Networked Media Assignment
I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services
Alexandra Russell s3662093
Words 1060
How do the affordances of instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?
In the final project of the semester I was working with the social media of instagram and Instagram’s popularity as I discovered reflects its consideration of the modern day user and their desires but also their want for creative control, connection and convenience in the network.
An aspect of uploading the photos and video’s to instagram was the curating and editing process or authoring. Throughout the week 9 works the main priorities were what looked pretty and also what was easy to capture. There were two or three photos taken and one video so that there was some variety in option however I chose to author those quite efficiently and quickly as I might for my own instagram account. However as the weeks went on, I began to look at what I was doing much more differently. The editing of the photos was done with more consideration for the previous image or video. Would it work against the last post? Should the filter used make the next video relate to its partnering photo? How would everything look on the instagram grid compared to in a feed?
A defining characteristic of instagram is that it creates the affordance of allowing you to create a photo or video both as an individual thing (seeing it on one’s instagram feed) or as apart and related to a group of images (one your account). Its the idea of relating photography as a“flow” of “data” (Kuc, Kamila & Zylinska, 2016, p.g 8) and from this the author holds a lot of freedom in how they wish to curate their instagram account. That being said, relating back to the assignment, something that I learned was that although having one amazing photograph is fantastic, there is strength in numbers. By strength, I mean to say popularity and sustained interest for instagram followers, as in order to achieve this, often treating your instagram feed as though it is a brand is paramount to guaranteeing that it will gain more traction. In terms of Instagram this means using its affordances to your advantage but doing it in a creative, well thought out and consistent way.
By the week ten posts I knew that I was going for a colourful theme, I knew that I would use a door pun for each caption followed by emojis that were the themed colour and hashtags; one for the blue, one to relate to the push or pull example from the affordances reading and one random one. The physical process of taking the images and photos also changed as I was looking more at framing and changing the angle of the shot so that the images were connected but still diverse.
In the week 10 blog post on mobile photography I mentioned how the iphone has really revolutionised mobile photography in how much easier it is, but also how the casualness of taking a photo or video on your phone can be a strong affordance. I found this particularly when taking the last video of all the posts where the two guys were walking behind the colourful window. If I had been carrying a large camera with a flash then they most likely would have noticed me and either moved out of the way or not wanted to be apart of the video. Although it can be noted that they are very far away and cannot be identified, having the iphone as my video taking source was an advantage here as I could capture something I might not have been able to. When looking at Henri Cartier-Bresson in the Week 5 blog post he commented that when taking photographs of people with the cameras of his day often there were constraints such as the change in how his subjects acted when being in front of the camera. Actually going through the process of using the instagram app through my phone and making mobile photography and video I learned how there is so much more you can capture in a much easier way and it can be distributed in a much quicker way.
The distributing of the photos and videos of the account was also something that evolved. I became more conscious that in order to build up the other social media platforms that I was using for the door project, it was important to connect them through linking the other accounts. I did this through using common strategies such as suggesting the viewer check out the twitter page or tumblr page. Due to the constraints of Twitter not being the best platform to post videos, I ended up using the caption then linking the actual video back to instagram. This was something that reminded me of how easy it was to do things like embed a video or photo onto a seperate platform outside of instagram if I wanted to. Instagram is really in part so successful because it can adapt and connect to the network and other social media’s.
Instagram is easily accessible through the internet and requires a basic “network literacy”(Miles, 2012, p.g 1) enabling users to want to use it and build the amount of users it already has. Its affordances of creative tools such as photo editing and hashtags and being able to make a caption, enables a sense of power and voice to the user as well as control in what they wish to capture and how they wish it to be received. The initial constraint of a square camera limits itself when taking photographs as they can only be framed in certain dimensions, however this also is beneficial in how the content is viewed on a mobile device. When in a square frame, the user is able to scroll freely and doesn’t face any issues re uploading the image from another account onto there instagram account. Other elements are how connectable instagram photo/video sharing enables users to be. With the introduction of tagging and being able to follow other users and like/comment, the platform holds a strong social use, further creating an engagement and sense of connection to the user and they don’t feel trapped or stuck in simply a photo sharing app. Due to the affordances of instagram within the network, content is delivered faster, more artistically and for a more diverse group of reasons by a larger amount of creators.
