Howard Gardener Five Minds for the Future explores the necessity of the five minds that humans will need to adapt in order for the race and human being as whole to survive. These minds each differ from each other and ultimately combined together are a whole well rounded person. These future minds are as outlined by Gardener:

1. The Disciplined Mind- mastery of major schools of thought and of at least one professional craft.
2. The Synthesising Mind- ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and to communicate that integration to others.
3. The Creating Mind- capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions and phenomena.
4. The Respectful Mind- awareness of the and appreciation for differences among human beings.
5. The Ethical Mind- fulfilment of one’s responsibilities as a worker and a citizen.

These minds are the cornerstone of the future human being and it is largely influenced by the willingness and necessity of learning and education, whether this be via traditional forms of education. Or via other methods such as peers and parents and of course the media. The media is a major and highly influential driving force within todays society but as it is ever going at such a rapid rate it can only influence our minds more and more. Gardner’s approach in my opinion is understandable as I feel that these ‘minds’ are what people of today are trying to achieve but his thoughts on the way education is being utilised to achieve these mind goals I believe are sound. That we should be educating our students in all areas not just academic specific ones. Allowing them to be tolerant, scientific, artistic, respectful and conflict resolvers will ensure that these five minds are achieved and the future image of a human is painted.

Howard Gardner, 2007, ‘Minds Viewed Globally: A Personal Introduction’ in Five Minds For the Future, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, ch.1.

This weeks reading was focused around the idea of time, work and how technology plays into the whole equation. It highlights the way the innovators of the time thought that technology would take off and predict the way it would be like in todays age. They also believed that we as humans would use technology in a way that made our lives easier and allowed us more of a work life balance by reducing the hours that we worked. However, Wajcman goes into great detail of how technology has in fact done the opposite of what we thought it may have.

The writer highlights how technology has sped up the way of life due to its accessibility, convenience and unrestricted time constraints. Upon completing this reading I can understand where the writer is coming from. The fact that technology was invented to make our lives easier which in a way it has as we have the ability to do so much more and enables us to multitask with precision but on the flip side it has blurred the lines between work and life time. We are now consuming and working with media in a supposed ‘down time’. Although we have not reduced in work hours we have allowed it to filter into our personal lives but this did raise a question in my own mind. Has the description of personal life changed? Although we consume media in our downtime a lot of it is aimed at social and easily/relaxed consumption such as Facebook and online shopping. This differs from the email which includes actual work. Overall, I enjoyed the reading but thought it did focus on the way we use technology for work and didn’t include enough the type of activites we consume.

Judy Wajcman, 2015, ‘Finding Time in a Digital Age’ in Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, ch.7.

Cal Newport’s The Clarity of Craftsmanship was enlightening to read. It really focused in on the age old question of whether or not you are truly sufficed in what you do ? It did not answer the question however, but it did provide one with the tools to have a successful career and the passion for that comes later. It forces you to focus on the craft rather than what the craft can give to you. By comparing two mindsets, ‘the craftsman mindset’ and ‘the passion mindset’ Newport highlights the key differences between passion and making passion happen.

The craftsman mindset focuses on becoming so good at your craft that people can’t ignore you. It suggests that if your continuously bettering yourself within your specific field then you will succeed. His uses of famous comedian Steve Martin highlights the usefulness of this mindset. He explains that Steve did not try to recreate comedy in the way it had already been done but rather worked and reshaped his own style over a decade suffering from chronic anxiety attacks to even begin his career but when he did he was the most successful.

The writer compares this to the mindset we mostly take as humans. Whether or not this is due to our laziness but the passion mindset is the mindset that the craft has something to offer you. That if you have a passion for it then it will come to you.

I really resonate with this reading because in the media industry particularly one needs to be focused and always on top of the craft because if your not you will fall behind. Also if you sit there waiting for that magic and lucky opportunity to come along it will only lead to unhappiness. One has to work and work to perfect their skills so employers and colleagues can’t look away from you.

Cal Newport, 2012, ‘The Clarity of the Craftsman’ in So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work, NY Business Plus, ch.4.

Upon completing the reading for this week I felt a sense of fear but excitement. The fear I believe directly correlates to the realities of the media industry. The author speaks of the low, unfair and frankly unethical pay that media freelancers in particular recieve for their hard work. But I am also excited to be part of such a talked about and current industry. By examining relations between formal and informal economies, Lobato and Thomas offer a refreshingly fresh and important way understanding all aspects of media from production to even media history.

The books comments on the media worker being overused and cheated due to the eagerness of young hopefuls. This really resonates with me particularly because of the generation I am apart of. We are a generation who want everything now and the idea of working up the food chain so called doesn’t sit well with a lot of us. That is why the informal economy of freelancing and working for yourself is becoming so popular. However, for the others who believe that hard work will get you far are being taken advantage of. Their aspirations and hard work are being exploited and we are getting drained too young.

Overall, I didn’t love this reading but was able to connect with a few aspects and issues it was dealing with.

Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas, 2015, ‘Work’ in The Informal Media Economy, Polity Press, Cambridge UK, ch.3.

Bibliography

1. http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/07/20/going-360-jacob-s-creek-invites-wine-lovers-their-vineyards

This article is based around the use of 360 degree film in advertising for companies and business. The reason it interested me was how it was used with a local company to Australia. This showing that 360 film and the VR experience is becoming prevalent within the community we are immediately impacted by and also the outreach it has globally. The crux of the article highlights the possibilities that Jacobs Creek had when creating the experience. They were able to release the videos over six parts. Each part focusing on a different experience

“At each point in the experience, on screen graphics will offer the viewer information about the varietals, history, and location in relation to the wine in the bottle, adding a new level of depth and flavour.”

