Category Archives: Connection

Internet Time Zones – Link 10

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There was a joke that went around my home town that when you arrived at the airport (that was really just a long flat paddock used by Emergency and rescue services) the pilot would say: “Welcome to Cootamundra, today is a mild 45 degrees in the shade, the local time is 3:15 and travellers are reminded to turn their watches back 50 years.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the effects that communication technology has on “community”. That we are supposedly globally connected, yet significant populations within the developed world are being caught or left behind. Modern communication has the ability to merge place, link cultures and even transcend language while creating massive communication cleavages between urban and rural, wealthy and poor. I didn’t have the internet in any household during my high-school years. Few in my year had dial-up, even less had wifi, and those who did had a parent who travelled to the city for work.

That’s not to say that we had no use for it – it would have helped my studies and could make great improvements to the community, particularly through the primary industries. The main reasons were: the price, the subpar speed, the availability and the marketing. The internet was not sold as a necessity as it is here in Melbourne, it was seen as a bonus, a gift, an optional extra for a successful family. Everybody truly believed that life would be no different.  The power of information sharing is in numbers, which we did not have. If we were to upload information of our livestock sales, our harvest yields, the successes and failures of processes who would this information be useful to? Where could we find useful information for us? We could communicate with other dairy farmers, other wheat growers, in the Gippsland for example, but their situation and their environment is too different to ours for methods to be translated.

Looking there now, there has been a modernisation of communications, more households using the internet. And the reason is business. First people started to realise that they could order gifts and products online – from anywhere. People would do their weekly grocery shopping by correspondence to save the 2 hour round trip to the nearest Coles. Gradually small local businesses and franchises modernised their techniques of marketing and selling. Children of families began to research their assignments online, became involved with social media and introduced the rest of the world to our town. Last year when I was share-housing with friends the first question they would ask was always, “how fast is the internet?”

 

Annotated Bibliographies: an approach – Connection 8

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One component to our group project is individually compiled 1200 word annotated bibliographies. Having never produced an annotated bibliography before this seemed a daunting and extensive task. However, after researching I was able to find an effective system to approaching my chosen resources that meant I could quite easily summarise the texts purpose and importance into this space (though I could have easily written more). It is asking more than an analysis of the words within the text, and provoking you to ask questions such as:

Who is this text addressing?

How does it effectively use data and research to support its claims?

What are the limitations in the application of its theories?

And many more that I had never considered were crucial for a summary, rather I dismissed them as extra-currical thoughts.

A useful tool I found was UNSW’s walkthrough, designed to give fellow students an introduction and help them map out their annotated bibliographies. They follow an eight step principle:

(1) Citation

(2) Introduction

(3) Aims & Research methods

(4) Scope

(5) Usefulness

(6) Limitations

(7) Conclusions

(8) Reflection

This is a method that I have recently introduced in my blog posts (note from practical 7 onwards) that I feels give them a stronger substance and is a flexible layout that can be applied to films, readings and experiences. This method of thinking has enhanced my approach to many aspects of study, particularly in developing a rhetorical approach to history in my media and politics classes.

Read Between the Signs – Connection 7

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Today, a rainy Saturday, with my headphones broken and a mind recently activated by coffee I sat silently for the duration of my hour long ride on the 86 Tram and began to consume any information readily available. The carriages were riddled with posters containing images, text and symbols to convey the rules and regulations of Melbourne’s Metro. For a form of text whose whole basis lies in clear and concise messages there’s peculiarity in the vast differences between their denotations and connotations (first and second order meanings). Hardly had I noticed before the amount of assumed knowledge we bring to interpret messages such as these.

It is after all a huge leap from the sign of white circle and lines on a blue background to identify a person in a wheelchair, which in turn comes to represent all persons with disabled mobility, and stands as a symbol that there are sufficient mechanics in place (a ramp, a handrail) to allow access for such persons, and further that they shall be given priority access to the service nearby. Even by following the length and structure of the above sentence we see the lengthy, still not exhaustive, process we take as everyday viewers, consumers, audiences, humans, to understand even the simplest of texts. Crucial to the importance of this pictures cohesion is that the same shapes, in another context,  would not be perceived in the same way. Simultaneously, a perfectly sketched portrait of some-one in a wheelchair would not be received identically.

