i-docs/3

so with all the media that is out there and the concept of interactivity being one that the user is a participant who will have to engage with material and possibly not just interpret but reorganise it, does this call for a "talented user"???
a  reactivator
negotiator
someone who comprehends the extent of the material and can/ wants to engage in dynamic semiosis?

i-docs/2

...more random notes

 John Corner

(performative, playful elements in documentaries)

Florian Mundhenke: what about the "truth" in documentary? Examples of "fictional documentaries" that tell reality/ (or one political.../i.e. satirical... view) by mocking reality..--> up to viewer to form opinion/ interpret what they see.
Kevin Willmott: C.S.A
Johan Grimonprez : Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

Really enjoyed Peter Dukes talk on found footage film making. goes back to creating your own debate with existing material. taking it further into film making and back to our first term project trying to encourage remix!! With decades worth of wonderful material it is easy to make your point - politically, aesthetically,... .
what happens if the filmic documentation of situations is provided as raw footage and left as database free to view and possible edit own film with? http://detdom.nanostate.org/

check out
Michael Renove (remix---REACTIVATE!) Renegotiate?????
Michael Zyrd
Keith Beattie - ..."ambiguity as a productive polysemy within the documentary text"
Bruzzi - perpetual negotiartion between the real event and its representaion

i-docs/1

vit c,zinc,enchinacea,ginger,lemon, caffeine. i can do it. here we go.

i-docs was one of the most inspiring, interesting, thought provoking, encouraging...and quite draining days in a long time!
I want to  just try and use this to archive my notes in chronological order(of what I got to see/hear that day).

it was a shame there were so many interesting presentations and discussions happening at the same time and we had to chose which one to attend.

Alexandre Brachet brilliant start with what seemed one of the most successful/ popular examples of truly interactive and engaging documentary presented. I mentioned Gaza Szerdot on here before. It's an extraordinary example for design made to fit the content. How do we virtually jump that border between the two towns of either side of the border? Split screen on a website! The participant (not user!as the panels agreed) chooses where s/he wants to be and whom they want to listen to. Brachet's team has some really beautiful ideas of engaging people/ giving voice to the unheard and creating content which also encourages the participants to share what they experience easily (via twitter, facebook, on their blogs) and "use others' content to create their own debate"!!
I loved his idea of Prison Valley - to connect a community seemingly cut off the outside world with strangers from all over the world. It seems curious how these documentaries let us peek into strangers' lives and encourage us to spend time exploring other worlds. In a way his project was beautiful that it might give the prisoners a chance to connect with others but at the same time it just gets me thinking again about the time we spend infront of our computer screens, consuming, networking, maybe interacting but whilst doing that also forgetting about our immediate environment we could explore "in real life" (yeah, "real 3D"! ;) ). Nevertheless, it might be a good alternative to watching a soap or rubbish movie, I guess we cannot hide the fact that we all need a little procrastination sometimes and we are also curious beings most of the time  so maybe it really is a good alternative but maybe it rides the Big Brother wave of reality TV too!? I'm not ready to make up my mind about it just yet, especially when having to think about the essay that is trying to explore immersive pervasive methods of distributing museum content/ exploring unknown spaces. (note: this bloggin business is not helping writing a coherent 3000word piece!)

(random notes: check out agifreu.com.  metamentaldoc multimedia - I wish i remembered what that means...will have to leave that for later)

•

why is ted so awesome???

they even have the talk transcribed. for us to get amazing quotes. this is just brilliant.

art isn't supposed to change the world. it changes perception

Teding

AH!!!
JR!! that is weird now. I used him as an example for public art, art with and for the community in my degree three years ago.
Put it in my presentation last week again. and now here he is:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html


I love his works!!!

TED ing it for a bit now

http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html

He is really changing my mind. So technology isn't necessarily replacing human interaction but helping one on one communication and education; in a way bridging fear/ awkwardness/ embarrassment, making education playful.

So i wil have to reassess my anti thoughts on pervasive media thinking they might just glue us to screens even more rather than encouraging confidence and free exploring of the city and it's possibilities for contact. I guess a little help, something fun and playful can connect people who might find it difficult otherwise...

reading:

this might actually help to get organised:

James Bohman in After Habermas:

what makes the public sphere.

habermas talks about the dialogical qualities, Boham expands that notion saying the public sphere has to be an open forum for everyone to express their opinions and expect response. But this doesn't mean an immidiate response as you would expect from a face to face/ one on one conversation but a response indefinite, spatial and temporal.

A social space needs opening up for a particular kind of repeated and open ended interaction.

According to Boham for this to be successful technologies and institutions are required to secure the continued existence and regularise opportunities and access.

I wouldn't agree with that completely. The most important part of being in and using the public sphere to me is it's open access - by it's nature - and the spontaneous interaction this allows. It was the idea of getting out of institutions and allowing a widest possible audience to experience art and communities and getting involved in creating a shared creative space that encourages communication. 

balance

I'm glad I can still appreciate the beauty of photography too and don't just look at it as a means to uncover cruelty.

