THE UNDERGROUND

Howard Gardner’s ‘Five Minds For The Future’ uncovers how we as humans need to understand the ways in which our brains develop overtime through the growing and nurturing with time by our side. In his chapter ‘Minds Viewed Globally’, he outlines his ‘five minds’ that one has come to find.

• The disciplined mind: which ‘knows how to work steadily over time to improve skill and understanding’.
• The synthesising mind: the ability to decipher material or information from various places and sources .
• The creating mind: that goes hand in hand with innovation.
• The respectful mind: the power to acknowledge another human being whilst respecting them at the same time
• The ethical mind: uncovers how we as individuals cash better the human race

Gardner underlines education is pivotal in developing not just ourselves but the people around us, that lives at the peak of preparing people for their futures and thus, the education system should be doing more to include these ‘five minds’ into this curriculum. Kids are finding harder and harder to retain information where my group discussed the rise of slow media as being a fundamental importance to adhering to the past, and remembering the present for the future. We as humans only remember and take in five minutes of information a day which makes it extremely difficult for children as young as eight who are now nurtured with an iPhone in one hand whilst a Television lingers in the foreground. The fact is technology is crippling our current generations, what we have to figure out is to establish a healthy, ‘slow’ minded education system that effectively utilises technology in a positive manner for kids of all ages. Gardner comments that: ‘at the start of the third millennium, we live at a time of vast changes’. Hence, I think that education needs to change with the times and educators should not be afraid of these changes. IN effect, we have to look towards countries such as Germany who have been renowned for their education system as a become for the western world that nurtures and guides children to in a positive learning capacity.

When hiring, Gardner delivers the belief that employers should be basing their decisions on the ‘five minds’ whilst searching for individuals who have these five pillars embedded in their way of thinking. Thus, teachers need to be helping students to grow these five minds, so that they will be eligible for the jobs of the future.

Judy Wajcman’s ‘Finding Time in a Digital Age’ discusses the idea of time and how we today live in what she describes as an ‘accelerated’ society. She characterises technology‘reconfigures’ time and suggests that we ought to recognise that time is a man-made creation, its source a machine: the clock. Although machines were made to save us time and make work/production more efficient, they have in fact done the opposite. She alludes to time contributing to “the unparalleled velocity of computerisation, telecommunications, and transport, which was expected to free up human time, has paradoxically been accompanied by a growing sense of time pressure” For instance, a computer is a component that was meant to ‘save’ us time, in simple areas such as word processing. This kind of technology was supposed to leave room for more leisure time in our lives whilst becoming a pillar for the new modernised democratised free world. However, it has in fact conjured up a blurred line between work and play, because these kinds of technologies have intruded on our home lives. The ability to work from home, as a result of advanced communication devices, has allowed employees and employers to design their own business hours (rather than sticking to the traditional 9-5 office hours). We are now as they say, mixing business and pleasure through a computer screen and an IPhone. We are unfortunately stemming a generation and future generation where a single assignment will take hours, double the time it should take because the word ‘procrastination’ is now being embedded into every and any excuse. People are now able to work as little, but more significantly, as much, as they would like to. Wajcman has found that people are now working more than people were during the first industrial revolution, even though they are actually far wealthier. Wajcman believes that this is because the western, capitalist society that we live in ‘…inflames our insatiable desire for consumption of goods’. I do agree with her argument where today the capitalist mindset of working hard, and being rewarded for this in the form of success, has given rise to the idea that we can’t enjoy our leisure time for the sake of leisure. In the end, Wajcman asserts that the unemployed have been demonised  in society, as they are perceived as ‘time-wasters’ – a fact that i truly believe today.

The week 4 reading looks at Cal Newport who discusses both the craftsman and passion mindset of a human being. Newport begins by highlighting how the craftsman mindset focus on what you can offer the world, as the passion side of a person alludes to what the world can offer you. Newport refers to Jordan and Martin who deem that we may further favour the craftsman mindset. Jordan believes it is critical if people can establish something meaningful and present it to this world – the work itself doesn’t lie, what work you did will directly show your ability. This is the people who have a craftsman mindset, they are willing to practice, attribute, also they are enjoying in the process.

Newport’s second rule is quite intriguing and one that I dispute. It suggests that you should never question whether your job is your passion or not, instead spread that focus into becoming really good at the job. I understand that we will encounter jobs in our lives that we don not like and employees around us they we do no get along with, yet there is the belief that one cannot be stranded, going through the motions and one day waking up with an epiphany asking why have you been living a life that fails to install you passion and satisfaction in the work that you do.

