As previously discussed, Culture Jamming is becoming more prominent as technology is advancing. While the internet may provide an easy means to disperse a message for millions to view it, it is not the most prominent form of culture jamming. Culture Jammers are getting their message across in many different ways and have done so for many years.
While culture jamming is said to have existed from medieval times, one particularly influential group existed 1950's until the early 1970's. This group callled the 'Situationists' somewhat brought meaning and light to the cause. The group of international revolutionaries hit their peak during the time of the general wild cats strike in France 1968 (http://libcom.org/thought/situationists-an-introduction).
Culture jamming exists in order to disrupt the norm and get a significant message across, it can also be damaging. For example, culture jamming hit the front page when two sixteen year old girls were charged with endangering health after leaving mild stimulants and pain killers wrapped in soft lollies in a McDonalds play pit (http://the-riotact.com/?p=10991)
Some of the most influential forms of culture jamming were the slurs on advertisements. For example, the following protest of the Iraq war recreates the famous iPod adverts to bring light to the death and horror of the Iraq war.
The lecture this week explored the world and the history of film and television; from the big screen, to the small. It touched on a number of milestones in the history of film and television including the beginning of television and its transformation from black and white to colour, the introduction of sound, 3D films and the oscars.
It investigated the way in which film has developed in time and the way in which it has advanced in order to remain as a prominent industry. For example, when television was introduced and audiences jumped at the idea of this kind of entertainment in the comfort of their own homes, the film industry was frantically trying to come up with something more technologically advanced to lure its audienced back into the theatre, and with this came 3D films. Audiences then became immensely excited by the action packed, 'real-life' sense of 3D. Of course television then became aware of the competition between the two not-so-distant industries and started broadcasting films onto television.
Exploring the history of film and television put into perspective just how far the two industries have come. From 3D films to 3D televisions, from no sound to high definition, surround sound. While we today appreciate the technological advancements we have, it is the less advanced technologies that have allowed us these advancements society seem to rely so heavily on now.
The past four weeks has flown and as week 5 has crept up upon me, it seems as though exams and assignments are slapping me in the face. Due to an exam I was stressing frantically about, I did not attend Monday's lecture. When introduced, however, to the concept of culture jamming in the tutorial, I was extremely intrigued. I was lead to do my own research to familiarise myself with the term and the concept behind it, what I found was both interesting and unfamiliar. I found the idea to be one of activism and non-conformity.
Culture Jamming is to be considered a mechanism for activists to disrupt mainstream cultural institutions, one of the main ones being corporate advertising. Those who partake in culture jamming change logos, fashion statements and produce images that challenge the idea of what is 'cool' and consumerism. It can be divided into commercial, political or social.
I consider Culture Jamming as a means of protest through the realm or media, consumerism and advertising.
In today's society, millions of videos circle the internet everyday and millions of people view them. This was not, however, always the case and in this weeks tutorial we were asked to explore the development of video on the internet and how it came to be what it is today.
Usable online video began in when three former PayPal employees formed YouTube in February 2005. The San Bruno based company, originally allowed for individuals to upload videos of their choice to be seen by those who chose to do so. It has now grown into a miliion dollar company which other companies such as Vevo have chosen to do business through. The following video was the first video ever to be uploaded to the site in April of 2005, by one of the co founders of the website. While it is not particularly interesting, it launched the biggest video uploading website to date.
Throughout the history of film and television, studios have utilised technological inovations to lure audiences away from the comfort of their own homes into the cinemas. This was done in the past, and is still being done so, in the form of 3D movies. 3D film was first released in 1952 in the hope of bring audiences away from their new televisions and back into the movie theatres and this is still being done today. As TV has advanced even further, into high definition and advancements such as AUSTAR and MYSTAR, the majority of new release films are being shown in 3D- what is to be seen as more exciting and action packed. Television, however, has jumped at this advancement in technology and done the same by releasing the most recent innovation of 3D television.
While people are being encouraged to support Hollywood and their blockbuster feature films and also the not so successful ones, there is still quite a large arena for Short films and, yes, they are certainly still being made. These short films are being made for a number of reasons, for example, in order to create preludes to what may turn into a feature film in the future. Also, short films can be considered a genre in themselves. Movie makers may, in fact, wish to make a film shorter than a feature but to still include a vivid story line. Movie makers may even specialise in short films and are rewarded for their work in this particular genre, for example, Tropfest Short Film Festival. Short films may be funded by the individual who makes it or the film may be presented with a state or federal government grant. Large production companies sometimes fund them aswell.
The term viral, in the film and video areana, refers to when a video becomes extremely popular in the big bad internet world. These videos range from real life events to rehearsed comedy sketches. For example, the following video of The Lonely Island's Lazy Sunday is a video that could be considered viral because of its growing popularity.
Lastly, I was asked to investigate 'webisodes' and to be honest, until now I hadn't even heard of the term. I did find a number of webisodes and the following video is one in a series of many of the story of 'The Annoying Orange', one of the most viewed webisdoes.
