Week 7.
Was unable to attend the lecture this week (shooting a short film). Had to stalk some blogs.
Apparently this week’s lecture = lists.
Lists are disconnected elements. Lists are efficient/quick ways of communicating information. Lists aren’t ruled by narrative. Social media revolves around lists. Twitter. Instagram. Tumblr. Facebook. Flickr. These generate lists. The Internet provides us with lists that we scroll through. Lists are not boring. Despite not being narratives.
This week’s reading also = lists. Ish.
Louise Frankham’s ‘Complexity, flux and webs of connection’ discusses lists and montages in terms of non-linear structuring/relationships of elements. The important thing in a list is the gaps. This gap between elements evokes “openness of interpretation” and “fragmentation of experience” . Components may be assembled through a certain logic, but we keep the gaps between things – “the relationship between parts is kept loose”. This notion of components gathered under a certain logic while being kept ‘spaced’ is also a formal approach to documentary structuring.
Montage, unlike lists, “brings elements into contact”. The clashing of these elements “gives rise to new meanings out of each combination”. Montage brings things together. Makes things combine. Makes them clash. Generates meaning. Lists make use of gaps / no contact. Montages make use of contact.