For the first assignment for Memory, Identity and Neighbourhoods I decided to take comparative photos in two different suburbs I spend time in; Brighton and Brunswick. Despite having lived in Brighton for 17 years, I don’t feel much of a strong connection to it and the impact it has had on my identity. A large majority of my memory towards living in this suburb, is towards my home and my family. Whilst there are several locations such as the local supermarket and park that I have fond memories at, as a whole Brighton has never really held much appeal to me. I always felt as though my family was on the outer as we lived in a very normal one story house, my siblings and I all attended public schools and generally defied the typical Brighton lifestyle. When I was in my early teenage years, I began to make friends through high school that lived in northern suburbs such as Thornbury, Brunswick and Coburg. Walking down Sydney road in Brunswick always seemed so much more exciting than walking down Church Street in Brighton. Brunswick hosts an array of one off family owned stores, selling $2 items or fresh fruits and vegetables. Brighton hosts an array of big brand stores such as Sportsgirl or Nike with there are little to no one off stores, everything is part of a bigger chain company.The houses in Brunswick have short fences with gardens and bikes out the front, the houses in Brighton have tall concrete fences with doorbells at the front gate. The people of Brighton are elderly or families whilst there seems to be a variety of young and middle aged people from different cultural and religious backgrounds. I’ve never lived in Brunswick but just being there for several hours can make me feel a comfort and excitement about my local surroundings that I don’t think Brighton has ever been able to do.

I think I successfully communicated my feelings and ideas towards these vastly different neighbourhoods to the class through my photos and I found their comments really interesting to hear. Whilst some shared my perception that Brighton is a bland and unwelcoming neighbourhood with it’s high fences and rise of commercialisation, others found it to be a relaxing and enjoyable suburb to spend time in. I think this highlights how much living in a neighbourhood can impact your perception and feelings towards it. What stuck with me most is what Andy (someone who has also grown up in the Bayside area) said about how he often also felt like he lived between Melbourne’s northern suburbs and then his own south eastern suburb. I think what his idea that he just came home to Bayside to sleep was very relatable because I find myself spending a majority of my time either in the city or with friends in Brunswick, home is just somewhere I rest and connect with my family. It’s comforting in a way to know that someone else feels as though they struggle between two suburbs.

Moving forward in this studio I’m hoping to continue down this path of comparing suburbs and seeing how different people from a variety of neighbourhoods feel a connection, if any, to the suburb they live in and how it has impacted their identity.

One of my classes this semester, True Lies: Documentary Studies, has already reignited my love for both documentary films and series. In our week 1 screening, we watched Forbidden Lie$, a 2007 Australian documentary by Anna Brionowski. The documentary presents author, Norma Khouri, who attempts to address the wide spread claims that her best selling true story book Forbidden Love, is in fact a work of fiction. I found the documentary extremely intriguing due to Khouri’s unique personality as well as other interviewees such detectives and journalists. As well as having such a distinctive story, the documentary was also visually very fascinating as it depicted many shots of Jordanian cities and landscapes.

I think what further blossomed my interest in this documentary and I’m sure for ones I see in future, was the unpacking and class discussion process that took place after. Brionowski argued that she depicted a very fair image of Khouri, however amongst my tutorial class there were very mixed opinions on whether or not the documentary portrays Khouri in a unkind light. I was also shocked when I learnt that one of Khouris friends who was depicted in the documentary as being very kind, funny and generous, has previous criminal charges. I think this just highlights the uncertainty about what really is ‘true’ in any documentary style media piece because ultimately we will always be viewing a documentary through the eyes of the director. It definitely made me remember that despite their reputations for being true, you can never really be entirely sure if what you are viewing is reality.

Over the past year there has been a massive boom in TV series reboots. David Lynch’s world of Twin Peaks came back onto screens, along with other shows like Gilmore Girls, Will and Grace and Queer Eye. Although I have watched and enjoyed the original episodes of each of the above mentioned series, the only revival that has managed to maintain my interest is that of the X-Files. Overall, I am enjoying the new episodes of the show and I look forward to watching them every Thursday night. It’s definitely interesting seeing Mulder and Scully interact with the 21st century life that is so different to the world they lived in during the original run of the show in the 90’s. They now handle issues and phenomenons such as the rise of technology, the internet and the Mandela Effect. However I don’t think the X-Files, or any revival is every truly able to capture the essence of what drew people into the series in the first place. What attracts me to the X-Files and kept me watching the original 9 seasons, was the clever writing that followed through each season and kept me deeply intrigued. We followed Mulder and Scully through their main quest of proving the existence of extra terrestrials and the many consequences that came with that. Whilst the new episodes are enjoyable, I don’t think they compare to the 90’s episodes at all, and the same goes for Twin Peaks and Gilmore Girls. I think a lot of TV shows are doing revivals because they want to reconnect with old fans but also interact with a new, younger fan base. However it can clearly be tough to recapture the essence of what people originally loved about the show and this can therefore taint our love of a series. I hope for the sake of all X-Files fans that the show has a clear cut ending at the end of the 11th season because as much as I love Mulder and Scully’s world of aliens and conspiracies I think just pumping out more and more episodes can ultimately do the show and it’s reputation more harm than good.

