My Purpose

My main purpose, which aligns with Hammonds intentions, is to create “impactful” and accessible climate media that “put’s something on the agenda” (Hammond, 2017).
When exploring Timothy Morton’s hyperobjects, microbeads isn’t something that immediately comes to mind. Their almost invisibility places us to “find ourselves inside them, part of them yet, not part of them’ (Morton, 2013)
Ultimately, the purpose of my video is to place a magnifying class on these detrimental plastic particles, and spread awareness of the mask that the cosmetic industry places on the use of microbeads in cosmetic products. I achieved the reflective and personal connotations I hoped through the contrast of the shower sounds and imagery with the ocean. The contrasting repetition of the shower and the ocean encourages the viewer to reflect on their personal experience with both their shower, and their valued ocean or beach, and how these microbeads effects these ecologies. Upon creating my final media artefact, I wanted to create something that “helps articulate this shift towards a new kind of eco-cosmopolitism” (Clark,2015), that will make a positive contribution to the climate media conversation in our society, and I believe I have successfully done this.

Possible Improvements 

Although the purpose of my artefact was to spread awareness of the issue, if I were to continue working on my hyperobject, I would like to bring viewers on a further journey to then illustrate what can be done to assist this environmental situation, and foster change.

I believe I have successfully educated viewers on the detrimental effects of microbeads, however from here I would like to educate viewers on different types of alternatives to microbeads, as well as ways in which we can clean up our oceans.

Overall I was happy with my final product given working around restraints. With more time, and better resources, I would have liked to have kept working on my vintage advertisement voiceover and perfected the voice enhancer/background audio cancellation aspect of the track. Additionally, with the ability to shoot more of my own footage with the resources and locations that I would desire, I believe I could have created something of perhaps a higher standard. However, with all of the constraints that were in place, this challenged me as a media creator and encouraged me to be more creative and ‘push the fourth wall’.

‘The Plastic Crisis’- Khang Nguyen

Khang’s final media artefact was very interesting and engaging to listen to. As I gave him feedback for his pitch, I was intrigued to see how his artefact turned out, it seemed only fitting I chose him to reflect on.

Overall I was very impressed by his podcast. The sound effects introduced at the beginning of the podcast were engaging, clear and creative. They encourage the viewer to create their own imagery to match what was being heard, meaning that Khang masterfully has his viewers full and undivided attention.

His use of a personal story creates a relationship with the viewer and connotes an emotional response. Additionally, the use of the child speaking so powerfully reminds the viewer that the environmental crisis we inhabit will be passed onto future generations in a more drastic means if action isn’t taken now. Overall, a very powerful and successful artefact that I enjoyed listening to.

‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’- Louis Boffa

When creating the website for our studio, Louis work jumped out at me. Firstly his title is very engaging, and his feature image drew me in. After his pitch presentation, I was very intrigued to see how his work ended up. Louis’ work was spectacular. He pushed the fourth wall as a media creator and made such impact in a subtle way.  His sound effects were consistently relevant to the imagery being presented and were powerful. I was amazed that Louis was able to find such great found footage that all related so appropriately. The use of the aerial shots gives context to the situation and bookmarked the begging and end of his video.

What I found most powerful about Louis’s work, is that it was tremendously informative and factual, even with no use of text or voiceover. This differed Louis’s work from anyone else’s. Through the imagery of lung x-rays, fire burning in addition to sound effects of coughing; this explained to the viewer that the E- waste crisis occurring in third world countries has vast detrimental effects on one’s health, as well as the environment. A great film Louis!

Allocated Studio: 2020- Making Embodiment 

Letters from iso

I found this studio website was very interesting to explore. Being the task master for our studio, I enjoyed looking at another studio’s website and how they presented their ideas.

Hung and Jess’s ‘Letter’s from iso’, was the project that I decided to look into. Overall, I enjoyed this project, it was creative and successfully encapsulated the universal experience of self-isolation.

The two videos represented two different experiences of isolation, and was very relatable for me as well as thousands of people around the world.

Within these two experiences, the relationship with nature that is formed in isolation was beautiful to watch and in ways therapeutic.

Being condensed on concepts of life that are usually merely background aspects, was an accurate reflection to the way in which isolation has encouraged us to slow down, appreciate the way the rain drops slide down the windowsill, or how one’s eyes glistens in the sun, as is explored in the video. Across both videos, the quality of sound was at times lacking, with muffled microphones and overexposed sounds. I thoroughly have enjoyed looking at reflecting on other students work.

