2017, where it all began for me. Going into this year, diving into the unknown world we call today Creative Technologies has been a journey and still is a journey. Creative Technologies Itself has been a roller coaster ride of trying out new things, tackling new approaches, from the ups and downs to the new friends I’ve had those ups and downs with, It’s all been one heck of a ride.
I still remember awkwardly sitting at my table being told that I would have to blog my experiences going through each assignment, than later that week thinking of exactly what to type after being given our first assignment. Staring at my screen not knowing what to write I eventually just decided to put my hands on the keyboard and write whatever came to my head, which I guess is kind of like the same thing I’m doing right now but 3 months later.
Trying to figure out our first assignment was a bit complicated. In all my two years prior to attending Uni at UOA and comparing it to AUT, I had never come across such a project where we were able to pretty much do whatever we wanted. So I didn't even know where to begin. It was a true challenge of whether or not I could change the way I think and bring out my suppressed creative side and create the card game I had envisioned for myself. I had gone through so many ideas trying to create a card game and I guess the more I got to a point where I was stuck the more I discovered something about myself. I slowly discovered of how important balance is, specially while studying a degree such as BCT. I think I tried too hard and started to overthink and complicate the process of my project by trying to add elements that even I myself couldn't understand, or if not that than focusing more on the design aspects of my project and totally forgetting about the logistics side of things. BCT in a way you could say has rewired the way I think. It has given me a new sense of perspective in a way that you must look at something you’re creative from all sides and not just focus on one side.
Looking back at my blogs I always felt like they lacked in a lot of areas, I shared what I felt but I never really expanded more on my thoughts and experiences. But it's all a learning process and I think I've been a willing to learn kind of student I think, but I guess now is where I can share more than I had previously?
Firstly I think BCT really forced me to experiment a lot. A huge concept BCT emphasises on and encourages is trial and error. Only by going through all these trial and error phases during the first project was I able to properly understand this concept. I never really understood it, the first time the mentors talked about it in class, I automatically thought to myself, yeah yeah I get it, But to be completely honest I didn't, I just thought I did. Learning the true meaning of trial and error has opened up so many doors for me in terms of how to approach different projects efficiently and effectively. And ultimately prepared me for many projects to come.
Our next project was the sound project whilst eventually simultaneously working on our vlogging project. I guess a challenge that arose from the get go was the fact that I had never before worked in a group for a project before so I went into this teamwork work thing completely blind. As I’ve mentioned in my vlog I discovered the joys of working together to make something creative, to make something innovative but there's a difference between collaborating on an idea and working together on an idea. Just trying to get everyone's ideas into one big performance was such a mess. Bringing in all our very different instruments and trying to make it into a big sound scape was something new, a task indeed that needed more than just a few opinions, but needed everyone's input and everyone's collaborative skills. I think I had leant the true grit that teamwork actually has in this project than anything I’ve ever worked with in my life. To say we got there successfully in the end is an overstatement. But hey we got there.
Working on my vlog now and focusing more on that was actually smoother than I had thought it would be. What I wanted to say and focus on kind of just flowed out onto my keyboard. I guess because we had been through what felt like a lot already, I just ended up sharing my experiences of that. Although the problem for me was putting that into video and overcoming my awkwardness with anything to do with me being on screen. I know being in a world like Creative Technologies there will come times when we must broadcast an image of ourselves and actually be confident in everything that we’re doing and creating, and the only way to do that is to bring out that fiery passion that I have for BCT and I feel like I did bring it out in the end and made a successful vlog.
Again as I’ve mention previously teamwork for me was a new concept, and now we had an even bigger group project to work with, a project that in particular caused many stumbling blocks. Reasons being we wanted to showcase so many different things about how we wanted 2050 to be like, and which artefacts we wanted to show too. After multiple group meetings and I mean multiple we came to a conclusion. It took a lot of effort and managing certain group members but once we came to that conclusion we began to work right away and started on our short film. Something big I took from this was communication. Communication is so important if you want the outcome to be what you envisioned as a group, when everyone wants to produce something similar communicating the idea thoroughly is the only way to go about it, no questions asked.
I guess what I get from all these concepts I’ve leant from every assignment we’ve done is that they all contribute to something bigger. From keeping a balanced mind-set, to stepping out of your comfort zone, to communicating anything and everything, That something bigger is me contributing my creative mind to this world and only knowing how to do so because of everything I’ve learnt doing BCT. I mean we’re all placed on this earth for a purpose right? I wouldn't say Creative Technologies is my purpose but I think its definitely a good path to walk on this journey we call life, a journey also of just finding myself. Having gone through those two years of Uni prior, just so I could understand Waha properly, and realise that actually I don't really want to do all these essays, and exams, but what I really wanted to do and still want to do is use my brain to create and collaborate. Thank You.
