Final Images and Reflection

Final Image 1 

(Nikolic 2016)

“1 Like = 2 Prayers” explores how the practise of blind faith as a social ritual has been altered through the changing digital landscape of the internet. Particularly this piece aims to communicate the relationship between old media in the forms of communicating religion verbally and through traditional practices, versus the pressure certain users feel to maintain these traditions through the utilisation of new media systems such as social media. The caption and the surrounding imagery refer to examples of the numerous Facebook posts that ask people to comment or like a photo which showcase an unfortunate situation such as a starving child or a picture of war, in order to send a prayer virtually to those pictured. Ultimately the dual forms of Jesus in the image, act to reiterate the fact that digital media as a social norm is powerful enough to alter even the longest standing traditions available to humanity. Similarly, the text plays on the fears of those who are scared of technological change. This is done by showcasing that even things that some view as sacred such as the holy bible can be replaced by an object such as the smartphone. Ironically users who do practice faith within the traditional and digital parameters know that the experience is a subjective one and that holding such fears would be irrational and available only to those who are not digitally literate and who wholeheartedly believe that “one like equals one prayer.” Additionally, the piece raises the question: do those who practise traditions following a certain faith need to adapt their practises digitally and if so is this form of digital prayer detrimental to those religious movements?

 

The final image was created using Photoshop, a photo editing software that allowed me to experiment with particular tools and compositional techniques such as layering images together using the layer function, placing text on top of images and contrasted colouring effects through the use of the outer glow special effect tool. However, prior to compositing the final image, I created two earlier versions of the image, one which was heavily based on remixing Ary Schaffer’s painting titled Greek Women Imploring at the Virgin of Assistance (1826).  My decision to re-draft the concept for the image was due to ethical issues surrounding copyright and the issue of repurposing a popular painting without a creative license and claiming it as an original piece of work. Secondly, because the assigned assessment brief specifically mentioned a preference for us to not only composite the image in a photo editing program but also produce an image with a device such as a camera or a smart phone, I resorted to choosing an image I had taken with my camera depicting a statute of Jesus at the Bondi cemetery. In doing so, I have complete ownership rights to the image and this grants me further freedoms due to the ownership rights I possess over the image.

 

 Reference

Scheffer, A. 1826, Greek Women Imploring at the Virgin of Assistance, Google Art Project, viewed 9 October 2016, < https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ary_Scheffer_-_Greek_Women_Imploring_at_the_Virgin_of_Assistance_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg>

 

Final Image 2 

(Nikolic 2016)

“You Are Your Own Informant” depicts issues surrounding privacy and surveillance that arise when users choose to share their personal information online. More specifically the image communicates that through the normalisation and everyday use of social media websites such as Facebook, users often forget that most of the information available to governments and businesses online have been made available by the individual users themselves choosing to freely publish information about themselves online. The accompanying text reiterates this message as it reinforces the idea that the digital landscape has made it easier for breaches of privacy to occur because more often that not we point the spy glass towards ourselves through the use of our own camera lenses. Additionally, by being distracted by the convenience of sharing information and having conversations about our personal lives with the social web of friends we have on Facebook, we often need to be reminded that within the digital parameters of the internet nothing can stay hidden or be hidden. Stylistically the choice to use a selfie of myself aiming the camera like a gun to my own personal details that I have freely shared on Facebook, such as a picture of my face, information about where I live, where I was born and where I study, visually depict the dangers of freely exposing information about myself on the internet.

The foreground image was taken on my DSLR camera, however the coding in the background is a screenshot that was posted on an IT blog titled: unmaskedparasites.com. Ethically I feel that I have repurposed the image heavily into my own work, however due to copyright issues I would be required to ask for permission to use the picture if I were to post the image online as my own work. The reason why I chose to use this image was because I found it difficult to recreate a believable line of coding in Photoshop, in particular replicating the style of font used was difficult and made the image not as believable.

