The Pitch

Imagine… your wardrobe is bursting with fashion items you no longer want or need. Wouldn’t it be great if you could sell these clothes and accessories to people while forming new friendships at the same time? Or do you just simply need a technology that will organize your messy wardrobe for you? That’s where rummage.com.au comes in. Your newest go to destination for archiving your fashion items and selling them to your friends. This website is social networking, op shopping and online auctions all rolled into one. It offers an online space for users to interact with each other and in the process makeover their own wardrobe at a fraction of the retail price.

The Archive

As we can see here, Rummage users can create personal profiles that display a picture of themselves and information such as age, location, number of friends and an about me section. Those who view the profile can befriend the user by clicking the add button. Users upload photos of items they wish to publicize and have to fill out basic information needed for the auction such as item type, brand and size. This is then processed by a Polaroid generator and placed in the shadow box formatted wardrobe seen here. The website will also publish this item in the news feed on the homepage. The user’s friends can then click on the item and be navigated to the user’s profile where they can bid or comment in the comment box. They can also rate each item by giving it a thumb up or a thumb down. The search page offers a simple way to find friends and find specific items, that can be searched categorically by size, style, brand, item type and price range. We have transformed the traditional structure of a fashion blog such as the existing Lookbook website into something more fun, interactive and useful. This is an archive that creates memory and experience.

The Analysis

Our target audience of 15-25 year olds, relies heavily on the phenomena of social networking to communicate with friends, build relationships and generally to organize social lives. People want to be socially accepted by their peers and often use fashion to convey this. Take the well know ‘Goth’ subculture for example. Rummage facilitates this shaping of one’s identity through fashion.  Today, we are no longer just passive consumers. We are produsers, a combination of producers and users that challenge authority. Rummage wants to fight the hierarchical nature of retail shopping in a Capitalist culture. No longer do we have to be limited by the shopping centers! We can now buy fashion items of any trend from each other at any time! The site is gaining momentum from the shift in how society perceives recycled fashion. Past trends are now very popular and there has been a massive push in demand for vintage clothing and op-shops such as Vinnies and Grandma Takes a Trip. What makes us stand apart from op-shops is that our website forms networked communities that provide a sense of belonging.

So unless you’ve been living in a cave you know that the world is in a global economic crisis. The U.S has had massive bailouts, Greece is on the verge of bankruptcy and the Australian government is spending hundreds of millions on school renovations that are running out of funds before the projects finish. In the end, who exactly is left to pick up the tab?  It is you: the tax-payer.

So what we have learnt from the global economic crisis if you have watched the news in the last 2 years is that it’s more important than ever for people to understand what the government is doing with their hard earned tax dollars. But when we talk about abnormally large amounts of money like the federal budget it’s very easy to become confused or desensitised to what is being explained. If I tell you that out of a total budget of  $324,600,000, $49,100,000 was spent on the healthcare system we can generally understand that portions of a large sum of money have been dually allocated to different causes. But don’t really grasp the relation between them.

As you can see the information presented is not much more helpful than my example. All the different departments where the money is spent are listed but the relationship between them and the disparities in spending are lost in this confusing table. Ultimately it fails to visually represent the information in the most effective and engaging way. Our goal is to make this information more accessible to everyone through simplifying the abstract way in which the different allocations in the budget are presented in relation to one another.

As media makers we wish to publish Federal Budget information and data on the YourBudget.com.au website. Our visualisation seeks to make this information accessible to school kids by simplifying the disparities of the budget and presenting it in a fun and interesting way. We hope the site could be implemented into primary schools and high schools as a way of engaging the kids in this area of education and hopefully preventing future financial chaos. We also hope to mediate the relationship between the government and the citizens it is supposed to serve. We want to draw the attention of politicians who clammer to win our election votes.

Firstly, we have decided to make a child-friendly animated piggy bank visualization that displays how much money percentage wise the government is contributing into the 14 budget categories. The piggy bank is an object that carries culture significance around the world. Often it is an object used to contain our money that we stash away over time with the hope that one day you will have enough saved to spend on something special. In a way our budget is something tax-payers have to store a percentage of their earnings in, with the intended outcome being an Australia that we are proud to call home. The budget data, which was gained from the government’s dull table, has been reconfigured into a visually stimulating half pie/half bar chart form, shown to scale with the largest quantity at the bottom and the smallest at the top.

