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Making Media Blog Posts:

Week 9 Photo: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/grace-kirkby/2019/05/08/week-9-authoring-instagram-photography/ 
Week 9 Video: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/grace-kirkby/2019/05/14/week-9-authoring-video/

Week 10 Photo: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/grace-kirkby/2019/05/14/week-10-authoring-photography/
Week 10 Video: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/grace-kirkby/2019/05/21/week-10-authoring-video/

Week 11 Photo: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/grace-kirkby/2019/05/25/week-11-photography/
Week 11 Video: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/grace-kirkby/2019/05/25/week-11-video/

Word Count: 1093

Instagram Handle: @gracegotanotherinsta

This report is designed to address the course prompt:
“How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?”

Title: Is Instagram Helping or Hindering Creativity?

Introduction:

Instagram is a network within which users are able to author, publish and distribute networked photos and videos. Like any software, Instagram has perceived affordances (affordances), which are the actions a user understands to be possible when interacting with the software (Norman, 2008, para. 6). The correct balance of affordances and constraints allow users to understand the purpose of the app. One of Instagram’s central affordances is a network within which people, ideas, aesthetics, cultures, and values can be networked instantly. However, since one billion people use one standardised piece of software, I believe the affordances of Instagram are affecting the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network by simultaneously encouraging and constraining different creative processes.

Evidence:

Making networked media has allowed me to critically analyse how the affordances of Instagram affect our creative processes as authors, publishers and distributors in the network. I noticed that uploading to Instagram, which was once easy and exciting, began taking considerable time. This is because it was forcing me to think critically about what constitutes an Instagram post and how it is being affected by the affordances of Instagram. I stopped thinking about what me and my followers like, and instead considered the broader social and cultural implications of the software. When I authored my first post, I was concerned with creating an accurate reflection of how I use Instagram and aligned the post to a real event so that it would be socially relevant. Over the weeks, I began to explore the prompt critically to understand different ways of authoring, publishing and distributing to reach different users, such as the car fans in my last post. Despite putting more time into authoring, publishing and distributing these posts, I think they were less aesthetically pleasing than my personal account, however they were more thought provoking, critical and self-aware.

Evaluation:

Authoring:
Instagram has a variety of different users who author content for different purposes (Manovich, 2016, p. 49). As these users navigate within the affordances of Instagram, patterns of behaviour occur which reflect the stylistic conventions and values of particular demographics or locations (Manovich, 2016, p. 26). Niederer (2018, p. 19) describes these patterns as ‘platform vernaculars’, which are the distinct visual patterns and practices native to a platform. One affordance of Instagram, is the suite of standardised filters and tools which allow users to author photos and videos that are more aesthetically pleasing or unique (Palmer, 2014, p. 248). For many, this facilitates creativity and allows individuals to express themselves and their aesthetic. But by providing a only relatively small number of editing tools, there are a finite number of combinations through which users can express their aesthetic. This limits the creative options for users, who may ‘use particular visual aesthetics and styles to define their membership in subcultures’ (Manovich, 2011, p. 40). The editing suite provided by Instagram, means that one billion users are authoring images and videos according to these affordances, which creates standardised aesthetics and intensified platform vernaculars. For some users, like Hannes Becker, these filters are not affordances, but constraints, and force users to post-produce photos and videos on external software, such as VSCO, before publishing and distributing through Instagram. In this way, Instagram may be limiting the creative processes of some users, but is simultaneously encouraging users to think laterally and find other means of expressing themselves and their creativity.

Publishing:
The affordances of Instagram have affected the ways users publish media by simplifying the publication and distribution processes of photos and videos (Palmer, 2014, p. 248; Kuc & Zylinska, 2016, p.270). One of these affordances lies in allowing smartphone users to be authors, publishers and distributors (Halpern & Humphreys, 2014, p.2). In the age of analogue photography, photos were published on gallery walls or in magazines (Wells, 2015, p. 16), now Instagram allows users to easily bypass formal publishers and reach new audiences. Instagram now affords users a digital gallery and the possibility of reaching millions of users. The tiled format of Instagram allows users to access work published directly by an author. In this way, Instagram users both produce and consume the media generated, which ensures that users are no longer restricted to the aesthetic ideals held by mainstream media organisations. Furthermore, by using hashtags, lesser known individuals can gain notoriety as both authors and publishers of networked media. This accessibility has affected the movement of ideas, values, styles and aesthetics between people and places by facilitating interaction between users who find each other interesting, thereby stimulating creativity and providing inspiration. This affordance has affected the way photos and videos are published on the network by exposing users to new ideas and creative processes, without having to conform to the standards of publishing gatekeepers.

Distributing:
The algorithm is another affordance of Instagram, and it affects the distribution of photos and videos on the network. Instagram has, in theory, allowed users to distribute their content around the world very easily. However, as with any software, there are discrepancies between perceived affordances and the processes that actually occur (Norman, 2008, para. 10). Instagram affords users the ability to distribute media to followers across the world, but this distribution is determined by Instagram’s algorithm. This means certain accounts gain huge amounts of followers and a disproportionate amount of engagement (Manovich, 2011, p. 26). The algorithm favours this engagement, which then affects how other content is distributed across the network. Furthermore, this disproportionate engagement (Manovich, 2011, p. 26) means many users follow the same few accounts, giving those users an uneven amount of creative influence and make it difficult for others to be seen. The algorithm acts as a gatekeeper between the user and the network by determining what media users see, which may stop users from being exposed to new and differing ideas to stimulate creativity.  As a result, Instagram is assuming the role of traditional editors; who were responsible for analogue photographs being distributed in magazines. Therefore, this affordance of Instagram is helping the creative ideas of some individuals proliferate, and hindering others from being recognised.

Conclusion:

Instagram has set affordances which affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed. Instagram’s editing suite, simple publishing tools and distribution algorithm are all affordances which affect the creative processes of users on the network. Instagram also provides a network which exposes users to new people, ideas, aesthetics and cultures. However, with so many users authoring, publishing and distributing content according to this set of affordances, Instagram is simultaneously encouraging the creativity of some users by providing an accessible artistic platform to share ideas, but also hindering creativity by forcing users to function creatively within the constraints of the platform.

 

References:

Halpern, M & Humphreys, L 2016, ‘Iphoneography as an emergent art world’, New Media and Society, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 62-81.

Kuc, K & Zylinska, J 2016, ‘Photomediations: An Introduction‘, in K Kuc & J Zylinska (eds.),  Photomediations: A Reader, Open Humanities Press, London.

Manovich, L 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA, pp. 24-113.

Niederer, S 2018, Networked images: visual methodologies for the digital age, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam.

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things, Basic Book, New York, pp. Vii-xv; 1-13; 81-87; 177-186.

Norman, D 2008, ‘Affordance, conventions and design (Part 2)’, Nielsen Norman Group, viewed 1 June 2018, <http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html>

Palmer, D 2014,  ‘Mobile Media Photography’, in The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, (eds) Goggin G, Hjorth L, Routledge, New York pp. 249–55.

Wells, L 2015, Photography: A Critical Introduction, 5th ed., Routledge, New York, pp. 9-27.