Seth Keen

I put this summary together for a in-house post-grad feedback session next week. The portrait angle helps with clarifying my objectives with the prototype.

Birdman Portrait: I am in the process of making a Videodefunct (VD) prototype that explores the structuring of an online video portrait. I am interested in making a prototype that reflects more of a traditional documentary approach compared to the earlier abstract VD prototype ‘Pedestrian’. The content is personal and intimate with the objective to produce an example that is accessible to a broader audience. The portrait is of a wildlife carer named Terry Dale who specialises in looking after native birds in Queensland. We recorded together his daily routine of caring for native birds, which included in a very informal manner the documentation of numerous stories of his experiences. What I am looking for in terms of feedback on a micro-level is ideas on how the material should be archived, with the objective of using this example to clarify the broader objectives of my doctorate research. The structuring of this content is affected by decisions that incorporate not only narrative but also classfication and interaction design.

I did some research on this korsakow application awhile back and wanted to note the link. There is certain flexibility like creating rule scenes. From the about page:

They are interactive – the viewer has influence on the film. They are rule-based – the author decides on the rules scenes relate to each other, he does not create a fixed order. They are generative – the order of the scenes is calculated while the viewer looks at a Korsakow-project. Korsakow-projects can only be viewed on a computer. They are delivered via internet-streaming, DVD-Rom or CD-Rom.

These are some notes from a lecture I gave recently in Integrated Media (2007) on Tom Sherman’s article ‘vernacular video’. I used this quote as a starting point for discussion:

Video in 2007 is not the exclusive medium of technicians or specialists or journalists or artists–it is the peoples’ medium. The potential of video as a decentralized communications tool for the masses has been realized, and the twenty-first century will be remembered as the video age. Surveillance and counter-surveillance aside, video is the vernacular form of the era–it is the common and everyday way that people communicate. Video is the way people place themselves at events and describe what happened. (locate) (situate) In existential terms (your own meaning), video has become everyperson’s POV (point of view). It is an instrument for framing existence and identity.

How does this affect video content? Sherman proposes a list of characteristics that will emerge as part of what he has called this ‘vernacular video’ form. His objective in pointing out these characteristics, I suggest is not necessarily to endorse them, in fact he possibly does not look on many of them favourably. Instead the idea is to draw attention to them with the objective to encourage practitioners to explore in his words “elegant” appropriations of these characteristics. Sherman suggests that under the current mode of ubiquity, where video production and distribution is accessible to anyone with a camera, computer and Internet access, ‘vernacular video’ will take on a number of distinctive characteristics. In the following notes I have added in my own interpretations, examples and ideas that come to mind in response to these characteristics that Sherman proposes.

Video works are already and will become inevitably “shorter” which also means all sorts of durations in between the TVC and longer form television. The documentary form may be packed down into 3,5,7 minutes for example. These durations will be about producing content for platforms like YouTube, ipods and mobiles. The skill will be the ability to work in different ways within shorter time frames, along with accommodating the characteristics of varying platforms, delivery speeds and screen sizes.

“Canned music”: Sherman argues that the branding attributes of advertising will play a key role where the aim is to tap into getting messages across that are memorable and powerful. A big part of successful moving-image advertising is about simplifying the message and using repetition. A soap for example has a consistent theme tune and opening and closing credits, all part of branding and creating identity awareness around the content. The popular vlog Chasing Windmills title sequence is an example.

“Recombinant” video aesthetics Recombinant here is the re-use of video through sampling and remixing. I like Bernard Schutze’s article titled ‘Ideas in the Mix: the heap’ and his argument that we function in a remix culture, he writes

Mix, mix again, remix: copyleft, cut ‘n’ paste, digital jumble, cross-fade, dub, tweak the knob, drop the needle, spin, merge, morph, bootleg, pirate, plagiarize, enrich, sample, break down, reassemble, multiply input source, merge output, decompose, recompose, erase borders, remix again.

