David Shields’ way of writing in fragments makes me think of a compilation of Twitter tweets or Facebook statuses. Little fragments of thoughts, observations, thinking-out-loud rants, and ideas.
Category: Noticing
what is the blog teaching me?
The other day in class we were thinking about why we blog, and I thought to myself, “what is the blog teaching me?”
Louis said that his blog is like “training wheels”. That sounds right. But what is it training me, specifically, for?
For now, the only answers I have is that it’s training me to think clearly and articulate thoughts better. Don’t we all struggle with speaking without thinking? Now, I take time to think, ponder and then properly word them. I think the fact that my thoughts can be read by others humbles me – the reader comes to know me through what I write; what I think about. And perhaps, some will have the same thoughts as I! And perhaps it sparks some ideas in their own minds and goes on to becoming something great! To think of the opportunities one of my thoughts may have just because it’s out there!
and, perhaps nothing will come of it. well, that’s okay.
a quantitative more
I will read more –> I will read and be able to comprehend at least 10 pages a week. I’ve been taking more time reading so I can understand and relate to what Bogost and Rushkoff says, and taking notes.
I will blog more –> I will blog at least once everyday. I want to blog about meaningful things. Things that would be of worth recording and reading. But perhaps that’s not what noticing is about. Noticing is just about… noticing. Not filtering? I thought I got into a habit of it, but this week has been full on.
what matters?
- What qualities did you notice that matters?
I guess what mattered most to me was what Adrian thought of my work as he’s the one assessing it… He said he liked the blinking light as it showed time really well, (someone else also commented on the blinking stop light) and the train footage probably because it provided some consistency to the visuals.
He said to trust the image to say it’s own thing more – the visual telling it’s own account apart from the one the audio is telling. Thinking about what the camera cares about; light and framing.
He said it was clever but also not clever enough; not literal enough. How can it be more literal and not be a direct image-to-word composition?
**A large percentage of it was talking about how the camera matters. Giving the camera agency – to let it take time to focus, to let it see, to let it follow the lights, to let it frame or cut out parts, etc. - What feedback would you give your own work?
After watching a few of our classmates videos, I would say that I could improve my video by speaking more confidently and loudly. And using more expression in my voice – I know I have a monotonous voice already, and wasn’t really comfortable hearing my own voice replayed (and I could have asked someone else to read the script for me so there was no excuse..) I personally feel like I should have added more shots in to there could be more a greater variety to the visuals that went with the script – someone feedbacked (fedback??) that some shots were too long and unnecessary. Also, I should have explained or edited the visual in a way so that it was clear that the black and white visual was what the watch was seeing because it doesn’t have any colour. I feel like everyone’s work would seem more impressive when we knew the explanation or thoughts behind how and why the author made it that way.
how do we compile these into what we do with our next assessment??
reveal.revelation
My post-prod thoughts on the first assessment here. Today we critiqued a few videos and received feedback on it.
Here are some information people wanted to know more about it:
- Where does the baby come into it? I was thinking about how the watch was saying that it doesn’t remember it’s first heartbeat – or first second, minute, hour that it showed when it was made “alive”. And used the footage of a baby in reflection of how I can’t remember my first heartbeat either – or first memories for that matter. (side note: why do we forget? I’ve written before about the brain, but now even more questions come up…)
- More about your relationship with your watch. I could have done better playing with the relationship we have from my point of view and from the watch’s pov. I tried to in the sense that the watch was speaking so separate from me, and very robotic. Because watches don’t have emotions or feelings. I could have described how I feel towards my watch more so that it’s more obvious when we go to the watch’s perspective on it’s life that it doesn’t feel anything with regards to me being it’s owner.
- More about time. I would like to know more about time myself! But this video/audio clip was about a watch.
- Why is your watch a boy? I don’t know. I decided this based on whether or not the female voice sounded nicer – and it was not.
- More about the watch’s personality. I suppose I could argue that it doesn’t have one, because it is just a thing. But that could be my naive assumption and self centred-ness.
lo-fi
“Because it is lo-fi the emphasis is on getting all the steps done and once the work is finished to then think about what it is, and what it does.”
what is my assessment?
a video, an audio track, an object. I think it can be summed up as a depiction of putting the watch as the centre. The watch’s connection to the train it goes on, and the people that look at it. The watch cannot tell or know if it is liked or not. (unlike how we can tell when a dog likes us) The watch’s experiences; being put on, going outside.
Also, other thing’s connection to the watch because they can relate with each other; because they have similar experiences. Like the audio and the visual of the dog – “I could see so much more if she put me on the outside.” The watch wants to see more but view is blocked because it’s on the inside of the wrist. The dog can see outside, but only what’s through that screen door.
What does my assessment do?
for who? for me, I think it helped open my eyes to other connections my objects are having. It helps me understand that things can have similar experiences and be connected that way just like how I am connected to my friends because we went to the same thing together that one time. It helped me notice what was around me more so I could film it or take a picture. (I never noticed that the pedestrian crossing lights flashed one a second or that my neighbour had a dog.) Hopefully it will contribute to a good grade at the end of semester.
for others, perhaps it gives a good laugh. I know some of the watch’s POV angles are unflattering for me. And not to mention my voice. ugh. I frankly don’t know what it does. will it inspire another? will it change the world? hahah who knows!
at least it gives my watch a voice. if only for a minute.
correlationism
Martin Heidegger said “beings exist only in human understanding”, and I’ve been really pondering that this week. Is he implying that if we took ourselves out of the map everything else would not be go on relating and having their own connections without us? The dog would no longer have legal rights for there would be no humans to make and enforce them. I guess a whole ton of ‘relation lines’ would disappear because we are no longer there to relate to things. Does that mean that other things need us to be connected to another thing? Do objects need us to be the middle man?
Eg. The dog has a line drawn linking it to the dog park. But that relation is only made possible because we exist and we bring the dog to it. If we weren’t in it, the dog would never have a relation with the dog park?
But then Bogost goes on to reject correlationism to say that we are a necessary chain, but that we are not the centre or beginning or end of it?
Noticing silence and sounds
dichotomy
isn’t it interesting that we asked how casual the blog can be i.e. asking how much freedom we have with what we post, but then also ask if we can have a prompt/template/criteria of what our blog posts should be i.e. asking for restrictions?
do we want to be free or controlled?
I think I should blog because…
- “I need to get it all out. So write about it so that I can focus my thoughts on everything we’ve learnt and talked about. So I can understand myself. So I can sieve through it all to figure out what’s important, what interests me and what I give a hoot about. So I can have a record of what’s been going on and how I feel about it.”
- “No idea. It’s scary putting my private thoughts (my brain’s secret concoctions!) out into the world where everyone can see. Why should everyone see my blog posts? Can’t I just share it with the class and Adrian like a private Instagram account? – or is the publicity of it ensuring that I am being responsible and keeping my thoughts in check?”
- “I have to. I want to.”