For our last tutorial we began to finish up our final draft/edit of our artefact for project brief 4. Our podcast comprises so far of three sections on different areas of sound, we link these together through the discussions we have that particular sound element. My area on podcasts in the education system has sources information from the featured interview presented. My interview is with RMIT lecturer Dr. Olivia Guntarik as she shared her knowledge and professional opinions on podcasts as a learning tool.

So far we have a fairly long edit of our final podcast that will need to be condensed down to about 12 minutes (i.e about 4 minutes each). With the inclusion of a small ad and brief description and introduction to our interviewee this is difficult to do. Im finding it hard to consolidate all the information and interview responses and to edit out all irrelevant content. Im finding most of the content quite necessary and relevant however i don’t want it to bore our intended audience.

For our last tutorial we also completed a class survey and discussed the final 20% assignment criteria (the blogs) as a part of our reflective journal. Finally at the end now!

As a part of my research for project brief 4 I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts to get ideas of how to set up and formulate our own podcast. Radio is one that I’ve come across that is really well crafted. It follows an scientific and morality based subject that discusses many different topics such as ‘colour’ and ‘time’ and discuss these on different levels. It was very helpful listening to these podcasts specifically. I found that I could relate a lot of my research to how they presented their research on episodes of radio lab. What struck me was the textured and layered elements of there podcasts, they used an array of sounds an voices, different interviewed people and many elements that varied the sound of the podcast. What I’m most worried about in terms of my group’s podcast, is that we will create a bland or dry podcast that regurgitates information to the audience. I really enjoyed radio lab and the diverse way it engaged me as a listener. I didn’t understand the great difficulty in creating such a well crafted podcast.

The part i enjoy most about radio lab and that i hope to appropriate is that the information featured in the podcast is of a highly knowledgeable field, however for audiences it is easily understood and easily taught. I hope that our podcast is half a innovative as Radio Lab’s podcasts are.

I’ve also really enjoyed podcast from This American Life, Triple J podcasts and Criminal and like Radio Lab, hope to draw elements of them to our own podcast.

Today’s lectorial was centred around Media Materialism in which Dan showed us this video below. It was a long and at first confusing video. I found myself annoyed by it and questioning it in the lectorial. It featured a robot who developed a conscious and the ability to question, think and feel beyond its original functions. To me i look at this video and think of science fiction, something made up and something that is childish and annoying. However evidently this is a possibility of the future, we already use computer to match us up on dates, and telectronic toothbrushes to brush our teeth, whats next? New technologies and intelligences are being developed all the time, and to think of a robot like this may not be far out of the question. The short video reminded me of Spike Jonze’s Her, and the protagonists relationship with his software intelligence. Are we now having relationships with our technologies and is this our future? Who the hell knows? I suppose its not far off people sleeping, eating and living on and with their phones.

From one of the readings this week a thought remained with me that once a technology reaches its use by date, it is finished, and a new technology comes along in a speedy succession. We need to know when technology reaches it use by date, when we need to update and when something is no longer keeping its function. However functionality is up to its user anyway, technologies may and do take on different functions, and this is every changing. It almost scares me to think where these advancements take us in the future, i think the aim is to be aware of these advancements and to think about their repercussions.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-pF56-ZYkY

After a brief moment of panic, my group decided to change our Project Brief 4 artefact to a website…and then back to a podcast. I think we were rattled by the thought that we may not be able to present and communicate all of our research and findings into a podcast. However we ultimately decided that a website would be a lot more work and would mainly distract us from the objective of the assignment, and would leave us off track anyway. Although there is the risk we may not present our findings effectively, we must aim to create clear and direct questions in our interviews they communicate our prior research. I have been stressed out in the last week in terms of this assignment as i’ve found it difficult to devople my ideas and resseach further. However after the tutorial today and another meeting with my group we have a clear indication of where our artefact is heading. At this stage i will be interviewing a University lecturer and directing questions that ask how podcasts are used in terms of educational tools. I have written a script and sample questions based on my research, that will aim to elicit the responses needed to create my part of the podcast segment. My other group members will also conduct their interviews in the coming week and we will all come together to edit and create our podcast. Hopefully in the the coming week we will be able to gather all of our work and produce a concise first edit of our final podcast.

This week’s lectorial was based around the idea that no media is original and that new meaning needs to be applied to older content in modern production. I have begun reading a book called My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff and her experiences of reading the book Catcher in the Rye. This book is an autobiography, however it is an adaptation in terms of its links to Catcher in the Rye, and it is a genre book and coming of age story that audiences have seen time and time again. However it is a great example of remixed media and its ability to still have great relevance and importance in the media community. Rakoff has won The Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers and has the ability to produce inspiring writing/poetry even if her work is argued as a remixed. After Dan’s lectorial on Tuesday I’ve been thinking about all the films, narratives, books and songs that I love, and it’s hard to think of any of them as truly ‘original’ pieces. In my aim to produce and create films and narratives, I will need to think of an original method to appropriation and using my influences in an innovative way. I can already see that the work I have produced, heavily influences directors such as Joe Swanberg and the Duplass brothers. In order to be ‘original’ I will need to give change and new meaning to my influence’s styles and techniques.

