Autumn has arrived here in New Zealand and I notice that I'm increasingly thinking about returning to Finland. 42 days and counting by my reckoning. During the last 2 months there's been little time for blogging activity in the way that I managed in January and February. That can also be read as an effect of me getting off my butt more and moving around this amazing land. I've also found it more sociable to use Facebook and Twitter (or both combined) to tell briefly what I've been doing and where I've been.
I have now amassed thousands upon thousands of images which are already archived on 1TB disks but which also need lots of editing. And soon I need some more disks it seems. I've got funding from the Finnish Art Council to make on exhibition this year so that's my artistic aim no.1 for the time being. The most rewarding part of the sabbatical has been, for me, to get back into working as a photographer. That has been both a creative and technical challenge as so much has changed since I was an active photographic artist in the late 80s and early 1990s. I always joked in recent years that I was master of Photoshop version 1.0.7. Digi photo pioneers will understand the joke, and the challenge I've had to catch up.
My research subject, which, described roughly, was location based media services in New Zealand has also been quite a challenge. But at least I've been learning why state of the art mobile media services are not yet developed here. Similarly the whole Broadband development here seems to still be years behind many other Western countries. The new New Zealand government has pledged to make huge improvements but, then again, so did the government before them. My meeting with experts and officials will continue till the end of May.
TK (my wife for those that don't know) was here and left back for Finland again last week :-( So it's back to lonely bachelor life again, this time in an increasingly chilly house on the side of Mount Vic. Last night I rummaged through the cupboard in the bedroom and uncovered an electric blanket. Cold and lonely....and suffering from a bad back. Miserable me.
Looking towards mass media for escape, comfort and uplifting experiences I braved the wind last night and went to see Slumdog Millionaire at last. OK, everyone has already seen that ages ago, I know. It is a great film and it brought back personal memories of the Mumbai slums from my visit there in 2007. And I was wondering whether the same notion can be applied to the country, India, and this film. They say that India defies definition and, typically, 'that whatever you say about India, the opposite is also true'. I was thinking that maybe this is really saying that, in a nation where there really are just so many people, so many more and so tightly packed into those major sprawling centres that, really, everything happens, can happen and will happen. But, as we know and fear, it's usually the bad and sad things that happen. I really thought that Jamal should have failed on the last question. The ending was just so Hollywood, getting the cash AND the girl.
Returning home and with nothing decent on TV I was somehow sucked into the euphoria surrounding the relatively recent appearance of unemployed 47-year old Scottish spinster, Susan Boyle singing a song from Les Miserables on Britain's Got Talent; heart warming with 5 stars.
This morning, re-chilled, when I checked the viewing stats on YouTube again it seems that her performance is about to become the most viewed audiovisual performance in Internet history to date. I still haven't seen a picture of her cat, Pebbles, but surely that will come. Only 10 days after her 'jaw dropping' vocal performance
Susan Boyle and her story is extremely well documented in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Boyle. I also noted that some people are advertising to non-British residents that they are 'setting up' ways for them to vote for Susan Boyle in the next rounds of Britain's Got Talent. It's all quite fascinating in terms of Media business: Global media companies doing 'nationally-based' business (revenue on nationally restricted voting mechanisms) with TV but distributing those shows globally later (strengthening their brand and supporting record sales) now being challenged by the power of Internet-based social media for immediate access to the shows (non-restricted viewing) and also the possibility to influence the outcome of the competitions (non-restricted voting possibilities). If I were a TV executive I might start employing people to calculate different business models because...over 100 million people on the Internet around the world, in less than 2 weeks, wanting to view and support a 47 year old, unknown Scottish woman in a talent show might have some implications!?
I have now amassed thousands upon thousands of images which are already archived on 1TB disks but which also need lots of editing. And soon I need some more disks it seems. I've got funding from the Finnish Art Council to make on exhibition this year so that's my artistic aim no.1 for the time being. The most rewarding part of the sabbatical has been, for me, to get back into working as a photographer. That has been both a creative and technical challenge as so much has changed since I was an active photographic artist in the late 80s and early 1990s. I always joked in recent years that I was master of Photoshop version 1.0.7. Digi photo pioneers will understand the joke, and the challenge I've had to catch up.
My research subject, which, described roughly, was location based media services in New Zealand has also been quite a challenge. But at least I've been learning why state of the art mobile media services are not yet developed here. Similarly the whole Broadband development here seems to still be years behind many other Western countries. The new New Zealand government has pledged to make huge improvements but, then again, so did the government before them. My meeting with experts and officials will continue till the end of May.
TK (my wife for those that don't know) was here and left back for Finland again last week :-( So it's back to lonely bachelor life again, this time in an increasingly chilly house on the side of Mount Vic. Last night I rummaged through the cupboard in the bedroom and uncovered an electric blanket. Cold and lonely....and suffering from a bad back. Miserable me.
Looking towards mass media for escape, comfort and uplifting experiences I braved the wind last night and went to see Slumdog Millionaire at last. OK, everyone has already seen that ages ago, I know. It is a great film and it brought back personal memories of the Mumbai slums from my visit there in 2007. And I was wondering whether the same notion can be applied to the country, India, and this film. They say that India defies definition and, typically, 'that whatever you say about India, the opposite is also true'. I was thinking that maybe this is really saying that, in a nation where there really are just so many people, so many more and so tightly packed into those major sprawling centres that, really, everything happens, can happen and will happen. But, as we know and fear, it's usually the bad and sad things that happen. I really thought that Jamal should have failed on the last question. The ending was just so Hollywood, getting the cash AND the girl.
Returning home and with nothing decent on TV I was somehow sucked into the euphoria surrounding the relatively recent appearance of unemployed 47-year old Scottish spinster, Susan Boyle singing a song from Les Miserables on Britain's Got Talent; heart warming with 5 stars.
This morning, re-chilled, when I checked the viewing stats on YouTube again it seems that her performance is about to become the most viewed audiovisual performance in Internet history to date. I still haven't seen a picture of her cat, Pebbles, but surely that will come. Only 10 days after her 'jaw dropping' vocal performance
Susan Boyle and her story is extremely well documented in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Boyle. I also noted that some people are advertising to non-British residents that they are 'setting up' ways for them to vote for Susan Boyle in the next rounds of Britain's Got Talent. It's all quite fascinating in terms of Media business: Global media companies doing 'nationally-based' business (revenue on nationally restricted voting mechanisms) with TV but distributing those shows globally later (strengthening their brand and supporting record sales) now being challenged by the power of Internet-based social media for immediate access to the shows (non-restricted viewing) and also the possibility to influence the outcome of the competitions (non-restricted voting possibilities). If I were a TV executive I might start employing people to calculate different business models because...over 100 million people on the Internet around the world, in less than 2 weeks, wanting to view and support a 47 year old, unknown Scottish woman in a talent show might have some implications!?
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