Tag Archives: Speculation

Blogging Builds Brains

Posted on by under Life, Networked Media

Stars and a power pole. What’s more inspirational than that man? Photo: Lisa Ng

Clever alliteration. Thanks, I know. With the assessment for the blog due in a week, I have been putting some thought into why I blog and what I gain from it. Obviously as part of the requirements for the class, the purpose of the blog is to engage with the relevant content and topics in a thorough and speculative manner. I’d like to go a step further than that and look at the greater and wider purpose of my blog. There’s got to be more to life right? Some divine purpose, holy mission, etc, etc. There is. As I celebrate my 40th blog post, I’d like to think that blogging helps me to reach that purpose.

So, at the end of semester one, I knew that my time had come. It was time to do that thing that so many people do. Defer for a year. Why didn’t I do it straight out of school. I think I wanted to get my degree over with as soon as possible. So why don’t I think that any more? Well, I don’t want my degree to end. Don’t take it that way, I actually do, but I don’t think I’m ready for it yet. I feel there’s a lot more I can put into this degree, and at this moment in my life, I’m not ready to engage with the degree in the most beneficial manner. So I’m going to take a year off. Find my passion, invigorate my brain, get some real world experience. It’s not that I’m not enjoying the course, or doing well enough in it. I’m not happy with doing well though. I want to take advantage of every opportunity that is available to me in this course. Kevin is someone who has done the hard yards, and is willing to get into the mix. He dives right in. To his credit, this is something we can all learn from. It’s something I feel I need a little more confidence to do first. So that’s what I’m going out to do.

Anyway,  let’s nut this down to the point. What this blog has done has created an opportunity for me. Someone who can often have trouble expressing things in face to face communication, this blog has really helped me become more expressive and literate in my communication. It’s also shown me the power of being connected and involved in the network. It’s helped me find things I love, express how much I love them and share it with other people. Sure, it might get 15 views a day. But those 15 views are irrelevant. It’s how it makes me feel on the inside.

I feel empowered at the moment, with a whole load of positive energy. This course has got me thinking differently about everything. I speculate, appreciate, evaluate. I plan, I take more risks and I think of things in a long term sense, rather than acting quickly and irrationally. Everything I do, I put more thought into and notice more. The set up of this class has really helped me and my brain. We’re in a good place now, me and brain.

So you might ask, why defer now when you’re feeling such good vibes man? That’s exactly why I’m going to take a break. I’m taking these positive vibes and continuing to work with them. I’m putting them into life, instead of just my studies. My plan is to continue to use this blog, over the next year and throughout my degree and career. Overall, I feel the best way to use this positive energy is to do some hard work, build some resources and get myself involved with my craft and what I love. I need to produce some work, gain some experience and really stretch myself to explore my potential. When that’s done and the year is up, I’ll come back refreshed, keen and eager. Just as I am now, but with a little bit of confidence, a little bit of experience and a little more backing.

For me, this blog has given me a little bit of confidence and a few handy skills, but most importantly it’s helped me feel creative and find my passions. I love to write, so it works well. How well I write will change as time goes on. Things can only get better. But we’ll see if my plans are a golden dream or whether I can make them happen.

Who am I kidding. Of course I can. I’ve got this, man. Anything’s possible (be realistic). Let’s do it. Thanks Kev for the inspiration.

 

Conceptual thinking and Alan Turing

Posted on by under Networked Media

Turing’s persona captured in stone. Photo: Duane Wessels

Alan Turing is someone that you might not know of directly, but chances are you’ve used a computer at some point. You’re more than likely using one to read this. One of the great conceptual thinkers of the 20th century, Turing was responsible for designing the concepts for some of the worlds first electronic stored-program computers, as well as being one of the world forerunners in concepts regarding artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence of computers. While he didn’t physically invent such devices and technologies, his thought processes and methods of thinking and design were what have brought a lot of the technology we utilise today into life. Mind you, this was all happening in the 1940’s. Someone was good at speculation and creative thinking.

Not only known internationally for his concepts and designs, Turing was also integral in the deciphering the German codes used in WWII and enabling the Allies to intercept messages and read them. Asa Briggs, a historian and wartime codebreaker has some nice things to say about him.

