In what ways do you hope your exhibited work (whether individual or group produced) engaged its audience and communicated a key concern of the studio?  

My main hopes for my final exhibited work is viewers find it both informative and poetic. I aimed to create something that didn’t contain an overwhelming amount of information, a sense of hopelessness or that all is lost, but to create something that would perhaps enlighten the viewer. For those in my class, I know many of us weren’t familiar in the term hyperobjects, and I can only assume people outside of Climate Changing Media would similarly be unfamiliar with it. I wanted to bring light to something viewers may not consider. In doing so, I intended to be poetic and attempted to create something emotional, yet powerful.

Imagine you are going to keep working on that media piece (e.g. to screen it somewhere else like a festival, or develop it in to a different kind of work, and so on) – what would be the core things you would want to improve and extend and why? 

The core aspects of my project that I’d ideally like to improve include the quality of content and editing, as well as finding access to greater footage (or shooting my own). Although I liked my concept, I’m aware my execution was not as great as it could’ve been. Ideally, if I was able to work on this project more, for a greater purpose (besides being an assignment), I’d aim to spend a greater amount of time on finding and creating the right footage that illustrated the narrative. I’d also hope to focus greater on the editing. Realistically, I was pretty lazy when it came to editing, and I can’t help but wonder if experimenting with different techniques and styles would add greater value to the work and make it more successful in being both poetic and informative.

Reflect on an aspect of two other students/group’s media work on the website in terms of specific insights they produced about a key idea addressed by the studio? 

Louis Boffa: Out of sight, out of mind

Louis’ video on the irresponsible disposal of electronic waste honestly left me lost for words. The use of no musical score his work added a greater level of depth and sense of poetic-ness to the video. Without accompanying audio, the realness and rawness of what sounded like dietetic sound, the video became extremely immersive and powerful. I felt encapsulated and stunned by the visual material, and the lack of musical score allowed all my focus to be on what was in front of my eyes. Providing the imagery of how our electronic waste poisons those who are surrounded by it only further pushed an emotional connection. Louis was extremely successful in creating something poetic and was able to demonstrate just because we don’t see where the waste goes, doesn’t mean it doesn’t go somewhere.

Our Fashion Will Outlive Us – Cristina Ulloa Sobarzo

Cristine’s project on fast fashion and the waste it produces was informative, useful and most definitely provided me with a sense of guilt for my contribution to fast fashion. Understandably, in a capitalist society, it is difficult to not be contributing to such a detrimental industry, however, Cristina’s video highlights how we can move away from capitalist ideals and structures put into place. Whilst providing statistics, information and visual imagery of how much waste our clothing produces, Cristina is able to provide viewers with knowledge on a problem they may not quite understand or be aware of. Rather than taking a hopeless and ‘we’re doomed’ approach, Cristina encourages viewers to shop more sustainably, to be more aware and to steer away from consumerism. I found the video inspiring, motivating and encouraging to become more conscious of my consumption when it comes to fashion and clothing.

For the other studio website you engaged with, describe a key idea that you think the finished media/studio work communicated with reference to a specific example (i.e. a particular individual/group work).

I was assigned ‘Alternative Mobile Media’ as my studio to reflect on. After reading the description, I gathered a sense of understanding as to what the studio’s focus was, and what assignments would look like. I attempted to look at a number of the works, but I found a fair few were unavailable, requiring access to a Google Drive file. I opted for for ‘talkative’, a project by Caitlin. The aim of the app is to ‘transcends language, culture, race and geographical location’, and to ease communication through the applications instant translate feature. Targeted mostly towards migrants, the app hopes to make the transition to moving internationally easier, allowing for more communication and connection to their new home. Allowing this broader communication and breaking down language barriers greatly adheres to the studio’s focus on ‘the necessity of broadening the understanding of alternative mobile media is all the more crucial’. I thoroughly enjoyed scrolling through this studio website and understanding the mobile app industry. Caitlin has definitely been successful in communicating the key ideas and values of the studio. Alternative Mobile Media most certainly seems to be an informative and creative studio, and although not being something id personally considered looking into, I can understand how bringing light to mobile media studies is crucial in the media circuit.

In what ways do you hope your exhibited work (whether individual or group produced) engaged its audience and communicated a key concern of the studio?  

