Linda’s blog – freefalling

At long last, here is my creative research project for Integrated Media.

My project was a lot more difficult to realise than I first imagined. Web and graphic design is something I’m unfamilar with…it’s a skill to be learned, like any other. Videos on the web can’t rely on narrative structure and great images. A ‘video web designer’ needs to understand spatial design, intertextuality, reading with your fingertips and responding to a plethora of visual cues. It’s a web of signification, creating a metonymic Text. The associative parts of my project makes the ‘event’ whole, yet incomplete. It continues to ‘move on’…both in the lives of the people at the party and the project itself: spinning off into ever widening circles through my blog, and links outside the blog. You can experience all in a matter of seconds, yet it’s a never ending journey.

I’m only just realising all this. Different signifiers, changed parameters, altered mindset. My original idea of ‘playfulness’ for my ‘design layout’, would’ve been a frustrating game for the user. I wanted the reader to edit the text, however they wished – I don’t know if I quite realised that. I didn’t want to give much written information about the people in the project, but I didn’t want the whole thing to be obtuse either. Am not sure if I succeeded there either. I had recorded some music and voice, but decided not to use them. Maybe I’ll add them at a later stage.

I’ve found the whole process quite frustrating and all consuming. It sort’ve turned out the way I wanted, yet nothing like I intended at all. Needless to say, I’ve learnt a lot. Maybe you have too.

Barthes, like most late twentieth-century critical theorists, is at his best when seeing the invisible, breathing on it in hopes that the condensate will illuminate the shadows of what others have long missed and taken to be not there.
Landow 86

Shadows, like memories, lurk and change shape over time. The French word ‘paysages’ means composed landscapes…landscapes composed to a large degree from memory, from the remembered moods and feelings that belong to certain places and times. This is what the Impressionists used their ’scattered brushstrokes’ to convey…an evocation of landscape through the filter of memory and inagination.

My video capture of my aunt’s 60th wedding anniversary is mired by the technical limitations of a malfunctioning camera. The visuals jump, blur and discolour. Does my ‘erratic brushstrokes’ affect the mood or feeling of this event? How does this affect the meaning?

I first read Lev Manovich’s theories on digital movies and spatial computerisation in February 2006 (Networked Media class). At that stage, I had a poor conceptual grasp of ‘videos on the Web’ and was interested (yet slightly overwhelmed) by his theories. Aided by a further semester of learning about video blogging in Integrated Media classes, I’m more attuned to ‘Manovich speak’.

A few weeks after deciding on what I wanted to achieve (and blogging this objective), I re-read Manovich. He describes watching Jean-Louis Boissier’s Flora petrinsularis 1993:

where each mouse click reveals another loop, the viewer becomes an editor, but not in a traditional sense. Rather than constructing a singular narrative sequence and discarding material which is not used, here the viewer brings to the forefront, one by one, numerous layers of looped actions which seem to be taking place all at once: a multitude of separate, but co-existing temporalites. The viewer is not cutting but re-shuffling.
Manovich 67-68

This was exactly what I wanted to do with my project – make the viewer the co-creator of the Text.

Manovich’s softcinema was of particular interest. In his article Models of Authorship in New Media 2002, Manovich also mentions Barthes:

Three decades ago Roland Barthes elegantly defined a cultural text as “a tissue of quotations”: “We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from innumerable centres of culture.” In software-driven production environment, these quotations come not only from the creators’ memories of what they previously saw, read, and heard, but also directly from the databases of media assets, as well as numerous other words that in the case of the World Wide Web are just a click away. Lev Manovich

While using Barthes quote to critique existing media practice, my understanding of the research problem was also influenced by other theorists, particularly in relation to film and hypertext theory. In essence, I only quoted Manovich and Landow in my research project, ‘My mother’s sister’, as I didn’t want to use words, but apply them to practice.

Lev Manovich

George P. Landow.

The Rest

In reality, I accessed a whole galaxy of people to frame my thoughts over the last few months. Too many to mention, but some can’t be overlooked:

1. Jill Walker’s blog. Jill is always interesting to read, but it’s her phrase Distributed Narrative that I like. Just the juxtaposition of those two words conjures up all sorts of possibilities.
2. Lisa Gye’s website Halflives, which explores family history.
3. Adrian Miles vlog. Always pushing the envelope (and recalcitrant students!) within the everchanging world that is ‘video blogging’.

