1. How did you author (the video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
To author my video this week I decided to experiment with using the ‘start-stop’ touch feature to record multiple shots, using the Instagram video tool on my iPhone 6s plus. Similar to other video uploads, the doors I filmed were fairly well lit so I didn’t need to use flash to record. Using the rear-facing camera I pressed and held down to record each static shot. This took a few retries as I had some shaky recordings, but the multi-clip record allowed me to delete and rerecord these. Additionally, I found that the looping feature of Instagram worked to help these videos flow together well, as the framing and colours of each shot were similar. While authoring I also decided to keep the original audio of each video. To frame each door within the square camera interface, I moved so that they fit within the frame. I also chose a ‘cover’ frame as the preview picture for my video, which was one of the graffitied doors. I was able to achieve the look I wanted by adjusting the Gingham filter slider, and I didn’t alter much else before publishing. I found that one of the advantages of recording within the Instagram interface is that it allows you to easily string together several clips, which is something I would usually do in an external mobile app like Premiere Rush or iMovie when creating video Instagram content which saved me some time.
2. How did you publish (the video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I published the video to my Instagram after applying a filter, selecting a cover frame and preparing my caption. As the video depicted fire doors, I included a short caption that reflected on their purpose and how I came to record them. I also added the same group of hashtags used on my previous uploads to the caption (#door, #video, #melbourne etc.), adding a few new descriptors like #graffiti and #emergency. I also left the video settings to play the footage immediately and on repeat.
3. How did you distribute (the video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I am continuing to distribute my posts on both my Twitter and Tumblr accounts, cross-posting to Twitter with every upload and manually posting my photos and videos to Tumblr alongside tags from the original post. The use of hashtags on several of these platforms has helped me to gain an audience (however small), which demonstrates their usefulness when it comes to distributing content. This post was fairly successful as it gained quite a few likes.
1. How did you author (the photo) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I took the photo of this blue door using the camera tool within the Instagram app, using the rear-facing camera on my iPhone 6s plus. With this upload, the square format in the Instagram app affected the way I framed the image, as I had to consider the most important element within the frame. In order to do this I moved closer to the door to capture both the door and the stickers on the pole beside it. I used the natural daylight to light the photograph, and altered the image using Instagram’s image adjustments tools. I wanted to make the blue of the door brighter, so to achieve this I applied the Clarendon filter. I also sharpened the image to make the details of the photo stand out. The authoring process was different to how I would usually author my own photography, as the framing constraints challenged me to approach my shooting in a different way.
2. How did you publish (the photo) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
To publish the image to my Instagram account, I finished editing the photo within the Instagram editor and continued to add a caption, a quote from Rebecca Ross that reflected the hidden nature of doors. I wanted to include a description that was unique but still relevant to the nature of the post. I also added a block of hashtags similar to my previous posts, both to describe the image and distribute it further. While publishing I added the location the photograph was taken in the Location section of the post.
3. How did you distribute (the photo) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I distributed my photo to my other social media accounts, Twitter and Tumblr, to increase the viewership of my Instagram account. The hashtags I included in my Instagram caption have also drawn in new followers to my account. I shared the post to Twitter using the Share toggle and manually uploaded a linked post as usual to my Tumblr blog. I have also gained a few followers on my Tumblr blog as a result of using the tags within the service (the same as those on the original Instagram post).
1. How did you author (the video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This week I authored my video using my iPhone 6s plus rear camera to record my footage, with no flash. I found this different to recording within the Instagram interface as I did in Week 9, as I only had to tap a button to record my footage, instead of hold it down. I used one short, continuous take to capture my surroundings. While in my Photos app, I trimmed the video to a shorter length; as I am keeping in mind that shorter videos work well with Instagram’s format as it lets them loop on repeat. I also left the original audio so as to better capture the atmosphere and establish some consistency with my last video upload. Similarly, while authoring I chose a ‘cover’ as the preview picture, this time of the numbered door to emphasise it within the frame. To edit my video, I chose to use the mobile app Infiltr to add a video filter. To keep in consistency with the earthy colours of my last couple posts, I emphasised the green of the plants by boosting the green slider and lowering the saturation of the image within Infiltr. Though the original video was filmed in landscape, I cropped the video to match Instagram’s square format. While doing this I had to consider the most important part of the frame, and make sure the door was in view. This authoring process for video is something I am used to, as I usually edit my footage on external apps before uploading them to Instagram. In my next video upload however I would like to continue recording within the app like in my last video, with a focus on start and stop recording.
