I Knew They Would Return, Bolter Writing Space – Reading 05

bored yet?

Ah the classic university readings have returned! I was hoping they wouldn’t, but we were all thinking it in the back of our heads. What can I say, it is nobodies fault (well kinda is), not too much that can be done. It did take some things away from it though so it wasn’t a total loss. The example of driving a car or workers using large construction equipment and becoming accustomed to their use and it becoming second nature compared to that of the technical relationship to the writing space was rather interesting. The writer says that the writing space is always with us, much like the creative flow/feeling that I am accustomed to as a a film maker.

Writers write in their minds, on paper, on computers and in this sense spoken language can be considered a technique, tying back the theme of the chapter that the skill of the writing space is a skill and a technique like riding a bike or painting a portrait. The writer goes on to say that it is not important about the medium of way in which we write, i.e. computer or pen and paper, neither is more important or authentic than the other. What matters is the technical state of mind of the writer and all writers know this and have their writing spaces, physical, spaces in which they write such as a desk with a computer or an ancient clay tablet.

The reading goes on to discuss different structures in writing from parchment and quills to the latests electronic computers and tablets. I don’t like being given extracts because there isn’t enough context for the reading and even if you go away and do some extra research it is not the same. It would be like showing someone (LORD OF THR RINGS SPOILERS ALERT) the scene in The Fellowship Of The Ring when Boromir is killed and thats it. Wouldn’t you just find that so annoying? No context, nothing, you wouldn’t even know what is shooting him with arrows. Anyway, I much prefer when RMIT gives us short, concise and informative articles which have context and are properly engaging.

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Perhaps Cyborgs Are Just Around The Corner – Readings 04

soon...very soon

Science. The future. Evolution. I liked this article because it causes you to think, to take existing technologies further in your own minds eye into the distant horizon that is the future and take them to a logical outcome, which is pretty awesome if you ask me. The article written by one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project (big ass bombs, yea that one) explores the power of science and technology in everyday life, or more to the point at the article states, after the fighting has ceased. These advances in science allow us to mass produce creations and ideas, things that in the past would have been impossible. Scientists and inventors are in a constant struggle as they may have an idea in there head but due to the technologies of the present they cannot pursue such creations. The articles example of the Pharaoh best demonstrates this. Even when given the plans and ideas on how to create an automobile, the Pharaoh would still have to exhaust the majority of his kingdom and resources to make such a machine and even when it is completed it would break 100m into its first journey to Giza.

But what does this mean for technology? The article takes the idea of a camera through to a logical outcome of what appears in my mind to be a very advanced GoPro which is funny. This article was written in 1945, or so it says on the page. By taking the idea of the camera forward the scientist has practically described the latest GoPro to us. Isn’t that awesome?! What does that mean for us as human beings? What if you take the idea of a human forward? Are we destined for a genetic upgrade? Is all this talk of available brain space and cellular structure mean we will soon be part machine? Many people seem to think so. Below I have linked another Shots Of Awe video, which I may have linked before, I sure hope not that discusses, are we already cyborgs, and Jason Silva seems to think so, that we are destined to unlock our genetic code. Pretty awesome. After this post I will also post GoPros video of the week which is truly sick, very well shot, and is the best example of what this scientist had envisioned.

Perhaps one day we won’t need to carry around cameras and be aided by external pieces of technology, that we in fact could BE the technology. Purchase of genetic upgrades and cyborgs walking all over the place. I can see it happening, can you?

Flash

http://vogmae.dropmark.com/182742/3432611 – As We May Think, Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUzFtWNOOOU – We Are Already Cyborgs, Shots Of Awe Video

Essay vs A Formula For Something We Don’t Even Know Why We Are Writing – Reading 03.02

more than likely the latter. (latter; a word often used in high school essays to save writing time)

Wow. Another interesting University reading. Perhaps my ideas about how and why uni functions is slightly misplaced, but lets save that for another post entirely.

There isn’t much to say about this reading other than, it makes so much sense! In high school I often questioned our english teachers of why we had to write in a certain way that did not seem natural and why we had to adhere to a bunch of rules and topics that skewed all our writing into some random argument that we weren’t entirely sure why or how we were arguing. One time an english teacher simply said to me, “look you have to do it, I think its outdated and stupid but unfortunately I do not write the syllabus.” Blunt…

I liked how the article discussed things like real essays should contain answers, surprises, be more engaging and story like than anything else. This is REAL writing. If you can only write in one way, what is the point? Are you really going to email a potential boss with a topic sentence, two sentences of analysis, linking sentences and a conclusion? No because no one would want to read that and its wwwaaayyyy too much effort. A friend of mine said he was struggling with this blogging assignment because he could only write in essay format, and that my blogging sounded more conversational whereas his was more boring to read. We soon found out that after a bit of trial and error he was easily able to establish a fun, engaging and comedic writing style, but it was more interesting than anything that his default style was that of high school essay writing and that was something he just jumped straight to and wasn’t happy with. Food for thought teachers out there 😉

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http://vogmae.dropmark.com/182742/3385030

The Paradigmatic Shift – Reading 03

"If an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist."

