Author Archives: weiyunsoo

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WEEK 6 – What ‘Mind’ are you?

  By weiyunsoo • August 25, 2016

The five minds, categorised by Howard Garder, are the disciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful and ethical minds. Briefly, the five minds’ functions are:

  1. The disciplined is the cognitive skills where routined strategy is used to further develop ones skills.
  2. The synthesising, is the ability to absorb knowledge and evaluate its information objectively.
  3. The creating, is the ability to create new concepts and looking at the big picture.
  4. The respectful is the tolerance and the acceptance towards other individuals and their differences. This set of mind comes hand-in-hand with the ethical minds.
  5. The ethical minds, is the ability to discern what is right or wrong especially when working with other human beings, whether in a group or individually.

The first three can be clustered as the cognitive aspect while the last two can be grouped as our mental and behavioural aspect. All are equally important but I believe in the respectful and ethical minds more. There is no use of having a powerful mind that allows you to solve every question when you have a terrible behaviour.

“We should be concerned with how to nurture these minds in the younger generation, those who are being educated currently to become the leaders of tomorrow”.

Garder raised an interesting statement above. This kind of knowledge on the future and how the world today looks like, I stand by the importance of educating and nurturing the children of tomorrow. It is like a snowball effect as it will pass down after us. If we start with ourselves, teach our successors or influence the people around us that we come across in our lives, the future would look brighter. I believe strongly in respect and ethics as coming from a traditional Chinese family, we are taught to respect our elders. We greet them, we care for them and most of all we respect them. Being trained at a young age, my resolution is to always give people an even ground, to respect their ideas and acknowledge their suggestions.

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WEEK 5 – Where did all the Time go?

  By weiyunsoo • August 18, 2016

In this week’s reading, Judy Wajcman have brought up few interesting points in this reading. The first point, Wajcman observed that “rather than inhabiting a world which time is abundant, everyday life seems more rushed” as we live in an “acceleration society”. Digital technologies have long been addressed as a tool for “exchanging data and coordinating human interaction” that simplifies the work for efficiency. Now, Wajcman brought up a fact that the digital technology can no longer be only just simple tools for efficiency but they reconfigure and unconsciously change the way how people think and act. This is true because readings have voiced out the fear of technology as a detrimental issue towards the future.

I find us being controlled by social media of having the need to check the phone every waking second. Most times we find ourselves rushing for time. Take for example, every morning you wake up, you check your social media accounts on your phone. That would take about 20 minutes of your morning routine and then only getting out of bed and starting the day. At the breakfast table, using your tablet to read the newspaper and then checking business emails. I feel we’re finding time in between these things to do our necessities such as showering and eating meals. Wajcman’s article is focusing more on finding the time in this digital era of accelerated society by allocating time in the day for rest.

Another interesting point was the Apple store concept. I found it quite intriguing at the same time questionable with this concept.

Apple policy is a “personalised” service, so you have to wait for someone to serve you individually. In fact, it took ages. When I inquired as to why there were no such counters, I was told that the company had dispensed with them in order to avoid the appearance of long lines! In their attempt to abolish the cardinal sin of waiting, the company had inadvertently designed a slow service as the condition for purchasing the latest, fastest product.

On one hand, it is a smart marketing move to show that the store is visibly packed and have someone who is knowledgeable on the products to recommend the items suited for your needs. However, what about the long wait for someone to come and assist you? Where has the efficiency gone? Wajcman speaks of the irony of needing to wait for the fastest product. As the digital era is constantly growing, new technologies and concepts are continuously growing together. We, humans, always look for innovative ways to increase efficiency to create comfort and convenience for ourselves.

Reading:

Wajcman, Judy (2015), ‘Chapter 7: Finding Time in a Digital Age’, Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 163-184.

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WEEK 4 – Mindset vs. Passion

  By weiyunsoo • August 11, 2016

After reading this week’s reading, I had a clearer understanding in approaching my future. I have had these ongoing battle in my head on my passion for making films as well as the insecurities I constantly face every time I had a new hurdle to jump over. The readings inked my worries clearly, literally. In my opinion, I am leaning towards the mindset approach as I feel that it deeply resonates within me.

Be so good they can’t ignore you.

– Steve Martin

While I know everyone is going to use this quote for their reflections, I cannot stress how much this quote triggered my insecurities. I have never been talented in anything, not even my passion for filmmaking could make me excel in anything. I was mediocre. Being in the media industry, the multi-talented wins, the one with connections wins and the ones who have maybe one or two skills would have a higher percentage than those who don’t. The tiniest problems you face when attempting a project should not prevent you from moving forward. Instead, the problem should be resolved or learn from that mistake and move on. Like in the readings, Jordan Tice practiced his guitar licks countless times and he knew he hasn’t gotten to the standard he wanted yet but he is still trying to reach it.

