R&D
Over the Christmas Break
Thanks to all of you who presented on Thursday the feedback from tutors is generally good with some impressive work and also impressive research on your blogs, well done.
If you haven’t yet presented and haven’t been in touch you need to e-mail your tutor so that we can see you straight away in the new term.
Research over the Christmas Break : Download project proposal form 310mc
We want you to think carefully over the Christmas break about your ideas and solid proposals for your final project.
You will be asked to pitch your proposal in the second week back after the holiday, so some time in the week beginning 12th January 2009.
We have provided a form that you need to follow to structure your pitch. We have based this on a real life example of a pitching process required by Channel 4 for their new 4ip initiative.
The structure is just the same. It is short and to the point the idea being if you cannot communicate your idea in a few sentences then the idea is probably not clear enough for them to back or get excited about. Think simplicity, creativity and clarity.
Download the pitching pdf: Download project proposal form 310mc
Thursday 4 Dec Presentation Form
We want you to treat the presentation creatively so we are asking you to structure it from the image below. Look at each box and respond to its question in your presentation. It should be no more than 3mins long and it should refer to things you have made during the module. It would be useful to make use of the blog to present from.
You can tackle each question in any order although it might be worth ending on what you want to develop.
We want you to have fun with this and it is an opportunity for you to tell us and each other what things have excited you as well as what things went wrong. Mistakes are important and it is only through making them that we learn.
Below are some experimental artifacts that may help you think about your own approaches to the presentation and what approach you may take and develop for your final project.
The drawing above is based on Marshall MacLuhans Tetrad questions that he thought were useful to ask of any new media:
“The tetrad is a means of examining the effects on society of any technology (i.e., any medium) by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously”.
An interesting response to these questions and a discussion of the tetrad can be found at : Robin Good’s media site
Experimental Media:
The Film Tarnation
William Kentridge
Naomi Klein The Shock Doctrine
Designs to Make You Happy Sagmeister
E-on Protest Nov 28th
Thanks to all that turned up to the E-on protest at Westwood Business Park. Although not a huge demonstration it was interesting to see how it was organised and how many police were in attendance.
Below are some links to news sites with images and some links to video material that you can use if you weren’t able to get along to any protests. The idea is to edit a response to this protest or the issues in an experimental form. These artefacts can been shown in your tutor groups when you next meet either this Thursday or Friday.
Archive Links:
Links discussed in the lecture on Thursday 4th December:
George Monbiot on the Climate change committee report:
Climate Change Committee recommendations
Links to E on protest material:
Some images can be found on the links below:
http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21821
http://marcvallee.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/eon-greenwash-guerillas-protest-281108/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7754157.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7535389.stm
Videos of other climate protests:
http://www.mefeedia.com/tags/eon/
You Tube Video
Friday 28th Nov
I will be at the Westwood E-ON site from 11am onwards.
Steve Dawkins will be speaking about pdp at the friday session first thing and I will also put this info up on the blog.
Links for E-ON Mini Project Friday 28 Nov
Here are some of the links from the Thursday Morning Session collected by Jonathan. The idea for the mini project is to create a response, and an experimental response is encouraged, to the 48 hour protest against the power company E-ON. Protests will be going on during 28th and 29th of November and the one in Coventry is focused on the UK headquarters for E-ON which is situated on the Westwood Business Park.
The idea for the mini project is to create a media response that is no more than 3mins in length, this is to be done in small groups, within the small groups you can work on individual elements and then bring the elements together. The work produced in the small groups can be added to the work of others within the larger groups to be shown next Friday the 5th of December.
Cape Farewell
Video portrait
http://www.dalzielscullion.com
Ravi
http://www.surely.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/patriot/patriot.htm
Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy Snowballs
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/greenpeace-backs-wonderful-giant-snowball-art
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/artblog/2007/jun/19/canarthelpclimatechange
Here are some of the ideas generated by you in this mornings session.
Jonathan asked you to think about producing different responses and the headings are below together with the ideas.
Create Work
Three Minute Wonder
Whats your problem with the world?
If you don’t say – we don’t know.
Space around you moments of passion
Follow the tidy up
Follow the Eon cleaner
Follow onlookers – others involved kids apathy.
Pro coal stuff. Only one side of the argument. Try and make them look silly.
Follow a new eon employee push the whole credit crunch thing.