Miles, Adrian. RMIT University, 2012. (Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge 201-208)Kuc,
Kamila, and Joanna Zylinska, editors. Photomediations: A Reader. Open Humanities Press, 2016, (pp.7-16 Photomediations: An Introduction by Joanna Zylinkska – download direct from the website)
Week 11 Video Post
How did you author the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram? This video was recorded on my iphone 5s with the rear facing camera so that I could watch how I was framing the video when recording. I had to move around a few times and look at the phone so that I could get both the sliding door in the shot as well as the colourful windows also. The filter I decided to use for this one was “Juno” was because there was more than one colour scheme involved in the window I wanted to ensure they all looked nice and were bright and interesting to see. The square format was a little bit more challenging as I had to decide whether or not I wanted to have the two guys walking past the window be the main focus or to have the sliding door be the main focus. In the end I chose the two guys walking as I felt it was an interesting shot to see and the sliding door was still noticeable and satisfied the brief of the assignment which was to record a door.
I didn’t use any brightness adjustments as I wanted to keep the colours really vibrant, plus I felt you could see everything in the foreground and background pretty easily. I only recorded one shot for this one as the two guys in the background were random strangers who just decided to walk across to my luck and so I wasn’t able to recreate the shot any more times. There was also no deleting any clips or shortening of the filming time. The audio wasn’t muted as I felt it sounded a bit odd to have no background noise at all and I decided to leave it in.
How did you publish the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
As I took only one video the curation process was more about what filter I would use and what the caption/ hashtags would be. I decided as it would be the last official video and post to do something a little left of centre. In stead of the continuing the blue theme I wanted to finish off with a colours theme, replicating this with colourful emoji’s and the caption🚪 #6 “Colours Theme”📗📕📘📒 the key to a good door is how easy it is to open #rainbow#pushorpull #staytunedforyellow
This caption wasn’t so much as a pun but rather wordplay and a reference to one of the readings we had looked at regarding affordances through the example of a door. Ultimately if the design of something does not make it easy and simple to use, the designer has pretty much failed in their work. I left the location unknown to be consistent with the other posts and to focus the attention on the video itself.
How did you distribute the photo or video you published on instagram to other social media services?
For the twitter post I experimented with the concept of not giving any real info about the instagram page, instead just leaving the caption and the link to the instagram. Having the emoji’s for the caption I think made it look cooler and might have made the user want to see what the tweet is actually about.
For the tumblr page however I used the same method as the previous video; linking the instagram page as well as the twitter account and placing the caption in there as well. The hashtag stay tuned for yellow I think makes the users from each social media platform feel some anticipation that a yellow theme could be next in the future and to want to keep interested in the accounts which was a bit of a goal for me.
Week 11 Photo Post
View this post on Instagram🚪#5 “Blue theme” 🧢🦋🐬🌎 This one’s open to new things… #blue #pushorpull #campus
How did you author the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
For this photo I used my iphone 5s with the rear facing camera, as I had used it for the other posts and had a good knowledge of how to use it effectively and also as it affords convenience having the instagram app and allowing me to post on the internet to easily. As there was a strong reflection in the door, this affected how I had to position myself with the camera so that I wouldn’t be in the way or in shot.
As a result of this I had to move back and to the side, getting a door from a different angle then front on. I didn’t use the flash feature as I didn’t want it to be seen in the glass and also didn’t feel that strongly about using it. The filter that was used for this photo was “Clarendon” as I believed it helped accentuate the different colours and sources of light in the photo, as well as complimenting the blue theme. The filter also matched the other images that had filters used on them which was important to continue the edited photo/video look I was aiming for. The differences in how I authored this photo was in the thinking about how it would fit into the bigger picture of the dooropener account. I had to decide whether it would be consistent to the other door photos/videos, how it looked in the grid, and if it could hint at what would come next. In asking these questions I was able to see how there was a little bit of yellow reflected in the image, hinting that this might be the next colour scheme of doors that I would go with and having had two other colours in the grid, blue felt like a really fitting colour scheme to go with next.