But here is why I disagree with the Passion mindset. To a certain extent, if you do not have the passion for the work you do, you would not be happy with what you’re doing BUT that is not a reason to think that the world works for you. I have to agree with Newport that this type of mindset is undoubtedly a two edge sword because while your passion may take you far with the things you like to do, it can also make you extremely aware of the things you don’t like.

I’ve learnt a great deal from my employer, he was a business consultant, a motivator and most of all he was the most humble person I’ve ever met. He gave me a piece of advice and during his lectures for helping university students prepare themselves to get into the work industry. He said to always stay humble, go into the interview with confidence in yourself and always remember that it is what you can offer to the company and NOT what the company can offer you. It was very insightful when the readings resonated and triggered memories of what the people around me told me. It tells that it is proven and it is a worthy advice to follow.

After this reading, I feel like it doesn’t matter if I can’t be multitalented, I just need to work on one skill and be good at it. Also, to never stop practicing and honing the skill despite any setbacks thrown at my way.

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WEEK 3

  By weiyunsoo • August 4, 2016

‘Office workers dressed like folks relaxing on the weekend… individuality and self-expression… valued over conformity to organisational norms… a time when the old order has broken down, when flux and uncertainty themselves seem to be part of the everyday norm’

The claim on how most talented and wanted people in the creative industry tend to stray from the formal working hours have struck a chord in me. As a freelancer, I have always feared the insecurities of being jobless. There is no stability in the income yet there are plenty out there who work in flexible hours, without routinised ways. In my past experiences, I have rarely come across freelancers staying as freelancers without looking for more stable jobs. However, in Australia, it seems to be a norm in hiring contracts or casual workers in the creative industry. In my opinion, working as freelancers or less routinised ways, tend to churn out creative ideas better than office workers. In a sense, with a calm and flexible environment, we are less stressed and we are able to push our creativity to its limits.

Moving on in the readings, issues on media labour work and hiring “interns” to do all the odd jobs. There are work ethics issues and debates on these issues. What really strike me in the readings was about finding the solution to minimising exploitations. I have heard plenty complaints on being taken for granted and having interns on unpaid jobs for more than six months. But, why isn’t there anything on finding solutions to these problems? I agree with the readings that there is no definite answer to prevent these problems but Hesmondhalgh (2011) has brought an interesting solution to the table which was finding another “model of labour that is flexible enough to account” for such exploitation issues. Due to the informal structure, people tend to blend the volunteering aspect with interning for experiences. As mentioned, we should have a model that allows us to distinguish the differences between those two categories – volunteering and training.

That being said, freelancing is not just for gaining exposure anymore. Some creative people take freelancing as a job now and there should be a standard policy or at least a guideline to prevent the abuse of casual workers. This week’s readings definitely resonates strongly with me as I started out using freelancing as a way to gain exposure and doing odd jobs to gain experience. What would happen if I were to start taking freelancing as my bread and butter?

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Virtual Reality – Annotated Bibliography

  By weiyunsoo • August 3, 2016

Informal annotated bibliography:

McMenemy, Karen & Ferguson, Stuart 2007, A hitchhiker’s guide to virtual reality, AK Peters, Wellesley, MA.

PREFACE – In This Book:
CD has programs for over 30 projects in VR. These range in scope from a tool that simulates virtual sculpting, to a suite of software for the control of a four-projector immersive virtual environment element. What VR fundamentally aims to achieve, to what it can be applied, what elements need to be brought together, how they work and how the theory is turned into practice. We examine the human senses and their significance in delivering a sense of reality within the virtual world. We describe the types of interface technologies that are available and how they work.

Karen McMenemy and Stuart Ferguson’s book A hitchhiker’s guide to virtual reality (2007) is exactly what the title says – hitching a ride to the knowledge of virtual reality. The book explains the human perceptions (senses) and the basic understanding of virtual reality in the first half of the book.

There are list technologies for broad categories such as “visualisation”, “auditory”, “interaction” and “motion tracking”.

The second half are mostly coding chapters on the technologies and computer programming tips for further knowledge of understanding how virtual reality applications are developed. These are more to the programming side of the VR application.

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Fuchs, Philippe, Moreau, Guillaume & Guitton, Pascal (eds) 2011, Virtual Reality: Concepts and Technologies, English edn, Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK.

