Real-world media. Something only truly defined by its relationship to newer, more digital forms of media:our phones, devices, or entire libraries of content that were created, hosted, and observed without ever being present in the physical world. Without digital media, real-world media would just be media.

It was also something that I had paid no attention to.

My view of real-world media was through the lens of a filmmaker: the use of CGI vs practical effects. The finest example of this being the Star Wars Special Editions — versions of the original Star Wars trilogy that had been ‘updated’ with CGI effects after their release. HelloGreedo (2015) reveals the true extent of the changes; A Youtube series by him shows the majority of the alterations made over the years. They’re essentially the same films, but their ‘digital’ vs ‘physical’ effects have small changes that can alter meaning and reading of the Star Wars saga (Allan, 2011). 

Why bring this up? Because at first, I thought this class was going to be the same. However our very first task, creating origami, changed that. When I realised that the origami I had been making was real world media, it broadened my view of real-world media referring to physical ways of creating media to the actual physical media itself. 

Reflecting on it, it also brings many questions to light. Is a film real-world media if it was edited digitally, then printed on a film reel? What about one that was filmed using 35mm then uploaded digitally? Questions like that are ones that I had no idea I’d be asking myself, all because of a simple origami session.

References:

Allan, S 2021, ‘Star Wars: 12 Ways The Special Editions Changed The Original Trilogy’, CBR, viewed 4 March 2023, <https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-special-editions-changed-original-trilogy/>.