By working with a number of layers I separated the background from the original image using the Magnetic Lasso tool in order to make the camera the focal point of the image by making it larger and separating it from the background so that it would starkly contrast the blue lines of code. Secondly, through the creation of a clipping mask I was able to insert another image into the camera lens and then drag the supporting rectangle text bubbles taken from my Facebook profile. As for the placement of text and the black framing I had to resize the image and layer a black background behind the image. The use of a black frame with contrasting white font serves as a vector that guides the viewers eye firstly to the camera lens and then to the rest of the image. The use of this framing becomes effective to the overall composition of the image and it further replicates the framing of a polaroid picture reversed to further communicate the idea of a frame within a frame.

 

Reference

2009, ’10 FTP Clients Malware Steals Credentials From’, Unmask Parasites Blog, weblog, viewed 22 October 2016, < http://blog.unmaskparasites.com/2009/09/23/10-ftp-clients-malware-steals-credentials-from/>.

 

 

 

Digital Production Process: Re-drafting Image 1 and Drafting Image 2.

Image 1 

After receiving peer feedback on my first initial blog post, I decided to re-design my first image. However I decided to continue exploring the theoretical concepts surrounding the changing digital landscape, in particular the relationship between old media vs. new media. The focus was to showcase the changes in social practises through the centrality of a traditionally powerful figure such as a deity interacting with digital media communications, to further reinstate the dichotomy between the changing landscape of analogue and digital sources of communications. The primary image was one I had taken at the Bondi cemetery and this allowed the aura of tradition in the previous post shown through use of a Renaissance painting to be maintained.

(Nikolic 2014)

Iterations of Image 1 

Iteration 1 – 9th October 2016 

Iteration 2 – 14th October 

The following Screenshot showcases the work-in progress design process that was required in creation of the final image.

Image 2 

For the second image I wished to work within the theoretical realms of privacy and surveillance, and particularly explore what the consequences are to individuals who share their own personal information via social media practices. Furthermore I wished to design a piece that communicated this idea and essentially played around with the fact that we as individuals who engage with social media breach our own privacy and in fact allow others access to our private information.  Thus the base image for this piece was a selfie I took when I was testing out my camera. I thought it would be interesting to have the subject spy on themselves because they are the informants who are revealing information about themselves through social media.

(Nikolic 2014)

Iterations of Image 2:

Iteration 1 – 16th October 

The following screen shot is a process image that showcases the creation of a clipping mask in Photoshop that allows another image to be placed within the lens of the camera.

Iteration 2 -18th October 

The last picture is a rough draft of the final image with no accompanying text.

Iteration 3 – 20th October 

 

 

Digital Publishing: Reflections on Producing A draft for image one.

(Nikolic 2016)

This image remixes traditional imagery in the form of an oil painting, via the photo processing technology photoshop, into a visual collage that attempts to communicate broader concepts surrounding digital communication such as audience participation and interaction, fan culture, realistic and unrealistic representation, digital manipulation and representation. The manipulated image extends the message communicated in the original painting by Ary Scheffer (1826), that depicts a group of women seeking for assistance from the virgin Mary, by extending the concept of blind following to the modern landscape of the digital age by introducing a new deity in the form of pop culture icon Kim Kardashian.

The main tools used in the creation of this image involved simple layering functions available in photoshop, because the stylistic choice was to keep everything clean and polished so that the edited images would create a stark contrast when layered against the original image. The layered images are sourced from free stock image websites such as Devianart and Flickr in respect of copyright, and the text was created online through a website called wigflip.com, that enables users to type in text and make their own digital speech bubbles.

Although I’m pleased with this image, this image will serve as a guide for the creation of the final image. This is because the assessment brief requires that we take produce an image, and then bring it into a photo manipulation software. Furthermore the creation of this collage has narrowed down the concepts that the final picture will communicate, thus this picture will serve as an inspirational guide for the final work. I might choose to completely remix the painting through tracing it or re-enacting the painting and then taking a photo in order to create an original piece inspired by the work.

