The End

A Reflection of my time Blogging

Even though I have done blogging previously I enjoyed these lectures a lot. It was more academic as I learnt about HTML. The actual blogging I would'nt do on a weekly basis, I was blog when i felt i had something interesting to write about that would be useful for the group wiki. As i look back, i feel that i used the blog more as a place where i could keep information for the group wiki and very little to reflect on the days work.

The Group Wiki is what i enjoyed doing most, it allowed me to gain more knowledge about HTML and it felt like i was creating an actual webpage. However, working in a group I felt that was almost left everything to the last minute, but it all worked out in the end. I felt i did quite a lot of work on the group wiki. I enjoyed helping the group with the wiki too, i enjoyed the fact that some memebers of the group would ask for my help before asking Nigel. Furthermore, I think in the end the group wiki looked good and we understood what psychgeography was and successfully portrayed that on the group wiki

The longest day of my life

Oh my gosh! I've been up since 5am. Somehow i managed to stay awake for 5 and a half hours of work and then make it in on time to attend Blogging...and then i got hyper in the lesson! Ha!

So what did Group 2 do today i hear you ponder? Well, as i was hyper i become bossy and felt the need to tell the group who needs to do what. We decided that Kibibe and Elma are going to work on the "Past and Future" page, while Chantelle will take responsibility for the main "Elephant & Castle" page i opted to help too. Marissa is going to proof read the entire wiki which is a huge job, because spelling mistakes suck! Oh and i'm going to sort out my "defining psycogeography" page and we all have an input in the group page.

I also did some work in the lesson....i helped my group with any technical problems they had trouble with. (I told Nigel he could go home, but he didnt, his loss)

Anyway it is nearly the end and i'll miss using the blog

(-.-)Zzzz

Jaskeerat Sehra is equipt for the digital age

Today we all decided what pictures to use on the front page of the blog. We also decided who is going to do what for next week (or even Thursday) so that we can finish all the unfinished pages on the blog.
We are also going to add a couple of new pages (or links) to our wiki and will definitely make sure that there is enough on psychogeography and that its not all one big photo-montage.

P.S Nigel taught us how to copy and paste an image through using html codes which i thought was very useful and pretty amazing to be honest.

Here are some pictures i thought would be useful for the group Wiki:


The Elephant!!









Underground St used as Air Raid Shelter:

Pictures of Elephant now and how it will be changed:

Our take on Psychogeography

Our take on Psychogeography

As a group the first thing we decided on was what we think psychogeography means and what aspect we will be "studying". To sum it up in 1 sentence (or to sum up our take on it);

Psychogeography is acknowledging the ignored

and we derived this term from the quotation below, which we will also use on our group wiki.


"Only an awareness of the influences of the existing environment can encourage the critique of the present conditions of daily life, and yet it is precisely this concern with the environment which we live which is ignored."

24/02/09

Last week (17/02/09), the group went out and about in Elephant to take pictures of the 'psychogeography'...and here are a few that i took:















This week we started our Wiki (yeyy!!). I can't believe how simple it is; but i might regret saying that. We found it hard to create a wiki when doing it straight onto the screen; so for next time we know to draw it out onto paper first. We made the front page and added images; the images link to another page (oo how fancy) but Nigel did say we have to make it obvious that the images link to another page.

Hopefully next week we should add all the pictures the group took to the Wiki.

Psychogeography

Psychogeography
"the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." Guy Debord [1]

Only an awareness of the influences of the existing environment can encourage the critique of the present conditions of daily life, and yet it is precisely this concern with the environment which we live which is ignored. [2]


From this quotation I would describe psychogeography as an exisiting environment/building/area which goes ignored through our daily lives. Reasons for why these buildings are made or who they were made for are not something one would think as they walk by them nearly everyday. When looking at buildings through this perspective, it can change the way in which people view a building.

Dérive is a part of psychogeography. It was a practice used mostly by the Dadaists, where they would "let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there"[ibid.] however this was all done consciously; "informed and aware wandering" [3]. This could easily link with psychogeography as it changes the way in which someone looks at an attraction or building and what else is surrounded by it.


