In week 3 and week 4’s group discussions, we exchanged our own projects that we chose and receive the feedback from pairs. I will emphasise on answering the questions we talked about in the studio. During the discussion, Nagini, Gigi and I came up with some fresh ideas about the small-scale work and it will be discussed in the post as well.
- The Non-fiction project on Docubase:
- What formal qualities did you notice in your project that reaffirmed the ones we listed and were there any other ones you noticed?
As we discussed the qualities and online characteristics in week one, I found ‘Life in a Day’ follows some qualities.
The first one is followed by the principle of ‘modularity’ because each plot can be seen as the separated part and each element has a narrative arch. It might be seen in conjunction with something else once combine the single elements together.
The second one is ‘Mobile’ because most of the videos are recorded by the phone camera and the viewers can watch the film or clips online by using mobile.
‘Share and Download’ is another quality. Firstly, the videographers need to share the videos with the director, so that the director could be collected all clips together to create the finished film. Moreover, it is allowed that online viewers download the film or share it with others once the film published online.
The quality of ‘tag’ is also working on the project, especially for the trailer. The director divided the video content into several categories in the trailer, such as love, fear and hope.
‘Unregulated length’ can be seen when we look at every single clip. As the previous post introduced, ‘Life in a Day’ is a film that received more than 80,000 videos from 192 countries, so the length of each one is unregulated, it depends on the videographer.
- In terms of content, why do you think this work was made interactive as opposed to linear?
I consider this work was made interactive because the content in the film have similarities. For example, they all shot on the same day, which is 24th June 2010. The story records what people did on that day. Besides that, in the film, the director has classified the content well, for instance, the elements of ‘water’ are collected together, such as wash hands, have a shower or brush teeth. This makes everything looks smoother, although there are multiple scenes and characters.
Furthermore, the project is devoted to recording daily life, so the senses almost recorded in normal places to resonate with viewers. The viewers have right to choose to watch the content what they interested in as well and it is the most important characteristic that differs from the linear project.
- Does your interaction offer anything to the project?
For my experience, I can choose to watch the plot that interested me by skipping the boring parts. The length of clips in the film is unregular and the answers of interviews are surprised. It is hard for me to predict the stories will happen next and this is the aspect that attracts my attention.
2. Comparing the projects among Nagini, Gigi and mine:
Through Nagini’s project, which is ‘Gallery of lost art’. It focuses on significant works that cannot be seen. It explores the potential of the digital realm to bring these lost artworks back to life.
‘Seven Digital Deadly Sins’ is the project that Gigi chose, which is the interactive documentary reflects on how online life affects our moral compass. The viewers can choose the story that interested them, and they are able to share their own confessions, cast judgement on the confessions of others, and see whether they are more forgiving or more critical than their peers.
By comparing our projects, we found that these three projects all using the online media as the way to present to the public. Although the way of interaction in each work is different, the ultimate goal is to achieve interactivity.
3. The development of the small-scale work：
- What two or more qualities you will your project respond to?
For the project, we will focus on two qualities, which are ‘non-linear’ and ‘modularity’.
- How would you define these two qualities in relation to the readings and projects we’ve read and looked at?
Non-linear: The information and media that posted online can be seen as different single parts. For example, the World Wide Web as a whole is also completely modular. It consists of numerous Web pages, each in its turn consisting of separate media elements. Every element can always be accessed on its own. As the reading discussed, ‘The Internet, which can be thought of as one huge distributed media database, also crystallized the basic condition of the new information society: the overabundance of information of all kinds.’ To review the project of ‘Life in a Day’, each clip are shot by people with different nationalities at different times in a day, so each one is independent with the unregulated length of the video and no requirement of contents. The videographers have rights to upload online and download or share with others. The film with colourful and rich content because of non-linear stories.
Modularity: As the reading mentioned, ‘It allows for several pieces of online media to function together efficiently yet separate as well.’ In ‘Life in a Day’, there is the combination of multiple clips that shot by digital cameras, phone cameras and other media tools. It is obvious followed the point in the reading. Moreover, each clip can be seen as a single one, and follows by the principle in the reading, ‘Each element has to have a narrative arch and it may be watched independently of the source.’ The final work is to stitch the possibility that what you make might be seen in conjunction with something else.The director’s work was to combine every single part together to form the finished film.
- What will the content of your project be?
We came up with the second assignment according to the first assignment, which chooses and records the live stream on Instagram at random and combines them together. The topic we defined is called ‘Everything’.
It is a non-linear project because each story we chose is at random, there is no connection, unregular length, even the videographers are people with different nationalities. As what we talked in the studio, non-linear is one of the characteristics of new media, which are nonfiction and without regulated length, it could be everything happens currently.
The project can be linked to ‘modularity’ as well. First of all, the videographers use their own media tools to record stories and then we collect theirs, so it allows for several pieces of online media to function together efficiently yet separate as well. Secondly, it may be watched independently of the source and each element has to have a narrative arch. As the reading mentioned, ‘A new media object consists of independent parts, each of which consists of smaller independent parts’. Our work is to stitch the possibility that what you make might be seen in conjunction with something else.
- What type of interaction will your project allow for?
The interaction our project allows for might be no limitations. We did not create the background for the project, no limitations on the content and the length. The public allows to record everything they want and post online. It might be the thing is happening or the photo took in the past, even some words they want to express and what we will do is to collect these materials and try to let several pieces of online media to function together efficiently.