Natalie Aarons Blog

Assessment Task 3: Report

Natalie Aarons s3601713

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 Posts: 

• Photo 1
• Video 1
• Photo 2
• Video 2
• Photo 3
• Video 3

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: Creating content is available to everybody.

(Word count: 1061)

Introduction:

In todays digital landscape everybody has the ability to whip out their recording device and become distributors, archivists and curators (Kuc and Zylinska, 2016). Through utilising platforms like Instagram, amateur photographers like myself can understand the affordances and contraints of the platform which aims to guide us users to author, publish and distribute our very own content. This report suggests that Instagram’s effective integrated and streamline process provides the ability for individuals to author, publish and distribute content. Furthermore through evaluating the affordances and contraints of the platform users can opt for what creative process will best suit and benefit their creative process.

Background:

Throughout this course we have been deciphering the key terms in the course prompt, this was in order to understand their functions. As this report concentrates on the affordances of Instagram, it’s crucial that first affordances is understood. The term affordances was coined by Don Norman, who defines it as the “perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could be used”. (Norman D, 2013). Moreover, it is the relationship between an interacting agent and perceived properties of an object. (Norman D, 2013). In relation to Instagram, this looks that the various tools Instagram provides its users in the creative process.

In assignment two, I worked to define the terms authoring, publishing and distributing. These terms are important to understand for the rest of this report. In the context of media authoring is the process of creating and developing content. This can include capturing and editing photographs, videos, audio or texts to produce media content. The way media is authored is reliant on the devices used to capture the content and the software used to edit and publish it. Publishing refers to the methods in which content is prepared for consumption. When publishing video and photo content originates on one type of medium, if the content is shared and circulated through outer platforms and devices then it has been distributed. Distributing is the process of sharing and spreading media content to larger audiences. This can be done on social media platforms fro example.

Evidence:

Creating my own networked media content has enabled me to understand Instagram’s affordances and constraints as well as helped me consider the theory within the networked media course. Over the last three weeks I utilised the platform to author, publish and distribute my content to the Instagram account “s3601713”. I found that when posting videos and photos to my account I was able to understand the user experience in its full entirety. Before this project I would only use third party apps to capture and edit my content before uploading it to Instagram (Manovich, 2016, p12). However for this project I only the platform Instagram in order to really understand the affordances of the platform. I acquired some crucial insights from this experience that will enable me to answer the course prompt.

Instagram encourages users to capture, edit and upload content in a streamline process. I found that the entire experience of capturing and recording content within the app, then editing and creating captions, geotags and hashtags was effective and convenient. Overall, the process aided me to be able to create content easily without having to seek the help of other applications. However, through my experience I also noticed there were some constraints within the platform that made it impossible to be content with my posts. I found that the camera’s square constraints made it hard to capture everything I wanted to in a particular photo. Furthermore, I struggled with the videoing feature, having to continue holding down the record button made it hard to concentrate on the object of my film. As well as the inability to playback the video before proceeding to the editing stage made it hard to know if you were happy with the video. In terms of the distributing, it took me a few posts to get the hang of it, at first I was only using popular Hashtags to circulate my posts and I did see some engagement but not much. What I learnt from this is that I needed to link my Instagram account to other networks in order for distributing to really work, therefore I decided to link this account to my other Instagram account which has a larger audience.

Evaluation:

The affordances of Instagram enables users to facilitate their own creative content, this is done through a single platform that streamlines the entire authoring process and aids anybody to create content. The simplicity of this platform alongside its incorporated constraints, is what makes this process friendly and pleasurable for users (Manovich, 2016).  However, it’s important to note that while these constraints can foster creativity for some people, they can also discourage artistic freedom in others as the constraints imposed by Instagram’s features don’t leave much room for variety.

Furthermore, I think it is important to consider Instagram as an application that was created to allow users too easily produce their own content. William Gaver suggests, the necessity of understanding the relationship between technology and the user, as well as the affordances of a design proposes ways to develop the usability of new artefacts, (Gaver, 1991). Highlighting, the importance of evaluating affordances so that improvements can be made. We can understand quite a bit about instagram and its users from actually experiencing the process of authoring photos on Instagram, By doing this we can begin to navigate what contraints need to be updates and what affiances work to effectively promote content creation. However, I do believe it’s think it is important to consider Instagram as an application that was created to allow users too easily produce their own content.

