Love, Sex & Robots: How is technology exacerbating power dynamics and gender violence?

Gender violence holds a major role in the country of Australia, 85% of Australian women have been sexually harassed (AHRC, 2018), one in five women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 (ABS, 2017) and on average one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner (AIC, 2017). This is a rampant issue and stark contrast to places like Norway, Switzerland and Finland which hold the top three ranks in the 2019 Women, Peace and Security Index which “ranks 167 countries on women’s equality, reveals trends in women’s wellbeing across 11 indicators”. Technology adds a layer of complexity to this issue when it is weaponised. 

Deepfakes emerged in 2017, AI software which manipulated footage to superimpose anyone’s face over another face this led to videos of Emma Watson and Gal Gadot and eventually the creation of DeepNude an app which superimposed any face you supplied it with onto female nude bodies (exclusively). This had severe ramifications for the people targeted and paved the way for a brand new capability of grave humiliation through technology. In April of 2020, Playboy released an article with the headline “A Sex Doll Stole My Identity” recounting Yael Cohen, a popular female Instagrammer from Isreal who received a direct message from one of her followers with a link to a sex-doll who had her face. The doll was even named “Yael” and the creator exclaims proudly that the doll is modelled after the real Yael. The company which manufactures the doll is based in China so unfortunately enforcing US judgements across cultural and legal borders isn’t possible and means Yael just has to live with this.

The desire for sexual connection and sexual satisfaction through artificial measures is not a new concept. Sex dolls have kind of been in existance since 8AD, in Metamorphoses Ovid tells the story of Pygmalion, a king whom carved a beautiful women of ivory and fell in love with her. He bathed her, fed her and slept with her and after wishing for a woman as beautiful as his ivory lady Aphrodite, the greek goddess of love, took pity on Pygmalion, granted his wish and brought the ivory woman to life. Sex dolls have had a major transformation over the last hundred years and more interestingly, over the last 10 years when they were mechanised and transformed yet again, from sex dolls to sex robots. In 2010 the first robotic girlfriend named Roxxxy was created by a man named Douglas Hines, founder of True Companion, Roxxxy was unveiled at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. 

Sex-dolls and sex robots alike present a very unique set of concerns, although many of the creators of the dolls and owners of the sex-dolls brothels express the benefits of the use of the dolls for their autistic or disabled clients challenged with finding a suitable sexual partner. The anthropomorphising of the dolls and robots gives way to a question of sexual ethics. A Vancouver sex-doll website BellaDolls states, “Achieve your needs without the many restrictions and limitations that a real partner may come with.”. A Spanish sex-doll brothel LumiDolls was inundated with in influx of requests for child-like dolls and bedroom rape scenes and Toronto based sex-doll brothel recounts having to a ban a client who showed up with fake blood. (Shain, 2019). 

To contrast, in 2018 artist Maggie West created Luci 6000, the sexting robot, in collaboration with Swedish sex toy company, Lelo. As interactive art installation on display at the Museum of Sex in New York City, onlookers are able to interact with Luci via Twitter where she will reply with provocative robot puns and selfies but she also sometimes goes live on Instagram. West was inspired by the commentary on the de-sexualization of the millennial generation of which she had to say “I don’t think that millennials are inherently detached or unable to make personal connections,” West rejects the notion which positions millennials as detached narcissists  “I just think that we have a different way of speaking to each other than previous generations.” (Playboy, 2018). An interesting choice by the artist was to give Luci (like her human woman counterparts) hard boundaries, “If you send Luci dick pics or start being mean,” West says, “she will block you.” (Playboy, 2018). 

Sex workers including pornographic actors and actresses and  “cam girls” each forge their own unique and performative angle when engaging in sex work and this is largely exaggerated and constructed for the male gaze. Sex work however has yet to be decriminalised in Australia and many other major first world countries. Without the decriminalisation of sex work this leaves sex workers open and vulnerable to exploitation as they are unable to exercise key rights to justice and healthcare and are unable to access any legal protection. The 2018 film Cam (written by Isa Mazzei a retired cam-girl and directed by Daniel Goldhaber) examines when a young cam-girl Lola (Alice) who gets her identity stolen, when an external force hijacks her account yet it seems to still be showing live web-cam shows of Lola herself in her filming room doing things she has never done before. With no help from authorities, the film follows Lola trying to retrieve her identity back as that is her only source of income and someone else is getting her money while using her identity. My interest here lies within technology being weaponised to enact gender violence and power dynamics.

