Final Piece

So it is all done.

My initial idea was to have a massive interface with all the photos on at one but it proved to be a bad idea as the photos would have been too squashed. So i went for a format of three photos per status. If you click on the right photo then you progress. If you don't it takes you back to the status you were just at.

Here, is an example of when you click on a wrong status.

Again my original plan was jus to have this game like interface as my project but for my term paper i had devised a questionnaire so it meant that i could use the results from it to help contextualise the game element of my project.

I put the results in form of facts and then put them on to a Facebook and Twitter status bar back ground so it looked like it was a status update which was very in keeping with my project.

Below is an example.

Slowly coming together.. I think.

After the last seminar i set off on my journey to photograph and collect all the statuses i need of people.

It proved more difficult than first thought in terms of letting people (woman) photograph them off the cuff without prior warning as they all had to go home and do their hair and make up first (I feel like at this point i should point these weren't random woman and were my friends).

On top of that as i was planning to cut everyone out of photos i need decent lighting and a neutral background which i hadn't appreciated in student accommodation was extremely sparse. My initial idea was to photograph about 20-30 people but this was too ambitious. I think overall i accumulated about 16 photos of friends but due to poor light conditions ( note; pubs do not have the best lighting) i could really only use 10 of them. Even then because they were taken at different time of the day,places and conditions they weren't all uniform which was annoying but unavoidable.

After editing out all the wipsy hair and the slowly process of collecting the photos a week has gone by and i havent even start on the main bit of the project. Time is running out!

Below is an example of a cut out i intend to use.

Breakthrough.

So my long wait for an idea has come to an end!

After discussion with Paul I've abandoned the idea of using video. In keeping with the themes of panopticon ( FINALLY) I am going to use closely cropped ( almost passport like ) photos of people and then have some kind of interface where you can match the person to the status. It will all be about whether the status matches to them and are they posting because they just think that other Facebook users are surveying their every move.

I've now only got two weeks till the deadline date and i haven't made a start. I am actually probably the one who is furthest behind in my class. Hopefully my knowledge on the software will pull me through.

Ideas!!

So now i've decided on my area i'm going to focus on it's all a matter of putting that idea into a practical piece of work which for me is easier said than done!

I kept thinking initially of basic idea in regard to surveillance and for about 2/3 weeks was really in a complete dead end in terms of ideas. In the end I took to taking my camera around with me for the day and just recording mundane day to day stuff. I filmed shopping centers, football matches, cars,motorways in a distant hope that i might record something that I could use... "Surprisingly" i never did capture any thing.

My ideas were consistently faint of theory and the idea around self monitoring behaviour seemed to evaporate with the difficulty for me trying to come up with a project idea.

Beings of an idea: Surveillance

So still being stuck for ideas on what to do for my practical project i looked at the theory side to try and give me a nudge in the right direction.

I Initially thought a tiny bit, about maybe using flash to create different story endings in terms of using narrative theories but in the end i've decided to base my project on theories regarding digital surveillance.

I have presented on this topic for Sharif and wrote my concept note on the subject so it seems like a logical step as it is the area i know most about after doing research for my presentation.

The main focus is on the term Panopticon. Originally a architecture design for prison by an Englishman called Jeremy Bentham. It allowed all prisoners to be seem at the same time by the cells being put into a circular format with a guard tower at the centre with blacked out windows so the prisoners couldn't look in which meant they were never sure if they were being watched or not for definite so had to assume they always were and behave accordingly.

 Below is an example of Panopticon in a US Prison.

Foucault took this architectural design and theorised it but despite it not being in relation to media it is applicable. His basic notion was on the self monitoring of behaviour by people because they feel they are under constant surveillance, like the prisoners in the prisions. I'm going to apply this to peoples online activity on social networking sites. Although how i turn this into a practial piece of work gives me a headache!!

Flash

As, mentioned in the previous post i had used Photoshop and Flash before. I have in the past used Flash for assessed pieces of work at undergrad, so i know it fairly well. That being said i knew how to use but didn't enjoy the experience of using.

However now, with the help of paul, the tutorials and brushing up on what i knew, i actually find it much easier to use. I put this down to bad habits i had picked up when i was using it in the past. I would like to say that i wasn't told what specific things like to use a new layer for different things because when i've used it in the past many things have been on the same layer leading to a very stressful time!

Hopefully as i now how to use the software my project shouldn't be too difficult. Everyone else is complaining about using Flash but to me thats the easy part its coming up with the idea thats the hard part!!

I say i can use Flash but this first attempt after not using it for a couple of years maybe proves i wasnt as my man has unexplainably lost his arm.....

Photoshop

This course uses the programmes Photoshop and Flash which i have used at undergrad level which is good news for me. Using them at undergrad has proved to be more helpful than i knew when using them 2 years, hating my tutors for setting exercises that used them as i struggled to get to grips with them. 

Despite using them before i can not in any, any, any, any way call myself an expert but i can use them to a basic level, so hopefully this will prove useful later into my project... when i finally get an idea that is!

In hindsight this was probably my most enjoyable seminar, it was enjoyable to brush up on photoshop skills. 

Below is a end product of a photoshop of a photoshop tutorial we did...