Symposium Mark I

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull under Life, The Unlectures

Perhaps this is what the symposium would look like if it were dumbed down and lost a bit of its creative edge. Photo: Maryland Govpics

Promising, real promising. This is what life is all about. Discussion, contributions, feedback, analysis, speculation. The first official symposium contained all of these, plus more. They’re all things I don’t do enough of. It’s really inspiring stuff. Particularly the last points made by Adrian.

It’s about the experience. We’re in an experience based world. Well, we’re not in an experience based world, rather there are experience based “things” in our world. I posted about this earlier on in my blogging career. It’s something I’d like to touch on again. I am a big believer in experience. I buy things, lots of things. I might regret it one day, but I buy lots of things that I am able to use to immerse myself in experiences. They’re material possession’s sure, but I don’t just think of all material objects in the same way. There is a line between material possessions and experiences that is met well by a number of items in the world.

Movies are one thing, books another. Both material possessions, you can collect, buy, sell, trade, keep, etc. But they give you experiences. Some people choose to repeat these experiences and keep them, treasure them. Others choose to sell them after they are finished consuming. Owning a movie to me is not just about the movie, but the packaging, the collectables, what comes with it, as well as the memories.

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies and The upcoming instalments in The Hobbit trilogy are a perfect example of this. They release numerous editions of the film. “They’re grabbing for money!”, some shout. “Peter Jackson wants a new private jet”, others proclaim. I think of immense happiness and joy. The collector’s edition Lord of the Rings and Hobbit extended edition movies are beautiful. The packaging itself is an art. But inside, the statues, work of the famous Weta Workshop, of course, are even more gorgeous.

I don’t just get a movie. I get to immerse myself in the experience of the film. I don’t just buy things that are marked “limited edition”, I want something that goes that extra mile and provides me with such an experience that the over priced tag is justifiable.

It’s the same thing as the Barbershop example I posted about earlier. I want an experience. I don’t want something disposable. I want something that will tickle my senses, evoke memories and provide me with a greater quality of life.

That’s what I took away from this symposium, more than anything. I love experiences, it seems people want that more than ever in the world. To succeed as a person, organisation, etc, we have to provide an experience.

Networked Media Marketplace

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull under Networked Media

The Networked Media Marketplace is almost as impressive. Photo: Jpellgen

Incase you didn’t see, the Networked Media Marketplace is now live. The staff and students involved in this suggestion/idea have outdone themselves. I think this is a fantastic way to get people interacting with the course and their peers, even if it’s not direct engagement. Hell, someone’s questions might even be answered. Someone needs help – they don’t want to ask in person (that’s scary) – but it’s still to scary to ask a stranger on their blog. Introducing the middle-man. The marketplace should remove those barriers, as it creates a central hub for help and assistance, without creating unnecessarily frightening personal contact.

But it stops people connecting, isn’t that bad? Well, it stops direct connection. Now there’s a location where people can go to meet their saviour, people have help to sell, they sell it. If you’re looking for help, you buy it. Once you buy it, you go to the person’s blog and check it out, then you read their other posts, perhaps they’ll contain useful content? You might get even more knowledge then you came looking for. The beauty of the network. The cost? Help doesn’t cost a thing. Except for the small cost of clicking a link, and connecting to someone else’s content on the internet.

That’s hardly even a cost, is it? Really, you don’t even lose anything. There’s nothing to lose at all.

Exploring

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull 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.

Science Vs. Creativity

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull under Networked Media, Theories

Albert Einstein liked creativity. Photo: Sofi

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the entire world. – Albert Einstein

Two age old arch-nemesis’ who have spent centuries being pitted against each other head on the in public secondary education system. Until you leave high-school you’re either an academic (primarily science or maths inclined) or you’re a creative (arts student), then when you get out of school you realise that these qualities can co-exist and that you’ve been living a lie and just wasted twelve years of your life. Well, at least that’s how the school system makes you feel. Most of the time.

So now it’s the next big thing, integrating science and creativity on a pedagogical level and in the industry. This is huge, alarming, revolutionary stuff. It isn’t really, the concept has been around for ages. Lots of scientists were also big “creative” thinkers outside of their crafts. Aside from that, science does require a level of creativity, at least when it comes to scientific advancements and inventions. But this Design Fiction stuff, this is something that’s new and innovative. Even if it’s just the scale that the ideas are considered on.

