You all need to make sure you have lecture notes for each subject covered, if you were away for that session or for some reason you don't have notes then you will need to pursue that subject on your own and reflect your research in the portfolio. Notes from lectures should be supported by further study outside of the classroom-this could be; notes from further reading and reflection on this, a critical evaluation of an exhibition or event that relates to the lecture subject area, a critical evaluation of images, films, games etc that relate to the subject area or all of these things
4th Nov
Module briefing and introductions-task set for online blog
This session will introduce you to the themes of the module and the process and requirements for assessment. We will be doing seminar work via blog and e-learning environments so there will be an introduction to this process and a task set to be addressed before the next session.
11th Nov
Visit to animation festival –no contextual studies session
18th Nov
The Animate and the Inanimate: Part 1
Ideas of the Uncanny and the compulsion to make the still move and the silent speak
Over two sessions we will explore the concept of the uncanny as it is understood in relation to the ideas of the animated form. Stemming from psychologist Sigmund Freud’s definition of the uncanny as the familiar made strange and for him finding one of its key manifestations in the inanimate made animate, we will address both its history and evolution and its implication for reading and interpreting the animated form
Summary: The uncanny stated in this first session of teaching is that objects that have no self-motion but are moving are uncanny, in the sense that a simple object that you wouldn’t see moving but then is shown moving creates an uncomfortable feeling as we wouldn’t have expected it to be living or have human traits. An example of this is if someone picked up an orange and made it a living thing by moving it around and acting real would make it uncanny.
25th Nov
The Animate and the Inanimate: Part 2
Continuing with the Uncanny, we will apply our understanding of the uncanny to a range of outputs including the films such as those of the Quay Brothers considering how the development in genre and technique from that of stop motion to the digital disrupts the idea of the Uncanny.
Summary: In the next session of The Uncanny there are effects of The Uncanny within medias such as in film where houses come alive, robots are human like and from that I researched into this and found that in terms of film, the ‘Monster House’ animated film has the uncanny because the characters are modelled to utmost detail of a human creating an uncanny moment where reality is being played through virtual means. Going back to the ‘Monster House’ character of the film, the uncanny is that the house has been created with human characteristics such as the windows as eyes, the chandelier in the hallway as the uvula and little traits resembling humans.
2nd Dec
Radical Typography
Cut and paste, DIY and sheer necessity created the distinctive look of the punk graphics of the 1970s. This session looks at how the graphics of a period are determined by the social and political disruptions of their times and how they can provide a key route into to the understanding of period. This can be as radical as asserting ‘appearance’ over legibility in a desire to establish a ‘radical typography’.
Summary: In this session we discussed how the Punk era in the 70’s had affected many forms of media as well a society and because of the Punk era’s stand out and be heard attitude created controversy and art as the simplistic yet meaningful cover art and lyrics of the rock groups. From the punk grew a whole new genre of music, art and society as it was a outspoken, be heard time yet created a whole admired genre because of the political time.
9th Dec
Don’t Look Now! Truth, fiction and the art of story-telling
This session will explore the slippery nature of truth and fiction in contemporary visual story-telling. We frequently have to look again to understand the ‘truth’ of an image and are constantly left with images that are open ended and unresolved in terms of narrative closure. In this context how is meaning established within contemporary narrative? We will address this concern by thinking about the new position the viewer is now placed in relation to the image via ideas of theorist Roland Barthes essay Death of the Author.
Summary: This session we looked at the different ways of narrating a storyline to the audience and there were ways such as a characters point of view as it is in the comedy series ‘Scrubs’ where the main character is narrating his thoughts to the audience and thus giving more depth to a simple storyline. Another way is one which I had researched into and found the episode of ‘The Simpsons’ where each of the main characters had told their own individual part of the main storyline, giving their view and route to the conclusion.
16th Dec
Entering the Hyper-real –Planet Baudrillard
The Hyper-real places us in virtual world where ‘reality’ is out of reach.
Constantly receding from the grounded object in real space the hyper-real takes us to a world of sign and image, flatness and surface, reflection and copy. What are the rules of existence in such an environment? We will explore this universe and its rules through the ideas of sociologist Jean Baudrillard.
