Category Archives: Theories and Philosophy

Exploring

Posted on by under Culture, Life, Networked Media, Theories and Philosophy

Pumping blood. Photo: David O

Thanks to Elliot for his fantastic idea of organising the student blogs into tutorials on his blog. As a result of this I have been able to do some exploring of the blogs belonging to my fellow classmates. Something that caught my eye was Prani’s post about rape culture and how society handles the issue. What she discusses is the way in which we as a society teach women that they are at fault, that it is their responsibility to protect themselves from rape. This is a perfect example of single-loop behaviour in action. Rather than trace the issue back to its foundation, we choose to notice the fault and create reactive measures, instead of attempting to resolve the roots of the problem. As a society in contemporary times we have a tendency not to speculate the future, or think about longevity. Our whole culture is based around our knowledge that we can build things and create ideas that are disposable or reactive, rather than behaving in a proactive manner and thinking about how things can be used into the future.

It’s hard not for us to act this way, we’re surrounded by disposable plastic containers and packaging. We’re accustomed to buying products that have a one year life (the life of a standard warranty most of the time, it’s not a coincidence that they break just after the warranty expires). We’ve been brought up to believe that their are unlimited resources, or more importantly that we can continue to harvest and consume, because there will always be another resource to take it’s place (Well, our generation at least). It’s no surprise that we’re depleting our valuable minerals, such as petroleum. I myself have tried to step out of the overconsumption chain, and have begun making choices that are based on the future. (Like buying this fantastic leather briefcase. Made of natural materials and has a 100 year warranty. That’s not something you see every day.) Buying for the future is not all of it though, even more important is thinking for the future.

Back to the main point – this example of rape culture – ties in exactly to  what we’ve been exploring in Networked Media. There is an ideology in society that women are not safe on their own – especially at night. There is a narrow-minded point of view towards the idea of rape, that it is somehow the fault of women. When we criticise women for walking home alone, or dressing in sexually alluring clothing, we don’t stop and think about trying to resolve the issue completely, or improve society’s attitude towards women. We simply put in reactive measures (ie, those “How not to get raped” classes Prani mentioned). Issues like this bring to perfect light the fact that society as a whole needs to change its behaviour, and begin to function in a manner that is more embracing of the future, and double-loop learning practices. As Adrian has said, we are a single-loop learning society. Speculation, adaptability and proactivity are words that spring to mind once again. They’re the sorts of thought processes and actions we need as a society in order to advance and prosper.

That was long and rambling. Some interesting issues were discussed. Some I’ll elaborate on further in future blog posts – I’m big on the idea and study of overconsumption and that sort of stuff – others, perhaps might be explored and discussed by my peers in the future. We’ll wait and see.

Answering Questions

Posted on by under Networked Media, Theories and Philosophy

Questions. Pondered. Answered. But not resolved. Photo: Ethan Lofton

Well, I think Adrian indirectly confirmed the answer to part of my questions posed earlier this morning.

Which way is it going? It’s going down. Is there hope? We are yet to see. As Adrian pointed out, Traditional media isn’t doing anything right. It’s not adapting, or becoming contemporary media. It is what it is, traditional media, and it seems that the place in todays society for it is smaller than it has ever been. Sometimes, admitting defeat, or being wrong is something that needs to be done. Traditional media is wrong. It just needs to admit it and materialise into something more than traditional media if it is to survive.

The biggest and most powerful bodies don’t always live the longest (Have a look at these guys for example, in comparison to their buddies). Resilience, adaptability and innovation are skills and practices important to survival. Traditional media has always been about power, sure some innovation in its invention and introduction, but primarily power. And Control. Those who don’t think they can lose control will lose it in the end.

Notice This

Posted on by under Theories, Theories and Philosophy

 

No nothing in this yard. Photo: Alist

As Researching Your Own Practice acknowledges, noticing is something necessary, as well as reflection, in order to behave and think in the best manner possible. In personal life, career life and education, noticing is something that most people don’t notice. Notice that is, that noticing is something we take for granted and don’t exercise complete control over.

So it’s simple, isn’t it? Just take more notice of your surroundings and your actions, your thought processes. But it’s not that simple, as John Mason discusses:

“Noticing itself is something that happens to us, not something we do deliberately, or at least, not something that the deliberate and conscious parts of us can decide to do. You can “decide” to notice some thing or some feature, but it may or may not happen.”

