Unit 2 resumes. Pick up where I dropped it. Finding way amidst the great mist of confusion and options. It is not until today I have developed a finer idea of my Unit 2 process prior to Formative Assessment.
The video essay screened during the tutorial was not helpful in terms of communicating the journey taken thus far, nor the position I have taken. I would like to use this blog entry to clarify as much as possible.
So what EXACTLY have I done?
- Develop into a position
I cannot pin down my exact position in a concise way. It revolves around the landscape I see in the digital world – full of capitalism, cynicism and mauvaise foi. Ways of living that I personally feel wrong about, or the discription of which, are prevailing. Looking back at this statement I just made, my position springs from countering what I disagree with, to be downright honest. But this could be developed on.
I strive to live a good life – reaching beyond pleasure and happiness to eudaemonia. The best definition I have found of eudaemonia is: the subjective experiences associated with eudaimonia or living a life of virtue in pursuit of human excellence. The phenomenological experiences derived from such living include self-actualization, personal expressiveness, and vitality (Niemiec, 2014).
This could mean sacrificing immediate physiological wellbeing and mental stability (e.g. activists giving up their stability, safety and freedom to counter systematic discrimination such as racism and sexism) to achieve causes that would transcend lifetimes. A life of comfort, ease and seclusion from human condition’s primodial chaos is not the end goal here. A life with ethos, purpose and autonomy is what I see as a good life for myself, and wish to hold as a POSITION to frame my practice.
I am hoping to take my position into the digital realm, and translate it into a digital publication piece. I wish my pratice could counter cynicism and mauvaise foi, to inspire trust and respect in other people’s genuine motives, to encourage embracing with one’s innate freedom.
I wish my pratice could counter cynicism and mauvaise foi, to inspire trust and respect in other people’s genuine motives, to encourage embracing with one’s innate freedom.
↑ The initial take on my POSITION ↑
2. All makings thus far
I was making an assorted mix of works to exercise my position. The first piece is a collectively written poem by numerous random people from the internet. I Imagine This is a piece upon the foundation of mutually respected anonymity, instantaneous collaboration and connection with strangers – what I imagine to be countering to cynicism and mauvaise foi in the internet. [How so? I’d be interested to find out.]
Google Doc platform poses restraints on the formating, so I embarked on a different route. I selected some materials, the contents and formats of which all well circulated and familiar to the masses (Trump’s Twitter archive and BBC’s article on UK fishing rights), and embarked on some light-footed iterations of digital publishing layouts, observing impact to the communication of the original content due to different designs.
This body of fast experiments all employs primitive form of user interaction (hovering, scrolling, clicking), and relating them directly to content display and curation. Here what I am echoing is autonomy, countering the increasing passiveness – a esult of conventional digital publication’s tendency to shape for ease and convenience.
I then experiment with assorted contents (such as latest tweets on the homepage when I log on), trying to combine the aspects of autonomy and connection together. The last iteration before the formative assessment follows this practice but takes a further step, with an additional layer of user-controlled interaction. All contents gathered revolved around the theme ‘good life’.
Host this amount of contents, the crowded, overwhelming visual rhetoric is inevitable. An interesting effect – yet also countering my own ethos of a calm, respectful digital space. Moreover, the many videos embedded can easily crash the browser or even the device.
The visual essay was taken as a visual prose, which inadvertently became another free-standing iteration. The crowded, overwhelming presentation of contents follows the visual rhetoric of the browser-crashing interactive webpage. There’s however juxtaposition between imageries of pleasure and suffering, over their visual similarities.
Disneyworld firework show vs Gaza missiles Exotic Indian delights vs Covid crisis in India
It is also pointed out that the soundtrack (Kleine Litanei by Arvo Pärt) creates intriguing tension with the visuals. This might point towards different sensory media when it comes to digital publishing. ‘The manner of carrying the bucket is as important as the bucket’s content.’
What next?
According to the brief bingo, I need to define my position with clarity and present it in the format of a 4 page tabloid. Alongside that, I do plan to go back to earlier stages of exploring my position, and look into the aspect of connection and collaboration in a space of anonymity, over dignified deeds.
My position revolves closely around the concept of Eudaemonia. Last term, I was tentative around this concept due to its innate complexity – yet each iteration was based on some understandings of Eudaemonia, or the pursuit of which.
At this stage, my goal is to be decisive and define [Eudaemonia], and incorporating it into my practice.
At this stage, my goal is to be decisive and define it, and incorporating it into my practice. This is also the first brief assigned to me in the first Triangulation project, by the Bingo.