Prompt 10: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/amelia-fischer/2020/05/21/prompt-10-feedback/

Prompt 11:https://www.mediafactory.org.au/amelia-fischer/2020/05/21/prompt-11-documenting-my-progress/

Prompt 12: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/amelia-fischer/2020/05/29/prompt-12-final-critical-reflection/

My Purpose:

For my final artefact, and for myself as a climate media creator in the future, my main purpose, as Hammond states, is to create “impactful” and accessible climate media that “put’s something on the agenda” (Hammond, 2017), which in this case, is Microbeads.
When exploring Timothy Morton’s hyperobjects, microbeads isn’t something that immediately comes to mind. Their almost invisibility places us to “find ourselves inside them, part of them yet, not part of them’ (Morton, 2013)
The more I began to research into microbeads, the more I realised just how overlooked they are, and how detrimental. Ultimately, the purpose of my video is to place a magnifying class on these detrimental plastic particles, and spread awareness of the mask that the cosmetic industry places on the use of microbeads in cosmetic products. I want to create something that “helps articulate this shift towards a new kind of eco-cosmopolitism” (Clark,2015), that will make a positive contribution to the climate media conversation in our society.

Changes to my approach:

Reflecting from when I pitched my idea in week 9, to now having completed my final media artefact, I have altered my approach and learn a lot of skills along the way. My initial approach was to follow to process and timeline that microbeads go through, from our skin to the ocean, which I have essentially stuck to.

I intended to use only human voices and a few sound effects in order to create an impact to compensate for the loss of music that I so heavily rely on in my previous works. However, once I started to look through sound effects, as well as experiment my own made sound effects, I decided to create a track, with rhythm and a beat, made completely out of sound effects. Additionally, I chose to use a voice over from a 1970’s cosmetic add to bookmark my video, and represent the cosmetic industry and the way that these products make one feel, soft hair, smooth skin. I didn’t intend to do these 2 things, however I believe that they have ultimately made my video.

The contrast of the shower sounds and imagery with the ocean, is something I didn’t discuss in my pitch, and something I didn’t intend to do until I did it subconsciously , however again is the fundamentals to my video.
My footage or the showers that are prevalent throughout the video, and the constant contrasting repetition of the shower and the ocean, connotes the viewer to reflect on their personal experience with both their shower, and their valued ocean or beach, and how these microbeads effects these alluring ecologies.

Challenges faced:

I found it extremely rewarding, as well as challenging, to work within my 3 constraints. To work around the constraint of no music, was the element of this assessment that most pushed my boundaries as a media creator. I created a sound effect based music track that I had never done before, with this and the use of my voiceover, the outcome was better then I’d hoped.

In prompt 5, I used a technique of overlaying various news media, to represent the scale of the issue I was addressing and to create impact. In the past this has been a strength of mine that I believe has always been very effective. Not being able to use any news media was a challenge, however once I explored different options on how else I could create this impact, through my voiceover, overlay of sound effects and useful imagery, I felt as though I didn’t need it.

References:

Morton, T 2013, ‘Poisoned Ground: Art and Philosophy in the Time of Hyperobjects’, Symploke, vol. 21, no.1-2, p. 37-50.

Clark, T 2015, ‘Chapter Seven: Anthropocene Disorder’, in Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept, Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 139-158.

Hammond, P 2017, ‘Introduction: ‘Post-political’ climate change (Links to an external site.)‘ in Climate Change and Post-Political Communication: Media, Emotion, and Environmental Advocacy, Routledge, pp. 1-17.

This week I began accumulating ideas and resources for my final media artefact.

Most of my researching was already undertaken in preparation for my studio presentation, however this week I began to research more into exact clips, images, audio and other artefacts I could use to incorporate my video.

I have been really struggling to find footage of microbeads in action, in water, considering this is extremely hard to shoot without the correct equipment, I really need to find the footage online. This youtube video, “The Problem with Microplastics” has some very useful and relevant clips and visuals that I could use for my artefact. This Video also is used for an educational purpose, not advertising or marketing, which is one of my constraints; meaning this is a very useful resource for me creating my artefact.

When I reflect on microbeads and their effect on aquatic habitats, I think of how this might effect my home and most special place, Kangaroo Island. This island has pristine white beaches and clear water, with plenty of aquatic wildlife that we see often. I began to look through footage I had shot from the time over the years I had spent there, and i decided I most definitely wanted to incorporate this into my video, not only as I believe it was useful and great footage, but also to create a personal experience in the video. This was a new idea wasn’t spoken of during my studio presentation. I aim to use this footage as a segway into the introduction of microbeads in the ocean. Here is an example of some footage I found.