Webisodes are turning the world of television shows into something much more flexible. They allow less technologically and financially advanced individuals to release their own entertainment and have it viewed by many. Episodes on the internet are also allowing people to follow their favourite shows in their own time. As television is supposedly replacing film, however, is it possible that the internet is replacing both and becoming the the means for everything a persons needs to be entertained?
Today's society may be extremely advanced but this was not always the case. In relation to the tutespark this week, we were asked to find three non-digital communication technologies and they were certainly harder to find than what I anticipated. I did, however, manage to find three, the first being the AM radio.
The Noble prize winning invention of Guglielmo Marconi, the radio telegraph system, began it's first experimental broadcast on Christmas Eve of 1906 by a Canadian experimenter Reginald Fessenden. This influential piece of technology allowed for the communication of world news to the public, communication during war, live music, many other forms of entertainment and it also gave voice to those who lacked it. It has now transformed into the world of digital radio.
The second form of non digital communication technology I came across is one even older than the AM radio. Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information by means of clicks, lights etc. that is understood by a skilled listener. Made up of 'dots' and 'dashes', morse code was another extremely appreciated form of communication and is still used in some cases today such as war and even by those with extreme cases of disabilities.
The third non digital communication device I found was, of course, the landline telephone. The one hundren and forty year old device that transmits information through radio waves, is definately one of the more recognised forms of non digital communication device and while it has been somewhat replaced by mobile phones, it is still one of the most frequently used communication devices in today's society.
While non communication devices have been somewhat replaced by more advanced technologies, they have built the path for the technologies we consider so important today.
With the internet being what it is today, a rapidly growing world of anything you could imagine and more, it has become a ripe medium for short films. This is due to a number of factors. Being much shorter in length than a feature film, they are more easily managed and smaller in download size. This renders them easy to be uploaded to the internet and in effect readily available for home viewers of all modem sizes. With video cameras becoming more technologically advanced along with mobile phones, filming such short films and having them viewed by the masses has never been so easy. The have chosen to include the following short films purely based on the way they have inspired me. While I viewed all three of them for the first time today, each story was one of inspiration, hope and love; three things so important in my life.
This short film, 'Mankind's no island' won first place at the 2008 Tropfest Film Festival and was directed by Jason Van Genderen. Shot in New York and Sydney, entirely from a mobile phone, this film encapsulates a feeling of profound hopelessness and, paradoxically highlights unity and love. The director has captured an enormous amount of despair in the two cities by not only filming the story line simply in the form of words (street signs, advertisements etc.) but also filming the homeless of the two cities and purposefully capturing a sense of loss in their faces. He has also, in contradiction, encapsulated a huge sense of unity, love and hope by turning the story around at the end. He did this by making a point of acknowledging a homeless man who he had had previously ignored in the film. This scene coupled with the words, 'I will not look away' instead of 'I always look away' which were coupled with the previous scene, profoundly captures a sense of unity and hope. This ignited a great deal of inspiration and faith within myself, assuming it also ignited such emotions in others, there is no wonder this film won such a prestigious short film award and, despite its low budget and technology is such a huge success in the industry.
This short film written and directed by Erez Tadmar and Guy Nattiv idealises both racial separation and religious differences. The directors then turn the story around to be one of unity and togetherness. The director does this by capturing an Arab man and a Jewish man on a train, both intentionally displaying their religions by means of a Pakistani newspaper and a Jewish pendant around the man's neck. The director's have made the distance between the two men explicitly clear, making the tension between them extremely obvious despite the lack of dialogue. When a group of Neo-Nazi men then enter the room and take notice of the Pakistani and Jewish men, tensions builds to even higher extremes. The Pakistani and Jewish men join forces, despite strong racial and religious differences that have existed over time, to get off the train and away from the Nazi's. The way in which the Arab and Jewish man come together as one towards the end provides a sense of unity. This short film should be considered as extremely significant as such religious differences and racial separation still vividly exists in today's society, for example, the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The short film 'Signs', directed by Nick Russell and Kertie Morsaii is one of love, confusion, isolation, distance, silence and the human need to have someone there. The directors explicitly capture the feeling of isolation Jason, the protagonist, experiences throughout the beginning of the short film by repetitive scenes and negative emotions. Jason's life is turned around, however, when he notices a girl working in the building across from him. They grow to share a relationship based purely on written notes and smiles. The director's have captured the human need for company and the way which simply knowing someone is there provides a sense of hope and safety. When Jason experiences a temporary loss of his short distance interest, he loses the sense of hope and comfort he held so dearly. The director's end the film by reuniting the pair both in writing and person.
In the week three tutorial, in relation to this weeks topic, I was sent on a treasure hunt. No, not around the Gold Coast, not even around the university, a place much larger and frightening; the world wide web. I was not in search of precious jewels or gold, instead concepts much more random and mundane, for example, the quickest way to contact Ozzy Osbourne. So for all those tuned in, read ahead for a brief run down of my findings from my treasure hunt.
