• How does your small-scale work respond to your characteristics of online screen making?

 

For the small-scale work, we have chosen to focus on aspects of interactive, non-linear and non-fiction contents and also adding to the idea of modularity.  The project is to collect the multiple stream stories on Instagram and edit together to show a better understanding of these characteristics.

Instagram as a media platform that the public is familiar with and it is the reason why we choose it. Moreover,  I think that Instagram stream story is interactive since it draws people’s attention towards those different kinds of stories. It allows people to see and also interact with those stories and those owners of the contents by chatting as well.

The project can be considered as a non-fiction project because nonfiction is about capturing a reality or structuring and presenting the true events, the Instagram stories are what people really posted on their social; their daily life, foods, activities, etc.

To respond to nonlinear and modularity principle, we put the materials we collected together at random with not in order, which means there is no coherence between each one. Each photo or video could be seen as an individual content, a piece of media might make sense because it may be watched independently of the source. However, they are still linked together because the topic is ‘everything’.

 

• What did you learn about online screen characteristics and platforms through conducting your test?

 

By doing the research and developing the small-scale work, I found that online media platforms become part of our life. Due to the development of technology, people no longer rely on computers for online activities, they prefer to use small portable devices, such as phone, iPad and laptop. The popularity of the application would affect how people use. For instance, Instagram is popular recently so people prefer to record the live stream and post selfies on Instagram to share. However, for some national policy, some Asian prefer to use Line or Wechat because Instagram is banned. In short, the similarity is that online media platform is becoming the main way to share everything.

The users can find common friends through the shared information to add. Also, it is allowed to leave comments under the content they interested to get communication with friends, even strangers. As Manovich (2002) mentioned in the article, ‘New media is interactive. In contrast to old media where the order of presentation is fixed, the user can now interact with a media object.’ It might be one reason why online media platform so popular for a long time. Not only because of the convenience but more on the quality of sharing.

Moreover, the online screen products are not very formal. By comparing with the productions that published officially, the online screen products do no strictly on the content, length or copyright. It is free to publish everything the users want online.

 

• How does this making expand upon what you learnt through your development posts?

 

For my personal experience, firstly, the digital portable device exists everywhere in the modern days and it can be said that it is hard to live without it. For example, when you eat something delicious, the first thing on your mind may be to take photos and send it online to share with others. You will be happy when others press ‘Like’ button or ask you where the restaurant is. Moreover, look at the stories shared by others is a way to pass the time or the way of entertainment. If I study tired, I like to look at the live streams on Instagram or ‘friends moment’ on Wechat to find something funny. Another benefit is to watch the content the viewer interested in. It is not a compulsory choice to watch everything online, it is free to the viewer to skip something they might not like. All of above are the characteristics that online screen media has and we could feel the deepest. In order to develop this project, I prefer to get inspiration from my own feelings and experiences.

 

• What questions remain for you in terms of thinking about and making online screen works?

 

During the process of developing the small-scale work, I found that the online media platforms have strong power to get connection among friends circle, however, what about the connection with the whole Internet. As mentioned in the reading, ‘branching-type interactivity’, which refers to programs in which all the possible objects the user can visit form a branching tree structure. (Manovich, 2002) Thus, for further question, I wondered the interactivity between personal use of online media and the whole Internet.