Today in our lectorial we did an activity on ‘relations between parts’ where we wrote a one sentence beginning and end to a story, and then inserted three other sentences that could translate into any sequence of the overall story. This was of course made more arduous by adding in a ‘turning point’ and replacing the first and last to make all 8 of the sentences moveable.

This activity was done in relation to the reading of Scott McCloud’s Blood in the Gutter, a comic style explanation of, as one of the guest speakers Liam Ward explained, the meaning of a shot is shaped by what isn’t in the shot. An explanatory example of this is through the average comic strip; in one panel is a man with a gun pointing at another, and in the next this second man is on the ground presumably dead. We don’t know that he was shot, and who it was that shot him if he was, but the ‘gutters’ in between the panels tell us something must be there because of our experiences. This idea of a shot being created not by what is in it, but by what isn’t in it, is also the idea that the meaning of a shot is shaped by the ‘ideas circulating in society’, and this also links to experience, or society as a whole’s experience, telling us that there must be something in the gutter.

The various media I have posted specifically for my self-portrait have not been so much a representation of me, as they’ve been a representation of the me of right now. Not so much a portrait reflecting my personality, characteristics, etc., as a reflection in the puddle of my day to day life which, honestly, is a pretty big part of me. I am the one living it, right? I’m not sure what my point is. Maybe it’s this; there is more to me than trains and tea and Samson the dog.

P.S. I hate that every time I open my blog I have to see the word ‘howdy’

Whenever I catch the train, the one going the opposite way contains carriage upon carriage of empty seats. The train I get on, whichever carriage, is always full of people in transit to the city. Just one time I wish to catch an empty carriage.

-another belated post (there will be a lot of these)

In the first lecture we were told to list 10 things we wanted to learn. Number one on my list; to be more self reflective. If I could condense my list into a short sentence, I would. But that isn’t really the point of the exercise. I’m going to do it anyway.
I want to learn.
That is it, that’s why I’m here; I want to know everything! (kind of)

More media related; I want to learn everything I can about media, to help myself in the world of media.