2. How did you publish (the video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I published the video to my Instagram after selecting it within the app, choosing a cover frame and typing a caption that fit the content of the video. As it was filmed in the same location as the previous photo I uploaded, I numbered it 1/2 so that the viewer knows it is part of a set of 2 pieces of media. As usual I also included a block of hashtags that described the upload such as #door, #video and #melbourne to attract users browsing these tags within the app. I left the settings so that the video would play automatically on loop, to show the contrast between the wooden door, and the garage roller door beside it during the pan across. I have also started to include locations in my Instagram uploads, so for this post I added the location it was shot to its Location section.
3. How did you distribute (the video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
As usual, I distributed my video to my other social media accounts (Twitter and Tumblr). I posted simultaneously to Twitter using the Share toggle of the post and manually uploaded a linked post to my Tumblr blog, with the tags from my original Instagram post. The post was also distributed within the app using the hashtags I included within my caption. I have found that hashtags are actually pretty effective in distributing my content, and I’ve received a few followers since I’ve started posting to the account- I even got a comment on the post prior to this one (lol). Following users that share similar content (other door accounts) has also increased traffic to my account somewhat.
1. How did you author (the photo) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
To author my photo, I used my iPhone 6s plus rear-facing camera without flash, and chose my upload from a few different images. I found that this layout worked better to show the full environment of the doors I wanted to capture. This means that upload to Instagram, I had to consider how the image would fit into its new rectangle format. In my future photo uploads, I would like to see how I can work within the constraints of the square layout as well. I also moved some distance away from the doors to capture the entire scene. To edit the photo, I used Instagram’s image adjustment tools. I increased the warmth, sharpened the image, and used the ‘lux’ tool (the magic wand in the upper section of the editor) to apply auto correction to the image. Using the instagram app to author my image was a familiar process, as I often use the image correction tools on personal photos that I upload to Instagram. Occasionally I turn to other mobile editing applications such as Lightroom or VSCO to achieve a desired effect, so it was interesting to notice the differences in my editing process.
2. How did you publish (the photo) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
To publish the image to my Instagram account, I followed a similar process to my earlier video post. I included a caption detailing how I came across the doors I photographed, and used similar hashtags to describe the image. Some of the tags I used stayed the same, for example #iphone6s, #door, and #melbourne. As it is an image this time, I also included tags such as #photography and #streetphotography as well as some other descriptors, like #trees, building and #sun. To publish the photo, I continued with the photo I had chosen and used the rectangle format to fit within the size constraints of Instagram alongside the caption and hashtags I provided.
3. How did you distribute (the photo) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Like my last post, I distributed my image to both my Twitter and Tumblr accounts. To post to Twitter I simply had the option to toggle to that platform enabled. To post to Tumblr, I manually uploaded a linked post to my Instagram account on my blog, accompanied by the tags from my original Instagram post. My Instagram hashtags are also helping to distribute my post within the app, so I received a few likes after posting the image.
1. How did you author (the video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Before preparing to author my video, I decided to focus on a theme that would guide how I approached the Donald Norman quote. For my creative work I will be looking at hidden doors, which gives me the opportunity to seek out doors in a creative way. I also hope to structure my feed in a cohesive and structured way, possibly by alternating photo and video posts in each row. For this reason I posted a photo from the same location before this post to even out the row of 3.