In this week’s lectorial, Dan was focused on remixes and the ideas based around original and unoriginal media. How can we differentiate between the two when almost everything that is made in modern media is heavily derived from past influences. The phrase “creation requires influence” said by Kirby Ferguson in this weeks reading was particularly interesting to me. Almost every idea or thought has been made or created before, but it is the reconfiguration and transformation of these original ideas, that gives new meaning and requires creativity. It is extremely hard to not be influenced by past artists or film makers in the production of films, as everything can be placed in familiar genres and subgenres. I personally believe its extremely important to derive information and influence from past sources. Often older techniques, narratives, actors etc, employ a new meaning and new view point when someone else has remixed their work. The word ‘remixes’ almost gives a bad connotation, as if to say that someone has copied anothers work and used its best elements to recreate. However i believe that remixes are an innovate and creative thing, and are often unintentional. For myself, many genres and techniques are so familiar to me, I wouldn’t even be aware that I am appropriating it, its almost just a reflection of the times I am living in and the society I’m apart of. I think the most important part when talking about remixes is that when doing so, a new meaning or technique needs to be employed in order to not be copying or stealing. Many of the best films in history have been some sort of remix, whether it be a sequel, re-make or adaptation. When it really comes down to it “there is no such thing as an original idea” so we must accept that remixes are part of modern media.

Today’s tutorial was further developing Project Brief 4. It was really helpful to present our findings so far to the class, as it forced us to formulate a concrete outline. Having all our group members together and discussing our brief was thought provoking and progressive in terms of what we are going to do. We are have decided on a more direct line of action, creating a podcast that will be divided into 3 parts. Each of us will direct one of the 3 sections and present our own findings as well as conducting an interview. We are in the process of writing a script and consolidating our research into questions for an interview. Our segment will reflect on researched podcasts, using a host and sound techniques to create a formal podcast. We have restricted our podcast to 15 minutes, however i feel like it make go for longer as interviews could take more than 5 and then explanations and further research will take more time to explain.

After presenting our Artefact element as a Work in Progress document to the class we were able to get feedback. Some people suggested that we listen to a few specific podcasts such as The American Life, Start Up, Night Vale, Criminal and there are many more i’d like to listen to in the future. This was helpful to us as we were unaware of many popular podcasts and podcast providers.

I have recently been listening to many series of free podcasts in preparation and research for Project Brief 4. I had never had any interest or knowledge of many podcasts before, and it has opened my mind to an entirely new media and entertainment source. Podcasts are inevitably the way of the future, we can ultimately listen to anything we want on demand and listen to it on any portable device. Many podcast segments are free and easily accessable and require little time to listen to. I’ve been listening to ‘This American Life’ series called Serial, which features different stories told on a weekly basis in reference to the murder of Hae Min Lee. The podcasts that were released told chapters of a real story, and kept suspense and intrigue in the presentation of its elements. This sad story that was being investigated was presented in a respectful, however insightful way.

Podcasts require a lot more attention then i first thought, as there are no visual cues and limited musical melodies, the storyline is the basis of the medium. I enjoy the fact that it demands your entire focus and attention, as it enables you to take the time out and not undertake any mulititasking activities. In society and era when media users are constantly multitasking and not doing anything at a ‘one thing at a time’ basis, filtering through many things at once, maybe podcasts are a way of forcing focused attention and ‘slowing us down’.

This weeks Lectorial was based on the concept of Institutions; what they are, how they function, and their key practices. The ideals and values produced and how they deliver these are specific to each institution. What qualities make them an institution in the first place. There is an expectation behind certain institutions, and how they are delivered or perceived by audiences. There needs to be a trust between media institutions and their audiences, that they are delivering what they intended and say they will deliver. Institutions embody a community or group of people, whom as a collective, unite and project the same principles and goals. Institutions aren’t only in media, as they can be cultural, social, political or economical institutions (for example, marriage as a religious and cultural institution). Media institutions like others, project ideas/information/arguments etc. onto their audiences and this needs to be done in a unified way for the institution to run effectively. In a group exercise we brainstormed different media institutions, such as Facebook, News Corp, Google and Community Media. In choosing Facebook we were able to outline the basic principle/values/rules etc that surround this institution. Facebook can be defined by its tagline of “connecting people”,  promoting other forms of social media through Facebook (i.e Instagram, twitter) and projecting the efforts of internet.org as a global charity mission to give internet to developing countries. Facebook sets up security measures and terms and conditions as a way of creating order and regulation. Facebook have also integrated themselves into many forms of online media, by enabling Facebook logins on a growing amount of websites. To audiences, Facebook needs to enable trust, through the safety/privacy of personal information as well as protecting audiences from online harm. This is just one example of a media institution and how it functions as a unified practice.

Our Tutorial this week was focused on Project Brief 4 and brainstorming further the possibilities and thoughts we have towards our topic. Focusing on the medium of Sound and it’s evolution through time and its effects on audiences. We decided to focus on how sound mediums have found new uses from different audiences throughout its evolution, and what kind of effect it has. My role is researching new mediums of sound and its user effects, and narrowed my investigation down to the use of mainly podcasts and the devices used to listen to podcasts (e.g iPods, MP3 players). My findings have been interesting as they often link the uses to educational tools and informative devices (e.g news sources). My other group members are focusing on more traditional forms of sound medias and their effects, as well as more sensory and educational effects through its evolution. We have so far gathered a substantial amount of info on our topic, and hopefully can consolidate it all to piece together an outline for the final presentation. As i’ve mentioned in previous posts, we want to create a website or blog that presents our findings, with blog posts featuring text, podcasts and links to music/sound websites.