Category: 2021

Interview Report

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Going into BCM313โ€™s Assessment 3, I was eager to interview my long-time family friend, David Oโ€™Keefe, as I knew he has had an extensive career in Training and Consulting, and I was excited to learn from him. I interviewed David on the day that lockdown ended, and David was extremely helpful, happy to answer all questions and ready to talk for hours. The interview was extremely insightful into Davidโ€™s professional values, and I found that we share similar beliefs. This came as no surprise, considering he was my Fatherโ€™s closest friend and I had spent a large portion of my childhood around him. David was influential in my upbringing, acting as a second father figure and teaching me a significant amount of lessons, therefore, interviewing him came easily, with us sitting on the couch chatting informally. 

Being a Trainer/Teacher/Consultant, David was extremely happy to talk and could have spoken for hours if given the time. I decided that going into the interview, I would have four main questions I wanted to ask, which were:

  1. What is your work history?
  2. What values do you hold and how did you develop them?
  3. Was there a time in your work history where you experienced change or disruption?
  4. Looking into the future of work, do you have any expectations or thoughts on what it might look like?

In our interview, I tried to employ the listening techniques that we discussed and practiced in class. In these listening tasks, we practiced listening without interrupting, whilst still engaging in an interview setting. This task was designed to teach us to know when not to talk or interrupt, to give the speaker the opportunity to share what it is they have to say completely. This technique allows the speaker to speak freely, and may prompt them to reveal more than if the listener had interrupted or spoken.ย 

“People don’t buy what you do; People buy why you do it.”

Simon Sinek

When creating and presenting my findings, I aimed to share only the most relevant information, to ensure I stuck to the 5 minutes limit. This meant that a large portion of the interview had to be condensed, as our interview went for 30 minutes and David shared a lot of stories from his work history, life lessons heโ€™d been taught by mentors and colleagues and the current state of not only his work industry, but also how all industries have changed over time.

In this interview, David spoke about how he has been bought out by multiple different companies, such as MultiBiz International, and how his role has changed a number of times, going from a Trainer/Consultant/Principal of his own small business, to the Manager of 200 people for a larger corporation. 

When speaking on his work history and how this shaped his values, David showed me a Training Manual that he shares with clients, and in it, he has his career values listed for clients to read. These are:

  • Lead the industry by Innovation
  • Give what is asked and add 10%
  • Excellence is not optional
  • Maintain Honesty and Integrity
  • Make superior evaluations
  • Under promise and over perform

He then summarised these further into:

  • Innovate & Exceed Expectations
  • Honesty
  • Integrity
  • Diligence

In everything he does, David tries to uphold these core values, and throughout our talk, I found that throughout my life, I had echoed these values, because we had spent so much time together and he had been such a strong role model to me. Overall, this interview was extremely insightful, as it let me analyse what David values and how he has developed them, and it allowed me to discover what I value, and how he has impacted my life.ย 

David O’Keefe with German basketball legend Dirk Nowitzki.

@Sustain_Foot Finale

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Concept

Read the Pitch and Beta for my Digital Artefact first.

My Digital Artefact is an exploration of how human over-consumption will affect the environment in 10 years. Through my research, I explored the effects of over-consumption including climate change, environmental degradation, over-population and life expectancy. I chose to focus on the topic of human over-consumption as I had recently learnt about New Yorkโ€™s Climate Clock, a clock in Times Square that is counting down to the year 2028, at which point the damage from CO2 emissions becomes too much to repair, and the world cannot recover. After researching the topic, I decided over-consumption would be my topic and I decided my time period would be 10 years.

Audience & Utility

Initially, I had been targeting my Digital Artefact towards my fellow university students, as they are an group I am engaged with often, however when I started using hashtags on my posts, I found my target audience changed. By tagging my posts with hashtags such as #sustainability and #planetearth, I started to get engagement from the communities that frequent these tags. I struggled to get my engagement from students, so this change in audience has been extremely helpful, as these new groups are far more interested and willing to get involved in the conversation. Despite my audience expanding, I believe the utility remains unchanged โ€“ raising awareness about humanitiesโ€™ impact on the environment by exploring how the future may look in 15 years.

Background Research

When developing my Digital Artefact, I was reminded of the Week 6 Lecture surrounding Futurists, and it stated, โ€œfuturists seek to know: what can or could be (the possible), what is likely to be (the probable) and what ought to be (the preferable)โ€. Using this quote, I knew that the best way to approach this was to be mindful of how the future isnโ€™t set in stone and there are many possibilities to be aware of.

