BCM114: Digital Artifact – Making

About My DA (Once again)

So if you’ve never been here, my Digital Artifact is an Instagram Account and WordPress Blog (FINALLY!) based around cyberpunk themes and telling a story of an artificial world. The visuals focus around highly edited images with a sci-fi/cyberpunk feel to them and feature both people and landscapes.

My Making Process

My making process started off extremely slow with me not having a lot of time to edit photos or to write up blog posts. Fortunately now because both of these things are up and running, it is going much more smoothly in terms of content being produced. I had some doubts that I would ever actually make it to posting anything on the blog side of The Somnus Project, but I eventually got around to it so I can now begin creating longer segments of information regarding the world I am creating.

You can find my first post on the blog here

Upload Schedule

I am currently working on putting an upload schedule in place as part of using the feedback from my ideation process. Time is something that I really struggle with however I think having an upload schedule would make it astronomically easy to keep engagement up with both my accounts.

Creating My Photographs

Cameras

I am still only using my phone and my camera (Fujifilm X-E1) to take photos, however I am occasionally using old photos backed up on my computer and other peoples artworks (editing and giving credit to the original artist). Using other peoples artworks is not only a way of reaching more people who are a fan of their work but also a way that I can save time as often it doesn’t take me long to edit an image.

Programs

I use quite a few apps in order to edit my photos to fit the theme of The Somnus Project. I do not necessarily use all of these on the same picture:

• Polarr – For the primary editing of all my images. I use this to adjust colours, light, shadows, contrast, hues and sometimes to add effects to the lights already existing in the photos as they were taken. It allows me to edit every aspect of the photos and to add gradients, radial effects and overlays.

• Meitu – This application is mainly for the use of selfies should I take them, however I do occasionally use this application for the filters and effects that you can lay over photos

• Facetune 2 – Serves as an application where I can fine tune different elements of photos, especially in adding more shadow or light to a persons face

• RAD VHS – For the videos behind my story posts relating to radio broadcasts I use RAD VHS. It’s helpful for giving a slightly glitched look without me having to pay for anything.

• Werble – Werble is really cool for creating moving pictures, or gifs I guess. I usually upload them as a video on Instagram. This gives me variety.

These applications all help take the first picture to the second picture to help it fit within the world of The Somnus Project. Shout out to my friend Toby for helping me with these photos.

Inspiration and Learning

Part of my project is learning how to edit photos without overdoing it, but still keeping in mind the style of the account. I look to other photographers to do this, in particular demas and noealzii who both put up tutorials on how they edit their photos, and friends who are photographers.

A Comparison Between When I First Started and One of My Most Recent Posts

Blog

Now that the blog is up I have started making posts based on files and the characters within Somnus.

Using this blog allows me to inform my followers more about the world I am creating and to add more depth to it. I have not yet seen any sort of feedback regarding the blog on whether it has helped me reach more people or if my followers from Instagram have used the link to go to my blog. At the moment it is difficult to tell where my followers originally see my content.

The Future

In the future I would like to start using Reddit as a way of further promoting my content. I have also thought about creating some form of physical promotion material such as fliers or stickers. I would like to create a series of extremely short videos which add to the lives of the characters. Maybe in the distant future, given enough people like my content I could end up selling prints of some of my photos. I have also been given the suggestion of making a virtual reality game; while this is an amazing idea, I don’t have the skills for it, nor the money to make it happen, so alas it remains a dream.

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY

You can find The Somnus Project here at https://thesomnusproject.wordpress.com/ and here at the_somnus_project on Instagram

BCM114: Digital Artifact – Prototyping

Prototyping is the process of using feedback loops to create new and better content. First of all if you want to know what my Digital Artifact is as just a recap, or maybe you’re new here: it is an Instagram account which focuses on creating a fictional world through photographs and a story. I often upload from the perspective of a character of my own design and making and go out on adventures taking photos in order to produce content.

Insights

The first stage in my prototyping journey was to turn on my Insights. Seriously these things are useful. I can see when the best time to upload is and how many accounts my account reaches letting me know if I need to post more. They also let me know the specific days which are the best in terms of people seeing my content.

I started using these briefly, uploading at the times that were the most popular times that my followers were active. This resulted in my likes going up and increasing the amount of people following me.

Aesthetic

It can be seen by looking at the start of The Somnus Project to the most recent posts that my photography skills and editing skills have gotten much better, however the aesthetic has also changed very slightly.