We see harmful gender stereotypes operationalised through the production of AI which is heavily reinforced through the largely female-gendered voices, just ask Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Google home. UNESCO released a study in 2019 entitled “I’d blush if I could; Closing Gender Divides in Digital Skills through Communication” the first sentence is a response given by Siri, Apple’s AI voice assistant when a human user would tell ‘her’, “Hey Siri, you’re a bitch.” 

The female voice assistant’s are programmed to be obedient, submissive and at times flirtatious to even the most degrading of comments. This is a concerning sentiment considering the disparity in the male dominated field of AI research and software developers which women represent 6% of the field.  The UNESCO study states: “Siri’s ‘female’ obsequiousness – and the servility expressed by so many other digital assistants projected as young women – provides a powerful illustration of gender biases coded into technology products, pervasive in the technology sector and apparent in digital skills education.”

This question holds a myriad of social significance but also political and intellectual significance. Working towards gender equality to end violence against women and the disturbing power dynamics which enforce this violence is crucial to understanding each other and living harmoniously. Examining the psychosocial effects of technology when it is weaponised to inflict harm on others provides a case and a question for all areas of education, design, technology as well as policy. We are living through the digital revolution which has seen technology completely transform the way humans interact with each other. Google even has their own in house “Empathy Lab”. 

 

References 

AHRC (2018). Everyone’s business: 4th national survey on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. Retrieved from: https://whiteribbon.org/2Ea7Q6C

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2017). Personal Safety Survey 2016. ABS cat. no. 4906.0. Canberra: ABS. Retrieved from: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4906.0

Bryant, W. & Bricknall, S. (2017). Homicide in Australia 2012-2014: National Homicide Monitoring Program report. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. Retrieved from: https://aic.gov.au/publications/sr/sr002

Conant, E. (2019). “The best and worst countries to be a woman” National Geographic. Retrieved from:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/10/peril-progress-prosperity-womens-well-being-around-the-world-feature/

Krettek, D. (2018). “Design Feeling: Emotion as a Language for Design” Semi Permanent, Retrieved from: https://www.semipermanent.com/articles/danielle-krettek-google

Shain, S. (2019). “Tourist Attraction” Playboy, Retrieved from: https://www.playboy.com/read/sex-doll-tourism

Specia, M. (2019). “Siri and Alexa Reinforce Gender Bias, U.N. Finds” New York Times, Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/siri-alexa-ai-gender-bias.html

West, M. Kraut, R. Chew HE. (2019) “I’d blush if I could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education” EQUALS, UNESCO, Retrieved from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.page=1?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=72929072&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8mK9ReSNoh1TU4O9Ie8iT4VU1_FKCfpA8ZEqkmHGYZmWvgF-VZL3aDwvQ7eDU6Ja2Wyn0yr1KodDuC_avp0YSXDs7o7sWeM7DWfFxnms7PCQMzdNw

West, M. (2020) Museum of Sex, Maggie West, Retrieved from: http://maggiewest.co/luci-museum-of-sex

Whelan, N. (2018). “Meet Luci 6000, the Sexting Robot” Playboy, Retrieved from: https://www.playboy.com/read/luci-6000-sexting-robot

An Ethnographic Research Study into the Euphoria Fandom

An Ethnographic Research Study into the Euphoria Fandom

Reflections on BCM 313 “The Future of Work”

BCM313 has been a complete delight to be apart of, I can honestly say that never in my five years of university have I felt compelled to reach out to a tutor or lecturer after completing a subject to offer my most sincere thanks, until this one.

The breadth of topics we as a cohort covered were so extremely relevant to every person in the class and the intricate, stimulating discussions were something I would be talking about to any one of my family/friends/work colleagues for the following week.

The exploration into Michael Whites work surrounding narrative therapy was an insight which I have learned to put into practice deeply in my daily life and Kate Bowles is an absolute beacon at the University of Wollongong, she had a ferocious intention to ensure that every single person in our class felt heard, validated and respected in every sense of these words. Her and Giverny made an amazing team in facilitating these weekly seminars.

