#ctec500

Here’s my drawing of sketches from the exercise we have to complete for the first week of Integrative Practices aka CTEC500.  In response to the first question:  In what ways did this exercise assist in seeing things you may have not have noticed before? I noticed that the larger the space I drew I tried to fit it into the same sized shape. I noticed also that, once again if I was dedicated again if I could really be bothered with doing realism, I really could, but the tedium is not necessary for the message to be conveyed in a difficult form, but it is mainly because I am lazy and dont want to spend forever thinking about detail. I want to create and get the message across. 

I guess this is why I never finish writing my stories unless they’re short stories, and then again even that is difficult because the amount of detail is fluid, the potential depths of it coming into being, is not up for me to decide and that is what frustrates me but im not, wait, am I not interested in being a “good” artist? Well, in theory, no, but I admire the detail that a month worth of painting takes on a single piece. What am I doing here in this world? Am I really painting how I want to paint..? Or am I still painting? Well, no Im typing, my favourite way of sharing my quintessence. No I am painting the way I want to, just not when i’d like to. I should just paint a masterpiece. Im going to start planning it now.

I just want to have a smoke, lay here and drink my water. See that? I’m gone. Not here. I’m in another plane altogether. I’m not even reading or seeing the words, or the screen. I’m dreaming again. 

I’ve been thinking about building that treehouse in the cabins, with the woodfire burning out by our stairwell, and the evening light is still bringing warmth through the glaze of the glades and the river as brilliant as a mirror, reflecting what it sees of the sun. Im wearing a swandri, red, and I have my beard and long hair in a bun, and I’m near the end of my life, and I know you’re not far from home, that’s why it is set up the way it is. I wait here for you everyday so you get home and you’re alright. I dont know who’s in that window, but it may be our daughter. She’s waiting for you too. And the pine needles that are around the fire are always so much more orange and drier than what piles in heaps from gravity and pressure pockets in the sky.

oh yeah 50 words or less, right.

Second question:  How might you use or adapt this method in future for your work?

Okay. Well I dont want to waste all my 50 words, on how the last question isnt the same as this question, but it’s really all relative. Okay well, if I get to start with my 50 words or less, again, from here: I’ll definitely take more action to get a reference if I want to make the art I really envision for myself to make.

I love video games. “Duh, who doesn’t?” you might think. No, you don’t understand - I love video games - not only playing them, but designing them. Having a vision of a game you want to make in your head and then working to turn that vision into fruition is such a rewarding process, along the way you encounter challenges that might change how the game works - for better or worse.

I’m a highly analytical person. It really comes out when I start analysing a game. I’ll be thinking what caused the developers to make the decisions they’ve made, storing that information for later use. You can do a lot with games and their design, but in terms of subverting tropes you really need to have a lot of experience with video games in general to be able to toy with your players.

Lives are busier than ever! “According to a study by the American Psychological Association, 18 to 35 year olds are the most stressed out generation ever—earning ourselves the nickname “Generation Stress.”” - https://relevantmagazine.com/life/millennials-are-most-stressed-out-generation-and-s-spiritual-problem “stress is caused by three primary factors—money, work, and the economy” -  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-15/americans-just-broke-the-psychologists-stress-record

Stress on its own will kill you, mentally if not physically. However, part of stress (at least for me) is not having enough time in the day. A solution often used is to reduce sleep to get everything done, allowing us to relax. The problem with this is how sleep affects the body.

“Sleep deprivation actually causes the brain to feed off of neurons and synaptic connections“ - http://nypost.com/2017/05/30/the-brain-literally-eats-itself-when-its-overtired-study/ “Your body needs sleep, just as it needs air and food to function at its best. During sleep, your body heals itself and restores its chemical balance. Your brain forges new connections and helps memory retention. Without enough sleep, your brain and body systems won’t function normally. It can also dramatically lower your quality of life. A review of 16 studies found that sleeping for less than 6 to 8 hours a night increases the risk of early death by about 12 percent.” - https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/effects-on-body “If sleep deprivation continues long enough, you could start having hallucinations—seeing or hearing things that aren’t there. A lack of sleep can also trigger mania in people who have manic depression.“ Which I have experienced. More than once I have gone 3 days without sleeping and the most I have gone is 4.

My song Imagination has been out for a week [1] (also check out my friend Bligh’s song Design [2]). I would like to share the behind the scenes story. This is quite a long post, so pick a section that stands out!

Writing a Song

When I arrived at Bligh’s place, I discovered that he has already written a poem   He wanted to transfer the poem into lyrics for a song. We spent a lot of time experimenting with how the song would go and adding things in and clipping parts out to keep the flow of the song. With my song, I thought about the five topics[3] that I had picked. Since I had already digested all of the information, I was able to craft a song. Like most songwriting, I cannot describe exactly how it happened, it just did. I am very happy with my lyrics, I personally think it identified the connections between the topics very well. It did not do this very literally though, so it may not be trivial to see it.

Guitar

Guitar comes quite naturally to me, I am able to find chords and improvise relatively well. I could improve on my scales and improvised chords/picking, I can play along to a song I haven't heard before but only with one string.

