Archive for May, 2008

one minute video

A video interview collection of opinions on the duration of one minute for video for the oneminutes project.

artists using YouTube

http://www.fridayarts.net/blogs/?p=3677

Internet video site YouTube needs no introduction. Its status as
both a branded channel and a medium in its own right has redefined
“new media” on both sides of the art and corporate entertainment
divide. But most of its content resides somewhere in between, and its
currency lies in the vernacular nature of the items posted there–to
the extent that the memes incubated on YouTube are trickling down
into the language of contemporary artists’ work and, in turn, re-
emerging on the site.

http://thekitchen.org

tag cloud interface

All this got me thinking about a design where categories are tags becoming a simple tag cloud like in the archives section.

The tags on the left and right become clip titles instead loosing a level. Categories are wiped. Categories in this interface are like making a batch or set in Flickr. The user selects content instead using the tag cloud directly.

repeated posts

I have got most of the clips into the ‘Glasshouse Birdman’ prototype and are now starting to look at how the categories and tags work in terms of how I would like the user to engage with the themes that have emerged in the content. I realised that clips could be kept in separate categories by controlling cross-overs with tag names, but sometimes a clip has something to offer in other categories. For example, giving a clip a tag name that features strongly in another category brings all those clips from that category across with it into the original category that has been selected. Often from my perspective this makes the theme to random if this is not the desired effect. One way around this within this interface design is to post the same clip twice with the same title but in a different category and with a different tag name.

category = birdman; tag = animal lover; clip title = big brown snake

category = feeding; tag = aviary; clip title = big brown snake

This means clips can be repeated to appear elsewhere while still having some control over themes. In a hidden kind of way clips that seemed more important that others could be repeated to appear in a number of places. Repetition becomes a feature of the narrative structure.