Studio Reflection
Weird feelings helped us develop critical awareness and a relationship with how we consume and relate to our own and other people’s work/art. I was thrilled and honored to be a part of this exhibition, where I could not only make but also see and experience other people’s unique and creative projects that they were deeply invested in. I always felt immersed in older technology and wanted to integrate that love into my various projects developed throughout the semester. Being able to produce my work centered around what I love helped to make this a fun and enjoyable assignment, but also one I knew I could create and engage with effectively. In terms of engagement, my project looked to help develop a relationship between the sounds I’ve recorded with the audience. When choosing what sounds I wanted to layer onto my cassette, I specifically chose sounds and songs that would appear recognisable to different generations. For example, I included an early 2000’s ringtone. Or arcade sounds from the 80s. Glitching sounds from multiple decades is what I wanted to convey to show that sense of fragility and limitations or restrictions of not only digital but analog technology. In a way this also helped to convey the new aesthetic, observing the connection between how old analog technology connects with newer digital technology and how our relationship with both terms has changed dramatically over time. My project looked to integrate both time periods and ideas of the two types of technology and how distant we have grown from analog technology, and I showed this through the interconnectedness of both technology and its decades of sounds over time. I wanted to somewhat capitalise on the distant feeling we get from digital media nowadays and how we compare that feeling with the analog media we used to consume and connect with in our past. Conveying this feeling through glitching and the new aesthetic helped me develop a better understanding into the time and relationship with had with our older technology and how the new digital era has in a sense taken away a lot of the feelings we used to get from analog, such DVDs compared to streaming. One of the biggest experiments I could take away from before the main project, was experiment 2 ‘take it apart’. Evidently it was also my favorite. Taking apart the Sony Walkman helped me to develop an understanding of the inner workings of older technology and is what gave me the idea to create and experiment with the recordings of digital sounds onto analog technology. That relationship between new and old technology made me feel lost in a way, distant. But being able to get the chance to work on this assignment/project, allowed me to develop a stronger connection with older technology as well as an appreciation of the difference in technology over the years. Because without the development of this technology, my project wouldn’t even exist. I appreciated being able to experience everyone else’s projects and seeing unique ideas being developed over the weeks. While there was little “Collaboration” in the sense where we work on projects together. I felt there were great opportunities to connect with others over their own projects. Sharing advice and criticism that helped to structure our projects. Without these collaborations I wouldn’t have cut out certain parts of my project that could have impacted the final result. In saying that, if I were to continue my media artefact, I would then incorporate the idea that I cut out originally. While my project relied on sound, I originally had an idea to incorporate a video aspect that saw me listening to the sounds I recorded and using AI to visualise those sounds. For the exhibition, I and others felt it would have been too much and i agree. I’m happy with the idea I decided to follow as it focused on more on the audio aspect rather than delegating towards audio and visual. Having a solely audio-based project helped to centralise my idea stronger. I appreciated how much the studio dove into the strangeness of digital media or at least how our relationship with it can be viewed as somewhat strange. Technology has had such a large impact on our lives it can be hard to see what life what be like without these advancements. However, realising how dependent we actually are with technology is weird and honestly scary sometimes. This course helped to dive deeper into that connection we all have with digital technology and using ways in which we can visualise or fabricate a tangible creation to further convey our understanding or even confusion around this relationship. Moving forward, i think what I’ve learnt, is that it is important for us to have this connection and understanding towards what kind of feelings and relationships we have with technology as whole. Because sometimes, WEIRD FEELINGS can be both hard and interesting to understand.
Link to Final project:
https://www.mediafactory.org.au/ronin-donnelly/2024/10/28/what-the-hell-am-i-listening-to/
Citation:
Bridle, James. “The New Aesthetic.” British Journal of Photography, vol. 159, no. 7804, 2012, pp. 66–71 Accessed 27th October 2024 https://jamesbridle.com/works/the-new-aesthetic
Cameron, A. 2017. 19. Facing the Glitch: Abstraction, Abjection and the Digital Image. Indefinite Visions: Cinema and the Attractions of Uncertainty. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 334-352. Accessed 27th October 2024
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781474407137-022/html#Harvard
Freer, Scott. “MAGRITTE: THE UNCANNY SUBLIME.” Literature & Theology, vol. 27, no. 3, 2013, pp. 330–44, Accessed October 27th, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1093/litthe/frs056