Seth Keen

In the notes on project-based Honours research in labsome AM in his discussion on this type of research as an introduction for examiners, sums up what is expected in the exegesis. There are two approaches to this type of research, The first is production focused with the objective to produce media objects. The second is research on “professional or industry practice”. In the summary on production focused research he states:

The exegesis would contextualise the project in terms of what it sought to explore, how successful its realisation has been, and what the student has learnt, through the project, about their practice. It should orientate the work in relation to contemporary media practice.

Also, he points out that the exegesis needs to show and explain what was done as in things that may not be evident in the actual end result. Often with blog reflection, I find the processes that went into creating a work as relevant to understanding the research as the media object itself. Finally, in regards to context, “asethetics” is also covered where connections are made between the production logistics and the research approach.

Nate just sent me Lev’s latest book Software Takes Command which you can downoad as pdf or doc. It is licensed under CC and the book takes on some of the characteristics of software (from the opening page):

One of the advantages of online distribution which I can control is that I don’t have to permanently fix the book’s contents. Like contemporary software and web services, the book can change as often as I like, with new “features” and “big fixes” added periodically. I plan to take advantage of these possibilities. From time to time, I will be adding new material and making changes and corrections to the text.

So, like an rss feed I will need to go back for updates.

In my last GRC, my revised summary of my research took a nose-dive into the trash as what I seem to have been avoiding came back and bit me on the behind. Now, as I look at the 40-odd thousand words ahead and writing up the projects I have been cooking for the last few years it is time to dig deep into what my practice is all about. But, for some reason and I am not sure why? – this seems like hitting the couch for a quack session. So, I stand poised ready to tip tap with mixed feelings of sarcasm and excitement. With the enthusiasm weighing in on top off the procrastination. I think part of this shake down is accepting that for me the good sh** lies in the doing and always has rather than as a late entry to academia in the theorising from theory. Here we go then the next bit of the journey into practice-led research and the practice generating theory…and a photo from a recent field trip that says it all – only half the time being so close to it I am the last to see it (it being what I seem to want to do when it comes to making stuff)

…the parrots have gone (no not more birds) or wombats or other wildlife.. this time mountains and lakes

http://www.sethkeen.net/vg_one.gmap/index.html

I caught up with BC recently in a follow up to his presentation as part of the affective atlas project here at RMIT. He introduced me to open street map

OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like you.

Along with some other resources including the Pan America Institute of Geography and History based in Mexico, all part of a discussion on the community providing their own information towards the mapping process. Domesday project is an example of both community and specialist documentation. From wikipedia:

It included a new ‘survey’ of the United Kingdom, in which people, mostly school children, wrote about geography, history or social issues in their local area or just about their daily lives. This was linked with maps, and many colour photos, statistical data, video and ‘virtual walks’. Over 1 million people participated in the project. The project also incorporated professionally-prepared video footage, virtual reality tours of major landmarks and other prepared datasets such as the 1981 census.

Another reference Association of American Geographers and Chris Perkin‘s research and Subversive Cartographies. The essay ‘Radical Cartography: Artists making activist maps‘ is a useful reference towards my current interest in this field. From the abstract:

Radical cartography is a practice that uses maps and mapping to promote social change, and is part of a cultural movement that cuts across boundaries of art, geography, and activism. This paper will present examples of cartographic work by artists, architects, and collectives who create maps to raise awareness of social justice issues. These maps are both artworks and part of a larger activist research and practice.

The other person who reappeared from the videoblog scene was Daniel Liss (pouring down) and his project Seven Maps

Other links:
Book Review – An Atlas of Radical Cartography
Making maps DIY cartography – subversive cartographies post
International Cartography Conference Chile – themes/submission

emotional cartographies – five examples
map my london

ArcInfo GIS software
jet studio GIS software

Franco Moretti, Graphs, Maps, Trees, Verso: London, 2007

A conference that explores the intersection between design and cinema:

…while interrogating the place of design disciplines within cinema. The attention drawn by this conference showed the necessity of evaluating the knowledge that existed in the intersection of these two disciplines.

The theme for the 2008 conference:

Theoretical studies have become more and more interested in our experiences in those designed environments, both real and fantasized, as distinctions between them became blurred. We have chosen the real, the hyper-real and the virtual, as our topics via which a number of issues are expected to unfold. These issues could be defined both as personal experiences and as social practices. When stated in terms of the experiences of the individual, philosophically and psychologically based studies will unavoidably be on the scene. When taken in terms of our social existence in a post-modern world, our experience of the uncanny, of alienation, and genuineness, in short, our mixed feelings about what is real would likely emerge as issues to be discussed.