Reference 

Scheffer, A. 1826, Greek Women Imploring at the Virgin of Assistance, Google Art Project, viewed  9 October 2016, < https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ary_Scheffer_-_Greek_Women_Imploring_at_the_Virgin_of_Assistance_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg>

The myth of Global Access

Globalisation throughout the privileged western world has brought fourth the myth of unlimited access to information communication technologies such as the internet. The popularised image of the internet has been marketed to consumers and online users as a form of domesticated technology designated to each household (Eastin, Cicchirillo & Mabry 2015) in the developed world. This assumption surrounding the ease of internet access in the developed world is particularly problematic in the Australian context because it overlooks the academic discourse surrounding the digital divide and its presence in remote Aboriginal communities across Australia.

The digital divide refers to the notion that certain demographic groups in society do not have access to communication technologies such as the internet due to possessing certain contextual characteristics such as: a low socioeconomic status, being apart of a particular race or culture and living in a particularly remote geographical location (Rennie et al. 2010). Similarly, the knowledge gap hypothesis extends this notion by proposing that ‘segments of the population with a higher economic status tend to acquire mass media information at a faster rather than the lower status segments’ (Eastin, Cicchirillo & Mabry 2015). Thus when considering the operation of the digital divide in remote Aboriginal communities one must go beyond simply measuring levels of access but rather consider the social inequities present within that particular individual or community (Eastin, Cicchirillo & Mabry 2015).

Serper Tenhunen proposes a way of approaching the digital divide via ‘social logistics’ in order to understand the relationships between technology, culture and social structure.’ (Rennie et al. 2016, p.16). In practice this might be mirrored by recognising that certain individuals make a ‘digital choice’ not to use the internet due to cultural or social factors that have influenced their attitudes towards technologies (Rennie et al. 2010, p24). In remote communities the image of the internet is very different from the western domestication of broadband usage in every private household (Rennie et al. 2010). Rather the internet operates within the public domain through public access sites made available by media organisations and youth centres (Kral 2014) as physical obstacles such as distance and harsh environmental conditions have lead to high installation and maintenance costs (Rennie et al. 2010).

From a western perspective it can be argued that digital technologies and services are ‘not changing the way in which people live their lives but enhancing existing their existing lifestyles’ (Rennie et al. 2016, p.25). Further individuals who cannot access the internet are becoming excluded from access to cheaper goods and services, education involving self learning and formal learning, employment, self empowerment through social interaction and e-government services (Holloway 2005).

Thus the question that is posed is how can governments and policy makers provide greater avenues of access to remote Indigenous communities that not only closes the digital divide but provides opportunities for Indigenous youth and individuals in the community to close the knowledge gap between themselves and Australian’s who are ‘coming of age’ in highly developed interactive digital learning environments (Kral 2014).

Reference List

• Eastin, M. S., Cicchirillo, V. & Mabry, A. 2015, ‘Extending the Digital Divide Conversation: Examining the Knowledge Gap Through Media Expectancies’, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol.59, no.3, pp.416-437.
• Holloway, D. 2005, ‘The digital divide in Sydney: A sociospatial analysis’, Information, Communication & Society, vol.8, no.2, pp.168-193.
• Kral, I. 2014, ‘Shifting perceptions, shifting identities: Communication technologies and the altered social, cultural and linguistic ecology in a remote indigenous context’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol.25, no.2, pp.171-189
• Rennie, E., Crouch, A., Thomas, J. & Taylor, P. 2010, ‘Beyond Public Access? Reconsidering Broadband for Remote Indigenous Communities’, Communication, Politics & Culture’ vol.43, no.1, pp.48-69.
• Rennie, E., Hogan, E., Gregory, R., Crouch, A., Wright, A. & Thomas J. 2016, Internet on the Outsation: The Digital Divide and Remote Aboriginal Communities, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

 

Interactive Digital Narratives, and why you shouldn’t feel bad about playing another round of World of Warcraft.

