Frontline’s ‘Generation Like’ is a social media documentary that discusses user expression through social media and how this functions as a marketing tool. Facebook’s ‘like’ function, Youtube’s ‘views’ and ‘subscribers’, Twitter’s ‘followers’ and ‘re-tweets’, all contribute toward a database that creates intelligence for marketing strategies. Generally the openness of the internet and the ability young people have to express themselves is referred to as empowering and although that might be true, it also creates masses of corporate wealth. Social media users’ innocence to the significance of user expression tools in terms of corporate wealth, highlights a weakness in the receptivity of brand domination, as well as hides the fact that it is the users that are actually marketing the products. This reminds me of Axel Bruns’ produser theory, in which he explains how developments in the online network position the consumer with the ability to produce content. One particular part I found interesting in ‘Generation Like’ was the suggestion that the term ‘sell out’ doesn’t exist in the same capacity that it used to. A ‘sell out’ used to refer to someone that took on brand sponsorship and promoted it in their content for advertisement purposes, receiving an income in return. This used to be viewed as betraying who you are and the reasons you became famous. This documentary indicates that having the ability to promote brand sponsorship, is now typically viewed as an achievement. This demonstrates how changes in the network effect online media practices.
To form connections between ‘Generation Like’ and this studio, I can see that the network can be used through the functionality of social media to redefine online video practice. For example, the immense sense of achievement and also career opportunity instigated through a high number of ‘likes’ or ‘follows’, influences media producers to create content that is more likely to be seen and appreciated, which is often, controversial material or silly behavior. In addition, the documentary indicated that to be successful online is to use social media to promote one’s career, in order to develop enough of a following (social media network) that can be sold/used to sell. This correlates with online video practice in the sense that it is becoming more about promotion rather than distribution. This lays importance on utilising the user expressive tools of social media in online video practices in order to not get left behind. The documentary describes the way kids consume media through ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ (and the advertising pathways that result from this process) as “the biggest transformation in the way companies communicate with consumers, in history. Finally, after watching this documentary I am reassured about my decision to study at university (as discussed in another blog post) as being designed to encourage innovative changes or development to media practices, rather than create standard linear content that is distributed via media platforms. Innovative ideas such as the invention of user expression online, clearly have a massive influence on the world of media.
Today was the presentation of project 3 to a panel of four RMIT staff in the interest of generating useful feedback for the development of project 4. The panel said that they enjoyed the presentation and thought that it was clearly explained, mainly in reference to the journey from case study to the exploration of project 3. However, feedback became quickly centred around determining whether pursuing a live broadcasting service was the best option. The panel were unable to see any of the other sketches, so it was hard to demonstrate comparisons, however it was clear that a focus on a live service may focus future directions too specifically around the technology rather than the form, as well as potentially remove the possibility for a large amount of skate video’s aesthetic appeal to function (such as music and digital video manipulation). This is relevant because these factors could stray our future direction away from the aims of the studio. I think the panel raised an interesting argument to consider more closely, whether live broadcasting is the most suitable direction for future explorations, or whether returning to study of other sketches may be useful in discovering a better alternative.
Relating
I have noticed similar notions to this during the transition from project 1 to project 2 of this studio. That transition featured Errol and I having a strong, misunderstood focus on the technical qualities and stylistic elements of skate video as an example of online video practice. When it was actually far more important to focus on the narrative/non-narrative structure of the practice, in reference to the particular form (or potentially hybrid form) of the case study. Gearing our experimentation towards notions of form aligned the project much more closely with the aims of the studio. I have learnt from this past experience the importance of not getting caught up on the technical elements of a work, but for the purpose of this studio focusing on form from a simplified standpoint. Do not over complicate the experiment because that leads to confusion from the central focus of the experiment.
Reasoning
The factors underlying this issue I believe are premised on my prior education module being engulfed by notions of satisficing and technical recreation. Satsificing refers to accepting the first solution to a problem, without encouraging further investigation and generation of new ideas. This, in combination with my previous media education being focused around displaying an ability to recreate media by imitating the stylistic features, is what immediately draws me to technical elements when analysing a case study for example. These are important factors to consider because they indicate that it is vital to really prompt continuous brainstorming and idea development in order to do well in this studio, as well as adapt our professional practice to the changing world of online media.
