Monthly Archives: February 2020

Assignment 3 – Report
Name: Jack Fahey | s3382553

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services

Making Media blog links

Week 5 – Instagram photo
Week 5 – Instagram video
Week 5 – Instagram photo
Week 6 – Instagram video
Week 6 – Instagram photo
Week 6 – Instagram video

This report responds directly to the course prompt:

How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?

Title of report: Instagram, Algorithms and the Rise of Bot Accounts.

Introduction

The Instagram app offers users the ability to post photo and video content whenever and wherever they are, and share that with anyone they want on a global platform.  It is however, a rather limited application in terms of functionality on the creative end. Instagram has several heavy constraints around the content that can be created on the app, both from the side of the creative tools available within the software and then also in the terms and conditions of the app (Instagram, 2020). This report will focus on the software related constraints that Instagram imposes on its users and how they promoted commercial content on Instagram. It will detail how the shift from amateur to professional has impacted content creators (Shaw, 2015) and then heavily focus on how it all ultimately lead to the rapidly rising trend of Bot and Spam Accounts populating Instagram and how that currently affects Instagram in 2020.

Background

Affordances are an object’s properties that relay to the user how they can interact with it (Norman, 1988). Instagram’s intended affordances can be explained very simply. It connected users around the world, allowing them to share their own user generated visual content. It has, however, developed significantly beyond that over the decade or so since its inception. In a world connected socially and economically by a world wide network, many people saw an enormous market opportunity within Instagram. This is the biggest shift in perceived affordances within the app, and its the reason Instagram has become a massive multi-national corporation. The next step for Instagram was professional, targeted content. This started off slowly, with the Instagram content itself still being the primary driver, but soon new affordances revealed were found by developers, entrepreneurs and content creators alike. Instagram profiles could be anything, a shop, a photo essay, an advertisement for a business, the limit was only whatever someone could imagine. And so, Instagram become the home of professional, carefully authored content that was published with the express purpose of capitalistic gain and aimed at achieving an incredibly wide reach.

Instagram immediately embraced the professional content creators. It curated feeds to more accurately display hashtags that your profile was already following, it added things like ticks for verified users and it continued to update the software to add features like IGTV and Instagram stories, which is currently the most used element of the platform with over 500 million stories viewed daily (Hutchinson, 2019). An inevitable problem did eventually arise though; bot accounts. These profiles upload content constantly, and are often automated remotely or run by an algorithm. They flood comments asking users to look at their stories or view their profile, and will constantly post photos with hundreds of Instagram users names tagged in the caption to gain viewers (Alvarez, 2019). These accounts were posting far too often and being created far too frequently for human’s to track them, the manpower required would be astronomical. Instagram’s solution to this problem was machine learning and algorithm based detection. Originally, the accounts were incredibly easy to spot, and so they were rather easy to block and delete. As they became more proficient at remaining undetected however, Instagram’s algorithm had to find new ways to spot them. And, as was discovered during my own media making throughout this assignment, the new detection system certainly isn’t perfect.

Evidence

The media making process throughout this assignment was quite a unique experience, I had never encountered the likes of shadow banning, Instagram’s detection algorithm or anything on my personal account being blocked. The first profile I created for this assignment (which can still be viewed here) was banned from posting by Instagram. Even several days after I stopped using it, the account still doesn’t let me upload anything to the profile, however my likes and comments still function. Throughout my blogs, I explored a few possible reasons why I in particular was blocked, for example in my post about a video I captured of my lamp (which can be read here) that perhaps it was a combination of frequency of upload and the kind of content I was uploading. During my research, I found that many bot accounts are much more subtle than what I was aware of. These bot accounts aren’t entirely machine ran, and actually are more like automated processes that handle content upload schedules and hashtag optimization for traditional Instagram Branded accounts (Moore, 2020). These bot accounts are often employed by accounts that are trying to build a following on their account as quickly as possible so the user can sell their account to someone else for a profit. Some key features that the Instagram algorithm might label as suspicious behaviour are; constant and frequent uploads (especially on a new account) and specific content related key terms. Whatever is currently popular to sell on Instagram would be high up on the list of flagged content, and perhaps my combination of posts highlighting individual objects that could be sold on Instagram (a pen, a lamp, a keyboard, a ring etc) and the hashtags that I labelled them with (fashion, culture, design, creative etc) lead the algorithm to misidentify me as a spam account. As discussed in my initial blog (see here) I also restricted the account to be somewhat uniform in an attempt to re-create a realistic “aesthetic focused” Instagram account and make the profile seem more “human”. This may have had unintended consequences, making Instagram think that I was producing redundant and similar content in an attempt to post frequently like these bot accounts often will.

One thing is for sure, it is incredibly difficult to spot these modern and subtle spam and bot accounts. While people can easily tell the difference subconsciously between professionally produced content and amateur content (Shaw, 2015), can we decipher which accounts are run by real, professional creators, and which are automated by machine learning and algorithm based posting?

