MA Creative Media

Naming – Jacob Brown

“Naming ourselves in the world involves a mapping, locating ourselves in time and space, in historical and cultural context, putting ourselves in a bigger picture, seeing ourselves as part of a longer journey. Naming also invokes telling: To name is not only to declare who we are but to make sense of our lives. Telling our own stories affirms our power to write our own histories and our participation in making our history.”

[Pat Campbell, Barbara Burnaby (eds) ‘Participatory Practices in Adult Education. Taylor & Francis e-Library,2010. Page 38]

Naming something can be seen in two lights, with two outcomes.

1. Naming that ends up ‘labelling’ someone, can end up inhibiting the progress of that person or group. The label given to the person or group can determine or influence them to live up to the term that is used to describe or classify them.
2. The opposite of the naming continuum is more in line with Barndt’s ideas that WE, the individual need to identify who we are first, to establish a platform to go forward and make sense of our lives and the world around us.

In 2011 I worked on a project with a group of young carers. This project involved the young carers identifying and articulating issues that had affected them and they used ‘naming’ as a powerful foundation to build their project around. ‘Naming’ their world, not only impacted on their own lives, but others outside of their immediate community.

Here is the video the young carers made. Skip to 4’23 to see how naming can impact others.

Young Carers – catapulted into Maturity

The project I facilitated was a ‘learning through journalism’ participator project with a group of young people from Islington, North London, run by the youth media charity Headliners. The ages of the young people ranged from 12 – 19 years. This group of young people had already named themselves as ‘Young Carers’, through association with an organisation called Family Action that worked with the young carers to proved advice, support and a connection with other young carers.

The young people wanted to make a short film that could be used to raise the awareness of young carers and could be screened at their schools and at Family Action events.

While out conducting vox pops for their film, they came across a young boy called Kai. Kai did not know what a young carer was, but through the interaction with this group of young film-makers, he had learnt something new. The naming process that the young carers had gone through which had helped make sense of their lives, had now informed Kai, and the interaction with the young film-makers had alerted Kai to the fact that he was also a young carer and that there was support out there for him.

1st thoughts – Lee O’Neill

First thoughts on resilience for the PhotoVoice mini-project …

Shot whilst a Brighton undergraduate in the late 1990s and more luck than design. It was not uncommon to see revellers hanging on to their dying embers and finding themselves on the beach. The blue tones of dusk add to the melancholy despite the pier’s illuminations. I was really inspired by Roger Bamber, a photographer for The Guardian who famously shot the Royal Pavilion, reflected in the tiniest of ornamental ponds and have ever since, attempted to recreate his use of reflection.

 The character above was my neighbour, when I first moved to Brighton and snagged a basement flat in Brunswick Terrace. What an honour to be able to live so close to the sea, it felt like I was viewing a new oil painting – every day.

The last image was inspired by a recent article in The Independent which discussed children and internet safety. The idea is one of potential predators and not being able to discern between the virtual and real world.

 

REFERENCES

Roger Bamber http://www.rogerbamber.co.uk/

Royal Pavilion http://www.rogerbamber.co.uk/architecture/reflected-glory.html

The Independent “Safer Internet Day: The Children Act has to be brought into the 21st century.” Geraldine BEDELL, 08Feb2015.

 

An activity in honor of Keith Kennedy – Jacob Brown

In honor of photography in the community pioneered, Keith Kennedy, I thought I would post an activity I have used in the past with young people.

The activity is based around roleplaying, and interview techniques, and is designed to encourage the participants to gain empathy and understanding of different peoples views on one single event.

You can use video cameras, audio recorders, stills cameras or just a pen and paper to deliver this activity.

See the full Interview Scenarios activity here: Interview Scenarios

5 things about my gender – Sarah Hebben

5 things about my gender

“5 things about my gender” is a collaboration between Sarah Magdalena Love and seven members of the queer community in Brighton, UK. The projects aims to explore queer culture and gender identity through collaborative photography and short interviews. It was developed as part of the module “participatory media production for social change” within the MA in creative media at the University of Brighton with guidance from Julia Winckler.