[1] http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/2
[2] http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/a.evans/psychogeog.html
[3] http://www.monoculartimes.co.uk/city-tours/psychogeography/workingdefinition.shtml

♥ Snow!

I wanted to check some prices for your Doovdé...

Analysing the HMV website

1. Content
The HMV hompage has a look to take in, its busy and has text as well as images nearly everywhere on the page. However, the images anchor the text; therefore the image of Duffy conveys Music, however the image of Slash does not immediatly connotate games.

2.Presentation
There is a basic colour theme for the website, black,white and pink (some greys). The text is always in white againts either a black, pink or grey background which makes it somehwat easy to read. The images can often be distracting, yet at the same time serves the purpose to draw attention to specific artists to attract consumers.
The website has no white space and is placed down the centre of the page, however scrolling down the page is fairly long.

3. Organization
The website is fairly easy to navigate, images associated with particular artists/actors allows one to access certain mediums easily. There is a menu bar across the top and down the side which allows the consumer to constantly navigate through the site easily; and allowing them to jump from DVD to Games in one simple click.

Obama Fever...

Instead of doing a post straight after the inaguration of Mr Obama i thought i would wait a little bit. Its been a week, i managed to make it home in time to watch Obama's speech it was truly a historic moment and i'm glad i was able to see it.

But now that a week has gone, and the papers have written ALL they can write about the 10 inaguration balls, the outfits, the dances, the stars/actors/actress who attened, who didnt turn up and which country cut out certain parts of the speech; I have learnt that i know MORE about US politics than i do about the politics in the UK.

Just a thought :)

Everyone's forgotten about Bush...

The inauguration of Barack Obama is a historical moment (but so where some of the stupid George W. Bush moments...like when he got shoes thrown at him by a journalist, ha!). Obama as president is certinaly a change! An afro-american president for the first time in the history of the USA...this could refelct the future of the Prime Minister in Britian (or could it?) . The inauguration of Obama means "anyone can tell thier child that they too can be President" (quoted roughly from what i heard on the radio this morning)

Image post

Mwesch

Where were you on 20/01/09?

Today is Barack Obama Day (as i like to call it); the first black president in the United States.

20/01/09 is his inauguration, at 4pm (British time)

So where was I when history was being made? Sitting infront of a PC, blogging. yey(!)

P.s Maybe not?

Reflection & Donald Schön

Reflection
|riˈflek sh ən|
noun
1 the throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it : the reflection of light.

2 serious thought or consideration : he doesn't get much time for reflection.
• an idea about something, esp. one that is written down or expressed : reflections on human destiny and art.

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French reflexion or late Latin reflexio(n-), from Latin reflex- ‘bent back,’ from the verb reflectere.

Dictionary
Version 2.0.2 (51.4)
© Copyright 2005-2007 Apple Inc., All rights reserved.

Donald Schön introduced several important organizing concepts to a wide range of applied fields:

• the idea of a "generative metaphor", figurative descriptions of social situations, usually implicit and even semi-conscious but that shape the way problems are tackled, for example seeing a troubled inner-city neighborhood as urban "blight" and, hence, taking steps rooted in the idea of disease.

• "learning systems" - Schön was a pioneer of studies aimed at exploring the possibility of learning at the supra-individual level

• reflective practice inquiry - Schön's seminal 1983 book, The Reflective Practitioner, challenged practitioners to reconsider the role of technical knowledge versus "artistry" in developing professional excellence. The concept most notably affected study of teacher education, health professions and architectural design.

• Frame reflection - the title of a 1994 book co-authored with MIT colleague Martin Rein, prescribed critical shared reconstruction of "frames" of social problems which are otherwise taken for granted and advocated system-level learning to find solutions for "intractable policy controversies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Sch%C3%B6n

13th January 2009

A reflection on today's lesson
13th January 2009

Today was the first blogging lesson of the term. It seemed fairly simple as I'd made several blogs before and was once bored to death by my brother about html (which came in pretty handy, yey!!!)

I'm hoping that this module will allow me to get back into blogging and teach me something about psychogeography

Hello World...

Shukudai = Japanese word for 'Homework'