Evaluation

Instagram’s affordances heavily impact the way that user generated content is authored and how it is published. Instagram’s structural format and limited functionality within the camera portion of the app (as discussed further in my first blog post) heavily constrain the physical dimensions and layout of all content posted to Instagram. As discussed throughout this report though, the unintended constraints and affordances that have been identified within the Instagram App lead to a rise of bot accounts and, at this current rate, there will only continue to be more. Bot usage has risen to 9.5% from 7% in 2015 and there may be up to 95 million bot accounts currently on Instagram (Williams, 2018). This data is a year old, so the numbers are probably even higher in 2020. In his article AFFORDANCE, CONVENTIONS, AND DESIGN Donald Norman discusses his notion of constraints and separates three distinct forms named Physical, Logical and Cultural (Norman, D 1999).  It is the cultural constrains, defined as “conventions shared by a cultural group” (Norman, 1999) that most heavily impact Instagram’s content, and produced the sea of spam bots populating Instagram today. In the modern world of instant connection and networking across countries, humans require constant and immediate access to desired content (Patel, 2014). Instagram was a step in the right direction, but the frequency and accuracy that is required of content creators is unmanageable for those attempting to become professionals. And so, apps and bots were developed to do a lot of the monotonous tasks, which lead to the sophisticated and nigh undetectable bots that we have now. Norman even warned of this in his 1999 article, stating “The power of constraints has largely been ignored … the concept has caught on, but not always with complete understanding.” (Norman, 1999). The cultural constraints surrounding Instagram have produced completely unintended results, and because this wasn’t foreseen during development, Instagram is scrambling to find an algorithm based solution. In my opinion, the software just isn’t sophisticated enough to be able to detect these bots with proper accuracy and so, as was the case with my initial Instagram account, it will continue to mislabel genuine profiles as bots and bot profiles as genuine until it has developed to a point where it is truly useful and efficient.

Conclusion

This report does have some drawbacks, the biggest of being that Instagram itself is very reluctant to openly discuss how its algorithm works and what it is aiming to detect. Therefor, much of the information on how it functions is speculative rather than factual. This report deals with fairly recent subject matter and takes a very designer focused critique of the app, which means that specific academic resources available are relatively few and difficult to find.

Despite this, the strengths of this report are numerous. It is one of the few academically structured inquiries into this subject matter and will hopefully open discussion further on the subject matter. Taking a designer focused lens to the Instagram app and specifically detailing the constraints that lead to the massive bot profile trend is a new, niche approach to exploring the cultural impacts of Instagram on both user behaviour and content creation. The report also draws upon actual experience in a content creation setting, with my own personal profile being blocked due to the algorithm, and so that lends a unique and anecdotal insight into the Instagram algorithm based bot detection.

The aim of this report was to identify key software affordances and constraints that are present within the Instagram app that lead to the development of bot accounts throughout Instagram. In this sense, it was a successful endeavor.

References:

Alvarez, E 2019, Engadget is now a part of Verizon Media, viewed 23 Feb 2020, https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/19/instagram-bots-spam-comments-huge-booty-masturbate-verified-badges/

Hutchinson A, 2020, Instagram Stories is Now Being Used by 500 Million People Daily, viewed 23 Feb 2020, https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-stories-is-now-being-used-by-500-million-people-daily/547270/

Instagram 2020, Community Guidelines, Instagram Help Centre, viewed 23 Feb 2020, https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119 [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].

Moore, E 2020, A Beginner’s Guide to Instagram Automation, Smartproxy, viewed 23 Feb 2020, https://smartproxy.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-instagram-automation

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things , Basic Book, New York

Norman, D 1999, ‘Affordance, conventions and design (Part 2)’, Nielsen Norman Group, viewed 23 Feb 2020, http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html

Patel, N. 2014, The Psychology of Instant Gratification and How It Will Revolutionize Your Marketing Approach, viewed 23 Feb 2020, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235088

Shaw, M 2015, Pro Vs Amateur, and the Instagram Gallery On The New York Times Front Page – Reading The Pictures, viewed 24 Feb 2020, https://www.readingthepictures.org/2015/01/pro-vs-amateur-and-the-instagram-gallery-on-the-new-york-times-front-page/

Williams, R 2018, Instagram may have 95M bot accounts, The Information reports, viewed 23 Feb 2020, https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/instagram-may-have-95m-bot-accounts-the-information-reports/528141/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B87swnTnMdo/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For my final Instagram post, I selected a small flip book of sticky notes to video. It initially took me several tries to author the video, because I wanted the book to rifle through naturally and evenly, but I kept creating a bit of a haphazard shuffle as I flicked through the deck. I also just wanted to do it all in one take, and so avoided the multi take recording feature. As with all the videos on the page, I wanted the videos to highlight the the affordances that can be seen visually, and so I decided to turn off sound for all the uploads.