How did you publish the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
I took around two to three photos for this post as I wanted to find the right angle which I felt would capture the door, the reflection and the sunlight well and this was a really beneficial process because I didn’t feel locked into the one photo I might have taken ordinarily. Plus it showed me how important it was to experiment with taking more photo’s and trying out a few more different framed shots as this can help you grow as a photographer.
The curation process was deciding pretty instinctually which one I liked the most but also how well it was taken; if it was focused, whether or not it the shot was too overexposed and if it looked nice in general, plus if I could place a filter onto it. There wasn’t a location added and I did place a caption on the post🚪#5 “Blue theme” 🧢🦋🐬🌎 This one’s open to new things… #blue#pushorpull #campus
How did you distribute the photo or video you published on instagram to other social media services?
In adding the hashtag #campus I was hoping to create some some interest in relating this photo to the previous ones which had the rmit hashtag on them. Again this conveys where it is shot but again not being too obvious about it. I distributed the image on twitter including the caption and for the tumblr post I used the photo and linked the twitter and instagram accounts with a description saying “My twitter and insta accounts for doors”. This way, tumblr followers would be able to better understand what the concept of the account is for.
Week 10 Video Post
How did you author the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram? For this video I used the rear camera of my iphone 5s through the instagram app. The cameras instagram video function held its affordances in how it naturally only allowed for a short recording time but in order to suit the attention span of the instagram user. Something I viewed as a constraint was how the camera quality of the video wasn’t the best and it would be quite obvious to the user that this was shot through an iphone camera.
I wanted to capture the tree’s flower petals floating around in front of the doorway to add some interest to the visual and had to really think about where I was standing to get both that and the door itself in a nice framing. I ended up moving closer to the image and lifting the camera up a bit more in order to get the flowers in. In the editing process I used the filter “Gingham” as it made the colour of the bricks a bit warmer and brought out the red tones which I felt would look quite striking and eye catching in an instagram feed. Something I noticed in the insta grid was how aesthetically pleasing on top of the first image I posted of the green tiles, as the framing was similar and the colours contrasted each other so much. Again I found that more thought went into what I would record; I wanted to have something slightly more interesting that just the door as it would not be the most engaging video. So to have the petals floating across the shot added a little interest (the fact that something was moving in the video I was really happy about).
How did you publish the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram? For the video I recorded one shot only mostly because I was pleased with how the video came about and as I could only work with the weather and the tree for a certain amount of time, I had to work pretty efficiently and understand what I was wanting out of the video that I took. I didn’t add a location to the video but I did use the hashtag #rmit to add another clue that the video was shot in the same place that the red themed photo was: RMIT university.
The affordance of being able to use hashtags and captions allows you to really reveal or hide as much as you like and as an instagram user myself I’ve learned that you create more anticipation by not revealing as much and it makes you want to know what will be posted next or created next. The caption that was used represented the red theme through its emoji’s and the caption itself being the door pun was used to stay consistent with the other captions I have used so that the audience expect and are happy with the cheesy nature of the message. This is to remind them of the silliness of the account being focused on doors and that it is a lighthearted, easygoing account to follow and that is what the follower should expect to see. I didn’t configure the video to play automatically as I wanted to leave that up to the follower to do themselves, giving them that option makes the process of looking through the account less passive and hopefully more refreshing that they are able to decide whether or not they want to comment, like, follow etc.
How did you distribute the photo or video you published on instagram to other social media services?
In tumblr I linked the instagram video on a post as well as left the links to the twitter and instagram page down the bottom. This was to inform the tumblr users that there were other versions of this account to follow and make them feel as though there is more to see and explore on a different platform. In the twitter account I linked the instagram post and told the reader to check out the door pun by clicking the link. This way there is a clear link to read more and to actually see the video on instagram. The goal when distributing was to connect the three as best I could whilst making each one special and worth looking at in its own way.
Week 10 Photograph Blog Post
Picture 2
View this post on Instagram
🚪 #3 “Red Theme” 🍿🎒🦀🌹 There is door where this came from #red #pushorpull #rmit
How did you author the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
For this photo I used my iphone 5s again as it was consistent with shooting the previous photo/ video and utilised the rear facing camera as I did not require the front facing camera for a selfie style photo taking. Because of the square camera function in instagram I did have to move around to find a nice angle which I thought would work as a photo in the account. Whilst I knew that if I needed to crop the photo I could later in the editing stages but I tried to be as further back as possible when photographing the door.