The Craftsman mindset enables people to ignore the self-centered concerns, and instead keep finding a way to make them more effective. As Martin said, “don’t always want to know what is the concrete way to be successful, we just have to be so good others can not ignore. No one owes us a good career, we have to earn it”.

Lederer and Brownlo ‘s article titled A World of Differences looks at the ever-changing role of Entertainment and Media Companies (E&M) where as the market continues to evolve, E&M Companies are now battling issues of declining price power, disinflation, and the trend toward free media that is proving to be challenging for the media market. Despite economic growth being stable for the past year, the $1.7 trillion business is unlikely to continue to hold its ground through to 2020, yet this dynamic, diverse industry is ensuring countries flourish with in this landscape that is “multi-shifitng” today where E&M spending is growing more rapidly than GDP.

The article begins to dissect the revenue across E&M that is steadily shifting from publishing business to video and Internet business. The figures show direct consumer spending models remain strong whilst spending on Internet access, including mobile data rivals advertising. These transitions that come under the bracket of powerful macroeconomic, technological, and social trends intend to produce “counterintuitive shifts” with the biggest of these shifts occurring in five dimensions of the global E&M landscape.

(i) Demography – the study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human populations. Younger consumers adopt new consumption behaviours and their startling ability to multitask in different media. These same attributes allow them to lead the way in setting trends and driving consumption in E&M markets around the world.

(ii) Competition – The reinvigoration of a mantra from the 1990s  “content is king,” in an important yet widely overlooked shift, the duo believe that content will reign supreme as platforms seek to differentiate and expand internationally.

Along with Schwab’s three main landscaped of the technological drive that he deciphered into three distinct trends (physical, digital and biological), he soon discusses ‘The Nature of Work’ where the “dominant worker paradigm is a series of transactions” between the employee and employer. By using reference to Daniel Pink’s Free Agent Nation, the trend itself has been accelerated by technological innovation where the on-demand economy is ultimately effecting our relationship with work and the social fabric which go hand in hand.

In todays workforce, an on-demand economy is seeing a shift in the job description of the employee where independant workers are contracted to perform specific tasks. As Arun Sundararajan put it in an article in the New York Times by Farhad Manjoo, “We may end up with a future in which a fraction of the workforce will do a portfolio of things to generate an income”. This idea that that a human being will undertake a variety of jobs is subsequently happening today where your average Uber driver is also an accountant or school teacher looking to generate another form of income in a society where the cost of living is ultimately going up on a yearly basis.

The human cloud itself is becoming a huge winner for both the employer and the employee. For the latter, the main advantages reside o the freedom and the unrivalled ability to choose when and where to work. the so called job stresses that has plagued the workforce since the beginning of time is today being immune from such issues. For the former, companies are reaping the rewards as the workers are classified as ‘self-employed’ so they are free of the requirement to pay minimum wages, employer taxes and social benefits. Daniel Callaghan from the Financial Times declares in todays market, “you can whoever you want, whenever you want, exactly how you want it. And because they’re not employees you don’t have to deal with the employment hassles and regulations”.

My Role for the exhibition prior to the event was to outline and reflect on my groups experience and journey throughout the semester. By analysing what ‘Absentia’ achieved in the 13 week period and how we ultimately reached our overall goal, my job was basically give an overview of our year and of our project via a blog post.

Even though i did not have a set role to play on the day of the exhibition, i did however manage to help pack up some of the rooms at the close of the proceedings and after the presentations were witnessed in Building 80, i along with other members of Film For Writing took it upon ourselves to sit down in the designated ‘FFW” room and go through the footage with the other students of the cohort. One by one, we told passes by of our progress throughout the semester, the challenges we faced, and more importantly, what we achieved and what we learned throughout the thirteen weeks in class.

As previously highlighted, the artefact i contributed for the exhibition was the blog post that was on behalf of ‘Absentia’. Hopefully this provided a thorough assessment of our year and how the concept evolved overtime in the class. IN addition, i also collaborated with Arthur in the making of the ‘Absentia’ poster that onlookers viewed on the day of the exhibition.

 

The characters in Absentia showcases six different corners of Melbourne that attempt to highlight six various cultures, lifestyles and ultimately, personas that make up the bulk of the series.