Conclusion:

My report looks at both the affordances and contraints of Instagram,. This experience has allowed me to author my own content as well as evaluate what developments could be made to better the experience. I have learnt that the authoring, publishing and distributing process on Instagram is streamline and enables anybody to create content. The simplicity of Instagram’s process incorporates its contraints, this in itself makes it easier for amateur users to create their own content. As for myself, a creator that does utilise other platforms, I can understand that both the affordances and constraints of the platform create a unique place for people to facilitate their own creative process.

References:

Kuc, K. and Zylinska, J. 2016, ‘Photomediations: A Reader’, Open Humanities Press, p.7-16.

Norman, D 2013, The Design of Everyday Things : Revised and Expanded Edition, Basic Books, Boulder, ProQuest Ebook Central database.

Manovich, L 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA. 

Gaver, B 1991, ‘Technology Affordances’, Proceeding CHI ’91 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp 79-84.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA9GCJYgBWw/

How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram

I decided to record a video of myself ‘trying’ to interact with my cat using the same toy from my last post on the account. I captured this recording using my IPhone 11, and used the in app camera on Instagram to video it. Again I still want to navigate the Instagram platform in its entirety, I fell that utilising other third party platform’s wouldn’t be giving me the full experience of authoring on Instagram, this way I am able to understand the affordances and the constraints of the application, which will help me in my report. The contraints of Instagram frustrate me, in particular the inability to playback videos before moving onto the editing process. However, I was still able to capture the content that I wanted, it just took me a few recordings to know I had the one i was happy with. After this I edited the video and made sure the filter on it was black and white, this would mean that it would fit into the rest of my grid. I used the filter “Inkwell” this time to try and change it up a bit without loosing my chosen aesthetic.

How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram

I published this video onto my networked media Instagram account “s3601713”. This was my second video for the page. The caption for this post is “Play time”, I chose this as it tells viewers literally what is happening in the video, i like being this direct with my captions as I think it aids the aesthetic which follows a minimalist and simple approach. Furthermore, I added the hastags; #toys #ballofwool #cat #blackandwhite. Again, these hashtags are popular hashtags and I am using them in order to circulate my photo, whilst explain what is going on in the photo too. These hashtags relate to the photo which is why they are effective.

How did you distribute the video you recorded for upload to Instagram

This time I distributed my post on both the Instagram account ‘s3601713’ and also my dedicated cat instagram called ‘elvisdapelvis’, this other account I have been posting photos of my cats for the last 2 years on. By doing this I was able to share my content with all of my following on both accounts. I did find that I was getting more engagement with this. Less on the new account but more on my original account. Moreover, the hashtags I am using are also going to circulate my content to other accounts and users.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA9FFzHAAvn/

How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram

As my second post on Instagram this week I decided to produce a video of my cat sniffing the ground. I captured this video using Instagram software on my IPhone 11. Like my last post this was my first time taking a video straight from instagram and posting it all on the app and without using any third party applications to help, I didn’t like it. Instagram was quite simple to use, however I found it frustrating that I couldn’t play back my recording before entering the next stage of editing on the app. I had to cancel my video a few times before I worked out that I needed to go to the next editing stage to view it. I took this particular video because I believe it ties into my theme of Minimalism, as my cat is not doing much in the video, as well as it being focused on my cat which is the theme of the account. During the editing process I placed the ‘Moon’ filter over the recording to give it the same black and white effect that my original post has. Therefore i have began making a colour pallet for my instagram aesthetic.

How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram

I published the video on my instagram account “s3601713”, this is the second post on this account and really helps the account start to look more wholesome. As this was the first video I uploaded to this account I wanted to make sure it still fit into the aesthetic of the previous photo, therefore I edited them to look similar using the same ‘ Moon’ filter. After uploading the video I noticed that my grid started looking more aesthetically pleasing. The caption for the video is “Cat”, this continues to tie into my theme of minimalism whilst also focusing on the idea of my instagram page to be about my cat. The simplicity of my caption urges viewers to notice its minimalism and straight forwardness. Furthermore, like in my original post I added hashtags, these include; #box #scratchingpost #blackandwhite, using these popular hashtags allows my video to be seen by other accounts whilst also they relate back to the contents of the video.

How did you distribute the video you recorded for upload to Instagram

The hashtags used in the caption of the post allows the video to circulate the internet and be seen. After uploading this video I noticed that there had been views on the post. Thus the hashtags were working to engage other instagram users who were looking up the hashtags I utilised in the post. I feel like i should be doing more to circulate my posts, potentially adding a geotag or connecting my Instagram page to other social media platforms I have running might be a good option.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA9E2lsj4Am/

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?