The information age brought forth with it the advent of innovative devices and information systems that transformed the nature of political, commercial, economic and social spheres. Scholars have discussed and critiqued the consequences of this technological revolution considering the effect on the public sphere in contexts such as commerce, education and health. However, few have dwelled into the private sphere and studied how people engage with media technologies for entertainment purposes. The widespread growth creation and consumption of interactive game technologies and digital media storytelling is the prime example of an area of communications lacking analytical academic rhetoric. Seiffert & Nothhaft, argue that scholars treat computer games as apart of a trivial popular culture due to an existence of ‘paradigmatic assumptions of what ‘communication’ is.’ (2014, p.225). It can be argued that the academic sphere trivialises computer games as a children’s medium that serves no cultural or societal function, and that games appear to operate solely in a commercial context as marketable products. (Seiffert & Nothhaft 2014, p.256). In practice data suggests that the average age of computer gamers in the US is that of 30 years (Seiffert & Nothhaft 2014 p.256). And that game consumption is at a continual growth, as games like World of Warcraft an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing-game) have hosted more than 12 million paying subscribers in peak periods (Seiffert & Nothhaft 2014).

Similarly, media theorist Lev Manovich argues that the continual use of new media technologies in natural everyday interactions ‘creates new fundamental bases for our creative tendencies.’ (Fulwiler & Middleton 2012, p.39). In practice new media has influenced the way in which we tell and experience stories. Interactive digital narratives also known as ‘choose your own adventure stories’ (Green & Jenkins 2014, p.479) are apart of a growing genre of gaming and entertainment media practices. Users can immerse themselves in a multimedia environment that encourages multimodal interaction by interfacing text with images, graphics and audio visual material (OHalloran, Tan & K.LE 2015). This emersion allows users to be influenced in ways that are fundamentally different from traditional communicative avenues (Seiffert & Nothaft, 2015), posing opportunities for creators to design and implement a media message that can entertain and educate (Green & Jenkins 2014).

However, the multimodal nature of game design can pose certain challengers for game developers. Michael Chion describes the forced marriage phenomenon as a situation in which audio and visual elements achieve synchronicity even when music is composed with no regard for the visual elements (Abraham 2011). Notwithstanding happy accidents, game developers must achieve audio-visual synchronicity when composing music for interactive games to bridge the gap between the music and the sound effects (Abraham 2011) and create immersive environments for players.

Thus, it can be argued that game technologies enable users to interact with many modes of technology and acquire critical digital competencies beyond traditional literacy practices. (O’Halloran, Tan & K.LE 2015). As there is no denying the rapid growth of game technologies there is a need for further research from media theorists and potential academic opportunity in the analysis of the effects of interactive storytelling on cognitive performance.

Reference List  

• Abraham, B. 2011, Halo and Philosophy, Open Court Publishing, Chicago.
• Fulwiler, M. & Middleton, K. 2012, ‘After Digital Storytelling: Video Composing in the New Media Age’, Computers and Composition, vol.29, no.1, pp.39-50.
• Green, M. C. & Jenkins, K. M. 2014, ‘Interactive Narratives: Processes and Outcomes in User-Directed Stories’, Journal of Communication, vol.64, no.3, pp.479-500.
• O’Halloran, K. L., Tan, S. & K.L.E, M. 2015, ‘Multimodal analysis for critical thinking’, Learning, Media and Technology, pp.1-24.
• Seiffert, J. & Nothhaft, H. 2014, ‘The missing media, The procedural rhetoric of computer games’, Public Relations Review, vol.41, no.2, pp.254-265.