Reconstructing
In future I will encourage myself to explore further solutions to potential issues or areas of development, attempting to transfer my focus away from notions regarding media technologies and more towards a representation of form. The main way I can think of achieving this in regards to the development of project 4 in this studio, is to experiment with effect of live broadcasting on skate video more so, to explore the array of possibilities and questions that are raised. This would hopefully provide the foundations to identify and direct the exploration down the path of an exploration of form. However, furthering notions of speculative sketching (as an alternative to satisficing), I will take a step back from live broadcasting all together in order to explore and brainstorm other potential possibilities for project 4, before selecting live broadcasting so quickly. This could potentially provide the change we need in order to address the feedback given during today’s studio.
Over the weekend, I added the final touches to the presentation of project 3 in preparation of our feedback session with the academic panel. Changes were made in direct reference to the feedback given during Friday’s presentation, however the alteration found most difficult was condensing the 12 minute presentation into 5 minutes. I really valued all of the contextual information our presentation entailed and so I found it difficult to reduce any of that information. For this reason, I put together a power point presentation that ensured no time would be wasted navigating the internet and blog posts, and all visual material could be played in the background as speaking continued over the top. The contextual introduction and indication of relevance to the studio itself ran for almost 3 minutes, only allowing 1 sketch to be focused on for future directions. The periscope sketch became the key focus as Errol and I were interested in the way live broadcasting completely altered both the narrative and non-narrative form of skate video. The short time allocation of the presentation on Monday will require ‘zippy’ speaking to fit everything into 5 minutes.
Today’s studio was the big presentation day for project 3, Errol and I presented our work first and were very satisfied with the outcome. I think the use of visual aids was helpful in demonstrating how we journeyed from our case study to our final probe and I also tried to include as much context as possible so that the presentation could be understood easily by the audience (as per the focus of our first few studios). We received lots of helpful feedback which informed how we improved the presentation for the panel presentation the following Monday. Mainly, it was important that we show a linear video version of the narrative sequence Errol navigated in order to contextualise how it may have altered during discussion of other online tools and services. In addition, display of a quick screenshot of each sketch would also be very useful in demonstrating how the practice varied across the variety of tools and services, as well as help the audience understand what we did exactly. Furthermore, we needed to provide visual aid regarding the case study in order to anchor the entire exploration back to its origin. Finally, more work needed to be done to determine why we were most interested in the Periscope sketch in terms of our probe and what it will do for us for project 4.
Reflecting upon today’s presentation, it is clear that it is vital to portray our discoveries and intentions as simplistic as possible. Rather than become overwhelmed by unnecessary use of terminology, it is more valuable to be able to communicate your thoughts in a succinct and tangible manner. Secondly, it is now clear that a large part of the presenting process is a chance for us to demonstrate reasons for particular actions. e.g. Why we did particular things, why we took particular pathways, why we think certain elements are more important than others and why we are choosing to progress from here the way we are. Most importantly, when presenting future explorations we need to ensure not to get caught up in the technology that surrounds the example of online video practice, but rather focus more specifically on the narrative/non-narrative form. This was of course still prominent in our presentation, however exploration of form needed to be honed in on even more closely in order to progress toward making a potential prototype that consists of a hybrid form of video practice disregarding technological influence.
Errol and I are addressing the same case study as we have done in previous presentations. ‘Art in the Streets’, which fused skate video with interview and graffiti art. As mentioned previously, we place this work in a hybrid genre of online video practice being – skate video and documentary interview to profile a graffiti artist.
Journey to Probe:
To demonstrate how we got to our probe:
Out of our original 3 ideas of interest we chose to address: playing with the structure of skate video.
From there, attempting to develop sketch ideas, we noticed a recurring theme of media platform based explorations, along with notions of interactivity.
This directed us to think about what would happen to skate video if it were produced across a range of platforms and we wanted to include elements of interactivity.
Our first probe draft was too focused around interactivity which expanded the exploration beyond the scope of this project.
So in order to include interactivity but focus more heavily on the affordances and constraints of media platforms themselves, the final probe was eventually developed to refer to platforms and interactivity as online tools and services, allowing both to be explored in closer reference to the studio aims.
FINAL PROBE
Working from the case study example ‘Art in the Streets’, which fused the online video practice of ‘skate video’, with documentary interviews to profile a graffiti artist on the web, for a contemporary art exhibition. Our group plan to explore how skate video is transformed when it is produced in different online tools and services. We plan to see what happens to a typical linear skate video when it is re-appropriated into different tools and services, like for instance Vine, Snapchat, Cowbird, etc.