I had begun originally using this as a cross between cyberpunk and vaporwave (the vaporwave went away about 5 posts in) however found that I liked the cyberpunk aesthetic more and stuck with it. The theme originally had pixelated images and some with fringing (causing them to look glitched), and while I still do that in order to conceal place names and the faces of people I don’t know, I don’t use it as much any more.

The colours have also slightly changed. Rather than everything being over saturated pinks purples and occasionally dark blues, it now features strategically places bursts of other colours such as orange, yellow and cyan in order to grab more attention and to contrast the main theme of purple, magenta and dark blue. I figured this also had an effect in almost making certain things look like they are glowing.

Places

One thing in particular that I found really interesting prototyping my idea was that I have much more fun when including other people, and going other places. It not only adds to the story, making it easier to create more but it makes it more authentic. If my character has to travel somewhere to do something, then naturally it makes sense for me to plan a photo shoot somewhere away from where I regularly take photos. This helps to create more content as well and gives me an excuse to play at arcades in Sydney and spend too much money on food.

Several places I quickly found out suit my aesthetic extremely well are arcades and china town, as well as any place that has a neon sign. Gotta get that glow.

Music

I added to the world by using snippets of music in Instagram’s story feature. Not only does this allow me to fully utilise all of Instagram’s features it also allows me to expand the world which I am creating by adding in music I think would fit and also to explain the state of the world through “radio broadcasts”. While this doesn’t really effect my reach or follower count I still do it anyway because it acts as a filler of sorts and it really doesn’t take that long.

Other Sources of Photos

Something that I said I wouldn’t do but ended up doing anyway was using other peoples photos. While everything that is specifically a photo is taken by me, I did use a painting, edit and glitch it, then upload it giving credit to the original image. This resulted in many more likes, almost double the likes that one of my normal photos would get. This is something I intend to do more in the future.

BCM112: Not Everything Is As It Seems

Framing can be used in many different ways but the two most prominent that I have noticed is when people use it to filter their content to content that matters, and when they use it to shape a persona for themselves online.

WHAT IS FRAMING?

Framing is to take aspects of reality and to refine them to a point where an audience perceives that to be real instead. It is then making these refined parts more salient in order to draw attention to this “new reality”.

CONTENT

Content is often filtered down to only the best and most relevant information and ideas. This is so the content surrounding the core idea isn’t jeopardized by anything that doesn’t fit. The content is also used to help create the persons online persona. Framing in this particular circumstance can be used to portray events in a certain way.

PERSONA

It is often assumed that what people show on the internet, especially by celebrities, is a real representation of their life when it is usually a glossed up version of it. Not everything is how it seems and this persona is usually cultivated and carefully created by stringing together select pieces of content.

Below is an example of how I take a few of my cosplay selfies which is an example of framing:

The Picture I Took

The GIF of How and Where it was Taken

 

BCM113: How Not to Report on Suicide

Mental Health and suicide are unfortunately becoming an increasingly common topic to talk about within the media, however there is a right and a wrong way to report on it. Take the recent death of Avicii for example. TMZ wrote a piece on his death saying he “committed” suicide (strike one) instead of “died by suicide”; included the way in which he committed suicide (strike two), and does not provide any sort of suicide help line information what so ever (strike three, you’re out).

The APC guidelines clearly state not only that the news that is presented should be honest but should also be accurate out of respect for the deceased and their relatives. They are also not to divulge the information of the act including the location and the method unless it is in the public interest:

“The method and location of a suicide should not be described in detail (eg, a particular drug or cliff) unless the public interest in doing so clearly outweighs the risk, if any, of causing further suicides/ The applies especially to methods or locations which may not be well known by people contemplating suicide.”

The implications of reporting in this are copycats. Copycats are those who follow the actions of those that they wish to imitate, often through suicide or murder (among others). In addition to copycats, the sensitive information about the details of a suicide can cause the family and friends of the person mentioned to relive the trauma caused by their death.

Another example of how not to report on suicide is Logan Paul’s video titled: “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest”, in which he found and filmed a dead body in Japan’s Aokigahara. Paul, in addition to showing the body (blurred out) on screen, also used the body in the thumbnail of the video and made joked around with his friends who were with him at the time. Other YouTubers who responded to this video with videos of their own claimed that there were other ways Paul could have approached the situation and expressed their disgust at his behaviour.

