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Week 10 Reading

Plotting The Database 

So with this weeks reading I focused on the notion of Plot and the way in which it is used within a database interface. Below I have listed some of the statements/quotes that I found most interesting..

‘Plot arranges events to take shape in the mind as a single entity; a contemplative whole made of structurally related parts: cause and effect chains, points of tension and release, beginnings, middles and ends.’ 

The entire section on ‘entry points’ within an interface plot I found to be really super interesting and helpful, as it relates completely back to my groups Korsakow Film. This is reflective of the way in which a viewer is able to enter at any point (however constrained that point is by the creator) and bounce around form place to place within the interface, but also having it all related to tell a non-linear narrative. – ‘A user chooses when and where to exit a database narrative; where a user enters, as with most narratives, is usually through a designed portal. Certain types of networked, distributed or transmedia narratives do have multiple entry points, where an encounter with a narrative segment leads to a maze of other segments. But the opening interface to a database is a staged entry and may offer a broad, restricted or randomly generated set of files and paths. Entry points can establish narrative frames, metaphors for navigation , genre motifs, present views of data sets, describe elements of plot, character, setting or theme – or withhold any and all of these. However the interface is designed, the entry point prepares the user for interaction and most importantly the desire for interaction.’ 

.‘An interface is more than a map. It is a map that changes with the user’s navigation in time, offering multiple interpretive paths and levels of abstraction. But a plotted interface – to a database narrative or fiction, for example – withholds as much as it reveals. A plotted interface provides micro and macro views, but also limits and delays access to those views. ‘

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I apologise for the lack of clear intent with these reading blog posts. I write them along while I do the reading and just take notes on the things I think sound good or interest me. Sometimes it’s hard to find such things when I don’t fully get the main idea of the reading, but I just wing it and write about what comes to mind haha. So yeah, sorry, but enjoy!

K-Film Update.

Yo, so this is just a little blog post to keep you (and me) updated on the progress of my groups Korsakow film… Today we presented our workshopped idea to the class, and i think it went well. I do feel like our idea can get a bit lost in the explanation,however, in our minds it seems clear enough and I think once it is actually filmed and edited and created, the audience will understand it. As always, it is not a given that the audience will interpret the exact meaning we intend the film to be portraying, but I think that with different viewings of the final product, the main concept or idea/theme will be pretty evident.

We start filming in a week and I’m excited. If it all works out the way we have imagined it, the K-Fim should be quite good and interesting.

Korsakow Major Group Project – Personal Idea!

As music is a hugely influential and majorly important part of my life, I would really love to make a Korsakow documentary film based around music. Something to do with rhythm and pace and movement, with the main contention being based around what music means to various different people.

I feel like this could be done well on Korsakow, each video clip interlaying between people talking about music and why they love it etc, people playing musical instruments, and people listening to music via headphones. I feel ike this could work out to be a powerful non linear film, showing the audience how big a part music does play in our everyday lives.

Symposium Week 8

Yeah so, I’m sadly running out of motivation to write these blog posts, I am trying though… I haven’t written a post about any of the symposiums thus far in this course, so I thought I’d post here my notes from todays lecture. There’s not many, but here are the main things I found interesting or important from todays discussion 🙂

. Set of rules and constraints are good in creativity – get things done!

. Our clips mean things, not in themselves, but in the relations in Korsakow.

. Hard to narrate a multilinear sequence of footage

. Intend doesn’t always get across. – No guarantee your audience will think of or interpret your work the way you plan for them too.

. K-Films are good at expressing relationships – without having to include a hierarchy of importance.

. As soon as you categorize a piece of work, audiences will bring their own values and speculations along for the ride.

Korsakow Case Study Essay

FILM ESSAY – Korsakow film discussed available here: http://vogmae.net.au/classworks/2013/Love.html

The Korsakow film from 2013 entitled Love was created by Ka Mun Chen, Inocensius Valentino, Nikki Liu and Rachel Moreiro. This film demonstrates how simple technologies can be used to create and experiment with alternative narrative and non-narrative video. It incorporates one simple idea, what is love? And provides many different people’s various answers and interpretations on the topic.