How do the affordances and constraints of the tools and services used effect the narrative/non-narrative form of skate video? How do these varying tools and services transform the way skate video is portrayed to an audience?
Sketch Outline
We created a narrative sequence of skateboarding tricks for Errol to complete in chronological / linear order. Captured in a standard linear fashion this would appear similar to an example of skate video, produced on the internet via linear media platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo. So to experiment with how skate video might transform via different online tools and services, we produced the same skate video (sequence of tricks) through 11 different online services. Also, in order to incorporate interactivity, we experimented with 3 different interactive tools in skate video.
Linear Video
If we are to think about why this matters in regards to the focus of this studio, the studio prompt is:
How can video, computers and the network be used to redefine online video practices?
So exploration of our probe is thus making a contribution as to how skate video (being an example of online video practice) might transform and be redefined when produced in different online tools and services. Which encompasses different forms of video, computers and the network.
Periscope – How is skate video transformed when it is produced in Periscope/Stre.am?
Periscope and Meerkat are popular in current media affairs.
After exploring sketches that involved digital editing and material manipulation, we were interested in exploring the presence of skate video in a service that produced a live stream of content. Periscope is a live video broadcasting application, which is designed to allow users to discover “the world through someone else’s eyes” (Periscope 2015).
Unfortunately due to the application being unavailable on Android, I had to use Stre.am instead which is a copied version.
Unlike Tarsii and Meerkat, Stre.am and Periscope allow the user to setup the recording before choosing to stream the content. This affordance allows the narrative to be structured by the camera person himself/herself, selecting when to begin streaming the video. This also removes a lot of potentially unwanted material from the narrative that might accidentally occur during an automatic live stream on Meerkat/Tarsii. This also portrays skate video to the audience as a more polished form than versions produced in Meerkat/Tarsii.
In regards to a transformation of skate video itself, Stre.am is a live continuous broadcast of material, disallowing any form of digital editing and video manipulation. This portrays skate video to an audience as a more authentic and accurate example of the recorded material. However it also removes a large amount of the non-narrative aesthetic value present in the form of skate video as an online video practice. Music and digital transitions are symptomatic elements of skate video and the absence of such techniques in the use of Stre.am removes a degree of the non-narrative aesthetic appeal of skate video.
Cowbird – How is skate video transformed when it is produced in Cowbird?
Cowbird is a public library of stories and a way to share experiences with other people on the internet. Cowbird is designed to “preserve exceptional stories of human life” (Harris 2014) and sees itself as an alternative to the flood of stories featured on Facebook and Twitter which might not hold as much emotional significance. Also, Cowbird does not feature any video material. Instead, the power of original photographs, text and sound is used to compile a collection of stories and form connections between stories that share location, date and/or theme. This online service became immediately intriguing as a way to explore the transformation of skate video, when produced through a medium without video and one with an emphasis on the use of text, an element which is a rarity in skate video as an online video practice.
Cowbird only allows the submission of one image per story and this restriction generates selectivity. The narrative form of skate video is thus presented visually to the audience through one encompassing image alone. Furthermore, as an affordance of Cowbird, the presence of text to communicate the narrative makes skate video more ‘story orientated’. Meaning, in combination with the presence of sound, rather than communicate a narrative succession of tricks, a non-narrative aesthetic is privileged which communicates the ‘feeling’ of skateboarding. Therefore, skate video is portrayed to the audience from a more insightful and intimate perspective due to the perceived emotional significance of storytelling which Cowbird aims to mirror.
Future Directions
We were most intrigued by the Periscope/Stre.am sketch because using a live broadcasting medium for the distribution of skate video completely restructures both the narrative and non-narrative form. The narrative structure is somewhat lost by the inability to filter the content that is provided to the world wide web. Furthermore, the non-narrative aesthetic value that skate video holds, is diminished by the absence of editing techniques that could create visual relationships and appeal through music. We would like to explore further how hybrid relationships can be formed between skate video and live broadcasting in order to potentially develop a prototype that is a completely new hybrid form of skate video practice that is structured by real time.
Informed by the previous exploration of audience interactivity, this sketch experiments with another conceptual idea surrounding the possibility for the audience to interact with skate video via hypothetical online tools and services. Resulting from brainstorming surrounding potential notions of interactivity for the final project, I was interested in the effect audience input might have on the narrative/non-narrative form of skate video.