Imagination is a faster paced song than my other songs, I quite like this as it is easier to get into the mode for performing. As a piece of trivia, it is the first song of mine to feature a bar chord.

I assisted Bligh with chords and how to fit them to a song, he only knew some of the basics at the beginning of the weekend. I was able to demonstrate chord learning techniques and new chords.

Singing

I have had one singing lesson in my entire life, so that’s all I have had to go on when it comes to singing. I know a bit. What I do know is difficult to put into words due to the qualitative nature of speech and sound.

I worked with Bligh to improve on his Singing, he is not a very loud person so it took some time to get him to project his voice. I know there was more time needed to improve Bligh’s vocals, we just didn’t have it over the weekend. 

As for my own singing, I would love to be able to reflect on it but I am not too sure how good it was. I felt like it was alight but all I have to go on is that some people have said it sounded good and related my voice to well known singers they know of. I think I would need to take another singing lesson to really find out what I need to improve on.

Recording

I had my Condenser microphone and my 3D microphones. The plan was to play a rough version of the song with a metronome and then play each part of the song separately and stitch it together. This took a long time to do, Bligh was new to guitar/vocals so we spent a lot of time trying to get his song sounding alright. We started at 3pm. It was about 1am when we were done with Bligh’s song. I didn’t have time to stitch it together, so for my song I simply played though a few times until I got a good recording. Nevertheless, I was very happy with the sound, I wasn’t interrupted by background sounds nor did I have to be quiet. I learnt a lot about how to stitch pieces of a song together, it was the first time I had recorded around a metronome and I had to be somewhat creative with the equipment and software that was available. I used the 3D microphone for the bridge, unfortunately I sounded very different so I had to add some reverb to the recording. I think this could have been done better.

Behind The Scenes

The first day of shooting, we discovered that the Video Camera was flat. Although I had been reassured that the video camera was fully charged, it turned out that the camera had been left on for the entire night.

On top of this, there was rain on the forecast and we had limited time to get our outdoor shots done. With the camera on charge, I decided to use my phone for the Music Video. I had envisioned how the video would look the night before, matching a scene with each chunk of the song.

Shooting actually went rather smoothly, with only minor things that bothered me (finger on the camera, lip-syncing etc). I was happy with the style of my video, it has the lighthearted feeling to it that I wanted it to have. Without professional equipment, I think it was a very cost/time effective format.

Reaction

At the time of this blog, I have 138 views on Youtube, quite a few people have seen the song. I have 7 likes on the video and a single comment.

People I have talked to in person have given positive responses. I think I surprised a few people I know, as they were unaware of my musical background.

It’s nice to see that people are enjoying content I have created!

By Reggie Watts 

Now I do realise that Reggie Watts may not be a professor in a science or be on the cutting edge of the latest breakthroughs in astrology, but this man is an understated genius in my mind. Ever since I found out about him at the start of the year I have always found him being an inspiration and just in the purest form an entertainer. This TED Talk is a very good representation of some of the main themes that Reggie tries to portray through his work and I thought was a very good way to delve deeply into the subject of music and what it personally means to me. 

Some of the points that I have interpreted may be different to how others see it, and people may just feel like this man is a weird and crazy musician, but in my eyes he is the Albert Einstein of music and entertainment. 

Themes and thinking points presented

- Different language

   Besides being funny to listen to I feel that Reggie Watts was talking in a few different languages with a purpose in mind, he was trying to convey the idea that throughout, music has been used all over the globe to try and entertain people. This message I feel is quite cool to think about as when he’s talking in the other language we don’t have any idea of what he’s saying, but it doesn’t matter. Because when he starts playing music most people are entertained regardless of language barriers and such. This is what I find so amazing that music acts as a sort of global language that can be applied anywhere and the feeling will still be felt.

- The complexity of language used

   When Reggie starts to explain things he uses alot of big words to explain a concept that is quite simple but it just makes the point sound more convoluted and non nonsensical which is entertaining in itself. But what I feel I can personally connect with this is something that I talked about in my last post (link here) about me questioning whether or not choosing to follow a creative pathway was a waste of my life. I feel as if when I listen to Reggie start to use this way of talking I almost see myself in him and understand that I am probably just over thinking something that has a simple answer. Maybe I am just too insecure about how much success I will actually make in the creative industry or maybe I just shouldn’t care and just see where it takes me, while hopefully enjoying the ride. 

- "This simulation"

   Along with some other random gibberish Reggie was saying during his performance he said somethings about the simulation. 

“ The important thing to remember, is that this simulation is a good one. “ 

Take out of that what you will but when you use it in the context of again the confusing words of Reggie’s blabbering it almost acts as a sort of oasis where in the middle of his talking and whilst you are in the process of trying to piece together what he is actually saying, he says this quote which then made me stop the video and just think for a while. The real reasons he was saying what he was saying is unknown, but subjectively we all take something different out of it, much like music and art, and so what I took out of this piece here is that the music he is playing is the simulation, this is as a song can include feelings and emotions inside of it that could simulate your life. So when he says “That the simulation is a good one” I feel he is referring to the fact that music is made for a purpose, and that purpose is to make people feel differently than they did before they listened. That leaves it open for the music to portray any type of emotion (eg. happy, sad etc.) and I feel is very crucial into understanding Reggie's work, his music leaves people very confused about what he is saying or what he was going on about but nonetheless, people are still entertained, personally I would say that his music makes me feel happier. This means in essence Reggie is trying to capture the deep and main fundamental aspects of music itself. 