Real

Designing of objects and environments

Experience of designed objects and environments

Hyper-real

Manipulation of the real

Blurring of the real

Virtual

Creation of a parallel universe Implementation Hybrid existences

Following are the varying themes and aspects of the NGO project:

Narrative
classification; taxonomy; folksonomy; ontologies; annotation
archives
granularity; fragmentation
multilinear; spatial montage

Temporality
singular shots – temporal montage; no edits adds to reality
multiple windows – spatial montage; repetition; multiple perspectives
short duration

Technologies
open source
licenses
Internet – semantic web?
online video – players; video scenes

Design
user experience
iteration
experience design
design notes – subtitles multi-language; loops; visited clips; random bundles; thumbnail annotation; audio indication;

Production Process
low cost; accessible; real-life documentation
observational
scripting – colloborative, consultative, non-linear; themes; questions FAQ;
AV editing becomes classification/folksonomy

Other
Mapping – Ground truthing (combining web 2.0 characterisitics with mapping technologies)
Adding context through other means in addition to interviews or instead of…could be maps, graphic information i.e. employment statistics; crime; water etc.
Environmental portraiture
Thick description

Analytical Methodology
art and technology
design for social use – Bauhaus

I have not written much about a project that myself and the VD collective have been working on for the last few months with an International NGO. Mainly because it involves the applied commercial development of the VD system. But with another School Graduate Research Conference (GRC) looming in a week, I think it is time to break the drought. Funnily enough, without reflection on my blog I have also been slipping behind in the documentation of this project.

Last semester my June, GRC panel provided the following feedback to consider for this GRC:

“…who is the audience of your research and what is the contribution you are making to them.”

“Your work touches on a lot of technology issues that are here or on the near horizon, yet this is only one aspect. You also engage with different forms of narrative construction, temporality and user experience as well. What is the priority and how will you work with all of these?”

These are key points that I am now considering amongst a busy time of marking and more project production within the next couple of weeks. This is a new project on top of the NGO gig. I have been reflecting on these pointers and recently revised the research summary as one step towards beginning the process of writing up this research towards submission. Taking into consideration the development of the projects, particulary VD the following evolved:

//non-video/new-video/net-video Online video is a growing phenomenon on the Internet that has predominately involved the distribution of televisual and cinematic content on this system. I would argue that this is an approach that fails to respond to the materialities of the Internet as a media form. A practice-led, poetic research model is used to determine how online video can be utilised to articulate and disseminate knowledge on the Internet. Design is used to invent online video systems that explore the affordances of the Internet and Social Media technologies. These systems are developed collaboratively through an iterative process of content production and evaluation. Situated within the field of Media, I examine both the formal and cultural issues that the Internet poses for independent online video practitioners.

I think this is moving in the right direction with another 1-2 steps to go to finalise this towards being an abstract for the exegesis. Supervision work with Labsome Honours students really helped me clarify more and more, the practice-led research process and introduced me to some of AM’s notes on poetic research. Nothing like thinking through a process when you are teaching it to others. The poetic research concept started for me with Terrance Rosenberg’s article. A concept I plan to tease out more in my exegesis for this research.

Another phase of re-writing this summary is also revising the research questions. It was interesting to work hard on the clarfication of some research questions with the Honours students this semester. In such a short timeframe this helped us both understand what was being undertaken, on the premise that they could be revised and tweaked towards the end of the research.

Picking up on the point of how I plan to work with all of the themes mentioned above I picked up on the need to locate a framework that brings all these themes together around one point of inquiry. Something I noted in an earlier post around an mcd presentation. It is not really an issues addressing all these themes as long as they are handled from one unifying perspective. I also picked up or reminded myself that the theory, this framework and the dominating themes being explored emerge from the practice. This is all about reflecting on projects which brings me back to the current NGO project. I have been thinking about what this project is bringing to the surface and what a number of blog posts would cover.

A quote form Rosneberg’s article on poetic research.

In the case of the “poetic” the focal territory is found through a process. It is iterative, working in the space between substantiation and deviation. Backgrounding and foregrounding happen in a dynamic process and this produces a research context. Poetic enquiry evolves its field of focus whereas conventional research sets in advance its focal channel. (See figures 3 and 4). The focal territory in poetic research is established in open water.

Title: Peter Greenaway, cinema = dead, From: westframe, Added: June 29, 2007, YouTube, http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-t-9qxqdVm4

Quotes:

“What the fuck are you doing in the dark”

“post-cinema”

Other references:

No TV about

As a cross-media platform NoTV aims to present new developments in the contemporary Visual Music-scene, researching all possible ”variants” of visual music aesthetics (through the development of new technologies, new kinds of presentation), and analysing the philosophical and technological consequences of this ”synaesthetic revolution”. NoTV Visual Music therefore presents itself as an innovative VJ label, a progressive platform fusing video art with electronic music through our DVD’s , ClubTV broadcastings and live VJ events .