Key to the effectiveness of such informative texts are their strong conventions. Relying heavily on visual aspects to transcend barriers of language and literacy each poster I saw contained only simple or fine text if any, pertaining to the precise technicalities rather than the dominant meaning. The typical poster used gender and age unspecific drawings, simple depictions of other objects were greyscale – this use of objective characterisation limited the play between the authors intentions and the audience response. Other techniques of colour and framing enhanced this unidirectional movement typical of its form. Also crucial to the successful functioning of cautionary, and safety signs are their external conventions, including their placement, and greater salience. We look overhead and near entries and exits for information, an exit sign on the right hand side of a corridor is read differently to one in the centre.

Our ability to interpret and understand these texts is developed over time, from reading, repetition, and recognition, actions all taken predominantly by the subconscious. It was in fact as recent as 1984 that the identifiable “no symbol”, a red circle with a diagonal line on a white background had a publishing standard in the UK. In the last thirty years it has efficiently created a social and cultural code allowing it to be read universally (in the sense limited to its use, rather than a literal sense of universal.) Continuing to observe the way that I receive texts from an audience perspective will greater enhance my understanding of the techniques and approaches in regards to connotations, signs and codes that I can use as a producer to create meaning.

 

Secret Diary of a Text Boy – Connection 4

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I myself am a call boy, there’s no denying it. All my friends will tell you that trying to have a conversation with me over text is near impossible. If there was to be a face-to-face discussion at the pace of my texting anyone incapable of hibernation would die of starvation while waiting for a reply. Not that I don’t have an answer, or the right thing to say, in fact I’m quite unsure as to why I am so terrible at texting.

My (then) prospective partner had been trying to wittingly engage me through sms and mms, apparently this had become a major part of modern courting ritual. Sometimes I would reply but then get distracted or walk away, other times I wouldn’t check my phone until the message had lost relevance. I would stand by in awe as my friends would whip out their phone, send a message and resume conversation like second nature. Another of my friends would be constantly messaging his girlfriend in endless essays of trivialities.

In my case, however, what sealed the deal was not my lightning emoji reflexes or proficiency with the relevant gif. No, it was the old 1, 2: meal and a movie, followed by the highly unconventional 3: early morning drunk dial for kebabs. Surprisingly it worked and I guess that brings me to my point.

For a type of media to be effective the author and the audience must be able to meet at a certain point, a destination. The composer of material must be comfortable with the form or medium and proficient with the skills and techniques to engage or persuade an audience. In this instance I was comfortable with the forms of face-to-face and phone conversation, and was able to use charm and shock-tactics to arrive at the final destination: a second date. This may not of been as well received if my girlfriend was – like most others – impervious to drunken expressions of interest. Know your audience, know your means. Or else you’ll end up like this poor drunk lad who replied to his own text here.

 

 

The Notice-board of Directors – Connection 3

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As a result of quite an inspiring reading assigned to us for our media class I have been putting in the effort simply to notice things. John Mason suggests in his piece “the discipline of noticing” I have repeated to myself upon entering/exiting a doorway that “I am walking through a doorway”. Not only does it make you realise how utterly reliant you have become on doorways in everyday venture but also makes a wonderful conversation starter as you hold up a line at public toilets.

Among other things I have noticed that my analog watch doesn’t have numbers or symbols, it does however have a scale replica of half the earth and accurate lines of longitude and latitude. I have noticed that I most often use the black side of my pen, but the red is my most favoured to click in times of boredom or brain-naps. These are a few things that I have “set myself” to notice which Mason points out is the first step towards noticing as it shows intention, however it is not always reliable.

Over the past few years I have tried to set myself to remember to put my phone on the charge before bed, check the mail everyday and look at the best before date before putting the milk into my tea, all with limited success. Sometimes consequences can vary, from getting in the principals bad books for forgetting to pick up your child to having to rinse out a mug with an unpleasant smell. It goes to show that while we may think we are on top of things, we are most likely on top of 30% of things which we have selectively noticed and absorbed while happily oblivious to the 70% of clothes left on the line before a storm and assignments due by the end of the week.

