MA Musings

Retrieved from wallpaper.com     Futuristic Cities Today I participated in an inaugral workshop organised by the Alan Turing Institute (also the national center for AI research) as part of researcher Helen Olivers PHD at Cambridge University. Based around wearable technologies, creative narratives and the relationship between people, their emotional well being and technology, the workshop was fun and thought provoking. It was also really interesting to see another researchers approach to gathering Data in an area that is, like my own, also crossing the artistic and technological boundaries. Storytelling formed a major part of this workshop alongside some physical prototyping with paper, glue and glitter! I have signed up to participate in the longer research process which may take up to 2 years, with a few workshops a year and some interviews. I hope that it may lead to a deeper understanding of this area as well as forming important academic contacts in my are...

Todays Prof. Rowan took us into the world of digital data, it's usefulness as a resource and some ways of displaying it creatively, as well as it's potential for bias and corruption. Pre-lecture we watched a video on Aaron Swartz (The hacker of Jstore) Big data = the collection of information from multiple databases. (a sophisticated archive?) Datafication = processing the data to analyse it We are constantly creating data in this digital age, from social media accounts Twitter, Facebook etc, where our information on likes and dislikes can be gathered and sold to marketeers, datafication of moods and relationships... or used to predict trends; to CCTV and GPS which could be used for security, crime solution or easier navigation. We explored cultural differences between modes of social media interactions (chinese audio messaging app) How can we analyse diferent social media tools? how are they used? Why? What gratification do people get back from them? Connectivity, S...

Professor Rowans second seminar today looking at Archives, what are they, how can they be used. How to engage with them in different and new ways. Looked at several case studies of artists using archives in different ways. from reconstructing lace fragments digitally to creating stories from ephemera. Interesting paper on Costume shop hire as archive.... value increased if a famous person wears it? Nature of a "turn" - a resurfacing idea or theme that appears again and again how does our study change the nature of the archive. Relevance and importance of items may be different to a creative than a historian An archive has a retrieval system and is not open to public. A museum is open to public with items on display. work in archives can often be an interdisciplinary practise. Must look for archives of technological advances.... revisit catalogue of robots from the Science museum exhibit Magda and I went to  exhibitions/robots

Subject for todays seminar with Dr Rowan was "research creation" - I had diligently read Erin  Mannings Ten Propositions and felt my brain hurt. I undertook to attempt to translate it before the lecture in an attempt to try and get a handle on what it was that was trying to be said.... ultimately very interesting thoughts, boiling down to "all sorts of things can be research" "find new ways of doing research and new ways of organising it to be valuable". We are to be put into smaller study groups for moral support and brain-melding. I think we may need this. we discussed what a " Concept " might be... an idea, a startingpoint, a motivation, inspire = to breathe a beginning, a new life. A theme that will define the creative practise, and keep the research and creative process on course. Funnelling knowledge into a melting pot or crucible... Also what " Context"  is - who is your work for and how might that dictate the research...