Summary: This session was interesting yet complicated at the same time however I was able to find out what the hyperreal is and found that Jean Baudillard had started to speculate that with virtual forms becoming realistic with each new form of technology that because of the realistic similarities that the virtual world is reality and we are the virtual population and because of that it is hard to work out which is reality to fantasy.
CHRISTMAS BREAK
13th Jan
Reading Film and Video Part 1:
Genre
This session will look at the idea of genre in film and video. How do we identify particular styles of film and how does that style work with ideas of narrative, period and social context? Increasingly in films such as Pulp Fiction there is a collaging of a range of genres into one film, this is typical of Post-Modernism and we will be looking at the way such approaches to describing the world around us provide a commentary or window on the world to contemporary life.
Summary: This session we were looking at the different types of genre that clarify and reveal what category films are stated in and from those categories films are able to be acknowledged and unveiled for what they are created for and with the range of genres that are available many films are starting to use a range of genres to expose their film.
With the range of genres being used in one film that particular film can use that specific genre to allow the audience to view the world and its history, for instance if a sci-fi film was stated as a sci-fi film which went back in time to the western era you would be able to show the audience the different contrasts of human life now compared to back n the western time.
20th Jan
Reading Film and Video Part 2:
the place of the spectator
Increasingly the viewer in film and video is subsumed within the work in some way rather that being a passive observer. This is done in a range of ways, through technical manipulation, narrative structure, interactive engagement. This session will look how the relationship of audience to film/video is the final is the final point of understanding. We will be exploring its historical development through ideas such as Laura Mulvey’s theory of the gaze.
Summary: Within this session there was a lot of uncertainty of what it was about but as I gradually started to research into it, I found that within films there is ways in which the audience is captured in the storyline such as the audience knowing part of the storyline where the main characters don’t or trying to use as stated in the theory of the gaze that women within film are objectified through means of objects as women are shown as the frail and weak due to their appearances and men are shown as the strong, heroic half through their appearance.
27th Jan
No Boundaries! The Global and the Local.
From ideas of the hyper-real to the concept of the cyborg the idea of boundary is constantly shifting within digital culture. This is most pressingly and currently felt in the shifts between the global and the local. The space of the Internet collapses notions of distance and proximity, space and place, journey and arrival. This has a huge impact on our sense of self in relation to place and regional identity. This session will consider how re-drawing the boundary has implications for the way that we structure our world.
Summary: With this session I hardly remember what it was about but what I can remember is that it may have be about the fact that within our world we have certain boundaries such as what we are limited to do but within the spaces of the internet the boundaries are put forward from ourselves on what we want to do on the internet. That locally we have boundaries set to keep order within that area and which might differ from the boundaries of a global region and if we begin to re-draft those boundaries put in front of us could cause chaos and confusion in the structure of the world.
3rd Feb
Where do I begin and end? Identity and the cyber real
This session will explore the increasing possibilities of the interface between the human and the machine. The android or robot has long had its place within science-fiction narrative and film, such as Blade Runner and The Matrix, but in reality what would such interfaces imply for ideas of embodiment, gender, identity, the very notion of the human?
Summary: Within this session the belief that robots in reality would be simply to make life easier however if life was easy it wouldn’t be exciting and worth learning from and with androids or robots in reality would cause rights and rules within the different genders of human and robots. Interfaces between the robots would seem like the humans would at first be thankful that they won’t have to lift a finger, to the point where life would become too complacent and planned and cause friction to end the robots. The very existence of robots within reality would seem like there would be no purpose for the human race and would end up having lost their identity and what shows the type of person he or she is.
10th Feb
Hacking-a new form of resistance
The role of the hacker has been a persistent image of resistance or subversion in popular culture from established TV series such as Morse or Primeval to major Hollywood films such as Wargames. As the computer has become more ubiquitous the idea of the hacker has transformed from one of geek to hero. This session will explore the phenomenon of the hacker as an act of resistence.
Summary: Hackers have been the quiet people who try to break free from the rules and regulations of the world and from their persistent rule breaks they have become somewhat of heroes due to there resistence and from the idea of the hackers being evil and trying to ruin things was gradually changed to doing what the millions of people wanted to do and that is to screw up the rules. The image of hackers were seen as a break out from the societies that kept them quiet and in place and were shown through the means of film to execute the affect of what hackers are capable of doing and can affect the world.
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