What is a ‘normal citizen’? Over the past century the perceived value someone can have on society has developed, however the inequalities that were present at the turn of the 20th Century are still resonating within today’s societies, especially within the digital world. By exploring the relationship between the development of working practices and the changes within society, this thesis will examine how economic value and social power has dictated the thinking of a mass culture to exclude certain groups. This is a problem that has started to be addressed by the governments of the developed world, however they have fallen behind with technological advancements, meaning that those creating goods for the digital world are not governed by the same legislation that those producing goods for the physical world are. The thesis continues by looking at these issues in relation to the internet and how the development of technology has started the dissemination of this power to create a more accessible experience for all.
Users of the internet are now becoming aware of the needs of the disabled users and this thesis explores the ways in which the online community is aiding them and how companies are harnessing this community effort to further their own offerings. It concludes with how the internet as a whole is progressing with greater accessibility in mind, and the current issues which surround this progression.
For the critical context module as a group we have decided to investigate the power that brands have on us and whether people are aware of the ethical proceedures behind the brands that we cannot fail to avoid in everyday life. For the group effort I am in charge of looking after the website and as such have created a CMS which allows everybody within the groups to have a section of the website dedicated to their own project therefore being able to show their project in the way they want with picture uploading and multiple blog posts. This was quite a feat but I feel that it allows the users the flexibility to do what they want it to with scheduling available to only reveal posts as and when that person wants. I am also responsible for creating the website from a design done by someone else within the group.
For my individual piece i am looking into the feelings people have of brands and to do this i am creating an interactive piece which will allow the user to text in their feelings about a brand and directly effect how that brands logo appears. I have now also incorporated the ability for the user to send in an mms message containing a new logo to send in. I hope to present the findings of the day in a presentation within the after show party. This investigates what people are thinking rather than highlighting issues with a particular brand or saying what one is better than the other as I feel it is only when we truly understand which brands are the most popular that we can then start to concieve ways to open peoples eyes to what those companies are truly doing. This will hopefully be live by the end of the week and I intend to show it both within the arena of the show and also on the plasma screen within Portland square as I feel the graphics used will also provide good advertising for the project.
All the efforts of the group will come together the wednesday after May day in the Levinsky building followed by an after show party with the location to be confirmed.
So this is just a quick update on what I'm doing after uni. I'm going travelling and if i leave before the 15th June, its not going to be that expensive so the planned departure date is between the 11th and 14th hopefully. I have booked New Zealand so for 16 days i will be travelling in a small minibus with 11-13 other people doing most extreme sports I've always wanted to try which include, sky diving, white water rafting and swimming with sharks.
The rest of the travelling include relaxing in Fiji for about a week, seeing Sydney and doing some stuff around there, finishing with a week in Hawaii and hopefully swimming with dolphins and trying surfing, all before i start work in September. Hopefully I will be taking my laptop with me, so I will post lots when I can with pics etc, as well as the experience of travelling alone, probably the biggest mental barrier I have about the whole trip, it sounds ridiculous that above all the activities that could kill me the biggest thing bothering me is being alone, the though of having days where I dont talk to anyone and have no contact with home is something I had never considered possible before which I guess is another reason to take the laptop so I do still have contact with home of some sort, albeit sometimes iratically.
I'm detemined to try and have a good time though as it will probably be the only time that I have the amount of disposable cash needed to do a trip of this type, and I've already started planning a trip in the winter of this year for a 5 day/week of snowboarding if anyone wants to come along?!
So for this module we are recieving lectures on such topics of rehtoric, authorship, how naratives are constructed etc.
We are now a few weeks into this lecture series and some of the points being made are very interesting and unlike many things within a university context I believe useful outside of that environment, especially rehtoric as within many presentation it is good to employ these techniques to keep your audience engaged and many good speakers will do it without thinking!
So onto my idea for this module. Drawing inspiration from a book Hugo showed us, the title of which escapes me currently, I will update with what it is soon, and more recently today with Geoff the book of 100 million poems I would like to create a project which questions authorship and the idea of a fixed narrative, in a similar way to the Dada movement with their poems.
I will create a digitally based project (read:website) that allows the user to create their own narrative from ones that have preceeded that user. I will provide a starting paragraph, however the user will be able to create their own starting paragraph if they so wish. The user will then create a narrative by either selecting paragraphs which another user has written/copied/stolen or create their own paragraph. Alternatively there will be a randomize button which will select the narrative for the user, however in doing this there will be the possible situation that a paragraph is missed creating a space where the user will have to 'fill in the blank'.
What I have not decided currently is whether to allow the user to select any paragraph that has been written and put them in any order they wish, or keep the order of the paragraphs in which they are written. This could be another possible option of the project and in this way would lean on the Dada poems more for inspiration.
This is just the start and we still have several weeks of lectures left however I quite like this idea currently and would like to run with it if possible, i will explain it to Hugo in more detail next week to make sure it conforms to the project assignment, I think this will probably take about a week to produce hopefully and we can then move on with the dissertation refinement.