- Music creates happiness

   Extending on the point that was just made I feel as if Reggie is a very good reflection of the essence of music in general, as in my opinion it is an artistic medium that is very easy to relate with compared to other forms of art such as paintings which is more cryptic. I feel as if the majority of people have an amazing capability to process musical information even if they aren’t consciously always analyzing why, they are able to understand what certain tones and noises create and evoke different types of emotions and then use the feelings presented and apply them to their personal experiences. Going to my studio paper I actually have done quite a large amount of research on the emotional effect that music has on peoples emotions and head spaces and actually found that; 

“  The finding that emotional responses, particularly negative ones, activate regions related to both memory and attention may indicate that these processes are interrelated ” [1] 

This I found very interesting and does provide some proof for my opinion. When we listen to songs that we associate with being happy songs (like both of Reggie’s songs in the video) there is just no real helping it but I just felt personally happier than I was before I listened to it. Which is a phenomenon that you really can’t properly explain why it happens or what it is about the music but it just does make you feel happier after you listen to things like Reggie Watts. This is why I have had a fascination with music for most of my life, because of the fact that it is just such an amazing art form that has so much complexity and meaning behind it. Comparing it to the argument in which I brought up about space [2] and how I talked about me being almost disappointed in myself that I was not studying sciences as it may be a waste of time in a sense, but after you look at music and start to think about the significant impact that it has had here on this planet, I feel like its something that I could definitely be happy putting my life’s work into. 

Video Conclusions

This video was very awesome for me to analyze properly and do some real thinking about since I actually managed to get down to the core of alot of my feelings about music, something that I haven’t really tried to do before. This video of a very entertaining man has provided me with themes and thinking points related to the entirety of music that hopefully I will be able to use forth and create connections between the other fields of research I will be studying. 

Bibliography 

[1] https://matts4.tumblr.com/post/165749525153/understanding-emotions

Integrative Practice

Final Submission:

I came to the decision to create a vlog style video as my final submission, due to not wanting to just write and submit an essay. I first tried out creating some other type of visual outcome, like a poster, but I wasn’t really happy with the results of my drafts (who knew reading a design book doesn’t actually make you any better at design haha). I figured a video would be something cool to do, and I enjoy the process of making one. This brings what would’ve been just an essay, to life. 

In terms of the video, the script I wrote out for it covers each of the links and connections I had made, supported by quotes from each of the books I read. I put the quotes as text on the screen as I read them to distinguish when I was reading them out as opposed to the content I had written.  The music I decided to use was something that I felt had a link to my overall connection of the mind, something which was calming and thought provoking. 

References to the texts I used:

Macnab, M. (2008), Decoding Design: Understanding and using symbols in visual communication. Cincinnati, Ohio: HOW Books

Zakia, D. R., (2013), Perception and Imaging: Photography–A Way of Seeing, Taylor and Francis

Entwistle, J. (2015), The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress and Social Theory, Polity Press

Butler, G. & McManus, F. (2014), Psychology: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn), Oxford, United Kingdom, Oxford University Press

Berger, A.A. (2002), Video Games: A Popular Culture Phenomenon, New Brunswick, New Jersey Transaction Publishers

Transcript:

I have seen a lot of people that are troubled with the 30 minimum blogs. And I am one of it. It really makes me confuse what are we doing now? What can I learn from something I lose interested? I don’t want talk about is it right or not that what we are doing now. I just have some feeling that what we are doing now is show the teacher we want the credit more than we want to learn something.

It is not what I want, I can write more than 30 shit blogs because it attaches to minimum 30 and I say yes I did it. The result is I didn’t learn anything, I just finish the homework that my lecture gives. Laurent and Pete are uploaded a lot of useful video or article on Google+.But I didn’t write a blog for each because some of them I dislike.

What is more important to me?Quantity or Quality? 

In each of blog and research, I really paid a lot of time on it. It is not just skin read some book or read a comment on the website. To write down a blog post about a book or an article, it requests me more than I thought. It does not introduce what this book talks about, I have to add my feeling and learning reflection in it. My personal view for this project is we are recording our feeling.What do you feel when you read the books? This kind of topic would be more helpful for me to create a link between the book and myself.

In the 3 different step of ctec500, I most like the IP01. In that time I use all my imagination to transfer the music box. I didn’t have a great sleep in the week because I am making a video with hand drawing. But I don’t feel hard, I enjoy what we are doing.It really develops my creative ability.

At IP02, I didn’t get a great result and I agree is my mistake. I didn’t make a great time plan also make me run out of time in some steps. Some of my friends say don’t worry at least you passed.But I do not feel confident about my mistake. To be honest, I have to say thanks to Pete.It is like the lecturer said we want you to get wrong in the first year.It is not late for me to fix them and improve my work in next time.