As stated in my concept, my DA was inspired by the Times Square Climate Clock, which is counting down to the time when global warming by carbon emissions reaches the point where the damage to the environment is irreversible and catastrophic. When researching, I also came across the Paris Agreementโ€™s Climate Clock, another clock counting down to the same fallout, which instead shows 11 years left till carbon emissions are too much. Therefore, wanting to explore something similar, I chose human over-consumptionโ€™s environmental impact, and since one Clock currently has 11 years left on it (estimated to go off in 2033 as of March 2021), and the other shows 8 years, I chose ten years as my scope, to reflect this. However, upon further research, I discovered that the effects I was researching wont take effect until a few years after 2033, therefore, I amended my projectโ€™s scope to 15 years rather than 10.

Methodology

In my Pitch, I stated that I would be creating a Twitter account and an Instagram account.  I started with Twitter, sharing information and articles about my topic and tagging all of my posts to increase my reach. I also created a profile picture/logo and a header image to make my profile more personable. When tweeting, I made most of my tweets threads, as I had more information to share than was possible in a single tweet, and this meant I could also use a large number of hashtags on each tweet, attracting more people to my DA.

Successes & Limitations

I found hashtagging to be quite useful, as before I began using them I had very little interactions, but experienced an increase in engagement from the sustainability community once I did. I am also quite satisfied with the logo and header image I created, as I believe they helped boost the image of my profile and made it more aesthetically pleasing.

Although it was strongly recommended by both my peers and my tutor that I should make an Instagram account, as there is a strong audience there that are interested in sustainability and social justice issues, I was unable to create the account, as I ran out of time due to my full schedule and three other classes. I also found it difficult to locate graphs and graphics to share, so I stuck to text posts.

Production Timeline & Trajectory

In my pitch, I showed a timeline that I planned on following, to make sure I stayed on track over the semester, however, it became difficult to stick to this schedule. Despite this, I believe if I were to continue this project, the next natural expansion would be the Instagram account I had planned on creating. This would also force me to make graphics, which would help benefit the Twitter side of my DA.

References

  1. Betts, R, 2016, โ€˜What will the world actually look like at 1.5ยฐC of warming?โ€™, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/what-will-the-world-actually-look-like-at-1-5-c-of-warming-68763, accessed 25th May 2021
  2. โ€˜CLIMATE CLOCKโ€™, https://climateclock.world, accessed 25th May 2021
  3. Human Impact Lab, 2021, โ€˜Climate Clockโ€™, https://climateclock.net, accessed 25th May 2021
  4. Matthews, H, Peters, G, Allen, M, Forster, P, 2018, โ€˜The Climate Clock: Counting down to 1.5โ„ƒโ€™, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/the-climate-clock-counting-down-to-1-5-107498, accessed 25th May 2021

Appendix

Tweeting V2.

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It is now Week Twelve and we have officially finished all of our screenings for BCM325, and live-tweeting has been a valuable addition to my learning. We have now watched 5 more films since Tweeting V1 in week 5. The films we watched were Blade Runner 2049 (2017), The Matrix (1999), Alita: Battle Angel (2019), Ready Player One (2018) and Robot and Frank (2012). My five most engaged-with tweets in the last two weeks have been:

Week 6 – Blade Runner 2049

Just like in the original Blade Runner screening, Blade Runner 2049 brought up questions about humanity, as myself and my peers debated what it was that makes someone human. I also discussed how the film presented the future and whether this was reminiscent of how our future could turn out. I found Blade Runner 2049 extremely interesting as it took the themes and ideas of Replicants and their right to life and took it even further, by blurring the line between Humans and Replicants with the introduction of childbirth to the mix.

Week 7 – The Matrix

My favourite screening in BCM325 has been The Matrix, not only because of how amazing of a film it is, but because the themes of computer enslavement is the most realistic of all of our screenings (apart from Robot and Frank). I found The Matrix particularly relevant to how social media is used today, with Social Media and the internet being used as an escape from real life, but often making us lose sight of reality.

Week 9 – Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

All of the films we watched had similar themes and ideas, and this is especially true for Alita: Battle Angel. Watching Alita brought up the same key questions that Blade Runner, its sequel, and Ghost In The Shell asked – What is it that makes us human? This also brought up another question I was intrigued by – if we replace our body with technology, can we still be considered human?

Week 10 – Ready Player One (2018)

Just like The Matrix, Ready Player One depicts a world where humans roam a virtual world, however this time by choice. Ready Player One addressed issues surrounding our increasingly digital world focused revolving around social media, and my tweets focused on how although social media and the digital landscape can enhance our lives, they cannot serve as a substitute for real life.

Week 11 – Robot and Frank

Robot and Frank was by far the most realistic of the films we watched (The Matrix comes close but is more sci-fi-based and futuristic) and the future it portrayed seemed the most probable. The film presents the future of technology as more grounded, being used as an aid to daily life as opposed to a replacement or threat in other screenings.