I left the flash feature off again as I was very happy with the lighting and having the flash setting wouldn’t have really done a lot I felt. I used the filter “Juno” as I felt it really brought out and accentuated the red. I also brought the brightness up so that people who were looking at the photo on their phones wouldn’t have to bring the brightness up manually in order to see the photo better, plus it would look great on the grid with the other works. Compared to other works that I have done, there was definitely more of a sense or direction and purpose with this post. There was more planning because I was thinking about it as a photo that was connected to the other things I had put on the account.
How did you publish the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
I didn’t record a lot of images before choosing this one to post as I felt as though I would get lost in trying to judge each image too much on which one was the best and had a quicker deciding process if I only had one or two. The curating process was very much about how the image would fit into the instagram square the best and then I would go on to add filters and edit the brightness or another part of the photo. I decided not to add a location to the image as I had not done that with the previous two uploads, but still decided to hint at it through one of the hashtags (#rmit). This was to keep a little bit of mystery about where this door was and to encourage the viewer to click on the hashtag if they wanted to know where RMIT was. I continued with the text caption being a door pun “There is door where this came from”. When using this caption I felt it tied into the door theme but also reminded the viewer to keep following the account as there would be other photos and videos to come which is important in maintaining a follow-ship from a follower.
How did you distribute the photo or video you published on instagram to other social media services?
I uploaded the photo to both twitter and instagram and made sure to include the caption in both platforms that way the distribution was very similar amongst the three services. The hashtags worked well for both Twitter and tumblr as they are quite useful in giving a little bit more context (particularly with the RMIT hashtag). Having the hashtag there also would be beneficial as if a follower hadn’t heard of the uni, they would most likely look it up and find out where RMIT is and be interested in the buildings surrounding the doors and also what the university offers. Although I’m not promoting the campus for money or sponsorship, it is certainly helpful in contributing to some exposure in how the university looks and if it might interest followers who are preparing to look at universities. On the twitter account, I made sure to link the instagram account in order to encourage the audience to go across and follow it for more content. In uploading this 3rd post I felt I needed to better link the other accounts by adding them into my instagram bio so that it was obvious that there were extensions of what was created on the instagram account.
https://twitter.com/Alexand54117796
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/openingthedoor
Week 9 Video Blog Post
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoY39E5FF8j/?taken-by=dooropener2018
How did you author the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
For this video I used my iPhone camera again as I could view the screen I was recording through and watch how it looked in real time. I used the rear facing camera as this is the usual way I take video’s on my iphone camera and I wanted to use the method I knew the best. As I was on the tram whilst it was moving, this very much influenced the way that I was going about capturing the video. I had to stay very still in order to make sure that the phone didn’t jolt or move around too much as this wouldn’t make for a very good video, and it could really put off the viewer. Although Instagram is a very photo focused app, there is still the same expectation that video’s are made at an equally high standard, especially as they are very short in length anyways, so its important to make the most of the time limit you have.
The square format was a feature to instagram that influenced my taking the video as a portrait. This was so that I would be able to show the full door and not have it be cropped out or zoomed in too much as a result of it being landscape. In terms of filtering, I wanted to continue that sort of look to my video as I had done the photo for week one, this way both would look more connected.
I used the filter “Clarendon” as I felt like it bought out the greens of the handles and I also trimmed down the video (an option in instagram from 15 seconds to 7) I did this to keep the attention of the scroller so that they would stay and watch until the end and feel inclined to like the video as well. There was only one video taken on the tram because I only had limited time and focused on making the video longer so that if I needed to edit it, I could always do that. The audio is not muted on the video as it gives a little bit more context and makes the video a bit more interesting (you can hear a quiet chatter of other people on the tram and as a viewer it connects them to what is being recorded). That being said, if someone were scrolling through, they wouldn’t completely need the sound and could watch it in silence if they didn’t have headphones with them.
How did you publish the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
For the video this week I did not record more than one take due to the time constraint of being on the tram and also choosing to make the video record the best version. The fact that the tram was moving was an element to the video I believed kept it interesting and varied as the background different every second, yet you could always still see the door in the shot and focus on that. The curation process was not a long one as I was very happy with the video and it complemented the green theme of the week and the previous photograph which was a different shade of green.
