Make sure you hand in your work on this time and day. If you have produced a DVD hand this in together with your clearly typed blog address.
If it is a Flash based piece and is not online save it to either CD/DVD/USB stick and also include a clearly typed blog address.
If your work exists online then hand in a clearly typed web address to your work.
Hand in Date Midday 15th December Main Reception Ellen Terry
Categorized in Presentation, Research
Tuesday 8th December
I would like to show some of the student work in the morning session particularly those that have worked with Google Maps and those that have worked with flash. There are a number of good examples that I would like to share with the group as well as an ineresting use of Dreamweaver.
Be ready to talk about your work and share your solutions with your fellow students.
Categorized in Presentation, Research
Tuesday 1st December Notice No Morning Session
There is no morning session tomorrow. The Groups will begin at the normal time at 2pm in ETBO4. Make sure you bring your edited work ready to work on and talk with me about.
Categorized in Research
New Mapping and Digital Tools
I thought I would just share with you some new tools that I have been asked to find out about in relation to a local archive project that is looking at a particular street in Coventry and it history, communities and usage past and present.
The outline with links to useful tools and approaches is below:
The living memory archive offers an opportunity to engage with the local community across age ranges and backgrounds. There has already been some interesting work by BBC Wales on participatory archive making, involving meeting working and skilling community participants. The project was called Capture Wales where each digital story is made by the storyteller themselves.
The web link is : http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovideo/sites/galleries/pages/capturewales.shtml
Some of the experiences and lessons learnt through this project could be of help in the Street project.
Their guide to digital storytelling has many useful elements that can inform approaches: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovideo/sites/about/pages/howto.shtml
Recorded History ….Maps, Population Data, Economic Activity, Types of Trade, Changes in economic Activity, Changes in Trade, Census Data,
Traces of previous lives and periods. Expert Interpretation
With recorded history there is a set of opportunities for displaying data and visualising layers of information online and also on new mobile devices. Mapping technologies with Google Maps and Google Earth allow us easily to add data layers and place markers with audio, video, text and image information embedded. This also extends on Google Earth to the placement of user generated 3D content.
Google Maps : http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_mymaps.html
Google Earth : http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/
SketchuP : http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_imageoverlays.html
The UCL Centre For Advanced Spatial Analysis have created their own free tools that work independently of Googles Api’s. It is worth taking sometime to look at the range of their mapping projects : http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp
The Capable Project: http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/websites/capable.asp
Other examples of layering data over maps: http://blog.casa.ucl.ac.uk/?cat=8
All of the above mapping projects obviously apply to the development of a dynamic living memory archive as does the Capture Wales project.
Living Memory…….. People who lived in the area, people now living in the area. People who worked in the area people now working in the area. People who visited the area, cinema, theatre, groups, pubs, music, dancing.
Finding subjects to talk about and share their experiences of living, working or trading in the Street.
Mix of Genders, Ages, Groups.
Researchers finding subjects in the community recording them and their stories with a range of media, photographs, audio, moving image, text. Researchers establishing formats, skills, and technical structures that can be shared and passed on.
Dynamic Participatory Archive
Wikipedia has become an interesting example of user generated content that has formed a prolific community of contributors.
OpenStreetmap .org has quietly been doing the same in the creation of a world mapping resource. They have pioneered a self help community that go out using gps devices to map their local area and upload the gps data they have collected to fill in the details of their own area map. This then adds to the depth and detail of the data on the world map made available freely to all through the project. This provides interesting possibilities for a engaged community of archivists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap
Their technique for volunteer data collection are simple and easy to teach and share to involve others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap#Technique
Creating possibilities, skilling people to contribute material about their experiences of the area. Across age ranges.
The ability and facility to upload photographs, text, video and audio, gps data complete with tagging and metadata capability. Utilising university knowledge, resources and teaching to bridge into and engage with the local community.
Sharing The Archive
Some of the UCL projects are good examples of visualising data over a topographical base:
The London Air Quality Map: http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/virtualmaps.asp
The Map View: http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/virtualmaps.asp?view=maps
Map Tube Various mapping projects: http://www.maptube.org/
Online based visualisation do not preclude paper based resources or ebooks of new materials placed in the archive from expert interpretation to self uploaded text, photographs, etc
The use of free tools and techniques and skills needed for participation could encourage a community of users from expert to newbie. In effect it could become an informal learning community supported by the university both in terms of pedagogy and resourcing.
It could become an online resource that develops into a community of shared experience, a learning community with growing skills that can be further enhanced and passed on.
Free tools and open source tools allow for the ease of sharing the resource without the barriers of proprietary software limiting the way data can be used and shared independent of platform.
Mapping of layers of data using new mapping technologies to represent the area with rich layers of data that can be explored to significant levels of detail.