These images are collaborative portraits, capturing moments of personal expression in correlation to gender identity and sexuality in very personal settings. Together with the thoughts expressed they hopefully show some aspects of the beauty that unfolds when individuals transcend binary, heteronormative ideas about gender and find more authentic ways of expressing themselves.

http://5thingsaboutmygender.tumblr.com/about%20the%20project

Locative, Mobile and Public Sound – Rachael Kent – Digital Cities

Locative, Mobile and Public Sound

Behrendt (2012) recognizes that ‘locative’ media are usually reliant on the visual to determine our sense and perception of space. [1] Our focus on the visual aspect of these media, neglects auditory space perception, which is “productive for focusing on the very activity of engaging with mobile media and the urban context at once, the multi sensory, embodied, spatio-temporal experience of the urban journey or encounter” (Behrendt 2012: 289, emphasis in original). Behrendt (2012) importantly draws our attention in recognizing how everyday within the digital city, our construction of space, communications and information gathering is a combination of both visual and auditory sensory mediation. The immersive nature of sound is invisible, intangible and yet (especially once experienced through headphones) an all-encompassing experience. Beherndt argues that we “need to consider how immersion works in locative media, where we are both ‘here’ and ‘there’ in hybrid spaces” (2012:288).

Bull (2004; 2007) examines this relationship in the context of the Apple Ipod, and argues that the IPod “universalizes the privatization of public space, and it is a largely auditory privatization” (2007:4). Such ‘hybrid spaces’ it could be argued are more ‘immersive’ with the inclusion of an auditory element. To explore, I attempted to produce a locative sound for a running route via a locative mobile sound application sonicmaps.org, which proved unsuccessful.

(Sonicmaps.org located sound maps)

After various failed attempts over a number of days to familiarize myself with the visually simple, but user-unfriendly application, many hours trawling through the website reading and watching tutorials, and asking more technologically savvy friends if they had any idea, (all I/we managed was to upload a link via Dropbox to my ‘sounds’ on a map), my ‘locative sound’ experience via this application was non-existent and so too my dwindling motivation for my run. The process of creating a file via dropbox and copying a ‘link’ in which to upload sound, seemed overly laborious, and not possible via only your mobile device which in itself seemed to void the whole function of the application.

Giving up on Sonic Maps I returned to my well-trusted Ipod for my moral and motivational support. Selecting various ‘soundscapes’; specific albums which evoked memories, and physical motivations (spurred by fast paced music), I created my own ‘auditory bubble’ and ‘individual reality’. I was transformed from my current location of Sevenoaks (Kent), to my childhood, to running routes in Melbourne, and even to wistfully looking forward to upcoming holidays planned, all through the various music albums in which I was immersed. If one album finished I immediately began another, I ensured I had constant ‘mediated company’ (2007:6), craving the ‘feelings, desires and auditory memories’ (Bull 2007:3) evoked through the music.

(No music via my smart phone accompanied my run)

“In the head and mind of the IPod user the spaces of culture have been redrawn into a largely private and mobile auditory worship” (Bull 2007: 2-3)

My perception of the park was reduced completely to the visual, with my emotions, communications, information and knowledge of my space mediated through my auditory soundscape. My ‘sensory gating’ (2007:7) ensured I did not hear the birds in the trees, the wind or the trees rustling, I was in a completely privatised auditory world, with my music as my soundtrack. I ‘controlled and managed my environment’ through my IPod usage (2007:4); if I felt like saying hello to passers-by this could only be achieved by removing my headphones. If I felt too tired to do so I kept my headphones in, a ‘distancing mechanism’ (2007:14), where ‘silence equaled exclusion’ (Bauman 2003), ‘legitimising’ (on face value) my unfriendliness, in my ‘sonorous envelope’ (2007:4) I could not hear passers-by nor could they hear my soundscape. I was a silent presence, privatised yet personally empowered (2007:5), whilst simultaneously excluded from the public communicative space.

[1] For example, Facebook ‘check in’ function, Googleplaces, Foursquare, and augmented reality applications such as Layar. Through building and developing online localized community networks through such applications as Foursquare (Humphreys & Liao 2013), or maintaining existing social networks through Facebook ‘check ins’ for example.

