For this research project, I would like to talk about parking, and why I think students and teachers should not have to pay for parking tickets on campus.

The idea of committing to study a degree can be quite overwhelming. When you take in the factor that you will be signing a contract with the institution to pay for a course, showing up to lectures, tutorials, and group meetings, to finally get a certificate in your specific field of choice and hopefully getting a job in the future. This is understandable, as this is one of the ways to get a career in what you are passionate about, but what is not fair is the fact we have to the worry of parking while balancing work, study, commuting, paying rent and other tasks to peruse this opportunity which can be quite draining.

Now, the reason I have pointed out the obvious with getting a degree is because I want to talk about parking, and how it is such an unnecessary factor that weighs on everyone when commuting to uni.

I know right now that parking is free on campus due to COVID and the stresses it has on students already, but my argument is that it should have always been free and should stay free after university goes back to full time on campus. I personally do not see why students or teachers need to worry about paying for parking when we are already sacrificing so much to study and the stresses we already have.

Talking about the demand of parking, I know that half the university is online now so parking is not at the peak as it used to be in previous years, but the demand will be there and this needs to be taken in account as there are a lot of students who commute (Batabyal, 2008) and the price for parking adds up when you are not lucky enough to get all your classes on the same day.  

I do understand how this change may affect universities and the income they usually receive pre covid from parking as this is shown in an article ‘Post-COVID Australian Universities’ which explains “With the imposition of COVID-19-related travel restrictions, most Go8 universities face additional losses in revenue from accommodation fees, parking and other services provided to overseas students.”  (Birrell, 2020) But I think this change may benefit students.

While talking about the loss of income when it comes to universities, I think this is a great point to turn to when it comes to the income of students, and how continuous fees have a long-lasting effect on students. An article by Rasmussen explores the effects higher education has on low-income students and the measures that should be taken with government assistant programs (like HECS) to help students have an easier time studying. For example, pay a parking debt in the future if you really needed to park on campus. (RASMUSSEN, 2006)

To further explore this issue, I do think parking is a big factor when it comes to studying, and I guess it is the same for Staff, I personally hate paying for parking when I need to go to work (as I work in a shopping centre) and the free parking has limited spaces, so I am sure employees on campus would feel the same way. This is talked about by Sargisson as she wrote an article talking about Commuting Choices and the effects it has on students and Staff. She does point out the environmental impact’s universities have of having paid parking as it offers people other alternatives to commuting, but in some cases, driving to university is the only option students have if they live in rural areas.(Sargisson, 2018)

So, my pole had a total of 15 votes, with 14/15 agreeing with the idea that it should stay free, and 1/15 voting no.

This topic is timely and relevant as it is something all universities will have to deal with, weather they charge or do not charge, I think it is a topic that will always be brought up. It can be achievable if I interview students and give out polls and surveys that will help encourage people to interact. I want to hear other opinions on this matter and why people are for or against this idea.

References

Batabyal, A. A., 2008. A probabilistic analysis of two university parking issues. Springer-Verlag , p. 112.

Birrell, B., 2020. Post-COVID Australian. The Australian Population Research Institute, Volume 62, p. 107.

RASMUSSEN, C. J., 2006. Effective cost-sharing models in higher education, Insights from low-income students in Australian Universities. Higher Education, Volume 51, pp. 1-4.

Sargisson, R. J., 2018. Do parking fees affect commuting choices of staff and students on a university campus?. Southampton , Volume 2, pp. 190-194.

Should parking on campus stay free?

This week, I was looking for a carspot on campus as the street ones were already taken, and it completely slipped my mind that the parking is now free! This was very convenient for myself, and I bet anyone else who needed to get a park without wanting to pay.

So this is going to be my question; Should the parking stay free for University students and teachers?

I want to talk about this as I think personally that it’s a scam. Pre-covid, Students have always had the pressure of knowing they need to pay for parking if they’re not lucky finding a spot on the streets, and I know the price may seem small to some, but it does add up overtime. Students shouldn’t need to worry about these minor inconveniences as there is enough pressure with balancing study and work life as it is.