4. The Text is plural. Which is not simply to say that it has several meanings, but that it accomplishes the very plural of meaning: an irreducible (and not merely an acceptable) plural. The Text is not a co-existence of meanings but a passage, an overcrossing; thus it answers not to an interpretation, even a liberal one, but to an explosion, a dissemination. The plural of the Text depends, that is, not on the ambiguity of its contents but on what might be called the stereographic plurality of its weave of signifiers (etymologically, the text is a tissue, a woven fabric). (p. 159.) Barthes, Roland. “From Work to Text.” Trans. Stephen Heath. Image–Music–Text. London: Flamingo, 1977. 155–64.

Barthes’ quote constitutes both the basis of my research problem and the reason why I created an essay composed mainly of images and sound rather than words. I am interested in memory and the way personal history is construed through a combination of our own recollections and that of others – we internalise ‘other’ memories to form part of ‘our’ story. Each person ‘creating’ themselves through an intricate, collaborative reading by friends, family, strangers. We are all in transit and provide a ‘passage of meaning’ to others … we are the Text…each and every one of us.

My project is called “My mother’s sister”. I hope it works!

What a week it’s been! The Level 4 Bonza lab (a room full of dysfunctional computers and stressed students) resembled a cattle pen at an abattoir on most days. I kid you not! Does any good family (in possession of a G5 with all the programs I can possibly desire) want to adopt me? Okay, it doesn’t have to be a good family, but YOU MUST HAVE A MAC.

Who would’ve thought that eZedia actually has a hidden function called “your project is shit, I’m gonna corrupt it and make you start all over again…and by the way, I’m going to tell all the other software programs to delete all your photos, movies, etc. Just keep it simple stupid!” Of course it’s a hidden button, coz it contains way too much text for one, wee dialog box!

Well, believe me, I activated that fiendish function three times. I was in a game of Monopoly and I just couldn’t get out of gaol! A fever overtook me and I came down with a severe case of Integrated Media Moroseness. I was bedridden – a bottle of whiskey by my side and fingering the beads, as I prayed to Bill (Gates) to “just takeover that damn fruit company and send all MAC Smarty Pants to Hell!” (There is no definition of this ‘underground tribe’ in Wikipedia yet, but I am working on it).

Carefully scanned images – gone. Reams of party photos, now only exist in my head. Original AVI movies…only one survived the holocaust. Okay, so eZedia was right. I needed to spend 26 hours a day in front of a computer and start all over again (tues…weds…thurs…). I eventually discovered to counteract the ‘fiendish function’, you’ve just got to work with what (my mate) eZ wants. He/she/it likes clean lines, properly compressed videos, snappily ‘photoshoped’ images and plenty of saves and exports (remembering to kill off all previous heir apparents, before the ‘new .mov’ settles in).

I think my project is looking swell. We seem to be getting on just fine now…but give me a few more days before I give the final thumbs up.

Here’s my final (overall) templates for Integrated Media:

1. Blog Assessment. Blog assessment statement here.
2. Participation Assessment. Participation diary statement here.

Okay, so it’s not about ‘what I learnt to do this week’, but ‘how I learnt to do it’. One phrase sums it up – trial and error! I can’t count the number of times I’ve walked out of the Bonza Lab in a quasi-delirious state after nine hours in front of a computer! It’s easy when someone is ‘holding your hand’ in class and you think you understand. It’s a different matter altogether, trying to sort out problems on your own (and there’s only so many times you can pester someone else in the Lab as they try and sort out their own dilemmas).

Sometimes I accidentally stumbled upon a solution, sometimes I needed to leave it for a few days and then I could work it out. At other times, I’d go back over my notes or blog, check someone else’s blog, talk to a classmate, or consult ‘Help’ for a particular problem (eg. eZedia & Photoshop Help are getting a bashing at the moment).

