The world as a single body

In cyberspace, we tend not to think about the process that brought us to where we are today, we dont think about how there once wasn’t a cyberspace (shock). We forget that there once wasn’t ‘the internet’. We’ve become so accustomed to the fact that our handheld devices and the world wide web has taken control over our lives.

The way in which we transmit and send information or matter just through a few taps on a keyboard and the click of a button is nothing short of incredible. We’ve transformed from sending dots and dashes to being able to video call in high resolution. The sending and recieving of matter is largely due to the development of technology and how we are always trying to improve resources.

As a society, we have become so accustomed to the development and improvement of our devices that we anticipate it. The sentences ‘I’m waiting for the new one to come out before I upgrade’ and ‘I’ll get the new one when they create it’ are thrown around daily. Whereas look back 50 years and telecommunication wasn’t even created.

The world is a nervous system and when something revolutionary happens it flips it on its head. Cyberspace has become such a norm that everyone can’t imagine a life without it. However, when the first telegraph was introduced, a woman couldn’t grasp the fact that she could send messages to her son through the telegraph but not send him soup. The telegraph caused a dramatic shift in the world’s perception which demonstrates the likeness of the world as a nervous system. Jason Silva states in a conference in 2013 “… technology is evolving so fast. Exponentially so, in fact, and we’re so swept up in it that our expectations are so high, yet very few people ever step back and go, “Wow! Look at the big picture and think big.”

Thanks for reading! I leave you with a meme.

REFERENCES / IMPORTANT TEXTS

http://www.bigdatalandscape.com/blog/big-data-and-the-global-nervous-system

• A Short History of the Internet by Bruce Sterling
• Open Culture and the Nature of Networks

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Final update on my research!!!

Trolle K, ‘People walking and biking at Assistens Kirkegården. At Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark’ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristoffer-trolle/33342048826/in/pool-creative_commons_world_travel_/&gt; Creative Common Licensing

Hello!

Last time I wrote about this I was fairly certain I knew exactly what I was writing about. However, It was brought to my attention that I very much got sidetracked on what it was I wanted to know. I started this project asking the question ‘Why are university students not travelling during their time at university as much as we used to?’ Which of course, is the question I want to know.

When I began my research and started searching for primary research, the answers I got deterred me from my question. Student’s began telling me about places that they’ve been to and why they went as opposed to places they want to go to and why they aren’t going yet.

When it comes to researching and myself as a person, I find myself to get distracted from the task at hand. When it came to looking for sources, I struggled. The sources i could find were solely based around why students should travel, where students that are travelling have travelled and how much students are spending. Whereas, I wanted to know whether it was the student HECS debt that is the grey cloud that is hindering students from travelling, because they’re feeling that they cant afford to do it so early in life.

Another thing that I found difficult when conducting this research project was creativity. When I couldn’t find any sources relating to my question, instead of figuring out a new way to find what I wanted, I ended up just accepting that this is what I had and I needed to work with it. Which lead to me completely sidetracking from what I wanted to know.

Another question I have addressed in this research, is whether or not it is our relationships that affect our choices in life. Are we more likely to say no to going out saturday night in order to save money? And if we are invited to breakfast twice a week are we, as millenials prepared to sacrifice avo on toast? (triggered) Why is it that our social life is broadly encapsulated by the notion of going to breakfast/lunch/dinner with our friends as opposed to bringing your own lunch to a park bench or just going to each others house to watch a movie? Maybe then, university students will view travelling during their studies as a more realistic goal.

Thanks for keeping me company during this whirlwind of confusion I call a research project.

Final

For this task, I wanted to focus on a very important aspect of my life that has shaped me to be who I am today; My relationship with my twin sister.

I sought inspiration from a couple of creative pieces such as George Ella Lyon’s poem ‘Where I’m From’ and the music video from Lukas Graham ‘7 years’.

Throughout this clip it’s just recording of a day out with my sister. We ventured out to Burragorang Lookout due to the fact that it’s somewhere we used to go all the time as kids. I contrast the day out with shots of old photos of my sister and I, to then bringing it back to modern day us. ‘Itsy, bitsy spider’ is playing on piano throughout the whole clip as my sister used to sing the nursery rhyme all the time as she was under the impression it would get rid of my fear of spiders.

I hope you enjoy this clip as much as I enjoyed creating it

-K

Taken for Granted – Soundscope

When thinking about where i’m from in terms of sound, I found it incredibly difficult to get off the ground so to speak in what I wanted to do for this assessment. It’s hard to determine what resonates with you in terms of sounds other than noise. It wasn’t until a close family member was admitted to hospital not long ago that I decided what I wanted to do. ‘Taken For Granted’ is a sound piece based on how we can enjoy all of the things life has to offer, but still knowing that it can all go wrong. We’re all from happiness, this piece includes sounds of my dog playing, walking through nature, rainfall and the chitter chatter of friends in a public area. All whilst having the beeping of a hospital machine in the background. I hope everyone enjoys this piece!

