Here is a preview of what my project #3 looks like.

I realised that I will need to delete a fair number of videos from my Flickr account. I’ve uploaded more than 100 videos, this is something I knew I was doing last week. After reshooting the shots for my videos, I’ll edit it and replace it with some of the previous videos that I uploaded into my account.

In reference to the ‘On The Difficulty of Being An ANT: An Interlude In The Form Of A Dialog’ article that Adrian gave out in Week 4:

What my thoughts were as I read this particular article:

• Utter confusion – what is this?
• You mean the insect ‘ants’?
• Oh not the insect, something else… Oh, my bad…
• ANT Theory? Hmm… That is interesting. I thought the insect ants had a theory for a second there.
• It was horrible to read
• I’ll admit that I struggled reading this article, but at least I tried
• Structured creatively: not my cup of tea

I would of sworn Adrian wanted to test our patience with this article…

I am more than willing to admit that I struggled immensely when I read this article. I disliked it instantly when Adrian handing it out to me as I briefly scanned from page to page. This article was an alien to me. Why was it structured this way: in a conversation? Honestly, I’ve only read half of the article, it pained me too much to go on.

At first, the article reminded me of a film script.

The article follows the conversation between a professor and a student as they discuss what the ANT theory is. This role-playing confused me during the first couple of pages however, when I got used to reading the article in the format that it was in, I realised how much sense the article made. Nonetheless, after reading the article, I was still confused at what I’ve just read, it just didn’t click, but at the same time it did? Weird.

Some quotes in the reading that interested me:

• ‘Because it’s not a tool, or rather because tools are never ‘mere’ tools ready to be applied: they always modify the goals you had in mind. That’s what ‘actor’ means. Actor Network allows you to produce some effects that you would not have obtained by some other social theory’ (Professor pp. 143). The Professor attempts to explain what the ANT is to the student.
• ‘It depends entirely on what you yourself allow your actors (or rather, your actants) to do. Being connected, being interconnected, or being heterogeneous is not enough. It all depends on the sort of action that is flowing from one to the other, hence the words ‘net’ and ‘work’. Really, we should say ‘worknet’ instead of ‘network’. It’s the work, and the movement, and the flow, and the changes that should be stressed. But now we are stuck with ‘network’ and everyone things we mean the World Wide Wed or something like that’ (Professor pp. 143).
• ‘With Actor-Network you may describe something that doesn’t at all look like a network – an individual state of mind, a piece of machinery, a fictional character; conversely, you may describe a network – subways, sewages, telephones, – which is not all drawn in an ‘Actor-Network’ way. You are simply confusing the object with the method. ANT is a method, and mostly a negative one at that, it says nothing about the shape of what is being described with it!’ (Professor pp. 142).
• ‘But that’s exactly what ‘interpretive’ sociologies argue? No?’ (Student pp. 144).
• ‘Oh no, not at all. They would say that human desires, human meanings, human intentions, etc., introduce some ‘interpretive flexibility’ into a world of inflexible objects, of ‘pure causal relations’, of ‘strictly material connections’ (Professor pp. 144).
• ‘But I am always limited to my situated viewpoint, to my perspective, to my own subjectivity? (Student pp. 145).
• ‘Of course you are! But what makes you think that ‘having a viewpoint’ means ‘being limited’ or especially ‘subjective’? When you travel abroad and you follow the sign ‘Belvedere 1.5km’, Panorama’, ‘Belle vista’, when you finally reach the breath-taking site, in what way is this proof of your ‘subjective limits’? It’s the thing itself, the valley, the peaks, the roads, that offer you this grasp, this handle, this take’ (Professor pp. 145).

I wished this was a proper article… It would make more sense to me.

On the weekend, Adrian sent me an email in regards to an article – Queering the Documentary Form in Isaac Juliens Films – so I’m able to get started on the more theoretical project ahead. I think I should begin to look into queer theories, wait, is there such thing as queer film theories?

In Wednesdays studio, we were all paired up and we were to watch each other’s 10o videos that made up our project #3. After, we were to evaluate on our classmates work-in-progress as part of a class discussion.

Adrian gave me the following advice for my project:

• Right now, you are seeing it from your point of view: don’t
• See it from another point of view:
  • Look at it from a queer point of view
• What is the queer lounge? What are the qualities of this space? What makes the lounge a lounge? A ceiling, walls, carpet, floor, windows, light switch, corners, etc.?
• Queer theories – do some research
• Bring in queerness to the things you capture
• Don’t just point and shoot
• Make the video clips you capture “queer”: spice it up with some queer stuff – film magazines, zines, posters, brochures.
• What is the queer lounge about? It’s about people hanging out, a place to study, a place to make friends, a place to eat, a safe place, a place to relax and rest.
• What does the queer lounge highlight?
• Right now, you are being gentle and sensible with your videos, go apply some queer politics in the videos – feminism, hetreonormativity, some gender-neutral toilets campaigns posters.

The summary in my head when Adrian gave me his advice for my project :

• Make your videos gay, make it gay, gay, gay, gggaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Or queer as he puts it.
• Spice up your videos with some gayness 😉 – you know it! A little shot of HIV and STI resources will be quite naughty.
• Feminism – something to explore? Hmm…. Interesting, I’ve always wanted to study womens’ study…
• Queer theories? I don’t know any… Maybe I should look that up… Awkward that I’m the Queer Officer and don’t know about queer theories, how embarrassing…
• Gender-neutral toilets posters? But I’ve already filmed it?
• See it/film it from another point of view: gay it up? A newbie: a queer student that’s new to the queer lounge? Maybe…
• Film the queer lounge, not the things in it, exactly what the queer lounge is, ceilings, lights, walls, windows, etc. Stop trying to be so fancy by filming what’s in the queer lounge, go back to basics and think humbly: what is the queer lounge made of?

What I will be doing next:

I will be following the advice of Adrian, some, but not all.

I thought that I would have finished filming my 100 videos and call it a wrap – I’ve actually filmed more than 100, it’s more like 126 videos to be exact, all edited down to 5 seconds too. I will be reshooting some shots and/or replacing the shots with the other videos that I’ve uploaded into my Flickr account. I’ll be filming early in the morning on Wednesday this week and hopefully, I’ll get a chance to edit it during the day when I have my breaks in between my classes.