Overall I enjoyed Seeing the Unseen and I think it helped me gain confidence within my creativity which I’m really happy about. The subject overall was successful for me because it allowed us to be creative and experiment but without enormous pressures. I’ve really appreciated how we have all been allowed to go down our own paths of interest within the subject of noticing because it means I’ve been able to do what I feel most comfortable with but also focus on and create something I am specifically fascinated with.

I have mixed feelings about my personal performance within the subject. I’m really pleased with some of the work I’ve created and how I’ve challenged myself to think about noticing as it’s something I’ve never really put much thought into. At times I do think my lack of organisation and planning let me down so that is definitely something I’d like to improve on. However I think task 3 did help improve my creative organisation a bit as I couldn’t really progress with the next experiment until I’d completed the one before, so I think the set out of that assignment was helpful. I’m generally quite pleased with my task 4 piece and how it reflects my ideas on noticing. My main aim for this assignment was to communicate my fascination with John Masons quote ‘we may think that we are widely aware of what is going on around us, but in fact attention is highly selective and for good reason. We could not cope with all the impressions pressing on us at every moment.’ I am disappointed that due to a last minute issue with Korsakow, I wasn’t able to use it to produce my work but instead edited all my footage together using Premiere Pro. Despite my reservations about Premiere, I think because I was editing under pressure, I didn’t have time to overanalyse what I was doing. Although I think my Korsakow piece would’ve been a bit more realistic in how noticing can be extremely random,  I still think my final piece successfully creates an atmospheric experience that shows just a small glimpse of how much there really is to notice, specifically patterns, in our everyday lives. We physically can’t notice all of these patterns because it would completely overwhelm us and whilst we are noticing one particular pattern, we might completely miss several other visual and audio rhythms around us. Furthermore I think my work highlights the aspect of ‘the unseen’ because for me personally I know patterns weren’t particularly something I noticed, however now as I’ve had such a focus on them, I find it hard not to b on the lookout for patterns in everyday life. I think the media piece I have created for task 4 reflects the complexity of the changing world around me because it shows the increase of technology within our society. I definitely found it easier to find patterns within electronic objects/ environments such as the escalator moving or the sound of the self serve checkout at the supermarket whereas with nature I had no control over it so I couldn’t make the wind blow a certain way or the clouds move in a particular formation to make a pattern.

I am a bit disappointed in the quality of how my video exported so I think familiarising myself with that aspect of video would be something I’d like to improve on. I also  definitely think a larger collection of video and audio patterns would make my work even more immersive and I’m still really interested in exploring Korsakow and other similar editing programs.

Task 2

After focusing on photography for task 2, I wanted to continue exploring the interest I’d developed in noticing patterns in everyday environments but by trailing different medias. I formed the question ‘how could I explore my curiosity in noticing pattern, colour and texture through video or even audio?’

Experiment 1

For my first experiment I started off quite simple by recording 30 second pieces of sounds I had noticed in my everyday environments such as cleaning my teeth or the pedestrian button beeping.

Experiment 2

For my second experiment I wanted to challenge myself further so after getting some feedback in class,I decided to record several of my everyday environments for 4 minutes and 30 seconds in which I wasn’t previously aware of any sound patterns. Then afterwards I attempted to find patterns within these pieces.

Experiment 3

For my third and final experiment I went back to my original question and decided to focus on noticing and capturing pattern through video. Once again focusing on my everyday environments, I filmed five 30 second videos. I noticed patterns and texture within the Yarra River, the sky, signs around the CBD and in escalators.

Task 4

After my experiments from task 3 I’m really interested in continuing on with discovering patterns visually and audibly and furthermore how these elements interact with one another. I’m curious as to how and why people notice specific features of an environment and I’d like to be able to show the different aspects of our everyday environments in task 4. I am fascinated by the notion that we as humans can’t physically notice everything in our surroundings and would therefore be interested in exploring pattern through manipulated sound and video and the clash of all we could potentially notice in a setting. Another idea I’ve been thinking about is breaking down an environment into the different aspects we can notice and then presenting them as photography, video and audio. 

In terms of the feedback I received from the panel during my presentation, I’m really pleased. I had a couple of general ideas about where I could take my curiosity with noticing patterns but was still feeling quite unsure, however the presentation really helped me get a clearer vision. I really appreciated how it was just as though we were having a conversation and being able to discuss my ideas with Hannah as well as Sophie and Paul has given me a sense of confidence and motivation for moving forward with task 4.