Bibliography

Behrendt, F. (2012) The Sound of Locative Media. Convergence: The International Journal of research into New Media Technologies, 18(3): 283-295.

Bull, M. (2007) Sound Moves, iPod culture and urban experience: an introduction. In:Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience. Oxford: Routledge: 1-11.

Humphreys, L. & Liao, T., 2013. Foursquare and the parochialization of public space.First Monday, 18(11). Available at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4966 [Accessed February 7, 2014].

SonicMaps.org

In terms of structure and value, how has the internet affected the business of television distribution in the UK? Alexandra McGougan

Television distribution is an industry where frontline technology is changing the structure of the business and the value of its product.   To stay current and succeed businesses must adapt their structure to track the evolution of the internet and its networks, and to reassess the value chain of their product and place it appropriately within the changing market.

Greater bandwidth and lower technology costs in the last decade have meant the flow of digital media content through the internet has become a certainty of everyday life.  This increased access to digital media has offered television distribution an extraordinary development opportunity.  The seeds were sown for the UK industry to move efficiently into the digital era during the preceding decades when several key policies were implemented by both Conservative and Labour governments keen for Britain to be a key player in the digital economy.  The launch of Channel 4 and Channel 5 in 1981 and 1997 respectively, and the subsequent 25% quota for independent commissions inflicted upon the BBC and ITV in 1990 and extended to all cable and digital broadcasters in 1996, made the UK a highly competitive place in which to produce television programmes. (Tunstall, 1993:p7)  Due to this deliberate policy of growth and expansion, by the end of the 1990’s there was global recognition of both the quality and quantity of UK programming (Chalaby, 2010: p675).  As a result of production boom and hard lobbying by PACT (Producers’ Alliance for Cinema and Television), in 2004 the Labour government brought in a new Code of Practice which transformed the relationship between broadcaster and producer by allowing the producer to retain all content rights not explicitly purchased by the broadcaster.  As asset owning businesses, producers used these assets to attract funding to acquire other rights holders, (Chalaby, 2010: p676) or to launch their own distribution arm.  In her 2003 article on Channel 4 and digital television strategy, Georgina Born writes of the challenges already facing digital media industries: ‘how to derive value from online activities, and how to measure and realize the value embedded in brands.’ (Born, 2003: p774) This new code of practice brought independent producers in line with broadcasters in the new digital economy.

Helped by the dominance of the English language in western media, the UK distribution business has grown in the digital age to become part of a global network which sells material all over the world.  Pre-digital, television flowed through an analogue signal to television sets through either public service or advertising funded, free to air broadcast.  Today there are over 104 digital channels offered through the UK Freeview package and many more available through satellite or internet connected subscription.  Subscription providers are rapidly accumulating libraries of material and broadcasters expect to provide catch up material for streaming and temporary download through the multiple service operators (MSO’s) such as Sky, Virgin and YouView. Concepts of territory and state are still relevant in issues of production and ownership, but audiences are no longer confined by territory or linear schedule.  Against this background, we will examine how television distribution has had to adapt its structure and the value of its products to move into the UK’s growing digital economy, by looking at the case of one incumbent UK distribution company.

Continue reading….

Digtial Economy Alexandra McGougan

Mediating The Environment – Rachael Kent

Media Coverage of the Environment – News Media Cycles, Claims Making and Framing

Sensors, Sustainability and the Quantified Self – Rachael Kent

Urry and Elliot (2010) discuss a future scenario of the digital city which has used technology to respond to and combat the environmental issues brought about by human-induced global warming. A techno-optimist view widely held by publics, scholars, corporations and governments alike. Authorised by a dominant discourse advocating reliance upon conceptions of evidence and proof, science and technology, rationality and objectivity, we have convinced ourselves a detachment from, and an intelligence, power and technological control over the environment, our surroundings and ourselves (Adams 1998). By extending our human powers through science and technology, through digital sensor monitoring, we believe we can address, undo, and reverse the environmental damage we continue to cause.