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I started to collate different ideas of how I could use sound to create impact, and what types of sound I could use. To push myself as a media creator, I want to use a collation of overlaying sound effects, to accompany my video. I began to search through software programme, “Pro Tools Studio” and explored different sound effects available. I then in started to experiment with different sound overlay in GarageBand, which was difficult at first, but after watching a few youtube tutorial videos, I got the swing of it. Below is a snippet of one of my options for the final track. I really enjoyed this experience as it wasn’t something that I had done before.

usp=sharinghttp://drive.google.com/file/d/1sPbM_JMWEJUkUDQGEHSMe6Gyd1-Yygkv/view?usp=sharing

I decided to use audio from a vintage commercial for cosmetics to bookmark my video and represent the mask that the industry puts on beauty products. An issue I encountered in this process was that the audio has music in it, which would therefore mean I wasn’t working with my constraint of no music. As shown in the below screenshot (top right), I had to use the ‘reduce background noise’ element of the programme, and enhance human voices in the equaliser by 56%. This was extremely helpful, however meant that the quality and clarity of the audio was compromised. I found this a challenging and time consuming part of the editing process.

Ultimately I am really excited to finish my artefact, and am feeling confident that it will be something I am really proud of. Although at times difficult, I am enjoying challenging myself as a media creator, in order to improve and learn.

The studio presentations were an engaging and informative experience, and one i thoroughly enjoyed.  The feedback I received from both the panelists and Khang were extremely useful, and I definitely took their comments on board.

Khang’s comments made me feel very confident about my media making idea, and my studio presentation. He stated that my presentation opened his eyes to the truth behind these cosmetic products, one that he didn’t know much about, and hadn’t thought about. This was my exact purpose into why I chose to look into microbeads. Through Khang’s reflection on my presentation, I can see that he now has a good understanding about microbeads and their detrimental effect on the environment, meaning i successfully explained my hyper object to him in an effective and accessible way, which is what I aim to do as a climate media maker. Khang usefully suggested that I focus on the visual impacts, with somehow the use of images to help it. He “feels that for this project, abstract on particles would be highly effective and could be a catalyst to address [my] points more effectively” (Khang,2020.) Considering the detrimental effect that microbeads have on sea life, the emphasis on visuals could be a great approach for my project. I definitely already planned to use a lot of visuals in order to show the scale of the issue and impact of microbeads, however after Khang’s comments I will be even more weary of this.

I was really happy with Pannel’s feedback on my presentation. They all spoke about how it is a good project to educate people in this area, which again is my main purpose for my project. Wendy enjoyed my suggestion of the use of sounds such as oceans and plastics as a way to create impact, and combat the constraint of not having music.

An interesting piece of feedback I received was to research into how the cosmetic industry normalises the use of plastics in their products, and shine light into a suggestion of some type of action, of how to approach this problem. Overall, both Khang and the Panel were very encouraging and positive towards my presentation, and I am really happy with their comments and feedback.

Prompt 7: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/amelia-fischer/2020/05/05/prompt-7-responding-to-a-new-critical-climate/

Prompt 8: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/amelia-fischer/2020/05/10/prompt-8-studio-presentation-research-progress/

Prompt 9: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/amelia-fischer/2020/05/10/prompt-9-studio-presentation-feedback-khang/

I really enjoyed viewing everyones presentations and each person’s interpretation of hyper-objects, I found it very engaging. Khang’s presentation was very interesting and I could see he had put in a lot of work and thought into his idea, he chose to look at plastic waste.

Khang provided a great overview of hyper objects and more specifically plastic waste. I thought it was really effective how he zoomed in on plastic waste in South East Asia, not just plastic waste globally. In less economically advanced countries, plastic waste is a particularly large issue as they don’t have the mechanisms to deal with the waste. Zooming in on a more specific  aspect of a large global issue is important to shine light on where a lot of our plastic waste is going, and how it is effecting communities within these areas. It will also make creating media about this issue much easier and he can situate it to a particular place. I also thought it was really useful how you spoke about specific events to give viewers insight on the matter. Such as how the Philippines summoned their diplomats in Canada as a protest to the Canadian Government, and also how many countries had containers of plastic waste returned to the origin. I found this really interesting and also showed your research efforts.