My main hopes for my final exhibited work is viewers find it both informative and poetic. I aimed to create something that didn’t contain an overwhelming amount of information, a sense of hopelessness or that all is lost, but to create something that would perhaps enlighten the viewer. For those in my class, I know many of us weren’t familiar in the term hyperobjects, and I can only assume people outside of Climate Changing Media would similarly be unfamiliar with it. I wanted to bring light to something viewers may not consider. In doing so, I intended to be poetic and attempted to create something emotional, yet powerful.

Imagine you are going to keep working on that media piece (e.g. to screen it somewhere else like a festival, or develop it in to a different kind of work, and so on) – what would be the core things you would want to improve and extend and why? 

The core aspects of my project that I’d ideally like to improve include the quality of content and editing, as well as finding access to greater footage (or shooting my own). Although I liked my concept, I’m aware my execution was not as great as it could’ve been. Ideally, if I was able to work on this project more, for a greater purpose (besides being an assignment), I’d aim to spend a greater amount of time on finding and creating the right footage that illustrated the narrative. I’d also hope to focus greater on the editing. Realistically, I was pretty lazy when it came to editing, and I can’t help but wonder if experimenting with different techniques and styles would add greater value to the work and make it more successful in being both poetic and informative.

Reflect on an aspect of two other students/group’s media work on the website in terms of specific insights they produced about a key idea addressed by the studio? 

Louis Boffa: Out of sight, out of mind

Louis’ video on the irresponsible disposal of electronic waste honestly left me lost for words. The use of no musical score his work added a greater level of depth and sense of poetic-ness to the video. Without accompanying audio, the realness and rawness of what sounded like dietetic sound, the video became extremely immersive and powerful. I felt encapsulated and stunned by the visual material, and the lack of musical score allowed all my focus to be on what was in front of my eyes. Providing the imagery of how our electronic waste poisons those who are surrounded by it only further pushed an emotional connection. Louis was extremely successful in creating something poetic and was able to demonstrate just because we don’t see where the waste goes, doesn’t mean it doesn’t go somewhere.

Our Fashion Will Outlive Us – Cristina Ulloa Sobarzo

Cristine’s project on fast fashion and the waste it produces was informative, useful and most definitely provided me with a sense of guilt for my contribution to fast fashion. Understandably, in a capitalist society, it is difficult to not be contributing to such a detrimental industry, however, Cristina’s video highlights how we can move away from capitalist ideals and structures put into place. Whilst providing statistics, information and visual imagery of how much waste our clothing produces, Cristina is able to provide viewers with knowledge on a problem they may not quite understand or be aware of. Rather than taking a hopeless and ‘we’re doomed’ approach, Cristina encourages viewers to shop more sustainably, to be more aware and to steer away from consumerism. I found the video inspiring, motivating and encouraging to become more conscious of my consumption when it comes to fashion and clothing.

For the other studio website you engaged with, describe a key idea that you think the finished media/studio work communicated with reference to a specific example (i.e. a particular individual/group work).

I was assigned ‘Alternative Mobile Media’ as my studio to reflect on. After reading the description, I gathered a sense of understanding as to what the studio’s focus was, and what assignments would look like. I attempted to look at a number of the works, but I found a fair few were unavailable, requiring access to a Google Drive file. I opted for for ‘talkative’, a project by Caitlin. The aim of the app is to ‘transcends language, culture, race and geographical location’, and to ease communication through the applications instant translate feature. Targeted mostly towards migrants, the app hopes to make the transition to moving internationally easier, allowing for more communication and connection to their new home. Allowing this broader communication and breaking down language barriers greatly adheres to the studio’s focus on ‘the necessity of broadening the understanding of alternative mobile media is all the more crucial’. I thoroughly enjoyed scrolling through this studio website and understanding the mobile app industry. Caitlin has definitely been successful in communicating the key ideas and values of the studio. Alternative Mobile Media most certainly seems to be an informative and creative studio, and although not being something id personally considered looking into, I can understand how bringing light to mobile media studies is crucial in the media circuit.

Prompt 10: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lauren-bisignano/2020/05/29/ccm-prompt-10/

Prompt 11: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lauren-bisignano/2020/05/29/ccm-prompt-11/

Prompt 12: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lauren-bisignano/2020/05/29/ccm-prompt-12/

Microcycle from Media Factory on Vimeo.

