http://delicious.com/sethkeen/design_hub_project
In defining student participation and an online presence for a documentary on the construction of the design hub without background research at this point, I have brought together the following thoughts. Most of these ideas are based around current research, projects and teaching.
Many online documentaries are developed as purpose-built websites which requires reasonable funding and resources. The other option is to use existing systems and social media tools.
Some purpose-built examples of online documentary ACMI real life documentaries (2006)
Koroskow online documentary system.
From the website:
The Korsakow-System is an easy-to-use computer program for the creation of database films. Korsakow-Films are films with a twist: They are interactive – the viewer has influence on the K-Film. They are rule-based – the author decides on the rules by which the scenes relate to each other, but s/he does not create fixed paths. K-Films are generative – the order of the scenes is calculated while viewing.
Invented by Florian Thalhofer This is web system has been around for a decade and recently went through intensive development at Concordia University in Montreal. Stabilised for general use and GNU licensed this system is now finally available for making online documentary projects. From a blog post on a korsakow workshop run at University of Southern California for the international Visible Evidence documentary conference.
Korsakow projects are database projects that function through tagging. Rather than arranging a series of video clips to make a linear story, Korsakow users instead give keyword tags to the clips, which appear in a multi-window interface, generally with one large image at the top, which plays; underneath are three related clips, from which the viewer chooses. In this way, the video unfolds based on the tagging system and through the viewer’s sequence of choices.
Korsakow documentary examples. Almost Architecture is one example. This project has a participatory aspect that contribution framework asking artists to make specific content.
Social Media Tools
Also connected to this project is some publicity on a blog called urban photo. This blog has photo collections around specific themes organised into sets on Flickr. I think this is were social media tools could be used to collate supporting material around an online documentary as well as involving participatory collaboration.
The ABC Pool interaction design project is an example of using Flickr sets to document process and progressive development of a project.
The sweets brand Skittles is an example of using social media tools to brand a product.Skittles on wikipedia sweets branding. All the branding uses outside sources for hosting and sharing product information.
Videoblog Documentaries
Videoblogs that take on a larger documentary position are ones that are subject orientated and used to document a specific subject or theme.
Lost in Light
Swanjana Life in India
Shadow World
Columbia Migration Project
Specific videoblog themes are emerging as potential themes to explore this type of videoblog. i.e. Videopress an upgrade for WordPress blogs. (including hosting and compression, embed all built in etc)
Press 75 video themes Miles’ diptych interactive video example using a press75 theme.
Participatory Video
Framing student projects for participatory content development. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_video From the wikipedia definition:
Whilst there are forms of documentary filmmaking that are able to sensitively represent the realities of their subjects’ lives and even to voice their concerns, documentary films very much remain the authored products of a documentary filmmaker. As such, the subjects of documentaries rarely have any say (or sometimes have some limited say) in how they will ultimately be represented. By contrast, in PV the subjects make their own film in which they can shape issues according to their own sense of what is important, and they can also control how they will be represented.
Online video framework
In terms of student participation what I have learnt from the third year studio project PROD! is that the student’s need to have ownership in the project. Involvement in the research which includes their ideas and input on what is being explored/examined. The freedom to creatively interpret the brief and experiment with the interpretation of how that brief should be represented as a creative work/works.
This has meant setting up a constrained framework but then allowing creativity to run wild within that framework. This is an approach that is open to how the brief may be interpreted. The other learning curve has been making the video camera the pen, the scripting and sketching device to explore ideas. All of this process is transparent and available online for ongoing feedback from the teacher and other students. Reblogging as an ongoing collation and curation process really helps with understanding the development of the response to the creative brief and were it may be steered over time.
In this project I think the online video content could potentially explore cultural heritage and historical information connected to the place – the site itself. These would be short anecdotes, excerpts that can be reproduced in a short form that work together as a larger collection.
Digital Photography and Video
In regards to time-lapse I have made some notes in this post about the influence that digital photography is having on video including the development of video hardware.
Digital photography offers the opportunity even at the smallest frame size to capture high quality images that can be reproduced in the HD format. (1920 x1080) Also, there is talk of moving on from the restrictions of interlacing to working with progressive scan as way to make the most of the HD format.
I relation to this project it is worth exploring how digital photography and time-lapse could be used to tell stories rather than mainly being seen as a device for capturing the passing of time.
These works using a tilt lens technique are an example of this idea. Capturing an event from a number of varying perspectives. But, also moving beyond music video type soundtracks to sound design that enhances that narrative.
Keith Loutit photoblog
Vimeo channel
Beached
The development of the time-based photo-journalism genre is also another area for consideration. It is now not uncommon for journalism photographers (with large storage capabilities on digital cameras) to record a scene from varying perspectives, with over-saturated coverage – knowing the result will be time-based rather than just one selected photo.
On http://mediastorm.org/ this can be a mix of photos and video. ‘Common Ground’ example.
It is worth noting that the interview approach is a popular approach in an online context. Interview project David Lynch and his son Austin.
Experimental Geography – Digital Cultural Mapping
From the exhibition website:
Geography benefits from the study of specific histories, sites, and memories. Every estuary, landfill, and cul-de-sac has a story to tell. The task of the geographer is to alert us to what is directly in front of us, while the task of the experimental geographer—an amalgam of scientist, artist, and explorer—is to do so in a manner that deploys aesthetics, ambiguity, poetry, and a dash of empiricism.
Bookmark tag for websites that reflect these types of works.
hypercities example
Cyark 3-D scanner
locative painting page – a hybrid crossover of experimental geography with documentary using google maps and video content.