Science fiction, disgusting, isn’t that what nerds watch? How can that stuff be good for the world, it’s just a way for freaky teenage boys to get off over beautiful blue women and intergalactic princesses (Wiki’s are a wonderful thing, aren’t they). Well Not anymore (if it even was in the past). Design Fiction is the new Science Fiction. It’s professional, has integrity and isn’t based around alien species with voluptuous figures. Thanks to Bruce Sterling, the concept of sci-fi (that is speculation and creativity in regards to possible futures) is now a viable method of design and creativity, one that is increasing our human capacity for creative freedom. I talk about the basics of this here: Design Fiction.

As Simon Grand and Martin Wiedmer discuss in, Design Fiction: A Method Toolbox for Design R esearch in a Complex World, the manner in which science is treated and utilised is changing and adapting, with a interests invested in how scientific research could be used for creativity and constructive processes. Design processes are being incorporated with this idea to construct what we now know as Design Fiction, and use it to develop and research in our “complex world”.

They argue that Design fiction is a “toolbox” of methods that should be utilised in design research in order to accommodate the future needs of our world. In relation to design research and it’s relation to scientific practice and research, they identify six criteria that are considered important for the functionality of this “toolbox”:

(1) design fiction requires methods, practices and tools which allow for the creation and construction of possible future worlds, in relation to the actual world;

(2) furthermore, these methods, practices and tools must allow for materializing those possible future worlds, in terms of images, artifacts and interactions realized in diverse media;

(3) in addition, it is important to develop a method toolbox which is characterized by a plurality of different perspectives and approaches, which get beyond ideological premises and allow to map and assemble the pluralities and the multitude of potentially relevant perspectives;

(4) furthermore, these methods and tools must be able to represent, visualize and document the experimentation processes;

(5) then, we emphasized the importance of understanding experimentation as being generated through an experimental system, which implies a focus on asking a series of questions, allowing for a series of experiments, or the exploration of a series of related hypotheses. Finally,

(6) it is important to understand that these multiple methods and tools, visualizations and representations, experiments and questions, will change the design research practices themselves over time.

These six criteria highlight the underlying principles that Design Fiction is based upon and also provides a basis off which future research and creativity should rely. These ideas also form my “take-away” idea from this article.

In order to possess the most power in constructing and creating ideas, technologies and texts, possible futures and future outcomes must be established and explored. It is essential in understanding ideologies and their relations to society and its contents and to explore them until it is possible to deconstruct them and work outside their boundaries. Questions must be asked, speculations must be made in order to attempt to cover all possible futures and outcomes. It is through these questions and speculations that we can address the issues and perspectives that are important and relevant to our work in the future. Most importantly, as highlighted in the sixth criterion, is that through the experimentation, speculation and questioning that is present in design research, the actual processes themselves will change.

Adapting is an important aspect. A system established to encourage speculation and adaption must itself adapt when it’s limits and boundaries are reached.

That was heavy, dense and somewhat challenging to interpret. I think I’ve nutted out what’s truly important in context to networked media, my education, career and future.

Three Weeks of Building

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull under Networked Media, The Unlectures, Theories

The night sky is a great platform for speculation and imagination. Photo: SpeakerX

The unlecture is now sitting comfortably in its third week of running, perhaps not comfortably, but I’m hoping its going to settle. This week, I was a little disappointed, as I was impressed with the direction the sessions were heading in. The redeeming factor was the discussions and elaborations during the second half of the unlecture.

I don’t blame the unlecture for this stumbling block (although I’m not sure it was a stumbling block, more of a learning curve), I don’t blame the pessimists and haters either, it’s just unfortunate that some people are defensive towards change and won’t begin to explore and accept new horizons and possibilities.

To think that such a valuable time for learning and personal growth was spent addressing a question such as “Why should I attend this irrelevant spiel” is saddening to say the least. I was a little bit disappointed at the fact that Adrian’s response had to happen, I feel somewhat responsible, being part of the student body, but I think it was something necessary. Hopefully now after this happening people will loosen up a little and let Adrian and his methods swim around in their brains for a little while.

That’s the first really negative thing I’ve had to say about the course. That’s promising. But it wasn’t really a negative, maybe a blessing in disguise. With that in mind the discussion, by Elliot in particular, was a great platform for reinforcing what we talked about in our tutorial. That the aim of the course is not to teach a specific skill-set, but rather teach you how to learn and adapt to the new skill-sets required to exist not only in our contemporary world, but into the future and beyond.

Furthermore, the discussion from Elliot, Jasmine and Adrian about Design fiction and its relevance in our world was positive in helping reaffirm the idea of planning for the speculative future. The example of mobile phones really but into perspective just how widespread the effects and possibilities of technology can be as well as touching on exactly how different the advancements in technology could possibly be if the speculation happens during design, rather than after it.