I had a slow start to Integrated Media, but I had good reasons for that. In weeks 5 through 13, I did an average of six posts per week and clocked up a ridiculous amount of hours devoted to understanding this subject. I believe my posts are intelligent, critical and creatively engage with tasks and explore ideas. That’s my asessment matrix for a High Distinction. Total mark 33.5 out of 40 equals 84%

My blog criteria

1. Cohesive

While blogs are ‘open to the world’, my blog is mainly aimed at the ‘local’ (contextualising IM lectures, classes and assessment projects with other research I was doing in this area). It’s a thinking space, that documents my ‘progressive reflection‘ of thirteen weeks of Integrated Media. I didn’t spend time on the (technical) nuts and bolts of ‘where I went wrong’, but rather concentrated on the process of learning and what ideas, problems and theories informed my understanding of the subject.

2. Informative

I spend a lot of time researching online and composing blog posts, so I like to think that the information I’ve distilled in my posts is insightful, well-written and relevant to others on this New Media ‘infoquest’. I think my posts continued conversations, or resonated in other blogs . I tried to explore new ideas, challenge opinions and provide a dialogue of the problems I faced when overcoming technical problems, reflecting on Barthes theories or deciding how to approach my research project.

3. Relevant links

As the semester progressed, so did the links in my posts. I’m fairly conscious of making my posts ‘interconnected’. I used links that were relevant to this course; illustrated a point I was discussing in a post; or had helped me to see something in a new perspective (Adrian’s snow storm concept post), and would help someone else in their research. I followed up all links Adrian recommended in his blog and they would often get mentioned in my posts.

4. Good Design to Attract other readers

This ‘blog quality’ actually didn’t really figure too high for me. I did change my Theme a few weeks into the semester and added items to the sidebar (categories, RSS icons), but mainly concentrated on my written content rather than graphics. I was always conscious of making sure that the lay-out was simple and easy to read as inconsistent style was a real ‘turn off’ when I trawled through other blogs.

5. Establish my voice

Blogging involves translating thoughts into words. Sounds easy enough, but articulating an endless, internal monologue is hard work! I really love the opportunities that blogging affords me and think it has honed my writing skills and shaped my New Media ideas in the last few months. Like others in this course, I was wary of ‘being exposed’ through blogging, but as the semester’s progressed, I didn’t seem to ‘fight’ the process of ‘writing me’ so much.

I don’t know whether I became accustomed to the process of ‘public writing’ or it’s just the knowledge that ‘the public’ consists of me, Adrian and the odd lost surfer, but I definitely don’t feel so conscious of what I write in this space now. I’ve worked hard to keep a conversational tone throughout my blog, while keeping it relevant to Integrated Media matters.

6. Respond to two other blogs per week

Now this is a ‘debatable’ quality. I didn’t actually leave comments on anyone’s blog, but I did comment on blogs I’d read by making posts in my blog. I read at least four or five blogs every week and religiously checked Adrian’s blog, Nomad and the Media Wiki every few days.

It was interesting to read the conversations that develop through blogs, but there was nothing that grabbed me enough to make a response. When something did interest me, invariably it was a week-old post and I felt the ‘moment had passed’ where a comment was warranted.

7. One reflective post per week

This I excelled at…I reflect on everything, all the time…quite does my head in! Mainly reflecting on classes, problems and new ideas. For me, reflection is an important quality in blogging and life in general.

It’s only by reflecting on the problems or successes I’ve experienced, that I could get a glimmer of the bigger picture (or begin to realise the lesson I was meant to learn, rather than what I thought the lesson should be). Often, I don’t really ‘get things’ until I wrote about them. Mark 5 out of 5

8. Play with ideas to produce interesting videos

I found the ‘I am like this’ video series took a lot of time to make. It was a good exercise to explore video on blogs, but I found getting all the videos ‘done and blogged’ a constant uphill battle. It was very rewarding to actually get all the video weekly tasks completed, but I was finding Integrated Media (technically) daunting, so my ‘inspired ideas’ for videos tapered off fairly quickly after the mandatory ’set tasks’ were completed, as I focussed on other concerns.

I did spend a lot of time watching other video blogs: all helped me to problematize video blogging in general, and what I like about it, in particular (ie. ‘confessional’ bloggers talking direct to camera is usually BORING!). I’ve learnt to re-assess my idea of movie-making and how you can get you message across to an audience in a much smaller space (blog, iPod, mobile phone, etc) .

I was interested to see that I kept making pseudo-docos of the mundane and everyday. I think it was because of that initial ‘mock-style’ video that made me want to make something ‘real’ (yet still grounded in the everyday) for my final research project. Mark 3 out of 5