To create this sketch, I used the footage captured for the previous sketch (Audience Selected Music) and used image and video editing software to create an imitation of a voting system. A combination of Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop were used to develop a number scale system, enclosed by circles to resemble buttons. Also Sony Vegas was used to create a transition between layers of the image to create the desired changing colour effect. A screen recording was then taken of the rendered video during playback, in order to implement the presence of audience interaction via the appearance of the mouse icon. Timing the mouse movements with the transition of images proved to be difficult, however after much trial and error the desired effect was achieved reasonably successfully.
Although not present in this sketch, the audience member having the ability to vote for the quality of particular tricks could change the pathway of the narrative toward one of many options resulting from the audience member’s preference. Consequently in reference to our probe, the narrative form of skate video would be completely structured by the audience member and no longer by the producer. This would reshape the narrative structure of skate video but furthermore, it would create a hybrid of skate video and audience interactivity. However, I believe for this sketch to be more effective in its exploration it would require evidence of the audience vote submissions having a direct cause-effect relationship on the structure of the video, however this sketch still represents a simplified version of these notions in order to experiment with the concept.
Throughout this experimental exercise I have become interested in notions of audience interactivity within online video practices, as an extension of online tools and services. Also, looking ahead toward the prototype assessment for project 4, I have thought about potential interaction with skate video that may not necessarily exist as such. As mentioned in previous sketches, the narrative and non-narrative form of skate video is strongly structured around the use of music. For example, timing a skater landing a trick with a prominent beat in the soundtrack is an important technique in skate video as it creates a non-narrative aesthetic ‘flow’, whilst structuring the narrative form (the sequence of events) around the structure of the music. Most importantly, it is symptomatic of skate video. Furthermore, the genre of music is selected closely in skate video in order to create the desired ‘feeling’ for the video. Whether it be a ‘sponsor me’ video to be taken seriously, or a video of friends casually playing around on skateboards, the music used is going to be very different. In a typical linear skate video, the selection of music is conducted by the producer solely. Which sparked my interest in an exploration of how the narrative/non-narrative form of skate video might be transformed through the audience selecting the music.
To create this sketch, I video recorded Errol performing the skateboarding line in its entirety and used image and video editing software to develop a song selection on the side of the footage. A combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop were used to create the song list on the right hand side of the frame and video editing techniques were applied to create the highlighted change in song selection. I then screen recorded a playback of this video and timed my hand movements in order to include the presence of a mouse icon, resembling the selection of an audience member. All of the music is royalty free and the track names are accurate.
Upon reflection of this concept, once the audience has control over the selection of music, a level of the creative rights, along with the ability to structure the narrative is transferred from the producer to the audience. Furthermore, the non-narrative aesthetic ‘feeling’ of a skate video, primarily created by the music, is portrayed to the audience potentially more powerfully and effectively due to the fact that the audience member can create the ‘feeling’ for the video that they desire.
Errol rolls his way over to a car park ramp where he hop manuals the platform and drops off the edge. #Brunswickskate
— Nethaniel Rochester (@NateRochester5) April 22, 2015
He then pops the front wheels off the ground and drops down two sets of gutters. #Brunswickskate
— Nethaniel Rochester (@NateRochester5) April 22, 2015
Firstly Errol runs and jumps onto the skateboard to generate speed. #Brunswickskate
You will often find him skating his local street spot in Brunswick, where we has a favourite run of tricks to do: #Brunswickskate
— Nethaniel Rochester (@NateRochester5) April 22, 2015
Errol is a local Melbourne skater, he lives in the inner north and skates street the majority of the time. #Brunswickskate
To experiment further with notions of applying skate video to different online tools and services in order to produce a potential transformation of skate video form, I extended its production to a service that eliminates the presence of imagery and sound all together. To produce a skate video in Twitter, the producer is restricted to the tool/medium of text.
To create this sketch I wrote a scripted version of Errol’s skate sequence. The narrative script was similar to the text used in the Cowbird sketch, however via Twitter there was less emphasis on the story telling aesthetic and more of a focus on creating short and sharp announcements. This, in conjunction with a constraint of 140 characters per post, meant that the communication of narrative was premised on short snippets of only the most important information involved in the narrative structure. Thus, a disregard for aesthetic ‘fluff’ is raised in replacement of direct simplistic communication. Therefore the non-narrative aesthetic appeal of skate video, predominantly formed by the use of visual relationships and music is removed. Meaning the narrative form becomes structured around an explicit portrayal of content.
