Leaving this weeks lecture about “medium is the message” I wasn’t sure whether I was confused or understanding of what this actually meant. In 1964 Marshall McLuhan developed the idea that the when relaying information the medium is of upmost importance and is in fact the message. I understood the concept but struggled to put it into words. It wasn’t until I came across Eric McLuhan’s statement in the article “Commonly asked questions (and answers), that I could put my thoughts into words.
Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are its unique message.
My recent understanding of “the message is the message” has now been replaced with this idea of the medium being the important key to determining the message it carries. This week I have learnt that as a person, I have my own medium, my own message and it’s in my control what my audience receives. The message is controlled by the medium and I believe this is an extremely important concept to understand.
The example that immediately came to mind when researching into this topic, was the way that we as individuals portray ourselves through social media. As a teenager I am guilty of caring what other people think and how they perceive me and using platforms such as instagram to express myself, my lifestyle and my fashion through perfectly arranged images and videos. I use instagram, the photos I post and the clothes I wear as my medium, creating the message I want to create. It’s a platform to express my personality to others in a way I feel comfortable and confident.
References:
McLuhan, E., n.d. Commonly Asked Questions About Mcluhan – The Estate Of Marshall Mcluhan. [online] Marshallmcluhan.com. Available at: <https://www.marshallmcluhan.com/common-questions/> [Accessed 19 March 2020].
Through my Digital Artefact “Tables With Taryn”, I aim to create a platform for uni students to access when they are in need for a cheap local cafe or home cooked meal. As a local I have an extensive knowledge of what Wollongong has to offer. My favourite part about Wollongong is the social life, and the access we have to places where we can gather together to socialise and communicate over a cup of coffee. There are so many spectacular cafes, big and small, that I believe deserve to be recognised. Using only $15 or less, I will go out to local cafes and document what I can buy, as well as, provide videos of sustainable meals that are quick, easy, and fit within this limit.
I strive for this project to be a place to help students who are struggling away from home and don’t know where to eat or what to cook affordably.
This week in our bcm115 tutorial we were given the task to film and create our very first remoscope. Nick, Hannah, and I decided to take off away from the campus and capture what we could find that differed from buildings, people and busy carparks.
The first mistake we made was forgetting to grab a tripod before we made it halfway down the street. But with this in mind, it was a great opportunity that we took on board to utilise the objects we had around us in order to create our still videos. This also allowed us to think outside the box, use different camera angles, and to be creative with what we were given.
Committed to the shot
We each took turns filming two videos for 30seconds, experimenting with the camera settings and lighting. In the end, when all the shots were edited together, it was evident we had created a story without sound, editing, effects… all within the 1 minute.
Our final product
The main goal for this tutorial was to learn how to use the professional cameras, experiment with the settings, and learning to use premiere pro as an editing tool. The two shots that I created was:
From the moment we were introduced to our DA projects, I have been stuck on ideas. We were told multiple times, by multiple people to create a DA incorporating something we’re passionate about. I’m passionate about many things such as singing, food, Hockey, adventures, friends, and family. It wasn’t finding what my passions are, that made me feel stuck.. it was the issue of incorporating these into a useful and possibly successful project.
Over the past week I have been switching from one idea to another, struggling to put all my focus and energy into one. It wasn’t until I went out for lunch with my best friend did my first major idea come together. Since becoming a full time uni student, I now understand the importance of budgeting, especially in terms of food and socialising. What brings me most joy is spending this quality time with friends and family over coffee and food, but spending the money has become increasingly hard to keep up with.
This is where my DA idea comes into play. My idea, so far, is to find cafes around Illawarra that are suitable for uni students to not only eat but study. My goal is to limit my spending between $10-$15, determine whether the space is quiet and comfortable enough to study, and of course have an aesthetic and friendly environment. I will document my research on an instagram page, as well as vlog my journey and experience on a youtube channel.
Deli n Dine First stop on my DA project
A few other ideas I have in mind include:
Exploring around Illawarra
Beaches
Getting people to do something out of their comfort zones (eg. Me singing to a crowd)
Finding hidden cafes
As someone who can’t cook, I thought creating a cooking account would be a fun and interesting idea
Finding cheap places to visit, including shops, cafes, restaurants etc..
