Activity:

Smart-Phone Photo Feed

I started using the platform around 2012/2013

Date: 12 April 2022

This was photo was taken on a spontaneous trip to Great Ocean Road with my friends. We left in the middle of the night and arrived at the beach in time for the sunrise. That morning it was freezing and we were sitting on the beach in our blankets and pyjamas watching the sunrise.

Assignment 2: https://vimeo.com/712064786

Assignment 2 Reflection:

The prompt for assignment two was a synthetic media portrait, a short 3-minute film on a day in the life of an AI system. Considering the brief, I decided to explore the future potential of a home assistance system, similar to what we see in homes today with smart speakers like google home. Focusing on the benefits of these systems, as well as, the potential threats.

Background

My short film, “Home Assistant”, followed a system in the home of a person. The system was involved throughout day of the person while they were in their house- waking them up, paying their bills, playing music and ordering them food. The system also had the ability to detect when the person was hungry and offered them food (a potential in the expansion and development existing technologies in the future). Highlighting the benefits that this AI technology can offer us. However, at the end of my short film, this system is hacked, releasing this person’s data and the data of others across the country. Also highlighting the potential dangers of this system.

The threats and dangers that these systems pose are explored in an article by the guardian- “‘Alexa are you invading my privacy?’- The dark side of our voice assistants” by Dorian Lynskey (2019). This article particularly focuses on privacy concerns related to these AI technologies, and the conflict between efficiency and privacy. As these systems collect tons of data on their users. An idea that I aimed to highlight in my short film. This is particularly relevant and necessary to explore with the growing number of people using this technology. The article referencing research that showed 1 in 5 adults in the US own a home voice assistant.

“The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation” (Brundage et al. 2018), also explores potential threats that future AI systems can introduce. They highlight the idea of new threats that can “exploit vulnerabilities in AI systems”. For instance, the potential of these systems to be hacked, like I captured in my short film.

Evaluation of the Final Short Film,”Home Assistant”

I shot the short film in my apartment, and I aimed for a natural atmosphere, to make the system appear realistic.  Although, because it was shot across several days, I struggled to keep the set consistent and if you pay attention to the background of shots there may be slight differences. This is something that I will work on in the future and aim to shoot everything in one day to avoid these inconsistencies.

The editing process for this assignment was a lot longer, and more comprehensive than any of the other projects that I have worked on. Through YouTube tutorials, I taught myself how to make the screen turn into static, which is something I will definitely take away from this assignment and use in future projects. Although, in the editing process I struggled with editing the audio and eliminating background noise. Which is something I need to work on in the future.

Overall, I think that my final short film successfully explored a day in the life of an AI system- the benefits, as well as, potential threats that they can pose to us.

Reference List

Brundage, M., Avin, S., Clark, J., Toner, H., Eckersley, P., Garfinkel, B., Dafoe, A., Scharre, P., Zeitzoff, T., Filar, B. and Anderson, H. (2018). The malicious use of artificial intelligence: Forecasting, prevention, and mitigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.07228.

Lynskey, D. (2019). ‘Alexa are you invading my privacy?’- The dark side of our voice assistants. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/09/alexa-are-you-invading-my-privacy-the-dark-side-of-our-voice-assistants

Assignment 1: https://vimeo.com/698211252

Assignment 1 Reflection

The prompt for Assignment 1 was to create a short video on what the workplace of tomorrow might look like and identify growing technologies. Through my research on future the development of new technologies, I was able to identify that while they promise to enhance our current workplaces and make working life easier, they also come with a host of new dangers. For instance, will these new technologies replace real workers who rely on their job? Or will these new technologies be safe to use?Ultimately, bringing us to the question- what are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of advancing our workplaces?

For my assignment, I focused on the development of brain implants. Companies like Elon Musk’s, Neuralink, are designing brain implants to link the brain with technology, allowing you to control your electronic devices with a thought. This brain implant is designed to help relieve the symptoms of certain neurodegenerative diseases and illnesses. However, as we continue to develop this technology there is the possibility that it may eventually integrate into the lives and the workforce of the general population. My project focusing on the introduction of a brain implant named “Neurachip” in an office environment. The implant designed to improve typing and communication with coworkers, making it faster and easier. However, as a new technology, the risks of brain implants have not been fully explored but can include health problems, such as- seizures, strokes, headaches, blood clots, brain swelling or inflection, it can also include learning difficulties or memory loss, and there is also the potential risk of someone hacking into the brain chip. All these risks are serious and could possibly be fatal to the individual with the brain chip.

