Back to the importance of blogging. Our grades alone will not get us the job. it is the things that we do outside our academic schedule that reflects our character and ability. Eg. Activities like volunteering, shows that someone is compassionate . We need to keep reading and writing. the more we know about it, the bigger the topics get. Blogging helps us to understand- summary of our reading and class, reflections etc

Trails in media- thinking about it, talking about it and doing something about it. the thicker the media trail you produce the stronger you are going to be. the more we can demonstrate our skills set, the more we are more valuable in the industry. I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries lately, and i’ve been taking down notes unknowingly as I watch these documentaries. These notes allow me to reflect and think, I scribble down a list  random things from interviews, quotes and other observations. It is easier for me to remember.

ideas don’t come to matter until it becomes a thing. when things do things they become actors. gravity and time does things in their own way

I guess blogging helps to stay on the right track, with such a dense and complex studio, I find it a struggle to understand. At one point, I thought I was on the right track and at some point, I felt very lost..

I just watch two different life changing and thought provoking documentary: Cowspiracy and Minimalism on Netflix.

All my life, I’ve been thought living life the wrong way. What is a successful life? Back in Singapore, we were taught being successful- owning 5 Cs. Condominium, Credit Cards, Country Club and Cash. When you achieved these 5 Cs, you are considered a successful person. These 5 Cs were influenced by the American dream. We were taught to climb this corporate ladder, to make as much money as possible so that we can buy whatever we want- own bigger house, bigger car and if you are successful enough- own a bigger yacht. This American dream is killing our our planet and the environmental system, it is causing climate change.

1. Fast Fashion

We are too materialistic in the everyday sense of the word and we are not at all materialistic enough in the true sense of the word. We need to be true materialists, like really care about the materiality of goods. Instead we are in a world in which material goods are so important for their symbolic meaning, what they do to position us in the status system based on what advertising or marketing says they are about.- Juliet Schor

We are throwing things away not because it is no longer usable but because it no longer has social value of it is no longer fashionable. Fast fashion means higher demand in consuming goods- getting the latest trend fashion clothes in store and getting the last technology product. For example- how often an average person change their mobile phone, probably once every 2 years when our contracts end. We change our phones not because our phone is not working, but because of the way the telecom company advertise to sell their products.  We upgrade our phone whenever our telecom company tells us to ( the agency doesn’t belong to us!)

Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but what one owns- Jimmy Carter

2. Meat consumption

I was shocked to learn that animal agricultural is the no.1 cause of pollution. Did you know that Methane has a global warming potential 86 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame? and cow produce 150 billion gallons of methane per day. 2500 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of beef! More facts on animal agricultural pollution here 

We cannot handle the demands of our overpopulated world and everything is changing. Food microbiologist are experimenting different ways to substitute food. Food isn’t the same anymore, i guess we will reach a point of time where food is not real. Let’s take milk for example- right now we have soy, almond, rice milk to substitute cow’s milk. I read this somewhere, I cant remember where but if we don’t stop pollution, sooner or later, we will be starting climate war where countries goes on war for resources.

Why am I blogging about this? Because everything that I was taught was a big fat lie. The American dream is not working. people are consuming more things to fill their discontentment. We work our ass off to buy expensive things that we don’t need or things that will go out of trend in a short period of time. This whole system about life is wrong and we need to look at life at a different perspective. We need to rewind and rethink the definition and meaning of things to make it right or rather to make things better. Which links to the purpose of our studio, using different techniques and approach to learn the meaning of an object all over again. To find a different connection, meaning and metaphor of what it could do. Looking at things with a different perspective and reworking things on this fast changing world. Because the world is never fully right, there isn’t just one way to do things or one way to live our lives. There are different methods and relation to things around us.

Before watching these 2 documentary I thought I would never make it big or earn enough money in the film industry. I considered changing industry, a more corporate establishment so that I can earn a steady income. I was wrong. If I could ever produce documentaries such as Cowspiracy and Minimalism, I think I will be contented with my life.

This is probably my longest post.

Saw this interesting video, the video is split into 2 section, different items/scenario but somehow they are common and relatable at one point. maybe this would be the outcome if we allow our units operation to flow rather than limiting and controlling them. Definitely something to work on for our next submission.

Chapter 4- Complexity flux and webs of connection 

Finally a reading that is not as complicated. I actually enjoyed reading this, this would be the perfect piece for our individual essay. A very good summary of what we’ve learnt in class so far.

Frankham discuss the poetic approach to documentary which is frequently characterised by an openness of form. The use of montage that already extends beyond purely narrative connection and in light of its potential to grant access to range of perspective. The montage technic is similar to the list.

Below are more examples on what a list could do

-The application of a list-like structure has facilitated space for paths of connection to be reimagined thereby creating more complex and nuanced interpretations of the material.

-The list can motivate individual processes of synthesis and provide the means for documentary to embrace fragmentation, provisionality and complexity

-The list can also inspire thought that follows the structure of memory, impulse and flases of association. The structure of the list acts as mnemonic device that helps us to recall what we have already seen in the linear presentation of material.

