Weekly blog entry

Week 1

What did I learn this week?

• Generally discussed and Post-Modernism

• Form a team to create a media deliverable that will incorporate a weekly topic within the first 6 weeks.

• Went through the general assessment items that will be due in this trimester

• I will have to blog about what I have learned about the post modern topic in the blog to show what I learned then show how I applied that topic into the current topic.

Week 2

What did I learn this week?

• Discussed how post modernism is shown in media through song lyrics and also the choice of language used in some rap video mainly Embonics

• Delivery format format for blogs, weekly updates in a blog post , then a summary post for each project.

Week 3

What did I learn this week?

• Read about topic regarding postmodernism in architecture in this website the author basically criticizes how post modernism is to blame for the causing areas that create high crime rates. It has been proven that due to was related by I do not agree with the direction that Post modernism is to blame for bad design, Modernistic design that focused on full utilization created the spaces that led to bad areas and high crime rates. An example that comes to mind is the Brownlie Towers social housing in Perth that was built in the 70's. This type of unit was devised to reduce the urban sprawl but putting as many tenants into high rises, this create mini-ghetto's and gained a bad reputation as "suicide-tower". In my opinion it was the modernistic architectural design that tried to cram so many residents into one place it became a hot bed for crime.

• The link I see with our current project is that when we compare different parts of West End Brisbane, Although the West End was originally designed to be an industrial part of town with the concrete factory, milk factory and other processing warehouses for storage the section of town. The Post-Modern influence to West-End where it turns the suburb into more of a hipster style area with more international food influences has breathed new life into an area which in the past was regarded as a high crime rate area.

Week 4

What did I learn this week?

Brainstorming session regarding subculture and tastes

During this week we contributed to a group activity involving a task where we formed a group and brainstormed ideas for the what represented sub-cultural tastes in the 1960-1970s.

• Point 1

• Point 2

• Point 3

Week 5

This week what did I learn this week?

During class we presented our project to multiple lecturers and this allowed us to gather feedback from their perspectives to create a better project deliverable.

Went for a drive to take pictures with Bhaya around West End during the afternoon.

Week 6

Today we presented our project to a CIU210 class by rotating groups. After presenting to several different groups we noticed that people were trying to find out whether we were taking a for or an against stand to our Post-Modern design project. Some people were taking it personally when we say that we were incorporating the old design elements into the modernistic design. Some people also did not know what post-modernism was so the take away learning from this is that we can make sure in our presentation that we describe better what our understanding of post-modernism was in our first paragraph.

After this exercise we found that in the beginning of our presentation we needed to make it clearer by saying we were show how post modern design can be implemented by paying homage to purposeful modernistic design. We also make sure that the audience member knows that we are not saying that this is a good or bad thing but it is an idea on how it can be implemented by paying homage to the old design.

Week 7

Week 8

We stayed with our group being Bhavya, Nissala, Daniel and I. This stage we just formed our team and that was it really.

Week 9

There was no class this week due to external reasons but after reading the project brief we were researched online and came across several Youtube video's of Mongolian hip-hop rap. The production of the music was done to a highly professional degree and after watching a video on the HU which is a group of heavy metal rock band that used many of their traditional instruments as well as traditional throat singing in their lyrics to create their sound. During the class I suggested to Bhavya to sample the the Mongolian fiddle as a four bar loop then overlay the rest of the song with deep throat singing. This track will be intended to be useful for the sound that we heard already from production videos that were done for the Mongolian market.

Week 10

Huw came to take over our class from the the usual schedule and properly explained the requirements to us for the second project. We were able to make some head and tail of the task and held a meaningful discussion as why cultural studies is important because he help us link the need for artistic practitioners like us to make artwork that is meaning and suitable and not just appropriated to fit the normal status quo or the dominant ideology. It is important to understand the "come from" or intent of creating the art. If we just appropriate it then we only have a basic understanding of the culture we wish to market to and will not be able to gain market trust as a suitable provider of the art we create. A very good example that Huw presented to us was how some Hollywood films was actually made here in Australia. Even though it was an Australian film, the definition stems from it being manufactured or produced in Australia but was culturally significant and suitable for the target audience which was the United States. The film "The Meg" was considered a flop in the western audience but

Week 11

After the pitch this week due the research that was conducted it was determined that there was not enough done to complete the pitch and thus required further research into how modern Mongolian people perceive their own self identity. Feed back from the class led was an indicator to us that the social political reasoning for the song choice was not strong enough and thus required further research into how RnB and western music influences came to Mongolia.

After some research it was found that after the 1990's Mongolia became a democratic society. Mongolia use to have a flourishing music scene that had many of its traditional instruments. The government at the time was one of the largest economic contributors in the creation of the bands to promote cultural ties.

Today Hip-hop and music creation is limited to the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. The reason being that people cannot afford the tickets outside of Ullanbaatar and the problem of piracy of songs. Artists are turning to online platforms like Soundcloud, Spotify and similar streaming sites to get exposure.

