Week 10 games

Rebuild
http://www.kongregate.com/games/sarahnorthway/rebuild

Hands of War 2
http://www.kongregate.com/games/Djugan/hands-of-war-2-expanded-edition

The Dreamhold
http://eblong.com/zarf/zweb/dreamhold/

Castaway 2
http://www.kongregate.com/games/likwidgames/castaway-2

London Road
http://varytale.com/books/book/fox-london-road/info/

Choice of the Dragon
http://www.choiceofgames.com/dragon/

Photo Essay 42248515

This photo essay is focus on the Houses, they located in the place that people everyday walked by. Unlike Australia, in my country - China, because of the population density, most of the people are live in the apartment. Therefore, it is difficult to found houses, or even town houses in China. Therefore, we are rarely to found a house, or a yard that designed by the owner. The houses in Australia shows the owner's aesthetic, and every houses have their own style to make the streets become more diverse. Those houses shows another scenery that rarely founded in my country and becomes special in my concept. The aim of the project is to show up the houses that we everyday walked by but may not even noticed.

This project is made by
Kangchi Xu (42248515)

Photo Essay - Tangled

Video

Rationale

The idea behind our photo essay is to showcase the multifaceted nature of strings and lines that permeates through our mundane everyday life. It started of with cold, linear type of wires and slowly goes entangled into the more organic forms such as spaghetti and ropes. In portraying this, we took pictures from various kind of strands and string-like objects we can find around us as college students: Wires, spaghetti, cables, fence wires, headset, ropes, and even to jeans thread. The aim of this is to capture how these “mundane” objects has helped us to facilitate sustenance, entertainment, and a conducive working environment in our everyday life.  

The soundtrack used for this short photo presentation is a royalty free canned music sample by Apple titled “Stepping Out”. The music itself is a mixture of techno and pop with a very catchy rhythm, and we've remixed it to give it a more dynamic ending. As for the editing part, we tried our very best to synchronize the entrance of every single photo to the beat in order to smoothen the transition between pictures.

This group project is made by: 
Samuel Ip (43005624) and James Rotanson (42945062)


Posted by Samuel Ip

Photo Essay Yohana Christanti 43019048 and Mandy Chung 42723450

The everyday aesthetics’ that we come across to in our daily life and practically seen by our own two eyes most of the time; whether it is in the street or inside the building; it has enable us to look at the world and its surrounding environment within it; in a bigger picture. As a result we sometimes forget the little tinniest things; whether it is an object or a living being that has taken, its changed overtime.  Since it has been unappreciated, criticised and unfortunately forgotten over time.

As Susan Murray stated in the concept of ‘everyday aesthetics’ through “The types of images we can create or engage with on a regular basis that evoke or reference the more ordinary or frequent moments of our lives”. As we walk in the street, without realizing sometimes things around us are alterin

g or taking its form. So, it is clear to say that everyday objects around us are virtually decaying overtime. We can use various ways to get these everyday objects to be noticed or appreciated once again by taking a nice pictures by using the camera with different view, lighting and different angles of camera. in doing so, we can also emphasized that most of us are practically still; ‘amateur photographers’.

To conclude, the photo essay expresses Murray’s concept of amateur photography and everyday aesthetics through the theme of street objects - decaying overtime, which is usually forgotten by most people and yet if we all pay a little attention to, it is surprisingly has its own unique features and characters which can be displayed and appreciated as part of our everyday life surrounding us.

Photo Essay- A Story in Shoes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JMKdpVBB7oM
Shirley Huang-42871085
Max Chen-42446473

For our Photo Essay assignment our aim was to represent the ‘everyday aesthetic’. Murray defines everyday aesthetics as "the types of images that we can create or engage with on a regular basis that evoke or reference the more ordinary or frequent moments of our lives”. From this definition, we chose the theme of everyday clothing and specifically about shoes. Footwear is something that we can all relate to and it is a daily essential item we all take for granted throughout our lives. We understand that shoes are rarely the center of focus for clothing, it is usually just an addition or seen as just an accessory.
We believed that the photography of our shoes represented very mundane, every day foot wear that were applicable to many different occasions, hence justifying the reference to the ordinary and frequent moments of out lives.
The music we chose was upbeat / happy, this selection along with the photos edited in bright colours, aims to showcase and highlight the variety of shoes for any occasion.