Reflection

Overall I am quite satisfied with how I managed to tweet and engage with the screenings and my peers. My tweeting for Ready Player One and Robot and Frank was not as frequent and involved as the rest of the screenings, however I did manage to engage with my peers through retweeting and commenting. My favourite screenings were The Matrix and the first Blade Runner, however I have taken something away from all of them and believe they have all contributed to my understanding of the possibilities the future presents and these teachings shall help me improve my Digital Artefact for the better.

Beta Comments

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We are entering the final stage of BCM325 having just posted our Betas, and once again I have responded to three of my peers Betas with some feedback I thought would be helpful for their projects. For the second commenting, I have commented on three new peers, to engage with new people and contribute my own thoughts.

Comment 1 – Charlea Schembri

For my comment on Charlea’s Beta, I decided to focus on the concept that her Digital Artefact is based around, suggesting that she could condense her idea and combine the two topics she planned on looking at as they could work well together rather than as two separate ideas. I also spoke about how her ideas of creating digital fashion filters relates back to the screenings of Ready Player One and The Matrix.

Comment 2 – Michaela Shales

My comment to Michaela focused on how users of the social media platform Tik Tok often follow trends and like to repeat the same trends, which Tik Tok makes easy to do, therefore feeling popular by doing so. I also spoke about how UOW and Universities in Sydney also have Tik Tok accounts, and that by engaging with any of these accounts, Michaela could find a larger audience of students that may follow and engage with what she is doing.

Comment 3 – Lorena Farreras

When commenting on Lorena’s Beta, I chose to relate the screenings we have watched, particularly 2001: A Space Odyssey. I suggested a few different approaches for her Digital Artefact, such as comparing Bowie’s depictions of the future to the screenings we’ve watched or other media from that time, or whether Bowie’s portrayal is realistic.

Reflection

Having already completed one set of comments, I came into this set of comments more relaxed and prepared than the previous comments. These comments have been quite rewarding for me, as I have learnt about a variety of topics, and I believe I have left valuable feedback for my peers.

I am not particularly knowledgable on the topic of fashion and the role the media plays in the fashion industry and therefore I needed to do some background research, which I linked for Charlea to read, which helped me understand her project. I tried to structure all of my comments the same – give feedback on the presentation and aesthetics side of their Beta, then give feedback regarding what they’re doing/how they’re doing it, then finally link to an article, screening or lecture. Although I believe my comments have provided valuable feedback and information to my peers, and this set of comments is an improvement over my pitch comments, I feel that my ability to link to the lecture material in particular was lacking and could use improvement.

Commenting on my peers’ beta posts has provided me with insights into what I may be lacking in my digital artefact and moving into the final period of the subject, with the contextual essay growing closer, it is something I plan on improving in my final assessment. Without these comments I wouldn’t have realised my lack of lecture engagement and therefore I will be more inclined to use this moving forward.

Visual Essay Pitch

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Background Information

Zhang (2011) claims that โ€œFive hundred million personal computers contain approximately 2,872,0001t of plastics, 718,000 t of lead, 1363 t of cadmium and 287 t of mercuryโ€. This only accounts for one type of electronic component, and according to Prasad and Vithanage (2019), โ€œin 2016, the gold in the worldโ€™s e-waste equated to 1/10th of the gold mined globally that yearโ€. Therefore, despite all of this e-waste being obsolete, it still contains extremely valuable resources, which could greatly help the worldโ€™s economies and boost the amount of resources we have available, meaning mining, deforesting, and other harmful activities could be greatly reduced.

References

@Sustain_Foot Beta

Hayden Curley4 Comments

Check out my Digital Artefact for yourself HERE!!!

Moving forward, I am hoping to expand my audience, both by growing my twitter account and potentially creating an Instagram account if I have time. By branching out to Instagram, the focus of my posts will be images, and I hope to use this format to share more information such as statistics and graphs. Using images and videos will also make the twitter account more noticeable and interesting.

Leading up to the submission of the final Digital Artefact I am planning on sticking to my production timeline to ensure I stay on schedule, as I fell behind at the start of my project.

Tweeting V1.

Hayden Curley1 Comment

Ending week 5, we have watched 5 films โ€“ Metropolis (1927), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), West World (1973), Blade Runner (1982) and most recently, Ghost In The Shell (1996). I had already seen Metropolis and Blade Runner, and found them relatively simple to tweet about, however, I had very limited knowledge as to what to expect from the other films. Overall I believe I was able to tweet, interact and contribute well with my classmates, however there are a few things I would like to improve on.