Finding your alignments

Image: Lucy & I

Lucy radiates confidence charisma and a lush feminine energy, she’s the type of person you want to be around. I knew she would be a captivating person to interview for this task because thing I admire most about Lucy is how strong her sense of self is. This seems to be something she is intrinsically connected to practicing and something I feel like I could learn a lot from. I was so excited to delve into her academic background as well as her career since graduating university because although we have been close friends for around six years, I actually don’t know all that much about her motivations surrounding her career choice and what got her here today. 

There are two major facets to Lucy’s story which emerged during my interview with her which resonated closely with me. The first is Lucy’s commitment to the perpetual quest in finding her personal alignments and secondly, Lucy’s story of her hardship when experiencing her parents divorce, this informed many of her decisions in later life in regards to being financially stable, self sufficient as well as avoiding codependency.

Lucy expressed during the interview that although she was the top student in her drama class in year 12 during high school she decided to drop drama as a subject and pick up economics in order to prove to herself that she could acquire a different skill-set. In her reasoning for picking up economics she said of business studies;  “I felt like business studies was really boring I kind of felt like it was advanced common sense” and thus she took on the subject economics for the HSC and ended up achieving highly. This quote from Lucy is a deep insight into her character, Lucy is truly an entrepreneur at heart seeking opportunities wherever she goes and using her ferocious charm and crafty interpersonal skills to get her to wherever she wants to be – so much so that her second ever job out of university consisted of her setting up her own interiors firm adjacent to a construction company. The owners were looking to expand their business into interiors and enlisted Lucy to set up the firm. She was given her own office space completely separate from the building company in another location and a personal assistant as well as room to house her own interns. Lucy was capable of gaining and managing clients as well as managing the design process, running her own office and feeding jobs back through to the owners at 23 years old two years out of university. This is a testament to Lucy’s professionalism and broad scope of skills but above all her strong sense of self

Lucy expressed later in the interview that she doesn’t define her passion as being strictly interior design and that she is very open to different ideas of work. Lucy recounts that she has found her true alignments through doing things that she felt weren’t in alignment with her at all. This notion of finding what Lucy described as “what lights you up” I think is an extremely pervasive attitude to have in venturing into the world of “work” as well as just generally, in life. In congruence with this; a sense of self is something I discovered to be vital in finding your true alignments. I am still very much battling finding my sense of self in an everyday capacity and I think that’s why I was so keen to interview Lucy as her sense of self is unwavering and to study that up close was so interesting. Finding your true alignments of course is much easier said than done and this is why this rang so true for me whilst I was synthesising all of the material I collected during my interview with Lucy. I myself have had a turbulent university experience between switching degrees, deferring and going on exchange probably at the wrong time, but I think with age I am slowly figuring out my true alignments and I think this is definitely not a linear process, coming to terms with this can harbour some frustration but  it can also aid in keeping calm! Lucy is her own best friends I truely think we all should be too. 

An Exploration into the Euphoria Fandom – Part Two

Throughout part one of my project pitch I explained my motivations in selecting an exploration into the Euphoria fandom as my ethnographic research project topic.

I will be undertaking an extensive investigation into the subject of ‘fandom’ at a basic level and the history of fandom to harvest data behind motivations and all facets which make up a fandom plus the different types of fandoms which exist. This will be executed throughout the analysis of primary and secondary sources such as research articles/papers/journals.  In creating this basis of information it will produce a platform for me to then delve into the Euphoria fandom.

Image curtesy of HBO

It will be vital for me to recount majority of the storyline as well as develop a character profile for each of the main characters which are Rue, Jules, Maddy, Nate, Kat, Cassie, McKay, Lexi, Fez, Ashtray to further the understanding of my audience (although of course my recommendation would be to watch Euphoria). I will be discussion the origins of Euphoria including the directors influence on the show.

The characters are monumentally important however they are vessels for the significant thematic concerns which are presented in Euphoria which are the overarching issues showcased throughout the plot. These thematic concerns include sex, violence, drug abuse, social media and trauma and are constructed cinematically in a way which aids the gen Z audience in relating on a different level. This is achieved through the language used, the film techniques applied and the embellishments such as the wardrobe and the makeup, the harmonization of all of these elements together achieved what no other series at the time had ever achieved before which is an inextricable connection to its target audience.

