The BCM313 course left lasting impressions on me with the introduction of guest speakers that discuss their work experiences in a narrative manner. One of the purpose of this is to practice outsider witnessing, and I have discovered some stories reflecting my own values very well. In particular, I found that the Week 7’s guest speakers Miki and Mohammed Hasshan were the most relatable as they were alumni of the BCM programme.

As someone who is interested in potentially being a digital content creator, I found Miki’s story to be relevant when it comes to her experience in choosing the administrative position over the creative role. Given the hustle culture of Hong Kong, it may not be the most stable job to be working in the creative field as it is constantly demanding with many deadlines. There are also possible periods of creative burnout which can make content creation a very challenging task. She chose the more stable package job, and spoke the importance of ‘transferable skills’ which will continue to serve you even in different career paths.

Hasshan’s experience-near narrative was also relatable to me as we both had struggles finding a job in Hong Kong without knowing the Chinese language. For a long time, I have been insecure and believed that it was hopeless for me when I can’t communicate with the local folk for a job.

Hasshan has proven that he was able to achieve a job in the IT field despite these drawbacks, although it was with extra effort and with the right time investments into taking internships. As someone who has invested a lot into studying technology, having a job in the IT field is also ideal for me. Even without knowing the Chinese language, Hasshan says that having the experiences, work ethic and the right attitude can cover for this weakness and make companies willing to hire you even in Hong Kong.

Gaining experience is an important theme of discussion when it comes to the two guest speakers, and they have given their personal views on how they see it. I find it very interesting that the two share experiences that are practically polar opposites of each other, when taking into consideration that Miki has a strong confidence and does not settle for jobs that mistreats her with underpayment and overtime, while on the other hand, Hasshan has taken free internships and was willing to work a month for free as he sees this as an opportunity for learning.

Miki talks about how there are many different types of people in the workplace, and stresses the importance of adopting polite and professional etiquette in discussing with one another. For instance, you should not present yourself to be a pushover or else your coworkers will take advantage of you.

As Hasshan would see it, these can also be opportunities as long as there is a mutual respect involved. It is not necessarily bad to have to share the workload of another person if it is a overall healthy working environment, and can be rich for gaining experience in the end.

As a witness observer, I will keep their experiences as relevant lessons for me in the future where I may find myself in a formal workplace. I have never worked for any company before, so not all of their story was fully relatable to me as someone who has only done online freelancing work.

Initially, I believed that my lack of Chinese language proficiency had shut all doors of local job opportunity for me. Now I realize it is a misconception and there is still a chance for me, especially for working in the IT field.

In regards to the BCM215 pitch video I posted about my focus in exploring the cultural aspects of battle royale games, I have received several comments that I will analyze in this article as part of my self-reflection. These comments are shown in the screenshots as follows:

Self-reflection

Generally, there is a highly positive feedback that can be observed from the four comments I’ve received on my video. This indicates that the narrative and contents discussed in the pitch was appropriate to the task with satisfactory result.

My topic of choice is also justified as I am able to explore the unique dynamic of community-created content and its relationship with battle royale games in how it can contribute to building a subculture which may shape consumer’s views and behaviour. As Shivu has suggested in his comment, this is also an excellent chance to observe the cultural impacts of PUBG and identify their underlying influences on other battle royale games.

Taking Marco Ho’s advice into consideration, it is an excellent reminder to enhance the quality of the final digital artefact as I am to be mindful of not overstepping my bounds and in controlling the scope of my research to delve particularly into the cultural aspects. This is to avoid repetitive information with other group members with similar research outcomes like in Alan or Maroof’s topics in researching social popularity & psychological effects respectively. However, the possibility of this overlap is not inherently bad as it is substantial evidence that can solidify our points in connecting how cultural influences can affect the psychological view of players.

Given the time limitations of the pitch video, I have made the decision to make its initial half an introduction to PUBG and the battle royale genre in order to achieve greater level of understanding with the audience. This was a good decision as Shivu, Anisha and Sonya’s comments praise the brief introduction as an effective use of the pitch video time. The next half of the video would be summing up my role in the research and discussing the cultural implications it has, as well as my methodology for research. Every word in the pitch presentation has been subtitled for maximum clarity, with varying text effects to emphasize on readability to important messages.