Is it a bad thing that the first image that came to mind when I began this reading about literacy and network literacy was the Star Wars library and the scene where Obi Wan Kenobi is looking for the Kamino system? Course not, Star Wars is awesome! Sorry, distracted straight from the get go. I don’t know why RMIT has been holding back on these readings until second semester?! The readings in semester one made me want to drop out, these readings however are somewhat engaging and interesting. I think this is due to the fact that many of them are written in a more informal sense due to the nature of our blog writing, making them, well, a bit more fun, for lack of a better word. Anyway, lets get into it.

its not exactly the matrix

its not exactly the matrix

The reading essentially looks at basic learning skills, for example borrowing a book from the library and referencing it somewhere else and taking this into the online world of the internet to engaging in network literacy. Network literacy can essentially be defined as a understanding of the internet, equal to that of print and the ability to use share and obtain information and be able to categorise and weave it together. That might sound a bit scary but it really isn’t as bad as it seems. Much of this is done subconsciously, especially for those of us lucky enough to be born in this technological era. I’m doing it write now! I’m linking and weaving information, sites, references and probably many other things together to make one place where many bits of info can be obtained. Sure I don’t have an intricate understanding of what goes on in the coded hacky matrix like world of the internet but it doesn’t matter. As long as I have a basic understanding of how I can collate, display and have programs work together, we are sweet!

Now while I don’t have to plug into the matrix, access the construct and find a telephone there are a few things that I can put my Neo-like skills to. This blog, as the article suggest can become a basic work or school day. Projects with classmates, and social things that I want to do can all be found here and in nice neat categories. A simple day on a blog can just be like borrowing that same book from the library. Communication between different services like flickr, instagram, Facebook etc is what makes blogging so easy, and that is what the article is trying to get across. Blogging may very well be the way of the future, and this doesn’t mean throw out all your favourite books but the convenience and easy access is what makes it such a pleasure to use.

And I put the link down below, how nice was that. (let RMIT deal with that copyright crap)

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http://vogmae.dropmark.com/182742/3378173

CC – Crappy Content, Wk 2 Reading

it was never all going to be fun

All I can say is that at least Elliot gave us fair warning that this weeks content would be dry. Not so much that the content itself is extremely boring, more that a lot of it is quite self explanatory and well…obvious. That being said I did still come away with a few things.

kiwiThe first video was a general overview of creative commons and what it is. CC Kiwi, what a character. The video was helpful in explaining the different types of licenses and why we have them.

The second link was basically just Australia copyright laws and FAQ, pretty obvious things like you would not be able to link pirate bay on a blog for example because they are breaking the law against copyright.

The third link was the incredibly engaging Professor Lawrence Lessig who essentially reiterated the first two links but took it a bit further describing CC as a visual tool in respect to the licenses making it easier for all internet users. Side note, was it really necessary for the camera man to go from this Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 11.30.36 am to this Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 11.31.01 am??? He really needs to take a Nick Moore crash course in framing. ONWARD!

Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 11.34.58 amScreen Shot 2014-07-29 at 11.35.54 am

The fourth and fifth video both used animated cartoons to talk about creative commons, what they mean and why we have them. I love the fact that these cheap cartoons are used for the simple fact that the content is so dull that on ever so slightly increases the chance of them being watch. To be fair, it made them watchable and the content remained in my brain long enough for me to get this onto the internet so that is something they can pat themselves on the back about. The final link was just boring legal stuff once again.

What I did find interesting about all these links, especially the Jack White example was the idea that music specially needs to have permission to be remixed, used in a video or to have album artworks, and music video content used. Would it be ok if someone for example used a song in a silly video they made at home. The video then becomes a big success on the internet. Is it ok to then later pay tribute to the original owners? The harlem shake is an excellent example of this. cc_harlem_shake_130213_wblog

I don’t know all the specifics but I do know that the original video was a college video that just randomly decided the song should be what it has become. The publicity for the song itself, be it as horrible as it is would have been incredibly. What happens to the original rights of the song?

For me personally this has always been a pressing problem with my films. On Youtube you need to acknowledge songs that do not belong to you as youtube detects them and will sometimes remove them from your videos. This is not an issue if the owner allows or gives permission but quite often they do not. EMI is a classic example, a music label so big I’m sure they don’t have time or really care about little home videos and approving songs. Making the transition to Vimeo, this is not a problem. You do however click ‘i agree’ when you upload a video that all the content is owned by you but the point is that unless your video becomes a hit no one is going to come looking for you to slap you on the wrist. Vimeo is way better anyways 🙂

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You Are Heroes Everyday – Reading 01

you are heroes everyday

Dare I say that I loved a University weekly reading? No, of course not. I think it will be a while before dc and marvel comics are our prescribed texts however I did enjoy the concepts in this weeks reading. The reading was about what I am doing write now, penning or typing my thoughts for a public audience…blogging. Moreover, the reading explained how blogging in education can be used especially for media students to gain an understanding in media literacy and to create an online identity.

The whole time while going through this reading I couldn’t help but think of Freedom Writers. If you haven’t seen Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank I demand that at the end of this sentence you go watch it and then come back to continue reading this post and to comment below what you thought of the movie. A very sad and moving film, there is a segment where Hilary, or Erin the character she plays asks her students to keep a journal. They can write whatever they wish and they will only be read with the students permission. Subsequently, we see there students write about their most inner and hidden ideas, secrets and memories, most of which are very confronting.

I am not suggesting that we as media students should do this but I was merely drawing the parallels between aspects of the movie and this assignment. I think there is much to be gained from this blog assessment but only as much as a student is willing to put in. The ability to see the work of others as the article conveys will allows student to see what is deemed ‘excellent’ work and what is considered ‘poor’. In this regard I think there is extra encouragement to want to do well in this assessment because for those who choose this blog can continue outside of tertiary education.

 

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