One big difference when making this image compared to using traditional film camera was the limited functionality in terms of centring/matching up lines. Originally when I sat down to film the flip book I had intended for it to be perfectly geometrically symmetrical. Instagram however has no option for a grid setting, so it was near impossible to get the lines all angled perfectly. So, out of necessity, I had settle on a more impromptu / improvised look and feel for the video. This hindrance cropped up in almost every single upload I made for this assignment. Instagram just does not have enough functionality within the app to produce really good, high quality content. This is why so many people flock to third party camera apps, which seems like a massive market inefficiency for Instagram. There are over 80 million Instagram photos shared daily (Wyzowl, 2020), and yet Instagram has invested next to nothing in their actual software when it comes to photo and video editing / capture functionality. The more time people spend on other apps, the more time they spend outside of Instagram, which is something that they have tried very hard to minimise. I think this is also why the Instagram stories is so popular, the stories are deigned to be fleeting and temporary, so the need for heavy editing / detailed videography is superfluous to the format and that allows the Instagram stories to thrive (500 million stories daily) on the platform while the traditional video uploads are severely lacking (Hutchinson, 2019).

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

Finally I managed to upload a video to Instagram without any errors or problems. I published the video directly onto my profile and did so after several failed attempts at capturing a video I thought matched the aesthetic of the account. As mentioned previously, I had to shift my focus and just capture a slightly off centred / improvised visual feel within the video. Once I settled on that format for the post, capturing the video was rather easy and I did it in one take, uploading the first video I captured after that decision. As with the other posts, no location was Geo-tagged on the post and I attached another design quote caption that reads as follows:

“Good design is honest.”
– Dieter Rams

I have been thinking, however, about another potential drawback to the app’s algorithm based spam detection that I have elaborated on in the past few posts. I cannot be the only person that has had struggles with publishing their content to Instagram, and when I had trouble uploading my videos and photos, the first attempt at a solution was repeatedly trying to re-upload it. I’m sure this would be exactly the same response that many other people would have had to their own difficulties navigating the publishing process on Instagram and, if so, were they targeted and banned as well? If constant uploads of similar content is one of the detection methods that the algorithm uses, then I can only imagine how many other people were inadvertently shadow banned from posting (like my first account was) without actually doing anything that violates Instagram terms of service. My particular problem could probably be solved temporarily by using third party apps to do all the editing and then simply uploading the finished product to Instagram, but obviously for the purposes of this assignment, everything needed to be done inside the Insta app.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

The video was distributed across tumblr and twitter at the same time as it was posted to Instagram. I used popular hashtags to promote the post (like design, creative etc), but also one niche hashtag named (flipbook). I thought perhaps my content could cut through the ever expanding noise on Instagram if I used a much smaller and more targeted key word, as usually smaller and more niche audiences are also more passionate on Instagram as they receive less content daily that fits their niche.

References:

Hutchinson, A. (2020). Instagram Stories is Now Being Used by 500 Million People Daily. [online] Social Media Today. Available at: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-stories-is-now-being-used-by-500-million-people-daily/547270/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].

Wyzowl. (2020). 25 of the Most Popular Apps for Instagram – REVIEWED. [online] Available at: https://www.wyzowl.com/apps-for-instagram/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8zrpM3H4h4/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For my final Instagram post, the authoring process was relatively straightforward. Once I had selected a subject that continued the trend of the image based uploads on my profile (black sunglasses on the same white table) I began to begin authoring the photo. Framing and subject placement was what I focused on most when authoring the image, as I wanted to be sure that I tried out the photo from all angles until I found one that was the most aesthetically pleasing. I found that, as with the pen, diagonal positioning was the best way to display the glasses in an interesting fashion while using the square format that Instagram enforces. Too ensure the glasses were sufficiently lit, I used 3 different light sources (a lamp, the flash on my camera and also natural light from the window behind). I also had to position myself very close to the sunglasses to ensure that the entire object was centred and completely focused. Because of the combination of Instagram’s data saving functionality that reduces picture quality and the stark contrast between a large black object and a white background, this image was particularly difficult to achieve both completely in focus and of high enough quality to upload. It seemed that no matter the direction of the different light sources and my distance relative to the glasses, the app just really struggled to get a clear, high quality picture.  The filter also boosted the contrast a lot, which made the process even more difficult as I had to try and counteract that. Some more in app editing options really would have helped here, and is something that severely limits the functionality of photography inside Instagram. This is probably another reason why third party apps for Instagram are so popular. Because of all this, I endued up needing to take in excess of 15 photos before one was good enough to be added to my profile.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

Now, the publishing is where this post began to get difficult. After my first few uploads I hadn’t seen a problem with the Instagram profile, however the glasses picture caused massive difficulties with my account. As soon as the photo finished uploading, I would refresh my feed and then it would suddenly disappear. At first, I thought perhaps it was just a glitch in the app and tried to upload it again, however the same thing happened. After a third failed attempt I texted my friend to see if she knew what the problem might be, and she told me that maybe I should just log out and leave the app for a while. So, after an hour or two, I came back to the profile again but was met with the same result. I researched possible causes, and came to the conclusion that it may actually have been a shadow ban. The app may have mistaken my account for a spam / bot profile because of the sudden spike in activity to what was previously a completely empty account. Shadow bans however tend to only alter how the app functions, rather than completely block you from posting (Forsey, 2019). It seems that a shadow ban on Instagram, typically, affects a users ability to use hashtags and like / comment on peoples posts. I tried all of these things with my current account and while I couldn’t check if my hashtags were working (because the post wouldn’t upload) I could definitely still like and comment on my friends accounts (and they could still do the same for my other posts). So, the only way i could fix the problem was to create an entirely new account and re-upload all my images and videos to that one. It was obviously not the ideal way to to work around the issue, but at least the new instagram account is able to upload images and videos. It does open up an interesting conversation though, why was one account banned while another account that uploaded identical posts was left alone? I imagine it is probably the result of the instagram algorithm trolling for content it deems suspicious and then subsequently banning them (Hughes, 2017) but honestly I’m still not exactly sure what the cause for the ban was. I think I’ll probably delve further into this topic of “why my account specifically” in my next blog post.