After doing further research on the styles of the throat singing I realized that we were just appropriating the style of music without a clear intention as to how were using the material. It was fundamentally important that we create a piece of artwork that will pay homage to its ancestral roots in order to have the music relate to the Mongolian market.

Week 12

During this class I pitched the presentation idea to Huw and with deeper research I found that I was in a better position to argue the aesthetic choices that went into the composition of the musical piece. I can relate to how this will help me future especially if I have to make a piece of art that is targeted to an audience that is not local. I will take this learning into the future when I try to create a new musical composition to fit a certain audience. The Mongolians were once taken over by the soviets from the 1920's till their dissolution in 1990's. During that time the Soviets essentially rewrote the Mongolian history and taught through education that their historical leader Genghis Khan was a blood thirsty and troubled warlord. This was all in the act of ensuring that the Mongolian people will not have any solid moral anchor to unify under. Thus after the dissolution Mongolians wanted to reclaim their heritage and ideals that signified their ethnicity. Genghis Khan , Traditional throat signing, and the Horse fiddle are parts of their ethnic identity. So much so that the modern government now is willing to invest in media production and

Week 13 (Final Summary Blog Reflection)

WHAT

For the First Project Bhavya, Nissala and I were able to capture the photos for the city wide study of West End and record the sounds using a Zoom H6 location sound recorder to capture different city sounds in West End at night. Later we used those sounds to create a music track that later was overlaid in a simple music video to showcase West End.

The concept of current day Post Modern design depends on the interpretation of a location and thus required us to understand the historical Modernistic characteristics of a location.

Thus armed with this knowledge we made a creative choice to juxtapose the old modernistic view of an area with the Post-Modern use of an location in West End to highlight the changes overtime.

For Project 2 As a team we picked creating a song for the Mongolian music were mostly Audio students with the exception of Nissala who is a design student. For this assignment we at first did not understand the significance and blindly just searched online for "Modern Mongolian Music" on YouTube. We found that there a many hip hop songs which incorporated their horse headed fiddle and also throat singing which was characteristic of Mongolia.

After the pitch during week 11 we found that that the research was inadequate and thus I mainly researched the bulk of the material to support the aesthetic choices made in the creation of our Mongolian inspired hip-hop track.

After doing some research I wrote 95% of the pitch document and included the research items inside the power point. Bhavya composed the entire Mongolian Hip-Hop asset and Nissala was able to help confirm the research and in week 12 we were able to pitch the idea to the class and gather feedback. The feedback from Huw and the class gave us an indicator that we had a deeper understanding of the material and that we have put together a convincing argument for the aesthetic design choices made into making our music track.

SO WHAT

Critically from the first the half of the trimester we were able to gain an insight on how the currently day understanding of a city is understood by the people of live in the area. The terms we learnt were Post Modern and Modernistic. After conducting the assignment in the first half of the trimester I believe that I have gained a tactile understanding of what an area means to be Modernistic designed. Being that the area was designed in architecture that is was built for a single purpose and to be able to have functional purpose like a factory. The Post modern take of an area is where the Modernistic functional use of the area is gone and is replaced with a new purpose which is interpreted in new light. An example of this is the Paul's Ice-cream factory is now functioning as an art gallery in its Post-Modern example of using a new area while paying homage to its Modernistic roots by still being called the Ice-cream factory.

In the Second Half of the Trimester we explored the concept of Ethnicity and how to market a song to that audience without appropriating their beliefs and ideals. Through pitching the idea for the song I gained an understanding of how important is was to truly understand the market and its ethnic value systems which are different to the Western audience. This is important because if I am to create a artist direction with a sound or sampled audio I will need to know how that audience will be perceive by the target market of a another culture.

NOW WHAT

From participating in these two projects I have come to understand the cultural ramifications of creating a new space and reinterpreting a building in a Post-Modern way. There will always be those people who will wish it did not change and see the Post-Modern approach as eroding the culture degrading the value of the people who use to live or work there and there will be the more open minded people who will look upon an old area and re-imagine a new use for the building while paying homage to the previously utilitarian design function. From looking at the history of an architecture of a particular area you will gain a deeper understanding of the Post-Modern design and the interpretations of an locale from multiple points of view. I found the exercise in sharing the findings with other students to be fulfilling and interesting. Moving forward though I will take this learning into the future and incorporate post-modern aesthetic choices in audio like making unconventional uses of instruments in future compositions. For example maybe use a guitar for drumming or sampling cracking peanut sounds to be used as percussion sounds in a future track.

The learning from the second project I feel will empower me more in my future career. The process of researching a target market and to see what they would like to listen to is extremely useful in my career. Through the pitching and research I have learnt about the likes and dislikes of a culture that is not of my own and I know believe that because of this type of research I feel confident in creating a composition of my own that will have a high chance of getting tracking in the Mongolian market. The skills and research methodology is the same for researching Ethnicity, language, violence, feminism or trans-humanism. The fundamental study into that market and what that particular market will respond to with regards to sound is key to creating artwork that will appeal to that market. The skills in researching and presenting a product correctly without making the target market feel like I am appropriating their culture will help me in the future to create artworks that are respectful and appealing to the target demographic.