Mark Mostert Photo Essay 43049389- New York State of Sight

This video, ex-amplifies images taken from one day in New York City. It shows how the camera is able to capture everyday objects, but represent them in a extraordinary manner, leading to the idea of a "New York State of Sight". The images may be detailed, but the aim of the video is to demonstrate that even within complexity of a City as grande as New York, a camera is still able to capture everyday objects, the eye might miss ++

MAS110 Photo Essay - Number 15 Letterboxes

Video Rationale
Murray talks about the everyday aesthetic when it comes to amateur photography, especially when it appears on sites such as Flickr. She talks about how amateur photography has “become less about the special or rarefied moments of domestic living and more about an immediate, rather fleeting, display and collection of one’s discovery and framing of the small and mundane”. What, however, is the ‘everyday aesthetic’ that Murray talks about continually? She defines the everyday aesthetic through "the types of images that we can create or engage with on a regular basis that evoke or reference the more ordinary or frequent moments of our lives”. By using this definition of the everyday aesthetic, we believe that we have chosen a theme and a sub theme that flaunts an everyday aesthetic. The theme we have chosen is letterboxes, with a sub theme of the number 15. Murray thinks of the everyday aesthetic as something frequent that has reference to everyday life, everyone that owns or rents a house, flat or anything of that nature has a letter box. We all come into contact with letterboxes whether it be to identify a house or to check if we have mail. The letterbox is nothing without the number that is attached to it. That is why the sub theme is very important in showing the use of letterboxes in everyday life. The way that we identify if the letterbox is the correct one that we want, is by looking at the number. For the purpose of this photo essay we focused on one number, the number 15, in order to emphasize the differences between the letterboxes despite their similar numbering.

Cassandra Teo - 42654211
Lachlan Skulander - 42876478

Pathways & Textures

Murray (2008) states ‘photography has become less about the special or rarefied moments of domestic/family living’.  This quotation corresponds to our theme of Pathways, which is interlocked with our sub-theme of Textures. We believe that people walk everyday, but routinely ignore the significance of what they are stepping on. Murray’s (2008) concept of amateur photography and everyday aesthetics is represented in our theme of pathways as we exhibit a collection of the small and mundane. The visual compilation symbolically represents the everyday life pertaining routines, ‘taken-for-granted’ experiences, beliefs and practices. This is achieved by compelling the audience through a journey of everyday pathways and textures. It also presents the emphasis upon the immediacy of current experiences and activities by sharing the venture.

The process of capturing our photography involved traveling, while conceptualizing the various ways of presenting the photos. The use of different viewpoint, camera angles and lighting highlights the distinct texture of the paths. Wide-angle shot was our main choice of technique, as we wanted to create a winding ambience and ultimately create one complete path. We wished to portray the meaning of “pathways” (as the “path and journey in our lives”), hence the use of effects, predominantly ‘Ken Burns’ that illustrates a sense of motion. Photos were edited to appear antique conveying the feeling of wistful yet elegant nostalgia. We have chosen “Woods of Chaos” (by musikpirat, 2011) to establish a melancholic and dramatic atmosphere. We also aligned the music with the movement of images with the flow of music to create different levels of dynamics.

To conclude the photo essay titled “Pathways” express Murray’s concept amateur photography and everyday aesthetics. The forgotten and yet beautiful textured paths displaying everyday routines and experiences that are unappreciated.

Reference:

Murray, S., 2008 ‘Digital Images, Photo Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics’, Journal of Visual Culture. SAGE (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore). Vol 7(2): 147-263.

Music:

musikpirat, 2011, ‘Woods of Chaos’. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)

Available at: http://ccmixter.org/files/musikpirat/32693

Photos: Espineda A., and Lee, C., 2012. 