One last note was that the constant uploading of the same image over and over again produced an interesting effect on the image. Instagram compresses and manipulates photo files so that they fit into the app’s infrastructure and format (Horaczek, 2015). This process slightly damages the image quality of the photo file, and increases noise within the photo. Because I repeated the upload process to instagram so many times, this corruption began to appear within my glasses photo. Eventually the initial file was too corrupted to even use on instagram and I had to re-take the photo for my final upload that is visible on the account currently. Here is what the image looked like after the multiple re-upload process.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

As with my other images, I cross posted this content to my new tumblr and to my twitter page. I once again decided to use branded hashtags (epokhe being the company that made the sunglasses) however because of the possible shadow ban, I am unsure as to whether the hashtags actually did anything on the instagram app to promote the post. Either way, I left them on the upload to cover my bases and just hoped that it did indeed work.

References:

Horaczek, S. (2015). This Is What Happens When You Upload the Same Photo to Instagram Hundreds of Times. [online] Popular Photography. Available at: https://www.popphoto.com/news/2015/02/what-happens-when-you-upload-same-photo-to-instagram-hundreds-times/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].

Hughes, C. (2020). The Instagram Shadowban: What is it and Why is it Happening?. [online] Iconosquare Blog. Available at: https://blog.iconosquare.com/the-instagram-shadowban/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].

Forsey, C. (2019). Everything You Need to Know About Instagram’s Secret Shadowban. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-shadowban [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].

https://www.instagram.com/p/B87sLpSHAU1/

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For this video, I decided that I would play around with light sources within the black and white frame I had set up for my profile. When trying out the effect of the light going on and off, I thought it worked best when the light from outside flooded in once the lamp switched off. This is why I decided to not use a flash while videoing the lamp (this is the only post on the account where a flash wasn’t used) as the flash lessened the impact and contrast of the sudden shift in light source. Considering the main design feature (and intended affordance) of a lamp is that it lights a room, I wanted to ensure that the difference between on and off was as big of a contrast as possible. And, of course, I added the inkwell filter to the video which further increased the contrast of the videos light and dark areas.

I attempted the multi record feature that instagram offers, but I just couldn’t really find a proper way to utilise it that had purpose behind it, rather than just using it fo the sake of using it. After some reflection, perhaps one thing I could have done was used the multi record to cut between the lamp turning on and off and it’s switch being pressed. Highlighting the switch probably would have been a good way to further incorporate Don Norman’s work on affordances (Norman, 2013), as he often used the affordances accompanying a switch as an example (that a button is designed to be pressed, a toggle to be flipped etc).

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

So I tried to first publish this video to my prior instagram account and ran into the same problems as before. The video would immediately disappear once the video finished uploading. Once I finally switched accounts however, the video published without error. After a discussion with my tutor Elaine and a bit more research, I think that the initial problem raised in my last image post (and that once again affected this video upload) is possibly due to the Instagram algorithm detecting the kind of content that I was posting to the account in such frequency. Obviously there are lots of ways that Instagram can detect possible spam accounts, spanning from rudimentary to complex. The most common causes of shadow bans are excessive posting (dozens of times in an hour, for example), or liking hundreds of posts in a very small time frame that would be impossible for humans to do manually (Lincoln, 2016). My account, however, wasn’t doing either of these things, so perhaps the algorithm that Instagram employs is also targeting the specific content, rather than just the user behaviour of the account. In this case, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it flagged my initial account, because the content I was posting could easily be mistaken for some sort of shopping profile (clean, simple photos of single objects, one filter applied across the whole profile, brand names in the hashtags etc). This, coupled with my sudden flurry of posting on a brand new account, could possibly have triggered some sort of Instagram algorithm into action, mistaking my profile for a spam shop account. It would be relatively ironic if the very strategies I employed to make the account more design focused and (I had hoped) more interesting, ended up making it seem like a standard bot on instagram.

The one thing I cannot figure out though, is why it flagged the first account and not the second account. I uploaded exactly the same photos with the same quotes and hashtags on my new account, all within a couple days of the first account being suspended / shadow banned / whatever Instagram employed to stop the uploads.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

As with my other videos, distribution across tumblr and twitter occurred simultaneously with the other accounts. There was, however, an unintended consequence of the failed uploads. Somehow, Instagram still crossposted all the failed attempts at uploading this video, despite the fact that they wouldn’t upload to instagram. They only uploaded to tumblr though, for whatever reason they didn’t work with twitter, but registered as several separate uploads on tumblr. At the very least, it proves that the upload itself wasn’t failing, and it was definitely an intentional action on behalf of the instagram app to prevent the uploads on my first account.

