Monthly Archives: October 2013

October 27, 2013

Done

So i have finished all the uni things i had to do this semester! Which means i am officially on holidays now, hooray. the last assignment i had to do was an essay which isn’t due until Monday, but my friend and i both decided to pull an all-nighter last night to do work, so i managed to finish it. I went to bed at 7:00am and woke up at 10:30am to finish it off, so im currently running on a couple of hours of sleep and coffee. I also did that because i was going into the city with my brother anyway so i wanted to hand it in while i was there, he hasn’t really seen RMIT before either so it was all fun.

I am so happy that I’ve finished, i have something like four months off now, that’s insane. Don’t have the money to travel yet, maybe ill go to the beach or something with friends, but not overseas. I have a list of goals for the holidays though that im looking forward to making a start on, so this is another note to future Jackie: don’t slack off, complete your goals! You know you want to!

Hooray for freedom!

October 23, 2013

*struggles*

So I updated my header picture, its the same picture but I made it harsher on the eyes, particularly on the tired, late night eyes that I currently have.

Now this is daunting, I am left with this blog, wanting to update it, without any course material to update it with. For some reason I imagined this being a lot easier in my head, coming up with things to write about. I suppose being confined to ones room while frantically trying to finish assignments isn’t the most inspiring environment, so that could be it. I haven’t really gone out in the world for a while.

I did start a Pinterest today though, it has helped with my creative block, I just really want to make something colourful and pretty right now… so I amped up the colour in my blog header…*pats self on back* I’ll get my groove back soon.

While I finish these things off, since I’m not feeling very inspired of late, I’ll just decorate this blog with a picture of my dog, how nice.

EDIT: So I’m messing around with my theme at the moment, the other one seemed too simple for me. I like lots of colour, so much colour its almost sickening. Actually, so much colour it is sickening… and then a little more, so lets see what I can come up with here….

October 19, 2013

Not over yet.

I’m finding it difficult to believe that my uni classes for the year are all over, particularly because I am currently working on an assignment and watching a lecture… holidays will have to wait.

I’m thinking I might try and finish my Cinema essay early, hopefully by Friday although it isn’t due until next Monday, just so I can relax and have fun sooner. Come on procrastination, don’t take me now.

October 16, 2013

Endgame.

As the list of assignments on my to do list dwindles down, it seems we have reached endgame. The uni year is wrapping up, and soon it will be summer holidays, so i guess this is prime reflection time. The time when the semester is basically over, but not so over that I cant be bothered writing about it, because this post will count toward my participation diary.

So, overall, I think semester two was better than semester one, my timetable was better, the content was more interesting, and the workload was better. There was more of it, but it is good to keep busy, plus finishing lots of group and partner assignments is a rewarding experience, and it was all work that i was interested in.

Lets start of with the blogging experience. Much better than i thought it would be, once i figured out the possibilities of what i could use my blog for and how it could assist me i began to embrace the experience. After the semester began and we had our first unlecture, i did give myself 3 goals for this blog that i wanted to achieve and outlined in my mid-semester essay thing (which i did not post here.) They were to create something that had a wealth of my ideas and experiences, something I could build upon, and something I could be proud of. I think it’s fair to say i have achieved these goals, i have been posting regularly enough and including enough personal content for it to be a wealthy blog (or be developing into one.) I can, and most likely will build upon it, as i want to, and the blog is also here for good. And yes, i am proud of this, i am proud that i stuck to my goals and commitments and did all my blog posts when i should, i haven’t back dated anything thus far. Each blog post i have written has been my best efforts, so i feel good about what i have achieved here.

Onto the big events of this semester, our broadcast media TV and radio assignments. Again, i feel good about the effort i put into those. I put in as much effort as i thought was necessary to complete the task to the highest standard i could. Not to mention i impressed myself with my organisation and courage in some parts, it’s scary calling possible interview candidates, particularly when they are best selling authors whom you respect greatly. But i got over that too, which meant the organisation for my radio project was much less scary.

