A Whole Blue World

This is my Media adaptation project, Blue Media.

Though the group essay wasn't quite awe-inspiring, and will probably be the main affectation for likewise less than stellar grades (if indeed it has such an effect), I am still quite happy with my video as I had total control of it. Enjoy.



This project was an interesting one for it allowed me, as all projects should, to elaborate on feelings which I otherwise would perhaps have left unexplored. The point of this video, though I hope it's at least somewhat evident from the later parts of the video and the McLuhan quotes, is to raise awareness for the effect of the media environment we exist within. It is also to illustrate the point the McLuhan quotes make about media acting as environments. We are enveloped by them and often don't realize how much of ourselves is vested in these pervasive media.

The video is an adaptation of the song Blue by Eiffel 65. The change is in the reinterpretation of the lyrics. Instead of this being about depression, I have interpreted it as being about media. It's not that the character's life is filled with sadness, it is that this character's life is filled with media. All of the lyrics have come to represent their media representations. Such as the Blue Window being a "media window" such as TV with news media.

This adaptation, to quote my formal writing about it,
"required the creation and implementation of a wide variety of pictures, and video clips. The adaptation was created by looking at and listening to the lyrics of the song “Blue” quite extensively. The repetition in the lyrics allowed for a several interpretations of the best way to portray the media equivalent of each of the song’s lines. The video required the manipulation of many of the items shown within. For example, the culture jamming of the “Educated Decisions made simple” Acer Ad was one that was created exclusively for the video.

Some of the images were either a combination of several pictures, such as with the man in front of the large news media logo. And some of the images were fabricated entirely such as the keyhole of news networks looking onto the earth, which was used for the final iteration of the blue window lyric. The creation of the video took many hours of editing though the more difficult part was definitely attempting to find proper media representations for the experiences mentioned as being part of this blue little guy’s life."

The Matrix Manifesto

This was my personal response to Mass Communications and the final assignment we were asked to complete for the course. I was inspired to create this one night after re-watching The Matrix. That movie had been a theme for me all though the course and indeed so far all through University. This piece of writing started, like most of my writing, from feverish scribbling of an idea that enveloped my mind though threatened to disappear. This being a personal reflection I suppose it wasn't originally meant to be published and seems to be more aimed at my professor and possibly my fellow students. None the less I shall post it here as a recollection of this writing endeavour, should I ever lose track of it on my computer. As media can occasionally be somewhat troublesome in that regard.
This is probably the longest complete essay type reflection I've ever written. Though I still maintain that it is "As long as necessary and as short as possible." -Ian Reilly. Perhaps, "As Simple as Possible but not Simpler." -Einstein


Grant Tabler

Ian Reilly
AHSS 1060 Mass Communication
December 1^st, 2009

The Matrix Manifesto

I believe The Matrix is the single greatest media analysis and portrayal in a movie that I have seen. I seem to constantly inference things to it or quote from it. Since writing about the matrix was the first real writing I did for Mass Communications, I think it fitting that the last writing I do for this class should continue the theme. I saw it again recently, and every time I see it I see different things. I now try to decipher its semiotics. I see themes and symbols that I did not recognise earlier.

First, before I begin talking about The Matrix, semiotics, and a demonstration of what I have learned, I would like to make a comment about this course. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course, it is the most analysis and critical thinking I have ever had to do. I would like to thank Ian Reilly and Paul Vermeersch for this. I do not know what I will face in the coming years, but I cannot help but hope that there are more courses as fantastic as this one.