Khang’s 2 approaches for his media making idea were both very engaging and interesting. I liked how he explored both approaches to viewers, it connoted that he had clearly put a lot of thought and effort into both approaches, and felt passionately about them. In choosing to do a podcast or image essay, Khang is pushing himself as a media creator and doing something that he hasn’t done before, which I found very admirable. As Wendy said, Khang’s podcast idea would not be what audiences would expect to hear, bringing something very unique to the podcast industry. The part of Khang’s media making idea that really stood out for me, was the suggestion to use someone who has been directly effected by the crisis, in his content. This would create a strong connection between the audience and the crisis, and would encourage an emotional and personal response of the viewer of the scale of the issue and the need for change.

Regarding Khang’s aesthetics of his slides, I think he could have used less text, in order to not overwhelm the viewers, or have them reading the slides without listening to what he was saying. Additionally, I think it would have been useful for him to show some of his inspiration / create some type of mood board images, in order to illustrate to the class his direction, through visual examples.

Overall I thought it was very informative and engaging presentation and I look forward to seeing his final work!

Preparing for my studio presentation has been an enjoyable process for me. I knew almost immediately that the hyper object I wished to focus on was microbeads. Before I listened to the lecture regarding our studio presentations, I had watched a short facebook clip on microbeads, so when Elaine was speaking about different types of hyper objects, this automatically came to mind. I was eager to research into this hyper object as it was one I wasn’t overly familiar with, and was perhaps surreptitiously incorporated into our everyday lives. Morton describes a hyper object to be “impossible to shake off” (2013,pg. 35)and “massively distributed in time and space relative to humans (2013, Pg.1). Microbeads perfectly fit within this description, their inescapable nature shows the scale of the issue and illustrates a need to create media about them.

I started with researching into microbeads and what they actually are. Microplastics and microbeads are very similar, but there is also a very distinct line between them, and i wanted to establish this in my presentation, as well as my final piece in assignment 4. Microbeads are “small, solid, manufactured plastic particles that are less than 5mm and don’t degrade or dissolve in water”(Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment). Due to their minute size, once washed away in the drains, many of them are released into the ocean as they are too small for sewage treatment plants to catch. Their size makes it very easy for them to be ingested by living organisms in our aquatic habitats, mistaking them as food.

The effects that microbeads and plastics have on our environment is fairly obvious once they are understood, however something that I discovered in my research efforts, that i found particularly shocking, is the effect it has on our health as human beings. Once microbeads are eaten by sea life, these chemicals are accumulating in the bodies of the organisms that are then caught for our consumptions. This correlates to the importance of the distinction between plastic and micro-plastics, and microbeads. If an individual saw a very small- but visible- piece of plastic in their meal, it would be removed or not ingested. However, imagining the very small beads in a facial scrub- if this was incorporated into a meal, it is unlikely one would see it, and therefore ingest it.

I began looking at video’s on microbeads on youtube in order to gauge an idea for how I wished to present my idea. Most of the video’s I came across were explaining what microbeads were and how they were detrimental to our environment. Such as the video below.

Whilst I found this very interesting and informative, It made me realise that I wanted to approach my video in a way that zoomed in more to not only what microbeads are, but how did they end up in our products in the first place. Most people, including myself, would not even know that they are contributing to a process so detrimental to both our health and the environment. I am deeply interested in why cosmetic brands choose to use them, and the way in which they put a mask on what they are, and how they can effect us and our habitats.

I decided my primary focus for this media making project would be investigating how, as consumers, we are masked from the reality of what is incorporated in our everyday products, and how they contribute to large environmental impact.

References:

Morton, T 2013, ‘Poisoned Ground: Art and Philosophy in the Time of Hyperobjects’, Symploke, vol. 21, no.1-2, p. 37-50.

Unknown Author, Unknown Date, ‘Plastic Microbeads’, Australian Government- Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment, viewed 30th April, <https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/waste-resource-recovery/plastics-and-packaging/plastic-microbeads>

Johns Putra’s, ‘A New Critical Climate’, was particularly astute in encouraging reflective responses to analyse how we view climate change. She identifies that climate change is an is “a cluster of scientific facts” (2013, pg.1), with many opinions, layers and research within it. This reading attempts to engage or imagine academia practice that meaningfully contributes to climate activisim, in the same way that Wallaces, ‘It’s the end of the field as we know it (and I feel fine)’ does. Both Johns-Putra and Wallace’s readings encourage readers to reflect on the perhaps “absurd[ity]” (Wallace, 48) of ecocritisising, during a time “we have never seen anything alike [to]” (2013,pg.1). Ecocritism is a field of study that investigates the relationship between texts and entangled systems, such as ecology. This field aims to understand how media practice and our material ecology are intertwined. On examination, when we are thinking about media practice, we are trying to situate it in a material ecology, as a way to overcome this question of feeling ‘absurd’.

