After watching my studio’s work I was really taken back by how the video Targeted Advertising: Harms vs Benefits and Amelia Wilkinson’s Targeted and Dark Ad’s video were able to explore the moral and ethical side of AI and targeted ads. To me I see dark ads and targeted ads as something which can provide a lot of opportunity for e-commerce stores and other business’s to find their own market share in an increasingly competitive world however, the way in which some platforms algorithms operate are far too shady and not transparent enough to a degree where consumers of the platform can feel safe. I really enjoyed how Targeted Advertising: Harms V Benefits was able to introduce the use of the interviewee throughout the second half of the video to provide much of the technical description of how the ads work. It provided a shift away from the narrators voice to create interest as well as allowing the viewer to hear from a professional. I also enjoyed how the creator of the video shared the history of digital ads which was something I new little about and created much needed context for how digital advertising has evolved over the decades. Amelia Wilkinson’s video was an aesthetically pleasing watch with the use of her music and archival/b-roll footage I didn’t find myself bored for one moment. I also really enjoyed how she implemented interviews with strangers about what kind of ads they receive as it was able to make the content more relatable to the general public. I also enjoyed how she introduced real world examples of the consequences of dark ads which was able to further illustrate the ethical/moral debate surrounding the use of dark and targeted ads especially as the technology behind them improves constantly. Overall I really enjoyed how both of these works were able to explore this moral/ethical debate whilst also providing information about how targeted ads work. Both provided interesting points which I was able to sit with and think over by myself even after the videos were finished.
I really enjoyed the work from the Studio “The Video Essay”. The video which really grabbed my attention was What is Love by Jack Watson. I really enjoyed how he made use of multiple different archival footage from movies, youtube and article and stitched them together to create something which seemed more like a work of art then a video essay. His creativity is something I applaud greatly and I hope I can include some editing techniques he used in his video in my own future works. Whilst the video essay was far more experimental than some of the other examples it still served its purpose at challenging me to think about how media portrays love and what in reality love really is. His constant use of subtitles appearing on screen to drive home important phrases was a very strong visual technique which he implemented well throughout the video. I also really enjoyed Jay Lentini’s video about The meaning of life and Pokemon. His video explored the introduction of augmented and virtual reality are vastly challenging the ways in how we live a meaningful life through the activities we decide to embark on . His use of archival footage at the start of the video immediately hooked me for the rest of his video and quite enjoyed listening to his discussion about how these technologies impact our understanding of a meaningful life. Overall both of these projects and other projects within the “The Video Essay” studio provided me with insights and discussion to think about how media and technology has had a dramatic effect on the way we understand and interact with the most basic of human emotions and understandings.