Unlecture Week #8

This week in the unlecture Adrian discussed questions asked in tutes the week before with the panel of other tutors. Hypertext Narratives was one of the points discussed which was good as it was something that hadn’t quite got my head around yet. Adrian actually showed a Hypertext narrative that he had made with a number of nodes contain information, all interconnected with lines which sort of ended up looking like a family tree. Some things I took in were that people are able to access the pages of the Hypertext narrative from different places which construct a different context for the reader and audiences. They are also highly granular and differ from linear styled narrative in that the audience have a range of different nodes in which they can interact with it. All in all, it is a ‘complex mess’ of interactive information.

One website that is very interesting in this area of hypertext is ‘reddit’ the social news and entertainment website that has a community of interesting people who are able to share personal news and stories (either specific or broad) to the rest of the people in the network. Items of higher interest and legitimacy (which is earned) are moved towards the top of the page. I have found myself looking on the website for hours through hyperlinks reading an AMA (Ask Me Anything) about a cat lover to one with President Obama. I actually hope Adrians notion about social media and the decline of facebook is true because it is making people go crazy!!

Reading Week #5 – Narratology Philosophy

Hypertext Narrative seems like a very dense topic and is one that I can’t fully grasp. There are a couple of forms of hyperlink narrative that i have picked up on including one that relies on hyperlinks to express further information. And others that use hyperlinks to solely provide sequence. Most hyperlink narrative nowadays incorporate the first form. Facebook for instance is a breeding ground for hyperlinks, its where hyperlinks go on vacation to meet other hyperlinks. Whenever someone writes a status or puts up a picture, most people are inclined to view the persons profile (picture hyperlink), and find out more about them. The Michael Joyce quote sums this up pretty well ‘the desire to create multiple stories out of a relatively small amount of alphanumeric text provided a major force driving in writing afternoon’. 

Twitter more so can be related to this as it has a word limit which forces people to try and tell their story through hyperlinks. I am sitting on the fence with my thoughts towards the idea of hyperlink narrative, it is something that i partake in everyday and i use it to great advantage but the concept of it being a necessity in cases such as twitter doesn’t really give you choice.

All in all the reading was difficult and I skimmed through it because i thought it went sideways a little but i still managed to write something up worth writing i hope

Also Ryan Gossling doesn’t want his breakfast

Theory of Auteur

Here is a short realisation that I ‘realised’ when learning about auteur theory

The question raised at the beginning of the reading is really quite interesting and i can relate to it a lot. “Did you say this film was good or good according to the auteur theory”. I have lengthy debates with many of my friends discussing why we think some films are better then others etc. One example was ‘The Great Gatsby’ (Baz Lurhman, 2013) where I thought it was quite good as apposed to my friend, who i believe i share similar taste in most things, completely disagreed. I think i was reviewing based on the Auteur theory as I really liked the extravagant sets and the cinematography whereas my friend was relating back the book and how it didn’t do it any justice. I think when someone learns about film theory, that they have no control of criticising in terms of the directors choice in a range of different things from camera shots to costumes.

I personally like the idea of criticising film in terms of the auteur theory similar to Sarris, whereby it helps separate film makers / directors and praises them for their individual aesthetics.

BONANZA WEEK #4

Week 4 De Le BONANZA

Song:

 

Amiaya – Magic Colour

I heard this song in Bali on the Pop Asia music channel and despite the language barrier it is super catchy. I can recite most of the chorus somehow!

Movie:

Drift (2013)

 

This movie was first bought to my attention when i was searching up one of my favourite Australian actors ‘Sean Keenan’ and found out he was in this movie which was yet to be released. I picked it up in bali and thought it was the bees knees. The movie also has Sam Worthington and an upcoming actor by the name of Xavier Samuel. It contains some awesome visuals of waves and surfing along with a interesting storyline.

Photo

 

This photo is another from the national geographic scans and it is one of my favourites. It was originally a cliff and beach. It somehow turned out to look really atmospheric, the colours and patterns are really unique and cool!

General Post

This bonanza was for the week I was in Bali, and as per my last post it was really good. I have been really intrigued in cinematography at the moment and pretty much everything that is visual and moving i look at i begin to deconstruct it and take notice of certain parts that i like etc. I have got a bit of a inventory of short segments and video clips that i like. I can’t wait for this week to be over so I am no longer swarmed with heaps of work and can catch up!

