I know life isn’t in black and white. If it were I think I’d see things a lot clearer. As Adrian mentioned in the lecture, there is ALWAYS an outlier, something that doesn’t quite fit in our taxonomy. PHEW. I personally don’t even want to imagine black and white world. I presume it would not be so forgiving. What if you don’t fit into any assigned Category? Then what happens? How can complex subjective beings, creative definitive taxonomies of our synonymously complicated world. You know, I find it ignorant and rather reductive. By classifying I feel as though we hinder avenues for creativity because, what is the point of thinking outside the box when in the end, your work ought to fit in a ore established box??
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A world based on oppositions.
Everything we know is relational. Everything we understand is alone due to relations, differences. One cannot establish whether they are cold if they have never experienced heat. As a result of a lack of juxtaposition, we may confuse ‘cold’ with being normal temperature. This applies to all aspects of life. One cannot experience happiness without experiencing sadness. Once we have established an opposition on the spectrum, we can create comparisons that enable us to define the world around us.
Based on this understanding, lightness is only perceived as such when darkness is experienced:
Spoiler: this video looks like a snippet from a paranormal activity scene
Astruc, I love you.
So, being the overly enthusiastic and inquisitive teen I am, i decided to actually go beyond one of my weekly readings out of my interest for Alexandre Astruc. Here’s a photo to help you visualise a little better:
(Why thankyou google, https://www.google.com.au/search?q=alexandre+astruc&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=QE0lU_vbKsaVkgWFjICgCQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=781&bih=602 )
Let me tell you what I love about this man. I love his respect for filmmaker as an art in and of itself. I love how his theories illuminate the filmmaker’s artistry, the artistry that many believe absent or otherwise underrate profoundly. The filmmaker then becomes an author. He/She oversees all elements within the production process. Thus, he coined the term ‘Camera-stylo’ which encourages the director to use the camera just as a writer would use a pen. In this sense, he opened up a whole new world in which ‘traditional storytelling’ could potentially be something more than traditional; that filmmakers can stray from the ‘formulaic’, perhaps be more inventive. This is why i love this man.
same old me… but hopefully a little brainier
New year. New classes. New me 🙂 who am i kidding, same old me. Don’t be confused by the apparent pessimistic undertone of that comment; I’m keen to learn, keen to grow, keen to learn about K..Korrseee..korsikiii.. ummm… Look, my newly acquired knowledge doesn’t require perfect pronunciation, and as such, I will attempt to explain my infantile knowledge of kk.. koorrssii.. oh stuff it:
We go through our high school years being trained to recognise and develop linear story lines and then….BAM let’s flip the entire mechanics of such cause and effect chains and think about a poetic, non-linear delivery of associative yet paradoxically random events. It blows my mind while simultaneously opening a world of possibilities. Sometimes we have unseasoned ideas looping around in our minds. You try to organise these ideas.. to collate them in hope of forming a logical sequence of events. No matter how much you try though… you just can’t seem to create a chronological explanation. So maybe you give up your attempt to make ‘sense’ of these ideas. Try a poetic, perhaps jarred or disruptive portrayal of these crazy ideas.
I’m currently in my tutorial, watching a video that embodies this exact concept. It’s called ‘Experience’. Now, these experiences don’t necessarily have a clear, obviously associated link to each other. The thematic link appears to be this idea of exactly that: Experience. There is no sense of a sequential development of an individuals lifetime. It’s… different. It’s interesting. Although I can’t identify with a ’cause and effect’ linearity I find my connection with the poetic nature of it. The poetry manifests itself in the thematic basis of this video. That’s good enough for me. I feel if a piece of work can engage you in any manner, then it is successful; no matter how different it is. Now, the program Korsokow allows you to create this kind of work, to organise, or rather, disorganise your ideas into a piece of art. It’s mechanisms inhibit the production of a formulaic, linear storyline and encourage you to view your ideas in a different way.
Take a look yourself 🙂
‘Experience ‘
A step closer to world peace?
“We must create at the same scale as we can destroy. The counter force to the scale of destruction is the scale of communication”- Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz
Nowadays people look at technology and think it’s a force taking over the world, negatively affecting our humanity and our pure unmediated interaction with one another. I won’t lie, until very recently, I was one of those people. However, I’ve begun to realise that technology is founded on the belief that it improves communication between humans. From such perspective, you find that technology enables us to express our ideas more eloquently which, in turn, permits the receiver a clearer understanding. Tolerance begins to develop from improved understanding. Now, neither Steve Dietz nor myself are suggesting technology leads to world peace. I’m merely pointing out that, in improving human interaction, technology takes us a step closer to tolerating and accepting others.