For this week’s photo I captured an image of my cats scratching post, I decided to use this as the object of my photograph after being influenced by this weeks reading by Manovich. In the reading Manovich expresses that simplicity does well on Instagram. With this in mind I decided to theme my Instagram for Networked Media; Minimalist Cat. I knew that having my cat as the focus point would enable me to keep curating content as my cat is always up to new things and adorable to look at photos of. Going back to the idea of simplicity, I wanted to show my cat in a minimalist way, therefore I decided that my content would only focus on one thing at a time. I also decided that my content should stay in a black and white theme, in my opinion this makes things look more professional and somewhat editorial.

I used my iPhone 11 to record this photo and captured it using the application Instagram. Using the Instagram application to take my photo and work from scratch with only this software was a struggle. I have always used other applications like VSCO and Lightroom to edit my photos, Furthermore, I had never taken an original photo with the in-app camera Instagram offers, this is simply because I don’t believe it offers enough variety in terms of its quality and editing tools. I found that authoring my photo through this medium was too constrained. In particular, the editing tolls and the filters available on Instagram made it hard for me to make my posts aesthetically pleasing in the way that popular Instagram accounts do now, most of these account don’t follow how Instagram suggests that one should edit their photos (Manovich, 2016, p13), and instead utilise third party (Manovich, 2016, p12) applications in order to produce their content. For my photo I was able to edit it using a few different tools on Instagram. Firstly I utilised the filter ‘Moon’, this is a black and white filter. Furthermore I adjusted the brightness making it -10 darker as well as adjusted the contrast by -5 in order to create the effect on the photo.

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram

I created a new Instagram account under my RMIT University number “s3601713”, this account I decided would host the entire work from this project, however as this was the first photo on the grid it made the page look extremely empty. The caption I used for this post was “Scratching post”, I wanted my captioned to be as minimalist as possible and decided to be quite literal about them. As the photograph is of a scratching post I captioned it the same thing to keep it simple. I also added various hashtags “#kitten #playtime #paws #blackandwhite” , this was in order to make sure those that were looking at these hashtags would be able to have access to my post and thus network it.

How did you distribute the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram

In terms of distribution, I added hashtags in order to promote the circulation of my post. within a few hours of it being up i already had a couple of likes from accounts I had never heard of before. As this is my first post, I am still thinking of new ways I can network my Instagram page and have it seen.

REFERENCE 

Manovich, L 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA, pp.9-18

Assignment 2- Review
Name: Natalie Aarons s3601713

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 5 – Analogue Photography- Henri Cartier-Bresson
Week 6 – Analogue Video – Nam June Paik
Week 7 – Networked Photography- Steph Claire Smith
Week 8 – Networked Video- Marie Fe & Jake Snow 

Review (word count: 1,110)

1. Provide a definition for ‘analogue photography’.

The term Analogue Photography (AP) refers to the physical elements of  photographic development. Specifically, it focuses on the “processes in which one set of physical properties can be stored in another ‘analogous’ physical form”(Lister, 2009), is subsequently “subjected to technological and cultural coding that allows the original properties to be… reconstituted for the audience” (Lister, 2009). Demonstratively, AP uses a physical recording mechanism, whereby light interacts with the chemicals in the film roll and thus an image is captured. Once the image is recorded the process of development occurs via a chemical process. The character of the AP “emerges from its material basis as a chemically sensitised surface upon which light reflects off real people and objects has been captured in a direct and unmediated way” (Biro, 2012).  The style of world renown photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson mirrors this idea, namely, the art of “capturing a decisive moment” . Cartier-Bresson’s philosophy centred around the ability to “discover the image and seize it” (Suler, 2013). Therefore, AP can be seen as the fore founder of digital photography as its uses of physical properties allowed for the first instance of print media.

2. Provide a definition for ‘analogue video’.

The term Analogue Video (AV) refers to a a period of time when analogue signals were utilised to create the initial developments of traditional media, in focus TV. AV is an electronic medium reliant on the recording and adaptation of electronic signals formed when light hits a light-sensitive surface. These signals are interpreted and broadcast by TV monitors, visually and audibly at the same time (Spielmann, 2007). moreover, these signals were susceptible to interference, as a result of the small scale of data made and the variation in the waves. This interference can be associated to the invention of video art, where artists were able to manipulate these signals to manufacture a video optically different.

