I chose to conduct a narrative interview with my dad in order to gain an understanding of his dynamic career narrative and his professional values that have been co-developed throughout this working life. My dad has always been very vocal about the importance of having a job and being able to save money and support myself through hard work, which is why I was encouraged to find a job as soon as I was old enough. Throughout my working life, both my parents have guided me through the ins and outs of workplace culture and have always encouraged me to stick to my values at work in tough situations through their own stories. I think Giverny summed this up perfectly when she reached out to me last week and observed that their stories and guidance have served as a compass and blueprint on how to move forward. And I have to completely agree with her, their experiences being shared through these narratives are important and shouldn’t be overlooked, they need to be shared to help find problems and solutions in the workplace.
A Reflection of BCM313 – The Future of Work
Over the last thirteen weeks, I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed my time in The Future of Work. In fact, every week I anticipated the three hours that I would sit in that rooms and listen to the group share their stories, values and opinions. This is something completely new to me, I haven’t loved a class as much as I have this one. And I’m not just saying that because I have to.
I wanted to start off this reflection with a cheesy quote that I found on a strange site that had far too many quotes on it. I wanted to find a string of words that have been put together perfectly, to sum up the time I have spent the last thirteen weeks with some very interesting people with some intriguing stories.
“Everyone and Everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us” – Alan Cohen
Peer Review: ‘A Series of Travel Blogs’ by Zoe Majstorovic
During the semester I have chosen to follow the development and trajectory of my peer Zoe Majstorovic’s ‘A Series of Travel Blogs’ digital artefact. At the start of the semester deciding on a project that Zoe would enjoy and have interest in was difficult and we spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas over messenger. Her first idea was to test out craft from crafting books that she had since she was a kid and after doing some testing and prototyping of the idea she came to me for some help deciding on whether or not to continue working on the project. After looking at what she had done so far, we both decided it would be better to find a different project for her to do.
After deciding to move on with a different project we brainstormed some other ideas that she could do for a project that she had some interest in and came up with the idea of a travel blog. This project idea was something that she would enjoy doing and had some extensive knowledge in that could help others who decided to travel to these places. In order to make her blog posts stand out and be different from other travel Digital artefacts, I brought up the idea of putting a twist on it, which is something that Zoe has been playing with through her writing, posts structure and content.
Narrative Reflections of a Casual Workplace
Narrative writing helps to identify steps that have been taken in life that are distinctive in some way, and then reflect on these to find a pattern that enables these outcomes to uncover our values. Narrative writing is something that I have only experienced in a journal when my thoughts become too jumbled and need to be written down to make things clearer, so writing this out as a blog post is new for me.
During my short time in BCM313, I have been prompted on various occasions to look back into my past and find situations to reflect on. First was a small decision, intervention or step that I had taken which was successful. Reflecting on this question allowed me to uncover an aspect of myself which I am quite proud of: Read More »
Creative Proccess
Throughout the course of these MEDA classes, I have tried to work with different practices and mediums, not because I didn’t know what my practice is, but more because I wanted to try each medium out to the best of my ability. The downside to this which I have found to be the same problem each time I do this is that I’m jumping into the medium knowing nothing about it and trying to make something from the information and pieces that I have found during my research and testing phases. I find that this method isn’t the best when it comes to the final product, but I enjoy the challenge.Read More »
Privacy and Data in the IoT
Social Media and Identity and Authenticity – Case Study
In my previous two blog posts, I have discussed self-branding, authenticity and identity in the media and in this blog post I would like to discuss these ideas through a case study as an example of what I am trying to address in my last blog posts.
The individual can present a performance of their identity to the audience where they are able to choose the best way to present the better version of themselves. These romanticised ideas can be influenced by the dominant cultural values of the self held by the audience (Code, M., 2015). Essena O’Neill is a perfect example of an individual quitting social media after becoming disillusioned with the whole process of self-branding on Instagram and bringing to light to growing sense that online and authentic personas are even less real than people dreamed (B, Speed., 2015)
Social Media and Identity and Authenticity
As previously discussed in the last blog post, a lot of users of social media like Instagram struggle with keeping their accounts or online self-authentic due to the acts of self-branding. Goffman suggests that “people perform aspects of themselves for an audience, with both performance and audience contributing to the construction of the performers identity” (Holton, A.E. & Molyneux, L., 2017), this becomes more evident when individuals display multiple aspects of themselves through different social media platforms and curate an online presence for different audiences. Balancing their personal lives with their professional lives by creating separate media accounts or relying on a less public platform for personal content (Holton, A.E. & Molyneux, L., 2017). This can be seen in a number of instances, including university students making two profiles on social media accounts, one which is more job friendly and another for more honest and raw thoughts. So as the use of social media continues to evolve, the concept and debate of presenting our ideal selves vs our real selves have become more and more prevalent on social media platforms (Green, R.K., 2013).
Self-branding while widely taken up on social media platforms, is inherently contradictory. It prompts both authenticity and business target self-presentation (Marwick, Alice E. 2013). One could argue that these two things – authenticity and business targeted self-presentation – couldn’t exist in the same sphere as each other, and I agree. Read More »
Social Media and Self-Branding
In this blog series, I will be exploring an issue and topic which is resurfacing in today’s media and communications age. In today’s social media usage individuals are creating personas online to attract other users, companies and likes and in most cases, these types of personas don’t necessarily line up to their offline identity. This type of curation of an online brand is highlighted on social media like Instagram and Facebook, where users create aesthetic pictures on their account to market themselves and establish a self-brand and online identity. In this blog series, I will be discussing whether Instagram users are self-branding themselves authentically online and the effects that this can have on the user in three blog posts.
Self-branding is primarily a series of strategic marketing strategies that are applied to an individual and had become a common practice on social media sites like Instagram (Marwick, Alice E. 2013). Instagram has become the perfect platform for individuals due to its heavily visual and can be seen as an extension of the user – a window into their daily activities (Ganda, Madison 2014).Read More »
Reading, Writing and Planning: Final Review and Moving Forward
This week was a time for a final consultation with the tutors and a check-up on the ideas that you have towards presenting the final product. I am still wanting to work with and play with sounds or soundscapes in particular spaces and see If I can change the feeling and vibe of a space. This idea is quite challenging and is something that I have been thinking about for the last few weeks.
The consultation this week with the tutors gave me some more things to look at and think about for the project, especially in relation to how it will look as a finished product and what sounds that I want to showcase in my work. The question of whether or not my project will work with a narrative, be subverted, have closed of open sounds (being able to hear the outside sounds through the headphones or not), big or small sounds and how these connections will be made between the spaces and the sounds I am thinking about putting in them.
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