WEEK 8 Tutorial Task

The original picture was a normal colour shot typical of a tabloid magazine. I altered it using filters to make her face and features appear more comic-book like as I think her features are well-defined and strong like that of female comic book heroines.

WEEK 7

Video Game Studies

As a relatively new form of entertainment, video games have become more and more popular as the technology has become more advanced and realistic. There is a fine line between what is real and what is virtual in a time where you can play real people over lan connections or via the internet and verse humans rather than play against articficial intelligences in created and realistic, virtual worlds.

The Xbox 360 delivers this gaming aspect with the Xbox live feature whereby you can play or verse apponents in other parts of the country, without lag or interference like previous internet based games. This raises the question and the debate bewteen the real and the virual aspects of gaming in this manner as some could argue they are playing against real apponents and that video games are as real and as competitive as more conventional games, or sport.

With the realism that can be achieved with graphics, motion, and physics in computer games, it is no wonder gamers can become so emmersed in the storylines and gameplay much as others get involved in a book or a movie.

Video games offer the same seduction as traditional games in that they provide real entertainment and fun, with or without a real apponent. However they differ from traditional board games in the way that they are much more involved and require a certain skill and coordination.

All in all, games in all aspects were created to entertain, relieve boredom and even provide a fun activity in group settings, so whether the games are virtual or physical, they still deliver what gamers alike strive for; gameplay that is entertaining!

WEEK 5 Tutorial Task

Answer these questions without using Google, and then write your answers in an entry in your blog. Make sure to reference the source where you found your answer.

Q1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?
‘The largest pumpkin ever grown is 1,502 pounds by Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island. It was weighed in on October 7, 2006 at the Rhode Island Weigh-off.’

Reference:
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/record.htmk.com/giants/record.htm.k.com/giants/record.htm.

I used Yahoo search engine.

Q2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?
I searched for his website but found he did not have one, but instead found a blog that is written by him however does not appear to be updated regularily: granthackett.bigblog.com.au
I used Autralian search engine:
http://www.ansearch.com.au/

Q3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
The length of the giraffe's tongue is 46cm.
(http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html#Photos, 2007, Zoological Society of San Diego)
I used ask Jeeves.

Q4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?
I know of the site wikipedia which gives defintitions of words etc and came up with this: 'In philosophy, ontology is the study of being or existence'

Q5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
His first feature film was 'Shivers' in 1975, I used the search data base Alta vista to find this answer.

Q6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?
I had trouble findingt his answer because apparently there are a few versions, however I found that one version was written on January 8th 1986, but did not specify if it was the original.

I used http://www.anzwers.com.au/?gclid=CMWb_puTt4sCFRo6EAode3fzyg to find this.

WEEK 4

Reality vs. Technology:

I considered the following paragraphs from the lecture notes and decided to answer the questions that were posed and give my opinion on the morphing of reality and technology.

"The machines in Matrix create atotally illusory reality for people, constructing their identities to suit the purposes of the machine.Has it already happened? To whatextent are our identities constructed by our consumption of corporatemedia product? Where do our identities come from?"

In response to the questions I believe that we constuct machines ie; computers, cars etc, to be moulded to the way with live so that they can in essense become an extention of ourselves. People who use computers every day are said to describe the action of using a computer as almost natural. I know people who are on computers for 8 hours a day for work and claim they are so comfortable navigating this particular machine that it does feel as though it is an extention of themselves such like an arm of a leg that they can easily control.

We have also modeled computers off a human brain. Computers are merely superhuman operating systems that have similar elements that human brains have, only electrical not chemical.

"Consider the destructionof the automobile and our willingness to co-operate with it."

Likewise, some people are so comfortable with driving a car that is in fact a second nature. When you have been drving for years it becomes part of your subconscience and you rarely have to concentrate hard to operate a vehicle. This machine too does become part of you in that it is an expansion of your body, still operated by your brain, to transport humans further and faster than their bodies are able to.

"Has film and TV production techniques changed the way we see the world?"

I believe that peoples perception of reality is greatly affected by movies and television. Peoples perception of emotions like love are serverly warped from movies that portray an idealistic love that you expect to experience in your life. I also believe that the divorce rates are higher since cinema has taken off in the last decades because people are fed an very unrealistic view of love and therefore have high expectations that are never met.