from John Cage’s ‘4:33’ silence. Rachel asked us to be ‘silent’ for 33 seconds. During that time, I began to notice the sounds of the ambience, Doors bashing, keyboard clicks, chair moving, aircon, projector, coughing. All of these sounds made a composition of its own, so basically, what I thought of silence is not the same silence, there is actually sound present. Its like the same concept as when we say the room is dark but actually there is just absence of light.

In the end each of us were appointed in a group and each group had to notice ‘Mediated Communication’ in a particular area. I was in group 5 so my area was Federation Square. I’ll post in my next blog of what I noticed over there.

In this workshop, we were introduced to our first project brief, self-portraits. It seems exciting that I have to show and portray the inner ‘me’ in this project. Let’s see how I pull it off, I need to be sure that my work should be innovative and reflects what I want others to know about me. Hmm, no selfies, there is always the timer function in the camera that might be useful eh?

We were also told to create our blogs and that these blogs will have to be regularly updated and will be part of our submission along with project briefs. Creating blog was not difficult as I already had a WordPress account but didn’t use that much.
It was pleasant to know about my peers in the workshop. Almost everyone has a different background related to media, some of them are related to fashion, Music, Film Making and other various fields, so it would be really beneficial for me, you just never know whom you might need to help you out in future projects.

Time to explore the inner ‘Self’.

I entered the class early and only my new friend Jack was sitting there. We discussed the possible approaches on the teaching methodology that this university might take on. Gradually one by one the teachers came in and the puzzle inside our minds were resolved when Brian talked about the ways that is unique to RMIT of how the teaching practice will take place.

The interesting thing for me was the part when everyone was asked to write down ten things that they want to know/ able to do/ to be better at the end of the program, that was quite refreshing and i was able to self asses my key strengths and weaknesses in media making. Secondly we discussed whether we fall under ‘Deep attention’ category or ‘hyper attention’ category. I think it depends upon what context we are into, like if we are at home, we would probably be playing music and texting our friends at the same time. We would be focusing on different things thus we are in hyper attention. If its an assignment, attending lecture or probably doing a reading, we would tend to be focusing on one single aspect at one time and so we would be in Deep attention

I’m more of a practical guy, so activities that require hands on experience will work for me in the learning curve of this course but assignments like essay writing and research on particular topics will help me in understanding better of the practicalities of this course.

Being an international student, there are some cultural differences between me and my peers, so getting used to the environment, working in group projects and completing assignments within the tight schedule might be challenging ,otherwise it should be fine for the semesters to come.

Studying here at the school of Media and communications, there are lots of things that i want to learn, the styles of documentary making, the issues and risks in communication and most importantly the ethics required for a media practitioner in this industry. Probably attending workshops and paying attention to the lectures might be the way to learn but i think its the collaborative experience and the group discussions taking place that will be vital in the learning curve of my studies.