Distopia - George Orwells 1984

George Orwells novel 1984 is a story about obscering the the truth. The novel tells the story of a kind of future where technology is used to dominate people. In a totalitarian society, people are controlled by Big Brother which censors everyone's behaviour. People are constantly watched by telescreens in their own homes, can have there thoughts read, and are constantly making sure they are not making thought crimes.

This movie is painful to watch because it shows just how easy people can be controlled and brainwashed by Technology. People are subjected to something called the "Two-Minute-Hate" where everyday for two minutes people are shown negative images and stories on giant telescreens and are brainwashed to scream and yell at the images they see. In Oceania individual expression was forbidden by the Party, having a diary was a crime, which could be punished with death

The story is set in Oceana and Winston is the main character. Winstons life is a sad one. His job is to rewrite documents and alter records and newspaper articles. Winston rewrites how his fellows die, he produces made up news and becomes so frustrating because everybody around him knows it is not real yet they are forced and more of less brainwashed to believe it. It is here at his job where Winston begins to become skeptical of the ruling dictatorship of the party of Big Brother. Winston is and always has been discusted with the oppression of the land, and chooses to go against big brother, and begin a diary filled with his own thoughts of the world. In his apartment, he finds an area where the telescreen cannon see him. There he sits are writes about the world.

1501ART - Tutorial Task Nine Summary

Cyberutopia

At the start of the lecture this morning, we were shown a snip of the movie Jonny Neumonic (the same movie we saw a few days ago) In the snip we saw, there was lady having a fit, and she taken to the "flesh mechanic". I like the name flesh mechanic because it shows that in the future because there are so many machine (probably refered to as machine mechanics) humans are refered to as a form of machine of technology, a flesh machine. The Flesh mechanic gives her muscle relaxant in her spine, while Jonny asked him what is wrong with her. The Flesh Mechanic then has a fit of rage screaming aroung the room stating "The world causes it" suggesting the technology of this world causes an "information overload". This snip of this movie has a strong message that possibly people in the future are going to be more so addicted to technology "Because we cant live without it"

The First (electronic) Media Age - centralised dissemination.

The concept of sending media (television, radio etc) spreading out, with one source, many recievers. One person can write a letter, make film of television program etc an audience sould receive that message. Certain reasons allow only certain people to recieve and send these messages. These restrictions included education, financial and technical. This is the first electronic media age

The Second (electronic) Media Age

The internet made it possible for an individual to publish to a huge audience. Though the internet was not available for public use until the 1990s. By the middle 1990's there were over 30million users around the world, and in early 2000's 262 million users were recorded. Bill Gates stated that the internet made it possible for an individual to publish to a huge audeince. This was mainly throught the web, but more so in current times, blogs and other mobile technology - phone cameras able to take photos or videos, therefore citizens are in the media again. Marshall Mcluhan suggest that there are in fact three media ages. Oral: Spoken Word, Literate: Written Word, Electric: Television, Digital. Building on this, Robery K. Logan suggest that there are infact five media ages, adding, Mimetic Age, and the interactive/digital age to Mcluhan's trivium.

Post Modernism:

The second media is built on the first and is thus largely dependant on the world view inherit in existing technologies. The media builing remediates and enhances mediums, adding layers of complexity and new information. The new media brings with is a need for new understandings - in particular political ones

Virtual Reality:

Virtual Reality brings with it complex question about the nature of society. It is a world generated by computers. Virtual Reality can be accepted as a medium, not just a technology. It can be accepted as a medium because this type of cyborg structure exist in which, our bodies, our mins and senses is a part of the medium. It warps and duplicates and transends reality. You can have memories of virtual reality, yet are these memories different from human interaction. Are these memories virtually mediated from real memories? This is a question that can be interpretted differently by everyone. This opens up space for nre formd of culture to form.

Utopia and Distopia:

Utopias from the Greeks mean "nowhere" and literary examples tell of imaginary places where everything is perfect, usually because people and technology are in harmony. Technology has been believed to create a Utopia, where the hazards of life will be programmed out, and the technology will provide users with something nicer than the real world. This is suggesting that we can catalogue and download nature and will be able to perfect it. This is not a natural thing though, yet not much of society these days are natural anymore. What happens if the power goes of in the utopian technology world. When the power goes off, people will realise that this world of technology is really a hell.

People are developing so much technology because people cannon live without it.

"They were so obsessed with the fact that they could do it, they forgot to consider whether they should" (Jurassic Park)

1501ART - Tutorial Task Eight

Advanced Word techniques

For the tutorial task today we have been asked to complete an excercise on microsoft word. The exercise involves merging fields. After we have completed the task we are to write a little bit in our weblog about the experience in completing this task. So here is the task completed:

Mr James Peterson
Media House
200 Job Lane Southport
Gold Coast QLD
4218 Australia

Dear, Mr James Peterson

I am writing to apply for a position within your company Media House. I have recently completed a Journalism and Communication degree at Griffith University on the Gold Coast and believe that I have the suitable skills and experiences to be a valuable asset to Media House. During this degree I have completed subjects in:
· New Communication technologies,
· Cyber Studies
· Digital Production
· News and Politics
· Culture
· Media and Society
· Creative Writing.
Please find attached a copy of my resume. Should you need and further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Emily Creswick

In this exercise we are were to add:

