For our first ontograph we were asked to explore one thing or one idea, media related or not. This ontograph would serve as a practice so that as a class we can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our understanding of what an ontograph is.
I chose the topic of health as I was feeling unwell that lesson and health was on my mind. I began by outlining the three main points that I though “health” meant. ‘Getting good results.’ , ‘Living a long happy life’, and ‘Being able to do the things you want to do’. From there I created a number of different lists e.g. people who take care of your health, foods, medicine, and technology used to monitor health. After a brief talk with my tutor I changed the main topic to ‘Bodies’ and began to focus on more specific things in relation to maintaining our bodies such as Antibiotics. Who discovered them, what are they made out of etc.

My Ontograph at the class presentation

My Ontograph received very mixed reviews. Some people really liked it while others rated in very poorly. This made it difficult for me to understand what it is I needed to improve on. One thing I was sure of was that I needed to focus on one specific thing rather than a general topic

Class feed back after presentation.

Other class members ontographs were differed to mine in style. They took more of the mind map approach which made it clearer to see connections between things. This is something that I will adopt for my next onotograph. 

Other class members Ontographs

In class you need to talk to your ontograph. Five minutes maximum. Present it not to me but to/for each other.

• What is it about?
• What is it doing?
• What do you think it shows?
• What has your thing now become?
• Is it different to what it was before? How?

To encourage a more productive environment, the class began the studio in a small circle. After recounting what we had been up to this week Adrian proposed an studio plan in which each class room member would be given a role each week. being at the end of the semi circle I received the least sort after roles but I am interested as to what happens to the people who weren’t at that studio. I listed my (about bi weekly) roles on my blog so I do not forget and so the class commenced.

This week we mainly focused on planning our next ontograph for next Friday. This will be a first graded  ontograph and respectfully Adrian made sure each of us were aware of our topic and what medium we were choosing.

Thing: Gameboy colour Cartridge

questions for next tute
if im presenting as photos
– How many photos is ideal?

– How many of them should be taken by me?

– to what standard are these photos ie. should i be taking them with my dslr or phone camera.

What tasks i’ll be doing in the studio

Week 6 REFLECT
Week 9 REFLECT
Week 10 AFTERNOON TEA
Week 11 DOCUMENT
Week 12 NOTE TAKE

Blog post on one sentence or paragraph from each of the readings that intrigues you.

HOW APPLE MAKES THE WATCH

“Start bending a paper clip back and forth and you’ll notice it gets ever so slightly more difficult to bend as you repeat the process…Add a tremendous amount of precision, equipment capable of applying thousands of tonnes of force and replace the paper clip with a us 50k ingot of gold alloy and you’re working at apple.”

This wasn’t exactly the point of the article but it was just a small piece of trivia that I never thought about. I always thought when you bend something back and forth e.g. a piece of plastic, a branch, or in this case a paper clip that it continually gets weaker. I never got up after a reading to test something I read so I believe this fun fact stood out the most for me.

COMPLEXITY, FLUX, & WEBS OF CONNECTION

Chris Marker extends a brief glance to camera by on-screen subjects through a freeze frame of the look. I have employed a similar device in slowing down, holding and layering similarly brief instants.

This quote, without context, does not seem that interesting but when I thought about how I would film elements of my onotgraph, I did not think about layering or slowing down images to create meaning, juxtaposition etc Although obvious to most, this is an idea that will help me in the course.

CHAPTER 2 ONTOGRAPHY

Scribblenauts paragraph

Other than making me really want to play scribblenauts again this section showed me how there are other platforms out there which will help me think in the abstract/creative way that this course requires. I will attempt to think of more games, simulations, or any audio visual content that will help me see things for “what they are”

WHAT I THINK ONTOGRAPHS DO

• They help us map out our research
• They allow us to see a visual of what we are thinking about
• Establish connections between things
• Helps us gain a further understanding of how things work

What I learnt in Studio 5

I learnt that we are now not looking at what a thing does but the essence of what it is. Adrian spoke about how in media we rarely get the chance do to things just because we wandered what would happen. It’s an industry about doing things you know. We need to look at objects in this subject as …

.. “If it (the thing) made a story about itself what would it say.”

When explaining improvements on everyone’s onto graph Adrian further reinforced my already established belief that plot drives characters not characters drive plot.

Narrative is about making deliberate acts feel accidental e.g. spilling coffee.
For my next ontograph I will contemplated looking at the
Quantified self. One app mother. Moves app

Something that has changed my understanding. 

perhaps the biggest change in my learning about documentary ontograph or creating lists in general for that matter was “how is this ‘thing’ seen from a non human point of view”. This served as one of the main points of the list I created to present to the class where i focused a large part of my list to how animals and health relate. Humans naturally view things on the basis of how it effects them. Ebola became a huge issue in the west because the west realized that this could be something that could effect them. The same goes for lists and how we always view it from our point of view.

Source: http://imagizer-cv.imageshack.us/a/img832/9074/foodchainapronfromcafep.jpg

STUDIO 3

Directive practice: what is it to begin to notice or what is it not to notice. What is it that we want to notice, where it is what is it
what things are- ontology
what this mean- histomology

Anthropocentric: (ism) A Human putting a human at the centre.

No they don’t have to be words. We will start to make them video and sound.

A list that begins where ever you like. A thing in our universe. An idea is a thing. A thought is a thing.

Phenomenology. How we perceive the world.

Lists created in today’s Studio

Ontograph is a list, but a list that defines connections between things.

Exploded media map of a media thing

In the second studio class we created a list based off one object we had on us or something we did in the morning. These lists were simple and generally only dealt with things from our point of views as ‘humans’. Before doing our second ontographic list we learnt how to look at things from different points of view. Everyone’s second list differed from their first list (with the exception of the student seated next to me) because of the conversation we had as a group.  My list became more to the point and gave a better understanding about the object ( a water bottle.)

Next week’s presentation: Ontograph
Anything or object or idea or event

what things do not their meanings
sugar can do things to water e.g.
<Has to be a media thing>

My topic-  Movie poster or projector

1st list

In the first studio class, I learnt that we will be making videos, most likely in Korsakow. I learnt that the majority of studios we will be discussing ideas and participating in many informal class discussions to make a more of a creative environment. We will be creating a portfolio of what we did in class every week. Next week will be a class presentation of an exploded view on something. We wrote notes on what we believed a studio was. My note expressed something a long the lines of that a studio was a work environment where work can be created in collaboration with others. I still don’t fully understand what we are doing and why in this studio. Hopefully this will be explained Friday in a very simple way for me