You needed exceptional talent, you needed genius at Bletchley and Turing’s was that genius.

His main three accomplishments were his input into the fields of codebreaking, computing and AI.

What makes this tragic is that he was lost at a relatively early age. Whether it be accidental or suicide, the case was never resolved. But Turing’s life was impeded by a number of social issues that still affect us in ways some 60 years down the track. Turing was a homosexual, at the time, this was considered illegal. When his relationship with another male became known he was officially charged. To escape going to prison, he elected to be chemically castrated. That pretty much means they pumped him with oestrogen to try and suppress his sexual tendencies.  While the effects of this were tragic on Turing’s life and self, the fields he worked in suffered even greater losses.

He was imprisoned at the height of his work, he worked for the government breaking codes and had access to government data that was confidential. Because homosexuals were considered a “security threat” – something to do with being subject to blackmail – he was forced to leave his position. Without access to such a high level of resources, there’s no doubt his work was hindered. He continued to work with the Universities he was attached to during his life, but his death marked a tragic end to his work. Perhaps if he had lived another 20 years we could have seen his concepts come to be much faster? Who knows what sort of unlimited knowledge was present in such a mind. His ability to think creatively, conceptually and utilise elements of what we know today as “design fiction” perhaps would have yielded some incredible technological advances much earlier in the 20th century.

The Past-Age of the Essay

Posted on by under Life, Networked Media

Essay time. Photo: Serdar Kilic

For an interesting look into the history of the essay and how it went so wrong in public education. Perhaps if more people thought like this, the essay would not have such a negative stigma surrounding it? As Courtney points out, highlighting a new method of thought, or set of beliefs regarding a subject is much more exciting than rehashing information about Charles Dickens or Hamlet. Equally important, she also acknowledges that certain subjects require facts and evidence (such as history) for points to be made. This is also perfectly true, however as Adrian pointed out, there are plenty of great essays that use evidence and facts. I think it is more to do with the fact that essays don’t need evidence to be good. We have been brought up to be very wary of information (eg; Don’t use wikipedia as a source, it can’t be trusted– While some of these are marginally valid points, this article in general screams insecure rubbish), everything must have a source, surely we can’t actually come up with our own ideas or thought patterns – or more importantly – trust them?

I also think that the quote she pulled out from Graham’s article really hones in on a sound and integral point.

In a real essay, you don’t take a position and defend it. You notice a door that’s ajar, and you open it and walk in to see what’s inside.

Perhaps if schools taught writing using this stance, we would have generations of much more confident and creative individuals? I’m serious, if we were taught this in school, the world would be so revolutionarily different I can’t even explain it. For instance: How many kids out there are there who fail at english and fall apart because they simply can’t get their head around the rigid and unobliging structure that is forced down our throats in Secondary school? People would be more open to learning, they’d be more confident at it, not only that but they would be more creative about it. This sort of standpoint encourages people to express their own unique thoughts and ideas; but not to persuade through bullying. The idea is to present and speculate, pose new questions and answer it.  It encourages you to show what you know and think, to speculate, to explore and ponder the universe. Wouldn’t that be much more beneficial then learning the art of rehashing, re-mixing and defending yourself?

Your view point is not right, you can’t even give someone else’s statement to back it up. You should be able to back up your ideas with other people’s previous developed thoughts. Oh, but you’re not allowed to use other people’s ideas anyway. That’s stealing. Sound familiar? The best part about abiding by the methodology that Graham suggests, as Georgina points out:

you can start out with nothing- just a pencil, a piece of paper and your thoughts- and result in an answer to something neither you nor the reader had previously known. That’s the way to progress, to evolve.

Creativty. Speculation. Exploration. Recurring themes. They’re all the outcomes of “Model II” style activities and behaviour. The form of “essay” that we learn in school is definitely a “Model I” sort of action. Its all about insecurity, being defensive and not allowing speculation and creativity.

 

Three Weeks of Building

Posted on by 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.

Disclaimer | Background image: Emma Gawen
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