MAS110 Photo Essay - City of Lights

Photo Essay Rationale

For our photo essay we chose to explore the main theme of the ‘everyday aesthetic’ of streetlights. Seeing as they are abundant in our everyday lives, we felt it would be interesting to explore as streetlights themselves go largely unnoticed. In our series of images, we were able to successfully capture S. Murray’s notion of the mundane nature of objects that an everyday amateur photographer can achieve. The photographs of the different lights are shown in a variety of settings and demonstrate their everyday aspect is present no matter the context. It is through our sub theme of ‘isolation’ that we are also able to draw upon the ‘everyday aesthetic’. In each photo a rather isolated feeling is portrayed, and the use of oversaturated and black and white filters helps to highlight this aspect. For such an everyday object, they go unnoticed and we can’t escape that isolated feeling. In this regard, I feel that our photographs of streetlights are able to successfully embody the notion of the mundane and the everyday aesthetic.

Albert Latham (42887410) and Rodney Alberts (43006280)

MAS110 Photo Essay - Roadside Objects

'Roadside objects’ is the main theme of our video. In respect to everyday aesthetics, we believe that these objects are largely ignored and if one pays consideration to them, it makes the person  feel embarrass when others see them looking at such objects. We certainly felt a little awkward stopping on the side of the road to take a picture of 'garbage'.

Our sub-theme was 'abandonment' and how it relates to loneliness, coldness and sadness. We decided to use the iPhoto program and its tool of controlling the temperature of a picture. In our case, we decided to make every photo 'cold' using a blue tinged overlay over all them; hopefully creating a sense of melancholy and discard. Finally, we opted for Beethoven's 'moonlight sonata' to accompany our clip in its ability to evoke feelings of gloominess, unrequited romance, and a sense of being unseen.

In iMovie we used the 'fade to black' transition mostly in that we wanted to convey a ‘blink’, in that all we do is pass roadside objects with a blink of an eye, not noticing what can be reused. It’s suppose to convey our inability to notice the mundane everyday aesthetics. The main point to our clip is to personify inanimate 'roadside objects' in a sense that in an urban city our pre-loved objects become garbage; that anything can become broken, unwanted and we easily abandon what once was a precious thing.

By Tj Catubig (40830667) & Kevin Gonzales (42987318)

MAS110 photo essay

MAS110

Rationale for Photo Essay

Hannah Watt - 42467357

Monique Howard - 42878888

In creating this photo essay, our goal was to capture the simplicity of the ‘everyday aesthetic’. As mentioned by Susan Murray “the everyday image has to do with a move towards transience and the development of a communal aesthetic that does not respect traditional amateur/professional hierarchies” – this is what we tried to achieve in relation to the somewhat unseen characteristic of lines within objects.

Lines purvey in all facets of the everyday life, conveying that all things are connected through similar shapes and forms, furthermore illustrating the purpose of this photo essay.

Linear forms may be found in each aspect of the world around us, to see these lines we must blur the major & focus on the minor. Eliminating built, human & natural forms, forces the audience to seek out unusual and often hidden geometric patterns. The images selected for the proposed photo essay explore both literal & figurative linear geometry. Each photo aims to draw out the lines displayed within an object or creation of art, displaying the notion that, just as cells make up the human form, lines too make up tangible objects. Take the pages of a book, many pieces of paper stacked tall to create a novel…place the book on its side and see the lines of its pages, impossibly thin structures which come together to form a solid figure. This selection of photos aims to expose lines through colour, texture & depth…a certain stylized snapshot of the lines constructed amongst the objects in which I have photographed, which make up the everyday aesthetic. 

Concrete Jungle - Photo Essay

Within an urban environment, the existence of concrete typifies the mundane and the ubiquitous, the everyday and the ordinary. It forms the basis of our infrastructure, our roads, footpaths and buildings. Taking this as our foundation, we explored transforming concrete through capturing it splayed with light and shadows, its intricate angles and lines, its texture and form, to create the ‘everyday aesthetic’. Playing with perspective and close-up shots, we aimed to create striking, iconic and powerful images. This was enhanced through our editing in iPhoto, which used high contrast and saturation to enrich and deepen the colours, adding tones of golden yellow and steely blue, or transforming the image through an impactful black and white adjustment. The use of colour, or lack thereof, demonstrates the transition from warm, earthy tones of classic forms of concrete, to the cooler, harsher contemporary and ultramodern urban landscapes. Constructing the video, we chose upbeat, modern techno music with a strong pulsing vibe, reflecting both the urban, modern ‘concrete jungle’ and the bold, dramatic theme of our images. The complete effect aims to transform the mundane, dull and largely ignored feature of concrete in our everyday lives, constructing the everyday aesthetic through capturing and enhancing the simple and overlooked beauty and dramatic appeal of an urban concrete environment.

