https://www.instagram.com/p/CA0pWkjH6cv/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For the media work of the assignment, I want to explore recording via the Instagram app just like how I took the photo. But for the video, I want to record through the story feature of the app. On my main account, I record stories quite often for my followers to see what goes on in my life on a daily basis. The story feature also has many interesting components like filters. The “Tokyo” filter is a black and white one and is used by me to produce this video. When producing the video, it was a cold night and there was moisture on my window. I thought I could record myself drawing something out of the liquid, and I drew an X. The black and white filter helps the X sign to sort of going into the light source at the back, which I found pretty interesting. The thing with the story video is there is no way to edit them with components like brightness, saturation,… which is a constraint but when posting them, there is always an option to further edit. For the video, I kept it defaulted with the “Tokyo” filter.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For this video, I just focused on hashtags that are popular and significant, while are still related to the post to see how it would perform. I want to focus on the faded X sign that I drew, so I chose #X along with #window, #nighttime and #winter. All of them are used in millions of posts. As always, the location is set in Melbourne and the caption is “Colder than my X”, which could have many meanings and I thought this could attract some potential users to like the post.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I again shared to Tumblr and Twitter but as before, I think the significance of the post would rely on its components on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA0pJ31B6kr/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For the third set of media, I want to explore producing media directly from the Instagram app. For this photo, I decided to take the photo of my ring. As I only allow one source of light in the room, the shadow of the ring looks quite interesting which intrigued me into taking some tests with it for being the media. As I was taking the photo, to my surprise, the app picked the focal point quite well, pretty much the same with taking the first photo via the camera app. As I was going for a few attempts to pick the best angle, I realised that the shadow with the ring would intertwine in together to create an abstract number 8. More significantly, if I rotate the angle horizontally, it would become the infinity sign. This would play in well with the abstract nature that I want to create for this account. I liked this discovery so much that I took it in one shot. It could be seen that the ring and the shadow are not in center of the photo, which is due to me trying not to get my own shadow into photo. The most important thing would be for the infinity sign to work, which it worked to my satisfaction.

Then, I realised I could choose the filter as always before posting. I contemplated between two black and white filters: “Moon” and “Inkwell” but ultimately went with the latter one as I liked its contrast more. Everything else is kept defaulted. One thing I don’t like about the Instagram camera, however, is I could not view the scene in full as there is a space limit to allow for the recording button. To me, it is quite a pointless constraint as the button takes too much space from the recording screen. The end product does not seem to be impacted though.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I posted the photo again to the Instagram account, this time with more hashtags than ever: #infinity, #abstract, #blackandwhite, #bnw, #blackandwhitephotography, #ring, #shadow, #phonetography. Some attract millions of posts, while some only have some thousands and hundreds of thousands. Nonetheless, I decided to include all of them as they relate to my photo best. The caption is the famous quote “To infinity, and beyond”, which indicates the significance of me trying to create the infinity symbol with my ring.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I again shared them to both the Twitter and the Tumblr account but I do not expect more viewers to view the post from there with reasons already discussed from the previous media works.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAzvhc8nk5J/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For the second video of the assignment, I decided to fit in with the photo and record via the app Foodie. The idea came into my head as I was taking a walk around where I live and suddenly there was this uproar of wind. I thought this could be interesting to record for the assignment, so I took my phone out. Again, my phone is an iPhone 8Plus and the video is recorded directly through the app Foodie with a black and white filter applied.