Image curtesy of HBO

Another aim of my project is to uncover the way the show has transformed from just a pilot series into an entire beauty movement which shook up the whole beauty community and thus the YouTube community, having one of Maddy’s makeup looks become a trademark for the whole entire notion of “Euphoria makeup”. This aim will be achieved through a deep social media investigation including beauty YouTube tutorials, Instagram photos and tweets from Twitter as well as research into ‘stan’ (stalker-fan) accounts.

Formatting of the report is still at a to-be-confirmed status as I think throughout my research I will uncover information which may inform the medium of which I present the project in therefore I won’t be deciding this at the present time. It is vital that all the research data remain ethically sourced in order to keep my research reliable and accurate therefore I will be continually consulting the MEAA Journalism Code of Ethics during the research and reporting process.

 

 

An Exploration into the Euphoria Fandom – Part One

My lovely lecturer Sue Turnbull has broadened my mind about the subject of ethnographic research immensely and much to my delight.  After weeks of conducting mini ethnographic study’s on preconceived media-related topics, my second assessment challenged me with the task of undertaking a personal ethnographic study within the realm of media use in a specific context. I decided to delve into an in-depth exploration of HBO’s drama series, Euphoria and its youthful, eclectic fandom. The series premiered on the 16th of June 2019 and the internet’s response was pandemic.

Image courtesy of Eddy Chen/HBO

Ethnography is a rich form of research in which the researcher ‘observes, listens, writes and records, they think and reflect – and they tell stories about what they have discovered that helps the listener understand the lives, the perspectives and the rationales of those whom they study.’ (Turnbull, 2019). Ethnography for me stands out as experiential in its research capacity, one which I became very familiar with over the past ten weeks of this subject. I believe full immersion into the research area is the only way to fully encapsulate an understanding and harvest the most accurate results.

Euphoria blew up the internet. The show’s pilot spanned over eight forty minute episodes packed with hundreds of Gen Z thematic concerns and intertextual references including juuling, abortion, drugs, ‘camming’/sex work, rape, toxic relationships. The show is very confronting and begins with a trigger warning before every episode but is extremely relevant in 2019. One of the main components of the fandom I will be assessing is “Euphoria makeup”. The makeup on Euphoria is a lead character in and of itself, with the head makeup artists Doniella Davy and Kristen Sage Coleman constructing a hyperrealistic adaptation of Gen Z makeup expression, as a result thousands of “Euphoria makeup” looks cascaded down into twitter, instagram and most importantly YouTube. Euphoria makeup is a key component of the Euphoria fandom and not only has become an expression but also an actual term used to describe anyone who is wearing makeup deemed out of the norm or over the top.

Images courtesy of @kirinrider & @donni.davy

“While observing, the ethnographer’s aim is to look beyond the obvious and discover the key components that collectively make up an “ecosystem” of observations.” (Hasbrouck, 2018) – This is what I aim to do extensively whilst researching ethnographically the Euphoria fandom. My main reason for selecting Euphoria as a case study for my ethnographic research is because I am a huge fan of the show, during the time it aired I went down the YouTube rabbit hole of watching interview upon interview with the cast and crew, the behind the scenes content and especially hearing the director Sam Levinson speak on his vision for the show. I believe the show houses such raw and intense characters who represent a demographic which is identifiable for an entire generation.

In part two of my pitch I will establish my methodologies and map out a plan for my research.

References

@donni.davy ,2019, <https://www.instagram.com/donni.davy/&gt;

Jay Hasbrouck, 2018, Ethnographic Thinking: From Method to Mindset <https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=aca6884d-c2c8-4e1e-ba6a-7f0aec8f654a%40sdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=uow.b2842543&db=cat03332a&gt; Accessed 1 October 2019

@kirinrider, 2019, <https://www.instagram.com/kirinrider/> 

Lacasa, Pilar & de la Fuente Prieto, Julián & García-Pernía, María & Cortés, Sara, 2017, Teenagers, Fandom and Identity. Persona Studies, 3. 51. 10.21153/ps2017vol3no2art648.