Sophie Rosenthall (43052045) and Laura Webster (42852137)

Assignment 1: Mandy (42723450)

Discuss the phenomenon of digital media convergence in relation to Advertising and New Media

In a world where consumers are increasingly growing more fragmented, distracted and disinterested, advertisers have had to adapt to these changing conditions (Spurgeon, 2008, p. 27). Therefore continuous and ever changing technology in today’s society has led to the phenomenon experience on digital media convergence. As Jenkins mention in his book “Convergence Culture”, is the “flow of content across multiple media platforms” and it is identified as the “cooperation between multiple media industries” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 2). These ideas and process are rapidly progressing and constantly evolving across multiple media platforms, spreading effortlessly as tools of communication thus forms of interaction throughout the globe. Remarkably the accessibility to share and generate information to such extend to the wider audiences has created opportunity for advertising and new media to grow and bloom across the globe.

Interestingly new forms of media such as music video combine with product placement advertising and other types of social media via the Internet that exposed both the formal and informal advertising message has now been combined by both the traditional and modern media forms. The collaboration between both the traditional and contemporary style of media has enable advertisers to form new ideas and in the same time shape and sustain the media that we consume before. In particular it also has enable both the advertisers to generate, and consumer to experience, multitude of marketing strategies in a way that has never been dreamed before. 

Therefore the exploration on the role of branded product and services contents in advertising and other sources of social media will be discussed further with the competing consumer dominion over advertisers, which plays important factor towards the success and sovereignty of the modern advertising in the world upon consumers today.

Firstly as stated by Dwyer, media convergence is the “ process whereby new technologies are accommodated by existing media and communication industries and cultures. The fact that the term is used to describe this adaptation, merging together and transitioning process, is an indication that the ongoing confrontation of old and new technologies is complex and multilayered” (Dwyer 2010). Therefore in understanding these terms we are now able to understand and draw relationship between advertising and media convergence whereby highly accessible source of communication between consumers has predominantly come from the notion of emerging social network through mobile phones and across multiple Internet server.

In addition ways in which consumer can share, likes and distribute information has now increases and developed to be ease of used making information and easy communication to be more convenience for the user in the modern world. A notable example in gaining opportunity and accessibility to communicate to the general audience through different social networking is evident in the U.S Government.  Their Social Networking provides consumers via nine different platforms over the Internet alone. The Whitehouse now currently communicates to the consumer globally through their official website, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes and Vimeo (NSW Government, 2012). As a consequence we can now draw the similarities and difference to understand and predict the revolutionary of advertising and media convergence which whereby as whole has resulted to the ever changing, entertaining and less conspicuous ways for advertisers to reach their modern consumer throughout the world.

Moreover through the existence of media convergence, consumer dominance plays a significant role on advertising that has emerged. Solemnly through this belief consumer now or the buyer determines what is practically sold and advertise in the market, which these notion arise through the interaction of social media via the Internet. Technological communication via the Internet through different types of Social Media, across global level; has now become the driving force behind every popular or well-known product and also for the business’s success. Within consumer dominance, viral video campaign in particular, is one of the strategy where advertiser aim typically to create entertaining advertisement in a funny and humorous way, which is then shared via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Most Importantly, the viral video campaign cuts marketing costs down for advertisers, as they do not rely on airtime television and particularly Internet space in order to gain the consumer’s attention and publication. Instead they rather rely on active consumer to post ratings to gain popularity and inevitable comments to share simultaneously in order to market their brand and gain recognition.

An example of viral video campaign where advertiser’s converge the use of Internet into advertisement use is the "New Evian: Roller babies Advertising".

