Week 14 - Workshop 1

25/01/18

This week in Digital Practice we were introduced to the course and were told what to expect in the future as well as what the course would involve. 

We were taught about the idea of 'digital mapping' and were instructed to think of a funny/embarrassing/exciting moment in our lives where we used digital technology and how it influenced us. 

At first I thought that this was a difficult task since I like to think that I have been able to somewhat distance myself from technology when it comes to experiencing situations and that I would rather live in the moment than getting my phone out and filming/posting to the internet. However through being reminded by a friend about one moment in the first week of university ('Freshers') that caused me a lot of embarrassment but also a lot of laughs was when I attended the Karaoke Night at the university SU. 

The night started out with me and my flatmates seeing a tweet on the Bath Spa SU Twitter page, it showed a digital poster advertising a karaoke night, which was probably created on the editing software program After Effects. 

Me and my flatmates decided to go, after arriving I had a few too many drinks at the bar and a friend signed me up to sing a solo, all whilst giving me the impression that it would be the two of us and not just me. 

After some persuading and more liquid courage I got up on stage and ending up singing the iconic song from the film Titantic, it was Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". I started to sing reading off of a TV set up on stage which played the lyrics through a YouTube video. 

This embarrassment happened to be filmed by the many people on their phones who were in the SU and was posted onto Snapchat and because of this I was Facebook messaged by a few people who wanted to congratulate me on my performance. 

...Months Later...

My birthday rolls around and the video of me singing pops up again and was posted on both Facebook and YouTube by friends.

Through this story four types of social media were used to post and advertise the experience and two types of media were used to create it. I didn't realise how such a crucial and funny moment of my university life was so heavily influenced by digital technology, and even though I 'lived in the moment' I still have the story recorded which I am very happy about and I can relive it. I think I need to allow myself to record those moments so I can look back in future and have fun experiencing them all of again.