How did you distribute the photo or video you published on instagram to other social media services?
I used twitter and tumblr to distribute the video onto. The process was slightly more challenging as I had to work out how to upload the video on there. Something new I incorporated in the video post was linking my instagram page to the follower if they wanted to read the door pun I had written only in the instagram post. I did this because I technically had to many characters in twitter to finish the pun (a constraint of twitter), but also because I wanted to start linking the other social media accounts as it would built a bigger network. The hashtags were used in all three social media posts as they fitted well with the platform.
Week 9 Photograph Blog Post
Photo 1.
How did you author the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
For this photo I used my Iphone out of convenience, and for the fact that it has the affordance of having a camera which was of a high quality and could capture many different takes if I wanted to experiment and capture more than one photo. I was able to centre the lighting by tapping the touch screen (an affordance of the iphone) and could manually focus the photo using the same method. That being said it did have some constraints as the Iphone I have is not the most recent one, and so whilst it is a great camera, it is not necessarily of the highest standard out there.
I used the rear facing camera as I could much more easily see the image and decide if I was happy with it and if I felt like it was framed well. I moved closer than I was originally facing the door, so that the door was closer int he shot and I could zoom in without the focus being slightly distorted. I shot the image as a portrait so that it could suit the square frame that instagram uses, this way the photo wouldn’t be unexpectedly cut off. Another element was the flash setting being turned off for this photo as the green tiles in the background might have picked up the flash (being a very shiny surface), plus I felt like it was a good amount of lighting already in the room.
I decided not to keep the normal filter look on the photo as due to the fact that doors can be naturally uninteresting to the untrained eye, I felt it could be more fun to use a filter to bring out the interest in the photo, as well as satisfy scrollers who are used to seeing filtered photographs on instagram. I pretty much stuck to the rule of thumb that if I didn’t have the best camera in the world then I would use a little bit of filtering and photo editing on the app to bring it up a bit. I used the instagram filter “Lark” and brought the warmth up and contrast down to make sure it wasn’t overexposed and that the green colour was appealing to the eye. The green colour was something that I wanted to highlight for the viewer being connected to the video for week one, so that there would be a link between the two and it could immediately be recognisable, allowing the viewer to anticipate what I would be posting next.
The fact that instagram has the affordance of being able to write text next to your post allowed me to include green emoji’s, a pun about doors as well as hashtags relating to the assignment e.g “#pushorpull”. These three elements I will be using for the other works to increase recognisability and to also make it look visually interesting and entertaining. Having these hashtags allow for the viewer to find the posts if they are trying to search them without looking on the profile page and they are again something to expect from each photo or video and that can be something to look forward to.
Having the instagram app being the main way of authoring the image, I was immediately interested in how I could edit the photo. Also having experience as a follower of instagram pages, I understood the appeal photography on instagram and how the features it has should be utilised as much as possible.
How did you publish the photo or video you recorded for upload to instagram?
I recorded around three or four images before I uploaded to instagram in order to have some options to choose from. The first photo was to take and see what the image looked like, I then moved closer, focused the camera a bit more and made the lighting on the camera centred to the image. The third photo I took after I moved to the side in order to capture the revolving door in the background and to get the guy in the beanie (who is a classmate taking a similar photo) which I thought looked cool.
The curation process when selecting in image was fairly easy as I had only taken three photo’s to pick from and I tried to take heaps of care on the day of shooting to get some variation. I didn’t add a location to the image at the time as I wasn’t sure on whether I wanted to do an RMIT theme for the whole six works or whether I might just add in a hashtag later on.
I did however put a text caption next to the image in instagram (I talked about this in the first question) which was “Door #1 Green theme📗💚🎾🍏 I was gonna take a closer photo but I could handle the awesomeness of this beautiful specimen #green #pushorpull#doorception ” .
Having the affordance to write text next to the image, naturally creates more context (which is something I was really hoping for) as the concept of doors is a cool concept, but it isn’t the most popular of instagrammable things and so to jazz it up with emoji’s and hashtags and a theme for the week hopefully engages the viewer that little bit more and make them feel interested to follow over the next few weeks.
