Love Hate Technology Evaluation

When we were given this project, I felt how I always do in reaction to a new brief, very enthused and full of inspiration. However as it began to unfold it became increasingly difficult and more of a challenge than I had first anticipated. For days I was dwelling on what my opinions on technology were, I didn’t want to go along with the mundane mobile phone, digital camera and the internet. Of course I appreciate these technologies however I wanted to embark on something that was more personal to me and more individual. After some long consideration my loves and hates had become apparent. I realised I have a love/hate relationship with my ipod. In some ways it is one of my prized possessions and I wouldn’t go anywhere without it. On the other hand I find it one of the most intrusive and ignorant pieces of technology that anyone could possibly own. I feel that because of headphones, society has become so self-involved that any interaction between one another has been obliterated. Then I began to think what technology I love and couldn’t live without, when I thought about my watch. It is one of the things that I use everyday, it is part of my daily routine when I get up to put it on. When I go to bed I set my alarm for waking in the morning. When I work on the computer I glance at the clock, every aspect of my life involves the use of a clock, I am always aware of what time it is. Then I thought about what I feel is a necessity in life. I think that one of the most impressive things I have come across and as a child I remember being amazed by are cat’s eyes. They are such a revolutionary technological device that is so useful and so important in saving lives on the road. I love the simplicity in the design but the complexity in its results as a piece of technology. My other technologies I love are pencils and matches. As an art student I would be lost without a pencil. I think again it is such a simple design but so effective in creating different tones and shades. I think the fact that pencil markings can be rubbed out is so clever. Matches are another useful device that can be used in so many ways, from lighting fires, masking smells and creating heat. I think it is a must-have item that would be taken on a desert island. As far as how I have selected my loves, I would categorise them as necessary items that I couldn’t manage without. I then set out to create either a website or a DVD. I was convinced I would prefer to make a DVD but after the first induction into web design I was overwhelmed by the prospect of making my own web page. It was something that I have never envisaged myself doing as I feel have a limited technical ability regarding computer briefs. Nevertheless I was pleasantly surprised that I felt confident to overcome my fear of new computer software and have a go at producing a website. As I am really interested in the typographical side of visual communications I used this as a focus for the layout of my pages. I made my own typeface for the headphone page by using my ipod earphones and creating the shapes from the wires. I feel it works really well and adds a personal touch to my site. For the other pages including clocks, matches, cat’s eyes and pencils I found some font styles online and downloaded to suit my needs. I decided that some of the technologies I had chosen would be best portrayed using video and so I made my own little short clips and rendered them using final cut to export them into dream weaver. I was faced with a few problems after spending a day in the computer suite when my work was deleted off the network and I was left having to re-do the days work again. This set-back left me quite unmotivated to proceed working on my website so I began to think about the DVD. After an induction to the video cameras I used the idea of interviewing people and gathering opinions from my friends and the technologies that I have chosen. After some technical difficulties uploading the footage from the camera into final cut I decided to take footage from my mobile phone to interview people. I did this for several reasons including the idea that a mobile phone camera is less intimidating to the interviewee than a big SD video camera and I found that people were more comfortable and relaxed when talking in front of my mobile. Then I thought that the poor quality of the footage would add to the effect of using a technology I love to produce a final piece of work for my project. Having finished this project I do have mixed feelings regarding the processes we used to make the final outcomes. I feel we didn’t have enough taught sessions within the two disciplines to be able to work confidently and independently. We were very much left to our own devices and when a problem occurred we had limited chances to have tutor supervision and I feel this was a floor in the project process. I would have benefited more from additional sessions in the computer suites and more drop-in facilities. However having faced so many problems throughout the project I am pleased I have a coherent conclusion and I feel adequately confident to make a basic website and DVD. One of my major regrets for this project was not doing an animation to put on my website as I think it would have added that little bit extra! If anything I am proud that I have achieved this.