The group has decided to focus on cluster 2 as the main inspiration source of our productions. Prior to the readings, my initial thought of cluster 2 was of re-construction. The components that attracted me were perception, reframing, defamiliarisation and capturing the unnoticed phenomena. First concept came to mind was the re construction or reframing of a common phenomena by either playing with the focus or the rotation of the frame itself. Imagine a water droplet, we are so used to seeing a water drop downwards (vertically), if the frame was to be rotated so the water drops from right to left, as an audience there is a certain feeling of uneasiness to see something that contradicts our sense of reality.
Second concept came to mind was thinking about how we capture the world, through our eyes or through the lens of a camera. Through a lens of a camera can only go so far. The widest range of a lens, even into a fish eye effect, is still relatively different to our eyes. I came across a blog in http://fourfifthsdesign.com/2009/07/20/human-eye-camera/ . The blog writes on the latest camera design by Georg Milde, the Human Eye Camera. It is basically a panorama effect camera but with stitching that has been curved, as the brain does not flatten any image we perceive. As we shoot footage with a camera, we only get a certain amount of range. As we see through our eyes, we seem to only focus on the main subject that is usually straight ahead. But what about our optical sensory or the brain’s perception of images itself, and also our knowledge of what is outside our field of vision. The knowledge creates an image in our brain almost automatically. This new design of such camera inspired another thought. In capturing the unseen or unnoticed phenomena, a global panorama effect came to mind. A series of photographs of a certain landscape taken and stitched together carefully to create a global effect. The picture shows the 360 view of the environment in a flattened photograph. Its distortion and its unrealistic features again create a feeling of uneasiness for the viewer. This is, off course, combined with a series of video footages of the landscape. http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris230889/3728804123/
After reading the articles, new ideas and concepts are inspired. Crary (1999) talks about the idea of attention and how individuals disengages themselves from the broader environment in order to concentrate or focus on one aspect of their surroundings. He used the example of driving a car where an individual will focus on their field of vision of the road and ignoring most of the activities that happen outside that vision. This combined with Blester&Salter (2007) idea of soundscape and aural architecture are what gained most of my own attention. They argued that the sound sources or the sonic events “illuminate” the aural architecture. It does not mean that through sound, an individual is able to see a complete environment to the most details in their mind. A first thought was of a blind person, they see darkness but they seem to be able to hear better than the regular person. They walk and experience the same events as us without sight but mainly from sound and their walking guide. The concept that came to mind is to maybe create a video experience with no visual presentations. The viewer will feel uneasy as it sees a world or an environment that is quite different to their usual way. Still a primitive idea that will be refined but basically an experience of a black screen with multiple layered sound scapes. So for example, an environment of a park with the viewer placed in the middle; the sounds of different people walking, a fountain, birds chirping, trees blown in the wind etc. will be recorded separately and create a 360 feel of the environment only through sound.

These are my inspirations so far that will be refined throughout the semester. Ideas before and after the reading will be used and combined to better the understanding and use of cluster 2.

Laters!

NOW! while trying to do all these assignments in my small workspace at home since my laptop’s wireless is screwed, I tend to get distracted alot. This can be called distraction but IT IS ONE DAMN GOOD QUOTE and very inspirational. I just like to share it to you all, especially to ones that dont know it and maybe get inspired in one way or the other. AND its just so i can waste my time too hehe.

A few pics from our drawing class at cofa showing our final drawings being set up for assessments…….. oh dear….haha

Daniel Hermann range

Fashion Palette 009. Well i volunteered as a photographer in this event and received a media pass which acts as a free ticket to the event, party and after party. Found out that the ticket was really expensive, having a media pass just gave me one big smile! but when I was there, I was probably asleep for most of it, when they were talking anyways. Runways come up and my camera starts clicking. This is just one photo of the many others, just doing this so I can get away from the MDCM presentation assignment LOL

I painted my Civic FD’s grille to black to make it different from the rest. The original was chrome and most people change it to the mugen style grille.
Oh and this is a start of a daily photojournal blog for me……..each day will have at least one photo
^^

How does the filter expand and contract?

Australia’s most obvious immigration access points include seawater via naval means and of course our airport capitals via airplanes. These points of access serve to filter who and what comes in and out of the country as well as what stays out of the border.

The expanding and contraction of filtration is governed by a circulation of media attention. Like a gauze it is complex and constantly influenced by the social climate expanding and then contracting depending on the type and extent of the attention around the borders.

