Digital Resistance

Previous to this week’s discussion, my reaction to hacking wasn’t a good one. The first thing that comes to mind is the recent international hack outbreak hitting large companies in multiple countries demanding money, majorly in Ukraine and Russia. Other things that come to mind are online virus’ which previously I haven’t had the greatest experiences with. Then there is always that celebrity every year who undoubtedly gets their phone hacked and privacy violated when their nudes go viral. And finally, I’d think of movies such as the Italian Job where there is always that tech savvy person who can break into online systems to benefit themselves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYQsVnh9QA

So no, can’t say I’m a massive fan. However, there is a whole other side to hacking.

“The term “hacker” can mean two different things:

1. Someone who is very good at computer programming, networking, or other related computer functions and loves to share their knowledge with other people
2. Someone who uses their expert computer skills and knowledge to gain unauthorized access to systems, corporations, governments, or networks, in order to cause problems, delays, or lack of access.”

• (Boswell, W 2017)

In the other world of hacking (white-hat hackers) there is sharing, humour, freedom of information, truth and no censorship. Whistle blower platforms like WikiLeaks which embrace ‘hacktivism’ providing civilians hidden truths. The group of hackers called Anonymous exposing criminals such as Operation Darknet. Finally, people like Tim Berners-Lee, Vinton Cerf and Ken Thompson who use their extensive programming knowledge to create many of the systems we use today. These guys really changed my perception of the work ‘Hack’, and as long as there is an internet, hackers will always be needed.

For some reason because of this flip of perception the first thing that came to mind was suicide squad (bad guys doing a good thing)… so there is where my meme came from.

 

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The Social Network Revolutions

The topic this week covered the internet as an immediate ubiquitous participation platform, where a simple hashtag can influence the action of an important political or social situation.

I’d say that hashtags are getting close to replacing the traditional petition (thoughts when creating my meme), because frankly they are pretty similar. Other than the fact that I’m a Uni student and there always plenty of petitions hanging about; outside the campus… I don’t think I’ve seen one in a long time. Hashtags on the other hand, have fast mobilisation, create a substantially larger audience and have an openness to them… There are so many examples such as #arabspring, #euromaidan, #blacklivesmatter and so many more where the results of millions supporting and contributing to post has had a major push on the development of these issues.

 

 

MEDA 302 – W6 (Iterative Practice and Critical Reflection)

After looking into ‘Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell’ by John Baldessari, we discussed our final assignments and what they are/what they want to achieve – not as assignments.

So, other than the fact that we need to complete this course to graduate our degree, why are we personally, culturally and socially creating this piece?

I feel I already have a head start on this project because I’m so passionate about its themes and the question I’m trying to push to the audience. That is; sport and the human body, and the question being, ‘How far can we push it?’.

In relation to existing works I’ve been drawing my inspiration heavily at the moment from one artist – Howard Schatz. His powerful photography which commonly evolves around the body; and a few of his themes out of many including dance and athletics, all project the energy and feeling I would like my work to present. These include the beauty, masculinity and the physical exertion of an athlete which will all drive the audience to question how far we can push it.

                                  

The audience I assume, won’t have the experience and feeling of pushing the body to this degree. So, in order to help encourage my question for the future I’m thinking of incorporating more information such as world records (at the moment the work will be a photographic series), and hanging the frame from a frayed rope – hanging by a single thread – when will it snap?

More progress of my art:

 

MEDA 302 – W5 (Bringing Things Together)

This week I’ve been going over ideas for my final work. I have a piece I previously created that I am thinking of turning it into a series.

I have completed a drawing which I’ve then made digital. This design originally was to represent muscles and the flow of water, oxygen and blood through them, a visual aesthetic display on the knowledge of the body.

Hydration is a key aspect in a successful performance, especially in endurance sports. In the past, I have competed national level in Surf Life Saving events such as swimming among other events. Swimming; especially, I know depends highly on lung capacity, breathing and the flow of oxygen through muscles, in turn, working with blood (I won’t get into how blood delivers oxygen around the body). These are all things I kept in mind when creating my original drawing. I put a lot of work into this and am really passionate about sport.

Therefore, for my final work I would love to incorporate this piece as well as hopefully developing more ideas and linking it to a theme of the body and the future.

 

 

 

Bridges Made of Pebbles (BRICKS)

This meme was my interpretation of the information avalanches created by prosumers (user-generated content) compared to professional journalistic distribution.

We all know the story of the 3 little pigs, what I wanted to show was although ‘bridges can be made of pebbles (bricks)’ not all the content made on prosumer platforms are solid. There is an overload information and opinion. Due to the lack of education and professionalism in writing, a lot of this information is hay and wood – not solid – not reliable – not cool, and no house for little piggy. That’s not to say there isn’t any good content – you just have to be able to find it.

We also know prestigious distributers can be bias, although it’s their duty to have the facts right and be reliable. I found this article which I thought explained the transition into modern news really well, in conclusion neither method of communication is going anywhere and “combining the interest and expertise of both the news professionals and the informed citizenry can only make the quality of news better.”

 

Mutsvairo, B 2016, ‘What is news in the 21^st century?’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/what-is-news-in-the-21st-century-55073

Battle of the Platforms

Basically this GIF is supposed to represent the difference between the restrictions of a walled iPhone which has total control over iOS, the app market and developers vs. the open platform of an Android (from an Android lover point of view obviously) which is free, allows independent app makers and is an open source.

“Google was never in the hardware business. There would be no gPhone — instead, there would be hundreds of gPhones.” (D. Roth 2008).

D. Roth 2008, ‘Google’s Open Source Android OS Will Free the Wireless Web’, WIRED, viewed 18 September, https://www.wired.com/2008/06/ff-android/?currentPage=all

The Walled Garden… Cave

I made this as a visual representation of the ‘Walled Garden’… even though it isn’t a wall. For some reason, whilst learning of the nature of the wall and how content is curated for users by platforms such as Google Play, Facebook etc limiting users to the full extent of the internet; Plato’s Cave into my mind.  The users (prisoners) can only see what’s right in front of the them (I chose Garfield because cats are such an internet success), while they are chained in a cave (platform) stopping them from viewing the infinite web or ‘the big bad web’.