Mason categorises our interactions into three categories:

Noticing, Marking and Recording.

Noticing, whether consciously or not, is isolating something you sense (see, hear, touch, smell or feel) from other stimulus around it. Being able to at the time establish a clear distinction of what it is and certainly what it isn’t, what makes it different from its surroundings. Things we notice can easily be lost in the background of our thoughts until another interaction encourages its reprisal to the forefront of our mind.

Marking is the next level of interaction which requires more focus, attention and processing. Something we ‘mark’ we can source ourselves to “remark” to somebody in conversation. This action of reproducing the fact that we noticed and mark will make it more memorable and accessible for further reflection later on.

Finally, recording is the third level of interactive noticing. This upper level often relies on immediate relaying of informational to an external source. This could simply mean jotting down a note for later, drawing a small diagram or taking a picture for concrete evidence to access. Recording requires the most motivation as compared to the intention of “setting yourself” it requires you to immediately engage and enact with your markings.

Over the next few days I will continue setting myself trivialities to notice and hopefully that will lead to increased potential for marking and consciously I am applying myself to record, for uni if not anything else. Now if you’ll excuse me I am walking through a doorway that leads to my bed.

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60 Seconds Late – Connection 2

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Imagine this…

You walk into a packed theatre only moments late. Traffic on the bridge and a lack of parking. As you shuffle through the rows of red chairs exchanging nodding apologies you hear something. Rather, you hear nothing. It’s oddly quiet. Not silent but there’s no hyped audience chatter, no band preparation and there certainly isn’t the parading avant garde ruckus you expected.

Reaching your seat you offer an awkward smile to the young bespectacled chap beside you. He offers the same smile back. Uncomfortably you shuffle into your chair and lower your body not to draw further embarrassment. Peering over the balcony you see the full orchestra lead by a solo pianist. They just sit there. Staring. Smiling. Shuffling. Stretching. Don’t they know the curtain is up? Why is the audience so still?

You start to hear your own breathing as it escalates. The young man beside you scratches his head and it echoes strangely through the quiet theatre. Everything in the space stands still. Slowly you become aware of your near surroundings. The soft wisp of the vent overhead. The hum of the street outside. The smell of competing perfumes rise and fall eventually becoming overwhelming as a collective. You reach for your nose and an elderly man three rows back coughs.

Heads turn one by one, unnerved, intrigued or blank to find the source of the impeding sound that cut the tension. It’s been well over a minute now. Car-horns and screeching tyres that were once so distant now seem to rock the room. The few children in the audience are growing uncomfortable, nagging their parents who quickly shhh them and return their blank stare to the stage. The solo pianist unmoved, his orchestra patiently attentive, in waiting.  Is there something wrong?

As you look around your stomach makes an involuntary groan, thankfully it is drowned out by somebody’s unfortunately timed flatulence. This time no-one turns. All eyes are on the stage, but bodies are moving. A few tap their feet to the rhythm of nothing in particular. Some whisper to their other halves. One lady near you even pulls out a mirror and begins to adjust her make-up. A short grey-haired lady in the front stands and turns to exit.

Suddenly with one swift, smooth motion the pianist stands turns to face the audience and stoops into a low bow. Instantly drawn to the onstage movement the audience returns to the ample quiet when you first arrived. Awkward disjointed claps call and respond from around the theatre. The pianist with a flick of his hand in appreciation returns to his seat and counts in the next piece.

You arrived 60 seconds late to a rendition of 4’33” by John Cage.

A piece written with intention to show that there truly is no such thing as silence, Cage instructs the performer, of any instrument or group of instruments, to not play for the duration of the score. Cage’s three movement piece has been at the centre of controversy since it’s conception in 1952. People have continuously questioned if it can be defined as music, offering conservatively that it should be categorised as conceptual art. It draws on the tension between performer and audience and while creating no sound of it’s own still brings to the audiences senses the six top paragraphs of visuals, sounds and even smells.

Listen to the piece below and take note of everyone you hear, see, smell and feel. Is what you’re seeing media? Anti-media? Think of your opinions of the piece.