CHAPTER 1 – Introduction to Virtual Reality
Philippe Fuchs and Pascal Guitton

This chapter immediately lays out the foundation of virtual reality. What does VR mean and where did it come from? Why would people want virtual reality? Fuchs answers these questions in the first chapter. It was interesting how he claims that virtual reality has been a term that was stuck with us for more than fifteen years.

“In literature, we still find definitions that inappropriately mix the purpose of virtual reality, its functions, applications and the techniques on which it is based. Some have even defined virtual reality merely by the use of one or another interaction device. It is this simplistic image that was unfortunately circulated in the media: A person using a head-mounted display with different controls to interact (data glove, paddle, steering wheel, etc.) that are connected to a computer. – pg. 5”

He raises good examples of how people have different perceptions of virtual reality that sometimes stray from the intended purpose.

“The purpose of virtual reality is to make possible a sensorimotor and cognitive activity for a person (or persons) in a digitally created artificial world, which can be imaginary, symbolic or a simulation of certain aspects of the real world. ­– pg. 6”

Class Discussion:

VR Therapy – safe environment coming in terms with your fear.
VR Tastes –
Mobile devices are the biggest trend in technology

VR in Hollywood – episodic form because do not overwhelm people

VR as informational

VR senses – visuals and audio has it down. 3 more senses to go!

VR restrictions – like those who have problems with discerning reality and virtual before they have breakdowns.

VR refugee experience – positive effect of virtual reality. brings in the experience to empathise.

 

How did VR become mainstream?
– immersive
– the digital restrictions overcome / the computational data

Alternative VR
Technology of VR
Psycho Therapy of VR – beneficial to society
Ethics of VR

 

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WEEK 2 – Strategy and Business

  By weiyunsoo • July 27, 2016

This week’s reading has been a little confusing for me. While I understand some points, I couldn’t grasp the idea and where he was heading with them. Here’s my take on it:

The dichotomy of global and local may be seen most clearly in those markets that combine well-developed digital distribution infrastructure and platforms with strong local content industries. The preference for local content over “global” (often code for U.S.-produced) content is evident even in a mature, developed, English-speaking country such as Australia, where locally produced sports, reality shows, news, and drama offerings, such as Shaun Micallef’s political satire Mad as Hell, rank as the 10 most-watched television programs every year.      – Chris Lederer & Megan Brownlow, 2016

At first glance, I got confused over which point of view we were looking at. Was it at a general statistics data or was it coming from only well-developed countries? In my perspective, coming from a third world country, we rely on global contents for our source of entertainment. Our generation heavily consume online streaming subscription such as Netflix and Spotify as our source of media and entertainment. As I read about Australia’s locally produced shows, as mentioned in the readings, I couldn’t help but wonder if franchises would also consider local produced? An example would be the  “The Voice” franchise, where we now have The Voice Australia and don’t forget non-English speaking countries like China, Philippines and Germany. Would it be considered as a local produce because they are contestants from their country as well as bringing at least a judge from their own country. Also, in Americans’ perspective, would their local content be categorised as “global”?

One part in the readings stuck out, which is Lederer’s Shift 3, Consumption: Bundle of Joy. With the competitive online streaming market like Netflix and Spotify, I would have thought that cable television would slowly decline.

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WEEK 1 – Three E’s Brainstorming

  By weiyunsoo • July 27, 2016

Week 1 has just ended with a guest lecturer, Astrid Scott, from ABC Research and Development (ABC R+D). She has given me such insightful ideas of how the future would become for the media and entertainment industry. One of the many ideas of the future that struck me was the future technologies in our homes. My brainstorm group was given the topic about experiences of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). One prime example of an augmented reality app that has been the recent craze in the world right now would be Pokémon Go.

With the ideas and dreams thrown out, we now have plenty of devices that we would never have thought could exist ten years ago. For example, the Samsung Oculus for virtual reality, Google Cardboard glasses, Solos smart cycling glasses and now the Google Tilt Brush. It is quite daunting to find out what’s next for us in the evolution of digital technology.

A few questions popped up during the discussion: How would VR / AR evolve from this stage of the digital revolution? What would it be like to have VR / AR as a norm? What sort of experiences will we get to create with these devices? Some ideas we have came up with were travelling with VR devices, experiencing augmented reality with glasses that allows you to walk your virtual pet, immersive narratives like Scott mentioned Storyscapes.