Overall, the combination of an relaxing background music with voice-over text makes the pitch video brief and easy to understand. Given the relatively slow pace of presentation however, not all the content could be fit in. Therefore, I have opted to include much of the cultural relevance to be detailed in my contextual blog post accompanying the video. Though there is not much comments which explicitly discuss my contextual blogpost, its content matches with Marco Ho’s advice on exploring the origins of the battle royale genre which my blog post answers through exploring the various media (Hunger Games, Battle Royale film in 2000) that ultimately led up to the survival game genre known as Battle Royale.

A strong focus of the class involves peer engagement, fulfilling the idea of helping one another out as we all aim towards building our ideas of the future. The many sci-fi media we watch nowadays acts as a guiding beacon to the formation of our ideas, and the aim of our digital artefact to solidify our ideas in futurology, based on society’s current trends.

In this assignment, I am tasked to review the pitches of three assigned peers: Au Kwan Yu, Mariella de Castro and Subbiah Shanthashivu.

Au Kwan Yu’s VR Medicine Pitch

The first pitch I looked at focuses on the future of VR medicine as a whole. I find it excellent that virtual technology has great potential in the future when it comes to also helping people, going beyond its entertainment usage at face value. There are many splendid possibilities that are open and also practiced today, such as training surgeons or helping pain management as mentioned in the pitch video.

The topic of VR medicine however seems to be a broad topic as a whole, so I suggested narrowing it down to exploring its use in rehabilitation or physical therapy as there are some companies that are looking into developing this. The pitch also considers if it would be in widespread use in the future for many countries, which is a feasible idea when noting present-day trends in how VR headsets are becoming cheaper.

Mariella de Castro’s Pitch on the future of dating

Mariella tackles an interesting prospect on how the dating scene would be revolutionized in the coming 25 years. I became impressed with the topic when she explains how courting used to be the method of dating in the past and then comparing it to nowadays where we can find our potential dates at the swipe of a button.

As she believes virtual reality would be the novelty that changes the way we find our soulmate, I believed it was appropriate to link a source to VRChat. It is an online virtual world community that currently exists and inhibits a lot of similarities with the Metaverse in how people can log on as avatars and socialize. It is also not uncommon to find people also taking advantage of the platform as a means to find a lover. The only difference is that it isn’t as widely known nor does it explicitly advertise itself as a dating platform, but it can prove an interesting point of research as there may be similar apps in the future that focuses on the niche of VR dating.

Subbiah Shanthashivu’s Pitch on Cryptocurrency

Considering the similarities of our chosen topic in our digital artefact pitch, I believe I was able to provide a constructive comment for their pitch. Just like VR, cryptocurrency is also a well-known technology trend that has a great number of future possibilities. Much controversy and international debate surrounds cryptocurrency, with countless tales of successes and failures present on the news. With its incredible price volatility, it proves itself an unpredictable factor in judging the future and requires intensive research to figure the kind of future that cryptocurrency may bring.

Understanding that Shivu is a business student, I believe this currency-based technology is a perfect fit for his skillset and eagerly await his analysis. As cryptocurrency itself is still quite a broad topic, I’ve broken down a few questions that he could consider answering for his digital artefact and hope it would be of great use to him.

Conclusion

The merits of futurology allows us to speculate possibilities in 5 or more years, and identify the best path for humanity to create a better future. Technology can become a greater good or evil of the future, and it is up to think tanks, visionaries and us to figure precautions before certain technological trends become the norm. Humans have a great capability for future planning, and the value in this class is how we can all help each other envision what the future has in store for us.

Before taking this class, I thought that we were supposed to make reviews and analyze the movies after watching them. I could never have expected the use of Twitter to simulate live commentary and peer interaction in the midst of watching a movie. It is not ordinary comments which point out the obvious either, but connections we must immediately find on the spot, with the presented sci-fi themes and the lecture content that we have prior to the screening.

I have done my best in attempting a professional approach in analyzing the movies as I watched, and looked for clues to point out in reference with the key points taught by the class.

