My digital artefact includes the work I produce for AUD’$, including article writing, content curating and social media managing. I developed this project because I wanted to continue my work from previous semesters and build a strong journalism portfolio.

I use Instagram and Twitter to engage with my audience and promote my articles that are uploaded on the AUD’$ website and included in a linktree link in my bio. I’m also active on the AUD’$ YouTube account where I curate music videos for their playlist. My project holds social utility for the growing community of Hip-hop in Australia who are interested in exclusive interviews, reviews and general discussion. Additionally, the project holds social utility to myself as this aligns with my future career and has been successful in helping me achieve my goals.

These were the goals I set myself from my beta. I now have:

• 103 Twitter followers
• 827 AUD’$ YouTube subscribers
• 8,168 AUD’$ Instagram followers
• 436 Instagram followers
• 27 Average Instagram likes

The most obvious feedback loop is the likes that indicate the positive engagement I receive. Initially, I would just repost whenever AUD’$ would post my articles but the Instagram analytics described that the engagement was not as effective, so I decided to change my posting schedule to increase my engagement.

The motto of my project came from the Simplicity Cycle stating, “complexity reduces systems to irrelevancy” (Ward, 2006). After completing my beta, I felt my project was too simple so I decided to lean more into this and increase the casual interactions that I had with my audience by liking, commenting and reposting artists’ work. This adhered to the FIST principles more than what the article writing did as that would usually take me a few hours with interviewing, writing and research time.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about the formatting on the website or posts so that saved time and effort on my part but did make the aesthetics out of my control. Although I perceived myself as an extension of AUD’$, I should aim to create a more unique and distinct aesthetic to increase my social utility and set it apart from the website itself.

A lot of the successes in my project happens behind the scenes, with building my network and organising interviews and exclusive listens through Instagram DM’s and email. Another thing mentioned in my beta is that my work was going to potentially be monetised. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, this hasn’t happened yet as I decided to focus on my articles that gave me the opportunity to form useful relationships with industry people. I think my DA has a strong social utility, but I also feel as though it is too rigid. By having these casual interactions with my audience, I feel as though a new social utility arose as a valuable member to the community who can also offer exclusive content.

In the future, I’d like to diversify my Instagram feed, post more random tweets and prototype the Reels feature for short form visual content that I believe will be more eye-catching and better suited to the Attention economy (Kane, 2019).

Frank Tremain.

For the last week of BCM206, we looked at the Internet of Things, describing the network of physical objects that are embedded with software, sensors and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data.

This inspired my remediation for this week, where I ask when will the mouse replace our fingers? I wonder if Artificial Intelligence and IoT will be able to advance to a point where they will be able to create beats for artists based on the data of popular music at the time and the type of music the artist wants to create.

This may already be a thing, so let me know if you find anything! But it’s interesting to think if IoT will be able to create its own art based on algorithms and the sensors we give off based on our reactions. Whether this happens or not, I don’t think IoT will ever be able to create the same level of ambitious and imaginative artistry that musicians offer.

Frank Tremain.

In this week’s lecture, Ted presented an interesting quote from Kaspersky on the future of cyberspace.

The full quote from Kaspersky reads: “I am afraid this is the beginning of a new world, the 90s were a decade of cyber-vandals, the 2000s were a decade of cyber criminals, I am afraid now it is a new era of cyber-wars and cyber-terrorism.”

With cyber-space still in its infancy, it’s progressed far beyond what many thought and will continue to do so. As Kaspersky hints to in his quote, I’m curious to find out the next era of cyberspace. Will there be one considering the one we are in now is coined the era of cyber-wars and cyber-terrorism? How will cyber-terrorism evolve as more of our lives and identities are shifted online?

While I really don’t have any answers, all I can bring to the conversation is this piece titled The Future of Cyber Conflict. With references to science fiction, philosophical readings and the policies of big hitters like USA, Russia and China, this was a really interesting read and brought forward some answers to what the future of cyber space could look like through the lens of warfare and conflict.

Frank Tremain.

This week’s lecture explored the global network of hackers, whistleblowers and social activists.