The Absent but Implicit

Like many of the students both at university and in our Future of Work (BCM 313) class, I have worked within the hospitality industry for roughly 5 years now. Working within the service industry comes with a unique set of challenges, many of which involves surrendering any instinct to express real thoughts or feelings, to wearing a faux smile, or just apologising copious amounts for things out of your control that you had absolutely no involvement in. It can be a real exercise in control and patience although at times, it can also feel like you’re a Stepford wife.

The Stepford Wives (2004) Image: Pinterest

Working within hospitality or generally any profession, you are, to an extent, required to leave your values essentially at the door and adhere to a preconceived set of values created by the company you work for, in majority of occupations, this means being professional.

I worked within the lobby bar of a hotel and our management at the time didn’t inspire much confidence especially for the females on our team. A vapid ‘boys club’ mentality was rife as the males on the team outnumbered the females and the dynamic of having one slightly older male in the team meant that all the rest would fawn for this older male’s attention in very crude ways. I was having none of it, not on my watch were the girls in my team being made to feel uncomfortable, so as any reasonable person would I approached management with aims of resolving this grotesque culture.

I spoke to a male manager in our department whom was my first point of contact, although I was very aware of the relationships he had with the males in the team, I also spoke to a very far removed female HR manager whom had no outside connections to anyone in our team. The difference in how both of these conversations went was, as you could imagine, astronomical. Both of these managers have of course extremely different roles and responsibilities towards me and towards our team however both have a duty of care to everyone in the team.

This was resolved after weeks of back and forth, he said she said and interviewing of all people in our team. Managers owe some form of transparency but also benefit of a doubt to accused parties, however my expeience in speaking with these two very different kinds of managers yielded extremely different results. My male manager was doubtful of the accounts I had described, he played things down and told me I was “blowing things out of proportion”. The female HR manager was extremely horrified, disgusting and apologetic, she swiftly moved onto constructing a work based action plan to investigate and resolve things.

Emotional contagion (Hatfield, Cacioppo & Rapson 1992) is the theory backing the conceptual framework to explain how an individual’s emotions can have a direct affect on surrounding individual/s to trigger similar emotions or behaviours, this can be done consciously or subconsciously and has been further postulated upon through the lens of the service industry and the effects the transactional nature has on this emotional contagion (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2006).

“Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. ” – Frederick Nietzsche

Emotional contagion manifests itself through humans through our intrinsic desire for belonging this is achieved through three different forms of mimicry sourced from visual feedback including facial mimicry, vocal mimicry and postural mimicry. It could be argued that emotional contagion is implicit, however our control over this is to some degree absent, our innate biological impulse is to increase the chances of bonding, understanding and mutual involvement in social situations. This can be completely subverted if and individual has negative emotions towards a situation as it was when I spoke to the male manager.

Although body language may adhere to emotional contagion; the spoken word will often open the door to a completely different, constructed narrative. Michael White delves into the depths of notion of the ‘absent but implicit’. White developed this framework as a part of his narrative therapy ideology which implores individuals externalise the problem through varying techniques in order to overcome adversity.

“The concept of the ‘absent but implicit’ supports us to consider expressions of distress as actions. People are not just giving a passive re-telling of what is problematic, rather the expression of the problem can itself be thought of as a response. If the expression was not a form of resistance, protest or question, then it would not be raised as a problem. ” – Michael White

The absent but implicit framework can be analysed when I spoke with the male manager whom back-peddled many of the boys’ actions and attempted to diffuse a situation which had no business in being diffused versus the female HR managers approach which obviously resonated with her in some way which I assume is why she took such swift action.

The future of work could potentially become especially difficult to navigate when certain situations arise, especially within the digital era. In examining Michael White’s ‘absent but implicit’ framework shows individuals can extract a great deal of information about people they interact with to discern ideals and values those people may hold. Skilfully manoeuvring conversation and questions may be the difference between being heard and being believed.