This project has undoubtedly been challenging. Getting started was my biggest challenge. I felt as though I didn’t have a clear direction for my video. I was unsure of the structure, exact tone and style I wanted to take, leaving me distressed and confused as to where to begin. Over a number of days, I gradually watched, read and researched microplastics, hoping understanding them deeper would give me some clarity. I watched a number of informative videos on YouTube, some of which I ended up taking footage from, and began shaping ideas for my project.

Understanding them myself

I had a moment when watching footage, where I saw this tumbling tube of plastics, it reminded me of a washing machine cycle, and in that moment, the idea of demonstrating microplastics became my vision for the project.

Trying to find footage of microplastics proved to be quite difficult. Many of the videos on microplastics predominately used graphics, words or someone talking to the camera. It took a lot of diving through to find all the footage I collated, and I certainly had moments where I questioned the constraints I chose. Not allowing myself to use any news footage was quite difficult, considering much of the available footage of microplastics was used in news programs.

Making climate media can be a challenge, finding the balance with emotions, and how to manipulate human response in a positive way. Nurmis highlights the stress and understanding of creating thought-provoking images and narratives that inspire change (Nurmis, 2016). Although my piece isn’t partially political, in my media making journey it’s been crucial for me to consider my tone and approach. An article by The Conversation discusses how the way we talk about climate change affects the way people think about it (Hendricks, 2017) and how this alters the reaction and response to climate media and climate issues. Emotion plays a crucial role in media, whether it is climate-related or not. Climate media, however, has a responsibility to play with these emotions in a way that provokes change and recognition of climate issues. My goal for my project is for viewers to leave from watching the video, and truly consider their use of plastic and how we as humans have built an inescapable cycle of plastic consumption.

My project illustrates the cycle of microplastics, and how they go from large pieces of plastic we use daily, to ending up in our diet. Timothy Morton is most commonly associated with studies of these ‘hyberobjects’, Morton reads ‘we find ourselves inside them, part of them yet not part of them’ (Morton, 2013), which ultimately defines what microplastics are. We are not these microplastics, yet we are in a society in which they are ingrained. Microplastics have become so normalised in product production, and we gloss over them despite their extremely detrimental effect upon our eco-systems and own health.

In the end, I think I was successful in creating something informative, and although I had severe doubts about my abilities, in the beginning, I believe I successfully created a piece of poetic climate media. Without using text, voiceover or news content, I was able to create something that visualises the cycle of microplastics. My project may be simple, and the editing may not be anything special or creative, but the most important aspect for me was educating viewers on the normalisation of microplastics and their consumption.

Reference list:

Clark, T. (2015). The Anthropocene – questions of definition. Ecocriticism on the Edge : The Anthropocene as a threshold concept.

Hendricks, R. (2017). Communicating climate change: Focus on the framing, not just the facts. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/communicating-climate-change-focus-on-the-framing-not-just-the-facts-73028 [Accessed 29 May 2020].

Nurmis, J. (2016). Visual climate change art 2005-2015: discourse and practice. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 7(4), pp.501–516.

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Written over the course of a week: A journey in making microplastics poetic.

The researching and collating video content for this assignment has undeniably been difficult. I’m unsure if it’s my lack of motivation or general frustrations with the current circumstances, but I’m finding it quite difficult to find the ideal material.

I’ve really been taking this process day by day, some days it’s easier to find footage and edit, and other days it feels as though nothing looks right and all sense of direction is lost. Through creating this project I’ve been chatting with Elizabeth, we’ve definitely guided each other a little bit in this process and it’s been really beneficial having a peer (and friend) to reflect upon my work with. Just small check-ins to see how the other is doing have been reassuring, and a great reminder I’m not the only one lacking motivation.

Much of my footage has come from YouTube, however, ‘Pexels’ has been a really useful site when searching for shots more appealing to the eye, and often of a higher standard. I at first thought I’d check out ‘Artgrid’, a website I’ve seen advertised for having an abundance of footage available easily. The website allowed you to download clips for free, however, they came with a watermark straight in the middle, and to download the footage with no watermark, I’d be expected to pay $450 for a years licence – yeah no thanks! 

I’ve been searching for a variety of content, including fish, seafood, plastic in use, plastic waste, microplastics, the ocean and sea life. These videos, in a particular order, allow me to demonstrate the journey of plastic, into microplastics, into our environment, and to human consumption. Rather than being extremely explicit in my project, I’ve opted for a more subtle approach. Instead of blatantly describing the journey through speech and text, I’ve allowed the visual material to speak for itself.

