Reflecting on the Infinite Lists studio as a whole, I feel like I’ve gained a significantly greater understanding of how both new media and poetic pieces not only work, but how they can be engaged with. For Adele, Galih, Meg and I’s final artefact for the studio ‘Unavailable’, we wanted to create an experience in which the viewer progressed through our library of video and image content, making their own personal choices on what to impressively and intentionally engage with, possibly evoking a sense of longing or missingness as they did so. While we intentionally hinted at two possible ways a viewer could interact with our work at the start of the Tumblr (suggesting that they either scroll or click into the frames), we have no real preferred way for someone to interact or engage with our artefact.

Personally, I would like to think that someone clicked straight onto the first video or image that caught their attention, and proceeded to pass across content using the tags, however, I feel like the average viewer would mindlessly scroll, as that is one of the affordances in the ease of online new media. I do not see this as a bad thing though, as I am proud of the way our column layout facilitates the potential for at least 3 different viewing experiences, with dozens occurring if their attention swapes between the lanes as the scroll.

I think we as a group could easily and effectively continue Unavailable in its current form extremely easily and efficiently, as the Tumblr format invites adding additional content. We could very easily keep filming and tagging new works that we feel evoke that sense of longing and missingness, and potentially infinitely continue the blog, which I am really proud of as it pretty much embodies the title of the course, we would be infinitely listing.

If we had to transform Unavailable into a different style/form, I think an art installation would work best at replicating the experience. The exhibit could have three lanes that allow an audience member to change between at intervals, with screens on the walls displayed a rotating selection of the few videos and images we displayed. There would also be headphones attached to each screen, to evoke the sense of deliberate power in choice of what you engage with, so you could choose to further engage with the sound design. This would contrast nicely with the sensation of walking directly down the lanes representing the act of impressively scrolling on the web page. Furthermore, having all the sound be accessed through a deliberate use of headphones would not only encourage people to engage with content on a further level, but allow for the exhibition itself to be silent, bolstering that sense of longing and missingness further than with the Tumblr we have now.

Reflecting on Stories of Ennui by Chelsea, Delena and Leanna, I think their artefact as an exquisite corpse evokes a sense of freedom (and restraint in contrast) through its pacing and colour. Viewing the piece on Instagram plays to the affordances of new media work, as it allows each video to be viewed as much or as little as the audience member wants, creating their own pacing. Furthermore, I personally love their colour grading throughout, it creates this sense of nostalgia in certain moments and emptiness in others, both working to either bolster the feeling of freedom or restraint in each.

In Overwhelmed by Jack, Joeseph and Rachel, I think they did an excellent job at making you feel overwhelmed, both by the sheer amount of content they have across 4 different new media platforms, but also in how the presented the content. The YouTube video might be my personal favourite, as the combination and paring of visuals and audio both bolster that overall feeling, As you watch a sink slowly start to fill up to the point of overflowing, along with chaotic miscellaneous sound effect underneath as everything builds, I would argue that its impossible not to feel overwhelmed! Even on their Tumblr which only has two posts, you can see the thought and effort that has gone into the formatting to create that feeling.

Reflecting on Demagogues, Doubters and Douchebags, it was interesting to see how much power the tone and content of a voice-over had over the sensations and context of the video they accompanied. Initially speaking about how Robert Drew called voice-over a sign of failure, I enjoyed the journey in how they debunked that statement and showed the influence the practice contained, specifically in the studio’s final assignment, in which they were tasked in overlaying three different types of voice-over onto the same clip. The first that stood out to be were Ria Pflaum’s experiment with the Disney footage, and how different informational/documentary-style audio made the footage feel in comparison to reading out tweets from a Disney shareholder. Another that I felt was really effective in showing that difference was Isabel O’Riain’s, and the extreme contrast in something like an ASMR overlay in comparison to an influencer’s vlog audio.