So what can you do? Discipline yourself and exercise your capabilities to notice and pay attention to detail. Mason suggests activities and exercises to practice and hone your senses. Theoretically, it makes sense. Put into practice it definitely helps to increase alertness and attentiveness to your environment and your own thought processes and methods.

For me, I am a perfectionist. I pay an incredible attention to detail that most people do not. I often catch people off guard, or surprise them with a specific detail or notion that I’ve stored in my brain. An example? I regularly attend AFL games (Richmond ones of course, I’ve been a member for 2/3 of my life) with my father. My father is a seasoned football spectator, but I notice everything around the ground, the movements of players, habits, action behind the play, injuries that occur, the whole lot. I often catch him off guard when I bring something to his attention.

“Look Dad, Daniel Jackson’s been hit in the head!” Maybe not a perfect example of noticing a minor detail. Photo: The Age

Noticing things in your environment is something, but noticing your own practice is something else. I also feel like this is something I excel at. I understand and notice how my brain works and the habits that I have. Personally, I feel competent in comprehending my behaviours, the only problem I have is committing myself to and creating a solution. Now this is another issue entirely, but it also comes back to noticing. Because to identify this issue and amend it, I have to take notice of it.

Well the problems have certainly been identified. It’s up to me to continue to develop my problem solving abilities and thinking strategies in order to enhance my practices and methods.

Learning never stops, we keep learning for the rest of our lives, so I might as well keep an open and active mind and try and make the most of it.

 

 

 

Brain Behaviours

Posted on by under Theories and Philosophy

Elizabeth Henry was kind enough to share her brain. I’m not sure who she is, but the credit goes to her.

I’m an anxious person. Adrian got me thinking. I’m also a terrible manager of time. Thinking about our default behaviours and defensiveness. I’m also abhorrent at organisation. See a link? I see it, I see it all the time and I’ve seen it many times before. Why don’t I fix it? Well, I try. But strangely enough it never works.

You see, I also have lacklustre commitment capabilities. Whenever I try and fix it, I give up. Generally though, it’s because something puts me off.

So, I take a few weeks and really endeavour to manage my time better and organise and plan my activities. I write things down, get everywhere on time and generally try and avoid any situation that will cause any sort of disorganisation, stress or anxiety. It all works great. Until I have to organise or plan something that’s anything bigger than a menial daily task. Because when I plan an activity that’s of any importance to me, it makes me anxious. Then I revert to my default behaviour.

Now I’m in trouble. I try and put it off. I try and get away from it. I’ll try and ignore it. Then I become unorganised, because at the last minute, I’m forced to rush (Assignments; for some reason that word comes to mind) after putting it away and out of my mind.   

From there, everything goes out the window. Then my brain thinks it’s best to simply avoid organisation. But then I get anxious from being rushed all the time. It’s a vicious circle. Bad habits are hard to snap out of. There’s something more to it.

Maybe I just have to commit myself to change better and become more adaptable. Easier said than done.

The Significance of Networks

Posted on by under Networked Media, Theories, Theories and Philosophy

A Network. Photo Credit: Porter Novelli Global

Here’s another RSA Animate about Networks, taken from a talk given by Manuel Lima, a senior UX designer from Microsoft Bing, which I think could really help conceptualise the idea of networks, where they originate and why they are so integral to modern society, knowledge and technology.

While all the concepts covered in this video are useful and worth considering, I think the take away idea from this, is that all the knowledge and everything in the world is interconnected in some way via a complex system of networks. It is useful to think of knowledge in this way and to apply this logic to ourselves, especially as we prepare ourselves for entry into a work force that requires and promotes multi-skilling and creative thinking.

Here’s some more information on The RSA: http://www.thersa.org/about-us

 

 

Design Fiction

Posted on by under Networked Media, Theories, Theories and Philosophy

Startling Stories from the land of fiction. Photo: G. Crombrugg

Design Fiction has an important role to play in learning and enhancing our mind’s ability to adapt and create in the present and future. It can best be described, as Bruce Sterling said in this interview with Slate.com, as: “the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change”.

