TASK 1a - Professional profile (part 2 - CV)

This was the first task I completed. I blogged and allowed people's comments to influence my reflection as I began editing my profile. This can be seen on the post titled, TASK 1a - Professional profile. Please click on the title as its linked to the blog (I just learnt this and was dying to show that trick off).

I wanted to post a part 2 on this task as I wasn't satisfied that I'd explored it enough. At the last campus session, we discussed that performer's tend to have lots of different CVs. One for performing, one for teaching and one for day jobs. I wanted to explore the process of merging those CVs together, sifting out the unnecessary and focusing on the credits that serve me best. My latest version is to really shout about the teaching and mention the performance work at the bottom. I'm interested to know how my fellow BAPP network are doing this...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QR52vpv3KcAP_FYN5ox7t8YarfRF9Kr-m38WmO7R0Ig/edit

Also, I've been looking for an opportunity to use google documents and there it is. Then it occurred to me, my CV is online and I have access to it wherever. What a great tool, gone are the days where someone expresses an interest in my work and I send a hard copy of my CV. Now click a button and away you go.

1st campus session

The first campus session today was lead by tutor Adesola Akinleye. It was a real kick start to the course, full of introductions and advice on managing studying on the BAPP programme. We then explored the content and tasks in module 1, sharing ideas on getting blogs started and briefly looking at professional communication technologies. We then had to draw a diagram on one aspect of the course. In my group we drew a rocket about to launch. Adesola used the rocket as a symbol, in order to launch the rocket of our studies, we had to first gather our past experiences to fuel our journey. Once we have taken off, we need to engage in the experience of the journey and not be fixated on the end destination - the qualification. The Image is attached below...

A really interesting concept came up in the session. As performers we can often focus on the end destination of a journey, getting the job. Even when you are working on a particular role, instead of being present in that journey we sit and obsess about the next job and the next destination. On the BAPP programe old perofermer habits must be broken, engaing in the process is the only way you will reach the end destination. I found this hard, I am used to having a tick list and getting the job done. The idea of starting something without the end insight is a new concept to me. I shall try to let go of where I want to go and engage in the process, but I can't promise I won't at least glimpse at the arrival point.

Subscribe by email.

Just a little technical thing on blogging I wanted to shout about. Are you finding that when you comment on someone's blog, you don't get a notification email if they reply? I thought you just had to remember all your comments and keep going back to keep the conversation going. But then I found that if you click on subscribe by email, just to the right under your comment. It sends you all email notifications of comments on that particular blog. This will help us keep track of what we are saying and help us with our reflection and criticism tasks.

TASK 1b: Reader in Professional communication technologies (part 3 - Stage Status)

Looking further on my task on reader one. As if by pure coincidence, I came across a new communication technology platform, it was introduced to me via face book message by a work colleague. Allow me to introduce to you the new Web 2.0 platform, Stage Status.

It is the only theatrical networking site, connecting people form all backgrounds, in the performing arts industry. I thought this was a brilliant idea. In my previous blogs on task 1b, I explored the impact communication networks can have on my practice, but this takes it to a whole new level. Yes it works exactly the same as any other communication platform, but this is specific to my industry. We are all heading for the same thing and have the same mantra - Performing arts. Its like one big theatrical party full of potential useful connections to make, only thing is, you can do it from your laptop at home in your pyjamas. This got me thinking, is this now the new generation for communication technology sites? Will they start cornering off and becoming specific to who is on the guest list?

I also thought about networking in the performing industry. We all know those people that go to the right events, source out the most influential people and make sure they are sitting at the right table. Judge them as people do, they are the ones networking and probably succeeding in the expansion of their career. Stage Status allows you to connect to these people without feeling like you are the ambitious 'it girl' at a party. It eradicates any negativity around networking because everyone is on the site to connect, that's why they're on the site and they want to hear from you. Suddenly you are networking and connecting, but instead of having to search for the connection, its already there waiting for an approach. Everyone is there for one reason only, they have performing arts in common and they want to hear from you...

TASK 1b: Reader in Professional communication technologies (part 2 - Twitter)

Continuing on from my first blog on this task. There was a Web 2.0 application that I haven't ever indulged in and I thought it was time to check it out. Twitter - "Instantly connect to what's most important to you. Follow friends, experts, favourite celebrities, and breaking news," is what the home page told me. Twitter is a world of communication where people shout about something through a status update, a community where people follow each other and comment back and forth. This whole process is called tweeting and unlike facebook, there is no friend requesting and accepting needed. If you are tweeting on twitter, your audience is the whole world of the twitter. This means all access is open, from celebrity to professional contact, if they're tweeting, you have access to the information. Yet again the idea is present, no matter how different  a persons background or status, everyone is part of one big community and are free to communicate. The more this happens the more the web platform breaths, it relies on activity to allow it to live.

I then remembered a recent conversation I had with close friend and fellow actress, Helen Colley. She was advised to open a twitter account, it was recommended like it was the latest must have for an actor. Helen had decided to go ahead with the idea. When my work began on this task, I couldn't stop thinking about Hellen Colley and how she was getting on with her new Web 2.0 platform? I emailed my enquiry to her and pasted below is my reply...