Piecing together the video hasn’t been as difficult as I thought. Once I found a structure to my video, it came into place quite easily. It was just a matter of tedious edits, some colour grading and searching for the right audio. Often when it comes to media-making, especially with video content, I tend to get a sense of rhythm, flow and structure once I get into the work. The video came together easier and easier as I continued to edit. 

I wanted to create something that illustrated the cycle of plastics into microplastics which we then consume. I definitely surprised myself in creating something I find both informative and poetic. I doubted my ability to present information without using voiceover or textual work, but I feel as though I’ve definitely achieved some form of education through my work.

Gary’s reflection on my presentation has most definitely been useful. Going into this project I was quite unsure of how exactly to approach documenting microplastics. Gary provided really useful quotes and information from sources he found himself – which I greatly appreciate!

Gary suggested having a specific approach in regards to microplastics. Microplastics are so embedded in our eco-systems and society and it would be hard to cover everything in one video alone. I won’t lie, right now I’m still struggling to decide upon what would be the best focal point, I’m leaning slightly more towards eco-systems, such as sea life which ingest and are poisoned by microplastics.

When it comes to my media making, I have a tendency to alter things as the process goes on, so my focal point could easily end up changing as I produce my work. As for the constraints I chose, I am really struggling with the ‘no voiceover’ aspect of one of mine. I rely quite heavily on articulating my thoughts and ideas through speech, and with something like microplastics, I feel it’s really difficult to disclose information through a video without just blatantly using text.

I want to create something beautiful and poetic, but I’m beginning to think that might be a bit ambitious with the constraints I’ve chosen. Ideally, I want to stick to these constraints and challenge myself, but with challenging yourself comes stress and anxiety, which I try to avoid in media making. As challenging as this might be, I know working outside my comfort zone and working harder to obtain my goals will ultimately benefit me a creative and in my media making.

Prompt 7: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lauren-bisignano/2020/05/11/ccm-prompt-7/

Prompt 8: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lauren-bisignano/2020/05/11/ccm-prompt-8/

Prompt 9: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lauren-bisignano/2020/05/11/ccm-prompt-9/

My presentation on Microplastics: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aBzJwRVqFvM7-gZ_7gHcVSnBWDwa1BEwLH3bbJsvw4g/edit?usp=sharing

The final part of Assignment 3 is to present on your chosen hyperobject, as well as reflect on a fellow student’s presentation. 

For this task, I’ve been assigned Gary, who’s hyperobject of choice is Landfill.

As Gary mentioned in his presentation, the topic is quite widely known and recognised within climate media. Although the topic is widely known , Gary provided a deeper insight into the topic, breaking down what sorts of waste contributes mostly to the landfill on our planet.

An interesting part of Gary’s presentation though was his focus on Landfill in China. I honestly don’t have much knowledge on waste and landfill outside of Australia and I’m certain many of our peers are the same. I think this would be a great opportunity to focus on and educate others who may not search this information out themselves. If wanting to find a comparison to the waste industry in Australia, the ABC series ‘War On Waste’ is great for understanding the Australian waste industry and the development of our landfill.

I definitely agree in using a video format for this task. I think one of the strongest parts of climate media is imagery and providing visual stimulus. With something like landfill, visuals would be greatly useful to demonstrate and illustrate the extent of it. As I said earlier, the focus on Landfill on China would be really great to see visuals of if possible. I’m genuinely quite intrigued by the Chine governments approach to tackling their waste problem.

As for the style of video, I do think a documentary like video could work really well. Especially in educating viewers about something they might not be aware of. Documentary can be both informative and poetic, and if you utilise the right audio soundtrack and visual material, you could certainly create something really beautiful whilst also being educational.

Overall, I thoroughly Gary’s presentation and can see a clear amount of effort and interest in his hyper object of choice. I’ll be really interested to see the final product and what route he decides to take.

When it comes to this assignment I’ve undeniably been struggling. Deciding upon which hyper object to focus on has proven difficult when I still find myself struggling to fully comprehend and understand what makes something a hyper object. I eventually decided upon microplastics, something about the word stood out to me as I felt I hadn’t seen it very much throughout this course and in general climate media.

