Media Fast

Having done the 72 hour media fast, I can say that it was sadly harder than I expected it would be. Media has engulfed our lives in ways that not many people would like to admit. It has almost become a sort of addiction to be constantly connected to people and post about benign things in our lives. I also believe however that media is a necessary tool for communication and outreach. Social media has made an important impact on the world in a political and social way whether it was the Arab Spring or the 2008 Presidential Election in the U.S.

I found myself instinctively reaching for my phone to check texts, Facebook, or email. It does seem like an addiction to always be connected and know what is happening at all times. However it seems more efficient to have this level of media to stay connected so that jobs can get done and communication is at an optimum level.

That being said, on an instinctual level, it is and would be refreshing to go back to more natural time of personal one on one communication instead of this artificial communication that is causing us to slowly become more and more antisocial.

Experiences with the Cameraless Filmmaking

The direct film manipulation project was a really fun and interesting project to work on. It has definitely been one of favorite projects we have worked on so far. By directly manipulating and designing the actual film, we are breaking down a wall between the act of film making and the audience. Having studied Stan Brakhage in my FST 205 class and enjoying his work, it was exciting to try use some similar techniques that he has used in his work. This is something that I am interested in pursuing as a hobby in the future. It was cool to experiment with different mediums like bleach and alcohol inks to see how the outcome would look. I experimented with putting salt in with the inks to give it an interesting texture.