References

Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, Markus Groth, Michael Paul, & Dwayne D. Gremler, 2006, ‘Are All Smiles Created Equal? How Emotional Contagion and Emotional Labor Affect Service Relationships’, Journal of Marketing, Vol.70 <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dwayne_Gremler/publication/312768550_Not_All_Smiles_are_Created_Equal_How_Employee-Customer_Emotional_Contagion_Impacts_Service_Relationships/links/588b8d6145851567c93c9e9e/Not-All-Smiles-are-Created-Equal-How-Employee-Customer-Emotional-Contagion-Impacts-Service-Relationships.pdf&gt; Accessed 4 September 2019

Elaine Hatfield, Richard L. Rapson, and Yen-Chi L. Le, Emotional Contagion and Empathy, University of Hawaii, <http://www.neurohumanitiestudies.eu/archivio/Emotional_Contagion.pdf&gt; Accessed 4 September 2019

Elaine Hatfield, John Cacioppo, Richard Rapson, 1992, Primitive Emotional Contagion, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol 2. pp. 151-177 <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232480409_Primitive_emotional_contagion&gt; Accessed 4 September 2019

Maggie Carey, Sarah Walther, Shona Russell, 2009, ‘The Absent but Implicit – a map to support therapeutic enquiry’, University of Adelaide,
<http://narrativepractices.com.au/attach/pdf/The_absent_but_implicit_-_A_map.pdf> Accessed 6 September 2019

My Twittersphere as a Digital Ethnography

My OG Twitter account says I joined Twitter in July 2009, at 13 years old and in year 7 at school I was an avid member of the Lady Gaga fandom, I’m pretty sure the reason I joined Twitter was to follow her every move. I feel like images and videos circulate the fastest on Twitter above any other platform which is why as a Lady Gaga stan (stan; a portmanteau born from the words ‘stalker’ and ‘fan’) I had to be up to date at all times.

I only knew of a few people who actively used Twitter but throughout my whole high school experience Snapchat and Instagram dominated the social media sphere. Twitter was always seen as a weird app that no one knew how to use but I quietly relished in all the meme’s I would see lightyears in front of when they finally would surface and circulate on Facebook, I was the friend everyone would show things to and I would say “Oh yeah, I’ve already seen that”.

The reason I’ve decided to do an ethnography into my own personal world of Twitter is because it is so niche, the collection of people I follow isn’t huge but I have actually created some really good friends from all over Sydney, New Zealand, Germany and America using this app. We all speak not only just via Twitter but we all have each others personal mobile numbers and have a separate group chat for just texting. One girl I met who lives in New Zealand works at a bank and gives me financial planning advice via email, most of the men I follow are gay men around my age the first time I went to a party to meet all of them they all thought I was actually a gay man as well supposedly from the way I spoke online.

Photo: The boys and I right after I arrived at the party and they found out I was not a gay man.

The main thing everybody has in common which for me is why I could define this as a sub-culture, is the unique language everybody communicates in and the almost identical interests everybody has. This includes various aspects of pop culture such as the Kardashians, Bella Hadid, Ariana Grande, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (and NYC), Emily Ratajkowski, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Alexa Demie, concepts of self care (face masks, drinking water, hygiene practices, manicures, being healthy), astrology, caffeine habits, Youtuber’s, beauty guru’s, the entire fashion community, any recent show on Netflix or HBO and the only sport that is ever mentioned is Tennis (Rodger Federer, duh). Not only this but our stance on issues such as equality, feminism, human rights issues, reproductive health issues and topics like gender, climate change and environmentalism. I believe that because everyone’s extensive interests and values align so successfully this is the reason why everybody feels so close to one another, to be able to express opinions and for those opinions be validated and uplifted, one feels as so though they are seen. In order to mesh with this one tiny sub-culture of people one must be able to keep up to date with the perpetual tweeting schedule which is essentially everyday.

The funniest thing about this sub-culture is the way everybody communicates and the language we use I have chosen a few select phrases I’m about to break down:

kdkajsks (or some variation of this): Is meant to pertain to one being so shocked/excited/laughing so much that they can not longer type properly they can only bash the keyboard to finish with an incomprehensible collection of letters.

I’m screaming or I’M SCREAMING: Is the same level of excitement/shock factor/responding to something funny.

Geoyals: Spelt how it is pronounced, but really just means ‘girls’ but is said with a Ru Paul accent who is the creator and head judge of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

Electric chair: Said when something is highly unfavourable, or if someone does something even slightly shameful, disgusting or goes against groups values.

Sis: Endearing name for anyone

She/her: Used as pronouns for everyone including males, as well as anything inanimate or anything in nature including animals.