References:

Lincoln, J. (2020). Uncovering the Dirty World of Instagram Spam Bots, How They Work. [online] Inc.com. Available at: https://www.inc.com/john-lincoln/uncovering-the-dirty-world-of-instagram-spam-bots-how-they-work.html [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].

Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday things. New York: Basic Books.

View this post on Instagram

“If you have to explain it, it ain’t working.” – Milton Glaser . . . . . . #kontrol #design #keyboard #blackonwhite

A post shared by Jack Fahey (@inkwell.networked.media) on Feb 20, 2020 at 3:36pm PST

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For my first video, I had quite a few difficulties authoring a video that I was pleased with. The Instagram app seems to really limit my LG V30+’s ability to both produce good quality resolution in the videos and also to focus on smaller details (for example, none of the text on the buttons are visible in the video). After several frustrating failed attempts to get everything in focus, I decided just forget the smaller details, pull the camera out a bit and simply focus on the hand playing the keys. In order to pull focus away from the slightly out of focus buttons and knobs on the Kontrol Keyboard, I also left the inkwell filter on at 100%, which blew out the blacks slightly. Normally, this wouldn’t be something that I would want in my content, but the extreme  blacks in the video almost eliminated the out of focus elements entirely and enforced the main visuals on the image (the hand playing the keys). It also added contrast between the black on the keyboard and the now white keys, which I liked from an aesthetic standpoint. I toned down the highlights somewhat by lowering the brightness filter a little bit, but made sure not to do so to much so as to maintain those crushed blacks.

When compared to my videography experiences outside of the Instagram app, the entire process was relatively tedious considering the end result. Instagram offers incredibly little in terms of editing options within the video recording software on the app. There were only three options once the video was recorded, adding filters, changing the cover photo of the video as it would appear on someones feed and then turning sound on or off. Not even playback isn’t possible while recording, only once you click next and move onto the next screen after selecting just recorded to be uploaded. I think Instagram could really add some functionality to their video recording software, as its well behind just their photo editing options, let alone third party app video editing software for Instagram uploads.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

When publishing the video to Instagram, I continued the profile trend of adding a design related quote to the video. The curation process for videos however was different to the images I had previously uploaded. The Instagram app, for whatever reason, kept blocking the filter I was adding to the video once it uploaded. I had to try 3 or 4 times re-recording and uploading the video until one of them actually worked and the filter remained on the video post-upload. Upon a bit of research and fiddling with different uploads on the app, I think this arose from minimizing Instagram while going on my browser to look up quotes for the caption. For whatever reason, when minimized Instagram was deleting the filters off the video once they uploaded. After a few tries I managed to get one video to upload with the filter applied, and even though it isn’t my favorite video of the set, its the one that worked. So, in some sense, the limitations and errors within the Instagram app was the driving force behind the curation process rather than my own personal preferences. It was interesting to have to problem solve this error within the app, as most photographers these days wouldn’t have the problem because normally in a professional setting all the editing would be done outside of Instagram itself and just uploaded there. Because of this, there really wasn’t a lot of help online to find out what exactly was going wrong, and basically all of the “please help my filter isn’t applying on Instagram” was in relation to Instagram stories rather than video uploads. Which is interesting in and of itself considering the stories are a much newer feature than simply uploading videos, but story functionality certainly gets the vast majority of attention from the app developers.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

In the distribution of this video, I uploaded it to both my tumblr and twitter accounts, as with all my images on the profile.

For the hashtags on this particular video, I tried still kept the design related key words that I have used on my other uploads, but also tagged the brand name “Kontrol” (who makes the midi-board). I did this to try and push the content into completely different feeds and search results that the profile previously wouldn’t have been able to be shown in, thus reaching a new target audience and increasing visibility on the profile.

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

Once again, I used the LG V30+ and the instagram app to capture the photo. Similarly to the pen photo, I had to get quite close up to the image in order to keep the finer detailing on the side of the ring completely in focus, because of this continual constraint, I decided to make the entire feed solely close ups of singular objects on plain backgrounds (so far, always the white table)… at least as far as the photographs are concerned. This decision was further supported by the default square format that instagram necessitates,  I wanted to once again eliminate any large shadows from the image, and so I used the front facing camera plus the flash, along with a lamp behind the ring for backlight. the cross light method worked very well in all my photos to keep the objects well lit from all sides and to prevent any long shadows from appearing.

As with all my other photos, I applied the inkwell filter to the image to continue the cohesive aesthetic throughout the profile. It did however blow out the blacks in the image and so I toned down the intensity of the filter to about 85%. This was a bit of a balancing act as if I decreased the filter too much, the gold on the edge of the ring began to show and I wanted to keep all the pictures uniformly black and white. I think I found a comfortable middle ground between the image staying clear and the black staying crisp, but also none of the colour bleeding through the filter. On top of this, I then also decreased the brightness by about 5% to lessen the harshness of the whites.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I published the photo to my instagram account inkwell.networked.media, as is true with all these posts. For this particular image, I didn’t need to take too many photos before I found one I liked. Just from placing the ring in different positions before I even had the camera out, I could tell that I wanted the front of the ring to be facing towards the right rather than the left, and so from there it was just about finding the right height to take the photo from so that the flash from the camera didn’t reflect in the black surface of the ring. I took about 3 photos before I was happy.