Furthermore through individually quantifying behaviors and habits through ‘miniaturised mobilities’, Elliot and Urry argue that this “…enable(s) people to deposit affects, moods and dispositions into techno-objects – storing such emotional and aesthetic aspects of self-experience until they are ‘withdrawn’ for future forms of symbolic elaboration and interpersonal communication” (2010:6). Therefore, the role of sensors can be understood to ‘extend our human powers’ into digitally quantifiable formats. For health care for example, to quantify exercise achievements (miles run, fastest mile, heart rate, calories burned) (see below), calculating calorie consumption, or monitoring abstaining from smoking (see below).

 

(Image 1: Screenshot Personal Nike Running Application)

(Image 2: A Facebook Friends Post – ANON)

Fors and O’Dell (forthcoming) question the role and use of such sensors, used both by ‘quantified self-ers’, organisations to combat energy waste (see ELLIOT ‘Smart Office’ below), and by businesses (Tesco Clubcard) and governments to monitor demographic behaviors consumer/citizen patters/habits (Oyster), and ask what does all this data collected actually do? Does it help improve the environment, prevent climate change, encourage civic engagement or improve public health? Like the ‘digital networks’ scenario outlined by Urry and Elliot (2010), it is important to question the use in collecting such data, individually or on a mass scale?

 

“Recent technological innovations for logging, tracking, monitoring and digitally circulating the body calls for further investigations of how it alters the everyday actions, habits, and possibilities for social organisation” (Fors & O’Dell, forthcoming, p.20).

de Lange (2013) argues that in order to achieve action, and change we must take an affective view, one which considers and explores emotions and feelings; “cities must exhibit intense expressivity” ( Thrift in de Lange 2013:3). We can understand how current deployment and use of sensors exemplifies de Lange’s view that ‘smart cities’ remain conceptually ‘stuck’, bounded by limiting parameters of ontological data and information gathering. Taking an epistemological approach however, of tying together spatial, social and mental spheres, prioritising emotions and reflexivity, by considering how we relate to each other and our surroundings, we might better understand the city, and how environmental and individual developments can be actioned and achieved (de Lange 2013:2).

“We must shift attention from technologies that seamlessly blend in with everyday life, towards technologies that move people, and enable them to move others” (de Lange 2013:6).

 

Bibliography

Adam, B, 1998. ‘Nature Re/constituted and Re/conceptualized: Mapping the scope of industrial traditions of thought’, in Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards. London: Routledge

de Lange, M. 2013. ‘The smart city you love to hate: Exploring the role of affect in hybrid urbanism’. In The Hybrid City II: Subtle rEvolutions, edited by D. Charitos, I. Theona, D. Dragona and H. Rizopoulos. 23-25 May 2013. Athens, Greece.

ELLIOT ‘Smart Office’ 2010. http://vimeo.com/67715975 (Available at: http://www.elliot-project.eu/node/69, Last accessed 4.5.14).

Elliot, A., & Urry, J. 2010. Mobile Lives. Oxford: Routledge.

O’Dell, T & Fors, V. 2014. Body monitoring: on the need to put culture into the quantifying equation. Submitted to Culture Unbound (Available at:http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=12683&postid=4195709, Last accessed: 4.5.14)

Oyster ‘Access your data’ (Available at: https://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/privacy-and-cookies/access-your-data, Last Accessed: 7.5.14).

Digital Cities – Lee O’Neill

“I am lost in the crowd, I am anonymous. In my phone, in my space, I matter.”

(Bassett, 2003:350)

This finalised piece is a short movie that uses geolocative augmented reality (AR) to illustrate the mutual constitution of software and socio-spatial practice. It could be argued that the immersive seduction of a digital co-presence mediates and re-codifies urban space through a process of negation and investment in an economy of sustained attention. Ubiquitous and pervasive mobile technologies are blurring the borders of time, community and space facilitated by gamification, quantification and surveillance; conflating online and offline identity and making it increasingly difficult to determine which side of the screen is which. The short film exploits the graphic infancy of contemporary AR technology to illuminate the sophistication of situational data aggregation and commodification. This critical reflection seeks to discuss the accumulation of intimate and long-term data of desires and behaviours in the context of civil liberty and freedom of mobility.