When I started looking into the topic cultural appropriation and culture appreciation, my dad told me about an album, released by Paul Simon, that he vividly remembers listening to during his HSC. In the album ‘Graceland’ Paul Simon used South African singers to create a political statement about Apartheid. Around this time, the U.N sanctioned South Africa over their oppression of black people. During this time countries from around the world boycotted playing international sport against all South African teams, like cricket, and rugby, their major sporting codes. There was also a call for musicians around the world to boycott touring or including South African artists also during this time.
Paul Simon on the other hand used black South Africans to create his blockbuster album ‘Graceland’ in 1986. He was first exposed to their magical music through voice, when his friend Heidi Berg gifted him a bootleg cassette tape during a tough time in both his career and personal life. On this cassette tape was “Gumboots: Accordion Jive Hits, Volume II — originating from either Ladysmith Black Mambazo or the Boyoyo Boys” (Camacho, 2016), which were later collaborators involved in ‘Graceland’. After an initial visit to South Africa, which was received poorly in many circles for political reasons, Simon completed his album in Abbey Road studios in London, June 1986. Two of the songs, ‘homeless’ and ‘Diamonds on the soles of her shoes’, had heavy collaboration with lady Smith and became focal hits for the album. The track ‘diamonds on the soles of her shoes’ had a large political meaning within its lyrics as it links back to the mining of zulu lands to find diamonds, the exploitation of the black people and the creation of the rich white society leading to a stronger apartheid.
In terms of cultural appropriation, the album Graceland can be seen as both an acceptable collaboration of south African cultural music as way to expose these artists to international stages, or on the other hand, can be seen as another exploitation of white using black culture for financial benefit. However, it is widely accepted that Simon collaborate with these musicians purely to expose their talents and cultural music to the world. In fact, in 1987, Paul Simon produced the group, Ladysmith black mambazo’s 1987 album Shakazulu, which was first released in America not South Africa. He had brought African music to the world, as stated by Jordan Runtagh in the article ‘Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’: 10 things you didn’t know’, “white artist had been incorporating traditionally black music into their work for most of the 20th century. But Graceland was ground-breaking for wearing its influence for all to see”. Simon was determined to produce an album that demonstrated an equal collaboration between both parties. Louise Meinjes, although come across as disagreeing with the album Grace land, agrees that the song “homeless” was clearly “the most collaboratively conceived of the album’s songs” in her article about Paul Simon, South Africa and the Mediation of Musical meaning.
Even though the term cultural appropriation was not a known term in 1986, it is perfectly demonstrated in this ground-breaking album.
Whether it be from the UK, Japan, Europe, America, or our
home Australia, the access to global media has never been so easy. With
platforms like youtube, Netflix, Stan, Foxtel, or Tv on demand, the world has become
a lot smaller. We are able to view Tv shows and movies from all over the globe
comfortably in our living rooms through our small laptop screens or televisions.
Through the app 9 now I am able to watch multiple shows from all over the world. Being an Australian-based-channel it surprises me how many shows there are from other countries on just one media platform. The highly controversial show love island was released to Australian tv for only one season in 2018. The show failed to have a big impact with Australian audiences unlike the UK where the show originated from. The UK has had such a success that its recently aired its 5th season. Along with love island shows such as the voice, bachelor/bachelorette, married at first sight, and idol had replications of the base concepts of the show spanning from Europe, Asia, America, the Uk and Australia.
These are only a few examples of the many shows I have seen to be replicated across the globe. A great example is ‘Got talent’, which has been replicated in 58 countries. In fact, in 2014 the show originally founded by Simon Cowell in Britain, was “recognised by Guinness World Records as the worlds most successful reality tv format” (Lynch, 2014). On searching Got talent on google, the first result that came up was a video posted on YouTube by ‘Britain’s got talent’ of a girl named sacred Riana. Sacred Riana originally entered the Asia’s got talent in 2017, where she wowed (freaked out) the judges. She is someone I had seen before on YouTube having sat with my parents who had seen it on Facebook and were absolutely in awe of her performance. Her first audition saw her reaching “650 million views on YouTube, which is more than any Got talent star in the world” (McIntyre, 2019). She has also been described by Simon Cowell as the “scariest act ever” as she brought her act over to Britain’s got talent only this year. Due to the global platform provided by the numerous media access we are exposed to, she has become a global sensation.
It wasn’t like this in 1975 when my Uncle David Mckay
competed and won the Australian remake of ‘Opportunity knocks’. At the age of
14, a boy soprano, he won the show against adults. Therefore, won the opportunity
to fly to England where the show originated, and he competed in their show.