As an example to illustrate this concept we could look at how media coverage in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack resulted in an almost impenetrable gauze; particularly was the case at airports. Inceptions of stricter quarantine processes coupled with the constant repetition of images of the twin towers, fires burning coupled with barbaric portrayals of Islam as the “enemy” meant that these gateways to nation-states underwent an enhanced scrutinization.

Prior to the 9/11 coverage the process of screening people was much more straightforward. Access and passageway through the immigration gateway was a matter of having the right Visa. In Australia, citizenship and correct visa status acts as a key to pass validly and safely through. A simple stamp of the pass-port will permit you access. However this is only a later part of the process. Australia’s filtration of international immigration begins with particular treaties and agreements between countries. For example people who originate from countries of the commonwealth as well as many from the European union such as Germany can be granted instant working tourist visas at the click of a button after an internet application is filed. For them it is much more easier to pass through the barrier. This part of the process is done offshore.

In contrast to this people from less developed nations who have lesser ties for instance Iraq find it much harder to travel through the filter process.

Media attention and portrayal of other countries plays a heavy part in a country’s immigration policy. Just one year after extensive media coverage on “The War on Terror,” a heavy focus on “Islam” as the enemy, resulted in a proliferated attention to our border line security.
This notion of attention overload is also paralleled in Richard Lanham’s article on the economics of attention.
“Information doesn’t seem in short supply…we’re drowning in it. There is too much information around to make sense of it all.” We could relate this idea to the attention of people of middle eastern backgrounds as being linked to terrorism. This was reported in a number of media articles. The war on terrorism also became a major issue and it became enmeshed with the immigration, especially asylum seeker policies. This posed questions as to who was valid to cross through the filter. Racial stereotyping and media depictions of middle-eastern religion and culture were used to insight fear into public perception. This resulted in the constriction of the gauze
i.e. inception of stricter and lower immigration quotas for people from Islamic backgrounds.

While there are valid passage ways through the filters there are access points which are deemed invalid. For example in the instance of asylum seekers it was published in the International migration review that after the Tampa “children overboard” incident 75% of Australians supported the decision to refuse entry to the asylum seekers.

Although origins and visas play a significant part in determining entrance through border gateways there are ways to pass through.
Money can purchase tickets through immigration borders whether it be as a student or through permanent resident visas. Furthermore Australia permits easy access through the filter to those who can demonstrate skilled labour in fields where jobs are needed to be filled in high demand.

So under all those words, we pretty much meant that the media plays a big part in our own border security. For example, the 9/11 incident caused a massive media bombardment on the war on terror and the idea of Islam as not being a religion of peace. Now, our minds are so moulded that we start thinking and linking muslims to terrorists. This results in the tightening of the filter (border) to people of that background. Now there is a video that we made, and we specifically edited it in a way that it contrasts every scene to parallel on how the media works on moulding our minds. enjoy!

Presentation Advertisement

This is an advertisement for Gatorade’s new sports drink line “G2″. On the surface, the salient aspects of the Ad would be the two subjects shown, the words “KEVIN” and the celebrity on the left “Kevin Garnett” of the Boston Celtics.
Now if we break it down to Durand’s rhetorical figures, Paradox is definitely shown.
Paradox-
There seems to be this difference that conceals the real identity or sameness. Apparent differences – the two different people, different race, ‘fit and athletic vs non-athletic’, famous vs normal, basketball vs swimming, and international vs local.
All those above conceals the ad’s real identity which is shown through the text used. The name “KEVIN” shows the two figures ‘sameness’ or similarities. The text below it shows both of their struggles in which they had to overcome to become what they are now. Kevin Garnett talks about how he never experienced what the other guy had and vice versa but they both seem to come to an agreement that they have tried their hardest to be the best they can be. This idea brings them both into one idea “G2″ the sports drink. In a way that no matter who you are, big or small, someone or nobody, struggles or no struggle, G2 can bring you to a place where you become the best you can be.
Suppression within Ellipsis -
The advertisement left the actual product of the G2 out, with only a silhouette at the corner. It gives it extra value, also through the inferred idea that both athletes uses G2 and they become what they are. The absence of the product can be demonstrated to be indispensable or of ever greater value. They were successful with this technique because of the massive brand presence of Gatorade in people’s lives that the product is not necessary to persuade them in any way.

-Daniel