Furthermore, the functionality of Twitter is strongly premised upon the use of #tags to form relations between ‘Tweets’. By using a consistent #tag (#Brunswickskate) across each ’tweet’ involved in the sketch, skate video is portrayed to the audience in a potentially disjointed nature. Moreover, each individual element (‘tweet’) of the skate video can be separated across the web and therefore not presented in association with the other pieces of the narrative. However the affordances of the #tag enable the audience to discover the associated segments in order to form a narrative. Finally, due to a lack of visual and audio material, the audience is restricted to create their own visual version of the content, which is a powerful affordance of text media. Therefore the ‘skate video’ becomes a hybrid collaboration of produced script and audience imagination.
Cowbird is a public library of stories and a way to share experiences with other people on the internet. Cowbird is designed to “preserve exceptional stories of human life” (Harris 2014) and sees itself as an alternative to the flood of stories featured on Facebook and Twitter which might not hold as much emotional significance. Also, Cowbird does not feature any video material. Instead, the power of original photographs, text and sound is used to compile a collection of stories and form connections between stories that share location, date and/or theme. This online service became immediately intriguing as a way to explore the transformation of skate video, when produced through a medium without video and one with an emphasis on the use of text, an element which is a rarity in skate video as an online video practice.
To create this sketch, I took a photograph of Errol performing the finale trick of his skateboarding sequence, I recorded the sound of Errol completing the entirety of the trick sequence and also typed a short story version of the performance. These three elements were then compiled together through cowbird.com. Cowbird only allows the submission of one image per story and this restriction generates selectivity. The narrative form of skate video is thus presented visually to the audience through one encompassing image alone. Furthermore, as an affordance of Cowbird, the presence of text to communicate the narrative makes skate video more ‘story orientated’. Meaning, in combination with the presence of sound, rather than communicate a narrative succession of tricks, a non-narrative aesthetic is privileged which communicates the ‘feeling’ of skateboarding. Therefore, skate video is portrayed to the audience from a more insightful and intimate perspective due to the perceived emotional significance of storytelling which Cowbird aims to mirror.
Also evident throughout current media affairs is mention of Periscope as the main competitor to Meerkat. This encouraged me to explore how skate video might be transformed differently across the two online video streaming services. Periscope is a live video broadcasting iOS application also associated with Twitter, which is designed to allow users to discover “the world through someone else’s eyes” (Periscope 2015).
Due to the unavailability of an apple iPhone with a compatible operating system for Periscope, I was restricted to using the Android equivalent (copy) of the application called Stre.am for this exploration. Stre.am is not a direct copy of Periscope, meaning the affordances and constraints are not necessarily consistent across both services. However Stre.am still represents a live video broadcasting service which can be experimented with in regards to the transformation of skate video. Also the similarities between Stre.am and Periscope associate this exploration with relevant current media affairs. Unlike Tarsii, Stre.am does not save a copy of a captured live stream and instead requires users to be connected in time for live viewing. Therefore, to create this sketch I positioned my DSLR camera on a tripod facing down at the screen of one phone that was viewing the live stream. Whilst simultaneously filming Errol performing the skate sequence on another phone, that was streaming the live content to the original phone, as well as any other potential public viewers. We faced many issues in terms of connectivity and network malfunctions. Due to a lack of data on the receiving phone, a hotspot also had to be used from the filming phone. Thus, the processing strain inflicted on the phone that was filming created glitches in the stream and poor quality frame rates. This required much trial and error before the end result was achieved. Also, this indicates that using Stre.am effects the narrative form of skate video in the way that an audience member may not receive contextualisation or important foundations within a narrative if they join the stream late.
Unlike Tarsii and Meerkat, Stre.am and Periscope allow the user to setup the recording before choosing to stream the content. This affordance allows the narrative to be structured by the camera person himself/herself, selecting when to begin streaming the video. This also removes a lot of potentially unwanted material from the narrative that might accidentally occur during an automatic live stream on Meerkat/Tarsii. This also portrays skate video to the audience as a more polished form than versions produced in Meerkat/Tarsii. In regards to a transformation of skate video itself, Stre.am is a live continuous broadcast of material, disallowing any form of digital editing and video manipulation. This portrays skate video to an audience as a more authentic and accurate example of the recorded material. However it also removes a large amount of the non-narrative aesthetic value present in the form of skate video as an online video practice. Music and digital transitions are symbolic elements of skate video and the absence of such techniques in the use of Stre.am removes a degree of the non-narrative aesthetic appeal of skate video.