For this piece, I drew inspiration from a few sources:

Podcasts – By Design <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bydesign/&gt;

System of Survival – <https://soundcloud.com/system-of-survival&gt;

Lars Lentz – <https://soundcloud.com/lars-lentz/a-spring-thunderstorm-nature&gt;

Disclaimer (My mum is well, was just a scare :))

Research update – If only travelling was free!

(theodysseyonline.com)

Hi Everyone!

My research project has taken a different turn since I last updated everyone. Before it was, ‘Why aren’t Australian domestic students travelling abroad during their time at univerisity?’ I’m now focusing more on whether it is our financial situation as to why students do not travel domestically or abroad during our studies and whether or not our relationships are also a contributing factor. So basically; ‘Is it our financial positions and relationships stopping students from travelling whilst at University?’. 

Many people do wish to travel overseas during their time at university but many also wish to remain at home and gain life experience which could inlcude saving to buy a home with their partner or starting their career. Which is perfectly fine! I’m a fan of long term plans!

After recieving 80 survey respondants (So far) through the social media platforms facebook and twitter, I found people were more likely to respond when it was something that they were interested in. The majority of my survey respondants were people who have already travelled whilst being at university as opposed to students who have not.

I also found that when trying to recruit survey responders, people were more likely to respond when I posted in a light-hearted manner. Making sure to make others feel like they weren’t forced to take my survey and that they were more helping out. (Which you certainly were)

Interviewing people is definitely a learnt skill, I found it rather difficult to remain on topic because I would ask questions from their responses or I would relate their response back to my own experience. After relaying the interview in my notes I found that how I had interviewed was to my advantage as the interviewee was more comfortable with how I was relating to their answers of which it allowed them to open up more to me.

That’s where i’m up to at the moment with my research escapade!

Until next time

-K

(if you wish to complete my survey, and are an Australian domestic student, here’s the link! – surveymonkey.com/r/9CZNM5V )

 

 

 

Where I’m From

When constructing this audio-visual poem it was incredibly difficult to truly encapsulate my own definition of ‘where I’m from’. Living in the suburbs only leaves you with so much to record. However, as Wayne Dyer once said; “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” Living in the suburbs is only boring if you allow it to be boring so when constructing my audio-visual poem, I decided to capture the things in my life that I believe make living in the suburbs beautiful. Starting with the early mornings that many people go through in efforts to beat traffic. From the morning coffee, to the warm sun in the early afternoon to then the overcast skies in the late afternoon.

 

References

G Lyon, Where I’m from (http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html)

Summary/ Mission Statement (Remoscopes) http://www.remo.or.jp/en/2008/01/test.html

Research Proposal – To travel or to not? That is the question.

(source: tumblr.com)

My mother has always said to me; “The world is a dark and beautiful place, one of which you’re too curious to not explore”. I have always been so curious about the history of places, knowing that at some point in history, someone was standing exactly where I am, with problems foreign to my own and living in a complete different society that I am living in today. I have travelled to 3 different countries and will be travelling to 9 new countries in the middle of this year, so I thought; ‘Why not base my project around it?’

After booking this trip I have had many people asking which organs I’m selling in order to pay for it. Being a student it can be difficult trying to figure out how to pay for a trip. We all save our money for something, so why not travel?

Over the summer I worked 2 part-time jobs which ended up tallying up to 55-60 hours a week just so that I could pay for my trip overseas. I’m not suggesting that doing this is ideal for everyone, most of the time I would fall asleep in one uniform, just to wake up the next morning at 4:00am to change into a different one. I may have hated myself each time I finish work at midnight just to start at 6:00am the next morning but I managed to pay off my trip in less than 3 months! So, it’s possible, why aren’t more people doing it?

My proposal is, is what is the future of travel for students? Is it because of the endless pile of HECS and other expenses that students need to account for weekly, the reason behind why young students (18-25) aren’t travelling overseas during their time at university?

According to the graph below from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, indicating the short-term residential departures of both males and females in 2006 compared to 2016. It displays that amongst the 20-24 age group, more females are travelling than males.

(source: abs.gov.au)

‘In the year ended December 2016, there were 37.7 million crossings of Australia’s international borders’. (ABS 2016) This projection includes people who were returning home from Australia after a short term or long term stay and also includes Australian citizens departing for short and long term stays overseas.

The questions that I want answered are:

1. Is money the main issue why student’s aren’t travelling overseas?
2. Are the anxieties and stresses that studying full time provides stopping students from wanting to travel overseas during their time at university?
3. Are our elders influential on whether or not we travel overseas?
4. Are societal expectations of ‘all study no play’ effecting students views on travelling?
5. Are the lack of jobs available and the wage rate for young adults one of the reasons behind student’s not travelling?

