Tagged: Networked Media

There is a story to be told here

Part of the interactive documentary Explore Shoreditch, this section uses interactivity to allow users to explore an audio interview and tilled video/photo gallery.

This section is fun to use and allows an interactive experience. It aims to explore a possible form that documentary could take on touch-devices.

Interactive documentary experts Mandy Rose, Judith Aston and Sandra Gaudenzi unpack the mysteries of interactive documentaries: what are they, what is exciting about them and how do they relate to the documentary tradition?

Through analysis of a range of interactive projects, all of which place new logics of authorship and storytelling at their core, the session provides participants with a set of conceptual tools to assist in the development of their own work.

Data Driven Stories: Aaron Koblin for the Future of StoryTelling 2012

Come to your Census (interactive media)

Working with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Spinifex have taken data visualization to a unique, eye catching new level through an amazing interactive projection on historic Cadman’s Cottage to promote the release of ABS’ 2011 Census data.

Networked media: while sitting at a cafe on a cold and wet Saturday afternoon in mid July.

Something a bit unkempt, even dishevelled. Smart, a lot – too many – of ideas. A sea indeed of ideas. An ocean of ideas. And there’s networked media. A boat. Certainly not a big one. Doesn’t really have a sail but there is some sort of mast to pin something on, against, to. Or a motor. Not adrift. It bobs, floats, weaves. Seeks and follows eddies of the breeze, currents, a wave. Sometimes it gets blown and washed around, other times darting along with deliberate intent revelling in its boat knowledge of breeze, current, wave. There is no shore. Not at least to be seen. Anywhere. All ocean, and because it is all water one place is as well as close enough, or further away, than any other. Each wave is different. Different enough to have a difference, a difference that matters. This gives this ocean contour, currents, eddies and tides. You dip an oar, seeking something over there, enjoying the whirl and whorl of water around the oar.

As a speculative curriculum, I find this metaphor for what we are studying quite fitting. The symbolism of water, rough tides, navigating a boat through a somewhat-but-not-always predictable atmosphere – these ideas readily lend themselves to something so ‘fluid’ as the changing media landscape and the places we can go both laterally and vertically. I’m a creative non-fiction fan, so I’m looking forward to playing with fiction and voice in this critical thinking and writing about the subject.

Making waves

 

In the tutorial I found myself thinking about how different aspects fit in to this metaphoric idea – I especially liked the idea of tsunami’s as changing paradigms, uprooting what we think of as knowledge with possible devastation, for more creative and interesting outcomes forming in it’s wake. The possibilities for networked media are truly unrealised, and I’m excited to be entering the industry in this time of creative change and innovation. I really don’t know what to expect.

 

 

 

Tentatively stepping into the rabbit hole of ‘Unlectures’

For once in a lecture I found myself listening, thinking, going off on a tangent or two… as opposed to the regular lecture format of frantically writing down notes and facts I need to memorise. Of the ‘unlecture’, already I am a fan.

I’ve found myself living by the phrases “You live, you learn” and “Learn by doing”, so this introduction to Networked Media already has me on side, with the prominent idea that we learn by making: through creating we demonstrate our thinking, in other words, our creations are expressions of our ideas.

I’m intrigued by the concepts of forward thinking and speculation about the future of this young industry, a playful and trusted immersion in the subject, and the instrution to take that step, trust the process and surrender my assumptions.

Alice down the rabbit hole

I’m an anxious person. I worry, I overthink, I stress about the trivial details that I can’t change. This semester I’m taking the step and trusting the process, learning by doing and learning from mistakes. If I fall over in the rabbit hole so be it – what can be created from this mistake? Where can we find meaning in the so-called failures? A wise woman once said, “If you are not making mistakes, you’re not taking enough risks.”

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

The above quote is from author Neil Gaiman‘s Make Good Art, and it’s a sentiment I think appropriate for this class, and for speculating on the future. Let’s take the leap and make new mistakes.