I loved Kai Fagerstroem's series on an abandoned house. Aesthetically gorgeous but at the same time a nod toward nature reclaiming space.

 

went to see the wild life photographer of the year award at bristol museum

I used to gte quite irritated by super HD digital photography with it sometimes surreal looking bright colour and feel quite old fashioned being upset about the lack of grain. The perfection just made the real look exaggerated and "hyper real" to me.
Today changed my opinion. I saw some amazing compositions and awe inspiring landscapes, funny and interesting animals and eye opening thought provoking documentary. Next to the bright and shiny pretty images of plants, night skies, cute mammals and funny birds were also black and white prints, grainy under exposed night shots but of main interest to me the documentary portfolios, "telling stories without the need of words". Going in  hand with the next part in the exhibition which points out the documentary photographers' importance to conservation/ raising awareness.

Brian Skerry on the exploitation of the seas:


(this is Tuna. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/prevPhoto.do?photo=2584&category=58&year=2010)

 (Fishing boat's waste)

Mark Leong: "It's just an animal"  poaching, abuse and torture

(making a pet)


(extracting bile for "medicine")

Always need these little reminders of what can be shown and how powerful photography can still be. The problem we face is a culture over saturated with visual products especially of both extremes - beauty and horror. These are shocking but have been shown for many years now and the change in people's emotions and empathy still shockingly slow.

...

there is so much to type up at the moment that for now, I will have to get back to the reading. I will be back with notes from past readings and this week's meetings.

What is happening?

Essay on pervasive media-post museum-public sphere.

360 project. Who will I be working with? deadlines are approaching at a scary pace and the organisation of project work still seems just above non-existent.

Research Methods: Identifying Criteria!

What will the final project be? Haven't heard from my personal tutor. Getting in touch is on today's to do list. Italy might fall through. Meeting inspiring people and reading up on the essay and looking back at unfinished work from the past couple of years is opening up new possibilities.

continued

Going out. Taking people out. Exploring cities and art, pointing toward environmental issues?, education, just play... All the notions that came with talking about pervasive media had me remember "my ideal exhibition", an intrusion of a public space to create an exhibition of collaborative documentary photography of artist and residents.
The modules are starting to come closer together again when looking at inspiration, research and practice criteria. I have been reading up on post museum, the public sphere again.
Gaza-Sderot an account of Palestinians and Israelis living on either side of the border, a dense website through which we can explore very personal/ individual stories, mini- documentaries that give people a voice and by directly mirroring the stories of each site try to inform about the complexity of the conflict.

Public parks and Squares as mirrors of society...! Why not make more of the ideas of reclaiming open spaces and exploring possibilities for either/and/or creative constructive use of them.together. What triggers my criticism is the seemingly attachment to screen. Still. After years of cultural studies and media criticism, minorities influencing the mass we are still glued to a screen, consuming. There is, of course, the interactivity and being outside engaging with our environment. Nevertheless, when trying Calvium I found it more confusing, having to check the tiny screen time and time again, not quite sure what we were looking at/ for. A convetional - are they "old school" now?- map with signs and a legend describing places of interest might, something that just sends you in the right direction and not has you checking your digital (battery run!aren't we trying to use less energy?) device every other minute; to have the freedom to just wander explore a place, maybe even make you ask people for directions/ information to a place.

...time...

As the course really is getting more "360" it seems to become more difficult to keep up with writing this too. Which completely makes sense as most of us seem to be rotating around several projects, reading a very diverse range of texts, absorbing what is shown in exhibitions in bristol and further afield. (I only managed Arnolfini and Susan HIller in the Tate and have still to explore Sean Edwards at the Spike, gutted I missed the Maelfa screening). It's difficult to squeeze everything in when still trying to be productive and constructive rather than just consuming what is on offer. Oh and there's the private life too. Having to pay the bills, socialising that isn't just online, organising moving again...etc. it's definitely not getting boring.
It is inspiring and challeneging nonetheless. We got to test the new Calvium, an Application which is taking the user around Bristol, exploring the city's old architecture (1800s?!) via an interactive story/ map on your iPhone. I couldn't quite grasp the validity of it. Is it for tourists wanting to learn about Bristol's past? An alternative fun day out for residents? The App doesn't give away much information about the history of the city it rather takes you on a slightly confusing long winded walk around the harbour and college green - places with lots to see and learn. It did make me wonder what kind of audience these "games" are created for. There seem to be successful projects running with places like the tower of London that will send visitors on a journey through the historic place while recreating stories from the past as means of immersion.
whilst talking about how we have to consider different traveling speed and the possible complications with the gps/satellite system, Jo didn't express an opinion on how much access could be a problem to the promoting of new technologies. Even though most people in our immediate environment have access to the internet I feel biased to the apparent presumption that most people have smart phones or want to invest in them.