I must admit, after posting it, I realised the video was not quite what I expected. I basically saw this tall light and wanted to use it as kind of a focal point of the video – a spark of light at the top. Part of me of that moment thought: well, if this is to go in line with the concept of working under a difficult circumstance of a global health emergency, the light would be my resemblance of hope. But it was probably too bright. I tried to adjust directly from the app but it would only allow me to tone down the filter which would completely ruin the black and white concept. Hence, I kept it the way it was. Another important point of the video is the sound of wind. I wanted to make this the focus, so I allow audio for this video because the sound was quite intriguing and the post would lack half its point if I cut out the audio. The concept for the video was quite simple, so I recorded it in one go.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I again posted on the Instagram account that was created exclusively for the assignment. I posted it public with the location of Melbourne to show where the video is produced. I used a number of hashtags such as: #blackandwhite, #bnw, #wind, #windy, #windynight, #winter and #winternight. Most of them came at the top of my head and I wanted to try to include more hashtags to see if it would attract more likes. It is worth noting that some hashtags are appealing than others, even though they mean pretty much the same thing. For this video, I decided to include all of them without considering which one would support the post to reach out the best. The more, the merrier. The caption is put “The wind rises”, which is inspired from a Ghibli Studio animation I watched recently. I just thought it sounds more interesting than just put “Windy night”. I fits in with a sort of poetic, abstractive, artistic nature that I am trying to set with this account along with the main theme of black and white.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I again shared the post to Twitter and Tumblr but as usual, I don’t expect any significant impact from circulating the post there in consideration of attracting more focus to my work. This is due to the fact that the two accounts on these social networking sites are also brand new without a base of follower. How tweets work also play in, as the post would come as a plain tweet that is just not interesting. Hence, focusing on the performance of the post on Instagram might be the most useful way to attract more viewers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAyLuhKBmX6/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For the second sets of media of the assignment, I want to make things a bit different from the first posts. Instead of making the content via the phone’s camera app, I will look to produce through a different app. In this case, I chose Foodie which is one of my favourite app to take photos because of its quality filters. Originally, the app aids culinary content, but I have found for a number of years now that it works perfectly with any scenario. You just need to pick a filter that suits the scene and on you go with taking photos. However, I have not taken a black and white theme photo via the app before so I’m not entire sure how the filter would look. I also have never used the video taking feature so this part of the experience would be all new.

To truly taking in how Foodie would work with black and white filter, I chose Food as the theme for the second photo. In particular, a bowl of rice that I ordered is the focus of this photo. To go in line with the whole social distancing circumstances that I am trying to align all these pieces of media together, I have been relying heavily of delivered goods to get on since locking down began. This bowl of rice is a typical example. For the work, I simply chose a black and white filter and took the photo. There is actually only a single black and white filter, so I did not have to pick between any. I did not quite like how the angle looked at first, so it took me a few attempts to get a right angle for the photo. I then adjusted the brightness on a few of them, but ultimately the one with default black and white filter fancied me the most and that is the one I decided to post in the end. The thing I like about Foodie is the camera seems to pick the focal point really well, and I did not have to use flash as the light that I set in the room at that moment really fit in with the black and white theme. Compared to how I took the photo on the camera app, I think the black and white filter of Foodie is much better than the noir one of the phone as the saturation of colour scheme seems to be more distinct but at the same time looks more balanced. In short, this filter is just better. Also, I found editing on the Foodie app simpler than on the camera app as there are less features. And this works in a good way.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

As mentioned, it took me a few attempts of taking and editing before I came up with the ultimate photo. When posting to the account, I applied the location of Melbourne and a number of hashtags: #foody, #food, #foodporn, #blackandwhite, #bnw, #photography, #rice and #ricebowl. Compared to the first photo, with this one, I put more focus on the hashtags and I found that #foody, #food and #foodporn are the more popular hashtags with millions of posts. I did not really think about this aspect with the first post, although I included a lot of tags. Including these specific tags would be a must in attracting and reaching more potential users with my post. The post is again public, and the caption is “A happy bowl of noir”. I thought this is a simple caption, yet sounds quite interesting and more users might double-tap with this caption.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I again shared them to Twitter and Tumblr. The new accounts did not have any follower base, and I did not follow any account. Hence, I think the posts would not reach anyone. The post on Instagram, however, has more likes compared to the first post in a much shorter period of time. I think focusing on the reaching ability of the hashtags worked really well for this post as it helps more viewers to see my post.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAxxL43HwRi/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I want to bring my sets of photo and video align. They might be different slightly but overall the main concept of creating them would be the same. Hence, with the first video, I use the camera feature of my iPhone 8Plus – the same way I used to create the first photo. I decide to record a video of my watch on my hand showing the movement of the watch hands. This idea came as during periods of social distancing, sometimes we could have too much time on our hands but we might not know how to spend them effectively. The process of recording was quite straightforward and the video was recorded in one shot. Same as the photo, I then changed only the filter of the video to noir while keeping everything else defaulted. I thought this is a simple yet interesting way to record something in black and white. I want viewers to focus on the movement of the watch hands, hence I muted the audio but there was pretty much no sound in the original video anyway apart from my breathing. It is worth noticing that my hand was quite shaky because of the cold temperature in my room, which could be a constraint of holding the phone to record the video without a help of a, say, selfie stick.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