How to: Success
I found a super cool acronym today so I thought I’d share it. The acronym is SUCCESS. Here it is, along with my little interpretation of it:
S = sense of direction ( knowing the goal you want to achieve and defining it)
U= understanding ( gaining all the information possible to make decisions)
C= courage ( I’m not speaking of courage in that cheesy heroic ‘Peter Parker/Spiderman’ kind of way… It’s a more practical and planned type of action where you look at options, identify the one with the positive outcome and determine that path for yourself)
C= charity (charity was actually derived from the Latin word for Affection… It’s being able to show that .. To be able to collaborate and co-exist harmoniously because let’s be honest, you’re most likely to be a part of a work team where ‘charity’ becomes salient)
E= esteem ( appreciating your self-worth)
S = self confidence ( confidence is built on success.. You need to be able to form the habit of remembering past successes and forgetting failures. Perhaps not entirely forgetting those failures because we need them I provide impetus to succeed. It’s more the idea that we shouldn’t let those failures inhibit potential success)
S= self acceptance (we need to accept ourselves the way we are. Stop trying to be someone else. Everyone has their good and bad…. Just because we have those negative qualities, they don’t own us. We’re not solely defined by our negative qualities)
I’m in the process of trying to apply this acronym to my life. I know, I know… it sounds like a whole heap of things you need to check off. My first step would be to try to succeed in minute goals, so that I can move onto enormous ones… For now I’d like to be able to achieve great grades in my media course and above that, be able to apply my knowledge of the networked media to my experiences outside the subject.
Just another awesome blog on rules and regulations.
This week’s reading on protocol I found primarily interesting due to its subtle rebuttal (interesting choice of words when reading aloud) of the general consensus that is: the internet is some kind of a chaotic, uncontrollable sea of waves ( at last that’s how I saw it when I had begun this course…). The reason contemporary culture isn’t generally perceived in this way also, is the codes and conventions that govern our actions within society. PROTOCOL. We do not formulate our actions based on pure randomness and completely unrestricted will. For instance. You get billed. You pay your bill. You avoid debt or fine. In the same way, the internet exists within such constraints, all categorized under the umbrella term of PROTOCOL. I read a great blog about this reading which takes the idea further in terms of Protocol allowing the internet a sense of true democracy or “communism” in its equalisation of different networks..
Intertwingling : it’s a funny sounding word.
I’ll tell you now, the only association the title above has with the content of this blog is that it broadly refers to the fact that all of the networked media is connected in some way,shape or form…
I won’t lie, I found the unlecture rather dull this week… Perhaps due to the fact that I have no interest in video games whatsoever. However, I enjoyed understanding the connection between video games ( something I don’t particularly enjoy) and X- factor ( a show I do enjoy). Shows like the X-factor are modeled on the foundational elements of a video game. As Adrian points out, you have an “arbitrary set of rules and a master”. Each contestant then competes against another and to win the competition…. I had never even made such a connection in my mind between these two mediums. Interestingly enough, they’ve designed a video game based on the x-factor. Without being aware of it, the creators of this game are traveling in circles by basing a show on a video game, then basing a video game upon that very same show..mind boggling to say the least.
A simple suggestion to brighten up your day.
I want to take a moment to address the seriously concerning fact that not enough people are smiling nowadays. I know you’re thinking, “she’s a little kid, doesn’t understand that we all have too many problems to worry about smiling” . I acknowledge we all have problems and I acknowledge some of us have problems beyond anything I could imagine. However, it seems people have a permanently begrudged look attached to their faces. Others, I register only blankness staring back at me. It’s become almost unnatural to smile. So I thought I’d undertake a little experiment on the train. I continually smiled to myself, I smiled as I looked out the window, smiled to passengers beside me (not in that creepy way you’re imagining). The amount of confused, irritated, uncomfortable faces around me was quite amusing. Since when did it become weird to smile at the world. Since when did it become weird to try to share some of your happiness ( I’m getting good with this cheesy stuff). We are creatures of pattern and I’m afraid we’re trapped in this cycle of- for lack of a better word – blankness.
You can’t tell me I’m too much of an optimist…
Now, if after reading this you’re still thinking I’m some overly optimistic and naive girl who hasn’t yet experienced problem and is speaking from a lack of such experience then I urge you to read this article on the scientifically proven benefits of smiling.
Techonology. It’s natural.
The Watts reading this week, I think, is one we can all, as humans living in the 21st century, associate with. We have a dependence on technology now. It’s oddly becoming a natural element of our world. We look at these mediums ( computers, phones etc) and we feel a kind of connectedness from which we cannot separate nor exist without.
In my search for more information on this reading, I, again stumbled upon Jackie Matthew’s blog which I found particularly interesting in terms of the painting which, in my opinion, perfectly embodies the essence of the Watts reading and its relevance to our current status within this ‘age of technology’.