Part 6 - The Internet and my production

Like many others, my life changed with the advent of the Internet with allowing me to not only be a consumer of texts on the World Wide Web, but also a producer. Marshal McLuhan theorized that new technologies are essentially extensions of mankind, and in the case of the Internet he surely would have acknowledged that the technology extended the eyes, the mouth, and the hands as well through its visual representation of the world and global reach. In fact, the Internet liberated many individuals from being limited in sharing their texts in their immediate community and hoping to build a wider audience down the line. The Internet has also allowed for new debate to occur between individuals on international levels, for new collaborations of artists to emerge in virtually any medium, and in turn for a new digitally mediated international culture to materialize, much to the “global village” forecasted by McLuhan.

Though I have been an active participant in wikis and forum-based communities for a long time, which have also embedded themselves into popular culture, and am now experimenting with blogging. By sharing my ideas and experiences I hope that some readers may find my information insightful or identify with it, or that at least it will offer some insight for future generations into the ethos of my time and who we were in a society on an individual level. That is why I decided to feature my media autobiography in the form of a blog.

Furthermore, studying media and culture at University of Toronto has also given me the opportunity to create my own texts, and the Internet has allowed me to share some of them with the world community. In the past few years I have produced several short films, but more importantly I have been able to focus on my passion of animation.

'music' a poem I wrote and animated in After Effects

'The Gift' a short animation documenting my
experience of a first day in a Canadian school

Though my characters often vary, I feel I have been influenced by both cultures that have acted upon me through the various media I have consumed. The media I produce is non-violent, and I hope enlightening, whether it is based on a true story, or an animated interpretation of my poems. I hope that maybe one day, a person will acknowledge that one of my texts has influenced them in a positive way.