When asked to find the weight of the world's largest machine I found a machine so large it was overwhelming, not to mention its resemblance to a spider. The Bagger 288 is the world's largest digging machine, more specifically a mining machine sitting at 95m tall. It weights a hefty 13,500 tons and was designed and built my the German over 5 years and cost approximately $100 million
I was then required to find the easiest, quickest and most reliable way to contact Ozzy Osbourne (for all those Sabbath fans out there). While I began searching the net and found the contact details for his manager, also being his wife Sharon, it occurred to me that Twitter would most definitely be the easiest way (https://twitter.com/OfficialOzzy, 10-08-10).
Unfortunately I found the third question somewhat difficult to answer.
I was then asked to find out a little bit about a character named Hatsune Miku. I found her to be the first installment in Vocaloid Character Vocal series in 2007, a Japanese owned software. Her birthday is the 31 August http://myanimelist.net/character/7156/Miku_Hatsune, 10-08-10).
I maganged to come across the following live webcam in Antartica, based at the Australia Casey Station http://www.aad.gov.au/asset/webcams/casey/default.asp. I also then looked into places to stay in Antarctica and found something quite different. Instead of staying in your typical hotels when travelling, Jarrod Kyte runs small cruises around the country in order to allow for an exceptional travel experience and also adhere to a number of environmental concerns (http://www.peregrineadventures.com/10-08-10)
I was then required to explore the Australian pop charts of the past 30 years and find the top song of this week in 1980.
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When asked to define nano technology in my own terms, I assumed I must first research this unfamiliar topic. After exploring a couple of websites focuses on the subject I have come to the conclusion that nano technology is the study of the controlling of extremely minute matter (http://www.crnano.org/whatis.htm, 10-08-10).
I then began to enquire about the camera utilised in 'Google Street View'. I found the camera used to get that 360 degree image was this fairly disco ball esque camera.
I was then asked to translate all of the questions in front of me into Klingon, a language I was certainly not familiar with. However, on the web a person can find pretty much anything, even without Google. While I may have impressed you with my picture uploading skills, i haven't mastered the art of copy and paste on Blogger just yet, translating every question would, therefore be extremely time consuming typing every question is Klingon. So here is the first two question translated into perfect Klingon- fictional language of a warrior race in Star Trek.
1. What is the weight of the worlds heaviest machine? How much did it cost?
nuq 'oH vo' chay' 'arta'ta 'oH Daq chen
2. What is the best way (quickest and most reliable) to contact Ozzy Osbourne?
When the lecturer warned us this weeks lecture would be somewhat boring and nerdy, I don't think I appreciated how boring and nerdy it would actually be. I think it was my own lack of interest in the subject, however. The way in which computers and the internet was born and has, for lack of a better phrase, taken over the world. How is it that I found learning about something in which a huge chunk of my life is basically devoted to so uninteresting?
Why is it that millions of people devote their lives to the internet, spend hours upon hours a week exploring the many wonders of it, but have no idea as to how it got to be what it is today, somewhat necessary?
While I unfortunately found this weeks lecture immensely boring and I don't mean to offend, it did, however, allow me to ponder the way in which the internet and computers in general have grown into a super power of the 21st century. As a member of generation Y, I find it somewhat difficult to comprehend how members of previous generations coped with such primitive technology. While at the time of its arrival it was indeed as mesmerising as the iPhone4 may be now, the way in which the world went around before the technology we have today is an interesting thought.
This concept then triggered the thought that while I find the world we live in to be technologically advanced, it's likely a 17 year old in 1975 did so as well. In another 35 years, will another seventeen year old be sitting on their laptop, or possibly the newly introduced computer in their mind, for lack of imagination, asking themselves how seventeen year olds survived in 2010 without their iPhone45.
In conclusion, week three's lecture, while somewhat boring in my opinion, did exactly what I want from this course and that is to encourage me to think about the world I live in and the way in which its growing.
While I am still finding it difficult to become enthusiastic about an 8am tutorial, this weeks tut helped me alot in understanding this weeks topic of 'cine-speak'. We were asked to create a short film of sorts by shooting 30 frames based on a particular topic. My group, of me and two other people, shot over 60 frames based on the topic of 'trapped'. We based our frames on the idea of a person trapped in the mix of stressful university and family issues. We displayed this concept by highlighting some of the stressful issues surrounding university and the way in which outside issues can come into play. We focused particularly on the influence of family on a persons decisions, particularly a teenagers. We shot over 60 frames around the university and by doing so, hopefully capturing the idea of being trapped. We uploaded them to the computer and culled just under half of them. The next tutorial we hope to put the film together and complete it with music.
This week, due to my own selfish laziness, I did not attend the lecture. I did, however, revise the notes in the comfort of my own home. Week two's lecture focused intensely on the way in which camera angles affect the overall direction of a picture or film. I now understand the way in which a scene is shot, affects the way in which an audience understands the scene and the emotion evoked in the audience. It explores how different shots say different things and allow for more effective communication. While I was able to understand this part of the lecture notes, It is in fact somewhat difficult to fully appreciate the information on paper rather than actually being at the lecture.
While non communication devices have been somewhat replaced by more advanced technologies, they have built the path for the technologies we consider so important today.
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