Cinema and comm have both been on par with each other this semester, in my mind anyway. The movies screened were far more interesting this semester, as well as the concepts covered in comm.

So i think overall to describe this semester, i would say it was an interesting, engaging and enlightening experience. We did far more practical work as well as looking at concepts and ideas that were really fun. Honestly it is difficult to reflect on everything from this semester, because it has been an eventful one for me, but in terms of just the classes, overall, i think I’ve summed it up pretty well. I hope second year will be even better, or at least as good as this semester.

But, i must remember this semester is not actually over yet, i still have some assignments to complete… or begin, but it seems doable. I decided a few weeks ago to be more organised and to work on assignments earlier, and oh boy does it feel good. Assignments aren’t piling on top of each other as they normally would.

October 16, 2013

Unlecture 12: Wrapping things up

This was the last unlecture of networked media, and I must say I am relieved that Adrian mentioned we will be using these blogs next year, that pretty much guarantees they wont be deleting them. I have invested too much time and energy into this thing for it to be ripped away! So I’m just going to trust them on this, if it disappears randomly without my consent, angry phone calls will be made.

We were also encouraged to aim high; we know enough about networking and media to be able to get much more exciting jobs than the camera operator, so why not strive for something higher.

I was reminded that we share agency with non-human, non-living things, which is always a refreshing and enlightening idea.

And finally our tutors gave their final remarks, that is, until our tutorials this week…perhaps I should bring lollies or something…

I will probably write another post with my own final thoughts for the subject/ semester, as knowing me, it will turn into a big ramble session, so I’ll just wrap up this post here 🙂

October 13, 2013

Reflecting personal style

Here we go again, Jackie is about to ramble about art and visual diaries…This reading definitely calls for it though, talking about the relationships between artists and technology, and the things technology can offer. One particular quote grabbed me:

“Whoever works with a computer on a daily basis, at least for a few years, will soon realize that his own computer resembles more and more to its owner. You share everything with your computer: your time (often even for 13 hours a day), your space (desktop), your culture (bookmarks), your personal relationships (e-mails), your memories (photo archives), your ideas, your projects, etc. To sum up, a computer, with the passing of time, ends up looking like its owner’s brain.”

This goes for a lot of things I find, not only with a persons computer based on how they use the internet, but I think over time if you spend enough time doing something it will emulate your own personal style. For example, our blogs do this. This also goes for artwork, journals, photo albums, houses, and yes, of course, because I’m Jackie I have to bring this up, visual diaries.

On Friday I attended my former high school’s art exhibition with some friends, to see what our younger friends have been doing, what the year 12 students came up with, and to offer our wisdom as past art students. When I saw the works, before reading the names, I was able to recognise whose work it was, and the style of their visual diaries (which were also on display) really did reflect their own personalities and style. They included things that they were interested in, and arranged things in a style that made sense to them. I can see myself using this same method when using this blog and my computer, it does reflect me (although I cant choose a desktop image at the moment because my computer is being a dope.)

October 11, 2013

Niki: the struggle

The niki experience has been an interesting one. Although the idea is fun, sometimes it is difficult to coordinate what everyone is doing to create something cohesive.
I have found that many times while writing the nikis, I am unable to continue working on it until another person builds on what I have said.
So I think the niki things has been good overall, but a bit awkward to complete. Which is also difficult to decide on, whether something is ‘complete.’ There are many posts that I could keep working on, but I don’t really need to, so how much should I do?
Because I’m not sure whether any of my nikis are finished, I still don’t know which one I am going to write on.
I feel that maybe after some time, it will figure itself out, perhaps over the weekend.

October 10, 2013

ANT

My goodness this reading used a lot of long words.

I pulled up multiple Wikipedia pages and blog posts in an effort to understand, and luckily Memphis had an attached video which cleared some things up and made my brain hurt a little less.

So to begin with, Actor- Netowrks may not have strategically placed nodes and paths, it is not concerned with social networks only related to humans, rather the nature of societies and natures in general, and networks do not have spheres, categories or politics, they are fibrous and capillary-like. In short, Actor Network Theory acknowledges both the technical and social aspects of networks and technologies, and suggests that they do not function independently, basically finding a middle ground in the whole technological determinism arguement.

