Fini. Finito. Fertig. Terminado. Fin. 成品 Finished.

Promotional Campaign Video.

For this project, I worked in a group of 4 generating idea for a short online campaign project based around a growing aspect of a certain media which we felt strongly about. 

As a group we decided to base our video around an issue which was very common to us as a group and also to other youths our age who we thought would be able to relate. 

The campaign was focused on Smartphones and the importance this device in the 21st century. The use of this contempary media today, has become part of our everyday lives and I would say rituals - without them we may even feel like we forgotten piece of clothing! Smartphones had advanced in their computing abilty and connectivity in correlation to a feature mobile device. The technologies converged into one mobile device is not only useful when on-the-go, it also tends to decreases the original purpose of a mobile phone which is to make phone call and text. Verbal communication is used less and social interaction is used much more. This could have an affect on our generation in the future years as verbal communication is very important. 

Our video gets across  the message that we feel without our smartphones we feel completely lost without them which shouldn’t be the case and it effects us emotionally and psychically as we feel like we have lost contact with the world, (where we would search the web, use twitter) or  friends and family (where we would Facebook, use blackberry messenger, Skype or email). 

I can personally relate to this campaign video as I have a Blackberry Smartphone and without it I tend to think theres nothing else to do and I feel quite empty without it.

I also received feedback from a few of my peers would had Smartphones asking them if they felt that they could relate to our campaign video and how they would feel without their device for a week Heres what some of them had to say;

Female, 18 [Blackberry]

'I'd feel quite useless as I use my blackberry  a lot! I will feel disconnected with the world, I will be soo bored, I'd probrably sleep more'

Male, 19 [iPhone]

'A week without my iPhone seems impossible as I have a small business where I would need to interact with clients. I usually send most of my emails via my phone as I am always on the go and I have alot of applications such as banking, social networking sites and day to day planners and meetings to keep me organised.'

Male, 19 [HTC and Blackberry]

'I personally think I could go a week without my HTC, but not my blackberry as I'd miss the Blackberry messenger too much, i don't think I could go a day without it.'

Female 19 [Blackberry and iPhone]

'I could not go a second without my iPhone, I frequentlty use an app on my phone called instagram. With my blackberry I wouldn't mind as it hardly ever watch correctly.'

The Medium Is The Message.

‘The medium is the message’, a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan referring to the form od a medium embedding itself in a message to generate are relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.

In week 20, we looked how the media can changes our behavior and though thought about the ways in which media can influence our performance in the everyday life and how vital it is.

One passage, which we looked in relation to the topic, was a book by Turke, S  (2011) Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: basic Books.  The reading establishes the fact that technology is something that as grown on many individuals in the 21^st century. Also bear in mind that we are a digital age where technology as now been seen to be as essential part of life itself, it would be impossible to think about living without it.  The reading also goes into how the old media and new media  (Anderson, 2006) cites the old media is seen as corporate bullying exploitative, and anti - democratic whereas the new media is grassroots, collaborative more interactive and customizable. I agree with the Andersons analysis as the new media allows individuals to generate an empowering figure quicker. An example of this is a young boy named Jamal Edwards who started off with a standard video cam and basic editing materials. The use of new media websites such as youtube allowed him to gain recognition and feedback for his video work in order to improve his editing skills. Jamals lead to success shows a form of 'Hangin out', 'Messing around' and 'Geeking out.'  Starting off which a standard cam camorder and having access to standard editing material soon lead him to practice and build on his hobby turning it into a career path.

COPYFIGHT Copyright!

We had many workshops related to the subject of copyright as we had to prepare for a copyright debate. We were split up into two groups; anti - motion and pro-motion. We then had to go away and gather research in order to support the sides which we were given. I was part of the anti motion team arguing that copyright should be kept. As a group we firstly set each other roles and responsibilities of who was doing what. as there was quite a few of us, we created a Facebook group page where we could all post ideas, points and articles towards the lead up to our debate date. 

My role in the group was to come up with points for the opposing team to argue with:

• Copyright is used to protect a creators piece of work as it was probably worth a lot of money.
• If there was no such thing as copyright, we would see a lot less content and expansion on creativity  
• Copyright is a way of shielding pirates and allows companies to people good revenue.
• Copyright stops people from stealing someone piece of original work, there's a difference between stealing and borrowing
• Copyright  reinforces restrictions to people’s creativity and without it people would create or expand on original creations freely.

Social CAPITAL.

(Coleman, 1988) refers to social capital the resources accumulated through the relationships among people. Social capital is an elastic term with a variety of definitions in multiple fields (Adler & Kwon, 2002).

As a teenager of the 21st century, social capital creates a big imapct in my life

Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html

The Psycho-geography drift through Leicester.

Different people tend to take different routes to get to the same destination. This can often because of the familiarization of certain landmarks or due to researching their route using the internet asking for directions or simply checking an AtoZ Map.

For my psycho-geography project I decided have three of my volunteers  to walk from one destination to another. Starting at the same spot and ending up in the same destination. 


Having looked at how other projects had been presented, I decided to present mine through an artistic visual. i intended to get a copy of the map and draw a line along the streets on my paper map following my volunteers one at a time taking note of what routes they decided to take to get to the same destination. 


I will then take that sketch and and create a copy without the mapped background to create a line drawing inspired by an online blog: http://mylibs.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/psychogeography-daniel-rogers/


My first starting point was picking 3 volunteers to take part in the project. Next I chose the starting and finishing point I wanted each of my volunteers to walk from. The starting point I chose was my accomdation 'Filbert Village' and the finishing point was Highcross shopping centre by the clock tower. I then asked each candidate to do their research and find out how to get to the destination in the quickest time.  I printed the map three times so I was able to take note and draw along the map paying attention to the roads and turnings each of my candidates took.

My Results For Each Candidate

Candidate 1.

[insert image]

Candidate 1 

Candidate 2

Candidate 3 

Candidate 1, 2 & 3

Candidate 1, 2 & 3

The last two diagrams about show the common routes which the three different candidates took or similar nearby areas. Candidate 2 got to the destination the quickest and Candidate 1 took the longest. At the end of the experiment I asked my three volunteers how they     got round to finding their way from their student accommodation (filbert village) during the beginning of the year when they had moved in.


 Heres what they had to say:  


Candidate 1 
'I had to find my own way around just by asking questions and asking people on the streets as I walked along or people at my accommodation reception' 



Candidate 2
'I already had friends and family that attended the same university so they showed me quick routes to certain places especially town' 



Candidate 3
'I looked online on google maps and used my phone app which seemed to help me'


Looking at each response candidate 2 already had access to primary sources which were friends and family which know the town of Leicester well giving candidate 1 access to shorter routes. On the other had candidate 3 had to provide themselves with secondary research which is a reliable source and due to narrowing her search she properly had access to possible short cuts, but as she was new to the area at the time it was sensible for her to take the route the displayed on the map. Candidate 1 had access to poor resources as she would find people as she went alone. The problem with this is that the people she may have asked may not have been familiar with Leicester or had lived in the area to know. False directions could have also been given. 


I am personally surprised that the candidate that used their phone and the internet didn't make the fastest time. This shows that manual sources such as conversation and verbal interaction can sometimes be more reliable than technology in certain situations.

Remix Culture & Immaterial Labour.