GeneralMarch 31, 2005 12:55 pm
MEDIA project oneMarch 17, 2005 12:08 pm
Shot in 1988 at the Djembere Community on the Roper River near Mataranka, Northern Territory, this photo has had a considerable effect on my existence, mores and value system, and my identity as an Australian/what an Australian should be. It has haunted me. It counterpoints the bright spark of youth with the tired resignation/ harsh reality the matriarch of the tribe is facing. The mother figure was struggling to hold her people together, and attempting to gain self-sufficiency for her community. Her efforts were retarded by the alcoholism and spiritual degeneration of the men aged fourteen up. None of them would help her, and despite this she was determined to persevere, to lead by example.
Now it has become a trigger for a documentary project I will produce next year. It will be about a journey back to find the young boy who would by now be a young man. It will examine the changes that have/haven’t occurred (similar to the 7-up series). It will examine my value system and what a white middle-class educated Australian has/hasn’t done to contribute to finding solutions to a problem we should all feel accountable for.
New Media will be useful in the pre-production research as I attempt to track down these people, though it may ultimately be useless given the expectation that such media is probably not utilised by the people I need to contact in outback Australia.
Later…
In my research for my Indiv Media Project Doco, I was able to search/track the matriarch/mother figure in the photo back to their community URL.
http://www.jilkminggan.nt.gov.au/
The idea has hope and so grows.
Scene: 1988, Djembere Community, Roper River, Northern Territory.
The clear heat of the post-wet season. The air tingles with energy, a residue of the electrical storm that swept through last night. I’m standing like the alien I am, feeling displaced and yet somehow assured. Right place, right time. A feeling.
Jessie Roberts is telling me about her dream. Self-sufficiency, decent housing , a school…
It seems impossible. I’ve seen the drunks under the coolibah trees, the general store that only sells beer. I’ve been on railway platforms at midnight at Taree, on the coast three thousand kilometers to the east and witnessed first-class racism. The problem is us, and we are endemic…
http://www.schools.nt.edu.au/kathgs/jilkminggan/jilIntro.htm
MEDIA contextsMarch 16, 2005 8:05 am
Wk 3. DoCoMo is a Japanese Telco.
I’m interested in iMode for two reasons. It certainly presents as a New Media Content Provider opportunity, and it is currently being launched into Australia (by Telstra). So I guess it really is a New Media. Its also a good example of convergence of existing media to form a new media.
All quotes in parenthesis taken from the DoCoMo iMode website: www.nttdocomo.com
The focus(and marketing pitch) of iMode is Interconnectivity and mobile as a computer.
The banner: “Innovative ubiquitous services powered by NTT DoCoMo.”
hey, it sounds so…cool… From the onset, this Flash website has a futuristic, Jetsons-like look and feel. It’s as if, even by navigating into it (as you are surely drawn to) you are part of this world, this is for you, you are one of us etc . This site is Selling You An Idea packaged as Information, so caveat emptor!
As far as its unique selling point goes: think of DOCoMo’s iMode suite of services as an extension of the TV/DVD/HiFi combo remote control concept… morphed with a mobile phone and web-connected… with much, much more. It has a target market of early adopters of new technology. It promotes as a dynamic, evolving technology and refers to Trials and Tests in its website marketing. The pitch they seem to making is that you are buying into an ever-expanding universe of opportunity with…theiMode phone. As with other mobile phone user plans, you can choose to buy from a range of four or five phones. Its main point of difference from other SP’s is that it has been in operation in Japan since 2001 and from its inception has seen the phone as a mobile computing device that works with CP’s to create afunctional(read useful) integrated platform tha daily tasks/chores.
THe menu interface on the phone separates Banking/Trade, Travel, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Billing. The idea here seems to get you to commit to using this phone for …your entire existence? Oh, they even have a Dating/Chat service…
Some of the things it can do:
Home Appliance Controller- mobile phone as security camera(leave it at home and it will capture video and send it to the FOMA( ) handset, can communicate via infrared with TV and VHS, and allows users to view programs, set DVD and video recorders to record, turn on air-conditioners, turn appliances on/off, control
Barcode Scanner
uses the camera in the phone to scan a barcode to get the price, display an order form, make payments, use a barcode as a movie/theatre ticket
iMode video is called i-motion
Format:15 frames/second, maximum 100Kb. Uses cache to store data, rather than streaming(which scraps acquired data).
“CP (content providers) can distribute i-motion content from CP servers in the same way as regular iMode service”
An obvious benefit here it that you get to keep the video, can upload it to your URL from where friends/your team can download it.
i-area
This refers to the location info service for 500 segments of Japan. Content such as weather forecasts, maps, traffic, restaurants, and sales at local stores are available.
In summary, DoCoMo’s utilsation of iMode seems be be well-received in Japan(43 million users by 2005), and reflects their modern culture fascination with New Technologies. It will be interesting to see how much impact it has in Australia. I expect its impact to be moderated by our significantly smaller population, but AUstralians are also renowned as early-adopters, and iMode provides significant opportunities for content development.
A Final Thought…
From the Social Context, I guess a primary concern is, do I want to enter a world that is driven from my phone. Do I really need to be the consumate consumer. What of the road less travelling, free thought and spontaneity…*
On the other hand, if you think of it as just another part of your working kit…and consider that it may allow faster responses based on informed decisions, it may be a path we can walk on and leave a trail for others to follow. That is, this could be the start of a great adventure…
*hyperdictionary.com gives the following definition for spontaneity:
[n] the quality of being spontaneous and coming from natural feelings without constraint
eMerging MEDIAMarch 9, 2005 7:53 am
http://www.nttdocomo.com/
This site is worth checking out to see what they’re up to in Japan. I’ll comment on this after I’ve had a look!
MEDIA contextsMarch 4, 2005 4:38 am
Humans love small hand-held lightweight tools because they improve their beloved aesthetic of freedom. Or to put it in Darwinian terms, greater manouverability and faster reactions lead to the other monkey in the cave now being dinner…
Now it could be argued that the media in modern times is really about providing constraint which is cleverly disguised as being there to improve your quality of life. It’s a valid argument but one I think I’ll leave alone for the moment, primarily vecause I’d like to finish this entry sometime this week…
The issue I’m wanting to focus on is how do go about create content for emerging media’s and technologies when they are changing so rapidly? And what style and form should we focus on? If I can answer these two questions by the end of this semester I’ll feel that I have made some progress.