 

 

 

The Battle of the digital forms: Competency vs. Literacy

In what seems to be an era of endless technological succession one must wonder how users effectively process and distil through constant surges of information brought forth by computerised information systems and varying cyber networks. Is the consumption of digital media an unteachable skill available only to those who are apart of the developmental youth culture or can digital media skills be measured through performance and transferred to the ‘ordinary person’ (Hartley 2009)? And if so, what distinguishes media consumption and user competency from digital literacy?

In his work From Cliché to Archetype (1970) Marshall McLuhan theorised that the ‘entire world of technology mimics the human body’ (McLuhan 2008, p.30). Communicative devices can ‘form and deform us’ (Vlieghe 2015, p. 217) as ‘the content of media technologies serves as a distraction from awareness of how the medium is moulding consciousness.’ (Fishman 2006, p.570). In practice the ‘sensory perceptions of users existing within a particular era’ (Fishman 2006, p569) become formed through the process of societal adaptation to digital environments. (Garcia & Navarro 2014). Users might find themselves able to react to a new technology due to a cognitive process that allows them to establish relationships with ‘what they perceive on the screen and their previous knowledge.’ (Giron-Garcia & Navarro 2014, p.162). Academia has dubbed this phenomenon as the concept of spontaneous digital literacy, implying that people who surf the net without specific instruction or training possess new technology skills: skills that allow individuals to ‘combine internet resources to solve problems and simplify and satisfy personal needs’(Giron-Garcia & Navarro 2014 p.166).

 © Sourced from Wikipedia 

However, the successful navigation of the technological landscape requires higher order skills moving beyond basic competency and consumption to a level of digital literacy that enables users to understand, evaluate, synthesize, consume and produce digital resources (Koltay 2011, p.216).This is made prevalent in the assumption that young people have a high level of technological understanding when they may only possess basic levels of technical competency (Walsh 2015). Thus to become digitally literate the ‘ordinary person’ must become critical, innovative and independent minded when consuming digital content (Hartley 2009). This involves the transference of a higher order skill that encourages users to manipulate and use media in new ways (Walsh 2015).

Similarly, the growing global rates of internet use and the use of social communications technologies is further distorting the boundaries between traditional learning environments and avenues of private independent life long learning. Hobart’s message and emphasis of the other experience ‘as another way of being in the truth’ (Hartley 2009) further reinforces the importance of critically analysing the digital world in an anthropological and cultural sense. (Poore 2011) Furthermore, Poore argues that we cannot rely on traditional academic practices in developing creative solutions to issues brought forth by the digital age (2011). As that the distribution of digital literacy skills among the general population requires ‘collaboration from different age groups, ethnic origins and different walks of life gathered in interest-drive online communities’ (Vlieghe 2015, p.213).

Thus acquiring digital literacy skills is not limited to those who are apart of the youth culture but rather requires the practice of constantly creating, engagement and production of digital content.

Reference List

• Fishman, D. A. 2006, ‘Rethinking Marshal McLuhan: Reflections on a Media Theorist’, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, vol.50, no.3, pp.567-574.
• Giron Garcia, C. & Navarro, F. I. 2014, ‘Digital Literacy and Metaphorical Models’, Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences, vol. 1, no.2, pp.160-180.
• Hartley, J. 2009, The Uses of Digital Literacy, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.
• Koltay, T. 2011, ‘The media and the literacies: media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy’, Media, Culture and Society, vol.33, no.2, pp.211-221.
• McLuhan, E. 2008, ‘Marshal McLuhan’s Theory of Communication: The Yegg 1’, Global Media Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, pp.25-43.
• Poore, M. 2011, ‘Digital Literacy: Human Flourishing and Collective Intelligence in a Knowledge Society’, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, vol.19, no.2, pp.20-26.
• Vlieghe, J. 2015, ‘Traditional and digital literacy. The literacy hypothesis, technologies of reading and writing and the ‘grammatized’ body’, Ethics and Education, vol.10, no. 2, pp.209-269.
• Walsh, L. 2015, ‘From digital competency to digital literacy’, International School, Summer 2015, vol.17, no.3, pp.19-20.