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