Although viewed in Australia on TV, there was no media coverage or video when
he competed in Britain, due to no internet and media platforms like YouTube.
It’s hard to believe how far our global access has come over the many years. It’s become too easy for us to view whatever Tv show and movie we want to and whenever we want to. As stated in O’Shaughnessy’s article ‘globalisation’, “the most important points for media students to focus on include the relationship between globalisation and technological and economic changes in the media industries”. These days when the opportunity knocks, it’s not just a knock, it’s more like a bash.
Either because the roles haven’t been written, or the roles are marginal, Asian-American actors never get the chance to become A-list actors,”
Nancy Wang Yuen, Biola university professor and sociology chair (lee, 2019)
Since the early 1900s, Asian representation in Hollywood film and television has been enormously lacking. “For decades, Asian Americans working in the film and television industry have carried the impossible burden of fixing a system that has tended to punish, stereotype and ignore them” states Karen K Ho in her journal ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. In fact, it isn’t until recently that Asian-American actors are appearing more frequently on the big screens specifically as lead roles in romantic/comedic films. Such examples can span from Netflix’s recent internet sensation ‘To all the boys I loved before’, that featured an Asian-American as the leading role, even becoming one of the most viewed Netflix movies in 2018. Another notorious movie released into cinemas August 2018, is “Crazy Rich Asians’, being “the first major contemporary-set release in Hollywood with an all-Asian cast in 25 years” as stated by Ashlee Lee in a 2018 ‘Bustler’ article.
Based off an already famous book, written by Kevin Kwan in 2013, this film was bound for success. Even before its release to the public, news articles such as the article “How Crazy Rich Asians is going to change Hollywod. It’s about time” (Time, 2019) had people buzzing with excitement to see it. Myself included. In fact, there was no targeted audience other than a global one. As a lover for any cliché movie with a the mixture of romance and comedy, this movie sounded perfect. Girl meets prince? Brilliant. Set in Singapore; even better. Did I use this weeks task as another excuse to watch it for the 100th time? I most certainly did. I believe that this movie is both entertaining and educational for all viewers.
Kevin Kwan, the original writer of the best-selling novel, created a storyline that intertwined both American and Asian culture. Once you’ve been introduced to the many hints of both cultures throughout the entire film, it becomes clear just how cleverly written this whole book/film is. It provides a demonstration of a modernised version of traditional Eastern culture class systems. A class system that stems from outrageously rich families, well-to-do families, and the working class. We are first introduced to Rachel Chu, an economics professor, brought up in the American working class by her single mother from Chinese descent. She considered her partner Nick Young, a foreign student from Singapore, studying in America, to be a regular working-class man. Little did she know, Nick was a member of one of these so-called outrageously rich families, possibly considered royalty. It follows her journey to Singapore where she is introduced to a whole new different world of rich.
My understanding of Singapore’s wealth, development and culture was very limited and possibly a little stereotyped when thinking of an Asian country. However, through watching this film, it became clear just how little knowledge I had of just developed, modern and wealthy Singapore is. The class system demonstrated throughout this film can also be viewed as almost identical to a typical American class system. These ideas link this film to this weeks topic of hybridisation where a Hollywood film travels across the globe and is remade/remixed into another culture. What we see here is a cliché American storyline remixed into a film filled with culture, romance and extravagance beyond belief.
In this weeks lecture, we were introduced to the
concept of a public sphere. An 18th-century coffee house was used as a metaphor
to describe a space where people could talk openly and freely about their
ideas, issues of the day and debating topics. This metaphor was first
introduced by Jurgen Habermas whom in his book ‘The Structural Transformation
of The Public Sphere’ (1962), spoke about himself ‘imagining’ a public sphere.
Which, in his case was like an 18th-century coffee house.
We were asked to imagine what our public sphere would be. I thought back to the coffee house metaphor. I related to the concept of people coming together over a cup of coffee and some tasty food. With a love for coffee and all things social, there’s nothing I love more than sitting around a table with friends or family and talking for hours. Whether it be at a café, at a park bench, in a lunchroom or even sitting at home with a freshly made cup of coffee, I always find myself engaging in the most interesting conversations. Somehow, I can speak freely and openly in these situations. There’s joy in the openness to freely speak about our thoughts on certain topics in a friendly manner not to offend or upset.
