Category Archives: 360MC

Process and development:

http://prophecy-media.com/2011/10/18/2282/

Research:

http://prophecy-media.com/2011/10/16/ideas-are-popping-up-flying-and-most-are-getting-shot-down-war-in-my-mind/

Analysis:

http://prophecy-media.com/2011/10/19/analysis-of-artefact/

Evaluation and reflection:

http://prophecy-media.com/2011/10/20/evaluation-and-reflection-of-power/

Main conclusion:

http://prophecy-media.com/2011/11/22/final-conclusion-on-artefacts-power-memory-and-spectacle/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1XBv2rriU

I am satisfied with power as it was the first time I tried something different.  I gave the viewer the power to change the narrative. It felt both endings were equally as pleasing. Power was also insightful from the theories I had come across, although I had prior knowledge I was happy to see just how much you can expand you knowledge about a topic just by using various media sources.

My favourite artefact was memory as it was around a topic which was sensitive and personal to me. One thing I have realised is bereavement brings people closer, the day I went to film this piece I saw many people from my past since school days. With this piece I wanted to let the emotion speak for itself and this was my way of gripping the viewers. This piece was also the most rewarding piece for me at a personal level, my friend told me before he died. “Abu your so luck you have left London and have gone away to uni, I wish I was as lucky as you” I want to get a good degree to honour his name, it is hard for a young person from south London to get educated as there is to many distractions and headaches to deal with.

All three of my pieces were successful in achieving the goals of informing the public and expressing the themes we needed to portray. Overall the module has been fun and very very informative, Petes lectures were great and was very enlightening. I had a hard time balancing my new job with university, it has been very stressful. There was many occasions were I had to miss university lectures in order to go to work. Looking back on things i really wish i didnt take up a Job as i feel it interfered to much with university. I wasnt able to apply myself properly to the lectures or in producing my artefatcs aswell as bloging.

The module has helped develop my views as a person, it made me be critical to things happening in the world. The 3 words Power Spectacle and Memory have all be etched in my mind and i always relate things to them now.

I honestly feel throughout this final piece I have adhered to the module aims. I have created mind provoking and creative work appropriate to the chosen specialisms. I believe I have gained more experience in theoretical analysis of contemporary issues. How has this helped professional development. Issues and how I over came them. Self evaluation. Working in a team but effectively alone. I have built upon prior knowledge from lecture material by conducting my own independant research and looking at a range of accredited sources.

My peer reviews from each artefact are presented in the reflection. i have had great people surrounding me that have commented constructively on my work. In the near future i plan to explan on the idea this module has intorduced me to through my extensive research .

Most of all I think my blogs have served as an education tool for the wider public.

My analysis of the artefact was easy. I wanted to focus on the cultural ways in which we portray our memories. The process in capturing this way even easier as the realism and emotion stood out. from the video you can see the freinds of H recollected memories from their childhood, these are all semantic and meaningful memories which they can recall accurately from what i have seen from the evidence in the artefact.

I aimed to represent my artefact which consists of real world situations. To observe memory it was traditionally thought we should conduct laboratory type situations so there were no external influences, i.e. something which could affect how I portray memory. But I had decided to take a page or two out of Sir Francis Galton’s book. Galton challenged traditional views and saw the environment as serving cues and this enhances our recollections.

When on camera and trying to recollect memories people seem to be not focusing in the real world but on their inner self.  One’s body language changes, your eyes become still or look into a spacelass distance.

So the idea I am trying to achieve is to display examples of memory in a social setting in which the environment can serve as a cue to generate memories. My inspiration of the idea is…

for my memory piece i had decided to go to london and ask my close friends about there last memory with our friend “H”

I wanted to just do short interviews with simple questions, such as what was your last memory with H or whats your fondest memory with H.

To my surprise the filming process went well however the final edit was corrupted with a couple hours to submission, so i have panicked and made a quick edit to show the main interviews.

Please be aware that the blogs for memory are scarce due to me being in a bad emotional state after the death of my best friend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15683463

When we have an enjoyable or traumatic experience, we tend to recollect details of these memories surprisingly accurately. memory consists of a short term store in which unneccessary information decays, and a long term store in which meaning memories are held.