1. I note down the points to look for before the screening starts

2. A brief synopsis scan of the movie before it begins, to get a gist of it, or watching it beforehand.

3. Consuming tech-related news regularly helps spot influences from sci-fi movie to real-life application

4. I sort by using several tabs. One for immediate tweeting, one for looking at everyone else’s tweet.

5. Use of images can attract the viewer to look at my tweet.

Observing my most liked tweets

#bcm325
Despite made in 1995, the movie even accurately predicts a device that can resemble use in R&D facilities which likely contains mixed reality features to be used in assisting real-time data handling and work.
We can expect workers in the future using similar equipment pic.twitter.com/KGkUXxu1bG

— ahmir (@apm625) February 14, 2022

#bcm325
Mankind has conquered nature and rule the nowadays world.
Perhaps this future of robot rebellion now means that mankind's own creation would overthrow humans?

With bodies made of steel and super-intelligent AI, we can't beat them. We just need proper measures in future pic.twitter.com/uMRCP0N4mt

— ahmir (@apm625) January 24, 2022

#bcm325
Genetic design is shown to exist in this world, hinting at the technology of 'designer baby'.
This is a technology that already exists and may even be more common in the future from here on.

Now the ethics of it.. is another story. pic.twitter.com/CXqcS1B5Hu

— ahmir (@apm625) February 7, 2022

#bcm325
The animation shows the application of robotic technology in the creation of our cyborg main character.
It also appears that most of this technology is still reserved by the government and hints at mainly for militarized or diplomatic use in mid-21st century Japan. pic.twitter.com/Sw3THLJGiU

— ahmir (@apm625) February 14, 2022

These tweets are my most liked with having more than 7 likes. Most share the common theme of speculating a possibility if the novums became a more commonplace technology in the future, and hinting at the likely problems of them.

Although mankind is constantly advancing in technology, it becomes scary when these futuristic inventions that were meant to be tools would end up creating new problems instead. Perhaps this is a common sentiment shared by many of my classmates, and much of the conflict observed in the past movies are problems ultimately existing only due to the creation of a novum in the plot.

Peer engagement tweets

As this is a class that sets its sights on the possibilities of the future, it is a topic of much potential debate. Interactions with other classmates in Twitter can help explore one another’s ideas on what the future may hold for us, and I have a couple of interesting conversations to present from my live tweeting.

#BCM325 #Ghostintheshell
Camouflage! That is something new! Not sure how I feel about it but I think it would be a great feature at a military level. How do you guys feel about that? pic.twitter.com/WCvxTCh9rd

— Iqra (@iqrafiaz21) February 14, 2022

Commenting on Iqra’s tweet, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce cloaking technology in real life that is presently utilized by the military. In particular, stealth bombers, as I recalled one amazing short video about them.

Androids could be great bounty hunter in my opinion #bcm325 pic.twitter.com/AxO8hp3cME

— Sabina (@sabina_hk2021) January 24, 2022

In response to Sabina’s tweet, I speculate how robots designed for combat would become a tool for the rich for foul play. If they possessed superhuman qualities, I think ordinary bodyguards would not stand a chance after all.

Is it okay to kill a robot who looks exactly like a human? I mean the robots had blood coming out after that were shot. Wouldn’t it make humans feel okay about killing? #bcm325

— ManiiKaur (@manii_kaur) January 24, 2022

Ethical issue no.1: Is it considered to be cheating or adultery if you have an affair or sexual relations with a robot? #bcm325

— Sabina (@sabina_hk2021) January 24, 2022

Things that I can improve on

I am able to comfortably type long tweets during the screenings, but I find that a lot of the time is wasted when I am challenged by the 280 character limit in Twitter to condense my tweets.

I’ve also discovered that a range of 71 to 100 words is the ideal length for more engagement, based on this article: https://www.prnewsonline.com/whats-the-ideal-length-of-a-tweet/

The most engaging tweet like in Sabina’s aforementioned tweet also was brief and encouraging discussion, so I am inspired to try a similar format in order to spur more conversation between my cohorts.

Hitting headlines across the news, making its way into even ordinary conversation with friends and into your social media feed – the talk of cryptocurrency and blockchain has emerged into becoming a revolutionary technology that can shift the tide of our future in many exciting ways.