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 Love makes use of quite a simple interface, adhering to Adrian Mile’s statement in his 2011 integrated media notes, that ‘just because you can use everything doesn’t mean you should.’ It’s use of a plain black background works well, as the video and images on the screen are vivid against it. The interface includes a single screen with three previews to the right of the main viewing window. This Korsakov film also is simple with its interface, as it does not incorporate any background soundtrack, just having the sound of the subjects on screen’s voices. The decision to create the film in this way allows for the audience to fully embrace what is being discussed in each video, as the people talking and the opinions they are talking about are the main focus of the film. Love also includes a ‘continue’ and ‘replay’ button at the finish, a creative interface decision that gives the viewer another choice when watching.

Love relies on three patterns that are obvious to the eye and that help make the interactive film flow in a simple way. As the film is fully based on people discussing their thoughts on a topic, the patterns evident include repetition with shot selection, as some of the people on screen are shown with their faces purposefully cut out of the shot when being filmed. Others include people having only their noses to their chins shown on screen when talking, and others have only an extreme close up of their eyes being shown.

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These patterns play a role in the way the audience receives and interprets Love, with the interface having three preview screens, the audience is able to interact and engage with the film based on such patterns if they chose too. For example, when watching this Korsakow film for the first time, after one video finished I was more inclined to continue my viewing by clicking on one of the previews that had a similar shot structure to the one I just watched. This being said however, it is also possible that the creators intended for the opposite effect on the audience, wanting them to view different scaled shots after each other.

Within Love the interface and patterns present work together to portray the content to an audience in an easy to understand manner. The film is based on its title, Love, as it tries to get various people to express what love is to them and what they think love means within the context of the world. This is done by incorporating speech and creating a number of videos where males and females, most prominently in their late teens to mid twenties, individually discuss and talk about their thoughts on love. Some of the answers given are quite deep and meaningful, such as this quote from one woman in the film, ‘love is a word that I think you can apply to everything and nothing at the same time.’ As this is a non-linear film, it is evident that there is no story line or sequence of events, just a film purely based on peoples various thoughts that can be read by different audiences through their interaction with it. As Love is multilinear, it can begin anywhere and end anywhere, meaning that every person who watches and interacts with the film can have differing viewing experiences, some watching and hearing all about how great love is, others getting mixed feelings towards love, and others possibly hearing about how love is something that has no explanation.

Love gives it’s viewer an interactive look into the way people perceive the concept of love, and it does this quite well through the use of Korsakow. It’s evident patterns and it’s simple interface work together to create a film that enables its viewer to control what they see on screen, however not allowing them to control what opinions they hear or what particular kind of thoughts on ‘what love is’ that they will be presented with.

Week 5 already?!

So I came on here to check up on the course blog, to make sure I was up to date with the readings and to see if anyone  had posted anything interesting to read, and then I realised that it is week 5 ALREADY! Seriously, these first 5 weeks have gone by so fast, and I still feel like I’m confused by Korsakow and how exactly to work it… But I have been trying the program out, practicing adding key words and such. I think after more practice it should become a lot more simpler to work with. And by the end of the course I hope that I understand it really well!

1st look at Korsakow

The Korsakow System (Pronounced ‘KOR-SA-KOV’) is open source software for creating browser-based dynamic documentaries. Invented in 2000 by Berlin-based artist Florian Thalhofer, Korsakow allows users without any programming expertise to create and interact with non-linear or database-driven narratives, referred to as Korsakow-Films or K-Films. The software can be used to produce documentary, experimental and fictional narrative works and has been integrated into live performance and installation pieces. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korsakow)

So we began looking at Korsakow this week, and learning about how it works and what it is used for. I feel like this was a really helpful tute and definitely provided me with some relevant information that I will need when creating my own Korsakow pieces.

Here are some notes about Korsakow I took down:

. Making relations between things – joining things together. Creating patterns using key words! Will our viewer know what they are?

. like creating a jigsaw puzzle!!! 

. Interfaces

IMPORTANT: Managament – WORKFLOW

Key Word – A Tag!

SNU – Smallest Narrative Unit

POC – Points of Contact: In Poc and Out Poc

POCs are created by key words

A Korsakow film is a collection of Connected SNU’s