Author Archives: jamesnice

02 Sci-Fi Writer Bruce Sterling Explains the Intriguing New Concept of Design Fiction

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Design Fiction.  A definition seems in order.

An approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling.

This reflection stems from an interview with Hugo Award-winning science-fiction writer, Bruce Sterling, in 2012.  Sterling claims that to him, design fiction is “the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change…  It’s not a kind of fiction. It’s a kind of design”.

Some coincidences are scary.  Not a week ago, I viewed a news story which introduced to me the material ‘Graphene’, a flexible, light-weight, electricity-conducting material which has been dubbed as being “the material of the future”.  It’s future possibilities are endless.  Imagine: A computer tablet the same thickness as a piece of paper.  That you can stretch or shrink to the size you require.  That you could clip on and wear on your wrist.  That you can fold up and place in your pocket.  That can be scrunched into a ball and thrown at annoying siblings, and recovered undamaged.  This video helps to display only some graphene’s characteristics, leaving its applications open to the viewer…

Perhaps the best example of design fiction that I know, was discovered and posted about by one of my fellow classmate’s, Prani.  Using the example of Google Glass, Prani discusses how a seemingly bizarre, somewhat scary, and long-term futuristic concept may only be on the horizon and fast approaching…

Citation:  Bosch, Torie. “Sci-Fi Writer Bruce Sterling Explains the Intriguing New Concept of Design Fiction.” Slate. Web. 29 July 2013.

 

01 Blogs in Media Education

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One of the most useful reading I have found throughout the first half of the course.  A fantastic insight into the world of blogging, including a crash course in some common blog terminology, and some excellent reasons as to why blogging is both useful and productive.

Some key things I learned:

  • A blog is a web-based publication, of varying lengths, often considered to be an informal medium, with characteristics of being loquacious and sometimes garrulous. 
  • Can be written in a range of ‘voices’, including scholarly, personal, professional, conversational and humurous tones.  
  • Can be easily ‘interlinked’ between other blogs and other varying online pages.

So why blog?  Blogs are commonly used as a record to maintain ideas, reflections and activities.  These works, now public, can help to make contributions to the larger community; an action the author can reciprocate by reading and sharing other blogger’s works.   A term in this reading I came to admire, was the description of a blog as being the ‘development of an online portfolio’, and one which is obviously constantly expanding in both size and depth.

Also intriguing, is a blog’s ability to act as a place where students can ‘express doubt and insecurity about your knowledge’, unlike, for example, in an essay.  In this way, I am somewhat reassured that whatever content and knowledge I place in my blog, won’t necessarily been seen by my assessors as simply being incorrect, but likely as a process by which I can learn from any mistakes.
As I have been told countless times during my so far brief time spent at RMIT, the concern mostly for “The Journey, and not the Destination”.
Blogging is an exciting new technique by my personal way of learning, and I feel I have already benefited greatly from immersing myself in others’ blogs, and hope to give back to those who I have drawn on for inspiration via the posts on my page.

 

Citation:
Miles, Adrian. “Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning.” Australian Screen Ed.41 (2006): 66-9

BETA Banter Brings Back Brian

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Brian’s return this week led to a much more evenly balanced lecture, with Adrian and the three other tutors each evenly contributing to the discussion.  While it’s reasonably refreshing to hear the opinions of not just one primary lecturer, I had some concerns as to the possibility that we could be ‘fed’ differing and conflicting information and opinions on the topics of discussion.  However these concerns were quickly quashed, as the four bounced ideas off one another, which often lead to new insightful threads of discussion.  More riveting reflections next week.

The Progression of the Unlecture

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There has been much mixed reviews in regards to the new “Unlectures” over the last couple of weeks.  Our class held an open discussion last week in order to gauge more feedback, to a varied consensus.  Some believed there was little direction in the course and way of learning, while others believed it provided a fresh new take on the sometimes mundane structure of some subjects.

As for me, I’m still undecided.  Supposedly the “unlectures” are yet to take full flight, with Brian being absent, so I’ll reserve my opinions.  However, I do feel that if the “open forum” discussion structure is to work, more participation is needed from us, as the students, in the following weeks.

Not Sponges

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Over a week on, and I’m taking this chance to more formally reflect on last week’s first lecture for Networked Media.  It was definitely not what I was expecting, that’s for sure.  Day one, and lecturer, Adrian Miles, has already fondly dubbed these weekly occurrences for this semester as the “unlecture”.  I’m listening!

Adrian’s spiel was illuminating, to say the least.  “Not sponges”, he said, dismissing the way typical lectures are conducted; students half asleep, eyes glazed over, heads lolled to one side, and mouths slightly ajar as they drool onto their shoulder as though the knowledge and information being distributed to them were via an intravenous drip in their arm.

No.  These lectures are to be different.  More, an open forum discussion, where individuals can speak their thoughts aloud, and more importantly ideas can be “bounced” off one another to learn in this way.  With that, I can metaphorically see us no longer as sponges, but as the little silver balls of a Newton’s Cradle, only less structured, and moving in differing, wild directions.  And instead of momentum slowly coming to a halt, steadily gaining in speed and rapidity, with the little clinking of metal signifying the ticking of our brains.

00 What is Networked Media? (The Subject)

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Networked Media.  Just a little over one week into the course and I have to admit, I do feel a little lost.  A “speculative curriculum”…  If we’re about to “set sail” and immerse ourselves in this vast subject of information, the network, this “sea of ideas”… I’m feeling like a need a compass.  Or like I’ve already missed the boat.

Yet I’ve said to myself I won’t sit around and wait for a brain “wave”, or a helpful gust of wind to push me in the right direction.  I’ll submerge myself in this blog, the network, this subject, this course, starting now, whether I’m heading to the right destination or not.

“There is no shore”.  Not yet.  If I dive in head first now, maybe I’ll find a promising horizon in the near future.  I’ll dabble.  Soon, I’ll be swimming, and I hope as this course comes to a close, I’m in my motorboat storming home over the finish line.