#hannahmayjor

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What's Culture - The Project

Ignore previous post, link doesn't work!

Click link for gallery :)

http://s857.photobucket.com/user/hmayjor/slideshow/

The Overview

The above gallery of pictures were taken over 2 months and are symbolic of Australian multiculturalism. Whilst originally, I planned on filming a short documentary about ignorance: it’s presence, impact and prevalence in Australian society, I instead decided to focus on a singular category of ignorance. I chose ignorance in terms of racism in modern society and how the nature of multiculturalism brings an understanding of those cultures and thus an improvement of general attitude against racism. The photos are all black and white to signify equality as colour shouldn’t and doesn’t define the modern Australian Citizen. 

Prior to this project, I had digital media related hobbies such as amateur photography and filmmaking. During these experiences I used similar equipment and created things such as birthday collages, event videos etc. Although I believe this project was not exactly difficult, I definitely utilized the skills I have picked up over the years through my past experiences. My role in the production was basically the actual production itself, I am not photographed at all in the series however I did take all of the photos and also edit them accordingly as well as upload them. The main piece of equipment used in the project was a Nikon Camera (D7100) It is of very high quality and I have had it for a while now. I then used iPhoto to crop, cut, edit and enhance my photos to get the exact effect that I wanted.  I really enjoyed the project, especially photographing my friends, family and complete strangers. It gave me an excuse to talk to people I wouldn’t usually talk to! If I could do the project again, I would make a few changes. I think I would spend the money on a proper editing system, as iPhoto is reliable but very basic. I believe that would really make a huge difference to the final outcome of the project, as it would allow a higher sense of professionalism.

What did you learn about digital media production by attempting this project?

I learnt that the opportunity for digital production is everywhere all around us through current affairs, issues and ideas being analyzed, criticized or praised through the vast amount of technology we have available to us. I learnt how powerful digital storytelling can be through research for the project, in which I stumbled across the old KONY Campaign. I remember that reactions were mixed, but everyone had one, everyone knew what the campaign was and absolutely everyone has an opinion on it. The idea of this and the realization of how quick a message can be heard and how far it can be spread via digital storytelling astounded me and really did inspire me. I also learnt how easy it was to produce digital media of a reasonable quality at little to no expense. It really does make things easier, giving everyone a voice essentially, or an outlet.

How did this learning align with your understanding of the emerging narrative forms possible in digital media production, and/or digital media's impact on contemporary media communication practices and popular culture?

Digital media has had an unimaginable impact on popular culture as a whole generation has now essentially grown up with it and not only enjoys it but also relies on it. Media communication practices such as the News also rely heavily on the growing advancement of digital media for efficiency as well as entertainment factors. For example with the recent NSW fires the news channels are constantly updating Facebook, or other social media outlets such as twitter with digital media such as a digital story of the fires themselves and their progression through the blue mountains, as well as video footage, photos and statistics. All in all, Digital media is a huge part of our lives and will certainly be relevant to us for the rest of our lives, forever changing and growing, becoming more advanced and more necessary.

[hmayjorcsucom112]

WABI SABI: HAPPINESS AGAINST THE ODDS

Just kidding, It’s much more than that! It’s the art of embracing imperfection, of appreciating flawed beauty. Whilst the Japanese originally intended it to refer to nature, I believe there is flawed beauty everywhere if you look close enough. If you clears their mind stops walking, texting, chatting, eating and overthinking for a mere minute, you immediately take in so much more of the world, find beauty in the emotion you see, the nature you feel and the situations your in. To me, Wabi Sabi can be a way of life, a beautiful acceptance of reality.

  The Photo I have chosen was selected from the National Geographic Website:

(Mac Kwan/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

 http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/

I absolutely love the photo and to me it represents Wabi Sabi. These Phillipino children from Cebu City are extremely poor and yet they live life to the fullest, they use the imperfections, the bad and turn it into good. With positive attitudes they turn garbage scraps and the back of a bus into a playground. Their happiness is so pure and raw, they symbolize such innocence, and this is what Wabi Sabi is to me- pure happiness despite the odds. 

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Links to Gallery slideshow:

http://s857.photobucket.com/user/hmayjor/slideshow/ 

The Overview

The above gallery of pictures were taken over 2 months and are symbolic of Australian multiculturalism. Whilst originally, I planned on filming a short documentary about ignorance: it’s presence, impact and prevalence in Australian society, I instead decided to focus on a singular category of ignorance. I chose ignorance in terms of racism in modern society and how the nature of multiculturalism brings an understanding of those cultures and thus an improvement of general attitude against racism. The photos are all black and white to signify equality as colour shouldn’t and doesn’t define the modern Australian Citizen.

