Archive | October 2013
Looking back ….
Here we are, week 12, and at the end of the road for year 1. It’s a weird feeling, seems just like yesterday I was sitting here writing my first ever post for this blog. It’s been a fun ride! I have learnt quite a bit throughout this course, and I think that keeping this blog has given me a good space to come back to now and then and go over concepts or ideas that I may need to use in the future.
As this course is about embedding practice and learning to adapt to engage with this kind of work and this kind of work environment, I think it has been beneficial. I don’t exactly know how beneficial, but I do feel like my writing has been given space to improve. Many of the ideas covered in the past 12 weeks are still kind of foreign to me when I think about them, I don’t think I engaged with them in the way I should have, therefore leaving me a little confused. However, this blog has been fun to run and the whole course has been a learning experience. I will definitely be taking the things I have learnt here with me as I continue to grow and learn as a Media student.
This is definitely not my last blog post on here forever, just for a while. HOLIDAYS! 🙂
Dreams of Technology
This weeks heavily speculative reading discusses many aspects of technology and the future of technology – which is an aspect that people are  highly interested in. Technology entwines itself with the whole idea of design fiction and the concept that allows people to think and ‘dream’ up new and exciting ideas for the future of technology, some viable, and some, not really. This whole reading places technology in a speculative, open position, where interpretation of the various different aspects of it is opinionated, and emphasis is placed on the role of technology as an art form.
here are the two ‘dreams’ that interested me the most:
. Dream of Symbiosis – Man- Machine Symbiosis – both humans and machines learn from interaction with each other – both would evolve to higher level of knowledge and functioning.
(To be honest, this dream slightly scares me a bit… I mean, just thinking of humans and machines combining to create the ultimate life forms is scary – all the movies that have been made about this kind of thing don’t really help with my confidence in the concept either hahaha. But yeah, The idea that humans and machines can learn from each other is great, but the combining of the two freaks me out a little.)
. Dream of world peace – Communication instead of leaving a trail of destruction.
Great Charlotte!
So, since this is my blog, and i can talk about pretty much anything I feel like, today I have decided to educate you all on my favourite band – GOOD CHARLOTTE.
This band hails from the small town of Waldorf, Maryland, Baltimore – Washington D.C, where it was formed by identical twin brothers Joel and Benji Madden, at the age of 15. The brothers were  going through some very tough times in their family life, and writing music was the perfect way for them to let out their hurt and anger towards the whole situation. Joel and Benj were joined by school friend Paul Thomas, and then later on Billy Martin. These four young men had a dream, and began to chase it.
After a few years of playing and writing music together, Good Charlotte broke into the punk scene with their first album – Self Titled – and were the opening act for many bands on their US tours. With a record deal in the bag and a following of dedicated fans, Good Charlotte were catapulted into the world of rock ‘n’ roll, touring the world, and living their dreams.
Today, as I write this, Good Charlotte have been together for an amazing 17 years, have released 5 studio albums, one remix album, and have toured the world numerous times. This band have built up an extremely loyal fan base over the years, and have had many radio hits around the world. This has enabled the five men that make up Good Charlotte today, to grow up and live the dream life, cementing their place in punk/pop music history.
The band are currently on a break from music, as mostly all members have been blessed with little children in the past few years. But once the break is over, I’m certain they will come back swinging, bigger and better than ever!
Good Charlotte – The Anthem, from the album – The Young and The Hopeless (2002)
actor-network
This reading for week 11 was a bit complex. However, in my tutorial Elliot explained the main important aspects of it and this did help with my understanding:
‘Nothing is more intensely connected, more distant, more  compulsory and more strategically organized than a computer network.’ – Bruno Latour
This theory is a model of communication that is beyond what we might have seen before. Model of understanding reality in terms of the entire network structure.
Ability for Actors in the network to interact – this ability is not limited by a physical geography – but communicative.
eg – Twitter and Facebook – proximity is closer to those on the other side of the world than people in the next level of this building.
Bruno argues that Networks aren’t necessarily about social networks!
Extends the idea of actors beyond people – but entities that can react to certain stimuli.
Actor-Network – entirety of the act itself – the communication has meanings contained in it.