How did you distribute the photo or video you published on instagram to other social media services?
As well as instagram, I used twitter and Tumblr for my photo sharing. I decided on twitter as it was a platform that is known for its hashtags and I could also very easily link my instagram account in a tweet. Tumblr was my second choice as the main focus similar to instagram is photography, with no section for commenting (potentially a constraint or affordance), yet there is a place for writing a hashtag or a caption if I choose to.
Networked Media Assessment Task 2
The assessment declaration . I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services]
Here are my Four Blog entries
Here is my review
Answers Word Count: 1071
- Provide your own definition (in your own words) on ‘photography’, by referring to the readings, additional research and the practice analyses completed in your blog.
Photography is the evolving practise of capturing still images for the use of others or your own interest. The word evolving is key here as the ways in which photography is used and distributed as well as authored are very diverse. Photos can exist in a physical form through print media which was a common purpose for them before the digital era. They were used in the most public platforms that were available for sharing information; newspapers, signs and museums/ galleries.
Photography is also of great importance to the network and online digital space even being characterised as a “flow” of “data” (Kuc, Kamila & Zylinska, 2016, p.g 8) rather than photos being separated to one another. The means in which photographs are taken also evolves and is diverse; some use film cameras, digital photography cameras such as DSLRs or the most popular means of online photography the mobile phone. It’s affordances for online use create a much easier way to send through photos taken on iphone can be distributed on social media’s via the same device. For someone to capture an image on a DSLR camera is still an easy thing to do, yet to transfer the image from the SD card to a computer and make sure that it is formatted correctly is the modern day equivalent to having film from a camera developed in a darkroom. It should be noted that regardless of legacy or online, photography remains at its core the practise of capturing still images.
2. Provide your own definition (in your own words) on ‘videography’ or ‘video practice’, by referring to the readings, additional research and the practice analyses completed in your blog.
“Video practise” is the authoring, publishing and distributing of moving image. The practise itself is unique to every author, with the modern trend of video blogging confirming this. Berry & Bjorkmann’s definition of the term video blog as a “blog that uses video as its main form of expression” (2018, p.g 7-8). This highlights the evolution of the video practise and how it was very focused during the legacy period on often political ventures or rebellion against the mainstream programming. That being said, the documentation of one’s life and family was also a large use for the portable cameras of the time, or even for personal experimentation, without the aim of trying to air the video on television.
The online video era in comparison now asks for the author to be “Network literate” (Miles, 2012, p.g 1) for their video practise, meaning to have an understanding of how social media is used and how video can be incorporated into it. An example of this is understanding that text can be included into a video for Instagram and a comments section is featured on the app for followers to comment and or like the video.
Another way is how one’s video practise of how they shoot a video may change due to the shapes that are preferred on certain social media’s as well as running times of each video. The video practise for online use, requires the assumption that the video will exist in an ever changing, collaborative space with an online digital footprint.
3. What differences and similarities did you discover between the way legacy and online photos are authored, published and distributed?
A game changer in the way that online photography is created and distributed compared to legacy photography is the introduction of social media. Legacy photography was a practise that held more exclusivity both a constraint and affordance). For example due to the limited cameras available to those interested in photography and the factor that image capturing devices were not as technologically advanced as they are today, legacy photography could only be worked on by those who had significant wealth, talent in their craft and were often given assignments from others to be able to take photographs in the first place.
The social expectations around photography during the legacy period was a big influence on how people chose to use it. The main purpose was to document the time period, such as through family photographs being “historical and emotional archives” (Kuc, Kamila & Zylinska, 2016, p.g 2). Another example is for scientific purposes providing photographs for medical journals, for the study of anatomy, and to capture the “wonders of the world” (Kuc, Kamila & Zylinska, 2016, p.g 2).
When discussing online photography, due to the legacy that legacy photography had already created by that time having captured many discoveries of the world, this allowed for a more personal and artistic use for photography. Along with the introduction of the mobile phone doubling as a camera that saved photos digitally and the ability to put them online through social media and the internet, more groups of people had the power to author, produce and distribute photographs that were theirs. Due to the affordances of social media being to easily accessible and exposing new styles of photography other than family portraits or black and white landscapes, this allowed for a revolutionized platform for creativity and self expression.