Sherman points out that a recombinant approach relies heavily on repetition and he refers again to chorus lines in pop music as an example of this repetitive approach. In a more refined form, I can’t help but think of electronic music loops. Early Steve Reich tunes come to mind.

“Real-time on the fly voice-overs”: These are narration tracks that are done spontaneously a bit like a blog post, written as you think it and experience it, you post it. These narration tracks are possibly more self-reflexive rather than necessarily being story driven or even informative. They are recorded and added in a number of varying styles that suit that moment in time. These styles are exploratory and experimental, even poetic.

“On-screen text”: Like written languages that are being developed around SMS, email and chat rooms. Sherman proposes that the text applied to ‘vernacular video’ through a spontaneous approach and configured immediately within the video software being used morphs into a type of text-based video language that contains a fair degree of noise and idiosyncratic grammar.

“Crude animation”: Animation either independent or mixed in with real-life video content he argues will be influenced by amateur type aesthetics. Sherman states that “Crude is cool, opposed to slick.” Adrian Miles in a recent integrated media lecture (2007) listed these attributes as part of what he named ‘dirty media’:

dirty; messy; noisy; other; amateur; prosumer; general; post-industrial; minor; debate

…as opposed to traditional media:

clean; tidy; quiet; same; professional; freelance; restricted; industrial; major; sedentary

(Adrian Miles’ Video Vortex/argos softvideo presentation recorded on video)

“Slow-mo-Acceleration”: Sherman simply states that these techniques will be over-used. I know that problem, I have to take a snack break to stop myself pushing the speed effect button and rendering. Working with the everyday in videodefunct pedestrian recently was an interesting experiment in avoiding the effects palette.

This also ties in with his discussion on “digital effects”. It is so easy to rely on an effect as a “fix all” as Sherman points out and to create a sense of dislocation, a dream like induced state that has connotations of what he calls “dirty surrealism”. A recent example of a more sophisticated approach towards speeds and effects is this work by Peter Horvath in the work TRIPTYCH: MOTION STILLNESS RESISTANCE (2006) (Peter Horvath’s Video Vortex/argos presentation recorded on video)

“Travelogues” will dictate as a genre Sherman suggests. This characteristic creeps into Keith Deverell’s Australian travels as fragmented looped clips in pedestrian. Speaking of blogged travel I am on the email list for the German online documentary maker Florian Thalhofer who is travelling across the States recording people’s stories in the 1000 stories project on a BMW motorbike.

Finally, the genres will collide and mix Sherman argues into what he calls “mediated horror”. Some content that comes to mind is some local video installations that where done by a Melbourne arts collective. They appropriated and curated terrorist head chopping and throat cutting online video as part of very didactic approach towards politicising the terrorist debate.

The challenge Sherman puts out there in this article as mentioned earlier is for practitioners to be able to engage with these aesthetics with some degree of finesse that makes their work exemplary amongst a video overload of user-generated content. Video content that as was stated in a recent presentation review by Michael Stevenson on the Masters of Media blog, provides an alternative to the YouTube piano-playing-cat video.

Reference:
Tom Sherman, ‘Video Vernacular’, www.nettime.org, Nettime mailing list archives,

http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0701/msg00080.html,

January, 2007 (accessed October, 2007)

An audiovisual work the artist Adriene Jenik refers to as “speculative distributed cinema”. Part of the description from the web site promoting the work:

SPECFLIC 2.0 portrays characters in a future library in simultaneous story-layers that provoke the audience to consider the future of reading, writing, the book object and storytelling.

The main story frame represents a near-future 2030 world in which audio-visual media dominate, even as written communication and reading retain important, though narrow functions. The factorial explosion of information and information flows has catalyzed new forms of categorization of material and the next generation of students and scholars is developing within this constantly reconfigure-able info-sphere.

Paul and Rachel’s latest project ‘The Present History’. A reflection of Sean Cubitt’s connection between digital photography and the processes used in printing in his ‘Genalogies of Light’ talk at CCP. An explaination of the project from the ‘The Present History’ website.

