Lectorial Reflection

Notice this Notice

March 13, 2015 — Leave a comment

“The media are not so much ‘things’ as places which most of us inhabit, which weave in and out of our lives. Their constant messages and pleasures seem to flow around and through us, and they immerse most of our waking lives”

– Branston and Stafford 2010, The Media Students Book, 5th Eddition, NY: Route Ledge

 

This was the message that managed to remain poignant with me after leaving the lectorial for week 2. Upon reflecting on this quote, its relevance managed to become more clear and the connotations that it carries more apparent.

 

The sheer amount of media and mediated interactions that we are immersed in on a daily basis is somewhat astounding when looking at them from a critical point of view. Waking up to an alarm, set on an iPhone 6, playing a tune composed by an employee of Apple is only the start of a very big iceberg. However, this should not be a daunting thought, it is rather a notion that although we think that media is a ‘bad’ thing, it is really a series of entities that we inhabit.

 

– donandsherri

On The Beat

March 12, 2015 — Leave a comment

Walking out of the ‘Lectorial’ and onto the streets of Melbourne’s CBD, our task at hand was to both notice and record all the differing forms of mediated interactions that take place from all different facets.

 

Critically engaging with the gargantuan amounts of Media that permeate into our lives enabled the group to noticed various forms of mediated communications that would otherwise slip idly by. Using a combination of the senses we were able to distinguish the various forms of Media and place them into specialised categories, identifiable by their proximity to us as we began to notice them.

 

UP HIGH ON THE GROUND
·      Billboard Advertisements

·      Electronic Clocks

·      Electronic Billboards

·      Banners

 ·      Public Policy Ads

·      Homeless Persons Sign

·      Gorilla Graffiti
MID-GROUND BACK-GROUND
·      Car Horn

·      Tibetan Protest

·      Telephone Box

 ·      Pedestrian Crossing Signal

·      Bicycle Bell

·      Smells / Food
FOREGROUND IN OUR HANDS
·      Graffiti

·      Road Works Signs

·      Print Media (Newspaper / Magazine)

·      ATM

 ·      Phone

·      Flyer

 

Of all the mediated interactions that we witnessed, none was more apparent than the group of Tibetan protestors situated on the steps of the state library. They’re messages were spread by a multitude of different media mediums including auditory interactions (both personal and group oriented) an visual interactions through the use of banners and flyers.

 

 

The Tibetan protestors may have been the most apparent, however they werenot the only form of mediated interactions the we noticed and captured while walking down Swanson Street.

 

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It was only when I was reflecting upon the process of actively ‘noticing’ all the different forms of mediated interactions that we encounter on a daily basis, that I was truly able to fathom the sheer amount that each person would be exposed to. With active eyes and ears, I notice that I was able to pick up on the most subtle forms of media that otherwise would go unnoticed.

 

– donandsherri

First Projection In Retrospection

March 6, 2015 — Leave a comment

After shifting through the unpleasantries of formal introductions and general conversation, the first lectorial for the year commenced. It was an insightful and engaging lectorial, which facilitated discussions around two different types of learning modes: Hyper & Deep Attention.

These differentials in the cognitive modes of learning were exemplified in Hayles text which explored ‘the hypothesis that we are in the midst of a generational shift in cognitive styles (of learning), that pose challenges to education at all levels’ (Hayles, 2007: 187).

During the class discussions and the way in which the lectorial itself was structured, I could not help to think that we (as students of the next generation to learning) were all rats in a giant experiment of the ideas explored in Hayles text. A somewhat unnerving thought.

– donandsherri