Reading Week #4 – Hypertext Express

This weeks Bolter reading was really in depth and had a bunch of examples that related to the different spaces of writing and how this has evolved over time. He makes a point about how ‘each culture and age’ have its own currency or economy of writing. This is a dynamic relationship between material and technique of the culture. This has become a more uniform relationship across the world as the internet age has kicked in. Hypertext allows people to transfer from internet space to internet space at the click of a button. The text is underlined, it highlights KAPOW!

I’m not really a super fan of reading but I tend to be able to read more efficiently when it is on paper. I don’t get distracted by all the other hyperlinks that can pop out of no where. The biggest problems I think with hyperlinks is that they can send you on a never ending tangent that you can sometimes never get out of. For instance, as i was writing this i clicked on a hyperlinked and was distracted for too long.

 

Bali Bali Bali

For the past 10 days I have been living tropical in Bali Bali Bali. I thought I might discuss the networking types of things that i observed while roaming, and how they differ to what I know here in Melbourne. The first thing i noticed was the alot of Balinese people own phones, despite the average wage only being $40 a fortnight, meaning that the mobile phone plans must be quite affordable. It is quite a contrast to what i initially thought when I arrived. Most of the towns contain buildings that are either traditional or abandoned, which is evidently accompanied by advanced technologies like wifi at almost every shop or restaurant. I don’t think that these technological appearances are directed for the locals but more so for the tourists which makes sense, I was just surprised with the amount of wifi hotspots they had compared to Melbourne in such an undeveloped setting.

I also found out the hard way that Balinese people have an amazing memory, remembering who you are by your face name…). It was the hard way because I told a shop owner that I would come back the next day to purchase something that I didn’t really want. Sure enough the next day, without even recognising what I had done, the shop owner attacked me with verbal accusations and powerful gestures. Due to the large population in such a small space, I think that the Balinese have been moulded to learn and remember in this way which in my opinion differs quite a lot to the society of Melbourne.

In terms of ‘networking’, Bali has a very different stance or conventions that live within it’s society. Not for the worst though, just different! I like this difference and I am looking forward to exploring other cultures and the way the operate in the future!

bonanza week #3

Week 3 of BONANZA

Song:

Dustin Tebutt – THE BREACH

This song was on triple j the other day and has really cool vocals and chill vibe. I like the overlaying vocals, a bit acapella-ish.

Movie:

The Tree Of Life (2011)

I bought this movie in Bali and watched it straight away. I read it won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes film festival and was intrigued. At times it was hard to watch (slow), but i thought it as really good! I’m really interested in cinematography and thought it was insanely good! I later read that Emmanuel Lubezki was nominated for an oscar for best cinematography. I think it is one of the movies you have to watch to understand.

Photo

This photo i took in a monkey forest near a town called Ubud in Bali. It was packed with all these crazy monkeys, some cute, some not so. They had these bananas that you could hold and the monkeys could jump up on you. I didn’t do it, i don’t want rabbies.

General Post

Came back from Bali which was great. I didn’t like all the uni work that i am bombarded with when i got back but i guess thats part of the gig. My favourite part was watching the sunset on seminyak beach while sipping on a beir. I also loved riding around on a motorbike on the island of Lombongan. The people over there are super nice and easy to get along with! All in all I had a great holiday but back to reality and the cold weather of Melbourne.

Reading Week #3 – Internet Intoxication Station

The first thing I saw when I opened this document was a comment that looked like it was in the opening cover, “This is a book to savour, not speed read”. This lead to me gaining speed in my reading, mainly because the person that made that comment set me a challenge. Anyway, it discusses the early days of the internet and the certain realisations that followed the newly created internet gadget of Instant Messaging. It was the story of a boy who messaged a girl in Colorado about a massacre that was going to take place the next day. The police ordered that the boy be taken in custody and find out what his intentions were. It ended up being a misunderstanding where he was only meant to be imitating an actor of this messaging device. Making him something much more than an amateur actor.

The idea that you can be anything / anyone you want to be on the internet is really quite scary. Its also kind of funny that in these early stages of internet and communication that these ideas weren’t really addressed until someone went and acted crazy on the internet.  Weinberger also breaks the internet down into 4 different segments, space, time, self and knowledge.

Space – A website is a ‘space that occupies no space’

Time – We determine how long we participate online depending on what suits us

Self – Unlike our ‘real world’ selves, online selves are ‘intermittent and most importantly written’

Knowledge – The web is a research tool, we are constantly learning when online

All this is very weird and exciting and i’m looking forward to witnessing the next outbreak in the online world that no one could have prepared for!