The Present History is a grand attempt to create a book which is beautiful, sad and hopeful. It combines contemporary digital culture with the traditional craft asthetic of book binding and finishing. It looks at our past with respect for our achievements and yet grief for some of the the actions that led us here. Together we have also let ourselves imagine what the future might hold in this life and the next.

We also discussed the approach that I had taken in applying Rosenberg’s ‘poetic model’ onto my own research practice. He used the example of a table being designed for use in a cafe to explain the parts of the ‘reservoir’. My understanding of our conversation is the order of the parts look like this from the bottom up.

the project
(the fit)
the programme
the triggers

From the article:

The project – “…what it is, who it is for…how it works etc.” (p.9)

The programme – “…the conceptual and creative base…which contextualises socio-cultural debates and environmental concerns.” (p.9)

In conversation the ‘programme’ is the discourse around the design – for example the social theory around the design of the table, the cafe as a social environment etc. His argument in the article is that traditionally the designer moves from the project to the programme. His model reverses that process. ‘The triggers’ used to invigorate the conceptualsing in the programme may cross varying disciplines and points of interest, as a means to explore possibilities beyond the restraints of the pragmatic questions and answers surrounding the project objectives. Why? Returning to the article Rosenberg states: “The poetic reaches for the un-configured and the unusual expression of thought.” (p.7) In choosing the three triggers, he mentioned, for example, two of them may have a tentative connection with the theorising in the programme, the third may be totally left of centre, have a completely nebulous connection. Overall, the aim is to maintain a “tension” in the process and critically evaluate a position that maintains a connection with the main objective, while at the same time is flirting with as he described in the discussion the “un-knowing”.

In my own project, the three triggers are influenced by Sean Cubitt’s post, Sean Cubitt, ‘a note on content’. In hindsight, the conceptual choices I made for these nodes where not dis-connected or radically separated enough from the project question. The key project question in the context of an experimental practice would be to generate alternative modes of articulating and disseminating online video content. The next step was testing a trigger as part of as Rosenberg states: “definition, de-definition, re-definition”. (p. 10) After testing trigger 3, “new modes of network”, I then jumped straight into using that experience/process to re-define the overall research rationale, rather than waiting to test the other triggers. In my mind this is jumping back to making things linear and safe in line with a traditional research approach. Then, I presumed that the other trigger tests would be separate from test 1.0 but as TR pointed out why not fold those into the first test as extensions of that test – an idea I like. Now, on reflection I see what has happened the trigger 3., is to close to my original research rationale, hence the move to re-define the overall research. If it had been more removed this may not have occurred – all in the balance between as Rosenberg discusses, “grounding” and “open water”.

Where to now? Well as we discussed the model is a model that is open for interpretation and how it is used. The main aim here is to invigorate alternative approaches towards online audiovisual media. Having experienced the process, I aim to take a playful stance with that line – swimming (with the sharks) but not drowning.

References:

Terence Rosenberg, ‘The Reservoir: Towards a Poetic Model of Research in Design’, Working papers in Art and Design, Vol 1, The foundations of practice-based research, http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes1/research/papers/wpades/vol1/rosenberg2.html
p 7. (accessed April, 2006)

Sean Cubitt, ‘a note on content’, fibreculture mailing list, 17 September 2005
http://fibreculture.org/myspinach/fibreculture/2005-September/004673.html (accessed September, 2005)

I just meet with Terence Rosenberg who is out here from Goldsmiths (Design), UK. We discussed his article:

‘The Reservoir: Towards a Poetic Model of Research in Design’, Working papers in Art and Design, Vol 1, The foundations of practice-based research, 2000.