This goes with the teacher’s as well, I do recall being in a tutorial and the teacher had to leave class early to move the car so they wouldn’t get a fine for parking overtime.

Should the campus carparks stay free for students/teachers? #bcm212

— William Aiken (@WillAiken_) March 15, 2021

There is a lot of research in this argument as seen here. I would like to ask the students at UOW there point of view on this matter through surveys and other sources.

Hi,

Currently finishing my second year at UOW in Communications and Media. I have been studying since 2018 where I started at JMC in Sydney, and got my diploma in Film and Television production. I then transfered to UOW in 2019 to start a Bachelor’s in Communications.

I am really interested in media and content creation as I’ve done this work for three years now. I make ads for businesses, which is usually for their websites and social media pages. I do the filming and editing and would hope to pursue this field in the future for work as I find it very enjoyable and interesting.

So, we have been asked to answer what “one thing you thought uni would be like?” To answer this, I thought uni would be more more simple when it came to the classes. I didn’t think we would be learning such a broad field of information when it came to communications. Not saying it’s a bad thing, just suprised me as I feel like I’ve learned a lot from this field that never came to my mind before.

I asked my mum the question “one thing that comes to their mind when you say “university student” and she said she finds most university students obnoxious, this being that they are very passionate about causes while at uni, but once they get jobs, they just go on with there lives. I don’t know if Penny is spitting facts right now but that’s her opinion

Thanks for reading c:

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A post shared by ARTIFACT (@artifact.au)

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A post shared by leotrix (@leotrixofficial)

These are a collection of videos I have Filmed and Edited over the past years. These range from advertisments for local businesses, recaps, short films and documentaries.

Working on my digital artefact has been really fun and I have learnt a lot about programs/editing/ and operating a social media platform for possible business opportunities. This project has encouraged me to start things that I wouldn’t of seen myself trying because I can be lazy when it comes to starting new hobbies. With this project, I have encountered some trials and errors throughout the 13 weeks on working on my digital artefact and have found what works and what doesn’t.

So, there was the plan to film the artist Thieves at Heyday on the 25th of October which I went too. But, nobody showed up to the venue which led Thieves to not play, hence why haven’t uploaded a recap video… To counter this, I decided to upload to my YouTube channel instead and upload another Riddim mix from my mate Skeddy.

In my previous online presence I did mention that my main focus would go to recap videos but because Thieves did not playing at Heyday that night, It really restricted what I could upload content wise so I had to upload another mix to keep up with my online presence.

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New mix 🌻

A post shared by William Aiken (@mirrors.inc) on Oct 31, 2019 at 5:52am PDT

Uploaded a teaser which people can click on to see the full video.

I should be continuing this project over the Uni break to help further my opportunities with working with artists and making a decent portfolio for potential work. I could be filming an artist in Sydney on the 15th of November, just hoping it all goes well.

The digital Artefact is a great opportunity to explore things that people are interested in and gives the freedom to explore new avenues that people would of never thought of starting. The Digital Artefact is a networking opportunity to meet people and collaborate on projects.

The concept of my digital artefact was to make a brand that represented the underground EDM scene. The brand I made was called Mirrors, this brand would upload mixes from underground artists and make recap videos for artists playing in venues. I would reach out to artists and venues to network and it was mostly successful allowing me to pick up a gig and upload two mixes.

The methodology for this artefact was networking. Reaching out to artists and asking if I could help there brand was a great way to start as people want to build there own platforms as well. I had to do these for free because I first needed to build a portfolio, then which I could start charging people as I have work to show. For making the visualizer for the mixes, I had to learn how to use Adobe After Effects and watched many tutorials online on how to get the wavelengths to sync with audio visualizers. It was a cool thing to learn as now I have the knowledge on how they are made and have a general understanding of after effects. For filming, I already had a pretty good understanding of filming and editing footage as I’ve done it for many years now so it was easy to incorporate that into my Digital Artefact. The only thing I had to do with my camera equipment was when I had the opportunity to film at the night club, I purchased a low light lens which suited my camera so I could film in the dark nightclub which helped the overall footage.