3. Provide a definition for ‘networked photography’.

The term Networked Photography (NP) refers to a type of photography produced on or transferred to a digital platform or service device, through this process photographs as data can then be shared between different platforms, social networks and users. Since the development of camera phones, users have access to publishing and distributing their own content online, as well as the ability to be “citizen”photojournalists (Palmer, 2014 pg.245). As a photograph no longer moves in a fixed and linear context (Palmer, 2014 pg.245). Alongside NP, is the world of photo sharing on social media platforms like Instagram, this world allows for more photo circulation in this digital landscape. 

4. Provide a definition for ‘networked video’.

The term Networked Video (NV) refers to videos that have been taken on or upload onto a digital device. Further, these videos a transferred as data between different devices, platforms and users. With the development go digital media and the invention go video sharing, video content has been growing on online social media platforms, making mobile media more accessible. Mobile applications like Instagram, have been developed since the invention of camera phones and has catered a growth of mass distribution and consumption of video content online. Practitioners of various social media networks like Instagram are now able to publish their videos on all of their platforms. Therefore NV refers to the development of how videos are “networked, shared, downloaded and re-used with ease” (Berry, T. B 2018 pg.8 ) on a world-wide scale.

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

AUTHORING: In the context of media authoring is the process of creating and developing content. This can include capturing and editing photographs, videos, audio or texts to produce media content. The way media is authored is reliant on the devices used to capture the content and the software used to edit and publish it.

PUBLISHING: Publishing refers to the methods in which content is prepared for consumption. When publishing video and photo content originates on one type of medium, if the content is shared and circulated through outer platforms and devices then it has been distributed.

DISTRIBUTING: Distributing is the process of sharing and spreading media content to larger audiences. This can be done on social media platforms fro example.

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

A major disparity between the authorisation of AP and NP is accessibility. In terms of AP most photos captures were done so by professional photojournalists not the amateur photographers of today who use their camera phones. Furthermore, the affordances of a an analogue camera and a digital camera’s development process is also vastly different. Developing film was both a tedious and difficult process, whereas, platforms on a digital camera device allows users to edit and publish photos instantly and without complications. Locating the original publication of many AP artists work is quite difficulty as at the time there was no specific platform to publish work on like Instagram, for the majority of photojournalists of the analogue era their work was displayed in newspapers and books, these can be hard to find. However, AP and NP are similar in terms of the monetary aspect of the work and the way it is distributed. Both AP and NP photojournalists travel the world in order to capture profitable photographs. For example; Henri Cartier- Bresson an analogue photographer traveled to capture moments that not everyone would see and that made his photographs worth money. Further, digital photojournalists like Marie Fe and Jake Snow, travel the world and capture sponsorship photos to monetise on their online platform. Distributing content for both AP and NP photographers provides the ability for finical gain, career development and audience expansion. As in both eras audiences would see their publications just on different mediums.

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

Both the authoring and affordances practices of AV and NV are different. AV, uses signals and manipulates them in order to produce videos and vides effects. Whereas, NV are digital and depend on digital editing on applications. The equipment used to author digital content has rapidly advanced since the era of AV cameras. However, both AV and NV practitioners are comparable  when it comes to publishing content and the aesthetics of that content. With video-art, there is editing techniques and deliberate effects added to make the video fits into the artist chosen aesthetic and previous works. Digital video practitioners go about their videos in the similar way, creating videos that also fit into a deliberate aesthetic they present to their audiences, most likely when they are publishing online. Moreover, AV and NV differ in the way they are distributed.  Digital video makers have the ability to share their content on the Word Wide Web instantly and on various platforms like Instagram, youtube and Facebook for example. However, AV practitioners’s video works could only be viewed in person and at events held for their works, thus the difference comes down to flexibility and accessibility.

References:

Lister, M et al 2009, New Media: A Critical Introduction, Routledge, New York, p.17  (Lister, 2009)

Biro, M., 2012. From Analogue to Digital Photography: Bernd and Hilla Becher and Andreas Gursky. History of Photography, 36(3), pp.353-366.

Suler, J., 2013. Photographic Psychology: The Decisive Moment. [online] Truecenterpublishing.com. Available at: <http://truecenterpublishing.com/photopsy/decisive_moment.htm&gt; [Accessed 30 April 2020].

Spielmann, Y 2007, Video: The Reflexive Medium, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 1-6.

Palmer, D 2014 ‘Mobile Media Photography,’ The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 245.

Berry, T. B 2018, ‘Situating Videoblogging’, Institute of Network Cultures, viewed 14 March 2018, pp. 9–22