In my digital artefact, I will be exploring the aspects of the blockchain technology that I deem the most impactful and likely to change how we see the future. Due to the versatility of applications that blockchain can have with other futuristic technology, I may discuss on things like how Virtual Reality(VR) worlds like the Metaverse would use Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) or how future quantum computers could possibly pose a risk in the future’s security system, even blockchains.

Since the timeline could not be fit into the pitch, this figure illustrates the planning process of my digital artefact. I will make three blog posts, and plan to upload each one roughly a week apart from each other and in accordance with the project deadlines.

I grew up with two loving parents, but it was a painful kindness as I was never able to give back to them having failed dozens of job interviews. I did not have any friends nor connections to recommend me jobs, and my parents were insistent that I pursue unrealistic careers like being a doctor or a lawyer; of course with no such qualifications.

I could not identify with either two of my ethnic communities as a mixed blood that knew neither language, nor could I communicate with the local Chinese. These all enforced the negative ideas that I was basically retarded and was worthless as a person, leading me to giving up and isolating myself from the world for many years to a very unhealthy degree.

The Internet had always been my refuge that let me fend off the insidious feeling of despair. I adopted an online persona as a means for me to forget about my real self as a coping mechanism. I met friends online through gaming that I could relate and share my interests with. As I have never really felt this level of connection throughout my real life, I even ended up bonding with my online peers more than anyone else I know in reality.

Through double listening we enter more quickly into the realm of what is precious as we engage in unpacking problems

Freedman, 2012

In practicing double-listening to the aforementioned issues that I’ve faced, I realized that these were problems that branched from my lack of sense of belonging that made me feel alienated from everyone else in society. With no luck in finding a job and a resume devoid of skills, confidence was also something I lacked. What I needed most of all, was the capacity to hope.

There was a recent change in my life that finally brought a sliver of hope to my future. Perhaps this is neither an impressive nor inspirational story so far, but it is the prelude to the start of a new chapter in my life.

The re-membering

In 2020, I could have continued my studies to pursue a Bachelor’s degree, but I decided to take a gap year; permitted by my parents only due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. In hindsight, that became one of the biggest turning points in my life. With no more responsibilities from schooling to burden me, I could finally have all the time to find a breakthrough in the darkness that afflicted me.

“Depression doesn’t take away your talents—it just makes them harder to find.

Lady Gaga

Having built my online persona upon a mountain of lies for years, it was difficult to truly express the struggles of my real self. The purpose of pretending to be someone else in the virtual was to forget about my pains in real life after all. But I had to face reality as an adult, and when I finally cracked and disclosed my struggles in finding work, my online friends were there to help.

Ultimately, my online friends ended up being the biggest part in my club of life. At some point, I tried my hand at creating art roughly two years ago, as it was the only thing I could think of that could earn me money online back then. Fast forward to now, and the consistent support of my online peers had secured me an actual freelancing job that I could work at home with.

How work has finally changed my life for the better

I had been introduced to the new world of the gig economy. I learned that I had a purpose in life, that I could finally support my family. The depression that had always haunted me even felt like a thing of a past. I became a changed person, the one thing I’ve had always fantasized becoming; finally having some control and power to change my life.

There is a future, afterall.

There are those who say that money doesn’t mean happiness. To me, having earned money for the first time in my life with my own hands after all my struggles, it made me feel like I have a place in this world and I can finally feel like I can be a part of it. Those feelings ignited the will to live in me, and I do not want to return to the empty shell that I once was. The world looks better with color, after all.

Just as Michael White had once stated, the very act of expressing one’s struggles in life is indicative that one is already taking an action about the problem. Dark and heavy emotions muddle up and obscure what the real problems are, and being able to type it all out has had been a cathartic experience so far.

Sorting out the complexities of the human emotion and tidily re-evaluating your struggles makes the problems stick out more plainly, and helps clarify what paths ahead that I should take. I still have the chance, being relatively young after all.

Nowadays, if one were to suddenly ask what I thought of myself in general, nothing but negative thoughts would pop up right off the bat. This is still the case for me, but at the very least, I can now answer if someone were to ask what my good qualities were. Ironically, I put my effort in the things that I do nowadays just so that I can be easier on myself.