Johns Putra argues that we cannot discount the importance of decarbonising the ideological basis of our economic systems. ‘A new Critical Climate’, questions the use of academia in a time of media ecology being vilified. The author speaks of the generalisation that we understand climate change as a “discursive phenomenon and never purely a material one” (2013,pg.1). This encourages a reflective response to question the significance of academia in relation to climate change. Johns-Putra suggests that to analyse customary ecocritisism, we must challenge it’s “human tendancies” (2013,pg.2) and look deeply into the impact that we as individuals have. In Jansoff argues climate change as an “invisible” (2013,pg.1) “consensus [that] we accept” (2013,pg.1),

Johns Putra deconstructs Timothy Morton’s hyperobjects as “object oriented anthology” (2013,pg.1), which is assisted by the general consensus of the Anthropocene, “the current era or human induced planetary change” (Muecke,2014,Pg.1). Morton’s reading demonstrates the value of artistic and philosophical approaches in assisting people to understand climate change, as well as how it may feel. Johns Putra outlines the way Morton’s hyperobjects is the “mode by which we should always have interrogated our environment” (2013,pg.1).

The need for the “recalibration of theoretical knowledge” (2013,pg.9), is a concept that Johns Putra focuses on, emphasising the significance of reworking and reinventing existing knowledge in order to encourage an understanding of climate change. “Ecocriticism needs to become a field with material practice and consequence, having real-life effects on the material world”.  (2013,p. 9).

Transferring this to the market of media, and ourselves as Media creators, we should focus more on not just altering people’s ideas and beliefs, as Johns Putra suggests, but changing one’s authentic attitudes and behaviour, leading to more effective change. When we are understanding media from this perspective, Johns Putra’s reading is useful for critiquing academia, but more broadly, we can begin to extend the inquiry of media making and consider media as more liberating.

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References:

Johns-Putra, A 2013, ‘A New Critical Climate’, Symploke, vol. 21, no. 1-2, p. 7-10.

Morton, T 2013, ‘Poisoned Ground: Art and Philosophy in the Time of Hyperobjects’, Symploke, vol. 21, no.1-2, p. 37-50.

Muecke, S 2014, ‘Global Warming and Other Hyperobjects’, Los Angeles Review of Books, viewed 29 April 2020, <https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/hyperobjects/>

Covid19 has had a large impact on our collective lives, and has made me feel extremely uncertain about the futures. The value of media making and media for me, during this time, is providing a sanctuary for both media makers and viewers to focus their energy regarding this situation in a positive way. It has been an outlet for me to be able to put my thoughts and feelings into a creative space, where I am able to express myself.

I found this task quite difficult, having many limitations to creating a piece of media like I had done in the past. Additionally, I am not used to having myself or my voice in the media that I create, which was an adjustment and took some taking used to.

I sought to start out my video in a light-hearted way that spoke to the universal experience of self isolation. I am indubitably aware that everyone’s experience has varied, however I thought my take on ‘a day in self isolation’ could be something that was relatable and current.

Brainstorming the ways in which I could shift the mood of my video was something I was stuck on for some time. I decided to use headphones with overwhelming news updates about climate disasters to progress into a more serious discussion.

I gathered as much news and interviews in regards to all environmental disasters on YouTube and recorded the sections that I wanted included in my video. This was extremely time consuming however illustrated the overwhelmingness I have felt.

Writing out my script wasn’t difficult as there was so much I wanted to say, however it was the time restraints that I found challenging.

Guilt is one of the main emotions I have battled with in my discovery of climate change information and events. Guilt that I cannot do more for the climate collapse, guilt for the next generations, and guilt to the ecosystems and animals we have destroyed. I wanted to portray these emotions in my video, by apologising to the future generations and at the same time shining light to the problems we are facing.

All of the footage that is not of myself, was either old archive footage I had filmed in the past, or from videvo. I wanted everything that I said in my voiceover to match what the viewer was seeing, in order to create a connection and deep understanding of my words. Furthermore, my use of text in order to intensify my message also created this connection of the imagery content and my voiceover; and encourages a reflection of the viewer of what Is being said.

Overall, COVID19 has placed significant limitations to myself as a media creator creating media during this time. However, it is important to learn ways in which to still create media and create an impact without some of the tools we usually have. I only had my phone to film footage that I didn’t have on my computer, as well as record my voice, meaning the quality and stability of both footage and voiceover wasn’t as good as I would’ve hoped. But overall, I adapted to these limitations and produced something that is reflective of how I am feeling during this time, and something that I am happy with.