Connections through networks are stronger than close proximity connections. I could be standing next to a stranger, but my connection to my friend who is kilometers away is stronger, so the connection of proximity is not important in ANT. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Networks cannot be ‘bigger’ than other ones like is suggested in social theory, but they can be more intensely connected.

An actant need not be human, it just must act, or be granted activity by others. So I guess the activity would be granted by the humanistic actants if they are unable to act themselves. But many human actants are unable to be actants on their own, as they require non-humanistic actants to form/ maintain a network… I think.

October 10, 2013

Motivation for you.

So the end of semester is near, assignments are piling up, and today I found myself searching the word ‘motivation’ on Google and YouTube. On Google it was mostly fitness motivation, on YouTube it was very broad, unhelpful stuff just screaming ‘BE CREATIVE’ at me.

Normally, I try not to express that i plan to do something until i am absolutely sure I will do it/ have done it, because it leads to awkward situations when I don’t follow through, and this has happened in the past*. But here is my advice for all of you who are procrastinating, pick up your phone right now, text one of your best friends, and tell them a list of the tings you are going to accomplish today. Don’t make promises, don’t tell them to force you to do something (that’s why you aren’t telling your parents or teachers this list, pressure, ew), but just share a list with them of the homework assignments that you have, that you should be able to accomplish in that day, and trust me, motivation will come. When you complete as many of those tasks as you can, text them back, tell them, they will congratulate you, and it will feel awesome.

*A few years ago, someone commissioned a painting from me, or at least, they wanted to. I said I would take it on, and they gave me a description of what they wanted, though it was pretty broad and they weren’t very descriptive, so I just ended up being scared to do it as there was a high chance its not what they would’ve had in mind. Two years later, I finally painted something for them. Its took me two days. I spent two years agonising over this task I said I would do, leaving them waiting, and I could’ve done it in two days. Needless to say, I didn’t accept payment.

This was it, recreated from a magazine picture I saw.

October 9, 2013

Unlecture 11: record EVERYTHING.

In the lecture, it was mentioned that the internet is a free economy. Adrian also talked about how some bands will allow people to record their concerts and share it online. I remembered last year when Google teamed up with MBC and streamed an entire Kpop Music Festival for free on Youtube, I watched it all live, and it was awesome, but it still couldn’t compare to if I was actually there obviously. The topic of ‘over sharing’ was brought up, and this made me think of one of my pet peeves.

In my experience, I have found it is far more special and rewarding seeing your favourite celebrities in front of you or near you than trying to record them so you can experience it all later. I recently went to two ‘celebrity/ entertainment’ based events, SQ Entertainments K-fest, and Rudimental’s concert, both times when people were on stage, everyone around me was watching them through their phones or cameras. Its almost expected that that is what you do in these situations. When you spend the entire show looking through a phone screen and making sure you are capturing the moment, you are really missing the point of being there. You go to experience the person first hand, if you wanted to watch them on a screen you can just go to Youtube and watch their other live performances. At the K-wave event, two of the special guests, Simon and Martina, walked in front of me on their way to the stage, close enough I could reach out and touch them, and while other people around me scrambled through their bags trying to get out their phones, many of them missed being able to see them up close, and I am happy I made the decision to just experience these things, and not ruin it for myself by trying to capture everything like a reporter.

It actually made me think about the people who will take a photo of a famous monument, but not one with them in front of said monument. I mean, there are plenty of brilliant photos of that monument on Google, if you wanted to prove you were there, or have a memory from there, at least include yourself in the photo as well.

Also the talk of protocol when writing emails made me  chuckle to myself, because I am so particular about  those things. I write an email, and then read it over, and find all these misinterpretations that could be made, and space out my smiley faces as naturally as I can, and just obsessive about it. Not so much because of protocol when writing emails, but I guess I just have my own protocol on these things.