As mentioned, I recorded the video in one go so I did not have to choose from different videos. When posting, I also set the location to Melbourne as it is where the video is recorded. I used hashtags #time, #watch, #blackandwhite and #bnw in hopes of attracting more users to my post. The caption is “rolling”, indicating the main focus of the post in the movement of the watch hands. I notice that the video automatically replays after it comes to an end, which is quite interesting as I do not post many videos up. I reckon this is a feature implying for all videos from Instagram as there was not any option to whether or not I would like the video to automatically replay when I posted. The post is public so more users can view my work.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

Same as the photo, this video is shared to both my new Tumblr and Twitter account with the same features as the photo. It is interesting to note that the video does not play automatically on Tumblr as I have to touch on the playing button in order for it to play out. The link on Tumblr is also not a hyperlink but rather a line that I have to copy and paste out if I want to visit the post. However, there is an option to view my Instagram profile, which would take users directly to the Instagram app. After the video plays out once, it does not replay automatically. Choosing to play again will take users straight to the post on the Instagram app. On Twitter, the link is a hyperlink but will take users to a webpage of the post rather than the Instagram app.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAyENwHBniE/?igshid=3hwyhdkfo67a&fbclid=IwAR2xxjBY6BXJfADoOC38IfQgPG623Rci5hcf-IeSrXXMCckht8xYMFntpLA

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For the photos and videos to be produced for this assignment, I want to explore and in a way experiment with some concepts that I normally do not try on my main Instagram account, especially considering the fact that I have created a fresh account for the course of the assignment. I have two Instagram accounts prior to this task. My main account is one that I use in everyday life, updating my daily routine and just whatever I want to post to people that know and follow me. Another one is a private account that I strictly limit my number of followers as it is more personal and I only use this account to communicate with a few people in my extreme inner circle. With both accounts, I don’t normally follow any particular theme like vibrant colour schemes or noir, although black and white photos always attract me. I have always wanted a platform to give this a go and this assignment seems to be the perfect opportunity.

I also want to bring the connection of how we as mediators are facing certain constraints during this difficult time of a global health emergency. Hence, the first photo that I took is one that is related to my health issue. I have been suffering from a stomach ache for weeks due to a prior illness, and had been reluctant to visit a clinic due to an inner fear of going out at the moment. Hence, I had been relying on some turmeric droplets to numb down the pain. This photo records moment after the droplets diffuse into the water. For the first photo, I wanted to keep it simple and took it using the camera of my iPhone 8Plus. After that, I edited it via the photo and just changed the filter to noir. I thought it looks interesting in black and white already and did not make any further changes. From this first photo, black and white will be the main theme of my assignment. I found the iPhone’s camera easy to take photos and edit and for this particular one, there was no constraint at all. The focal point was easy to adjust. Editing wise, it would also be easy to adjust brightness or contrast, but I just kept it default with the filter because I already liked the way it looks with the filter applied. When taking it, I brought the camera close to the water level of the mug just so the focus would be on point to the way I fancy. I did not use flash as I thought this would ruin the whole black and white them of the photo.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

It actually took me a few attempts to get the photo I like that was posted as I had to adjust the angle a few times for the final result to fit in with my liking. Then, I just compared all of them after applying the noir filter and picked the one that I liked the most, although to be honest, there were not many differences to separate them as I turned all the lights off par from a bed side lamp to aid with the aspect of the black and white theme. When posting it to the account @kn_nm2020 that I made exclusively for the task, I applied the location of Melbourne as this is where the photo is taken. I also added some hashtags to make the photo attracting and reaching more users, which were #blackandwhite, #bnw, #photography, #phonetography, #abstract and #painkiller. #painkiller was used to fit in with the caption of the photo: “Painkiller”. The post is public so it could reach as many users as possible.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

