Thursday the 5th of April- back at uni after the mid-sem break and getting ready to dive into the next assignment. I couldn’t make it to the last class and so part of today’s class was focused on getting the group-less people (me) into groups. While I’m sure my group will function really well together, I do find it a pity that I didn’t get to form a group through brainstorming like the rest of the class (my fault for not being in class though). Anyway, Hannah divvied us up by what stage of project work we enjoyed or disliked the most. I said I’d be happy to do anything- partially because I am indecisive and partially because I do enjoy almost every part of project work.
I was put into a group with Antonia & Jackson. Antonia likes production, Jackson likes post-production- and I like planning and reflection, and so on. Our time together on this day reminded me there is a stage of production that I don’t like- the initial search for an idea. I’ve always found open-ended assignments with no topic restrictions/guidelines to be very tricky initially, as there is a vague, uncertain search for an idea. So often, all ideas become slippery in your hands- impossible to hold down, explain, pinpoint and develop. Or, you realise they’re just not what you need. Anyway, we cycled through a few ideas.
One was initially a loose idea of making a documentary about an underground group in Melbourne. Unfortunately, this was about as far as this one went. Jackson mentioned the street artist (not group) Sunfigo, While I liked the idea, underground groups/artists are underground for a reason. I don’t think it would be very achievable to find and contact any group, let alone be allowed to interview them and craft a documentary, in a few short weeks. I do like the concept though.
We talked about a few other content ideas, including shedding the light of the effect of a recent Melbourne hail storm that wrote off people’s cars and damaged car dealership stock. Again, an interesting idea but I was worried about the point of it. Hannah has spoken about not worrying about having a ‘point’ or meaning of your work, but I think I need to have some understanding of why we have chosen any specific topic, in order to dedicate myself to it.
We’ve decided to dedicate the weekend to brainstorming a topic, and hopefully, we will feel more confident by Monday. Then hopefully the content will inform the deisgn/form.
Steph Milsom came in for the rest of the class, showing us her diary film and her books of personal data. The books to me were mindblowing! Just the idea of your internet presence and your whole digital identity (or “digital footprints“), represented in all of these novel-sized books. I don’t know if its the contradiction between internet and book, or the fact that you forget how many crumbs we leave behind us on our path through the internet, but the books were really fascinating.
It reminded me of an article I read recently, in which the author speaks of a friend who was embarrassed about an interview she has completed (with the author) that was published online a year earlier. She found it hard to identify with this “version” of herself, represented on the ‘net, but ultimately recognised that it’s a flagpole in a time of her life that would have otherwise passed her by unnoticed. I empathised with this sentiment, as when we looked at some of our Facebook information that we had entered into our profiles years ago, I thought, “this isn’t me!” To be fair, I think a lot of it wasn’t even ‘me’ back then. I know this is a digression from the data side of things, but it’s just an interesting note on how our trail of internet data (both explicit- photos, likes, posts, and hidden- the searches, numbers, history) tells us a story of an evolved self.