Define 02 from Emily Malone on Vimeo.
Constraint 04: Relations 02
Category Archives: Integrated Media 1
Constraint 04: Relations 01
Define 01 from Emily Malone on Vimeo.
Week 05: Reflections
The main lesson I learnt from this week’s symposium is that k-films can change the way viewers see things, but they can also change the way makers see things. This is my favourite part of the IM1 course so far – I’m learning so much from expanding my thought processes and developing my lateral creative thinking skills. The content we’re talking about/producing takes the familiar and has a wonderful way of making it unfamiliar, or abstracting it. This changes how we experience our place in the world.
Documentaries all want to engage with the world, always having the ambition to change something (most often this is to change our understanding of something). Many of them can have a social purpose, and this can be utilised by Korsakow too (think Money and the Greeks). Kate Nash wrote a great post here about “[the] growing collection of works that marry the social, political and aesthetic ambitions of documentary with the forms and representational possibilities of digital media.” She talks about some of the social functions of documentary, including how to effectively engage audiences, as well as discussing their position within the documentary.
Interactivity is all about offering possibilities to your audience. As the architect of the work, it’s your responsibility to build your work in a way that allows these possibilities in the best way. All films rely on audiences to interpret them. However, experimental films (and their filmmakers) are generally made to explore something, so the conception of audiences tends to come later (which is the reverse of our traditional/commercial habits).
Seth encouraged us to think of filmmakers/creators as designers. I think this term is part of his PhD research, but I really like how it captures a lot more of the process around creating content. As a filmmaker, you have to design an experience for your viewers.
Week 04: Troubleshooting
This week I learned about EULAs for the first time, which are End-User License Agreements. This is a contract between the licensor and the purchaser of a software, and it establishes the purchaser’s right to use it. It can define the ways it can be used. These contracts are mostly digital, in the form of clicking a button which either ‘accepts’ or ‘rejects’ the installation of software onto a computer.
After talking a lot about copyright and intellectual property in the symposium, I decided to teach myself a little more about creative commons and attributions in order to substantiate what little I already know.
Creative Commons (CC) explains itself as “a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools”. CC licenses are not an alternative to copyright, but instead work alongside them. What I didn’t know is that “copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).”
What I would like to understand further is how copyright and CC licenses extend internationally and across jurisdictions. I also need to learn what the icons for CC licenses represent. This will be a good resource for me in the future. I think CC is wonderful asset to the internet, and a lot of creativity and content would not be possible without them.
UPDATE 26/8/14: I’ve finally learned more about CC licenses, which you can read about here.
Week 04: I Love Your Work
‘I Love Your Work’ is an interactive documentary by filmmaker Jonathan Harris. The film explores the lesbian porn industry in New York City.
What interests me about this project is the constraints set around it – the filmmaker spent 10 days with nine separate women, and filmed 10 seconds of footage of them every five minutes. What results is a series of raw and intimate clips – 2,202 of them, in fact – which force us to think about intimacy and the realities behind fantasies.
I didn’t actually view the entire documentary, but I watched the five-minute trailer and the preview section of the website which shows you what to expect. The viewing process is also another interesting constraint of the film – you must purchase $10 tickets which grant you access to the documentary for 24 hours. However, only 10 viewers are allowed per day. I think this is a really deliberate move by the filmmaker to challenge our concept of instant gratification which is so prevalent in our modern lives (not to mention in the world of porn, too).
There is about six hours of footage in total. The interface through which you chose from the 2000+ fragments is very interesting, as you get to choose between three modes:
1) Tapestry interface, where you can scroll through the days/times and it tells you which person’s video you will watch.
2) Timeline interface, which shows the beginning time and end time of each person’s day.
3) Talent interface, which gives you a grid of all nine women from whom you can pick.
I wonder if a project with these kinds of constraints, content and design would ever be able to be produced using software like Korsakow.
Week 04: Expectations
Bill Nichols three-part definition of documentaries is often the springboard for discussions about documentary practices and discourse. It was my first time encountering his ideas when I read the first readings for IM1. In particular, I was drawn towards his third statement about audiences and their expectations. I began thinking about my own assumptions that I bring with me when engaging with documentaries, and media in general.
Do I expect that I will be entertained? Educated? Enriched? Do I approach the artefact with any pre-existing opinions? Will I love it/hate it? Will it make me laugh/cry/cringe?
Recently a friend recommended an episode of ABC’s Four Corners program called ‘The Boy With The Henna Tattoo’, which delves into the underground sex work ring operating in Australia. Her precursor to the recommendation was that it is harrowing, twisted and hard to watch. She told me that a few times she had to question whether or not it was right for her to keep watching. However, she said she was rewarded with one of the most interesting and insightful pieces of media she’d seen in some time.
I have a habit of watching countless documentaries on YouTube – often in quick succession in one sitting on a cold Melbourne evening. Some of my favourites are those produced by Vice. I find their distinct style and unique/unconventional topics and niche interests never fail to entertain me and keep me falling down and down the rabbit hole, click after click and link after link.
I wonder if my viewing experience will change if next time I click through to Vice’s YouTube channel and stop to think about what my expectations are before delving into the content. I almost think it’s a more exciting and interesting experience when you don’t acknowledge your expectations, and let things unfold without your picking up on them. Although that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not filled with expectations, it might just be the difference of paying attention to them in that moment which makes you cognisant of them.
Week 04: Korsakow in the Classroom
I just read Adrian’s interview on the Korsakow website about his experience of using Korsakow in the classroom. Below are the moments that resonated the most with me, which I am going to try and keep with me as I start using Korsakow and thinking about my sketch film (and eventually our major project).
The problem [is] that each week they learn a new trick, but because the vocabulary is so large, and the time to learn so brief, they end up confusing tricks with making something worth making, and with ability. (It’s similar to using 12 typefaces to design your brochure because you have 12 typefaces, and confusing that with ‘design’.)
The structures that form are about poetic, associative relations between the parts. The software system should enable this to emerge in the making so that you don’t sketch it somewhere else, and then import this structure, but work in your medium.
Links are moments of risk.
It’s about poetic noticing of the world.