As with all the other uploads to the account, I accompanied the image with a quote from a graphic designer. It reads:

“Design creates culture.”
– Robert L. Peters

I thought this quote to be appropriate for the image because rings have become a rather important part of fashion culture, and have been in significant rise within male fashion trends.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

To widen the reach of the this instagram post, I added a few hashtags to this image. One of the hashtags I added was #jewelry, which surprisingly to me was a bit of conflict for me. The traditional spelling “jewellery” is what I definitely prefer to use, however I noticed that the American spelling of “jewelry” had about 30 million more mentions. So, despite my personal qualms with the American spelling, I decided on “jewelry” in an attempt to increase the amount of feeds that my photo would be seen in. I also added a few blank spaces in between my design quote and the hastags in the caption so they wouldn’t be visible to anyone viewing the image in their feed.

As with my previous photo, I also uploaded this post to both the tumblr account I have made for these posts and to my personal twitter account.

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

Before I’d even begun photographing, I decided to set myself a couple of initial constraints for the instagram page to create some cohesion between all of my posts. In order to create this aesthetic throughout the page, I decided upon selecting objects that are either primarily black or metallic (or a combination of both) to photograph. I also decided I would use one singular filter (called “inkwell”), which would be black and white, to further illustrate the similarities between my chosen object, and to give the entire instagram feed a singular feel.

For my first image, I selected a felt tip fineliner as the object to be photographed. To do so, I used the instagram app on my LG V30+ phone. In order to make sure that the small writing was perfectly focussed I had to move quite close to the pen while photographing. This was probably a mixture of the size of the engraving the pen and the limited functionality of my phone’s camera, it is a relatively old phone. In terms of framing, originally I tried the pen with the cap on and perfectly horizontal across the image, but it just wasn’t very interesting to look at. I tried several more attempts and found that the slightly off centre and angled diagonally across the frame gave me the most intriguing photo. I also wanted the pen to be the only object within the frame, so I decided to shoot it on a white table top, and the fact that the focus of my phone required a close up only helped this decision. To eliminate as much shadow as I could, I shone one light from a lamp directly behind the pen and then used my phones flash feature from the front to try and ensure the pen was very brightly lit from all angles. On top of the inkwell filter that I applied, I also lowered the brightness of the image somewhat, because inkwell boosts the highlights a little more than I would have liked it to. It was beginning to blow out the contrast in the photo, so I found that just toning the brightness down 10% or so helped a lot.

The biggest difference between using the app to author content rather than a DSLR camera is the limited functionality that instagram provides. The camera quality is obviously worse than a DSLR, but also the options available are much more limited. There is no option for ISO, there is obviously no ability to change lenses, its impossible to change the white balance etc etc. The only functions instagram offers is the option to choose front vs rear camera and then to turn flash on or off.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I published the photo to my instagram account inkwell.networked.media. For the actual photographic process, I took several photos before I found one that I was comfortable using as the actual upload to my account. This was mostly due to framing, considering it is just a black and white photo of a pen I wanted to try and find the positioning that was the most interesting in a compositional sense. I also tried to leave an equal amount of room to the right and left of the pen tip / lid ends. On top of that, I tried the pen lid on both ends but found it was a much better photo when the fineliner tip was visible, rather than capped. To find the right photo, I took about 8 or 9 shots, narrowed that down to about 3 and then chose the one that had the most most positioned and in focus writing on the pen.

The text caption portion of this image reads:

“Design is so simple, that’s why its so complicated.”
– Paul Rand”

This quote is another attempt at unifying the theme of the entire instagram account. All my uploads will have quotations from various famous graphic designers and/or academics in the field of graphic design / design. I chose this quote in particular for the image of the pen for two reasons as it is a very simplistic image, just a pen on a white table, and so a quote about the simplicity of design seemed fitting.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I checked the box that linked this post to both a tumblr and twitter account. I used the twitter account that I already owned to spread the reach of my post, but for the tumblr I specifically created a design oriented account in order to further the cohesion of my profile while simultaneously reaching a different audience on tumblr.

Assignment 2- Review
Name: Jack Fahey s3382553

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services

Blog reflections:

Week 3 (Session 5) – Henri Cartier-Bresson | Place De L’Europe Gare Saint Lazare
Week 3 (Session 6) – Nam June Paik | Robot K-456
Week 4 (Session 7) – Beeple | Teslar Lunar Ocean
Week 4 (Session 8) – Randy Cano | Justice – Helix

Review (1229 words)

How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?

a. Provide a definition for ‘analogue photography’.

Analogue photography is a physical, non-electrical method of capturing images that requires some form of chemical process to print / retain an image. Analogue photography uses light sensitive particles (often silver) to react to and capture incoming light through the lens. This form of photography requires the film to be loaded into the camera before use and cannot store photos internally within the hardware. Prior to the digital revolution, in order to be distributed to the public, analogue photography needed to be printed into a tertiary form of media, whether that be newspapers, magazines, books or even posters.

b. Provide a definition for ‘analogue video’.