While this idea has been around for a while and has played a major role in the Sci-Fi genre over the years (Think 2001: A Space Oddyssey), the idea of incorporating design fiction in a pedagogical (educational) sense is something that is relatively new. There seems to be many arguments for utilising this sort of design in education. It teaches students the fundamentals concepts behind design, rather than teaching them the skills required to design. With these concepts, students are capable of designing and constructing medias and ideas well into the future. This is a perfect example of equipping individuals with the ability to adapt to change and any skills or disciplines they wish to partake in, rather than simply teaching them a skill-set that must be advanced when it expires, or is replaced by new technology.

Networked media at RMIT seems to allign very closely to the goals and reasoning behind design fiction. It’s obviously something that Adrian has looked into and watched closely.

After reading Matthew Ward’s, “Design Fiction as a Pedagogic Practice“, there was one point I took away that really stuck with me. I think it’s something that is important in all aspects of life if one is to be creatively free and possess freedom:

“1. All design is ideological

The social, cultural and political basis of those ideologies need to be exposed, interpreted and explored. In DF the ideological drive is laid bare for all to see. Deconstructing the economic and political underpinning of design is an essential skill to develop.”

The deconstruction and analysis of ideologies allows a proper understanding of why people act the way they do and why the world operates in the way it does. Understanding this allows you to break free of these boundaries and the shackles that are chained to your wrists and feet as a prisoner of society, and with this comes extraordinary creative freedom and possibility. That is not to say that ideologies are not important parts of society. They are. It is impossible to live without ideology. But it is important to understand and explore the possibilities that ideology presents.

Adrian Miles and Networked media aren’t the only things heading in this direction though. In my second semester (1st Year) at RMIT I have already been exposed to this idea of exploring and interpreting ideologies through the class Communication Histories and Technologies.

Aside from this idea, the other message that I am absorbing is to freely experiment and speculate. There’s no way to be innovative and creative without the freedom to speculate or explore new and untested ideas. There is a certain element of risk that needs to be accepted if one is to be creative.

The future of media and communication professionals seems to be pointing in a direction based around this sort of education and schools of thought. The people of the media will have a greater mental capacity for creativity and design that has never been experienced in such force. I’m excited to be part of this movement.

 

 

 

Education Systems

Posted on by under Theories and Philosophy

Sir Ken Robinson at the Creative Company Conference. Photo: Sebastiaan ter Burg

Earlier this year, Ashley Perry, co-ordinator of Communications and Social Relations at RMIT introduced me to Ken Robinson’s theories of education and creativity, through this RSA animated lecture video.

Not only do I think what the RSA have done with this lecture and a number of other lectures by academics and experts around the world is a great method of communication, but the topic of this lecture by Ken Robinson in particular is also very relevant and powerful in relation to my life and the lives of others I know.

To start off, Sir Ken Robinson is a world renowned expert in education, creativity and innovation, he has been involved in numerous international education projects and a number of organisations over the years.

 

Here’s some more detail if you’re interested in Robinson himself:

Sir Ken Robinson’s bio: http://sirkenrobinson.com/?page_id=10

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Robinson_(educationalist)

 

I’ve followed Robinson on numerous social media sites and have watched a number of his talks and presentations since seeing this video clip, and his theories and ideas make more sense each time.

Personally, creativity is something that I used to have redundant amounts of. After going through high school, that creativity was greatly diminished and replaced with superfluous amounts of knowledge that could be memorised and called on if needed in an assessment. While I’m not saying I learnt nothing from school (this is not true at all), I am positive that my own creativity and problem solving ability was stemmed as a result of the public education system.

It is interesting to conceptualise a public school running differently, using alternative methods of teaching, introducing the kinds of concepts that Robinson talks about frequently. Sure it would take a lot of work and it would be a difficult project to get up off the ground rapidly (our current education system has been built into our genes and culture for years), it could definitely work. The only way that this is going to happen however, is through action.

Upon entering my Bachelor of Communication (Media) at RMIT, I didn’t really know what to expect from Networked Media. Now that I understand how it operates, I am thrilled to have a chance and opportunity to take advantage of a method of education that is less about inequality between student and teacher and more about promoting creativity and knowledge. It’s an exciting prospect to think that this sort of education could eventually become wide spread, and while it’s not a complete reform to traditional tertiary education, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Robinson also takes part in TED talks, a concept developed by the organisation TED. They publish all their organised presentations and talks online and promote discussion and critique of the content through online forms.

 

Here are two of his talks which are well worth a watch if you’re interested in creativity and education in any way:

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution!

and

Sir Ken Robinson: How to Escape Education’s Death Valley

 

 

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