So far the five tweets that have had the most engagement have been:

Metropolis

I studied Metropolis in Year 12, and had a lot of prior knowledge about the film. The focus of my tweets for this screening were the effects this film had on other films (such as Star Wars) and the themes of disconnect between the upper and lower classes in the film. My most popular tweet of this week was a comparison of Metropolis and the original Star Wars concept art from 1977,  illustrating the influence Metropolis has had on filmography.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Week 2โ€™s film was one I had very little knowledge of, yet seemed rather familiar, due to the music, which has been copied, parodied and re-used in a variety of other media. Some of my tweets focused on the influence the film My most engaged-with tweet was this:

West World (1973)

West World marked the beginning of our exploration of robots and androids and whether these robots should have rights and the morals behind how they are treated.

Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner took this idea one step further as the topic became focused on the rights of non-humans when theyโ€™re indistinguishable from humans. I also focused on the morals of each characterโ€™s actions and motivations, and how dark and depressing this portrayal of the future was.

Ghost In the Shell (1995)

For week 5โ€™s screening, my focus shifted towards the portrayal of technology and identity in the future. unlike previous films, technology was no longer something separate that needed to be fought, but rather something used to enhance a humanโ€™s abilities and create a distinct self-identity. This led to me questioning what makes someone human and how self-identity is formed.

Overall, I am happy with how engaged I have been with my peers and the films we have watched. In the first few films my focus was more on the film itself, rather than the implications they have for the future, however, I believe in the last two screenings, Blade Runner and Ghost In The Shell, I have managed to analyse how future cultures are represented in film the reality of those futures.

Pitch Comments

Hayden Curley1 Comment

During the process of creating and maintaining a Digital Artefact, I am required to comment on 3 of my peer’s pitches, to give feedback on their projects, help them in their development, and suggest further reading and resources for them to access. In turn, they will provide me with feedback, allowing us to create our own feedback loop throughout the semester.

Comment 1

My first comment was on Caitlyn Du Buisson Perrine’s pitch – All Things Beauty: Girls Chat Space. Caitlyn is planning on taking a look at how make-up, cosmetics, and body image will change in the next 5, 10, 20 and 50 years, and what affect this will have on different industries of work. In my comment, I linked a site that discussed how the perception of beauty and body image had changed over the past few hundred years up until now and how it is especially interesting that the most favourable body image changed every few years, and though one particular feature or style may have been deemed attractive 10 years ago, the complete opposite may now be deemed attractive. I then linked this idea back to the Week 2 blog – Future Thinking, which discussed how our visions of the future are always shaped by our perceptions of the past.

I also gave some feedback regarding Caitlyn’s digital artefact’s size, as she has planned on looking at the future of beauty in 5, 10, 20 and 50 yearโ€™s time, which may be too much to complete in the limited time we have to complete this subject.

Comment 2

My second comment was on Amy Dunn’s pitch – “Where will we be in 2070?”. Amy’s digital artefact is quite similar to my own, as we are both exploring humanities impact on the environment. Amy’s project will be focusing on “the future of living in Australia in 20 years as a result of climate change”. In my comment, I started by addressing an issue that I had also faced when ideating my project – I started too large and had to ideate my project to make it more manageable. I suggested that rather than have four main points to address, she choose one to go into more detail about. The four statements she plans on looking at are:

  • The future of living in Australia in the next 50 years as a result of climate change.
  • Explore examples of imagined futures as well as the accuracy of scientific predictions.
  • Discuss the future based on current statistics and projections.
  • explore media and climate forecasts to make predictions.

I also linked her ideas back to the week three lecture, where Chris talks about the positives that the rich face and the negatives for lower classes, due to the massive imbalance of wealth, as well as the effect this has on living conditions and the environment. Furthermore, I linked to a site that discussed how far climate change had progressed in the past 50 years.

Comment 3

My final comment was on Danielle Godden’s pitch – “Are you sure you want to buy that?”. Danielle’s pitch is a video series focusing on the effects of fast fashion. My first suggestion was that she should raise awareness to what brands are the most harmful and un-sustainable, and how to avoid these brands. I also suggested she branch out to other platforms, to grow her audience and educate more people.

Reflection

Overall, I am quite satisfied with the quality of my comments, as I managed to give feedback about each individual project, and link outside resources that may be useful for each student. I was also able to link back to the lecture content in two of my comments, however, I was unable to in the third, which is something I hope to improve by the time of the Beta presentation.

Sustainable Footprint – Pitch

Hayden Curley15 Comments

Background Research

The National Geographic Society defines biodiversity as โ€œthe variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungiโ€. National Geographic also states that humanโ€™s activities threaten this diversity, and significant efforts must be made in order to rectify this. According to the World Benchmarking Alliance, “When asked โ€œWhat do you feel is the number one priority to make the world a better place in 2030?โ€, a majority of respondents aged 15-24 said โ€œa sustainable environmentโ€. This indicates that young adults have some knowledge and interest in sustainability.

Production Timeline

For this project to be successful, I have created a production timeline, to help me visualise what I need to do each week to stay on time and on top of my work.