With the second visualisation, we wished to capitalise on the participatory autonomy that Web 2.0 affords to its users. Upon clicking the visualization, you are the given the choice to be classes as a Liberal, Labour or Greens supporter. Next, you are asked to select which out of the 14 departments you wish to see more funding and attention given to. The results are then added to the total tallies. The scale of these tallies is represented by the variation in font size and the political party is symbolized through colour. What we want to evoke through this visualization is a clear and very current social map of various political views regarding the Federal budget.

It seems as though technology has created a new ‘cyborgian’ existence, however the consequences are unknown. I drew inspiration from Phillip Dick’s famous science fiction novel, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’

All four readings present a mixture of optimism and fear about what new technology has bestowed upon the human race. Ventura presents a view that coheres with the idea that humans are in such a hurry to progress that our pattern of time has been distorted. As a result, we are lost in space. In agreement, I feel that because everyone and everything is only a mouse click or a dial away we are more connected as a global community than ever before. We are no longer separated by space or time. This coming together, however, has a downside as Ventura points out. Communal morality has been forced into a duel with ‘new age’ ideas that target the individual. Take the popularity of Internet porn in the Mormon run state of Utah as an example. It is as if we are in a dreamlike state where time and space does not constrict us anymore. We live crazily busy lifestyles that are made sporadic because of this constant connection with each other. We are always wired to some device that has the ability to transport us to a different place at any time. Has it all become too convenient to the point where our morals are threatened? Are we trapped by this unification or should we be grateful for the extended abilities made possible through technology? Do we own technology or does technology possess us? Who is the puppet and who is the master? If reality is now a dream, then how much autonomy do we have over our own identities anymore?

Lynn refers to this new world of technology as virtual or simulated reality. This abstract space shapes our reality. Lynn suggests that technology is a “medium of movement and force” (p.11, 1999). Perhaps we are living in a force field, where choice has little to do with who we are. Our everyday lives are unavoidably mediated by technology. Have we already become a cyborgian race? We are, in my opinion, tip-toeing the line of human and android.

Pesce reinforces the notion of a dreamlike reality that Ventura put forward, however, he heightens this new reality to a spiritually significant sacred space. The cybersphere encompasses a mass of computer networks.  The enticing nature of social networking websites questions the value of face-to-face communication. Does connectivity quench man’s innate thirst for knowledge? Or does this artificial environment drive man’s curiosity of being ‘alive’ but not really ‘living’? I think this is what Pesce means when he states, “We must study the dark, because it is also of us” (p.2, 2009). We are experiencing a totally wired lifestyle that is beyond the physical limitations of our body. We are given new sensory experiences thanks to immersive technologies like T_Vision and WorldSong that displace our visual and aural senses. Does this make such technology God-like?

Deren highlights how time and space is manipulated by recording devices, such as the camera.The camera is able to capture a moment in time and the artist is able to edit and manipulate it to construct a type of reality. The flow of time can be fast forwarded, slowed down or even cut out all together. Therefore, the film maker can extend or reduce time as they wish. The viewer is taken to spaces from different times in history. Time and space can be contrasted by placing a particular object in multiple settings manipulating the viewer’s perception of time and space. If a film does not transport the viewer to a time and place then it has failed to capture the imagination.

Translation into Animation

The scratch animation project asks for abstract lines and movement that create a visually communicative experience. Much of my production work so far has been very precise and detailed due to my perfectionist idealism so this shall be a huge challenge to complete convincingly. I will try and manifest the ideas expressed above by creating simplistic forms that mimic the rhythm of the music it is accompanied with.  I will include reoccurring visual and movement motifs and take into account the pace, use of space, frequency and quantity of visual material. Playing with clay in the stop motion animation project will be a challenge with space and time within itself. My ideal outcome is the development of an insightful, collaborative effort where the inspiration cluster has been cohesively and imaginatively integrated into our work for the engagement of the viewer.

Fortunately, I knew of one.

Go to http://making.media.arts.unsw.edu.au/rrr/styleselect.php and click Clare Hoekman!

My experience of CSS has convinced me that it should actually stand for Cascading Stress Sheets and is a perfectionist’s worst nightmare.