The utility with this Artefact is for people who are interested in the underground EDM scene. For fans It would be watching artists who they support and seeing how there gigs go if they did not attend. For artists it would be used in a way to get there gigs filmed and the opportunity to upload it to there own social medias to show fans how there gig went. For the YouTube side of it, underground artists could have there mixes uploaded to the channel with a visualizer attached to there mix, but this never really got any traction.

In conclusion, the iteration from the feedback I got from people who supported my project found that the Instagram page was more successful and more enjoyable content wise as people like seeing recap videos. In the future, I am hoping to continue this project and focus on the Instagram side of things as this seems to be the platform people use the most, I want to continue making recap videos for artists as I found it really enjoyable.

DA
https://www.instagram.com/mirrors.inc/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLtYDPMCpXssSpSaAG5g_gw

Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esP3HWXwKm4&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHP58ua0VvY&t

So, my project has come along nicely and here is what has happened so far.

FEFO: For the FEFO side of things, this project has had it’s ups and downs and i’m happy I tried to do new things with it. For doing a multi-platform business, I wanted to try new avenues that I haven’t tried before, hence making a Music Visualizer. This turned out pretty cool but didn’t get the response I was hoping for from people as no one seemed interested in getting involved by sending me their mixes. That was fine, I’ll still slowly work on it and put my main focus on making recaps for people as that side of the project has started snowballing.

FIST: The way this overall project worked, Fist was kinda used but a lot of work goes into one upload with this project.
Fast: Not really as making recap videos you need to get contacts, meet up, film, edit and upload just for a 30 second video that would take me 3 hours to do all up.
Inexpensive: The software that I use to edit I have “Purchased” (Don’t tell the FBI) and is accessible for me, but the camera equipment has cost me a bit but is worth it because it’s what I want to pursue.
Simple: no
Tiny: eek

I have gained a little following on my Instagram, which is 17 followers. The only thing I have done is told people to follow it from my other Instagram account and uploaded the video for Heyday which I tagged them and the artists who were in the video. YouTube I have 4 subscribers and got 55 views on the Riddim Mix

I should be heading down to Heyday again on the 25th of October and will be filming Thieves and making a recap video for him which will be done just in time for the end of the project. Should be some more content before that as well which I am working on, this includes another visualizer mix from my mate and more recap videos.

My friend Ethan is visual designer and has offered to help out with the project and to make me a logo for my business which will go on my Instagram and YouTube.

This is the update on my project and what I accomplished so far with it. In the video I talk about how the project has shifted just to get more traffic to this business (Focusing on more edm genres etc..) and how I’ve reduced myself from using SoundCloud as the platform for EDM mixes and instead using Youtube and making visualizers. In this blog you can find the links to the content I have uploaded to these accounts.

So, the approach I took for this project was just to message the clients myself. This was successful for Hey0day, so why not actually message the artists directly? Reached out to Hamish (stage name Marauda) asked if he wanted to a have a recap video for his show in Sydney which he responded;

With having the opportunity to do the recap video for Loge21, it helped me use it as a portfolio to link to other artists as a way to show them what I can do.

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Loge21 @ Wollongong 👾

A post shared by William Aiken (@mirrors.inc) on Sep 27, 2019 at 7:51pm PDT

My mate Ethan contacted me about an opportunity to film a techno night in Sydney as he was doing the graphic design for there Facebook page which I accepted

Messaged groups on Facebook that are in the Dubstep/Riddim community if they wanted any visualizers for there mixes but did not get any responses from that.

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New mix from Skeddy! View the full mix on my YouTube channel https://youtu.be/E-DPN2zBAM8 #dubstep #riddim

A post shared by William Aiken (@mirrors.inc) on Sep 5, 2019 at 12:08am PDT

Overall, this project is turning out how I wanted it to be and I’m looking forward to what it brings for the future!