Bridging the Virtual with the Real….Mobile Augmented Reality
Rather than the archive remaining at the participatory level in terms of a growing body of resources some of which is actively created by a community of users, there is a possibility of extending and bridging the virtual data collected into the real environment that people pass through.
Some exciting developments are currently taking place in the development of augmented browsers that allow the placement by gps of overlays of information upon the real world location. So with a mobile device you can be standing in a particular location which, with the aid of the inbuilt camera, will bring up relevant location information overlaid onto the physical position the user occupies.
Two current mobile augmented browsers have recently been developed:
Layar: http://layar.com/
Wickitude: http://www.wikitude.org/
Article on wickitude: http://www.gpsworld.com/consumer-oem/handheld/gps-based-augmented-reality-9022
A video of one of the browsers helps to explain how it bridges between the real and the virtual world:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/layar_could_be_the_future_of_augmented_reality.php
Examples using a mobile device with a camera to be able to view sema codes (barcodes) that then find and display information related to the read barcode. Or the barcode itself is a hyperlink that takes the mobile device to a web resource. Work has already been done by Cambridge University Press on their Romeo and Juliet GCSE text that includes sema codes at particular key critical points in the text. These sema codes can be read by a handheld playstation already loaded with audio and video content that is retrieved when the sema code is read by the devices camera.
Producing Content
Time marches on. You need to be well on the way to producing your content elements. As discussed these may be filmed elements, stills, audio, text.
You need to think how the elements that make up your route are going to become discreet units that you can then add interactivity to.
That is you need to think of how to bundle the elements together. A piece of software developed for interactive story telling is called Storytron
Another system is called Korsakow
Its useful to look at how these sytems work. What assumptions they make and how they are structured.
The main site for Koraskow is Koraskow.org
Categorized in Experimental, Research
Reading Week Consider your research approach
Approaches to Research
by Samantha Bakhurst For the BFI
Why do research?
You cannot simply rely on your existing knowledge when approaching essays in Media Studies. Although you will have some understanding of the area being explored, it is not enough to enable you to examine the area in depth. If you were asked to write about the people in your street in de- tail, you might have some existing information about names, faces, relationships, issues and ac- tivities but this knowledge would not offer you details such as every single one of their names, who knows who, who gets on with whom, how people earn a living, what has happened to them in the past and so on. This extra information could change your opinions quite dramatically. With- out it, therefore, your written profile would end up being quite shallow and possibly incorrect. The same is true of your understanding of media texts, issues and institutions.
Before researching any area, it is useful to be clear about what outcomes you are hoping to achieve. Research is never a waste of time, even when it doesn’t directly relate to the essay you are preparing. The information may be relevant to another area of the syllabus, be it practical work or simply a different essay. Also, the picture you are building up of how an area works will strengthen your understanding of the subject as a whole. So what outcomes are you hoping to achieve with your research?
A broad overview of the area you are researching: This includes its history, institutions, conven- tions and relationship to the audience. Research into these aspects offers you an understanding of how your area has developed and the influences that have shaped it.
An awareness of different debates which may exist around the area of study: There are a range of debates in many subject areas. For example, when researching audiences you will discover that there is some debate over how audiences watch television or film, ranging from the passive con- sumption of values and ideas to the use of media texts in a critical and independent way. Any dis- cussion about censorship, for example, will be extremely shallow if you have no knowledge of these different perspectives.
Some knowledge of the work of theorists in the area: You need to demonstrate that you have read different theorists, exploring the relevant issues and investigating the area thoroughly in order to develop your own opinion based on acquired knowledge and understanding.
Information relevant to all key concept areas: You should, after research, be able to discuss all key concept areas as they relate to that specific subject area. These are the codes and conventions, representation, institutions and audience.
Types Of Research
Primary: This is first-hand research. In other words, it relies on you constructing and conducting surveys, setting up interviews with key people in the media industry or keeping a diary or log of data (known as quantitative information) on things such as, for example, what activities women are shown doing in advertisements over one week of television viewing. Unless you are equipped to conduct extensive research, have access to relevant people in the media industry or are thor- ough in the up-keep of your diary or log, this type of research can be demanding, complex and sometimes difficult to use. Having said that, if you are preparing for an extended essay, then it is exactly this type of research which, if well used, will make your work distinctive and impressive.
Secondary – printed sources: This is where you will be investigating information gathered by other people in books, newspapers, magazines, on radio and television. All of these sources are excellent for finding background information, statistics, interviews, collected research details and so on. This will form the majority of your research. Some of these will be generally available (in public li- braries for example); others such as press releases and trade press may only be available through specialist libraries.
