Category: Uncategorized

It’s on the tip of my tongue!

I couldn’t help but think constantly as the brain as Lev Manovich’s idea of a database. I think of the brain as a big storage unit that we dip into the retrieve information from when needed.

However, as a human being I can easily see how the brain is the most faulty database ever like a CD ROM with a scratch on it.

Memory is a really interesting concept in psychology. There are theories to explain it, exercises to enhance it and disorders that effect it.

The most obvious example is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon or TOT. It’s just like that scene in the Devil Wears Prada when Emily is required to give someones name to their scary boss, fashion magazine editor, Miranda.

Emily has learnt numbers of names and bio’s from a type of data base; a book. Almost trying to plant the database in her brain. She seems to be doing well however gets stuck with one particular guest that approaches.

The scene is frustrating because TOT is something everyone has experienced. Importantly Emily experiences partial recall, she has seen who they are, knows their job and their wife but cannot retrieve the specific name required. She is aware the name is somewhere in her memory. She also has the incredibly strong feeling that retrieval is imminent. It’s that “I know it, I know it, don’t tell me, I know it!” feeling.

I suppose all I am saying in this post is that humans are not really at all databases. Humans are inherently more interesting than CD ROM’s.

 

Namaste

My yoga class is on the network. They have an app. It connects to your profile which was created from your Facebook.

This is not groundbreaking. I’m sure lots of exercise classes use this same booking system, however I have found it to be a very funny combination of something considered ancient and timeless that is embracing the new modern, ever-changing network.

Is it worth it?

Disclaimer: This post will be me whinging.

I love to exercise. I’m one of those people. I like the burn, I like to sweat. It makes me feel good.

This post isn’t about networked media, it’s about broadcast media. Usually on a Monday morning I go for a jog and have avocado on toast. This morning though, I spent preparing my house for interviews and ringing every travel agent in the Western suburbs trying to set up an interview.

I didn’t get my morning jog or my avocado on toast. Instead I had a handful of MnM’s.

I don’t like stress. Some people thrive off it but not I.

Stress is bad for the body. Everyone knows it. It stops your body regulating. It may be a bit dramatic to judge a lifetime on one day but if I choose a job in a high stress environment, am I substituting my health?

Understanding Learning Disabilities

I actually find this subject more relevant to the days I spend at work than I do to uni.

I was asked to watch this video for my work with children with learning disabilities. It is incredible in making someone empathetic rather than sympathetic towards LD children because it uses common human responses to illustrate how they might feel.

It isn’t just relevant to those working in education, it is relevant for everyone. Ignore the 80’s hair, clothes and music and see at the core the importance of individualised learning and the adverse and perhaps irreversible effects of our societies concreted education values.

Adrian, please watch this. If you haven’t already.

 

The Central Park Five

I watched this last night on TV. It covers a lot of issues about race and the American justice system however I was most impressed by how at the core the filmmakers always brought it back to the five men, or rather boys, involved and the personal impacts that this event teamed with just really bad luck had on them.

It was very very powerful and moving and I would recommend it to everyone. Honestly that good!

Spotted: Another Speculative Activity

This time I am in Prep K. The kids were each given some newspaper and were told to make whatever they wanted.

There were faces, cars, fruit and furniture. It was simply a test of their creativity.

What I found most interesting was the total creative freedom of young children to undertake speculative activities. They did, probably because they were told to, or because its fun to play with newspaper but they did so with total willingness, not once questioning the task.

Unlike the children, uni students do question. Which on one level is good. It’s good to want to know why, to know the purpose, to look at a task as having importance. When this isn’t clear, quite often we get scared, we get angry or we get frustrated. We feel lost when things like education are changed or altered. We feel unsure when our scaffolding is taken away. I would know, I’ve written blogs about it.

However, watching these kids made me jealous. Their newspaper creations were not unlike our blogs. There was no clear framework or task, just “make something”. Unlike many Networked Media students, they could simply “do”, without asking why and their results were amazing.

Literary Machines: Judging Nelson’s Predictions

This reading used design fiction, I get it.

However as it was written in the past, it was comical to see which of Nelsons 2020 predictions have come true.

‘Electronic networking will come in many flavours’. Blogs.

Stored graphics can be ‘called on by demand’. Google.

‘Offices will be paperless’. Perhaps not wholly, but my phone bill, school work and pay cheque are now managed online.

The point about education, is perhaps the only one that we are perhaps furthest away from. Of course, Networked Media is probably the dream subject for Theodore Holm Nelson however this is only one of four of my subjects in one of the many RMIT courses. I don’t know that the engineering students have to write blogs – but then again, I can’t be sure.

We can look more broadly at RMIT as only one University in Melbourne. Are Melbourne, Monash, Deakin and La Trobe undertaking these new innovative ways of learning?

Yes I can see progress in education, in fact I am utilising it as we speak, but of all of Nelsons predictions I believe this is the one in which we have not quite arrived at yet. Let’s see in 2020.

Speculative?

I hate her. Not dislike. Hate. Ugh, I’m hurting. It’s really bad. It’s like she’s trying to punish me, for what? She doesn’t even know me. I’m doing everything she says. My chest feels like its shrinking. I’m dizzy, I know I’m dehydrated. I could vomit, if asked to. Skinny bitch. Why am I here? It’s a choice, it’s my choice. My entire body is damp. I feel so gross. I try a different mindset. Wine, think wine. No! Wine is the enemy. Think beach, think bikini, think anything but this. Why am I holding my breath? Breathe Hannah! It’s not that hard. It’s one hour. One very long, painful hour.