Lushi's serious blog

The first is a reflection on the time-based media that you have made that is a consequence of your manifesto.
How do the works demonstrate or follow the manifesto?
Are they successful?
How?

All the videos fit the rules of the propositions. As the time-based (more discussion)media, they all have a time limitation of 15 seconds, in a content type of MP4 or MOV. They are well compressed and require low bandwidth requirements in order to fit into the environment of networking, and faster streaming. The videos are in one continued shot recording some movements as they happened by the constrained period. Since they are focused on the activity itself, they do contain any sound effects or dialogues. The content of the videos also follow the propositions strictly, you can tell that myself shot the videos obviously because they reveals only one of my hands or my legs as well as they are all in a close up shot. For most of the time the camera of the mobile phone is stable while the content is about movements. They provide a view of what I was doing at the time rather than a vision of what happened.
I think the videos are succeed in meeting the requirements for manifesto, and they look pretty similar to each other though with different content. They show a variety of activities after work, it is easy to tell what I was doing from the videos. Also, the videos are all controllable with a control button for start and pause, which is another characteristic for the time-based media. In other aspects, I think the videos look like they were shooting with the same template; to me it’s sort of a bad attempt regarding to the practice of vernacular videos. Maybe its because my life is boring itself, there should be a way to present it in a better vision.

The second is what, if anything, would you change or amend in your manifesto now that you have tried to follow it? Why?

I would like to change the way I presents the activities and lessen the constraint of only showing my hands or legs. I should have tried to shoot in a variety angles, not always with the point of view. Likewise, I should have tried for a proper framing before I shot, therefore the videos would be able to reveal more details on what is going on rather than making viewers to guess what activities was that. For the last proposition, maybe it’s not constraint enough since it doesn’t require a specific content while there are plenty of things that you can do after work. From the videos, you can tell the activities are not with a big difference. What I mean is my life is boring and I lack of creativities in producing interesting media. In this case, maybe it’s better to make the manifesto a in a long frame size and put all the videos as a sequence. When things are with little differences, it’s better to compare them together which I think it might have an interesting effect. In my opinion, the videos seem just touching the edge of the propositions rather than fully applied it. In this case the propositions need to be constructed in a way that are not only constraint but also allows spaces for creativities and a platform for a variety of results. From viewing the videos, I found them to be shot in a manner of fitting the rules not as a way to really record something vernacular. By saying this I mean, the meaning of making the videos and the contents of the videos are in order to fit the propositions, without any purpose to use it as a form to express or describe myself. If I have finalised the propositions earlier, the contents might be different since things aren’t just happening in a few weeks. The time-based media needs to remain as a habit, and then the videos will be more impressive than now.

The third is and overall reflection on what you think the implications of this practice might be for yourself as someone who wished to have a professional media practice.

In my perspective, this practice involves a wide range of technology experiments and a way to apply media as a form to express us as well as our perspectives. To use an alternative technology to present out thoughts is a way of making us to get used to the industry. The development of technology is growing fast and forms of media changes rapidly in order to meet the increasing needs from people. Those new alternative media derived from technology can replace any mainstream medias. We need to prepare for instant changes and find out new ways that will express our perspectives better. By doing this practice with eZedia, it gives us a chance to explore on how interactive the time-based media and the quality of it. It makes us to prove our creativity by using daily capturing tools rather than the professional cameras. Before we get to have a professional media practice, we need to know how the others work out a media practice without professional tools, how does the time-based media work under the internet environment, how to be creativity with designing the content rather than rely on the tools and effects. Since more and more people can keep a daily practice by making videos with phones and cameras, as well as adding links to make the video rich in information, we need to be prepared that it might become another popular media form in the future. The practice also makes me think critically on how to create content that will express myself clearly and correctly with all the constraints that exist in the real world. Likewise, it pushes me to think about how to disseminate my voice and thoughts in a variety ways. It is like a little taste of how can you perform when you are in an extremely creative and competitive industry, and I need to recgonise it and get myself prepared for the tasks.