EXPERIENCES BRAINSTORM 1

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WEEK 1 – Megatrends

  By weiyunsoo • July 22, 2016

Klaus Schwab’s view on the Megatrends of today have brought an interesting insight for me. The three clusters he mentioned – physical, digital and biological, are closely interrelated, more so than you can ever imagine. Think about science and research! Technology has been a problematic issue as many view it beneficial or detrimental towards the globalisation of a new era. Sharan Burrows, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) of Belgium has raised an interesting debate. She said that the prediction of five million jobs that would be lost to technology by 2020 is not the main question but how they proceed in the future and improve. I believe that with digital technology, the world has open access to learning to empower people. It is not so much about increasing the growth of the people but it is more on maximising the strength of humans in innovation. Ellen MacArthur in the World Economic Forum mentioned that the industrial revolution is working with “mankind’s goal to be innovative and always progress.” It simplifies our lives to become more efficient with the collaboration of human and technology.

In the readings, Uber and AirBnB were a great example of gaining profits digitally. To justify the reasons of mankind heading towards innovation, crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter have also increased the possibility of individuals creating and innovating better technology. With the help of 3D printing, innovators are given the opportunity to show prototypes to their consumers, allowing them to have a better picture of their products. That just proves Schwab’s point of technology-enabled platforms are “lowering barriers for business and individuals to obtain wealth.” It’s also just as MacArthur had mentioned, it’s about innovating with the unlimited resources and materials and then giving back to the economy.

As we’re always progressing, there is not much certainty on what is to come in the future. Will technology be the end of humans or will it maximise our strengths as we move forward? I would agree that technology and humans co-exist to maximise our strengths and enhance them to create a better future. It’s definitely debatable and only time will tell.

 

Reference:

Klaus Schwab, 2016, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (World Economic Forum), pp.14-26, 47-50, 67-73, 91-104

 

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Project FOUR – The Progress #4

  By weiyunsoo • June 2, 2016

This week we had the last two meetings before the final day (D-DAY!). The first was on Monday (30th May 2016), where we presented our almost finished puzzles. We gave feedback on the instructions, whether they were clear enough to be understood or if it’s still messy and needs to be rephrased. It was a quick informal meeting because I had to rush to work. I had completed my puzzles already by then. I uploaded my puzzles up to the Google Drive and my team members tried solving the puzzles. Everything went well for my part so I was good to go.

Tuesday’s meeting was postponed to Wednesday due to Stefan having an emergency at work. On our final meeting, we did a round of testing all the puzzles with the narrative. I went ahead to solve Griffin’s match sticks puzzles. Let me just say, I was having the time of my life. Did I mention that I love puzzles? Yeah… Anyways, Steven, Farina and I went ahead and challenged the puzzles while waiting for Stefan to arrive. The instructions were somewhat unclear and because we were stuck on the previous puzzles, some of them became a little confusing. For example, the first puzzle required us to only MOVE the match sticks to create squares whereas the third puzzle was to REMOVE to match sticks. They were a little confusing so I failed to solve one before Griffin told me the answer because she figured her instructions were unclear so she showed us the answer instead. We revised her instructions and when Stefan tried it, it went smoothly. Stefan was on a roll with all those puzzles! I solved all the puzzles earlier so I tried “hinting” to Steven and Farina the answers. Well, Griffin found my hints very “creative”. I only just told them the answer but they all figured I was just being philosophical. The answer was really outside of that box. They were so fixated on removing the box inside the square when all they had to do was remove the matches that were OUTSIDE of that box. Needless to say, everyone was reduced to laughters due to my not-so-obvious hint. Griffin had a great time watching us suffer with her puzzles but they were interestingly unique and not at a mind blowing difficulty level.

Stefan arrived not long after and we moved into a classroom to practice the flow of our game. We played our video clips and went through our roles for the actual day. We did not officially test Stefan’s puzzles so we took the time test his puzzles. He had a target challenge and a information collecting challenge for his spec ops/comms role. We all had a go firing Nerf bullets to hit the target. I realised my hidden talent of aiming as I had 4 out of 5 points for the first puzzle. Hey! Guess I’m suitable for the tactician and spec ops role too! (Woohooo I’m an all rounder!) Because of that, we had doubts on our background story for our characters as well. Farina even mentioned the tactician was supposed to be a soldier in the past but Griffin scored 3 points (lol)! Fun and jokes aside, we had Stefan test all the puzzles after all the changes and it went smoothly and he got all the correct answers within the time limit. We also fixed Griffin’s final puzzle as well because one part did not make sense at all. We needed a clean transition for the puzzles.

After everything was finalised and having many bullets fired, we called it a wrap for the final meeting. Here’s to hoping for a well executed game when our lecturer tests the game this Friday! (fingers crossed.)

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