Saturday, 7 January 2017
MED6102 Week 2
Skills Audit
The following skills audit considers my current skills and skills that would be relevant for my future as a new media worker or graphic designer.
When it comes to my technical skills, it seems apparent that I could improve my Illustrator, jQuery, responsive web design and CMS skills. Even though I can improve on these skills, I do have strong skill and knowledge in InDesign, Photoshop, HTML/CSS, visual design elements, MacOS, Windows and Photography. Although I my skill level is high in these, I can always keep improving them as I there is always room for improvement and to learn more.
Having knowledge of Illustrator as well as InDesign and Photoshop is a frequent requirement in job advertisements for graphic designers. Improving my Illustrator skills would be useful for both the new media and graphic design aspects of my career, as Illustrator can be used to create SVGs in web designs. Being able to offer an employer skills in the top three Adobe programmes will be beneficial. There are of course other Adobe programmes that I could learn, such as Flash and Dreamweaver, and these are things that I would like to learn in the future.
For my behavioural skills, it seems that I am better at responding to a set brief, rather than coming up with my own ideas and developing them. I think that this is because all through-out Sixth Form and University, I was given full briefs to work to, rather than an open brief. I can improve my ideas generation and development process by documenting the process to see what parts I find difficult and easy. From there I can identify what I should work on and do more of. I think that idea generation and development might be something that I get better at over time.
I could also improve on my time management and initiative, which are things that I can work on in my upcoming mini project(s). I will plan out each week of learning and "doing" activities, so that I can stay on track with my work and manage my time better. I like to make to-do lists so each day when I start working I will write a list of objectives I want to complete by the end of the day.
I could also improve on my people and team working skills, by discussing ideas with my peers and collaborating with them on work. Interpersonal skills are something that I have always struggled with, and I think that this comes down to my personality. However, it is something that I would like to improve on, so that I can have a better work-life and get on well with my co-workers. I usually like to keep my ideas and work to myself until the "project" is completed, and I think this is because I don't have much confidence in my ability and ideas. Even though I have rated my creativity highly on my skills audit, it is not something I would tell other people about. To overcome this I would like to discuss my ideas and work more and receive feedback.
I think that sometimes I pay too much attention to the details and this means that my work can take longer than I had planned or anticipated. I think that the reason I pay attention to detail is because details are something that I pick up on when I look at others work. Saying this, paying attention to detail is a good thing because it means my work can be consistent and look "finished".
Monday, 26 September 2016
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Week 8 - Digital Fandom
I have
been participating in online interaction with Casey Neistat’s daily vlogs (video logs) on YouTube for about a
year. My online interaction is limited to simply watching Casey Neistat’s videos, and liking his photographs on Instagram. I
think that my personality type limits my fan practice, as I would never produce
online fan materials or talk to other fans over the internet. It’s not in my
nature.
As Casey Neistat’s videos are only available
online, on YouTube, I think that it easily facilitates others producing fan materials,
in comparison to if his videos were shown on TV, for example. GIFs can easily
be created of his videos and shared on Tumblr, fan videos can easily be made, and
montages of Casey’s videos can be
made easily due to technology and accessibility for fans.
Jenkins
(2006:2) describes convergence culture as “the flow of content across multiple
media platforms”. With this definition in mind, I do not think that there is
any convergence when it comes to Casey’s media
texts – all of them are on new media. However, Casey did have a HBO show in 2008, 7 years before he started
uploading vlogs to YouTube, and as Jenkins (2006:16) argues “convergence is a process,
not an endpoint” then there is indeed convergence within Casey’s media texts.
Casey has
also had a few videos go viral, and this means that they have been broadcast on
TV and wrote about in newspapers. This again, is convergence. Because of the
internet, it means that audiences who view Casey’s
videos on traditional media because they have gone viral, can easily find
it online. From there they can comment on his videos, Instagrams, or tweet him,
and as Bennett (2014) argues, this is seemingly a more direct and instantaneous
connection between the object of fandom and fans.
Casey’s videos
even encourage more traditional based fan materials to be produced. Once every
week Casey will do a ‘mail time’
episode, where he opens mail that has been sent to him from companies and by
fans. This encourages fans to create something good so that it can be shown in
the vlog.
In
terms of offline relationships with other fans, my boyfriend and I like to talk
about Casey’s vlogs face to face and
we enjoy watching them together. What we like about Casey can be summed up in three points:
1.
We like New York, and Casey lives in New York. He represents New York in a way that we
have never seen before
2.
He has an inspirational work ethic – he produces
vlogs every day and also runs a new technology start-up business
3.
His cinematography is incredible, and above par
on what other vlogs are like by other YouTube content creators.
Interestingly,
my boyfriend enjoys the vlogs more when Casey
is out and about doing things, rather than sitting in his office telling a
story – I enjoy both, however.
I
cannot compare my offline relationship or identities with my online ones, as I don’t
have an online identity relating to my affiliation with Casey, and I do not interact with other fans of Casey online. If I did, I would like to
think that my offline and online practices would be the same.
References
Bennett,
L. (2014) ‘Tracing textual poachers: Reflections on the development of fan
studies and digital fandom’, The Journal of Fandom Studies, 2(1), pp.
5–20. doi: 10.1386/jfs.2.1.5_1.
Jenkins,
H. (2006) Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New
York, NY: New York University Press.
