A love-hate relationship with new media

Research at RMIT – Tom Penney| RMIT University

(Transcript with notations)

VISUAL: Research at RMIT. An artist’s love?hate relationship with new media. RMIT University logo.

VISUAL: Tom Penney speaking to the camera. The title at the bottom of the screen reads: Tom Penney, Higher Degree by Research (School of Media and Communication).

Tom Penney: My research project is called Critical Affection which is about our love?hate relationship with new media as artists. As part of my research I produce apps.

VISUAL: Close up of Tom Penney picking up a tablet off his desk and turning it on.

Tom Penney: The apps I'm making are paradisal ... 

VISUAL: Close up of tablet’s screen. It appears to be a caricature with the title of Joel at the top of the screen. Tom Penney’s finger is swiping on the screen to manipulate and move the body of “Joel”.

Tom Penney: ... caricatures of whole systems including ...

VISUAL: Video of laptop screen, camera is looking over Tom’s right shoulder. The image on the screen is of a 3D box with a caricature inside it that is increasing in size and shape. There are eight caricature images on the side of this 3D box.

Tom Penney: ... online dating, things like Facebook, apps like Tinder, Grindr ...

VISUAL: Close up of the laptop screen. The image on the left of the screen is of two female dressed characters falling down the page. The image in the centre has a video of a male caricature with the title Jacob at the top of the page. The word: Liked appears on top of the image of Jacob and Jacob’s image moves to the right of the computer screen.

Tom Penney: ... stuff like that.

VISUAL: Same image as above but now in the centre of the screen is a female caricature with the title Emily appearing at the top of the screen. The word: Nope appears on top of the image of Emily and Emily’s image moves to the left of the computer screen (to join the other two females).

Tom Penney: When people use my ...

VISUAL: Tom Penney speaking to the camera.

Tom Penney: ... apps they can ...

VISUAL: Close up of Tom Penney’s finger scrolling on the mouse pad.

Tom Penney: ... think about their relationship ...

VISUAL: Close-up of the computer screen, the image is of the 3D drawing box with something being drawn inside it. The cursor selection moves over four of the eight caricatures on the right of the screen and stops on to select the first image. The images are too difficult to correctly describe but they appear to be alien-like, similar to what you would see in an older child’s science fiction cartoon.

Tom Penney: ... to human beings and their bodies ...

VISUAL: Tom Penney speaking to the camera.

Tom Penney: ... by swiping bodies ...

VISUAL: Close up of the computer screen, the image is of the 3D drawing box with a caricature changing shape inside the box. The eight caricatures images are on the right of the screen.

Tom Penney: ... mushing bodies under the screen, judging bodies. So I get to ...

VISUAL: Close up of the computer screen, the image is of another 3D caricature that pivots inside the 3D box and appears to be a blob shape with a scary face – two eyes and a couple of teeth protruding through thin lips. Camera pans back out still watching screen but now the back of Tom’s head is in the foreground to the right of the screen.

Tom Penney: ... both make work and reflect on that philosophically and critically.

VISUAL: Tom Penney speaking to the camera.

Tom Penney: RMIT has been really helpful in terms of it has a really good understanding of new media ...

VISUAL: Close up of the laptop screen showing a female body titled Trish appearing in the centre of the screen. An instruction is overlaid on the computer screen which reads: Swipe the bodies left or right. The images under this from left to right are: an x, then a left pointing arrow, then a person image, then a right pointing arrow, then a green heart shape.

Tom Penney: ... and technology.

VISUAL: Same image as previous but the instruction has been removed from the screen. The word Nope appears over the female body titled Trish and she then moves to the left of the screen.

Tom Penney: If you're a new media artist, it's a really good place to be ...

VISUAL: Tom Penney speaking to the camera.

Tom Penney: ... and it's really important to find the right supervisor as well, because you don't want to be fitting your project into someone else's program; you want a supervisor that understands you and who you are, potentially, and what your practice really is about and what it brings to the world.

VISUAL: RMIT University Logo and website www.rmit.edu.au. This video features the song “Happy Acoustic” by PlayAgain. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.

End of video

Copyright statement

Copyright © 2015 RMIT University. All rights reserved.

Conditions of use

This item is available to RMIT University staff for official RMIT educational or promotional purposes. All uses outside of official educational or promotional purposes must be used with permission. Please contact copyright@rmit.edu.au for permission.