By narrowing in on the particulars of the separate wines and their magic it really immersed the viewer into the world of Jacobs Creek. This highlights how this new innovative technique is being used not only to advertise products but to actually take people on a journey with the product. To feel it experience it even if they are thousands of miles a way.

The immersive nature and accessibility of the technique and product allow complained to show off themselves in ways that would have once never been possible but now they are able to simply use platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to market themselves and give there consumers and experience that other companies may not offer.

2. http://www.int-arch-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/XXXVIII-5-W16/69/2011/isprsarchives-XXXVIII-5-W16-69-2011.pdf  (Peer Review)

This paper is highlighting the use of 360 degree film in the way we experience place and in a roundabout way the art form of the VR immersive experience. The paper focuses on bringing to life a ruined church and allowing people to experience how it may have been when it was standing. Through the use of historical photographs, green screen and design the writer was able to ascertain how the church may have looked and felt. However, the purpose of the experiment I suppose was to allow people to actually understand the tonality of the church in the time it was active. The writers particular and major interest of 3D animation and film led them to the idea of 360 film as tool to launch the report into an innovative new platform of experience. The report actually goes into great detail of the mechanics of 360 film and the way it works however understands the story of what the writer is trying to portray.

The idea of the church highlights the meeting of history and new media and education and new media. Allowing humans to physically exist in a virtual world that at one point or another existed. The conclusion of he report highlighted not only the technical requirements to actually prepare a 360 immersive experience but the way the audience guided the story within their own minds. By giving this agency to the audience it highlights the importance of reality and the seamless feeling that needs to be present for an audience when creating it.

3. http://m.thenational.ae/arts-life/film/dubai-filmmaker-clyde-desouza-explores-the-reality-of-virtual-cinemas-great-potential

4. http://www.outsideonline.com/2101386/rex-ready-fly

This weeks reading centralised around the idea of E&M (Entertainment and Media Industries) it looked at the geographical nature of the industry and the way it is evolving and remoulding to new wave ideals. The aspect of the reading I found to be most insightful was the idea of the location specific markets. We live in a world of global companies and products that are accessible by a lot of the western civilisation particularly. However, the reading highlighted the importance of local content and how it had the ability to define the particular E&M industries within the particular countries.

Although some of these ideas may seem contrary to the outcomes of our course I believe it is important to understand that we must look locally as well as globally and take into consideration sociatile preferences. The reading also talked about the rising prevalence of the aggregator and how companies can use this idea to benefit them. The importance of our interests and networks within one space is becoming extremely important especially to the younger generation as they have access to so many options on the web. By opening up to this idea even traditional media companies can continue to thrive by getting information to people in a more digital friendly way.

The final idea I took from this reading and found rather interesting was the use of E&M in advertising. It spoke of the idea that new media platform are opening up avenues for companies to use that is alternative to the traditional “big idea” companies. The data being collected is more specific and tailored. This is interesting in that what is it that we can expect for future advertising with traditional companies needing to work harder to win business if there are other cheaper and more definitive options such as Google and Facebook? Overall I like this reading and the messages and ideas it explored it is starting to make more sense the idea of the future of new media.

In the lecture this week we had guest lecturer Astrid from ABC R&D. I found her talk insightful and exciting to see the way that the media landscape and humans interaction with media is shaping up in the current time. She spoke of new media that I haven’t really heard off such as the holographic experiences and the smart fridges. It gave me some really interesting ideas and thoughts when it came to approaching Media 6. When we broke out into separate groups we brainstormed further into the three headings and there sub headings.

My group had a – immersive and wearable’s. This is media that is able to be experienced all around. One becomes a part of the medium rather than simply consuming it. As per the attached pictures they were rather interesting in deciphering new ideas such as advancements to health and allowing people to understand the data they are receiving. In addition we thought of all round experiences with driverless cars allowing the monotony of driving to become an interactive and technological journey. We also weighed in on the risk of these types of media such as laziness and losing our sense of humanity to the media machine. We emphasised the point that we must move forward but still remember the foundations of who we are as humans.

Upon completing the reading for this week there were several details that I was left perplexing over. Who are we? Where are we? but most importantly where are we going? Technology as a transport system and convenience tool has been rampant and rapidly growing for several years but as humans we have, whether we felt it or not had some form of control over it. As a result of this reading this may not be the case in the not so distant future. Schwab comments on the various ways that technology is evolving and the completely unimaginable tasks it can preform from 3D printing to even assigning treatment for cancer sufferers. It is with out a doubt that the human race particularly the new generations depend deeply on the speed and convenience of the heights of the technological and digital realms.

However, have we thought of how we as humans, not machines are going to evolve with it. His comments on these new technologies, are supported with a an in depth caution, that we need to continue to be the consumers and actually not become consumed. Schwab’s particular comments on the effect that the cloud and the digital world have on our jobs interested me the most. It made me feel almost insecure that we will soon essentially relinquish our employee rights for ease of access and be happy to willingly do so.

Overall, the comments that Schwab makes about the impending industrial revolution are not cynical in anyway but rather cautionary to the way we as humans interact with it. That we should not lose our sense of self and humanity at the whim of the now traditional computer.

• Extracts from Klaus Schwab, 2016, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (World Economic Forum), pp.14-26, 47-50, 67-73, 91-104.