For this assignment I structured the video as an advertisement for the ‘Neurachip’ within an office setting. The advertisement is designed as a typical corporate advertisement of a product. A voiceover describing the benefits of the product with an actor demonstrating its use, with upbeat music playing in the background. However, at the end I made sure to list all the negative side-effects of the product. Modelling my advertisement for the brain implant after the advertisements that air for prescription medication (mostly in the US)- for example the Trulicity commercial or the Vyvanse commercial. The negative messaging at the ending creates a sinister undertone to the advertisement overall, making the positive and upbeat tone appear fake and artificial. Overall, highlighting the sacrifices that our society are willing to make for the sake of progress and advancement.

In terms of the execution of this assignment, I believe it was relatively successful but there is definitely room for improvement. The positive and upbeat tone was reflected predominately in the background music, and the bright blue logo for the Neurachip. In the process of editing this project, I also learnt how to create a hologram effect through Premiere Pro to create a hologram version of a computer screen and a phone screen. However, the audio for the voice-over in the final cut is not the best quality, coming through the microphone on my iPhone. In order to avoid this in the future, I am planning on investing in a better-quality microphone. Additionally, when filming I was limited to my small apartment which does not resemble an office space and as a result, all my shots came from my study desk. Therefore, the office-space environment that I was aiming for in the advertisement was limited.

Week 1-3 Reading Notes

Privacy Attitudes of Smart Speaker Users (Malkin et al. 2019), is a paper on the privacy risk to individuals that smart speakers pose. Through their research Malkin and colleagues discovered that smart speaker users were unaware of the policies surrounding their data storage, and they were opposed to the retention of their data from the smart speakers. This paper highlights the manipulative ways in which large smart speaker companies collect data from their users. The findings from this research paper, can be applied to future and newer forms of artificial technology. Although, in future technologies like a brain implant, there is a greater pool of information accessible, and the scope of privacy breaches are significantly higher than the data collected by smart speakers. Therefore, if the manipulation and deception of artificial intelligence companies that was identified in the research paper continues, data collection that users are unaware of and opposed to will likely worsen.

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment (Petropoulos, 2018) considers the impact that developing Artificial Intelligence technologies may have on employment in the future. Petropoulos outlines the two main ways that technological advancements can impact employment- through the displacement effect (workers lose their jobs) and the productivity effect (it creates more jobs). However, the rise of Artificial Intelligence is occurring on a larger scale than previous innovations, and the displacement effect is more likely than the productivity effect. Therefore, technologies like a brain implant which enhance ability rather than replacing workers may be necessary in order to reduce the displacement effect.

The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation (Brundage et al. 2018) is a paper that explores the threats that future Artificial Intelligence technologies pose and how those threats should be mitigated. In addition to the threats identified in the Malkin et al. (2019) reading and the Petropoulos (2018) reading, this paper explores how Artificial Intelligence can be used or compromised to create new dangerous threats and expand existing ones. Their research highlights a range of sinister uses of Artificial Intelligence, those that may be a targeted threat to the Artificial Intelligence, a brain implant includes a vulnerability to hackers and the threat of a privacy breach. In order to combat these threats- they propose that further research into the implications of Artificial Intelligence is necessary and, ethical standards and policy should be developed to manage the output and usage of Artificial Intelligence. Although these changes may reduce the threats associated with Artificial Intelligence, they are still in the research stage and have not been implemented yet.

Reference List

Brundage, M., Avin, S., Clark, J., Toner, H., Eckersley, P., Garfinkel, B., Dafoe, A., Scharre, P., Zeitzoff, T., Filar, B. and Anderson, H. (2018). The malicious use of artificial intelligence: Forecasting, prevention, and mitigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.07228.

Malkin, N., Deatrick, J., Tong, A., Wijesekera, P., Egelman, S., & Wagner, D. (2019). Privacy attitudes of smart speaker users. Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2019(4).

Petropoulos, G. (2018). The impact of artificial intelligence on employment. Praise for Work in the Digital Age, 119, 121.

Assignment 4: https://vimeo.com/655747872

“Life is not a party” is a short coming of age film of a girl celebrating her 18th birthday during a COVID-19 lockdown. The film is shown entirely through the desktop of a teenage girl’s laptop and the footage shot entirely through a laptop. We all decided that setting a coming of age type of film in lockdown could be an interesting exploration of isolation and loneliness. Along with the social isolation from their friends and family that adolescents typically experience, there’s also the physical isolation from all your friends and family during lockdown. Additionally, we contrast these themes of isolation and loneliness with the bright and fun nature of adolescents- shown through the layout and aesthetic of the film and the soundtrack.

Genre

The coming of age genre is usually marked by a number of different tropes. The soundtrack/music, social gatherings/ friend group, some form of symbol to mark their transition from adolescence, and in more recent coming of age movies- the impact of technology.