-With the list , the possibilities for structure are not necessarily occurring in a linear manner.

-The list becomes a way of reshuffling the world, almost putting into practice Tesauro’s invitation to accumulate properties in order to bring out new relationships between distant things and in any case to cast doubt in those accepted by commonsense ( Eco, 2009)

-Each item on the list can trigger a sense of memory, an imagining , a concurrence or a questioning

The outcome of poetic approach- The audience is freer to choose and be more active in the process of reading the work- possibilities for new metaphors, understanding and concepts.

Week 07, Thursday

We summarised individual readings in class by writing a short summary of the reading and pointing out 5 main questions we had for the readings. Adrian went through the summary of each readings and explains the importance and outcome of the readings.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I couldn’t come up with an summary of the reading but when we were given time to complete the form. I did came up with something- from my understanding. Ingold argues that life is beyond scientific constrains. His aim is to recover that original openness to the world in which the people whom we call animist find the meaning of life. He brought us back to understanding the condition of being and how to identify life by understanding animic ontology. ( Rethinking the animate, Reanimating thought)

Feedback from our project. ( Group 01)

We are controlling too much and there were hesitations in our shots. We could have explored further by allowing different agencies and sets of rules expand our image track and sound scape instead of controlling and limiting them. We are not narrowing the idea enough.

I really like one of the feedback from another student- How we could have explored projecting our archival footages on something else instead of a plain wall. We could have projected and shot it on a circular surface and instead of tracking in and out we could have rotate the camera 360. Our ideas are still very rigid, like what Adrian mentioned, we need to be a 3 years old again. The way a 3 year old explores an object, the way a 3 year old ask questions about the object.

ESSAY TITLE: RETHINKING THE ANIMATE, REANIMATING THOUGHT 

1. Why do they say that “In the animic otology, beings do not simply occupy the world, they inhabit it” (page71)
2. How can we relate primacy of movement? ” As soon as a person moves, he or she becomes a line” ( page72)
3. “Whenever there is live, there is movement” Why did they say that the sun and the wind is alive? (Page73)
4. Can we fully understand the condition of being? (page 68)
5. What is logic of inversion and how can we apply it? (Page 68)
6. Why do they say that ” Life in the animic ontology is not an emnation but a generation of being, in a world that is not preordained but incipient, forever on the verge of the actual”?
7. Why did they say that ” The environment might then be better envisaged as a domain of entanglement”?
8. How does tangle affect the meshwork in animic onotology? (Page 71)
9. Why is the weather so important in animic ontology? (Page 73)
10. Why did they say that ” The way to know the world, is not to open oneself up to it but rather to “grasp” it within a grid of concepts and categories?” (Page 74-75)
11. What is the mesh network?
12. How can we apply the primacy of movement in a mesh network?
13. What can we learn from this chapter?
14. How can we apply it in our studio and upcoming project?
15. “Whenever there is live, there is movement” Is the river considered alive? Why is this point important?
16. Why do they say that ” In the animic ontology, by contract, what is unthinkable is the very idea that life is played out upon the inanimate surface of a read-made world.”
17. Why do they say that ‘Yet along with openness comes vulnerability” (Page 74)
18. What is animic cosmos? (Page 74)
19. What is network thinking and relational perspective? (Page 70)
20. Why do they say that life is continuous birth? What do they mean by that? ( Page 69)
21. Why do we need to rethink the animate and reanimate thoughts? ( essay title)
22. What is the outcome from this concept? What should we expect?

I’ve read the essay 3 times and i find it hard to write a summary about the chapter. It is hard to connect the what the author explains as a whole. I feel that there is a lot of hidden meanings in the essay. Please enlighten me 🙁

Key and recurring word in reading: Rethinking The Animate, Reanimating Thought

Animist| Animic Ontology |Animic perception of the world | Animisim |Animate

animate

In Bogost Chapter 3

“The risk of fallinging into anthropocentrism is strong. Indeed, I’ll take things farther” anthropocentrism is unavoidable, at least for humans.”

Problems with our work-

During group discussion last week, we are suppose to choose a word from Offenburg’s audio track and brainstorm audio and visual ideas for the next submission. We chose the word “Revolution” and our ideas were limited within the word itself. Even in my essays, I feel that my work is limited because it work always falls back to anthropocentrism.

How can we avoid falling back to anthropocentrism in our work? I am finding this a struggle in our projects and throughout the studio.

I have to confess, I haven’t done much last week- was a little overwhelmed with submissions .I’ve read Bogost chapter 3 a couple of times. spent more time googling and researching on words and terms that I am not familiar with. however it is still hard to absorb these terms in noticing and in the readings.

Things I can work on. Come up with word of the week from the readings and try to apply the word as much as i can in my blogs, and noticing maybe?

As mentioned in my previous post. I’ve learned another method in essay writing, which will be useful for upcoming essays.