Being Human

It's week 3 of the edcmooc and I am swimming in a stream of video footage, articles and tweets concerning the human experience & technology. I really enjoyed Steve Fuller's TEDx lecture on Defining Humanity. I have to say he delivered a very relatable view of our 'human' experience, past & present.
I also loved this mini film, They're Made Out of Meat, created by the New York Film Academy. I've never been much of a cy-fi geek but the reference to man as 'meat' cracked me up. Oh, the disdain and the fact that they were completely intrigued and yet quite repulsed by the physical nature of the said 'meat'. I thought it was a great play on the egocentric superiority of the human species and a very quirky reminder that reality really is a matter of perspective..... & just how subjective that reality is.

The above image is my entry into the week 3 competition to create an image that represents or illustrates any one of the themes we have come across in the course so far..... voting is over on the Flickr group. Pop on by, I'd love your support. x

Be my digitally artifact-ed Valentine?

I'm practicing making digital artifacts for the edcmooc and thought I'd try my hand at a little Valentine's Day clip for my boys using Animoto.

Happy Valentine's Day beautiful people.

XX

Technology as God

Today is 'officially' the first day of our E-learning and Digital Cultures course.  With around 40,000 people ennrolled in the Mooc it is definitely going to be a fascinating experience.  Not only is it navigating the course requirements that will challenge my thinking but also finding the right niche in terms of expression.  There are a multitude of platforms and personalities... so finding the right mix may be my greatest challenge.

In week one we are looking at digital cultures in relation to whether they create utopian or dystopian experiences/cultures/environments etc. One of our resources this week is from Spain, Zumbakamera’s short animation, Bendito Machine III.



Firstly, I'll just say I LOVE the fact that we experience a mini 'film festival' each week as part of our course content.  Hooray to the EDCMOOC creators you've definitely sparked my enthusiasm straight up.

Picture Postie App

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A couple of years ago I met a gorgeous girl at my local cafe with her 3 week old baby.  At the time Z was about 2 and I still felt helplessly delirious with baby brain.  I marveled at how she was out exercising, looking incredibly bright and cheerful.  She was engaged and totally engaging... no baby brain..... with a 3 week old baby!!! Crazy business.

Move forward a couple of years and that gorgeous girl is about to give birth to her second child but not before developing this amazing app.  Picture Postie.  Picture Postie is a super charged photo printing kiosk on your iPhone!  Forget having to save your photos to a memory stick or DVD and traipse off to Officeworks, you can do it all directly from your phone.  I love it.

It has it's own built in editing system, you can print in lustre or gloss, in various sizes, on canvas, you can even have them framed... and delivered directly to your door.
I'm looking forward to giving this a go on the weekend and catching up on a back load of photos waiting to be printed.

Congratulations Jen you really are a clever lass. xx

PS. You can also check them out on Instagram and enter their weekly photo competition!

Connectivity

Connecting (Full Film) from Bassett & Partners on Vimeo.

I find the whole future of our online world very fascinating.  What will our community look like?  Where will we be 'hanging out'? ........just how connected will we all be? Especially in terms of our children.... We have no idea what their future will look like. What will the quality of their 'downtime' be like? .... or will they simply always be 'on'?

There was nothing quite like long days at the beach without a mobile phone in sight. Not even an answering machine connected to the landline at home for all the calls we were 'supposedly' missing. If it was important enough people called back. Simple.

There was no drop pinning our location, texting or tweeting every inane action to the world or checking our friends Facebook updates every 10 minutes for FOMO. We were where we needed to be 100%, no distractions from the ever nudging online world.

I'm showing my age, I know. Don't get me wrong I am very excited to be a part of this unfolding world of connectivity. The challenge will be in holding our own sense of space in the mix. Setting our personal parameters and making conscious choices..... which is how I come full circle. Education & experience (and stepping away from a screen long enough to see clearly) will be key in making these choices.

If you too are curious about the ways we'll be connected and how and who is shaping our connectivity you may find this video interesting, I did.

Another scorcher here is Melbourne, I hope you manage to keep cool people.

xx

Sneak Peak.......

Back in September when the weather was significantly cooler than it is now I was invited to stay with friends.  Lucky for me they had rented this gorgeous farm house, Tuppenny Farm,  just north of Kyneton.  Z and I love it around these parts and were so delighted to stay.  You may remember it from my 356 Project?

It recently featured on Design Sponge.   Stepping into Tuppenny Farm is like taking a walk down memory lane.  You're sense of nostalgia will be well and truly ignited.  It's the ideal cottage for lolling about with the Sunday papers or sitting by the fire with a glass of red and a good book.

I love to sneak around other peoples houses (online..... of course... & here too) and this one is well and truly worth a peak.

xx

Back to school

I'm gearing up for the EDCMOOC course which is due to start this weekend. There is an overwhelming amount of information available on all sorts of platforms.  Time, for me, has been a limiting factor in embracing the pre-prep dialogue.  Truth be known I'm still loving the notion of it being semester break and I'm grabbing every opportunity to lap up as many days down on the coast as I can possibly squeeze in. 

I'll will however be pleased to dive into the more formal structure (???) of the MOOC and find my own rhythm & voice in it all.

Sir Ken Robinson's Ted talk will hopefully set the mood for some creative learning.

x