4. What differences and similarities did you discover between the way legacy and online videos are authored, published and distributed?
Legacy Video was born from the technological advances of the 1960’s and the desire to create something that was not already on television. This is also due to the introduction of Sony’s “first portable, video recording equipment” (2016, p.g 2) and as Horsfield, discusses later in her article “Video immediately captured the attention of artists who saw its potential as a creative tool…to be used to create new types of representation” (2006, p.g 2). Hence, the agency of authoring video in this time was for experimentation and going against the norms of Network Television. A pioneer for this type of video making was Nam June Paik, who worked to publish and distribute his work on TV Lab on channel 13.
Whilst legacy video had creatives who strived to push boundaries, the exposure they received was very much controlled by Networks as television unless an artist was able to create a gallery of work to be shown. Most legacy video was created through analogue technology and in the decades following the 1960’s it began to filter into more and more stations.
Online video differs to legacy video as technologically it is far more advanced having transitioned to digital and much like online photography enables much more creativity from its maker. The maker themselves do not face the constraints of having to be particularly wealthy or have connections. They must simply be connected to the internet. Other affordances of online video are that the editing technologies and experimental technologies are much more available also. One is able to experiment with online video and place it into the online network for a community to see.
Readings:
Kuc, Kamila, and Joanna Zylinska, editors. Photomediations: A Reader. Open Humanities Press, 2016, (pp.7-16 Photomediations: An Introduction by Joanna Zylinkska – download direct from the website)
Horsfield, Kate. Busting the Tube: A Brief History of Video Art. Video Data Bank, School of Art Institute of Chicago, 2006, pp. 1–9,
Berry, Trine Bjorkmann. ‘Situating Videoblogging’, Institute of Network Cultures, 2018, pp. 9–22,
Miles, Adrian. RMIT University, 2012. (Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge 201-208)
Networked Media Week 8: Online Video
Here is the link to the Video:
Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?
The practitioners for the Online video are Josie Keefe and Phyllis Ma and they have been practising making online videos and photography on their instagram page since 2014.
With the photo or video you are examining when was it produced (date)? How was the photo or video authored? The video I am examining was produced for the 4th of July in America but was published on Instagram on the 5th of July 2018. It was authored with knowledge of using a camera and setting it for a time lapse in order to capture the candles burning through. The practitioners would have also had to source the sound of a fire burning for the piece. Something that we looked at for online photography was how the medium of instagram has the affordance of adding a caption to the image of video that they have made. The creators really utilise this through communicating to their audience wishing them a happy fourth of July but finishing with “Now grow up America”. Had there just been the visual of the three Statue of Liberty Candles burning into a cake, the audience might have misinterpreted this as a more negative message towards the US, instead by using emoji’s and the caption, the artists can help convey what message they are really trying to put out with the video.
How was the photo or video published?
The video was published with an understanding of Instagram as I talked about a little earlier. Having the understanding of the new video function (how it can only be maximum 60 seconds long) as well as the square look of the video itself is important as nothing in the video is cut off and it appear well shot and in frame. The artists, being from America are maintaining their brand identity of where they are from, by using imagery that is very familiar to the American Culture. The bright energetic colours in the video suit their other content really well as they stick to a very specific colour palette that can be recognisable by their fans. The time lapse element of the video shows that they understand the importance of having videos that are quick and quickly engaging or interesting when scrolling on an instagram feed.
How was the photo or video distributed?
The Video was distributed through instagram, with the creators having a good knowledge of the best time to post the video (Post fourth of July).
Week 7 Network Media: Mobile Photography
This Week the main topic was mobile photography.
The iPhone pretty much revolutionised not only the convenience of taking photographs to a good quality without having to purchase a DSLR camera, but also sharing them on the internet but also with each other.
Another point from the reading this week were how personal mobile phones can make photography. There is a part brought up in the reading about photojournalist Damon Winter and his experience taking photographs of soldiers in Iraq with an Iphone and Hipstamatic photo App. He commented about how soldiers preferred a photographer capturing them on an iPhone instead of a big professional DSLR as it felt less formal and he was able to capture more intimate stories of the US service men and women. This reminded me of a few weeks ago when we were looking at Henri Cartier Bresson for legacy photography and in his documentary he spoke about how he found taking portraits a challenge at times but also interesting because people’s personalities changed. Some became more confident and showed off, whereas others became more shy, regardless people are more vulnerable.