I look forward to discovering reasons why student’s are postponing travel and whether they even intend on travelling at all.

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, Dec 2016, cat. no. 3401.0, ABS Canberra.

 

 

The Truth of Curiosity

Growing up, I had always used the word ‘curiosity’ and ‘curious’ to get answers from anyone and everyone. Whether it was to my mother, wondering what was for dinner or whether it was a vague yet random question to one of my peers or teachers, completely unrelated to the topic being discussed. In saying this, I am not one to try new and different foods to aid curiosity. I have always been a curious person, I just always manage to showcase different levels of curiosity when it comes to certain things. If you were to ask me what makes me curious before I started my degree, I’d respond with something vague like ‘Not knowing whether or not dogs know that they are dogs’. However, now being in the middle of my degree I am able to explore the depths of my curiosity further as more and more questions are being put forward to me.

Last semester, one of my lecturers stated ‘The truth is subjective until proven absolute’. I believe that this statement has stuck in my mind as it wants me to satisfy my curiosity which means fully understanding subjective and absolute truths. There is an issue with this however, when studying a degree that involves many different theories, it is solely up to your own mind and conscience on which theory you want to believe. Whether it be Sigmund Freud’s ‘Psyche’ theory based around the human mind and body’s ‘Conscious, preconcsious and unconscious’ responses and instincts or whether it be the philosophies about art such as the epicurean and educational. These all depend on the beliefs and morals of each individual.

I believe that curiosity drives many to wanting to know more things about the world and to want to discover new things. That’s why i think many people travel, they’re curious about what the world has to offer. For someone to not feel curiosity on a daily basis is to not strive for more knowledge.

Diaspora: To scatter through

Diasporic Media

What?

A ‘diaspora’ is a large group of people with a similar heritage or homeland who have since moved out to places all over the world, this term comes from the Greek term ‘to scatter through’. So, in simple terms, Diaspora is the spread of cultures across to different countries, also integrating with media and film. Diasporic Media is where a film or television show is produced whilst including many different ethnicities and cultures. Fatih Akin is a German film director, but is of Turkish decent. So, this basically involves the creation of a film or show, that involves many different ethnicities (examples include The Water Diviner, The Lone Ranger, In July, etc…) that is then dispersed across many different countries and cultures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr7WImqnKBM – Link to ‘In July’ Trailer

The film ‘The Water Diviner’ is considered a diasporic film due to the fact that many of the employees that worked on the film such as the producers who were American and Australian. Actors and Actresses comprising of New Zealand, Soviet Union, Australia and Turkish decent. This film was distributed to Australia and New Zealand whilst also being distributed to the US shortly after. This is an example of diasporic media because of the many different cultures intertwining to create this film.

This is the trailer for the film ‘The Water Diviner’ which displays the diasporic characteristics it possesses. For example, the different ethnicities of the actors and the different locations that this was filmed (Australia & Turkey).

References

Berghahn D 2006, ‘No place like home? Or impossible homecomings for Fatih Akin’, ‘Journal of Contemporary Film’, vol. 4, no. 3, pp  142-155

 

 

The (south) Korean Wave – Popular Culture and Globalisation

Everyone is familiar with K Pop, but not everyone is familiar with ‘The Korean Wave’.

Little did we know is that K Pop is one of the key elements that highly influenced the rise of the ‘Korean Wave’ across many Asian countries and reaching its way to the westernised countries in Europe and the U.S. The Korean Wave is all about the rapid transitional behaviour of popular cultural flow in Asia. According to Woongjae Ryoo , “The transnational popular culture flow is an example to illustrate the complexity involved in the cultural hybridisation thesis and the implications that is has for the debate on the globalisation of colour”. Meaning, that things such as Korean pop culture has travelled rapidly across the globe. Things such as Korean pop music and their dramatic television which has made an impact on how the rest of the world views South Korea. Distinguishing themselves separately from North Korea is important for South Korea due to the violence that happens in North Korea.

Stuart Hall (1991) acknowledges that global culture has had ‘a homogenizing effect on local values but recognises the role of local reception in shaping the communication process, where global culture is understood as a peculiar form of capital only able to rule through local capitals.’ With this being said, South Korea has personified its culture into something that looks like this:

South Korea has distinguished itself from North Korea through pop culture entities such as Korean Pop bands and Korean drama shows. Korean pop culture is widely recognised by neighbouring Asian countries and is also quite popular in western countries such as France and North America.

South Korean pop culture is relatively popular throughout the whole world. It lets us experience a different culture through different types of entertainment and media and if you don’t believe me, and you’re currently thinking “I have never liked, watched, or listened to anything that is Korean Pop Culture”, this video is ought to jog your memory. Enjoy 🙂 xx