• Opening a Document
• Typing
• Bold Font
• Italic Font
• Underline Font
• Bulleting
• Headers
• Footers
• Double Spacing

All of these tasked I had no problem with, because I all of them probably everytime I have used Microsoft word

The advanced exercise asked us to add:

• Track Changes
• Mail merging
• Mail merge toolbar
  

Now I had no idea what merging fields was before this exercise, but it proved very helpful in the completion. It was pretty simple to use, I didnt really use the intructions but more or less went searching in the word menus to find what the instructions were talking about. The merging wizard allowed me to add data about a person, their name, personal details, address etc, to which I then added into the edited document by Merging. Pretty cool. Though I dont know, I might prefer just typing it using tabs, its just the way I have always done it. But yeah, I am appreciative of being tought how to use this. The funny thing is, my boyfriend just had a job interview for an admin job, and he was asked to complete the same task, yet he knew nothing of this merging in word, and told me that he was totally stumped and was pretty sure he failed the task. Its strange because he is awsome on computers, and the smallest things might stump someone.

1501ART - Tutorial Task Eight Summary

I was sick today so I missed the lecture, but I am going through the lecture notes and i am making notes on them. . .

Random Blog

Hey peoples.

Unfortunately I am not coming to the lecture and tutorial today. I have awful stomach pains and need some rest. Anywho I am at my boyfriends house today, and we are making sushi for lunch. Im probably not going to eat anything though, I am too sick :(:(.

Anyway, I noticed that for the asssessment of this course, we should add blog entries about some books or websites we have discovered, so I am going to write about the book I am reading. Its called "Saving Francesca" and its by the same women who wrote "looking for alibrandi". Its a pretty good book, but when Im reading it, the type of story it is kind of makes me feel like I am reading it for a grade 10 book report. Its about a 16 year old girl called Francesca, who comes from an ethnic backround (like Josie Alibrandi in Looking for Alibrandi). Aswell as dealing with the battles of multiculturalism, she has to deal with the trauma of changing schools, and cope with her once stable mother who now has depression. As I said, its a good book, but its a book that I would have been interested in about 3 years ago in grade 10. The genres and discourses the book has such as school life, friends, boys, and growing up would be more suited to young people who are dealing with the same thing. I am out of school now, and these genres and discourses dont interest me. AnywayI guess reading this book is a good way to pass some time. I should get into some really good books like The Da Vinci Code or something like that.

Ok update on lunch. Matt is making the sushi and cleaning up as he goes. He filled the the sink with too much soap and the sink is so bubbly (he so did it on purpose) so we just had a huge bubble fight including his little puppy "mikito". It ended up with the complete drenching of me, including me copping a watercan and bucket full of water over my head. Mikito started eating the bubbles on the grass so we decided to stop, and now is back to the sushi making. This is Mikito, hes a little Tibetan Spaniel. He is really cute but hes a pain in the ass lol.

Ok time to do some work now

Peace Out peoples oxox

1501ART - Tutorial Task Seven Summary

Video Games

In the lecture today, the topic was on Video Games and the types of video games studies. These types of video games include Arcade Games, Consoles, Computer Games, MUDs, MMOGs. Arcade Games, Consoles, and Computer Games I have heard of, but not MUDs, and MMOGs. Huh???

There is a serious study of video games much like internet studies. Video games studies can be broken down in the term of Narratology and Ludology. Narratology is the study of Video Games from the perceptive of them being stories or literacy works. This allows video games to be studied more like text (meaning book, cultural products, films, paintings and music) than anything else. Early video games did contain some cinematic elements (such as cut-scenes) but the act of playing the game was usually dramatically different. Video Games are becoming a new form of cultural practice, in the same way people now think about radio, newspapers, television and films.

Ludology is the contrast of Narratology, and is not concerned with the story elements of games but rather the Game Play element. People who have written a video game based on Ludology have basically made the game for decoration only.

When is comes to video games, there is so much more than just the story and the game play. Video Games are getting very technical, somewhat like computers. This can be seen when comparing say Alex the Kid (primitive Sega game in the early 90’s, to say Need for Speed Underground, so much more complex) The origin of the video game came from computers. Video Games encompass all of the following smaller genres.

· Arcade Games
· Computer games
· Console games
· Hand held devices eg PSP. etc

“Games are popular art, collective social reactions to the main drive or action of any culture. Games, like institutions, are extensions of social man and of the body politic, as technologies are extensions of the animal organism. Both games and technologies are counter-irritants or ways of adjusting to the stress of the specialized actions that occur in any social group. As extensions of the popular response to the workaday stress, games become faithful models of a culture.They incorporate both the actions and the reactions of whole populations in a single dynamic image.”

-Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

1501ART - Tutorial Task Seven

Excel

For the task today, we have been asked to complete an exercise using Microsoft Excel. I found this task very challenging as I think I might have number dislexia, I am honestly seriuos, lol. When I see numbers and tables I think my head will explode lol. So I got as far as I could with the exercise. Excel seems like a really great and convienient program to use (if you know how to use it). I bet its probably a great program to handle the financial side of businesses. I just struggles abit and was totally stumped with the formulas lol. It took me about 15 minutes to realise that the "*" is a sign for multiply. ooops! lol

I did manage to create a table, yet when it was done, looked nothing like the image on the intruction page. So to save myself from embarrassment I chose not to post it.