I authored my video for this week using the Instagram video tool on my iPhone 6s plus, using the rear-facing camera and no flash. It was filmed in one continuous shot, so I simply pressed and held down to record the footage. This method of recording video within Instagram is interesting, as usually I just press the button once on my iPhone camera to record. Therefore it wasn’t something I was used to, but it wasn’t necessarily difficult. My rationale for using one shot was that I wanted to pan across to contrast the two doors to show the full view of the building. In future videos I upload, I would also like to explore the ‘start-stop’ touch feature to record multiple shots. I decided to keep the audio from the original video so as to capture some of the atmosphere in the street. Instagram’s square camera made it somewhat tricky to record video, as it obstructed part of my view of the environment. While this acted as a constraint it encouraged me to be more creative in finding the best angle to frame and record my environment. As part of my authoring process I also chose a ‘cover’ frame as the preview picture for my video, which was the ‘Open’ sign of the store. I found that Instagram doesn’t afford as many adjustments to video as it does photos in terms of filters, however I was able to achieve the look I wanted by adjusting the Gingham filter slider so that it wasn’t too intense. Overall the authoring process was quite different from how I would usually record video, as I had to consider the framing and staging of my shots more carefully.
2. How did you publish (the video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
While preparing to publish the video to my Instagram account, I typed a caption that detailed my thoughts upon coming across this location. I also included a block of hashtags to be included in the caption of my upload. For example, I included basic descriptors like #door, #graffiti, #urban that were specific to the video, as well as groups and locations like #doorstagram, #melbourne and #iphone6s that would attract viewers interested in content to do with Melbourne, doors or IPhone videography. To publish the video, I simply continued with the video I shot within the app and posted this with the caption and hashtags I provided. The video also plays automatically as the default, which I find works well as the it loops between the two doors shown.
3. How did you distribute (the video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
To distribute my Instagram posts to two other social media services, I linked my account to both Twitter and Tumblr. I also customized these pages with a link to redirect and boost traffic to my Instagram account. I found that while I could cross-post to Twitter with every Instagram upload, I had to upload the post manually to my Tumblr blog, as the blog I’m using is a side blog. This wasn’t too difficult as I’m able to upload links through Tumblr to direct users to my Instagram account. On Tumblr, I also copied across the tags from my original Instagram post to its tags section. The hashtags in my caption on Instagram also helped to distribute my post to a larger audience, so I was surprised at how quickly I started getting likes from different accounts.
In our final media work and practice, I feel we were fairly successful in achieving what we set out to do. In my first assignment I explored humans and their entanglement with mobile technology in today’s society, and how this can bring us closer together, or isolate us from our environments. Working as part of a group this time, the themes of ‘environment’ and human entanglements were something that all of us had in common in our initial media work. I wanted to carry over some ideas about devices and their entanglement with place to further build on my initial ideas. As a result, we decided to examine the spaces we inhabit and are most familiar with in our everyday lives, which for each of us were our bedrooms.
We found that bedrooms are highly personal spaces entangled with memory and technology, which connects us with others. They are also spaces of learning and self reflection. By examining how our surroundings influence our actions, we aimed to illustrate how this shapes our identity, thoughts and experiences, in order to connect our project to broader themes of place. A idea that helped us to explore this was an quote from Rene Magritte from Simon Schama’s book Landscape and Memory. Magritte argues that we see the world “as being outside ourselves even though it is only a mental representation of what we experience on the inside”, and that “it is culture, convention, and cognition that makes [this] design” (pg.12). This is a concept we wanted to expand on, as cultural and personal factors often influence human relationships with environments.
The scrollable page format afforded us with the ability to create work with a level of texture, and allowed us to experiment with sound, visuals and text to tell a story. With this format we had to keep in mind how a person would move through our page by scrolling and pausing. We decided to use the Wix website builder to produce our media work, as this suited our needs for an interactive design. The visuals we used such as the header image and looping videos intended to reinforce this relationship humans have with their surroundings. Similarly, the hovering feature was something that we added to the final work to afford a level of interactivity to the user. The use of text in the form of small paragraphs allowed us to give an insight into places and their entanglement with humans. Sound was also something we took into consideration, as clicking a button to play a soundtrack helped us to create a cosy atmosphere for the viewer.