The APC guidelines state:

“Reports should not sensationalise, glamourise or trivialise suicides. They should not inappropriately stigmatise suicides or people involved in them but this does not preclude responsible description or discussion of the impacts, even if they are severely adverse, on people, organisations or communities. Where appropriate, underlying causes such as mental illness should be mentioned.”

Most of the content of Paul’s videos went against these guidelines in the fact that he sensationalized and trivialized the suicide victim whom he had found within the forest. The implications regarding this behavior reflect on the family and the dignity of the person who had died. Other implications are best explained by Gaijin Goombah in his response video on YouTube where he states that Paul’s actions have made his job infinitely harder. In this case, Paul not only violated ethical guidelines but also violated people’s personal guidelines as well.

Some have referred back to VICE’s video titled: “Suicide Forest in Japan” saying that they too showed a body. While this is correct, the nature in which VICE presented the bodies was educational and added to their original meaning therefore making it okay.

Death is a sensitive topic, especially concerning suicide, meaning that it must be approached carefully when being spoken about in media. Guidelines such as those from the APC explicitly detail the best way to talk about such sensitive matters so as not to offend anyone.

 

If you’re experiencing difficulties and require help call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or similar services within your area.

BCM112: Closed Cathedral, Open Bazaar

The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a book by American software developer and open-source advocate Eric S. Raymond that describes his theories of the “Cathedral model” of closed source media and technology verses the “Bazaar model” of open source media and technology.

An example of closed source media would be something like apple products and the App Store. There are some apps that are released on Google Play that just don’t make it to the app store.

This of course has its ups and downs. By Apple being so controlling over the content that is put on the App store they are able to very easily filter out anything that could be harmful to a persons device such as a program with a hidden virus. That being said Apple is also able to censor their content; you make an app that Apple doesn’t like? Well it’s not gonna show up on the app store any time soon.

This website shows these pros and cons in a lot more detail. Take a look if your interested.

Below is a meme describing the desire for more open source content:

BCM112: A Story of Many Platforms

Transmedia stories are the stories that unfold over a multitude of different platforms. I would like to draw your attention to the much loved series of games, Final Fantasy, one in particular, Final Fantasy XV.

This was the first Final Fantasy Game that I had played and it quickly became one of my favourite games, not because of the gameplay itself but because of the depth of the story behind the events of the game and the characters themselves which was built up using transmedia tactics.

Final Fantasy XV wasn’t released only as a game, its story was started with an anime known as Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV which introduced the characters to the audience before the game was released. A stunning cgi movie (Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV) was then released which filled in the blanks on the world and what had happened while the main characters were off unaware.

After these two things were released the game then came along; the story made so much more sense because most things were already known by the audience if they watched the other stuff before hand.

Here is a Boardroom Suggestion Meme I have created to showcase the splendor that is “transmedia”:

BCM112: Copyright Hindering Creativity?

When writing I am often held up on one question: Is this original enough? When drawing I am often held up on a similar question: Is this my original thought, or did I subconsciously pick up on it from somewhere else?

Does copyright hinder creativity? I personally would say no. Creativity is to make your own ideas and create things that haven’t been thought of before. In this sense, creativity is not obstructed by copyright laws because these new ideas are not protected by anyone but yourself.

Once these ideas become reality they then belong to the person or company that conceived the idea of them.

Copyright however can be a bit weird sometimes because of the invention of the ‘Public Domain”, a fanciful place where free shit can be found all the time for free usage… for free. That’s right, FOR FREE, you can use anything in the public domain in almost anyway you want. Did I mention it was FREE!

Take Disney for example: most of the animated classics we know and love today began as gruesome Grimm’s fairy tales that would have scared the living daylights out of any little kid that had them read as a bedtime story.

I have made this meme below to further explain my point:

  The irony of this meme is that it is both original and unoriginal at the same time…

BCM112: Legacy Media vs The Internet

When producing media content within legacy media (old style stuff like the news printed in newspapers or presented on tv) it goes through a gatekeeper who has the final say on what stays and what goes. They can stop content from being produced if they deem it inappropriate or unworthy of being published. This makes for a fragile network where everything is ordered, meaning everything can easily fall apart.

The internet however provides a space for free reign and total anarchy in the way that people create, analyse and respond to things. Take 4chan for example, a deep dark hole that I venture to very rarely. You can literally do anything there and not get into trouble… well not most times.

This meme is something that I created to represent the gatekeeper of legacy media. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the trilogy called “Lord of the Rings”.

BCM110: The Internet as a Public Sphere

What Is The Public Sphere?