Ideas that were suggested to me were mainly to do around the plan of having my task 4 piece focus on multiple video and audio pieces that are manipulated together. Paul suggested that on SoundCloud you could play multiple audio files at the same time which I thought was really interesting and it kind of got the ball rolling on this idea of having overlapping video and sound that are presented in panels alongside one another. I shot all the videos from my third experiment on my iPhone in a portrait orientation and I was really interested to hear Paul say he really liked this and it could be interesting to continue on with in my final task as it would allow me to have multiple videos playing alongside one another.I think it could be interesting to not only have different audio over different videos but have it all stopping and starting at different times to show the extremes of stimuli in our everyday environments and how much there is for us to potentially notice or not notice. I’m unsure if I would  have videos and sounds along side one another that are all from the same environments but are just different shots or have the media be from completely different environments. I think it would be interesting to film and record a number of modern and more natural areas but at the moment I’m unsure if I would mix them together or have each theme with just itself. I’m happy that I haven’t boxed myself in too much with where I want to go and I still feel like there is room to experiment within the direction I’m going. I’m feeling really positive about task 4 and I’m looking forward to moving forward and seeing where I go with it.

Through my media making for this assignment several ideas have been emphasized to me that I believe I could continue to use in future projects. Firstly I think it can sometimes be good to not have many expectations or over plan what you want your final media product to look like. As I mentioned I hadn’t really been to the Queen Vic Market during the day for a very long time so I wasn’t really sure what to expect and I think that was good because it meant I couldn’t really plan or overthink what I wanted to create before I had actually been there. This task and subject as a whole has also really reminded me that there is beautiful detail that is waiting to be noticed and appreciated in the most everyday and commonplace environments and objects so it can be creatively beneficial to not overwhelm yourself and just see what draws your eyes in.

Questions/Queries

How does your environment influence what and how you notice?

How could I explore my interest in noticing pattern, colour and texture through video or even audio?

The only assumption I made about noticing and taking pictures at the Queen Victoria Market was that the fresh fruit and vegetables would be eye catching because of their unique textures and colours. This was definitely true and I actually found myself feeling shocked at how pink some of the potatoes looked (never thought I would be shocked by a potato). But when I was able to slow down my movements and not feel overwhelmed by my surroundings, I was really able to notice details such as the colour and smooth skin of the potatoes or the unique purple netting texture that contrasted against the yellow and green toned mangoes (not sure what they are so I’m gonna go with mangoes even though I feel like that ain’t quite right). I was definitely not expecting to find some of the more random objects that the Queen Vic Market stalls sell. The wigs were instantly something I noticed because they just seemed so out of place to me but also the extreme variety of different textures and colours was what also drew me in. Being a pescatarian, I found the meat section of the market really confronting but I still tried to notice and found myself drawn to the patterns of fish scales and even the text and signs stores use to advertise their product.

From looking over Jacky’s media I can’t see any major differences in our noticing and collecting practices yet. I know that pattern, texture and colour are elements that I immediately notice which is evident in my images whereas I think Jacky’s work often showed a bit more of the environment. But I think that this is mainly due to the environments we took our images in so I would be interested to see what Jacky noticed and took images of at the Queen Vic Market and vice versa.

Looking over the images I’ve taken I’m really reminded of the Patrick Pound exhibition and how he chose to display such random and contrasting objects and photographs with one another. When I compare some of the images together the only common thing between them is that they were taken at the same location, so I like being able to look at them and notice other similarities between such diverse objects like the similar brown colouring in a watch wrist band and the brown tones in some of the wigs or the same pink shades in the plastic bag on the ground and potato skin. This task has definitely reminded of the Week 1 Mason reading in which he said ‘we need to be selective in order to survive’. I’m thankful for this task because it continues to enforce Masons idea to me that humans physically can’t notice and take in everything because it would be too overwhelming. Therefore I’m learning that it’s not a bad thing to just stop and try and focus my attention on something as random as vegetables and that I don’t have to notice every single thing around me. So I think Pound’s interest with such a wide variety of subject matter and objects like the cat scratching pole and Masons notion that being selective is necessary have framed this curiosity for me that is paying closer attention to areas and objects in my everyday life. Masons ideas have also reminded me of a quote from the documentary The First Monday in May, in which someone said “seeing too much is seeing nothing at all”, with this whole idea of the beauty of simplicity becoming very interesting to me.

After each taking our pictures, Jacky and I spent last Wednesday’s class showing one another what we had noticed in one another’s area. I really enjoyed getting to see what Jacky had created in an area I frequent so often but don’t make the effort to stop and appreciate. One of the main things I noticed in Jacky’s images that I think was common in both of our pieces was a contrast between old and new. In the Degraves Street area there is so much old architecture and all of the modern graffiti and art really stands out. Similarly I found it to be the same case at the Queen Vic Market as the structure itself is quite old and traditional and some of the buildings on the outskirts had quite dated signs however the product being sold within the market was things like fresh produce or iPhone cases. One of the things I do notice in the Flinders Street Station entrance is the pink subway tiles that line the walls but by seeing them in Jacky’s images I was really able to appreciate their perfection and also notice how many other geometric shapes occupy the area like cylinders and rectangles. I also really noticed the lighting in the images and how it created a sense of visual direction for me. I really liked how Jacky took the time to notice the art that was being displayed in the glass windows. The jewellery was so delicate and detailed and had quite a contrast to the grunge environment of the Degraves/ Flinders Street environment. We both felt that both of our images had similarities of focusing in on smaller details and lighting.