 

From the bright lights of the city, to the quite serenity of the suburbs, Absentia showcases a versatile backdrop that deploys Melbourne as a unique foreground character in itself that depicts the lives of Jack, Brittany (Jess), Ingrid, Jenny, Max, Thannassis – and Hitch (the linking protagonist).

 

In effect, the various surroundings that out characters find themselves placed in conjures up common themes such as friendship, love, adversity, loss of identity and finally, the struggle of fitting in – something that most Melbournians and non-Melbournians can relate too.

 

When discussing of an idea when we first met a s group, Paul came up with a  concept  similar to the UK tv series “Skins” of an Anthology Series that could be watched in any order with the viewer still able to understand the concept or the story line no matter what. We eventually drew inspiration from shows such “Orange is the New Black” that utilised the anthology structure.

Moreover, one thing that Melbourne seems to be lacking is having a show that highlights the uniqueness and cultural characteristics of our city –  a market that had not been tapped into yet.

In effect, we all decided that to create a TV series of this particular genre, we would have six or seven different characters from all across Melbourne that would details the various surroundings and environments, with the city being its own persona or if not character in the series.

 

Therefore, we have six characters from different walks of life that embody a different part of Melbourne in their own unique way that all connected by a common theme – death.

 

It was important for us to create a series independent from linearity
 -if someone was to start the series at any point; there’d be no confusion.

Therefore, the following had to have been achieved:

 

-Adapting non-linear sequence by eliminating any dependency on time

– Allowing the audience to watch the series from any particular order without it being confusing or misrepresented.

– Creating a pilot around Hitch’s funeral, an opportunity for all 6 characters to assemble in one location and for us to explore the ties that will be delved into in future episodes

-A series finale collaborated by group as collection of each protagonist’s favourite/last memories with Hitch

– Maintain consistency of language and writing style, Paul put together our scenes into a full episode script

-And finally providing a series gives closure to each protagonist in final episode through reminiscence of what’s been lost.

 

With universal themes of love, friendship, death and loos of identity, Absentia is a product that many people from Melbourne can relate too.

 

In effect,  Absentia is subsequently a binge series that would be suitable to a product such as Netflix. the ability for consumers to watch as many episodes as they want in any order possible was an appealing factor before we began the collaboration process, a factor that in todays world, people want to watch a series wherever and whenever they like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The series as a product can attract a wide audience range from teenagers to even members of the Baby Boomer generation. coupled with a variety of different genres and Melbourne as the backdrop of the series, Absentia would be a potential series that would satisfy a majority of different age brackets and classes of society.

With universal themes of love, friendship, death and loos of identity, Absentia is a product that many people from Melbourne can relate too.

In effect,  Absentia is subsequently a binge series that would be suitable to a product such as Netflix. the ability for consumers to watch as many episodes as they want in any order possible was an appealing factor before we began the collaboration process, a factor that in todays world, people want to watch a series wherever and whenever they like.

From a character point of view, protagonists such as Maxy are easily relatable to consumers especially members of Generation Y. the environment that he finds himself in highlights one of the many cultural sides of Melbourne that makes the city so unique. the Melbourne nightlife is one of the most unique sights in the world and is heralded as a pioneer for not only culture but also music. Music undoubtedly a universal theme and one that can be utilised by Absentia – an aspect that details how music has shaped Melbourne and also the problems that it can also behold such as the ongoing drug culture. Absentia will unlike other Australian TV shows outline these undeniable themes that continue to be overlooked by producers of film.

-important for us to create a series independent from linearity
-if someone was to start the series at any point, there’d be no confusion
-adapting non-linear sequence by eliminating any dependency on time
-from consultation with Jasmine, also important to establish the protagonists in pilot episode
-allow audience who DOES watch the series from start to end to see the connections between characters and relation to character in absentia
-decided to create pilot around Hitch’s funeral, opportunity for all 6 characters to convene in one location and for us to explore the ties that will be delved into in future episodes
-as head screenwriter, Paul steered the conception of this episode
-episodes following; Max (Julian), Britney (Vania), Ingrid (Paul), Jack (Darren), Jenny (Tristan), Thanassis (Arthur)
-series finale collaborated on by group as collection of each protagonists’ favourite/last memories with Hitch (or in Thanassis’ case, grandson Ben)
-maintain consistency of language and writing style, Paul put together our scenes into a full episode script
-series gives closure to each protagonist in final episode through reminiscence of what’s been lost