Symposium week 11
This week I have really struggled to come up with a take away idea from the lecture/symposium. To be honest, a lot of the time, what is being discussed and talked about in these symposiums goes right over my head. It’s quite frustrating as I feel like I should be understanding and comprehending more of the information being shared – But I really am just not doing that so well.
So on that note, these are the extremely brief notes I typed out while sitting in this weeks symposium.
. Gift economy – Free – good and effective – not yet competitive  with paying structures and such.
. Internet protocals –
Galloway notes that the future is already here but not uniformly distributed (paraphrasing William Gibson).
. virtual – viable future – actualised – becomes true
. Cowbird – web project. – eg gift economy – people contributing media on their own terms.
. narratives are intentional cause and effect
As next week is the final week of this course, I know that I will try my best to find a decent take away idea to write about. Until then though, notes will have to do.
Catching Dreams
Today is one of those days where I am in need of some motivation for uni work. It’s coming to the end of the semester and I feel as though I am wearing out a little. BUT! then I think back to the motto I live my life by – Catch Your Dreams – and get some of my ‘mojo’ back.
I am a really big believer in people following their dreams. Going out into the world and working hard to make them come true. And on days like today, the phrase really hits home. To be able to catch my dreams, I need to put in the hard work and just go for it.
I got Joel Madden to write this out for me, and then got it tattooed, not only because the words mean a lot to me, but because Good Charlotte have gotten me through my entire Teenage years, and Joel has helped me believe in myself and believe in my dreams. One of my most favourite lines from a GC song is ‘Even when I’m gone I’ll never leave, so go on and Catch Your Dreams,’ and basically, I feel like I have truly benefitted from growing up and listening to Good Charlotte’s music, and I feel like the positive influence them and their music has had on me will stick with me for my entire life.
So on days like today, this phrase means a lot. Catch Your Dreams. That’s what life’s all about!
Networking at its finest
So, throughout this course we have been learning about networking, and how the web functions with the use of hyperlinks, where the world wide web is a giant playground, and at the click of a button we can be transported to a million different places and times. The internet is a revolution in which will keep evolving throughout time, and with it, we as people continue to learn and grow alongside it.
When it comes to networking and the whole idea that through the internet, we can meet, talk to, discover, and find so many various people around the world, one example that stands out in my mind is Justin Bieber. The kid who went from posting You Tube videos of his singing contest at the age of 13, to selling out worldwide arena tours in a matter of minutes. His story is one that has been plastered everywhere and if you haven’t heard of him then it’s safe to say that you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years.
Justin Bieber’s story is quite an amazing one, and it has a lot to do with this process of networking via the world wide web. His mum began posting videos to his You Tube channel after he sung in his local singing contest. These videos started to get lots of hits (views) and then suddenly people were sending him messages requesting more videos and more songs. The idea that people from all over the world could sit and watch this kid sing songs on his youtube channel was a true establishment of this concept, and then the fact that this would eventually lead into him being offered a record deal proves that networking actually is a big deal in society today.
However, after being offered his record deal, radio stations still would not play his first single, as there was no platform for a 14 year old kid to be catapulted into the charts with. So, this is where major networking came into play once again. Â All those ‘fans’ that had been tuning into his youtube videos and requesting songs, began writing into radio stations and tweeting and facebooking and spreading the word that THEY wanted Justin Bieber to be played on the radio. More and more people joined in and then suddenly Bieber had his own following, built from the ground up, purely on social networking sites. This following grew and grew and grew, and eventually he was played on one radio station, then two, then five, and then all over the world.
We live in a day ‘n’ age where the internet, and networking via social media sites, can play a giant role in our lives, and a major role in our careers. All due to networking on Youtube, and then branching out to twitter, this Canadian kid went from a 14 year old YouTuber, to a 19 year old global star.
And that’s the power of networking on the world wide web for you!
Where it all started – First ever You Tube Video posted on Justin Bieber’s user account – which now has
6,624,615Â views
.Â
6 years since he posted his first ever youtube video, which launched him into the world of craziness he lives everyday now.
Excited!
My band are almost ready to record our first EP and I’M SO EXCITED!! We’ve been working hard and I can’t wait to share our songs.
Technique to Technology
As one of the discussion points for this weeks Symposium was about Technique and Technology, this piece by Evandro Agazzi, form The University of Fribourg (Switzerland), is a nice introduction to the concepts. From Technique to Technology.