Archive of ‘Networked Media – Week 3’ category

08
Aug
2013

A “Necessary Evil”

categories: Featured, Networked Media - Week 3

Last night I was watching the latest instalment in one of the few Australian dramas that I have become attached to over the past few years. After starting to watch part way through the first season I found myself purchasing the DVD box set on its release so that I could view the first half of the season that I had missed as well as the second half that I had already seen. I did this all within the space of two days. It is safe to say that from this moment I became one of those devoted and almost bordering obsessive fans. Today I have all three seasons on DVD, I like their Facebook page, I follow them (and most of the characters) on Twitter, I have their app installed on my phone, I have downloaded the music featured in various episodes and being a Melbourne based show I have even gone as far as seek out and visit the locations in which they film. When the show isn’t running on TV am counting down the days until it returns and when the show is running I am counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds between the airings of each episode!

With all this in mind, last night I feel that everything might have changed. This show, which is known for its incorporation of everyday family dilemmas with relatable humour, has now introduced its first main character death. Yes, I understand that actors/actresses come and go and that sometimes there is no other way to write a character of a script. But the dark emotion which surround the episodes following the death of a loved character are sometimes the ones where I find myself no longer attached to a series. I know that the next time I sit down to watch this show it will not be with the excitement that it will bring a good laugh. Instead it will be with the dread that I must spend 50 minutes watching the characters that I have come to know so well experiencing pain and heartache, and with the knowledge that the vibe of the series will never quite be the same.

 

*Below is a link to an article highlighting some of the reasons behind the decision; I guess giving it a read may have helped me to become a little more accepting!

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/box-seat/offspring-death-a-necessary-evil-ten-creators-20130807-2rglb.html

 

 

07
Aug
2013

Design + Fiction = ?

categories: Networked Media - Week 3

This week in both the “unlecture” and the readings we looked into the idea of design fiction. This is a topic, I’ll admit I hadn’t put much thought into before and was more of a term that I had kind of accepted, not recognised. But now with some sort of explanation provided I find myself overthinking the term to excess! How do people speculate over the unknown? How do you design something that doesn’t exist? On what occasions have fictional designs in the past become reality? Have I ever subconsciously imagined something futuristic and has that something ever become a reality?

With all these questions I have experienced thoughts rushing from science fictions films to my parents continuous comments, “when we were young we would dream about having portable screens that would allow you to speak face to face with someone miles away in real time” (this being a direct quote from my mother who discovered Face Time when my dad travelled overseas last month). These thoughts have made me excited at the prospect of what we imagine or the fictional things we design, in that there could be a good chance of them actually existing in the future. This, however, is at the same time quite confronting when we then consider that some of the things that are imagined are not thought up with positive intentions.

I feel that this is a topic that now it’s there, it will really stick in my mind for sometime. In the interview with Sci-Fi writer, Bruce Sterling, the concept of design fiction as an “interesting new way to think about the future” is introduced. Though I feel that interesting is just scraping the surface when it comes to looking further into this idea as there is just so much to speculate about!