Tag Archive for 'PhD'

facing the bleeding obvious

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seth.keen
on November 24, 2008
in PhD
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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)

field

…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

NGO-VD prototype (notes 1#)

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seth.keen
on November 9, 2008
in Uncategorized and videodefunct
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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

GRC November 2008

Published
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seth.keen
on November 5, 2008
in PhD and videodefunct
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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.

MCD feedback

Published
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seth.keen
on April 29, 2008
in research
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Today, I presented the ‘Glasshouse Birdman’ prototype in a MCD studio postgraduate session. Many people present where not aware of my research topic. I decided not to provide any context to see what people thought I was researching. Initially there seemed to be some frustration with how the prototype was presented, especially if as I described the plan was to present VD for use in real-life scenarios. People suggested that the prototype looked to polished and finished rather than being a work-in-progress. A version that looked more like a sketch (drawn in crayon) with other supporting visual diagrams was the suggested alternative. Something that showed the process and behind the skin structure.

With the floor open for what this specific practice was researching there was some discussion about exploring non-linear narrative with a point made that this was not necessarily a new area of research. Therefore, where was the research going to be taken? A question that instigated some ideas on what the practice was exploring in terms of new territories. Classification, Tagging, Folksonomy emerged as one tangent - social media. The semantic web another. The idea of looking at how narrative is being compressed led to thinking about new types of audiovisual literacies. I mentioned that one thing I found myself doing is comparing production processes. These are the differences between how I would have recorded and post-produced a work like this for a linear montage edit. There was a suggestion to look at how this content would be structured in a linear version which I have been planning.

I pointed out the difficulty of working with so many new fields of study like interaction design, design research, software development and how none of these fields are where I come from in terms of prior knowledge. One idea was to find a specific theoretical model to bring all these together as way of critiquing and theorising the research. Experience Design was one suggestion. The session was useful particulary in terms of thinking about a revision of the research focus and questions. The original research topic is very broad but has influenced the resulting practice as a form of critique on online video practice. But, the topic could be revised along with the research questions in terms of shifting the focus at this stage to a focus on a new emerging territory.

Reference: Bill Buxton, Sketching User Experiences,: Getting the design right and the right design, San Francisco, Morgan and Kaufmann, 2007.

Hitting vlogging with a hammer

Published
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seth.keen
on January 5, 2008
in PhD and video vortex
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I have been organising a vlogging workshop/presentation at Montevideo in Amsterdam. A summary of the workshop came together today.

Videodefunct and Showinabox: Hitting vlogging with a hammer
date: Thursday Jan 17 from 12.00 – 17.00
place: Workspace in the Netherlands Media Art Institute, Keizersgracht 264 Amsterdam

A workshop presented in two parts that looks at knocking vlogging into shape and bashing it into oblivion. The videodefunct collective focus on poetic approaches towards the way video is presented and curated by inverting the blog interface. Showinthebox aim to improve vlogging accessibility and aesthetic control with a user-friendly toolkit. Both projects use the open source blogging application WordPress and question whether vlogs need to move beyond the constraints of blogs.

1200 – 1400 Videodefunct (Keith Deverell and Seth Keen)
1400 – 1600 Showinthebox (Jay Dedman & Ryanne Hodson)
1600 – 1700 Vlogging panel discussion

links

http://greyspace.com.au/blog/
http://keithdeverell.net
http://www.videodefunct.net/
http://www.videodefunct.net/pedestrian/player/
http://www.videodefunct.net/theInvertedPedestrian/
http://www.videodefunct.net/banter
http://www.videodefunct.net/theDrunkenTruth/

exegesis output

Published
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seth.keen
on October 5, 2007
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Notes from Laurene’s exegesis presentation for a project-based PhD. I learnt that:

  • The exegesis can be an amalgamation of the durable record and written theory, or remain in separate parts.
  • The exegesis can be chronological, thematic or project by project in form - as long as the methodology carries the argument within that structure.
  • An exegesis is about what has been learnt, along with the critical engagement with the process followed…
  • The exegesis theorises the practice and should provide some links out to other theory and the broader field of study.
  • In the exegesis there should be discussion on the changes that have occurred in the practice - in terms of a contribution towards new knowledge.
  • The approach towards the project/practice and the exegesis can be in different orders. The project may come first then the exegesis, or the other way around. Also, they may occur at the same time, in parallel.
  • The oral presentation needs to have some type of connection with the argument in the exegesis: a description of the findings and arguments; the changes in practice.

Laurene’ s response to the post “…you might like to add to your list that an exegesis can be in any medium and it can include sound, image etc. it does have to have words but they aren’t the only thing.”

Expand the lexicon

Published
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seth.keen
on October 5, 2007
in PhD
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The Bruce Mau Incomplete Manifesto for Growth is being used to inspire ideas in Integrated Media at the moment. I noted no. 28:

28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

And, have been thinking how it might apply to the title of my research. The answer may be a working title until that new word emerges. i.e. project: networking video

GRC - what is it about?

Published
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seth.keen
on October 5, 2007
in PhD and references
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Again the book Design Research sums up what is expected at the Graduate Research Conference (GRC):

Normally candidates draw attention to the most significant pieces aspects of their work at their presentation and endeavour to shape the manner in which the panel views their work. Discussion and debate between candidates and examiners require candidates to to find a set of languages to enable communications about designing. We might see these languages as visual, physical and word-based. Exams involve showing and telling. Candidates whether presenting for criticism or examination all tell similarly structured stories about what they did and why they did it. They tell about what was successful and sometimes why a path was not pursued. They say and show and tell what they found through their inquiries.

Peter Downton, ‘Reflections on reflective practices’, Design Research, RMIT University Press, 2003. p.128

GRC1# feedback

Published
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seth.keen
on October 5, 2007
in PhD
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Here is a zip file of my presentation. There was a strong consensus about getting my hands dirty (getting the practice moving along) and clarification on the concept of democracy in my abstract.

The additional reference in the presentation is:

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

a+b=ba? [blog+art=artblog?] selection

Published
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seth.keen
on September 27, 2007
in PhD
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The videodefunct project has been selected into NewMediaFest 2007. The list of selected works are available to view on the Java Museum site. Details of a+b=ba?. The proposed question:

whether blogs and/or blogging can be tools for creating a new type of net based art.