I think with the iPhone as well when you see it being pointed at you, you don’t assume that you’re picture is going to be used for a photography exhibition in the National Gallery of Victoria or something. You just think that it might go on snapchat or be kept in someone’s camera roll on their phone until you’re birthday rolls around and they post in on your facebook wall to wish you a special day. But with a DSLR camera or professional camera, we still assume that the photo’s it takes are for a professional use (just as with the 1800’s and 1900’s when people stood very formally for a photograph and frowns were the norm as far as facial expressions). Back then it can be argued that there were more constraints apart from social conventions of photo taking anyway; film was expensive, most families could not afford photographs and it was important that they be respectable looking.
Interestingly now, I still feel like we have that opinion of professional cameras. Most of us will be happy to smile or pose in a new or different way, but we still hold a certain standard that it still has to look good (good angle, lighting, both eyes open etc. ) unlike a mobile phone photo which can be a blurry selfie from a night out or a very unplanned photo.
Linking back to instagram this week, it was interesting to learn about the Dutch Photographer Eelco Roos and how his current full time job of travelling to places and capturing them began with an interest in taking photos on his Iphone and uploading to Instagram as a hobby. His Ted talk was great as he went into detail about how much the opinion of mobile phone camera photography changed from people believing it to not be a real art form to him now being approached by companies to help them advertise a location or a group of locations. It makes you realise that currently, in 2018 instagram is now a powerful tool to give information to people (affordance…) and is so used and so popular that companies can use it to their advantage. Its almost the new television, with over 800 million users, you almost can’t afford not to have your business be on there.
This brings me to the photo I’ve chosen to analyse:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl-4KpzDb6X/?taken-by=apple
To break it down, the company Apple (Iphone Apple..) made an instagram account to promote their products, in particular the iphone camera. As Instagram is first and foremost a photo sharing website, Apple created the hashtag #ShotonIphone where they would contact photographers and get them to travel (like Eelso Roos) to amazing locations like this one and get photos on their iphones to show how high quality photos like this can be taken using a phone.
Apple are nailing how to use instagram to help them sell their product as well as the location. They are using the geo filter at the top to show us that they are in New Zealand, they are promoting the photographer Kyle P. (he is tagged in the description) and they are also creating written visuals with the quote in the same description making it that little bit more personal.
Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?
The practitioner of the photograph is Kyle Pasalskyj or Kyle P as he goes by on instagram. He began posting photographs on his website in 2015 and has been practicing since that time, eventually expanding to instagram which he is also currently on.
With the photo or video you are examining when was it produced (date)? How was the photo or video authored?
The photograph was produced in August of 2018 and was authored with a knowledge of how to use an iphone camera and all of its features. The photographer would have known that the photo was going to be put in instagram and so this would have affected how he shot the image (it would have been shot in a portait like framing as opposed to landscape as instagram have a square shape to their photos.
How was the photo or video published?
The photo was published on instagram, as well as on the website of the photographer. Instagram lives on the world wide web and so an knowledge that the photo would need to be accompanied by information for those viewing it who aren’t from New Zealand is important. Both for the advertising side of things as well as for plain curiosity. If most of us see a picture of a beautiful scenery, usually the first thing we wonder is, where is this place? The photograph is not used for print and so priorities would still lie in the quality of the photo but for a computer screen/ iphone screen as people scroll through the apple instagram page instead of a large photo frame in a gallery.
How was the photo or video distributed?
The photo was distributed freely for instagramers to find if they followed the apple page or if the image came up as a sponsored ad. Also the hashtags would be useful if someone searched for things iphone related on instagram and the photo popped up. Because apple has such a large following in general, many people already follow their instagram page and so distributing their content is much easier than say for other companies, who often have to use a lot more marketing techniques to get people interested. With Apple all the people who they need to be interested already are, having the page just allows for them to see more functions of the apple products than what tv ads might show.
Looking forward to next week!
12