It is suggested that visual encoding links images of the visual sensory information we constantly receive. Visual sensory information is temporarily stored within the iconic memory before being encoded into long-term storage. The amygdala which is responsible for processing emotions, accepts this visual input and is particularly sensitive to emotion based memories which have semantic meanings, and can be semantically encoded.

My idea had come to me before my research hearing the bad news of my friends death, i was determined that his memory was th eonly memory that i will be looking at. this relies on me looking into my own memories and portraying them on camera. during the time i felt blocked out form the world due to my emotional state, doing research for memory was the last thing of my min as i was too busy recollecting memories of me and my friend H.

Philosophers have speculated about memory for the past 2000 years however scientific investigation occurred around 100 years ago. Hermann Ebbinghaus developed theories into higher mental process and specifically towards human memory.

Television broadcaster Clive wearing, a highly intelligent person who developed encephalitus, causing damage to his brain. Consquently his dense memory was affected but with tradegy comes invention and his health was stabilized through drug therapy.His amnesia affected his social interaction and learning new concepts however clive was able to recollect memorable highlights of his past, e.g singing for the pope.

Etymology reports the term memory is defined as:

mid-13c., “recollection (of someone or something); awareness, consciousness,” also “fame, renown, reputation,” from Anglo-Fr. memorie, from L. memoria, from memor “mindful, remembering,” from PIE base *men-/*mon- “think” (see mind(n.)). Meaning “faculty of remembering” is late 14c. Computer sense is from 1946.

I am grown old and my memory is not as active as it used to be. When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it. [Mark Twain]

Related: Memories.

During the conduction of my research and planning to film my artefact there were a few themes i wanted to make sure the spectacle portrayed. These themes were to highlight the struggle, fight, emotion and despair and the injustice caused by the spectacle. I explored and anlysed the idea of simulations and simulacre by baudrillard and found much evidence in my artefact which exposes this idea. One of which was where protestors and demonstrators used eye patches and bandages to represent the killings occuring in libya not tp the extent which is reality ovcourse.

I enjoyed most travelling to london and getting involved in real life issues which i felt i needed to raise awarensss about. As a media producer i think this is best angle to work from, aiming to make films with the upmost integrity and not be swayed into popular culture. I wish to make many films based on the research ideas i have generated in this module. Overall the research into the topic area was extensive and helped generate some future concepts for next semester. I feel the artefact came across well and captured the essence of the spectacle, protesters were shouting with passion all were there for a common goal. The research did enlighten me however that spectacles are not as they seem and can act as a reinforcement for the status quo., for example libya did not attack its civilians but this spectacle was used throghout the media with little evidence – this relates to the concept churnalism in previous posts.

Many of my friends are not politically minded however after watching my atefact they understood a compleatly different message to the one which is portrayed by the media today. one peer stated ‘the artefact shows the other side of the arguement, the side that is kept hidden, its widened my knowledge about how much control the army really do have’. After the in depth conversation i had with my peers after watching the artefact many of them were faced with the same question… is it right for someone to come into a compleatly alien country to theirs and take liberties with their power? i will leave this one up to the audiences.

An influential researcher which has directed the course of my idea is Jean baudrillard. His claim is that contemporary society had replaces all reality and meanings with symbols and we live in a state of ‘hyper reality’ and individua interpretation. Consequently we simulate or imitate reality. These signs hide anything which is irrelevant to the current understanding of our lives. Culture and media are the main culprits, our socialisation whether primary or secondary is constructed by our perceived reality. During the industrial revolution of modernity it is here she claims the distinctions between reality and image breaks down due to the production of copies which are turned into commodities, promoting mass consumerism

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Consumers are unable to see which commodities have been created for their needs or if their needs have been created through commercial images, the original concept becomes useless and meaningless. This is called hyper reality. Language and ideology is used sometimes to obscure rather than reveal the truth. It is argues just how simulacra creates a simulation of reality the image of war reported prior to the Libyan attacks preceded real war. Henceforth we should understand the intentions behind these attacks rather than let the truth be obscured by cultural biases.

Overall, i think my research and artefact promp a valid point which is what will happen and what are the consequences for this living in hyperreality. We are unsure what could happen but my guess is governmental authority will be stregthened and international forces will begin to dominate without the choice of the citizens. If you think the western world is safe think again becasue we are at this moment beliveing in a functional and well moralled world which does not exist.