This absence of discussion is what has motivated this project and research. I spent hours watching videos and reading articles about micro plastics, what they are and how deeply they’re effecting our eco-systems and human health. I think what has saddened me the most in this research, is realising just how much we’ve complicated our lives with the mass production of plastic. We’ve created a vicious cycle in which I can’t see us escaping. We can slow down the production of plastic, but with how much already exists both in our eco-systems and in our lives, it feels like soon we’ll be drowning in it. We have so much microplastic coming back into our bodies from the ocean, whether it be in our seafood or salt. It feels as though there is no escape from being consumed by plastic. The worst part is that we did that to ourselves, and yet, knowing how detrimental plastic is, companies still choose to mass produce plastic rather than more sustainable materials.

When it comes to the presentation, Im not entirely sure where I’m headed. I’m honestly still figuring out what my approach will be to making media about microplastics. Ideally, I’ll make a video of sorts. What I’m struggling with most however is the approach to take, whether I look to be more informative, or reflective and aesthetically pleasing. There’s a lot of information and a lot to be said about microplastics, so condensing it down into one 5 minute video isn’t entirely easy.

The cycle idea is something that’s stood out to me a lot through researching, and I think somehow using a circular/cycle motion could work well. I also want to really stress how important it is to recognise just how detrimental micro plastics have been and will continue to be to us, eco-systems and sea-life. If I felt I knew little about microplastics, I’m sure others out there don’t have a clue what they are, where they are and how much of them is.

500 words that respond to the weekly readings. Your response needs to indicate critical engagement with the texts – not just a blow-by-blow recount of it. One way of doing this is to pick out a KEY INSIGHT or IDEA, and to explore / explain that, in relation to other media you’ve encountered that relates to the topic. You should reference the text in your blog (RMIT Harvard Style), and if you quote it, you need to cite it correctly. 

Molly Wallace’s It’s the End of the Field as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) takes the work of other climate scholars to illustrate the ever-changing field of climate literature and academia. Wallace highlights the significance of scholars and students in teaching and understanding climate issues and the ability it has of constituting activism within society (pg. 569). A common idea discussed throughout Wallace’s writing is the concept of more direct activism. To my understanding, it’s as though we need to be stronger and directer in how we approach climate media and action. However, an issue which often appears in climate media is balance in how ideas and motivations are directed towards viewers.

Aggressive and complex forms of media only result in audiences becoming fearful, scared and confused. An example of what we may call ‘bad’ climate media, is Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation. The emotive language, intense imagery and overall panicked and fearful tone instigates a lot of troubled emotions for readers. Vice even published an article about just how detrimental the paper had been to readers. You can find the article here: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy.

It’s undeniably to difficult to understand the best approach to climate media and creating discussion and understanding of our array of climate issues. Wallace quotes fellow academics Greg Garrard and John Lanchester in explaining our reluctancy to think about global warming, as we’re worried we won’t be able to think about anything else and room for other thoughts will be lost (pg. 573). This fear of simply thinking about climate media makes room for much dismissal and ignorance to the issues we face and are part of. The refusal to become educated and aware of Anthropocene’s and Hyperobjects, which we face daily, becomes problematic and will prove to have lasting effects on humanity. Fear is an emotion we as humans prefer to avoid, fear can provoke anxiety, sadness and confusion, all emotions with great negative connotations. The climate, however, is not something we can not dismiss or place at lesser value to our own emotions. The planet we live in, society and life that we live and breathe in is all affected by the state of our planet.

This fear of damaging and harming the planet is something unavoidable. It’s important that we come to terms with as Wallace puts it, ‘doing what we fear’ (pg. 573) These simple mundane acts of driving, using technology, buying clothing and so on all contribute to one climate issue or another. It is not to say we should go about our lives because it is ‘too late’, but, we should recognise how integrated damaging the planet is. We have the capability to recognise our wrong actions and alter them to be more sustainable.

Activism should be direct, but should not attack. Climate media should come with good intention and a desire to educate, rather than purely to instil fear and anxiety within viewers. As crucial as an emotional connection to the climate is, the manipulation of audiences will only do harm to the mediascape. Correctly educating, informing and guiding others to understanding is what matters most in climate media and activism.

References:

Bendell, J. (2018). Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy. [online] Available at: https://mahb.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/deepadaptation.pdf [Accessed 11 May 2020].

Tsjeng, Z. (2019). The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It’s Sending People to Therapy. [online] Vice. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy [Accessed 11 May 2020].

Wallace, M. (2017). It’s the End of the Field as We Know It (and I Feel Fine). American Literary History, 29(3), pp.565–578.