The Final Showdown

For the remainder of our BCM325 tweeting journey, my main focus was to correlate what I was viewing with the course content. I found that throughout the first film viewings and whilst I was getting a handle on the live-tweeting experience, I wasn’t drawing strong conclusions to what I had learnt within BCM325’s material. Having now viewed the remainder of our films for the semester, I have tried to provide evidence through quotes and reflection on ideas about what we have learnt in order to explain my feelings and thoughts on each film! In order to reflect my learnings, a select few tweets have been showcased from each week’s viewing to display my knowledge and interactions! Take a look!

Robot and Frank

Robot and Frank was one of the viewings that I enjoyed most. A completely different cinematic experience that left me thinking about it for days- just my cup of tea. Within my tweets, I tried to intersperse fun facts with facts from the course content in order to keep things fresh and exciting. I also used a collection of photos from the movie and GIFS to ensure I was including a range of media sources.

What did I learn?

This week’s topic regarding Artificial Intelligence was one that challenged me and taught me a lot regarding my initial misconceptions about what A.I. is. As reinforced within the lecture, artificial intelligence have made developments in machine learning, algorithmic analysis and other artificial intelligence applications for things like speech and facial recognition. While Ex Machina showed us a robot that is machiavellian by design, Robot and Frank shows us one that is “machiavellian by omission.” As its developers only teach the robot the definitions of terms like “stealing”, versus what these concepts actually entail, it can’t apply that knowledge in a meaningful way. However, I have also learnt through the lecture that this line in continuously blurring and today’s A.I. is working towards the human experience and truly understanding emotion.

Arrival

Arrival was a film that I hadn’t previously heard of and the week’s content regarding Futurists was one that I found myself drawn to so I was excited to get tweeting! I gave my followers a brief overview of the film before interacting with my peers a bit on the content. I also made sure to include facts about the films genre though I absolutely could have linked more to what I had learnt and how the film reflected that here. I feel as though I presented facts about the film more-so than actually linking it to content.

What did I learn?

Arrival as a film displayed notions of this week’s topic ‘Futurists and Decisions’ extremely well and resulted in me really connecting with this week’s topic. Within this week’s topic, I was particularly interested in Wendell Bells definitions regarding different types of futurists. He states “futurists hope to inform people’s expectations of the future and to help make their efforts shape the future”. It’s interesting to compare this to the films scientists and ‘futurists’ seen in Agent Halpern and Ian Donnelly whose curiosity sparks in a way that wants answers and solutions regarding the future. We can see deep juxtaposition in the chaos that ensues from a lack of understanding about the future e’g. Looting and suicides, and the social responsibility that comes with being a futurist. The quote “undertake a project, in which you persuade the world to move towards a more pluralistic future through creative and imaginative analysis and productive action” truly resonates here as this is exactly what our main characters are attempting to achieve.

Alita: Battle Angel

Alita: Battle Angel was a film that I was most excited to unpack and watch as it is so vastly spoken about in the twittersphere and TikTok community. Whilst live-tweeting, I made sure to really engage in what I had learnt for the week. I took on board feedback from Assessment 1 and ensured I had a good understanding of the weeks content so as to ensure I was linking the film in the correct way. Although I still engaged in fun facts and chat with my peers, I made sure that i was starting discussion about what I had learnt as well.

What did I learn?

Alita: Battle Angel represented just one depiction of a cyborg but did so in a way that left me understanding the topic on a deeper level. Marshall McLuhan is paramount when discussing cyborgs and the humanistic aspects they bring forward.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One was a viewing that excited me mainly because it was a bit more modern and the soundtrack is A+. Although I thought the film left a bit to be desired in terms of scripting, I made sure to discuss how well I thought it encapsulated ideas about cyberspace and how cyber culture is defined. I did this though quotes from lectures and the weeks content and by starting discussion around what defines ‘cyberspace’. I really engaged with my peers this week also!

What did I learn?

As a modern film, ‘Ready Player One’ shows cyberspace and cyberculture as a genuine place and not just an illusion.

Don’t Look Up

This week’s topic was incredibly interesting or me. I really felt that I connected with the ‘paradigm shift’ topic and I wanted my interest in the different media types to come through my tweets! I still attempted to interact with peers, however, there were no other tweets on the film at the time of publishing. I also continued to include small fun facts about the film to make interaction easier and a bit more fun!

What did i learn?

As stated within my summary, Don’t look up taught me so much when aligned with this weeks topic regarding the paradigm shift and differing media types

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