Here is my main page:

and my Index page:

This layout style is consistent in Dynamic and Credits as well.

BACKGROUND/CONTAINER:

I chose a close-up photograph of sequins as my background because I think wearing a sequined garment always make a person stand out in a crowd. There’s nothing like a bit of sparkle to capture someone’s attention. This reflects what a rebel/radical/renegade means to me. It’s someone who turns heads and makes a big impact on the world around them. My container is white for purely aesthetic reasons. I didn’t want it to clash with the colourful background. I’ve also kept the font (Georgia) and font colours (black and white) simple for this purpose.

BANNER/BUTTONS:

The sheep idea sprang from the metaphor of ‘being the black sheep in the family’, which basically means someone who is considered uniquely different. It also reflects the saying ‘don’t be a sheep’, which I’m sure is well-known but if you don’t know, it means don’t do what everyone else is doing just because everyone else is doing it. I created my banner using photoshop and incorporated the sequins from the background in the ‘rebel’ sheep who is leaping against the flow of the flock. I downloaded this particular font because it matched the cartoon style of the sheep images. When you hover over the button links a little black sheep appears beneath them, continuing with the sheep motif.

THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE:

People who are good at CSS are great at helping those who are bad at CSS.

After working on my css for 5 days straight, I’ve come to realize the value of forward thinking. My perfectly lovely html files were very different when converted to php on the server and I don’t think there is an emotion to describe how this felt at the time. Horrid comes to mind, but I feel a few expletives would be better adjectives to use. Never will I ever fiddle with the html files ever again. I’ll leave that to the professionals.

Cheers!

P.S. Dear Smultron, I love you but I hate you. Farewell!

Pop Culture has endowed us, the consumer, with many memorable phrases. Upon hearing the messages like “I’ll be back!” and “Yadda, yadda, yadda!” we, the receivers, immediately attach them to where they came from, their sources. In this case, it is the Terminator and Jerry Seinfeld. 

In my case, it is PM Kevin Rudd and the word “Sorry”. The idea for the topic of my final essay sprung into mind upon viewing SBS’s documentary, First Australians. This was a historically significant media event because Rudd was the first Prime Minister to give a formal apology to the Indigenous people of Australia, regarding the Stolen Generations in the nation’s history.

Firstly, Rudd’s speech is a great example of a rhetorical public address. At the time he seemed to genuinely be sorry. It has, however, now come to my attention that this was because of the presence of all three of Aristotle’s ‘appeals’. The ethos or authority of the addressee was socially constructed. I counted the word “sorry” 9 times in total, so the pathos was definitely there. The logos aspect of his speech was clearly presented as the Stolen Generations story has been well documented from 1910 to1970.

John Howard’s refusal to apologize, in my opinion, created the ‘noise’ needed to generate a contemporary way of thinking toward the issue. The apology became a political ticket for Kevin Rudd who proposed that he would apologize if his Labor party were elected. Attention toward the Indigenous people has spread like a virus through time. At the time of the first settlers, the Indigenous people were not regarded as even being human beings. Today, in a culturally enriched Australian society, their plight has finally been placed under media spotlight. Will victims and their families get the justice they deserve? Or has the media spotlight already fizzled out?

On February 13, traditional broadcast television and radio stations aired the speech live from Parliament House in Canberra and continued reporting updates of the event in news bulletins throughout the day. It also made front-page news in print media. Public screenings were aired in major cities. Take Federation Square as seen in this picture for example. This one-way communication style gave a sense of a communally shared national pride.

In the above photo we can see that attention even became a part of the broadcasting of the event. Telecasters paid attention to the attention of the public.

On the other hand, we have the digital forms of communication that break temporal and spatial boundaries. So far I’ve found a Facebook group that has nearly 50,000 members, a Youtube video, which has nearly 90,000 views recorded with almost 5000 comments and a Flickr page that is devoted to the event. One tacticak media approach to the event was the privately commissioned skywriting of the word “Sorry”. The photograph of this is now an iconic image.

Bloggers have recorded their opinions online. Stephanie Trigg captured many photographs of the attentive crowd at Federation Square in Melbourne and placed them on her post for the world to see.

In a democratic and information rich society, participatory networks that Web 2.0 affords are a valuable resource in gaining and keeping attention on important issues like the welfare of Indigenous people.