Obviously this speculation is something that occurs, particularly with new technologies such as the mobile phone, smart phone, etc, but it is often not as liberal and free as the fictional world. This presents shortcomings and delays possibilities from becoming realities, as these new uses and methods relating to the technology are reactive, rather then proactive.

Right. That was a rather large one. I feel sound in my understanding of the concepts explored so far. Let’s wait and speculate as to what the future of Networked Media will hold for us all.

Rising Early

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull under Life, Networked Media

The world is more prosperous and beautiful in the morning. Photo: Ferdi de Gier

Networked Media has had a positive effect on my life after not even three weeks, even if it is just being able to publish and create online media more effectively. The subject has invigorated my senses and enticed me to become more actively involved in my learning, rather than playing the role of the sponge (or in this case, a sea sponge). With my motivation levels at all time highs, I am bursting with useful energy and will power to do extraordinary things, the first of which is something I have never been able to do.. Study.

That’s right, I’m one of those slackers who make it by cruising along without doing anything. I’ve tried to fix the issue before, but I have never been successful. This is different though. I’m feeling rejuvenated and energised. Regardless of other changes and possibilities, having an alternative method of learning introduced has simply increased my energy levels and made me interested in my learning.

What has this done for me? Well, I’ve started waking up earlier. I’ve started going to sleep earlier. My whole day has shifted backwards four hours. This morning I woke up at 530, and hope to do so every morning from now on. After honing in on my habits and my brain function and noticing, I realised that I do my best work in the morning. My brain is fresh and alert and has just come off a nice rest. Perfect for learning, perfect for remembering, perfect for creating. In the evenings, I’ve been through a day of trials already. My willpower is gone.

This morning, before I left for University, I managed to get done more work and note taking then I have achieved in the entire semester so far. Thinking, noticing, adapting, creating. Four things that are essential aspects of not just the world media, but life in general. That’s what I’ve got out of this so far.

Perhaps this style of learning is not for everyone, maybe it is when given a chance. It’s a kind of learning you have to want to do, and invest in. If someone else reads this and realises what I have too, then I guess I’m doing them a credit. Because it really is a positive change to life.

Here’s a bit of reading and advice that won’t go astray:

Morning and Evening Rituals

The Significance of Networks

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull 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

Trying New Things

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull under Networked Media

Look, the future is friendly. Photo: Honda News

While I am certainly not the first to jump right into new things and I know that not all methods work for everyone, the systems in place for RMIT’s networked media course are definitely worth giving a shot. From what I work out the only catch is the premise that you only get out what you put in.

Understandably a lot of people are quite apprehensive and sceptical about the concepts being introduced, because it’s not something a lot of people are used to being part of. I think the key is replacing scepticism with speculatism(?).

Who knows, maybe Adrian really is crazy and we’ll all learn nothing. I doubt it though. So far, this course has already encouraged me to push my boundaries and try new things, it’s given me a new lease of education and what you can get out of it. And it’s only week 2. Let’s hope the rewards only get richer.

The (un)Lecture?

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Patrick Turnbull under The Unlectures

Building 80. Somewhat related. Photo: Pat M

What a strange concept and idea. A Lecture, that’s not a lecture. Why don’t we just stay home? Well, Adrian is a very convincing man, he’s got me. I’m very convinced. I am someone who has done well in the current education format in Australia, but I am also someone who hasn’t performed to their potential. Adrian has opened more doors for me that have been previously only left a-jar by distant dreams of changing education paradigms and education reforms.

I am glad that there are more people than I thought actively involved in advocating and pushing for alternative styles of learning. Employers wants employees who are fast thinking and creative, who can solve problems with ease and possess a range of skills. The problem is the current education system is not exactly accepting of this kind of person. Public education systems suppress creative and try and teach you what is right and what is wrong. They put the student at the bidding of their master (the lecturer, teacher or whatever trained educational drill-sergeant it happens to be) and create a power imbalance that is counteractive to creativity and motivation for the students.

I didn’t have a question to write down at today’s unlecture. Why didn’t I? Perhaps I was scared of what to say, perhaps I didn’t know what the question was meant to be about. The point is that I didn’t ask one, and what Adrian said is right. You should be able to come up with a simple (or complex) question to ask at the unlecture. There’s no way to learn if you are afraid of being wrong or if you are afraid to ask questions. I like the idea of the unlecture and look forward to more speculative discussions and question answering.

Patrick Turnbull

A University student studying Media at RMIT.

Category Archives: Networked Media