Crowdsourcing

This week's readings were on Crowdsourcing. It pertains to the crowdsourcing assignment that we had for class with the frame factory marathon. I genuinely enjoyed this assignment because we had an interesting creative control with some guidance. Staying within the bounds and following the light gray animation made for some interesting designs but a more vibrant animation. I also have experience with crowdsourcing campaigns on sites like Indiegogo. These projects always prove to be very interesting and it let's you see what people all over the country and world are working on. With the invention of Wikipedia, a crowdsourcing website, anyone can add information to topics, pending approval from administrative workers for the site. The cloudfilmaking manifesto is also is another way to collaborate on projects with people from all over the world. These are all interesting ways to connect with universal filmmakers and collaborate on projects together!

Cymatics and Synesthesia

Learning about cymatics is very interesting since I had never quite heard about it before. I have, however, heard of people mixing corn starch and water and placing it on top of a speaker creates a flubber-like substance that appears to "dance".  Making sound visual is something that I never even would've thought to be possible. Watching some of the tutorials on the TED talk about how different patterns form on the metal plate based off of different frequencies that are created by a machine. The more intense the frequency, the more elaborate the patterns became.

In one of the TED Talks Daniel Tammet stated,"Different kinds of perceiving create different kinds of knowing and understanding." I found this so intriguing that no one mind might see something the same as I do or you do. The way in which he interprets numbers in fascinating and they are in all different colors and shapes. His synesthesia has given him an amazing ability to track how numbers and words have colors, shapes and different corresponding emotions. He also mentions a few famous people in history who had synesthesia which I had never known before.

Media Fast

I participated in the media fast from Thursday 12:00pm to Sunday 12:00pm. This was the first media fast that I have ever done and to be honest, I wasn't sure if I could do it. To my surprise, I actually lasted 72 hours without using technology socially. However, I would not suggest ever doing a media fast during the snow days of Wilmington, the weekend or when the internet is down and you can't do work for your other classes. I of course had to write a paper, watch films for class and attend meetings where I needed to use my laptop but I held myself accountable for not going on social media. One thing I noticed during my media fast was how attached the people around me were to their phones, laptops and televisions. I also noticed how much of a distraction my phone can be. I found myself tempted often to take a break from doing work and go on Twitter or Instagram. I will also admit that I am a shameless Candy Crush addict and was really quite sad when I couldn't play. Also, I noticed I had trouble falling asleep at nights. I am used to putting the TV on, setting a timer and falling asleep to the white noise. It was really hard to not use the TV, especially at night time. When I woke up this morning at 10:00am I was still in a state of drowsiness. I had opened up Instagram accidentally, and when I realized that it was opening, my phone flew out of my hand and across my room. Even though I only had 2 hours left of my media fast, I subconsciously thought "NO, don't do it!"I am glad to say that I survived the media fast...and so did my phone!