Analogue video is a form of video recording that uses a continuous analogue signal. The electronic signal is derived from a voltage that changes depending on the amount of light present in the image that is being shot with the video camera. This form of media is often much more prone to disruptions when compared to more modern forms of video recording. This is due to the conversion process that analogue video capture necessitates. Analogue video takes light, sound etc and converts it into a separate, unique physical form (i.e. wave forms). During this process, interference can easily occur, resulting in white noise or loss of quality (especially if re-recording).

c. Provide a definition for ‘networked photography’.

Networked photography is the process of producing image based content that has been uploaded to and shared on an online medium (Instagram, Facebook, twitter etc). Networked media has no real rules concerning the production of the photographic content. A networked image or photo could be a single frame taken from a video and heavily edited, it could be an analogue film photo uploaded online or it could be a digital photo taken with a DSLR. So long as the content is uploaded and shared on social media or in some sort of online network it has become “networked” photography. This means there is an incredible amount of content creators that are practicing art within this medium, Instagram alone is home to thousands of networked photography creators.

d. Provide a definition for ‘networked video’.

Networked video, similarly to networked photography, is a video that has been uploaded and shared on an online network, social media, or video hosting site. It is different, however, to networked photography in that the content cannot be a still photo, but rather a moving image. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a film, long video, or even have sound, but it does have to be some form of moving image. Networked video media ranges from entire cinematic films ,to web based episodic shows, to vlogs and even animated gifs.

e. Provide definitions for the terms ‘authoring’, ‘publishing’ and ‘distributing’.

Authoring is the process of creating an idea and then capturing, recording or otherwise transcribing it into some form of media. It requires a tool or implement in order to either physically or digitally capture the object/subject of the media either in a single moment or some fixed period of time. An example of authoring would be the initial instance where Carter-Bresson captured the photo of the french worker jumping across a pool of water.

Publishing is the act of choosing the medium that a photo, video or other kind of media is uploaded to, printed on or displayed within. This often influences an artist’s authoring as different publishing forms can often impose constraints upon the original piece of media. An example of publishing would be Beeple uploading one of his 3D rendered images to Instagram.

Distribution is the procedure by which a piece of media is disseminated to the intended audience. In the digital age, distribution can happen in waves, whereby the initial video is published by the creator and then constantly re-uploaded and re-published by the audience onto different mediums or websites in order to be shared with their own friends or viewers. An example of distribution could be Nam June Paik’s Robot being involved in his various street performances or gallery showings.

f. What differences and similarities did you discover between the way analogue and networked photos are authored, published and distributed?

There are many similarities between analogue and networked photos. The main being that, at their core, both forms of photographs are still moments captured in time, usually with the express purpose to be displayed/shared with an audience (though not always). The biggest difference between the two is that analogue photography produces a physical image while networked photography can be entirely digital.

In terms of authorship, they both require an artist to choose a moment and subsequently capture it with whatever photographic tool he/she is using. The biggest difference between the two is the enormous increase in available forms of media at the disposal of networked photography.
Both networked and analogue photographs have certain constraints applied to them by whatever form of media is chosen for publishing. One example of this could be size/dimensions for analogue media or file size for networked media. The biggest difference is that analogue photography is most commonly published via some form of printing (whether into a book, a magazine or onto canvas) while networked photography by its very nature necessitates some form of online upload/networked sharing.
When distributing, both forms of photographic media are shared via a form of media that will reach the biggest intended audience. Often, both forms of photography will be distributed in some kind of collation, collection or album of similar photos (whether they are grouped thematically, by author or some other link). One difference is the reach that networked photography can have when compared with traditional distribution of analogue photographs. Networked photographs can reach millions of people in an instant, and then be subsequently and immediately shared with millions more, while analogue photography is usually only distributed to those that have access to the book, newspaper or magazine it is printed in.

g. What differences and similarities did you discover between the way analogue and networked videos are authored, published and distributed?

Both analogue and networked videos have one central similarity, they are attempting to capture and reproduce a moving image. They do however differ from each other in that analogue videos attempt to capture a moment in real life and transcribe it into wave forms, while networked video can come in an incredibly array of media forms (animation, film, digital etc).

Analogue and networked videos are both very similar when it comes to authorship. They both require some kind capturing of visual images that progress linearly through time. The means by which they are authored however differ greatly, analogue video is captured physically with wave forms denoting the amount of light and colour in a given image at any point within the video while networked video has no real restrictions or formal requirements. Networked media can be authored by DSLR, cinema camera, an animation program such as Houdini or any other means that can capture/produce a moving image.
When publishing, both analogue and networked videos require some form of video producing/hosting software or hardware. The difference being that analogue video requires a play back device (namely a television screen and either aerial or VHS player) and a networked video is uploaded and hosted on a website (YouTube, for example).
In distribution, analogue video is sent to its audience via traditional broadcasting means, Television, cinemas, etc. Networked video on the other hand is distributed via any means of online networking or sharing. This could be YouTube subscribers seeing the video uploaded and in their notification box, or perhaps getting a video shared to them via Instagram or Facebook messenger. They are similar, however, in that in both forms of video media are created with the express purpose for distribution to a desired audience.