Snapped: Excelling at doing something, especially executing a really good outfit or makeup look.

And I oop: Originated from drag queen Jasmine Masters’ Youtube video, used when you’re surprised or shocked about something.

I would like to see it: Used when you would like to see something happen or get done or literally see something you haven’t seen before.

Wow what a moment: Said when in awe

Wig: This comes from the term ‘wig is snatched’ which usually means someones wig blends so well into their natural hairline you cannot notice the wig, however it escalated when lots of the contestants of Ru Paul’s Drag Race continually kept ripping off their wigs in the Lip Sync for Your Life segment of the competition, so from this we say ‘wig’ so anything we are shocked or proud of.

Although this is only a tiny segment of my personal Twittersphere, I wanted to illustrate this section of my life which actually has allowed me to have friends across the globe that even though I don’t personally see them all the time, I connect with all of them on a daily basis and it’s nice to have a network of people who just get you.

My Networked Life (gone awry)

When asked to examine our networked home within Media Ethnographies, although it was no brand new information to me; my life is inextricably ‘connected’ (in the broadest sense of the word). Coincidentally I ran into some phone drama’s this week, after dropping my iPhone XS one too many times, the phone would automatically restart after continual use for any longer than 60 seconds, this made this ethnographic study definitely more revealing than I intended as the maximum I could be on my phone at any one time would be literally 60 seconds. Perfect.

I wake up to my Google home every morning which has been previously set the night prior with an alarm for 7am and more often than not a Kanye West song to accompany it to hopefully put me in a pleasant mood. Since my shutters have completely blacked out any shred of my circadian rhythm or my ability to observe the outside world I ask Google what the weather is like;

“Hey Google, what’s the weather like today?”

“Currently in North Wollongong it is partly cloudy with a high of 21 degrees and a low of 17 degrees celsius”

Image (supplied) Pinterest

My outfit choices rely on the information given to me by a female voice coming out of a little circular box designed by Google…

In any normal week am connected at all times, wherever I go, I make doctors appointments online, I am an avid ApplePay customer (relinquishing the need for carrying my wallet or cash whatsoever), I don’t remember the last time I listened to the radio by choice as my phone is connected to my car via bluetooth which means the second I jump into the car I am already on Spotify selecting my pre-curated playlists for whatever mood I’m in. This is the same for Airdrop, Apple’s the file sharing system supported by bluetooth, this actually makes me interact with my android user friends slightly differently. I use my iPhone for maps and navigation when I’m driving, before eating at any restaurant I have already been examining their menu on their website or investigating their Instagram account to see what the food actually looks like, this extends to not just the venue’s own Instagram account, but their tagged photos (aka the photos their clientele have uploaded). This sometimes gives more breadth of information as it’s not a picture perfect, edited photo of a dish that was styled at a photo shoot specifically for Instagram with stunning lighting, but rather a more realistic representation. My phone has my work roster which is sent me via both email or an app and my laptop is almost always on hand as well to either complete work for university, do creative things or simply binge Netflix or Youtube. And all this hasn’t even factored in my social media usage habits, go figure.

I wish I could possibly list every way I am connected but now picture this girl who is functioning at a level of connectivity this high, to have the integral part of the connectivity web being the iPhone, constricted to a functionality timeframe of 60 seconds per use. The frustration is bordering on me voluntarily checking myself into a psych ward. I had to drive to Sydney twice this week and had to listen to the RADIO, this loss of control probably hit me the hardest and completely exacerbated my contempt for radio.

I’m very aware of the luxury I am granted by the amount of connectivity I possess, it wasn’t until 2016 that the internet was declared a basic human right at by the United Nations Human Rights Council stating it is critical, particularly in terms of the right to freedom of expression. My phone going haywire this week was most definitely an exercise of patience and also just surrendering myself to the world around me which I am so accustom to having such finesse over when navigating, although I can’t say I would choose to voluntarily do this ever again, please.

