Reflecting back on this semester, the most important thing i have come to realise is the great value in noticing, being aware of the surroundings and thinking further about relations between all subjects. If before i was only prone to noticing things that really stood out and were purposed to be noticed, the projects that i commenced this semester allowed me to see beyond that.

By setting up methods and rules, it worked as a guide and directed me through the process of media making and by trying different ways of media making and following through with them, i was able to train myself to practise media making in times where i normally would pass by without a single thought.

In my first project, through the use of film camera and its way of mechanics, i discovered the beauty in anticipation in the process of media making. There are so many risks that must be taken in consideration and i would not recommend it to people who need their pictures to come out exactly how they saw it through the viewfinder and imagined them to be but for my project it was perfect. I was surprised with so many things in the photos that i din’t expect to see which made the examination of the photos much more exciting. When i thought one object fitted the specification i initially set up for this project in a certain way, when looking through the photos, i noticed there was actually another object in the photo that fitted the specification also. This made me think about how before the media making process, we set up an object of photography in our minds for example we think ‘i’m going to take a picture of that red balloon’ but without the function to focus film cameras just focuses on everything which allows us to notice things we couldn’t see at the time and place of media taking so only once you have developed the image, you notice something else next to the balloon you didn’t notice or see at the time because you were too focused on the balloon.

I was amused by the contrast between what we make the object of photography and what actually becomes the focal point of the photo. What we see and choose to be the focal point of the photography at the time of media making is relative to our intention of photography and our thoughts so if we couldn’t notice something due to whatever reason, cameras don’t lie and regardless of their feelings or the weather, they capture what is there as it is. So what we thought was going to be the focal point of the image and we think we are positioning it right in the middle to make it the focal point, the film camera may not agree and the picture may come out as your object of photography (red balloon) in the left corner and something else like  a big sunflower right in the middle standing tall, stealing the red balloon’s supposed focal point but because of that ‘mis-happening’, you are able to notice things that not only you couldn’t see at the time but also things you didn’t give a single thought about leading to more gaining of information.

From this point i was intrigued by focal points and started off project 3 with noticing the qualities of focal points in photography and whether people saw focal points differently from each other.

In the next project i moved in a trajectory manner and moved through different phases of noticing. Some of the major learnings i encountered was that firstly focal points are made up of a variety of things such as position, lightning, colour, but the most definite was repetition. When people see three different photos with the exact same object in each one, regardless of the position and size as long as its visible to our eye, people pick up repetitive patterns very quickly and that object will hands down be the focal point. In the second experiment i explored the concept of un-staged media by taking photos of the road every 30minutes of the sunrise which led to the idea of noticing uncontrollable situations. I noticed that nothing is really controllable not the sun, the rain, the snow whether it is natural or unnatural. Every situation can be stopped it’s just a matter of how much force must go into it in order to change the situation. Another major thing that i noticed was that we tend to notice less of the surroundings around us when we are in a moving transport (which i defined as uncontrollable in my project). If we are in control of the situation we stay attentive. For example if we were the driver in control of a bus we must be alert for road signs and keep our eyes on the road looking out for anything that might interfere with the trip but passengers that are on the bus are less attentive. 40minutes of travelling time for the passengers who really have no direct responsibility on where the bus goes, means they are positioned in a limited space where movements are restricted and nowadays with advanced technology most people go on their phones. However this conception might have occurred because my experiment focused mainly on public transports because i thought public transports were the furthest from our control. (It is controlled by a higher authority and heavy consequences follow when tried to be controlled forcefully way different from our siblings or friends  driving.)

All the noticing i have gathered from my previous projects i used to build a method for my final project which was to not focus on the media making itself and go through multiple cycles of noticing to find out the relation between intentional and unintentional noticing.

Honestly i think there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to exploring more creative possibilities of media making. I only used photography and filming in my projects and i don’t think i was researching and concerned enough with the technical sides of media making. However i believe i was never stuck in a box to take media in a particular way using particular methods and was never afraid to try different things that were easily doable and accessible to me such as filming inside an enclosed fridge by placing the camera there and shutting it. I also think that what my work doesn’t do so well is allowing the viewers other than myself to see what i have noticed. The most difficult part for me was presenting and organising all the media items in a way that prompts the audience to notice and understand the relations of the media items and my thought process. I actually think i failed with the video i made for project 4 as the media items just presented one by one along with the titles for each segment was too weak and not enough to demonstrate the flow of each segment, how they relate to one another, and what went through my mind in those media making processes. I think it could have been improved with a narrative voice over which i couldn’t do due to my lack of time management.

What i wanted to know by doing project 4 was the relationship between intentional and unintentional noticing the order of it and how it affects our media making. From what i have noticed is that basically nothing is unintentional. There is a reason for everything and for my case the whole project itself had an intention, a huge one so i can’t really say what was intentional and what was not because even when i was supposed to be ‘unintentionally’ noticing i had to search.

Whenever i looked at my media items i was looking for subjects to notice and then I was searching for things  that were related to that subject that was chosen to be noticed. Visually there are reasons why we notice certain things in photographs and films and that is easier to manipulate. I think constant media taking is a really good practise to prompt yourself to notice more and teach yourself the skills of revealing the unseen through media. Because you can notice something but by taking the extra step of taking a media of it leads to afterthoughts and more questions which leads to research on that subject. Without curiosity and noticing then studying the unknown there will be no developments in the world. As i have discovered the huge difference between just seeing and taking media of what i saw or the other way around taking media of something then  noticing something out of it i want to challenge myself to take in the habit of media taking. During the process of media making you will notice things that are obvious, things you may know already but those things that you notice will remind you of other things such as information or feelings that you never think about in you busy life.

I believe noticing is about enhancing and enticing our mind and our view.