The Soundtrack

One of the most important aspects of a coming of age film is the soundtrack, so we decided that a lot of focus had to be on deciding what music we were going to use in our short. Ultimately we decided on an upbeat fun song- which reflects the bright and fun nature of teenage life, and also contrasts with the boredom of lockdown that the main character is going through.

Social Gatherings/Friend Group

The main protagonist in our film is an unnamed girl celebrating her birthday in lockdown. As the short is set during lockdown we couldn’t showcase the typical friend group that you see in the coming of age genre. However, the film does show the minimal social interaction that could occur during this time through a zoom birthday party with her two friends.

Symbolism

At the end of the Zoom party, the main protagonist brings out a birthday cake with candles in it, the film ending with the singing of happy birthday. This represents the character coming of age and growing up during this extremely weird time of isolation and lockdown.

Technology

More recent coming of age movies, such as Eighth Grade, also showcase the importance of technology in adolescence and while growing up. An idea that became true for all of us during lockdown and had many of us living through the internet. This is a focal point of our short, with the entire film shown through the desktop of a laptop. The graphic and bright layout of the laptop was inspired by Gen Z and the e-girl aesthetic and gives the viewer an insight into the personality of our main character.

Production Process and Finished Film

When beginning to work on the assignment, after planning out what we wanted to do, we assigned each member to a different role and outlined a production schedule for shooting and editing the project. Although the team roles remained consistent throughout the project, due to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to remain fixed to our schedule. The main challenge was internet difficulties- the shooting for the film (primarily done through Photobooth) wasn’t uploading to Google Drive in a format that was accessible to the other team members. Additionally, Zoom wasn’t working for Nina on the day they were planning to shoot the final scene (unable to start a session or join one). As a result, by the time all the shooting was complete and accessible to everyone, we didn’t have enough time to edit the project before the final deadline. However, in the beginning of this project we had an idea of the type of film that we wanted to make and a plan to get there. A coming of age movie, that explores themes of sadness and isolation in association with the fun and liveliness of teenage (often gen-z) culture.  Visually, we were inspired by films that are based in online culture and technology, like Unfriended or Searching- and decided to set our film entirely on the desktop of a laptop, a concept that would be visually unique and also relevant to teenage culture, as well as the coming of age genre in general. Although it took longer than we planned to complete our film, I believe that we hit all the points that we aimed to and I’m happy with the final product we produced.

Final Reflection

Overall, this assignment re-affirmed how much I struggle with working online, as opposed to in-person. I find that the gap between you and the other group members makes it difficult to communicate ideas very clearly and maintain a consistent schedule. However, I’m definitely happy with how we worked together to turn this assignment out. In the future, I would like to learn how to collaborate better over the internet, and perhaps to also encourage more face-to-face interaction with the other group members on an assignment.

Jemile Kendjer

‘Troubling Genre/Reconstructing Gender’ by E. Ann Kaplan

For my reflection I chose the essay written by Kaplan on women’s film– the feminist rise in cinema. I grew up watching a lot of horror movies (in particular) and I’m familiar with the traditional roles that women and girls are often stuck with- particularly within this genre. But Kaplan shines the light on a growing genre in cinema that is subverting these stereotypes and creating more interesting characters to watch and relate to. 

Point 1: Film genres are used to reinforce gender stereotypes and power relationships.

Kaplan explores how film genres are used to reinforce gender constructs- limiting women to a limited number of roles based on outdated stereotypes. A system that prevents the representation of true and complex female characters in film. However, these genres, like gender, are also a construct that are utilised by Hollywood to market films. This means that genre can be collapsed and reconstructed. Rebuilt to break down power dynamics and gendered stereotypes that hold women back and provide true representation on the screen.  

Point 2: Women’s film integrated aspects of existing cinema genres, while also subverting the gender stereotypes and the viewers expectations. 

Kaplan provides examples of two genres of film that women’s cinema have reimagined free of the gendered expectations that are typically expected in these sorts of films- horror and film noir. This movement was pioneered by feminist activists and female directors who in spite of the largely misogynistic and male dominated industry created their own form of cinema. 

This was achieved by creating complex and interesting characters beyond the prototype characters that women were tied to “the virgin/whore” “mother/mistress” or the “femme fatale” . Therefore, breaking down these stale genres and opening the door for new interpretations that cross boundaries and re-imagine the old with fresh ideas. 

By deconstructing existing genres of film, women’s cinema is establishing itself as a new genre of film that is exciting to see, creating better representation on the screen and reflecting the social and political change we are seeing around the world in regards to gender.