References

8 A right to access the Internet, Rights and Freedoms, Australian Human Rights Commission, https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/8-right-access-internet Accessed 4 September 2019

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Cinematic Ethnography

Sue’s delightful and cohesive introduction into the rich history of the cinema experience was one to remember, I especially appreciated the motif of the beautiful old art deco cinemas resembling that of a womb, the Scorsese red velour carpets and plush comfortable chairs, a giant confined space which enables the audiences focus to be completely manipulated to attend only to the large screen projecting the film, however a cinema experience is much more than just the film, as we densely unpacked, it is a complete full-body sensory experience. The freshly popped, salty, buttery popcorn smell, which has been recounted as being fake news. This “popcorn smell” which chemists actually constructed only needs heat to be released, attach a fan and a ventilation system and this is all you need to condition the universal collective memory of the world to attach the scent of popcorn with a cinema theatre experience. 

Let me be clear, I am by no means an avid cinema go-er. I mean, I feel after I met my boyfriend it become a cute date night idea however I am much more the type to just stream whatever new movie it is to be in the loop. But nothing will drag my ass to the cinema faster than a Quentin Tarantino film. I relish in the rich narrative, meticulous cinematography and hilariously clever dialogue. Especially in that Tarantino has consistently claimed he will only be writing and directing ten films in his lifetime, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood brings that grand total to number nine (if we’re counting the Kill Bill volumes as one whole masterpiece).

 

 

Tarantino is someone who is considered a master in film making, he is notable for his violence blood and gore as well as and his outwardly obvious foot fetish (which is ever present in film number nine and copious amounts of supercuts on youtube like this one) Tarantino above all, has such merit within the film industry in his ability to narrativise whilst entertain, which I believe to be the crux of the reason people attend cinemas.

To be honest this cinema going experience when my boyfriend and I went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a pretty unconventional and spontaneous decision, having spoken about both yearning to see the film for weeks it was 8:50pm when he called me and said “Let’s go watch the Tarantino movie tonight”, I scrambled on my laptop to find the showing times at Hoyts in Warrawong (once you go leather reclining seats, you DO NOT go back) to find the last time was 9:10pm “are you serious, it’s legit 8:50 and the only time for tonight is 9:10”, “yeah that’s fine let’s go”. So we went. I think we arrived at 9:20pm and quickly purchased the ridiculously priced popcorn and drinks combo and I forced us both to go to the bathroom because I knew this movie went for close to three hours. We walked in as the opening scene commenced (made it just in time thank god) although we were both pretty devo to have missed the previews.

After the movie was over, all of 10 members of the movie theatre including us stuck around for the potential post-credits scene which we weren’t disappointed with. We quickly scurried out as fast as we could to get home to watch an episode of the new HBO series Euphoria.

I digress, BCM 241 implores me to view this ethnography through the lens of Torsten Hägerstrand’s time-space geography perspective noting the three major constraints:

Capability constraints: Refers to all limits places on humans in terms of cruciality of eating/sleeping plus financial needs the activity permits.

Coupling constraints: Refers to having to coordinate with other individuals such as friends or family members but also having to coordinate with travel time and set times of institutions or corporations.

Authority constraints: This is limits on whether or not the activity can take place due to external authoritative constraints such as opening/closing hours.

We glided through Hägerstrand’s time-space geography perspective without running into any constraints other than the authority constraint, as the last showing of the movie was in 20 minutes from the time my boyfriend Dean exclaimed ‘we must go tonight’ we were very time short when it came to me collecting him from where he was in Wollongong to us semi-speeding to make the movie on time, I suppose this could be viewed as a coupling constraint.

References

Matthew Alice, Popcorn Smells – Real and Fake, San Diego Reader, 20 July 1995, https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1995/jul/20/straight-popcorn-smells-real-and-fake/# Accessed 23 August 2019

Hannah Chambers, What’s Up With All The Feet in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’?, Cosmopolitan, 26 July 2019,  https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a28521014/once-upon-a-time-hollywood-quentin-tarantino-foot-fetish/ Accessed 23 August 2019

Joanna Robinson, Does Quentin Tarantino Really Have Just 2 More Movies in Him?, Vanity Fair, 12 July 2019, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/07/quentin-tarantino-ten-movies-retirement Accessed 23 August 2019

Schonfelder, S & Axhausen KW 2010, ‘Time, Space and Travel Analysis: An Overview’, in S Schonfelder & KW Axhausen, Urban Rhythms and Travel Behaviour: Spatial and Temporal Phenomena of Daily Travel, Ashgate Publishing Company, Surrey, p.29-48.