The Packer's Prize

In the midst of the excitement and suspense surrounding the annual Archibald Prize each year, something I have always found interesting and understated is the importance of the Packing Room Prize. In the awarding of this prize it is the art gallery staff who are in charge of the unpacking of the various artworks whom vote on their favourite to win.

In contrast to the glorification and publicity I've always found it a little bit more exciting to see who wins the packer's prize. As an art student I think it's interesting to gain an artistic perspective from a variety of different viewers, whilst the judges of the Archibald prize are undoubtedly professional art critics with years of experience, it's interesting to see what the curators and 'unpackers' think.

The Packer's Prize

David Oliviera, a Lisbon born artist creates wire sculptures intended to look like manically sketched ink drawings superimposed over photographs. He often hangs them using fine line to give the appearance of hovering.

Retired artists come lawyer Lynn Skordal lives on a tiny island in Western Australia, her work features collage's and mixed medium to create images. She enjoys the process of combining seemingly unrelated images into a different reality that might startle, amuse or provoke.

The Denouement

Approaching the prospect of a sleepless, stressful and 'kind of' productive swot vac week we said goodbye to our lecture series for journalism. In our final lecture for Journalism 1111 we concluded the semester with an inspirational lecture on what journalism actually does for, how it prepares us for the exciting yet daunting world of perhaps becoming a journalist.

The guest speaker, Steve Molkington - a blogging sensation as well as television commentator/media fanatic gave us some words of wisdom and a bit of insight into his personal career in journalism.
Steve outlined ten predominant points of advice, that I think also summarise this subject pretty aptly;

1. What you do with your brand starts now
2. Bring a multitude of skills to the table
3. Consider ourselves lucky that Australia is so liberal with it's freedom of speech laws (compared to somewhere such as chine) and use this to your advantage
4. Mainstream media vs new media - in this day and age we have so many perspectives, technologies and opinions
5. Through social media we are able to communicate directly to the source without the hassle of managers/directors
6. Start now - show your prospective employer what you're all about and start writing stories now
7. Get the best story you can - find the gold!
8. remember that ego never hurt anyone
9. Start to form an opinion on everything
10. If you have something to say, say it on your blog.

As a journalism/law student I found it particularly interesting how Steve's career changed so dramatically from a degree in chemistry to the television industry. I found it inspiring that he was able to recognise a passion for what he essentially wanted to do and went for it and became so successful. Studying Journalism 1111 has changed my opinion of what I thought journalism was and now although I'm going to continue studying law I think my career will be more journalism based.

Investigative Journalism

This week we delved into the topic of investigative journalism which seems to be particularly contentious in light of the recent News of the World opprobrium and the subsequent parliamentary investigations into privacy laws.

We began by asserting that investigative journalism is intelligent, informed, intuitive, from the inside, sometimes intimate and has an invested interest in telling the story from an investigative stance. In this mode of journalism, the journalist is an active participant and makes a substantial effort to provide a voice for those without one and hold the powerful majorities to account. It is critical and thorough journalism that is a custodian of conscience in the media and acts as the fourth arm of government - a watchdog that reports and reviews.

Then Bruce gave us some examples of historical pieces of successful investigative journalism such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their expose of the Watergate scandal and the more contemporary uncovering of the corruption within the Queensland police force in the documentary "The Moonlight State," produced by Chris Master, Phil Dickie and Shaun Hoyt. We also discussed the investigative aspects of Julian Assange's Wikileaks site and whether it constitutes journalism or wether it is simply a database of information.

We then looked at the practicality of investigative journalism with Bruce explaining that it is vital in this field of journalism to check your facts, assume nothing and expect authorities to "go crazy" in relation to what you publish. The types of things that investigative journalists explore include interviews, observations, documents, briefing, leaks, trespass and theft which is done by interviewing, observing and analysing documents. It is important to consider the triangulation of whether what you saw, what you were told and what was recorded are congruent.

I found this lecture particularly interesting as last year one of my final pieces assessment included an essay on the quandary of of investigative journalism versus the the right to public privacy. Whilst I consider investigative journalism to be essential to the field in order to be a custodian of conscience and be a surrogate voice to the minority, it is interesting to note the current contentions surrounding Australian Privacy Laws and investigative journalism.

http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/editorial-ethics/247-privacy-what-it-means-for-journalism

A Los Angeles based artist who operates under the alias of "A Common Name" has recently been working on a street art project in suburban Los Angeles. Her work is a series of 3D sculptures that are installed into inconspicuous locations such as wall cavities, pipes and cracked cement. The contrast of these 'geodes' in an urban location rather than in nature fascinates the artist and the aspect of their nature as only being visible to the astute makes the project even more exciting.

You can check out her project here

An artist know as Jay, author of a quirky photographic blog titled "The Plug" recently embarked on a photography project coined "Stranger Photos Have Happened" in which the artist simply tied a disposable film camera to piece of string and attached it to inanimate objects such as a fence or park bench accompanied by a note instructing strangers and passers by to photograph themselves as they pass. The results, sometimes sweet, sometime vulgar are unknown until the film is developed.