Well semester 2 of my Masters is well underway and I have finally decided to get my blog up and running. I normally feel uncomfortable posting blogs but in this case this blog serves the purpose of documenting my progress with regards to my thesis and any other academic advancements I make in the months to come. Admittedly, this post is a bit back dated so what I have noted so far may be a bit brief and spaced apart BUT I assure you that I will now be posting regularly with greater detail and pictures!

It only feels right to quickly introduce myself to those of you that are not aware of who I am and what this is all about. So my name is Stuart Murphy and I am a student of the Interactive Media postgraduate course in the University Of Limerick. Depending on where these blog posts end up, you may have noticed a bit of my background already. I am a graduate of Music, Media and Performance Technology and I am delighted to be able to continue my studies in a field that converges my passion for creativity and technology. The primary objective of this blog is to monitor the development of my ideas. Naturally there will be avenues that I will venture down, some finding success and others providing me with lessons learnt, and I aim to log all such experiences.

So what is my thesis all about, I hear you ask. Well to be honest, my direction has been changing regularly for the past few months. At the moment I feel confident with the area I have chosen to cover (I think!) but the past couple of months I have jumped from idea to idea, mainly because so much of the interactive media field fascinates me. During the Christmas period I took the time to solidify an idea. I researched related fields such web and mobile app design, interactive installations, Internet Of Things, ubiquitous computing, wearables and so on! Despite stumbling across some interesting reads and fascinating creations, I found myself struggling with a dilemma; whether I wanted to focus on something totally innovated and creative or to focus on what would benefit me in a job search once I have completed this course. The latter would involve a product that showcases my ability in User Interface design and also programming abilities with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, and Android Studio etc. In all honesty, I am very interested in thinking of something very “out there” in the form of an interactive installation. I would love to create something that involves the public realm and provides bizarre yet fascinating results based on interaction. However, I also have my mind set on job possibilities afterwards, which, in turn, has me swaying towards something that involves studies with web/apps. Either creating something from an idea or addressing an existing issue.

In order to gain inspiration with regards to finding a perfect marriage between both my desires I planned to review previous projects that the Interactive Media students of the past have created. Future blog posts will reveal my chosen area and how I managed to get to that point.