As mentioned, I used a number of hashtags as well as a location to help the post reaching as many users as possible. I choose to share the photo to Twitter and Tumblr, which will be the two social networking sites that I will choose for all posts. With Twitter, I have used it for a number of years but only to follow other users, not producing and posting anything there until now. For Tumblr, I have never used this site so this is a whole new experience with a new app for me. For both sites, I created two new accounts just like with the Instagram account that I use for this assignment. I choose to share it via the Instagram app which I found to be very convenient. It is interesting to note how different the two sites present the shared content. For Twitter, the post comes in the form of a tweet without any visual content but include all hashtags, the location and a link to my Instagram post. Meanwhile, the Tumblr post includes all features, with the visual content of my photo. I think then, Tumblr would be a more appealing site for potential enthusiasts of my content to visit the Instagram post, because the visual content would be the most important feature. A plain post on Twitter would not be as effective.

Presentation slides

Prompt 7

Prompt 8

Prompt 9

The session of presentations was for me very important in shaping up my final idea for the media project before making it happen. Along with acknowledging the feedback from our guests, it was great to hear my peers discussing their choices of hyperobjects as well as their approaches to the media project which helped me to revise on my choices for my own project.

I was assigned to give feedback on Millie’s presentation, which to begin with is a very interesting one. She chose microbeads as the hyperobject to base her project around. I have no idea about microbeads before this presentation but Millie’s idea made me googled it after the session (not just because I was supposed to give feedback but it is a truly interesting hyperobject). I learnt that they are small plastic particles which are in many cosmetic products and are hard, even impossible to dissolve. My project and hers are to some extent similar that we have to address on plastic and to address the cons of plastic could be a main object. Millie said that she chose microbeads because she cares about these products and is an environmental enthusiast, hence it is interesting to see that the smallest things can sometimes have the greatest impact on our planet, and sometimes not in a good way. Microbeads would be used as her case study in exposing a bigger picture: how climate change affects our entangled ecologies.

With her project, Millie plans to produce a video of less than 5 minutes as this would be the most accessible and engaging idea to express information. I agree with this as I think my project is perhaps the only one that is not video-related. A video, with or without sounds, still has the ability to project its impact visually. This is what Millie would focus on as she chooses no music as a constraint in projecting her ideas. She said she would put an emphasis on sounds like ocean, which would help her to emphasise the idea of where do microbeads go. However, I would suggest (and perhaps would be the only advice I could give as her ideas are clearly well-planned) to also focus highly on the visual impacts with somehow the use of images to help with it. I feel that for this project, abstract on particles would be highly effective and could be a catalyst to address her points more effectively. Considering the fact that microbeads could have disastrous impact on sea life, the emphasis on visual could be an useful approach for her to add on the project. Other than that, I really like her ideas and I look forward to see her final project.

For my media project, choosing a hyperobject to base the project around was perhaps the most fast-forward step for me. While reading back Morton’s article on hyperobjects, I immediately set my eyes on plastic waste. I did not really consider any other options because first and foremost, the amount of ideas that I can possibly portray from plastic is endless. Plastic is perhaps one of the most common and most often mentioned elements regarding climate change with the high level of coverage around it in different platforms of media. For instance, it would only take minutes to find footage or an article on how plastic is affecting our oceans and living atmosphere of sea creatures. There are many spheres out of the volume of climate change, but plastic, and most significantly plastic waste is one the more well-exposed.

Then, I have actually engaged with this matter before. During one of the internships I had in the past, I took one particular task of drawing a report on the plastic crisis in South East Asia. Long story short, the area was overwhelmed with exported waste being plastic waste coming from more well-income countries like the US and Canada. These countries do not have effective mechanisms to process this kind of waste properly. Since China has put a ban on importing plastic waste, the volume of waste arriving in South East Asia subsequently increased, hence becoming a crisis even on a diplomatic level.