The Ad was first tested on the Internet where it soon became viral and was then released on to TV nationally. Following the making of the advertisement this ad was first launch and tested on the Internet where it soon attracted millions of viewers. The advertisement then become viral and was then released on to TV nationally. Not only that this advertisement took the social media world by storm, it also become well known and popular internationally due the depiction of different baby faces from different cultural background around the world. Consumer dominance has once again play a significant role on advertising that has emerged around the world. Whereby consumer determines what is practically advertise in the market through the interaction and sharing on social media. The uses of new media where the collaboration between both the traditional and contemporary style of media has also being form here in this advertisement. Whereby the integration between modern styles of media such as using graphics to create a moving around baby has been incorporated with a traditional environment setting of a park in order to develop new ideas and in the same time shape and sustains media we consume before.

In addition the sharing and interaction with the brand and video brought Evian immediate success at that time, as consumers world-wide could now make instant recognition of the brand, bringing along cultural associations with the brand with a fun, playful and environment, which create a strong and positive feedback advertising and consumer relationship around the world. Furthermore, Morrison states “Allowing consumers to interact with content allows new levels of creativity and engagement as people create their own stories where brands play a role: either as a facilitator or an actual character” (Morrison 2009) in her discussion of brand engagement. Thus demonstrating further on how the market and power of global brand has increased throughout decade.

Furthermore another prime example of advertising and media convergence is through Lady Gaga's music video "Lady Gaga - Telephone ft. Beyonce"

Whereby the merged of advertising of multiple brands such as Ray –Ban, Virgin Mobile and Plentyoffish.com, has taken place. Which this advertiser has successfully drawn us into the music video but in the same time incorporating brands knowledge into our mind without the viewer realizing. Having to see this, we can tell advertiser are now moving away from traditional advertising method into a new form of media where convergence of multiple media are integrated all at once (Jenkins, 2006). The incorporation with multiple brands and celebrity endorsement of International well known Pop Star being integrated in a music video has also successfully spark out viewers with positive outcomes and brand associations where it has specifically has enable viewer to have the desirability to own the brand products. As a result we can see that now advertisers are capable in easily influencing consumer with branded content and brand recognition through music video via social media and networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook. Through media convergence we can say that advertisers are now capable in facilitating and demonstrating the effectiveness of high exposure advertising into the mind of consumer without being caught or realised through the marketing tools of product placement and celebrity endorsement in a music video.

However product placement in a music videos and celebrity endorsement for product and services aren’t always necessarily comes with a positive outcomes and feedback. As in Lady Gaga’s music video the brand associated and incorporated with music video might not goes so well with the behaviors performs and depicted in the videos. Therefore it might ruin or distort viewer underlining values and perspectives towards the brand, which can influence the business success if not consider thoroughly and properly by company’s brand marketer.

Overall it is proven that digital media convergence has enable advertising and new media to arise through different types of social media and networking. The collaboration and incorporation between both the traditional and contemporary styles of media advertising such as; marketing strategy of product placement and celebrity endorsement within music and viral videos; has enable both the advertisers to generate and consumer to experience multitude of marketing strategies in a way that has never been dreamed before. As a result giving advertiser the power and greater ultimate position most specifically on consumer to dominate within the realm of media in today’s society around the world.

References:

Dwyer, T 2010, Media Convergence, McGraw Hill, Berkshire, pp. 1-23.

Jenkins, H 2006, Convergence Culture, New York, New York University Press, pp 1-24.

Spurgeon, c, 2008, Advertising and New Media, Oxon: Routledge, pp 24-45

Morrison, D & Sheehan, K 2009 ‘Beyond convergence: Confluence culture and the role of the advertising agency in a changing world’ in First Monday, vol. 14 no. 3, viewed 25 August 2012, http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121

NSW Government, 2012, “ Social Media”, http://www.nsw.gov.au/social, viewed 28^th August 2012

Evian Babies, 2009, Evian Roller Babies international version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQcVllWpwGs (Date accessed 20 August 2012)

Lady Gaga – Telephone ft Beyonce, 2010, Interscope Records V, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY&feature=player_embedded (Date accessed 22 August 2012)