While making the work a question that arose for our group was how we could create a consistent look and feel throughout the page. We did this by each recording our individual footage with similar equipment (a DSLR camera) which would also ensure its technical quality and give us more control over composition. I also had the opportunity to carry over some of the forms of the media I produced in my first work such as looping visuals similar to a GIF format. By grouping visually and conceptually similar elements together, we intended to create a seamless experience on the page. The single page exercise in class helped us think about the relationships we hoped to create between different things on the page, keeping proximity, alignment and overall composition in mind.
There are some issues with the final work that could be overcome in the next assignment, as well as areas for potential development. In terms of sound, incorporating spoken word elements instead of music could allow for a clearer emphasis on storytelling. Alternatively, having different music tracks could allow for a more personalised experience. In terms of design, I feel some aspects could have been improved such as including a more dynamic background, as some parts of the page feel empty at times. An issue that we came across after filming was that our rooms sometimes visually clash with each other. While this serves to show the contrast between different spaces, I think that having more of a focus on consistent editing and colour grading of the footage could overcome this problem. Despite this, I have learnt a significant amount about page design and was able to overcome the technical issues I experienced while recording in my first assignment, such as framing certain elements. In our future work, some potential developments include having more of a focus on storytelling through quotes, adding more levels of interactivity, and using sound and space to further immerse the viewer.
Bibliography-
Schama, S, 1996, Landscape and memory. London, HarperCollins Publishers, pp. 3-19.
Manzo, L.C., 2003, Beyond house and haven: Toward a revisioning of emotional relationships with places. Journal of environmental psychology, 23(1), pp.47-61.
Bennett, J, 2010, The Agency of Assemblages. In Vibrant Matter. A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, London: Duke University Press, pp. 20–38.
In my final media works, I feel I was fairly successful in achieving what I set out to do. I intended to create work with a level of texture and compose each in an interesting way in order to highlight the entanglements a smartphone has. Each format (visuals and audio) allowed me to experiment with editing to create something new. Mobile technology has become a part of the meshwork of our relationships and unwritten rules about communication in today’s society has changed the way we relate to each other. This was something I wanted to focus on in terms of demonstrating our entanglement with technology in today’s society.
Something that I feel was successful in the final visual work was the colour scheme as the black background let me create contrast with the lighter coloured objects, and the simple layout made it easier to focus on certain things in the frame such as the smartphone. I decided on incorporating GIFs into my work, as the affordances of video and gifs are that they can tell a story through images, and the gif format is engaging and short. I also think that this format works well in regards to storytelling. Their repetitive nature is similar to the instantaneous messages we receive on our phones. This is definitely something I would like to explore in future work that explores entanglement.
Aspects that weren’t as successful include some technical issues I had with using stop motion to create GIFs: in some frames, the lighting changed which interrupted the flow of the animation. I also had some framing issues as a result of moving each object individually a number of times. To avoid these problems in the future I will ensure all objects are in the frame and positioned correctly. Additionally, using text overlays helped me to more clearly illustrate the ideas I wanted to explore to the viewer. However, I feel the frame gets overcrowded or the text is too fast at times, which might make the viewer feel overwhelmed. Alternatively, I could have used a voiceover to avoid this and to create more of a focus on the images.
In my audio work, something that worked was the use of field recording to create a sense of space. An idea I wanted to explore was how I could convey information about today’s society and its entanglement with technology through sound. I am satisfied with the technical quality of the audio, as I used a zoom mic to capture sound in separate locations (a busy footpath, a staircase, a pedestrian crossing). Combining these field recordings with the sounds of a smartphone allowed me to create the atmosphere of an urban environment, and in addition, highlight the disconnectedness of a person on their phone with their physical environment.