With the quite fresh memory of these events, I went back to the report that I did and start drawing up different ideas from the relating bits and pieces into my media project. Refreshing information was not hard. It took me only an afternoon to have all the information from past studies and articles that I went through before plus collecting other information from later studies and commentaries since. The struggle only comes in what form of media that I might want to frame the project on and also the purpose of the project.

A video projecting the issue is obviously the choice, and perhaps the most apparent one. However, throughout my three years of uni so far, I have done many projects that were video-related and I feel like since this is my last studio project, I should get out of my comfort zone and produce something different. Hence, come the idea of a podcast. I doubt that I have done an audio project before par one particular one from my very first semester of uni. Still, audio work is not a platform that I am totally comfortable with. Even though I am a fan of podcasts and enjoy a lot of them coming from many different spectrums, I have never produced one. So, this is an exciting idea that I ultimate chose to follow.

With much consideration on the purpose and direction that my project could follow, ultimately I came up with two approaches that I have not decided on which to pursue at the moment. Approach one is making the audio as much of a conversation between different environmental enthusiasts, which sounds factual but if I could possibly bring in a touch of satire, this approach could be very engaging in addressing the plastic crisis. Considering the remixing nature of the task, this approach emphasises on the use of speeches and music, along with possibly abstract sounds to be effective. But human voices to be included are a must, and I will try to stay away from computer-generated voices. The second approach is an emphasis on the poetic nature of climate media, most significantly the art of using languages to make the project personally-engaged. This takes in the form of a personal essay or diary under the perspective of directly affected personnel of the crisis. Both approaches will have the main purpose of tackling climate change denial and appreciating cultural and political differences. I look forward to pitch my idea in the presentation and hopefully after that, I can make up my mind on the final direction of my project.

The article A new critical climate by scholar Johns-Putra is an interesting read in the extent that it reviews different scholar works of climate change in order to raise two “conflicting” points: would the surreal but critical existence of hyperobjects raise the need of “a new critical climate”, or the seemingly “old habits of critique” would still be the norm along with this catastrophe (p. 8)? Johns-Putra raises the fact that “we know and don’t know about climate change” because despite the exposure of climate change on media, which most significantly being “as a cluster of scientific facts”, climate change is “a discursive phenomenon and never a purely material one” (p. 7). Hence, is climate change academia, or ecocritics’ role is more important than ever, considering the Anthropocene could be the “sixth mass extinction event” – something we’ve never seen before (p. 8)? This ultimately leads to the forming of critical climate change, assessing ecocritics in the age of Anthropocene.

Of all the ecocritics’ work that was assessed, there were a few that Johns-Putra signifies on. When assessing Morton’s work on hyperobjects and object-orientated ontology, the scholar states that “the mode in which one interrogates hyperobjects is the mode by which we should always have interrogated our environment” (p. 9). This is a suggestion that object-orientated ontology and the poetic approach is an effective approach for climate change media to serve its purpose in propering climate change acknowledgement. Critical climate change is said to be a “problematic process”, hence there is a need to recalibrate of theoretical knowledge (p. 9). In a way, this is a statement of undermining the “old habits of critique”, emphasising again the role of ecocritics towards “a new critical climate”.

In my opinion, this reading is an important one in addressing the state of climate change media with two “conflicting” points, hence for potential climate change mediators, a state of reflective response is needed in viewing climate change responsibly. As I reflect more on the knowledge I gain week after week from the studio, my initial belief in climate change media is being ineffective is now elaborated. The ineffectiveness lays in the focus of facts and figures, or “a cluster of scientific facts”. I do not believe this way to be the most effective communication of climate change, most particularly from the norm platforms of media as facts and figures might, but most of the time might not, alter people’s attitude towards climate change. I believe that changes could come from one’s own ecological grief, but facts and figures alone could not alter attitudes into grief. The notion of recalibrating theory of ecology is also an interesting point, as understanding of climate change in media is so far, as Johns-Putra emphasises, a conflict of knows and don’t-knows.

References

Johns-Putra, A 2013, ‘A New Critical Climate’, Symploke, vol. 21, no.1-2, p. 7-10.