This first semester on university has been a blast. I’ve learnt so much not only about media but also about myself. With Introduction to Cinema and Sound Design accompanying the media one course this semester, I’ve learnt much about how media is absolutely everywhere. I’ve become a lot more aware of how media impacts my life and it’s importance as well as technical aspects of manipulating sound and, of course, I’ve learnt that I’ll never again be able to just sit down and relax watching a film without analysing every single little tiny detail about it (thanks cinema). I’ve most recently learnt that collaborative work doesn’t have to be painful and horrible like I thought it was in high school.
I’ve found over this semester that my most effective way of learning is by doing. I found more information stuck with me throughout experiential learning or through discussion rather than through listening to lectures.
I suppose I could combine what I found most challenging about the course with what I’ve discovered about my own creative practice and say that the part I found most challenging was the fact that it’s all creative and I find myself going in and out of creative mindsets. I once read somewhere that creativity is like a fruit tree, it blooms only on certain seasons. It’s very hard to force the fruit production all year round. And I guess I could relate because my creative moods come and go where this course asks for creativity in virtually every assessment piece. So that’s what I found the most difficult.
A definite struggle I have had this semester (which is purely and admittedly my own fault) is procrastination. I leave things to the absolute last minute, and not just homework and assessments, I’m talking about everything I do and it’s a character trait that I’m working on eliminating for the future. Procrastination and laziness is the whole reason this blog doesn’t have quite as many posts as it probably should so I’m going to work on that.
Here’s 5 posts that I think were this blogs highlights:
1. Food for thought on hyper and deep attention
3. Week 5’s collaboration readings
4. Collaborative Brainstorming
As a final cap off for the semester, here’s my ‘learning graph’. It’s backwards but you get the gist of it.
Key:
Red: How much have I learnt about making media objects/stories?
Purple: What is my ability to work independently in unfamiliar ways or with new systems and tools?
Orange: How much do I understand and think critically and creatively about what I make?
Brown: What is my understanding of the role/value of the blog?
Adios and happy holidays 🙂