One of the affordances of the audio format is that revealing or omitting certain sounds can elicit certain emotional responses from the listener. By using transitions in Audition, I diminished the volume of the environment whenever the person was using their phone in order to evoke a response of isolation in the listener. However, this is something I feel I could improve upon in my future work by creating a more coherent storyline and flow within the piece. By playing around with the timing of the clips to improve its pacing, I feel it could have been less boring at times or evoked a stronger emotional response. My proposed audio work included excerpts from voicemails to engage the listener’s imagination, however, I found this did not complement the field recordings I collected as well which could be an idea I reapproach in the future.
A concept I would like to develop in future work that explores entanglement are those entanglements that do not revolve around humans, such as animals and nature as I feel this would be interesting to look into. In addition, I would like to further explore how I can use interactive and visual forms of media making.
The concept of ‘entanglement’ in media storytelling is quite complex, and so I have given a lot of thought about what it means to be entangled in the world in these first few weeks. The implications of the word ‘tangle’ when used to describe the world we live in are that it has a messy and unique quality. Therefore to familiarise myself with this concept I have read the Tim Ingold reading, ‘Rethinking the animate, re-animating thought’. A quote I really like from this reading is that things exist in a field “not of interconnected points but of interwoven lines; not a network but a meshwork” (p.70). I feel that this encompasses the idea that as things in our world thread paths of their own, they are constantly relating to each other, creating a weave of existence. I found this interesting as it is quite an abstract perspective. It highlights the texture of the world we inhabit, and that beings do not live their lives in a static manner. Another idea I quite liked was that “things are their relations” (p.70), which reinforces that the relations things form give the things themselves meaning. In my media work, I would like to highlight the changing nature of human relationships in particular. One way I would like to do this is by examining the role that technology (mobile phones in particular) have become a part of this meshwork in our lives.
While I am developing my ideas, I also want to think about how I can craft a story to represent our entanglement with technology in an interesting way. I feel that the example video that was shown in class, Dead stuff: The secret ingredient in our food chain by John C. Moore on detritus does this well. The leaf texture of the animation gave meaning to the narration, which informs the viewer of food chains in our ecosystem. Similarly, the small media work we created in pairs used visuals and audio to highlight the entanglements of an everyday object (a disposable coffee cup). By using images of its life cycle- from its purchase to its disposal- and atmospheric sounds of eating, talking and drinking I could illustrate its context and purpose within the world. We found that our media work could be related to larger environmental concerns surrounding waste as it was a non-recyclable object. People often choose to use disposable cups because of their functionality and convenience in our lives, which made me reconsider the things I use in my own life such as plastic bags which are harmful to the environment.
In one of my small media works, I would like to do something similar to inquire about the new connections that exist with mobile technology. I intend on experimenting with some form of video collage or stop motion to create a unique composition. I would also like to delve into how this affects our personal and social relationships with others in today’s society.
Peter Cusack explores the idea that “all sound (even unspoken) conveys information about places and events that are different yet complementary to visual images and language”. In my audio work, I would like to incorporate this idea of field recording as ‘sonic journalism’. I found it interesting how sound can reveal things like the time of day in a location or have a textural quality. While doing some field recording of my own in the city I noticed the timbre of voices of a busy open space, compared to the calm and warm atmosphere of a cafe. In my audio work, I would like to highlight the entanglement between a person on their mobile phone and their disconnectedness with the other people in this busy space.
In addition, the idea of subtly revealing certain sound sources at a certain pace to elicit a specific emotion (fear, excitement) is interesting. The clip from Voyage There And Back was particularly engaging as it instilled a sense of isolation in the listener. I think that it would be unique to create a soundscape using voicemails and excerpts from text messages to engage the listener’s imagination and create an isolating feeling.
References:
Ingold, T, 2011 ‘Rethinking the animate, reanimating thought’, Being alive: essays on movement, knowledge and description, Routledge, London, New York: 67-75 (69-71)
Cusack, P. (2013). Field Recording as Sonic Journalism. In A. Carlyle & C. Lane (Eds.), On Listening (pp. 25–29). Devon: Uniformbooks.