Week 5 - Taste, Capital and Fan Identities
Recently I went to a Macklemore and Ryan Lewis concert and
then posted videos and photos that I had taken of the show onto my Instagram.
This can be considered as cultural capital. I am sharing the cultural capital
on an easily accessible platform that other fans can reach, and they can simply
search through the hashtag “Macklemore” or go onto the tagged photos of Macklemore and easily view my photos. By
sharing and liking, I am sharing cultural capital with everyone is in the
fandom.
Fiske (1992: 31) argues how
cultural capital has a system and “The
cultural system works like the economic system to distribute its resources
unequally and thus to distinguish between the privileged and the deprived”. This
is interesting when linked to music fandom, as tickets to see musicians live
can be expensive, thus making those able to afford it privileged and those who
cannot, deprived. In terms of sharing and distributing photos of the concert
online, it could be argued that I am privileged, and those who do not have the
chance to take photos because they could not go to a concert, could be
considered deprived.
Perhaps I posted the photos
and videos on Instagram so that Macklemore would notice me and repost my photo,
or so that people who follow my Instagram can see that I was near the front and
that I was capturing this concert. This isn’t the only time I have posted my
own fan-made videos of concerts online, I usually always post at least one
photo/video of a concert I have been to on my Instagram, and in 2013/14 I
uploaded many of them to YouTube. I knew that there would be no financial gain,
as the music is copyrighted, however I had these videos for personal use so I
thought that it would be useful or entertaining for others to view.
Being a fan of Macklemore forms a part of my cultural
identity, and I am actively choosing for it to do so. I am showing everyone
that I like Macklemore, so much so
that I would pay to go to his concert. As Hills (2002: xi) argues “fandom is
always performative, it is an identity which is (dis-) claimed… fandom, then is
never a natural ‘expression’ or a singular ‘referent’; its status and its
performance shift across cultural sites”. I agree with this argument, as I
perform my identity as a fan of Macklemore,
I make it apparent by sharing photos of his concert on my social media, I tell people that I like Macklemore. My identity as a fan is obviously not limited to me only
being a fan of Macklemore, my fan
identity is apparent by the other things that I share about other fandoms I am
a member of. I could keep my fan interests quiet and not tell anyone, however,
I do not.
References
Fiske, J. (1992) ‘The Cultural
Economy of Fandom’. In Lewis, L. A. (Ed.) The Adoring Audience. London,
Routledge, pp30-49.
Hills, M. (2002) Fan cultures. United States:
Taylor & Francis Group.
Week 4 - Cult Media
An example of my own
engagement with cult media relates to the comedy TV show Friends. I watch Friends
on Netflix and follow fan accounts on Instagram, which post funny video scenes
of Friends several times a day. By
watching and actively ‘liking’ the video clips that are shared by other fans, I
participate in the cult fandom – we are sharing cultural capital.
After the TV shows’ last live
broadcast in 2004, 12 years ago, fans still talk about and watch Friends. Official merchandise is still
on sale, there are active fan accounts on social media (which didn’t even exist
when the last show was broadcast), and there is regularly rumors and a longing
for a ‘Friends reunion’. Gwenllian-Jones and Pearson (2004: xvi)
talk about how cult TV has become “a meta-genre that caters to intense,
interpretive audience practices” affording “fans enormous scope for further
interpretation, speculation and invention”. This shows how Friends is a cult media text/fandom.
What attracts me to Friends is probably that it is
relatable. I had always refused to watch it before the first time that I did
(September 2015), because I thought that it was ‘crap’ – even though I had
never watched it before. Friends
tells a story of six friends trying to make it in a big city, which is somewhat
similar to me. The comedy aspect is also comforting, it’s something that I like
to spend my time doing.
The endlessly deferred
narrative is something that drew me in, since the first episode I wanted to
know if Ross and Rachel would end up together, and they did finally come back
together in the last episode of the last season. Even when I watched the series
for the second time, I was still hooked on the endlessly deferred narrative. I
think that if there was no endlessly deferred narrative then I would not have
continued watching for 9 seasons. There has to be something that I want to go
back for.
The endlessly deferred
narrative didn’t even end when the show did. Did Phoebe and Mike have children?
Did Ross and Rachel get married? Did Joey go to Chandler and Monica’s every
year to watch the Superbowl? We’ll never know. Perhaps because the endlessly
deferred narrative was never solved, it means that there was never a death of
the show. It continues to live and be a cult text because of something called
hyperdiegesis. Hills (2002:104) talks about how hyperdiegesis is “the creation
of a vast and detailed narrative space, only a fraction of which is ever
directly seen or encountered within the text, but which nevertheless appears to
operate according to principles of internal logic and extension”. Cult fans can
create their own narratives and theories for the show, and as Jenkins (1992)
said, this world rewards re-reading due to richness and depth. Interestingly,
as a cult fan of Friends, I have
never created my own narrative or theories for the show, as I like to enjoy the
text as it is, and as it was meant to be. This is because I don’t want to take
anything away from the creators of the show, I like being a consumer and an
audience member – I don’t want to be a part of fan labour.
References
Gwenllian-Jones, S. and Pearson, R.E. (eds.) (2004) Cult
television. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hills, M (2002) Fan cultures. London: Routledge.
Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual poachers: television fans and
participatory cultures. London: Routledge.
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