References

Freedman, J. (2012). Explorations of the absent but implicit by Jill Freedman. Explorations of the absent but implicit. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from https://www.dulwichcentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Explorations-of-the-absent-but-implicit-by-Jill-Freedman.pdf

S;, C. M. W. S. R. (2009). The absent but implicit: A map to support therapeutic enquiry. Family process. Retrieved January 28, 2022, from https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/3325181/mod_resource/content/1/reading%20week%204%20Absent_But_Implicit.pdf

References used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1xq4Ud2z8
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/8884/pixel-art
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhQl3mPLq4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLl9XBg7wSs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcpRyIFU7Eg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/ccfzos/really_cool_pixel_art_graffiti_my_buddy_found_on/
https://www.larvalabs.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpvG7jqRL_Q
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/11/22430254/cryptopunks-christies-sale-larva-labs
https://hypebeast.com/2021/11/nft-cryptopunk-635-recentten-million-usd-bid-announced
https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/21/11/24290108/this-cryptopunk-nft-just-sold-for-928-532-in-eth

References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWduBA8LWgo
https://wallpaperscave.com/sci-fi/city/80352
https://wallpaperscave.com/sci-fi/city/44967
https://wallpaperscave.com/sci-fi/city/1017
https://www.videezy.com/abstract/39599-retro-sci-fi-background
https://www.videezy.com/technology/44286-cyber-technology-presentation
https://www.videezy.com/backgrounds/42598-electric-dream-city
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvBVDibOrgs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQxRQb9dCE (Japan Stock Footage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1jXmJmmj3o (“Warner Bros. Entertainment”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDIrJ6E-_7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RxlzJWWzdY&t=4s Anime clip 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z__TqlQgwjE Hologram Assistant
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZzEbwJDwQSo gura clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=403pbL2P_oU codemiko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTF_b_9q5o8 N-KO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJksW9PI5AE BBCNews
https://www.videezy.com/backgrounds/41201-retro-sci-fi-background
Roh, D., Huang, B., & Niu, G. (2015). Techno-Orientalism.
Lyon-Bestor, V., Bestor, T., & Yamagata, A. Routledge handbook of Japanese culture and society.
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Child, B. (2016). Worse than a whitewash: has Ghost in the Shell been Hollywoodised?. the Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/nov/14/whitewash-ghost-in-the-shell-hollywoodised-mamoru-oshii-rupert-sanders-scarlett-johansson.
Kelts, R., & Kelts, R. (2021). Japan’s virtual YouTubers have millions of real subscribers — and make millions of real dollars. Rest of World. Retrieved 24 November 2021, from https://restofworld.org/2021/vtubers/.
Morrissy, K. (2020). Playboard: World’s Biggest Superchat Earner is Virtual YouTuber Kiryu Coco. Retrieved 25 November 2021, from https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2020-08-22/playboard-world-biggest-superchat-earner-is-virtual-youtuber-kiryu-coco/.163103
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I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS OF THE MOVIE OR THE MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTFUL OWNERS. This video is not intended to violate any Condition of Use. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

Though there were many reliable sources of research about group projects, I don’t believe I was able to put them into effective use as I have struggled on settling with a proper aim for my research. There were many turning points where I wanted the focus of my research to be something else due to my indecisiveness, and I believe it has harmed the potential quality of my research.

I have added too many questions to my survey as I hoped it would help in providing all sorts of data to work with, but it has only left the broad nature of my research even more expansive and confusing. In the future, I must perform my research with a clear and concise question to answer with rather than an abstract one that touches on the notion of feelings. It would have also helped in constructing questions with better precision to my research topic.

Furthermore, I could only manage to gather the limited sample size of 25 responses for my survey , which was neither to my personal nor the academic standard. I regret my lack of assertiveness when I realized it was possible to achieve at least 30 respondents from looking at other students, which they have managed by directly confronting people to do their research. I also suspect my unnecessarily long questionnaire may also have been too time-consuming for the busy person, and quality should have been prioritized over the quantity of questions.
Owing to my self-critical nature, it is difficult to say I found this project satisfactory. On the bright side, failure still proves itself to be a valuable learning experience. It is only regrettable that I was unable to draw out my full potential due to the self-imposed limitations of having to research something non-specific.

Finally.. I think I should have done my opinion piece at an earlier date as a fever is plaguing me on these last few hours before the deadline.