Photography
Knee level shots, shoes. Lower regions
6 or 7 disposable cameras collection of different viewpoints
Go dressed up – as elvis “Am I in the wrong place?”
Comparison to football crowd, escapism like minded could the common cause miss the point.
Regimented non-punk
Shots from inside eon
Look at the space – not just same old demo shots
Photoshop the protest shots – change the slogans on the banners
Dress up as an eon employees
Free burgers – COAL COOKED
TV Advert
Fill a truck with coal dump it in the sea
Eon ad accidentally get protest – day today style
Eco dam – cost of building an eco friendly power station compared to the black stuff
Black screen – didn’t have the power to make this ad
Candle light – the power of the future
Stereotype of Hippies – ‘Hello I’m a hippy’
Comedy sketch – protest department
What’s the point of coal unless we burn it? Are we wasting a natural resource. Human fragility rather the global.
Music Video
Bono please bring your sunglasses
Bono & Al Gore Goreno
Cartoon music looney tunes, juxtapose anger with comedy
Found footage of famouse march
Gallery Instalation
Record sound of protest – plus banners
Audio – slow it down
Space changing – people getting board. Mirror feeling of a protest
Interactive screens person choice room, three choices.
Beijing – photos of people click and hear opinions
Tangible coal – piles of –
Subway – for and against wall personal opinions.
4 stages
Pre-Production Production Post-Production Exhibition
Protesting advice
http://www.schnews.org.uk/diyguide/defendantsguidetoarrest.htm
Photographers rights
http://www.urban75.org/photos/photographers-rights-and-the-law.html
http://www.dalzielscullion.com/works_page/film/another_video.html
Thursday 27th Nov Mini Media Event
IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU ALL COME ALONG THIS THURSDAY FOR THE 11AM START.
Jonathan Lee is going to be talking about the possible ways of responding to the event as media producers. The event itself lends itself to creative responses both in terms of spectacle and power.
In following up from Ewa’s visit she mentioned an event and demo happening two miles from Coventry City Centre at Westwood Business Park at the enregy company E on’s UK Headquarters. As a media event it will be interesting to see how it works and the detail of why people are bringing attention to the company and issues. A link to the geographical location is here : http://www.eon-uk.com/maps/Westwood.aspx
The event which is part of a national action day against climate change, called 48 HOURS OF ACTION AGAINST E.ON AND NEW COAL can be checked up on at : http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk/home.html
A local group organising something at Westwood has a facebook page at : http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=34220633837&ref=ts
The 48 hours of action happen on the Friday 28th Nov and the Saturday 29th of Nov
Have a look at the website before Thursday and look at the info on the site, links to other campaigns, support information, banner templates etc. How is the technology being used to support the purpose of the demo?
Friday 21 Nov Links
Here are some of the links to the sites and videos that I showed today in the lecture. There are some extra ones as well that I didn’t have time to mention or show.
One of the links was to the Bert is Evil website that was initially set up by a young boy who photoshopped Bert from Sesame Street into various compromising situations. One of which was Bert and Osama Bin Laden.
A guy that has talked a lot about this new form of convergence and participation is Henry Jenkins from MIT. Below is a video of one of his lectures, its long but worth sitting through.
The image circulated from the boys internet site was copied by protestors who montaged together a protest poster and then was picked up by CNN and finally the Sesame Street Lawyers for infringement of copyright.
We looked at how such distribution technologies are currently producing new and interesting phenomena like the viral spread of videos like Charlie Bit my finger and how this spawns newly produced content.
I posed the question what this torrent of data and content and our access to it might me. How might it impact on our perceptions and preconceptions about the world.
An interesting guy who has been asking similar questions is Hans Rosling whose site Gapminder tries to liberate and make visually understandable complex data collected by the United Nations. His software that is able to visualise data is online to experiment with at www.gapminder.org On this site there are also links to many of the lectures that he has given such as the www.ted.com lecture series.
His 2006 lecture is a good starting point.
Jonathan mentioned to me another group that is doing work on the visualisation of data in interesting ways called Stans Cafe which can be found at : http://www.stanscafe.co.uk/ofallthepeople/index.html
Finally I showed a video called A vision of Students Today by Micheal Wesch and his students studying Anthropology.
Another film that he and his students produced was on web2.0 technologies and their impact particularly on education.
