week 3 reading

digital video and alexandre astruc’s camera-stylo: the new avant-garde documentary realised? 

– “the cinema, like literature, is not so much a particular art as a language which can express any sphere of thought” – (Astruc in Graham 1968: 19)
– a new media technology provides a new means of expression: means new aesthetic, new mode of construction and a new pattern of production & distribution
– the spectrum of uses for the technology has been opened up allowing greater possibilities for both modern and alternative uses (contemporary & avant grade)
– with every new shift in technology (for example new developments from film to vhs to online media) there has been wider capabilities and a larger reach for amateurs and professionals alike
– internet and the world wide web along with products such as iMovie and the way users are now able to capture & edit footage easily has change distribution and production
– mobile media is another massive leap – a phone is no longer just a phone but also a device for capturing and sharing photographs and video
– the developments spoken of have been mainly in economic availability (there is not such a big gap in quality between professionals and what equipment is available to the general public), miniaturisation (ie. the iPhone, equipment is no longer space consuming and difficult to access), new and alternative forms of distribution (ie. youtube)
– new & experimental forms have an effect on a wider sphere today than they once did (commercial and institutional) experimental form is no longer so far removed from the generic
– the internet has caused the wall between private and public spheres to disappear (both in the way that the mass media has industry has been able to interrupt he private sphere and the individual’s ability to now engage and contribute to public discourse)
– Habermans has concerns about the consequences of such change, particularly in how contributions by intellectuals are losing focus amidst the wealth of unedited, uninformed information in the public domain
– youtube is an example of a new distribution model or form allowing new expressions and uses of the visual medium
– amateurs have been able to find a mass audience that would not have been possible in the past > the question this raises is whether this is really a good thing ?