I have been applying some of the ideas from this article onto my creative practice, so I was interested in meeting the author in the flesh and getting some background. A number of books came out of the discussion. Around poetic tropes: William Empson,Seven types of Ambiguities, New Directions Publishing Corporation (June 1966). A wikipedia entry on the author and the book. The book by Bill Gaver, Book of Forms which refers to Empson’s text, who is a collegue at RCA, London who specialise in interaction design along with Tony Dunne at Goldsmiths. Gaver is working with what Rosenberg described as social probes described in this paper Design, Cultural Probes, which has a direct interest in relation to a soci-political documentary approach. Other books Jean Luc Nancy, Being Singular, Plural, Stanford University Press (November 2000), and Gaston Bachelard on “resonance, reverberation, repercussion” connected with this abstract by Rosenberg, ‘Resisting Procrustes’.
Around the topic of epistemology, the position of the academy on ‘knowledge’ and the evaluation of creative practice in terms of contribution, he provides a hypothetical approach:

I believe that Bachelard’s idea of validating work according to its resonance, reverberation and repercussion marks a starting point for evolving these new validity criteria. We may also consider other praxis sensitive ideas of validity including catalytic and constructive validity. Lather’s transgressive validity criteria – voluptuous, ironic, rhizomatic and paralogic – may also provide criteria that are sensitive to the “logic of sense” of creative practice and its objects.

I went to a presentation today given by Bill Gaver at the IT centre at Melbourne University. From the email brief describing the presentation:

As digital devices pervade our everyday lives, the scope of issues addressed by Human-Computer Interaction is growing and changing. We need to understand people’s attitudes and emotions as well as their needs and goals; we need to consider how to make technology delightful and desirable as well as useful and usable; and we need to investigate how technology can help us explore and reflect as well as solve problems and perform tasks. Design and the arts suggest new approaches for HCI that can address these issues, complementing more traditional, science and engineering-based approaches. In this talk, I describe new paradigms for HCI with examples of innovative information appliances and ubiquitous computing systems we have built.

It was great to be able to follow up Terence Rosenberg’s earlier reference to Gaver’s work with ‘cultural probes’. These two are colleagues at in the design department at Goldsmiths. Gaver is involved with the equator IRC initiative.

Gaver provided in the presentation a insight into the process behind the ‘cultural probes’. Following, is my own notes of the talk. The important underlying concept that Gaver covered in the introduction is the pursuit of ambiguity in interaction design. I note the reference to these books in relation to ambiguity again provided by Rosenberg.

1. The design team produces a kit of tasks that are designed to engage individuals within varying communities. Adverts are placed to invite participants. Some care goes into the kit items, like for example the use of high quality crafted materials that make the tasks intriguing and of interest. Alongside, introducing these kits into the chosen community ‘design documentaries’ are also carried out as part of gathering ideas mainly from an ethnographic perspective. An example shown was the video documentation of eastern european strawberry pickers, including both observations and interviews.

2. The next phase is ‘sketches’, the generation of design ideas. These seem to loosely involve taking disconnected ideas from the probes, in other words the connection between the probes and the design is not direct or literal. In fact often other ideas seemed to be thrown into the mix like influences from artists for example, but the starting point in the example discussed seemed to come from a probe outcome.

3. Next, a design prototype is developed as part of exploring the chosen sketch. In the first example shown a terabyte of aerial imagery recorded from a low flying airplane is made available to the viewer through a porthole in the top of a table. This prototype involved a lot of computerised gadgetry packed into the body of the table.

4. The final phase involved taking the table back out to community where the original ideas came from – letting in this instance, individuals of a household engage with the table over time. An objective is to allow plenty of time for the user to ‘play’ with the prototype. The engagement is again documented through a number of different processes involving differing people from varied fields. A ethnographic note taker, a video documentary-maker. The HCI design is also made ambiguous in this prototype, where the use of the table is not made clear with the aim to see what may occur. In the mapping table for the user to navigate through the aerial footage, the table top is set up like a bevelled nautical compass. Weighted objects have to be placed on the table to move over the landscape. The participant shown in the video documentation used rocks of varying sizes and weights, along with reference maps to navigate the footage. Over time this person developed some subtle interaction techniques of their own as part of engaging with the prototype.

In conclusion, a practice-led design process that employs a very open, poetic approach as part of producing user-generated interaction design outcomes.