Cassandra, Brooke and May
These conversations usually stem from a simple information swap. Controversial topics can easily come up in one of the conversations and can span from political, cultural, legal, and social matters. However, with the people I surround myself with and, the environment I’m in, I know I can express my feelings openly and where we can enjoy engaging in debates.
I do not agree with the exclusion of others. However, in my public sphere, I would exclude those people I don’t feel comfort in sharing my ideas with.
Always my coffee date
It’s easy to misconstrue information we see on the media. As mentioned in my last blog ‘Can we trust our media?’, we have to be careful of what information we take away from our media. Not all information is reliable and across the many media platforms, information can be altered and changed. Therefore, each individual depending on what app, website, or article they visit, is given different information and in turn alternative opinions.
So, whether it be about a new Kardashian/Jenner scandal, a family issue, issues people face regarding culture, gender, or race, or even over political matters and opinions, I can do so in my public sphere freely and openly. All while sipping on a nice hot coffee surrounded by friends, family, co-workers and sometimes even strangers. It’s a coffee talk.
Every morning, I start it off by having a scroll through my social media for a few minutes. In these few minutes, I’m introduced to new scandals, new headlines and new ‘fake news’. I am given these stories supported by ‘compelling evidence’ of photos, quotes, video footage, and the pure belief that these stories are in fact reliable. But are they really? How can I be so certain of where this information is coming from and how much of the story I’m being given? Never do I stop and think about who owns the media I use.
The most frequently used media of mine is Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Which I believe are the three most used apps by people my age. Most users, like myself, on Facebook, know Mark Zuckerberg as the founder and owner who created it in 2004.
I couldn’t wait until the day came where I turned 13 and my parents would finally let me sign up…. It wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. It was just like another app I had called Instagram, where I could see what friends, celebrities, companies, and my favourite clothing brands had going on. The main difference being Instagram is predominantly focused on the aesthetic layout of your photos followed by cute captions, a thousand emojis and hashtags. Whilst Facebook is less about the aesthetics and more about the humorous and family orientated side of our lives.
I love hearing the newest scandals of celebrities, just like any other teenager. I read the articles that people share, and I am entranced in the information presented in front of me. However, I’ve recently learnt that the information, photos and ‘evidence’ we’re all shown, might not be as accurate as we are led to believe. Personally, I had no idea how limited my information source through the media actually was. That was until I discovered Instagram is now also owned by Facebook and has been since 2012 when Instagram was bought for the sum of ‘$1 billion’, stated by Alyson Shontell, on the site ‘Tech insider’ (Shontell 2013).
The reality is that the majority of us don’t realise how small our stream of information is. We are getting only a small fraction of the details. It matters to me mainly because the two apps I get my information branches from one source, one insider. It’s important to know just how influential the owners of our media are controlling our sources of information. By learning this, I am now careful of what I now believe to be reliable or unreliable sources. I suggest next time you do the same.
When I was given this weeks topic, I was confused. A fair few too many google searches and I still only had a few small ideas on what complex image I could choose to discuss. Then a conversation with a friend brought up Banksy. Banksy is an anonymous street artist, who is well known for his complex graffiti and artworks. He’s done a number of artworks, all with underlining meanings and messages, however one in particular stood out for me.
Image of Banksy’s artwork found on Indian express Dhar (2018)
This image to me represents the balance between love and war (violence). It’s an image that can be interpreted in different ways depending on the persons views. His dark clothing in comparison with the colourful bouquet of flowers, is powerful on its own as it shows the contrast of light and dark; good and bad. His stance and the angle of which he holds the boutique suggests a motion of war or violence. Usually this stance is accompanied with a weapon, a grenade even, but is swapped out for a bouquet of bright, yellow flowers. This artwork can be taken as a symbol of a tough exterior with a soft interior. A man who seems tough, is actually acting in love. Trying to portray an act of violence which ironically reflects his true morals of respect and love.
Building off that interpretation,
the image can also represent a man that hopes for love and peace, instead of
the lifestyle he is given. It can represent a man who has grown up in the
lifestyle of violence and danger. A man who only wishes to act in love and
peace, instead of the violence best known to him.
These two interpretations stem from the same idea, the idea of ‘love in war’. They demonstrate how a complex image may seem simple at first glance, however, when building a backstory, this image can be interpreted in many different ways.
Banksy is successful in creating a piece of art that’s open to interpretation. The mind sees what we or what the artist wants us to see. It’s up to our imagination to interpret what we want from this complex image.
T's Timeline 