4 June
By now, I feel as drained as a sink – mentally tired and physically exhausted. These past 4 months have really taken it out of me: with full-time study, moving states, getting a new job, finding a house to live in, and just the overall adjustment to my new life. I have no regrets, however, as I am loving the course, loving my new life and am really excited for the future. I begin this final post by linking to five blog posts that I believe demonstrate my engagement with the course the best whilst depicting my enjoyment:
In these blog posts, I write about many aspects of the course including: lectorial learnings; a deconstruction and comparison of two readings; my alternate opinion on Wikipedia collaboration; my in-the-moment epiphany of the soundscape at the Yarra River beside the Arts Centre; and my readings of a short film within a lectorial setting. The following ‘learning graph’ is relative to my understandings and knowledge garnered throughout the duration of Media One throughout the first semester:
Throughout the semester, my learning of media-making grew consistently up until week 11 whereby I attended my final lectorial. As seen in the graph, I obviously have thought more critically and creatively about my work as the semester went along. The purple line indicates a negative connotation however this is not the case: I did not understand the importance of my blog in the middle weeks as I believed it was purely for enjoyment and was not going to be part of my final submission. Oh how I was wrong. All in all, I can say confidently that I have enjoyed this semester and look forward to next’s.
I have learned a lot in Media One this semester and have thoroughly enjoyed both learning about and creating my own media work. Drawing on my prior knowledge of media-making, I have increased my ability to think creatively and critically about the work that I made in media. In discussion with a friend, I have also learned that I need to not apologise for the work that I envision or create; I am the God-like figure for my creations and they have been formulated intentionally and astutely. I have also learned, most of all, that media texts are more pervasive in modern cultures and society then we can comprehend.
I have been asked, for this final blog post, to outline ‘how I learn’. HA. I have sniggered at this question all day. To be very honest with you and myself, I learn by not learning. I am a serial procrastinator and do not pay attention when necessary and definitely do not listen to the best of my ability. I learn by teaching myself. This, I realise, is ridiculous and definitely not going to get me anywhere in life. So, therefore, I am making a conscious effort next semester to purge the distractions from my aura and focus on the imperative in my life: studying media at RMIT (as well as spend copious time with my special someone).
The thing that I have found most challenging about this course is relative to any course I could have studied: self direction. I thrive off of self direction however, due to my procrastinatory excellence, this self direction comes at the last moment; at inopportune times. So definitely the motivation and effort I must garner to travel into the city each day for university study is the most challenging aspect relative to me studying. If I must determine a challenge of the Media One course, I would probably pick being at an age whereby anything intellectually stimulating I create will be considered controversial. I have many interesting ideas for media work and art that I wish to one day create; today is not the day.
I have discovered, about my own creative practice, that regularly I am too ‘postmodern’. This pisses me off but is something that I will have to live with because I am not changing myself for anybody. Postmodernity is something that makes a lot of sense to me and is a discourse that I enjoy rather a lot. So the thing that I have discovered will be something that I delve into regularly in the future. Let’s see where my mind takes us.