BFI National Library
iv
Secondary – online sources: Online sources are also mainly secondary. You will need to be able to make comparisons between sources if you intend quoting online information, and to be wary of the differences between fact and opinions. Don’t necessarily assume something is a fact because someone on a website says it is. Some websites will be “official” but many will not be, so you need to think about the authority of a site when assessing the information found on it. The structure of a website address (URL) can indicate the site’s origin and status, for example, .ac or .edu indicate an academic or educational institution, .gov a government body, .org a non-profit organisation, .co or .com a commercial organisation. Websites sometimes disappear or shift location – make sure you can quote a URL reference for a site, and perhaps keep a note of the last date that you checked it.
Other Media: When considering one area of the media or one particular product or type of prod- uct, it is very important that you compare it with others which are similar. You will need to be able to refer to these comparisons in some detail so it is not enough to simply watch a film. You will need to read a little about that film, make notes, concentrate on one or two scenes which seem particularly relevant and write all of this information up so that you can refer to it when you need to.
History and development: Having an understanding of the history and development of the media text which you are researching will provide a firm foundation and context for contemporary analysis. There is a difference between generally accepted facts and how theorists use these facts.
Theory: This is the body of work of other critics of the media. Most of the books and periodical ar- ticles which you will read for research will be written by theorists who are arguing a particular viewpoint or position with regard to an issue within the media. It is this which forms the debates surrounding the study of the media, in which you, as a media student, are now becoming in- volved.
Categorized in Research
Evocation, Atmosphere, Place, Experimentation
Before doing anything else read this piece on Experimental Film from the BFI
What I want to look at today are some experimental filmmakers who create work that is not primarily motivated by storytelling or narrative. The trails and routes that you are thinking about and will be presenting ideas for today also lend themselves to this way of working.
What then is left if narrative is not the primary motivation for a piece of work?
Evocation: Thesarus
| Noun | 1. | evocation – imaginative re-creation
imagery, imaging, mental imagery, imagination – the ability to form mental images of things or events; “he could still hear her in his imagination”
|
Chris Marker La Jetee
Atmosphere:
The dominant tone or mood of a work of art. An aesthetic quality or effect, especially a distinctive and pleasing one, associated with a particular place.
We can see this at work both in experimental films and also computer games:
Both of these clips although very different and each has narrative elements work to produce atmosphere, and place to evoke a mood that the viewer or user participates in. This ability to evoke is not restricted to a particular medium. Different things can be used to evoke and set mood….we usually think of music in this regard and it is easy to talk about music in this way. But it is less easy to talk about music in terms of narrative. Why do we feel comfortable talking about mood and atmosphere for music but find it more difficult to look at visual imagery without looking for specific meaning or narrative?
This Time Photo essay of Detroit evokes atmosphere and place but there isn’t a specific narrative each image works on its own.
The clips I am going to show you work in similar ways:
Eraserhead David Lynch
Heaven
Jarman Blue
Last of England
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
Margaret Tait: A Portrait of Ga
Kenneth Anger : Invocation of My Demon Brother
Stan Brakhage: I Dreaming
Categorized in Experimental, Research
Mashable
Have a really good look at the possibilities of this software.
This technology is just mind-boggling. PhotoSketch may be the coolest program we’ve seen or written about since the invisible speakers.
PhotoSketch is an “Internet Image Montage” project from five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore. The basic premise, which they present in the form of a research paper [pdf], works like this:
Step 1. Draw the outlines of the figures you want in your picture – anything from seagulls to a Mercedes, whatever tickles your fancy,
Step 2. Add labels for each of the items, as well as for the background.
Step 3. PhotoSketch will then find real-life images to match your doodles and put them together in a Photoshopped image that will make your jaw drop.
Yes, this thing has such great image recognition technology that it can determine which dog fits best in your canine doodle. Their demo video unveils the true power of PhotoSketch:
Sketch2Photo: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.
Categorized in Research
Video Walls
I really like the creative use of multi-screens in this video. The music is rubbish but it’s a nice example of a music vid for the networked generation.
Categorized in Research
Mashups using Streetview
Some of you were looking at the possibility of using streetview in your trails. The info below might be of some use.
The band, Editors have hacked Google Street View to create something new and wonderful. Whether you like the music or not the online application – which you can view on the Editors official site – allows the user to travel via Street View to different areas of London. But it’s Street View with a difference because in each location the band (or more likely their web dev team) have hacked in custom locations.
At each location the user can hear music from the new album. The web app boasts zoom in/out, scalability, radar and natty StreetView minimap where the location points are all album songs. The marketing blurb also says:
Editors modified version of Google Maps allows users to enter into these locations and make the transition from light to dark so users can explore Editors atmospheric vision of London at night.
The site is definitely worth a look as it’s an example of ‘things to come’. Watch out for more mashed-up/hacked (or pretend hacked) content coming your way from pop world.
Categorized in Research