After the first five weeks of live-tweeting our BCM325 science-fiction film screenings, I was excited to dive into the remaining movies on our list. The schedule from weeks 6 – 11 included:
1. Robot and Frank
2. Arrival
3. Alita: Battle Angel
4. Ready Player One
5. Don’t Look Up
One thing that was beneficial about BCM325 this session was our ability to live-tweet and watch the film in our own time, especially if we weren’t able to attend the seminar. This option was necessary for me in the final weeks of the subject, as I became unwell and was admitted into hospital. Not the best timing, but health comes first, and to my great amusement (and pleasure) there was a solid rotation of Marvel and science-fiction films on the hospital move channels!
The methods I applied to make the live-tweeting process less overwhelming proved to be effective in weeks 6 – 11. However, I didn’t have the time or energy to watch films twice. Therefore, conducting research prior to watching the film was crucial, as was reading the transcript of our weekly lectures. This ensured my understanding of the future culture themes in the films, including AI, cyborgs, cyberspace, futurists, and the Anthropocene.
I believe that I articulated the depth of my understanding of these topics by providing valuable secondary resources (both academic and pop-culture) in my tweets, that further highlighted my own observations and opinions. I also became more confident in applying the themes to other scenarios or forms of news, future theories and pop-culture, which also proved that I grasped the concepts and was reflecting upon their influence in our present, before highlighting probable futures. This was further solidified by my ability to link my content to our weekly lectures and theory.
I combined this style of tweeting with a more light-hearted approach, where I would occasionally throw in joke–style tweets, cinematography and design reflections, or specific movie-related facts and trivia.
Regularly participating in the peer commentary occurring on the BCM325 hashtag also increased my knowledge and understanding of future culture themes, and the films themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussions I had with Bonnie, Alana and Laura especially, as together we consistently created space for our opinions to be shared, but also to be built upon – whether that be through different observations or extended research.
As mentioned in my previous live-tweeting blog post, the importance of engaging with others in the form of retweets, comments and likes was still evident in weeks 6 – 11. I achieved the subject requirements and eagerly engaged with other’s tweets. However, due to ill-health and a hospital admission, I couldn’t participate in the live-screenings of 3/5 films. When playing catch-up, I focused mostly on liking and retweeting other students’ contributions.
Although my hospital admission and ill-health made the live-tweeting experience feel a little lonely and chaotic at the end, it was great being able to use the BCM325 hashtag to go back and see what my classmates had noted in their screenings, and I was still able to share and discuss their reactions, which in turn complemented my own analysis.
I’m proud of the effort I put into researching, viewing and live-tweeting the films that I missed when I was in hospital and too unwell to participate. Although I found the experience more exhausting (writing this blog post is also more difficult this time), I still valued the process as it’s an effective way to understand the concepts covered in BCM325.
I also discovered that when viewing the final films of our live-tweeting schedule, I found that I could apply my analysis to multiple BCM325 future culture topics, as opposed to just one, and that the process made me more open minded towards the future and all it’s possibilities.
I explain this in more detail in the mini-podcast below.
Visit @natalieh_bcm to see all my BCM325 tweets and engagement with peers.
NATALIE HANNAN 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.