Anonymous is an international activist/hactivist collective that is known for their cyber attacks on large corporations and government institutions. I’ve always known about Anonymous and could name you a handful of their operations, but this lecture invited me to investigate the group deeper.

This operation from Anonymous reminded me of their leaking of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. While a person or group claimed to be part of Anonymous, nothing has officially happened as a result. I’m interested to see if they will play a part as the case continues to unfold with the flight logs demanding to be made available to the public. I think Anonymous are an interesting look at hacking and hacktivism and while they help a lot of social issues, I also understand, to some extent, that it could be perceived as cyber terrorism.

What do you think of Anonymous’ work? What do you think they will hack next?

Frank Tremain.

This week in BCM206, we discussed the term ‘walled garden‘ and feudalism.

The walled garden is a concept I have been interested in since first learning about it in BCM112. The walled garden describes a closed ecosystem operated by a single party. A perfect example of this, is Apple and their iOS ecosystem.

In a cnet article, they detail how the walls of Apple’s walled garden is getting higher with iOS14. These walls are also beginning to impact reality, with virtual car keys being able to start your own car and you can share this with friends through iMessages. I wonder to what extent walled gardens will influence reality and how this will matter to the conversation of the internet being “free and open”.

Walled gardens serve companies and corporations while consumers are forced to adjust, or find cracks in the walls to slide through. A simpler version of a walled garden is how news outlets make their content subscriber based on a website. However, they will often upload the same article or news on a platform like Facebook where people can view it for free. Essentially, they’re competing against themselves and I think the walled garden in the news sense is how clickbait journalism really kicked off in a digital landscape.

Frank Tremain.

For week 6 of BCM206, we discussed the attention economy and the evolution of the web.

Web 2.0 describes the evolution of the internet in the early 2000s many of elements evolved. This iteration was coined the ‘read-write‘ web and saw many users become creators. In recent years, we have entered the Web 3.0 where websites are learning and becoming more intelligent through algorithms.

This had me thinking what Web 4.0 could look like. With technology constantly advancing and our immersion into technology becoming deeper and deeper, I think the Web 4.0 will see us interacting with this websites and AI on a virtual reality scale. This then had me wondering what advertisements in this virtual reality internet would look like. Would the ads be like a Truman show kind of deal? Or would they be more intrusive pop up ads? Could we even pay for a premium version of the internet that is ad-free. Would ad-blockers still exist here?

I don’t have the answers to any of these questions, but I’d love to hear if you had any more ideas about what the Web 4.0 could be.

Frank Tremain.

In week four of BCM206, we discussed the flow of information and the way liquid life has begun to dominate modern society.

The remediation for this week was based around one of my tweets and Ted’s reply, offering the arguments of both sides to the benefit of liquid life on the sense of community. It was inspired by Giovanni Carlini’s analysis of Zygmunt Bauman’s ‘Liquid Life‘.

In Giovanni Carlini's analysis of 'Liquid Life', he argues that "globalisation has confirmed that the concept of community has lost its value" but I'd argue that globalisation and the advancements in ICM's has enhanced the sense of community #bcm206 https://t.co/vnsWS8qslg

— Frank Tremain (@FrankTremainUOW) August 25, 2020

Although I may be bias because I’ve never experienced a world without liquid life, I do believe it benefits us more than it hinders. It’s an interesting time to be studying these ideas of liquid life and liquid labour, as the recent pandemic hasn’t given us much of a choice and we’ve been thrown into the deep end of depending on the soft world. While I, of course, wish this evolution could’ve been a more gradual and less detrimental, I think this change will pave the way for how we approach liquid life and future networks.

Frank Tremain.

The inspirations behind my DA include Off The Clef and different journalists I see engaging more consistently online. This will exist on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the AUD’$ website. While YouTube is used for the curation of new Hip-Hop music videos, my articles will be published through the website and advertised on my Instagram and Twitter.

If you’d like to support my Digital Artefact, you can follow my Instagram, Twitter and the AUD’$ YouTube, or visit AUD’$ for more.

Frank Tremain.