The DA project of @thesydneyvintage was created to promote Sydney’s vast history from its brilliant architecture to the original settlers who shaped the city and modern Australia. The project includes content and information on historical sites and people through taking photos of historic sites and statues. Each post on Instagram  features photos I have taken, plus a small amount of background information in regards to each building or person. The content produced on my page is relevant to users who have interests in architecture, history and photography. The account has followers from Europe and America as well as other local accounts that focus on Australian history. Due to my efforts promoting the page through twitter, there is also a following from other bcm114 students.

In this module of ‘prototyping’, feedback was a main aspect. In an attempt to improve the page and understand what the users want from  @thesydneyvintage I have began using Twitter as a channel for feedback from other students in the bcm114 cohort. Through this feedback loop I was able to get some great ideas and suggestions from other students through polls and questions. Many of the ideas provided by others on how to improve following and gain traction on Instagram, a few students had suggested expanding on information and historical backgrounds and playing around with a few different camera settings. This module of ‘prototyping’ I had also thought of the a few new ideas that could be used to expand and help the page grow, I often used paper as a means to prototype with ideas, thanks to this video, which convinced me paper is better for prototyping and enhancing creativity. One of my ideas was to write and post about historical people as well as buildings. In week 8 ‘making’, I tested this idea on twitter through the form of a 2 option poll and the majority of voters had selected the option to expand into posting about historical figures in the form of finding statues around the city. From these results I had posted about a Australian Industrialist of the 19th century, however the post was not as popular as I had hoped, this may suggest that my followers are more interested in seeing more visual content, rather than reading text.

Another option I had thought of, but have not gone ahead with, was to share pictures of old Sydney from the State Library archive or NSW government archive as well as my own photos. However, I think that would not make my page as unique, as I’m not actually taking the photos, rather just sharing other people’s work. @thesydneyvintage is a good way for me to learn and experiment with photography, hence why I choose to do this as my DA. My other idea for prototyping, which is pretty ‘out there’ was to find haunted locations (yes, ghost hunting) and try and take photos of the ‘dead’ in haunted old locations. This of course this would be dependent on the ghosts actually appearing and me finding the supposedly haunted locations of Sydney (however I did read that the convict barracks would be a good start). Reflecting on the whole concept of @thesydneyvintage I am happy with its current status- however I am getting way less followers than the views of the page. This ratio is quite low, not sure why, maybe I need to post more often and share to my Instagram ‘story’ to keep followers engaged and look more appealing so users click ‘follow’. Furthermore, through feedback and thoughts from users on twitter and Instagram I was definitely able to improve the page. For example,  one user had suggested to post more than one photo on each post so there is a greater understanding of site or building. This idea proved to successful as my posts with more than photo are significantly more popular.

With the next upcoming module of ‘Making’ I plan to acquire more suggestions from users of Instagram to understand more from my selected audience and what they want to see more of rather than just asking the BCM114 uni students. I may also look at expanding to Pinterest.