full confirmation document draft - done.

there were so many other things that i wanted to include but i thought i had better things to do than perfecting my confirmation document. i managed to have about 14 hours of sleep in the past five days, and the last day of this madness, i couldn’t think about anything but rice crackers for some reason. i couldn’t get my mind off the subject. the texture, some wrapped in seaweed, some green, some glazed, the saltiness, the cracking sound in your mouth … it wasn’t even that i desired to eat them. it was just everything sensory about them that completely occupied my mind. i suppose writing your confirmation document is not such a sensory experience other than feeling the stiffness on your shoulder, dry eyes, constant hunger that is usually dealt with food that’s edible at its best, and dry skin (and mind), so it was very natural that my mind was craving for sensory experiences like a junkie.

in the literature review section, i didn’t include Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow. below is a summary of the main feautures of this concept (from wikipedia):

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible).
2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time - one’s subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.

I didn’t include this in my lit review for two reasons:

1. although i was writing about some of the major theories of play, i wasn’t really planning to include “every single one” of them.
2. i’m not quite sure how applicable this theory is in a multi-tasking environemnt like life we live today. we’re pretty much creatures of what Linda Stone terms “contiunous partial attention” and i’m not quite sure how relevant flow theory can be with mobile communication, particulary because i want to shift attention from “mobile games” to new, more intrinsic forms of play that are afforded by the mobile phone - for example, emerging forms of play through mobile social networking. i don’t know if it was a mistake to not include him, but then again, it was a draft, of a confirmation document, so i don’t really think it would matter at this stage.

on a slightly different note, if you’re interested to see flow theory in action, check jenova chen’s site (http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames). i absolutely love “cloud” - i became so excited and emotional while playing it. i saw it being played on a bigger screen at ACMI in october this year. kids and big kids seemed to be very much enjoying the game.
on the last day of my own “confimration writing hermit camp” i found myself thinking, “think about all the things that you can do once this is done, jaz! like, marking!”

well, it’s true. i’m here in my office, marking exam papers. once this is done, i will get on to the website work i’d really like to finish asap, and a chaper outline for an upcoming book on cultural economy. when that’s done, i’ll finally be able to make some slides for my confirmation seminar, and very quickly go to melbourne for the digital natives in australia & korea conference and of course, koko black’s chocolates and laurent’s bread. it’s going to be pretty hectic till i leave for korea for my sister’s wedding. but i’m enjoying the business very much - perhaps i’m in flow.

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