Visiting Activist Filmmaker Ewa Jasiewicz Thursday 20 Nov
Ewa will be visiting on Thursday 20th Nov to show and discuss her work as an activist filmmaker. The session will start at 11am in ET130. She will then meet more informally with groups after showing some of her work. (Times to be posted on the noticeboard)
She will show work from some of her recent projects and discuss the process of setting up projects, gaining peoples and groups trust, and the ethical questions raised by her work.
Ewa:
Ewa is an independent journalist and human rights activist. She spent eight months living in occupied Baghdad and Basra, supporting human rights groups, women’s organisations, families, workers, trade unionists and Palestinian refugees.
Read some more about Ewa and other activist filmmakers at : http://www.filmmakersagainstwar.org/iofteach.htm
and
13 Nov Great Contemporary Art Exhibition in London 28 Millimetres: WOMEN
Unfortunately this exhibition is only on until the 14th of November which is this coming Friday. I thoroughly recommend that you do make the effort to go and see it. Can’t get the coach in time but it is worth the cost of train or coach. I will be there on Thursday 13th November from 11am and will stay at the exhibition for a few hours. I will show and talk about the work the following week.
For those that cannot make it to London as you progress with your artifacts you need to be reflecting and considering the development of your ideas and this needs to be documented on your blog and in your workbook. Make sure this is up to date as tutors will be monitoring your progress as you proceed with your work.
There are a couple of resources in relation to research that you need to look at. They discuss the research process and point to further resources that help in thinking about the important elements of research.
Stephen Downes writes a blog that has two sections that look at Ten things you really need to learn and How to write articles and essays expertly.
It is based at the Lazarides London contemporary art gallery, 121 Charing Cross Road London, WC2H 0EW. The exhibition is a combination of still image and moving image so will appeal and be relevant to a wide range of you. The work is based on portraits of the people that JR encountered during his journey through Morro da Providencia, a small, hillside community in Rio De Janeiro.
JR has reconstructed a sample of this magnificent community display right here in London - just around the corner from the video and photograph installation at Lazarides Art Gallery. You can’t miss it at Foyles the bookshop.
Things to See at Coventry
At the university there are a couple of events that might be worth going along to in the next couple of weeks.
David Pearson, Director Cheltenham International Screenwriting Festival
Thursday 6th November, 13.00, ETG34, Ellen Terry Building
Entry is free and open to all
David Pearson is an unusual animal; an award winning documentary maker who has turned to fiction. He invented the Cheltenham Screenwriting festival, beavered away at gestating it and brought it to fruition five years later in 2006. It is the only festival of its kind in Europe and a huge success-each July 600 flock to the Cotswold’s to talk writing for feature films. It is not just wannabes but some big tent names like Bill Nicholson, Julian Fellowes, Jimmy McGovern, Tony Marchant, David Thompson, Kevin Loader as well and Nicolas Roeg. David learned from a master-screenwriter Jimmy McGovern tutored him in 2002, after which David wrote a short comedy - Gwyneth Paltrow Is Not In It, and a thriller Wellhung .
Visiting Film Director Debbie Isitt
Thursday 13th November, 13.00, ETG34, Ellen Terry Building
Entry is free and open to all
COVENTRY FEATURE FILM DIRECTOR RETURNS ‘HOME’ TO COVENTRY UNIVERSITY
Coventry and Coventry university has not spawned many feature film directors. Debbie Isitt is head of a small club. She still lives in Coventry and works here-her latest film working title “Nativity” is currently being shot in the city. Her previous film “Confetti’ starring Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson was a Box Office success in 2006. Her first “Nasty Neighbours” in 2000 starred Ricky Tomlinson. Read more
On the same day at 5.30pm in the Herbert Art Gallery
Thursday 13th November, 5.30pm
Herbert Art Gallery, Jordan Well, Coventry, CV1 5QP
Coventry School of Art and Design together with The Herbert invite you to a talk by Dan Holdsworth.
Dan Holdsworth is one of the most innovative British photographers currently working with landscape. His early series concentrate on the quiet moments in everyday spaces: office buildings after work, car parks at night and deserted motorway flyovers. In more recent years he has traveled internationally, studying the areas where technology and architecture are representative of an accelerated economic world at their most removed and alien. The photographs are silent and iconic, witnesses of our world.