Prior to this project, I had digital media related hobbies such as amateur photography and filmmaking. During these experiences I used similar equipment and created things such as birthday collages, event videos etc. Although I believe this project was not exactly difficult, I definitely utilized the skills I have picked up over the years through my past experiences. My role in the production was basically the actual production itself, I am not photographed at all in the series however I did take all of the photos and also edit them accordingly as well as upload them. The main piece of equipment used in the project was a Nikon Camera (D7100) It is of very high quality and I have had it for a while now. I then used iPhoto to crop, cut, edit and enhance my photos to get the exact effect that I wanted.  I really enjoyed the project, especially photographing my friends, family and complete strangers. It gave me an excuse to talk to people I wouldn’t usually talk to! If I could do the project again, I would make a few changes. I think I would spend the money on a proper editing system, as iPhoto is reliable but very basic. I believe that would really make a huge difference to the final outcome of the project, as it would allow a higher sense of professionalism.

What did you learn about digital media production by attempting this project?

I learnt that the opportunity for digital production is everywhere all around us through current affairs, issues and ideas being analyzed, criticized or praised through the vast amount of technology we have available to us. I learnt how powerful digital storytelling can be through research for the project, in which I stumbled across the old KONY Campaign. I remember that reactions were mixed, but everyone had one, everyone knew what the campaign was and absolutely everyone has an opinion on it. The idea of this and the realization of how quick a message can be heard and how far it can be spread via digital storytelling astounded me and really did inspire me. I also learnt how easy it was to produce digital media of a reasonable quality at little to no expense. It really does make things easier, giving everyone a voice essentially, or an outlet.

    How did this learning align with your understanding of the emerging narrative forms possible in digital media production, and/or digital media's impact on contemporary media communication practices and popular culture?

Digital media has had an unimaginable impact on popular culture as a whole generation has now essentially grown up with it and not only enjoys it but also relies on it. Media communication practices such as the News also rely heavily on the growing advancement of digital media for efficiency as well as entertainment factors. For example with the recent NSW fires the news channels are constantly updating Facebook, or other social media outlets such as twitter with digital media such as a digital story of the fires themselves and their progression through the blue mountains, as well as video footage, photos and statistics. All in all, Digital media is a huge part of our lives and will certainly be relevant to us for the rest of our lives, forever changing and growing, becoming more advanced and more necessary. 

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Sue all the Napsters?

In contrast to my fellow bloggers, I have had very little experience with audio production! However, I have had some. In year 9, when I lived in China, Music was a mandatory subject and course I had to study during Music completely revolved around DJing and audio production in general. We spent each lesson mastering different DJ programs and by mastering I mean producing funny little tracks full of bass and bongos. Other than that, I've only ever fiddled with Garage band which is just the very  basics of audio production.

It's no secret, there is a vast amount of controversy surrounding the whole Napster file-sharing service and other youtube converter/ mp3 audio transferring programs. It's illegal to download or steal/convert any songs, podcasts or snippets that aren't free public domain. However, programs like Napster provide loopholes for the public to essentially steal audio files without getting caught. In a sense, these stealers/ pirates could get caught, or once they could. In this day and time the amount of people downloading or tormenting audio files illegally is so large that enforcing such copyright laws becomes difficult. This also comes down to the idea that there is no global government and state sovereignty allows differentiation of laws between countries. Due to the fact that the internet or World Wide Web is so vast and such a global ordeal, enforcing copyright laws at such a large scale proves nearly impossible. 

Thus, I do believe that concepts like copyright are out of date or unrealistic perhaps in this digital media world.Which of course becomes a huge problem for Musicians and Artists who now only majorly profit from touring and having loyal fan bases who actually buy their records. I believe music piracy is wrong for the reason that it is stealing, however the artists still benefit from radio royalties, touring etc and music is music. If people want to hear it they will. I even illegally download/ torrent music sometimes, I'm too poor for iTunes! It comes down to the individual's moral ethics regarding the issue / sometimes or more often people tend to actually buy songs rather than download for quality reasons. So again, the problem is vast however not completely detrimental to the music industry. 

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Today I played around with Garageband and produced a fine piece of audio.... it's called Amazing and It really means a lot to me haha I joke but listen to it!!