Assignment 2- Review
Name: Laura Overgaard Sørensen s3767020
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
(TIP: These blog entry titles would have links to each weekly post in your blog).
Week 5 – Analogue Photography (practice analysis)
Week 6 – Analogue Video (practice analysis)
Week 7 – Networked Photography (practice analysis)
Week 8 – Networked Video (practice analysis)
Review (TIP: Provide your word count)
The ‘Assignment 2 Review’ has focused on the contextualising the terms ‘photo’ and ‘video’ in the course prompt, through the set readings and analysing examples of practice.
The prompt: How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?
Word count: 1007
Provide a definition for ‘analogue photography’.
Analogue photography is photography that an instrument that is not digital. It is usually done with an electronic camera that uses a film roll to imprint the photo on using a technology that imprints the light on the film roll. The most common way of developing the photos is through a chemical process in a dark room where the negatives printed on the film roll gets transferred to a physical photo. Because film rolls and developing is costly an analogue photographer will usually only take one or very few photos of the same situation and you do not know the how the photo looks until it is developed. This means that you will probably take more time to shoot the photo and think more about how the photo is to look like before taking it. Because you get the photo in physical form and perhaps only in one copy the photo is more fragile because it can be destroyed, get lost or get fingerprints on it.
Provide a definition for ‘analogue video’.
Analogue video is the a medium that upgrades photos into a video (Speilmann, p. 1). The analogue video camera usually takes 24 frames per second and thereby creating a moving image. There are entry barriers connected to analogue video because the equipment is expensive and not very easy to use. Like analogue photo, the film roll is very fragile and has to be handled with care.
Provide a definition for ‘networked photography’.
Before talking about the networkedness of photography it is important to note that many photos that are to be networked are digital photos. This means that the photos are shot with a digital device such as a smartphone or a newer camera. In this process physical items are symbolised through numerical coding creating an image (Wells 2015, p. 26). What is noticeable about networked photos are that they can be stored in online in “the cloud”, on a USB key and so on – they do not have to get developed. Because there is so much space where you can store digital photos it makes sense to take multiple photos, so you can later sort them and choose the best ones. It is also very handy to use your smartphone as you can take photos spontaneously. By using the internet the photo can become networked because it is reachable from multiple platforms and can be used or edited in various programs such as Instagram.
Provide a definition for ‘networked video’.
Networked video is very similar to networked photo. There are low entry barriers because you can use a handy digital device to record and the video can shared, downloaded or networked very easily (Berry 2018, p. 8). Digital videos are stored in the online cloud, memory card e.g. (Lister 2009, p. 15). Nowadays networked videos are incorporated into the way we communicate e.g. via Snapchat, Instagram or FaceTime.
Provide definitions for the terms ‘authoring’, ‘publishing’ and ‘distributing’.
Authoring is a broad term that includes everything from getting the idea to shooting the photo or video. Publishing is about how the photo or video gets out for other people to see. Distributing refers to how the photo or video gets around once it is published.
These terms were first introduced in a time influenced by analogue media. When talking about analogue media, they make great sense and can be helpful to understand the process of taking a photo and releasing it into the public. But with the networked, digital and online media the terms become harder to separate because we can do all of them within seconds and on the same device – our smartphone (Palmer 2014, p. 245).
What differences and similarities did you discover between the way analogue and networked photos are authored, published and distributed?
Authoring an analogue photo takes more consideration than a digital does because the equipment is often bigger, more expensive and has a limit to how much material can be on it. Whereas on a smartphone you will shoot several photos of the same thing on an analogue camera you will take more time to get the one of two photos right, because you cannot delete a photo from a physical camera roll.
Analogue photos are often published in a more physical way than a digital photo is. This could for example be in a newspaper or at a gallery. Now a days we can also see analogue photos being networked by scanning them and then publishing online. The opposite can also go for digital photos. Most of the time they are in the cloud or posted online, but there is also the option of printing them and in that way using them as an analogue photo.
The distributing differs because online the distributing can be very quick and go viral in a matter of minutes whereas with a physical photo in e.g. a museum it has be physically visited by people which can limit the number of people seeing it.
What differences and similarities did you discover between the way analogue and networked videos are authored, published and distributed?
In authoring a video, the smartphone has made it very easy to quickly film and editing it through apps or computer programs (Palmer 2014, p. 245). Shooting an analogue video requires the right equipment which can cause physically constraints do to the size and weight of the camera. It also takes more time to setup than just swiping on a smartphone. This means that now videos can be shot by anyone with a smartphone and not just filmmakers, other professionals or people who can afford the expensive analogue equipment.
Analogue videos can be published e.g. on television/cinema or in museums. Digital video will often be published online. As mentioned earlier these two can mix together in the networked world we now live in.
The distribution differs in the way it is published. If published online it is easily spread around whereas a physical exhibition requires people to visit. Television is somewhere in between.
References
Berry, Trine Bjorkmann. ‘Situating Videoblogging’. Videoblogging before YouTube, Institute of Network Cultures, 2018, pp. 9–22, http://networkcultures.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/06/Videoblogging-Before-YouTube-web.pdf. [Accessed 1 May. 2019]
Lister, M et al 2009, New Media: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, New York. (Section: 1.2.1 Digital pp. 16-21).
Palmer, D 2014 ‘Mobile Media Photography’, in The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, (Eds) Goggin G., Hjorth L., Routledge, New York pp. 249–55.
Spielmann, Y., 2007. Video: The Reflexive Medium. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Section: Introduction: The Audiovisual Medium pp. 1-6)
Wells L 2015. Photography: A Critical Introduction. 5th ed., Routledge, New York. (pp. 9-27 Thinking about photography: debates, historically and now.)