The public sphere is a theory developed by Jurgen Habermas. It details the ‘place’ in which people can discuss issues that are presented in the news and spread by word of mouth. Habermas gave the example that the public sphere was like an 18th century coffeehouse where people would only have heard of local news or news brought to them through word of mouth by travelers from different places because there was no means of mass communication at that time.

From this

The thing is, this view is outdated. Within Habermas’s view of the 18th century coffeehouse people were face to face, mainly men, and often talking about things that they heard, in something akin to a game of Chinese whispers. People would spread news by telling another what they heard from somebody who probably heard it from their brother’s ex wife’s second cousin who got it from their best friend who got it from their neighbor’s uncle who just happens to have seen exactly what happened even though he’s living away from them across an entire ocean.

 

Now people turn to the internet, and more direct sources of news that cut out the middle man. This poses as both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the fact that there is now no longer people being misinformed as a result of information being passed on a number of times (this still happens obviously, not as much as it did), but a curse in the fact that the discussion that happens around the topic that is being transferred between all these connections is lost.

To something a little bit more like this.

My Own Public Sphere

I personally get my news from the TV and the internet (where I also discuss it). I find that the internet is important as a public sphere because everyone’s voices can be heard. Not only can I publicly post my opinions about issues presented in the media, but I can also discuss it with people all over the world in a matter of seconds with all kinds of people coming from different backgrounds both men and women. All people have the potential to be included in such a sphere, but not all can be included. Those that live in third world countries, those that are poor, those that just don’t have access to the internet or choose not to have access to the internet are the ones that don’t have their voice heard by others as much.

The internet because of this is a much more updated example of what a public sphere is because it encompasses all topics and all people that have access to it. It does however share its similarities with the 18th century coffeehouse that Habermas talks about in his theory its just been upgraded to suit a wider audience, broader subjects and a larger scale.

References

2018 ‘Media Theory Toolbox’ PowerPoint Slides, BCM110, University Of Wollongong, viewed 3 April 2018

De Bruijin, E 2014, The coffee house redux, Treasure Hunt: National Trust Collections, weblog post, 14 November, viewed 3 April 2018 <https://nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/the-coffee-house-redux/>

Matustik, M 2017, Jurgen Habermas, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., viewed 2 April 2018 <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jurgen-Habermas>

 

BCM110: Media Ownership

So I guess something you don’t know about me is that I love watching The Project (an Australian news source shown on the television). I love the set up of it, the way that the show is presented, the entertaining aspect of it and ultimately the wide range of content that they cover from politics to ongoing scientific investigations on whether there could be other life in the universe (these could be one and the same honestly). Just the other night I was enjoying an interview between one of their personalities, Fitzy, and lead signer of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant.

I totally trust The Project as a valuable source of news type information because not only do they back up their facts with evidence, they also have a team of people from different backgrounds that each have their own unique opinions over a variety of ages which allows for different voices to be heard.

Where Am I Going With This?

Media ownership. That’s where I’m going with this. I thought to myself one night, I wonder who owns The Project. I mean it would be Channel Ten right? That’s the channel its broadcast on. So who owns channel TEN? Ten Network Holdings Limited. The same company that owns the channels ONE and ELEVEN. Who owns this though? I did a little bit of digging and came to the conclusion that Ten Network Holdings Limited is owned by CBS International Television Australia Pty Ltd who is owned by the CBS corporation who is owned by National Amusements, a Privately owned American corporation.

Now National Amusements owns two major companies: obviously CBS as I’ve already said and Viacom. I found this interesting because Viacom is the company that owns other companies such as MTV, MTV classic, MTV 2, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Paramount etc.

Why Does This Matter?

In seeing where the media I watch is from I can tell how much of the same information I’m getting and what opinions I am receiving. Too much ownership of the same type of media can lead a person into hearing the same opinions and ideologies over and over again. This is the case in historical events such as WW2 in Germany where media became propaganda. At this point it pretty much brainwashed the public towards one view and one view only; it’s dangerous for people to own too much media.

I don’t think I have too much to worry about though, as I said, The Project has a variety of people presenting and giving their opinion making it something that is inclusive of many different opinions.

References

‘Media Industries and Ownership’ PowerPoint Slides, BCM110, University Of Wollongong, viewed 20 March 2018

ReasonTV 2010, The Power of Nazi Propaganda, online video, 2 December, ReasonTV, viewed 22 March 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af44Slin7lg>