References:

Kamila K & Zylinska J, (eds) 2016 Photomediations: A Reader. Open Humanities Press, viewed 2 February 2018

Lister, M et al 2009, New Media: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, New York. (Section: 1.2.1 Digital pp. 16-21)

Lombana, A. (2020). The Aesthetics of Networked Photography. [online] vVvAlog. Available at: http://andreslombana.net/blog/2016/12/04/networked-photography-and-the-meaning-of-the-selfie/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Niederer, S. (2018). Networked images: visual methodologies for the digital age. Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University of Applied Sciences. (pp. 1-2)

PCMAG. (2020). Definition of analog video. [online] Available at: https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/analog-video [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Yourdictionary.com. (2020). Analog video dictionary definition | analog video defined. [online] Available at: https://www.yourdictionary.com/analog-video [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXib5pbBdlh/

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?

Randy Cano is an LA based 3D designer, animator and artist who has been professionally producing animated content for a little over 3 years. He is currently active and works with brands such as MTV and Nike.

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?) 

I have chosen the video uploaded to Instagram with the caption “Justice – Helix”. It can be viewed here.

With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?

The video was uploaded to Instagram on August 9th, 2017.

How was the photo or video authored?

The video was authored in Houdini, a professional level procedural modelling, animation, rendering and compositing software package. In order to create such a video, Randy Cano would have used a series of interconnected nodes within the software that can be fully programmed to trigger animations. Once the nodes were calculated to perform the correct animation, he then would have done a series of render passes within the software to add the assets, smoke and colours. The video would then be exported and opened in some form of editing software (such as Adobe Premier Pro) in order to add the music in time with the video.

How was the photo or video published?

The video was uploaded to both Randy Cano’s own Instagram page and his website. The instagram post was a cross promotion with musical artist Gesaffelstein, who’s remix of Justice is used in the Instagram video. It is part of a series of posts that Randy Cano has done, using musical artists such as Travis Scott and T-Pain’s music overlayed with a short looping animation.

How was the photo or video distributed?

The video would have been initially distributed to Randy’s Instagram followers directly via Instagram and then shared with their friends/followers. There would have also been a secondary wave of reach as the video was also promoted by the musical artist Gesaffelstein and so his followers would have subsequently been exposed to the video on instagram as well.

Randy also uploaded this video to his website inside his folio section, so it has also been distributed professionally to potential clients seeking an animator.

References:

Cano, R. (2020). RANDY CANO — About. [online] RANDY CANO. Available at: http://www.randycano.com/new-page [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Cano, R. (2020). Randy Cano on Instagram: “🔈Justice – Helix (Gesaffelstein Vision Remix)”. [online] Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BXib5pbBdlh/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Epstein, J. (2020). Randy Cano: Art In Motion. [online] Oneclub.org. Available at: https://www.oneclub.org/articles/-view/randy-cano-art-in-motion [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Sidefx.com. (2020). Houdini | 3D Procedural Software for Film, TV & Gamedev | SideFX. [online] Available at: https://www.sidefx.com/products/houdini/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?

Mike Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is a graphic designer who works in many forms of media such as short films, VJ Loops, 3D rendered photography and more. Beeple is currently active on Instagram and uploads daily. He is a proponent of the “everyday” movement, and has produced, rendered and uploaded a graphic design onto his social media account every day for over 12 years.

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?) 

I chose to analyse the photo TESLA LUNAR OCEAN. It can be found here.

With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?

TESLAR LUNA OCEAN was produced on February 7th, 2020.

How was the photo or video authored?

The photo is a 3D rendered image that Beeple created using his extensive library of assets that he has collected over the 10+ years of content creation as a graphic designer. The process begins with a blank slate within Cinema 4D software that Beeple would then begin to fill with background assets, then progressively add more detail to the landscape until it resembled what is seen in the photo. After he is happy with how the image looks, he will then export the file and open it in Octane, where he will begin the render process. All of Beeple’s “Everyday” graphic designs are fully rendered 3D environments, rather than flat images created in Photoshop or a similar software.

How was the photo or video published?

Beeple publishes all his designs to a variety of sites. He uploads his everyday designs daily to his Instagram account @beeple_crap. He also publishes these to his own personal website (found here) and to his behance page (found here). Because Instagram and similar social media sites date all uploads a user makes, it is a perfect way for Beeple to have evidence of the fact that he has created and uploaded designs every single day for more than 12 years.

How was the photo or video distributed?

The designs are distributed to his Instagram follows via the app, and then from there often shared through social media as his follows wish to show his content to their friends/followers. His profile on both his website and his Instagram account is marketed as very personal / lighthearted.

References:

Anon, (2020). Overview. [online] Available at: http://www.maxon.net/en/products/cinema-4d/new-in-release-21/overview/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Baldegg, K. (2020). Creativity Is Hustle: Make Something Every Day. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2011/10/creativity-is-hustle-make-something-every-day/246377/#slide15 [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

OTOY. (2020). OctaneRender 2020™ Preview is here!. [online] Available at: https://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].

Winkelmann, M. (2020). [online] Beeple-crap.com. Available at: https://www.beeple-crap.com/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2020].