Hi Ahmet.

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to get a bit pro-active about my career.  I felt like it was time to actually have a go at "making things happen", as they say, rather than just chilling out with a cup of tea waiting for my agent to call - which let's be honest ain't that often!  A mate of mine who is really pro-active had been on at me to join Twitter for ages.  Now, to be honest, I even find Facebook a bit of a drag at times - feeling the need to check it, and comment, and post a status... and that's essentially just keeping up with mates.  So was this Twitter malarkey going to be a bit of a drag too?  Well, the main reason I decided to give it a go was because this friend had said Twitter was the best new way of networking within the industry, without actually going up and making idle conversation with an important yet complete stranger in the hope that they might pull you in for an audition, or, God forbid, give you a job - a past time which generally makes me cringe.  So, I joined Twitter.  I gave it a bash in the hope that a contact or two would be made, or an audition might be sought.  Well, it's been nearly a month since I created my profile, and I seem to have given up a bit already! I have found that in order to get the most out of it, you have to be logged in for a fair amount of time, and quite frankly, I've not got an iphone so I'm not on the internet all day, plus I've got better things to be doing!  I think you have to be tweeting interesting, anecdotal, funny or controversial things in order to be considered worth following.  This concept in itself, like the "how many friends have you got" thing with Facebook, I find a little patronising - a cyber popularity contest if you will.  I simply can't be bothered to compete.  I can't be bothered to think things up for the sake of it and don't really want to be telling all of tweetsville what I am having for my dinner!  Plus, the absolute drivel that you have to trawl through in order to find anything really worth reading, like a casting for instance, is quite irritating. 

 

On a more positive note, when I do have a little scroll through the people I am following (and I have tried to keep it as business orientated as possible), there are a few jobs, auditions, news items which interest me.  Plus, I can advertise myself as an actor, and lots of my actor/director acquaintances are on Twitter, so I spose it may come in handy at some point.  Unfortunately, I have yet to really network on Twitter.  I don't think it's all it's cracked up to be, or maybe I'm just not putting in enough effort in order to get anything out - very possibly the latter.  But I spose I will keep my account active as there's no point closing it down.  As yet, it hasn't made a blind bit of difference to my career, and I still find the whole self-promotion thing a little on the cringy side.  I'm much happier having a cuppa waiting for my agent to call! Maybe I'm in the wrong business?!

  
For the first time in my learning so far, there is a bit of bad press for communication technology. I guess some people just don't want to buy into Web 2.0 culture. I'm learning it can be perceived as self celebratory or intrusive. Still, you can't ignore the latter part of the email that confirms that people in her industry are using this web tool and improving her professional network is possible, should she want to use it.

Task 1d: 2d images (part 2)

My Work, a set on Flickr.

After looking at Simone Gradjean's blog on task 1d. I saw that her flickr link came with thumbnails, giving you a taster of the photos before you click on the link. I liked this and felt inspired by her. I went back to my flickr account and after much trial and error, I worked out how to do it. Thank you Simone, I have learnt from you.

TASK 1b: Reader in Professional communication technologies

My thoughts on the first reader...

After reading reader 1 twice, I decided to do my own research to see if I could retrieve something that might make this whole subject a little clearer for me. That was when I made my first discovery, as I was about to find out Web 2.0 really is a whole world of communication technology. Like anything I goggled it and searched around and nothing really caught my eye. My next step was to search it on You tube, I chose the video with the highest views and watched it (I've linked it below):-

And then I found this video, this one is really good:-

And then I realised. Not only have I just participated in professional communication technology, I have been doing so as part of my personal life and professional practice for years. This then lead me to the idea, that Web 2.0 is an important aspect of communication in the world today. I had no idea what web 2.0 was and I was unknowingly using one of its applications to find out.

I could then go back to the reader with a different attitude, one that allowed me to look at Tim O'Reilly's meme and identify with most (not all) of the diagram and understand this so called phenomenon. The words that stuck out most to me in this section of the reader were 'Architectures of Participation', the idea that this very tool of communication is built on the basis that everyone gets involved and interacts. The very foundations are based on people collaborating and sharing and this keeps the application alive. I was then introduced to remix culture. An exciting platform that enables people to redecorate materials such as photos or music and share their opinions and banter over artifacts of media. Then a new term is born, the 'prosumer'. An idea that producer and consumer are combined and in control. Artifacts are under constant development and ever changing.

Suddenly this all gets really exciting, studies from Feenberg and Bakardjieva conclude that Web 2.0 is an excellent tool in building and developing relationships. It promotes connectivity beyond people's community circle and brings contact to all types of people from different backgrounds. Further more, all you need is an internet connection to get to them. Suddenly I'm aware of what this all means to me as a professional practitioner, Web 2.0 platforms are the modern key to expansion and promotion for me as a performer/teacher. Through the liberation of data and contacts, I find freedom in having access to a world of communication. It's not just about who you know in my industry anymore, its about who are you connecting to using a Web 2.0?...