Week 7 pre-task

Hello Fanatics!

This week, we'll be looking at fan culture.

As a pre-task (and I'm aware you are getting this quite late, apologies from me, but it ought not to take long), I'm asking you to read the article, Fandom Matters: Writers Must Respect Their Followers or Pay With Their Careers, by Damien Walter in the The Guardian and consider the following two questions:

- How do you understand the term "social artist"?

- How important do you think it is for an artist (musician, film maker, comic drawer, writer etc.) to know who their fans are and to communicate with them?

NB: I am only asking you to read the article and consider those two questions. You do not have to write about this on your blog. You absolutely can write about it, if you want. And you should still blog about your group's Reality TV concept and, of course, media observations.

See you on Thursday!

Blog checklist for feedback

'Sup?

As promised during class today, here's a (hopefully) comprehensive list of the tasks you are expected to have done up until now, in preparation for me giving individual blog feedback next week. There should be:

- An introduction of yourself
- An analysis of a video game from a narrative perspective
- A summary of your MindTrek experience
- An analysis of a music video (what's the genre & how do you identify it?, what role does gender play in the video? and what world view is being put forward?)
- A summary of your group's Reality TV pitch from today (see the PowerPoint and do this task by yourself if you were absent today)
- Approximately 6 media diary entries

For some of you, that's a lot to catch up on and for some of you, it's not much at all. I'll continue to be flexible about this, but the more you do now, the less you'll have to do later. The above list is only going to grow as the course goes on.

Any questions, just ask.

No Week 6 pre-task

Hello Realists,

For those of you keeping tabs on this blog, you'll be delighted to discover that there's no pre-task for this week's class, where we will be looking at reality.

Consider yourselves most very welcome.

UPDATED: wee pre-task. Look at these quotes and consider what you agree with most. Sorry I lied.

MindTrek comedown

Hello Trekkies!

Two things I wanted to share with you, post-MindTrek.

The first is the keynote from last year's event (which was much more enthusiastically attended) from Brie Code, founder of the TRU LUV studio. This was a real antithesis to this year's opening speech. Well-worth the watch.

The second thing is a link to an article I mentioned when talking to Dylan and Toni about the short film project they're working on. Poetry on Screen or Visualized Jokes? An Approach to the Genres of Short Fiction Films by Finnish film-maker Saara Cantell. Enlightening.

As you were.

mINDtREK!

Hello Mindful Trekkers,

Your mission, should you choose to accept it (to be honest, you don't have much choice), is to document your MindTrek experiences in your blogs. How you do this is up to you, but I'd like to see what the highlights were and I'm very happy to see videos, pictures, illustrations even, and some writing. Show how you got involved and what you learned/got out of the experience. Interviews with presenters and/or fellow participants will be looked on particularly favourably.

This is in addition to your weekly Media Diaries, so keep up with them.

If anyone has any questions, I'll be at MindTrek, so feel free to come and ask me.