Monthly Archives: February 2020

Nam June Paik – Robot K-456 (1964)

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?

Nam June Paik, sometimes referred to as the “father of video art”, was a Korean American artist that was active from the early 60s right up until the 1990s.

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?) 

The piece I have chosen is Nam June Paik’s first robot, K-456. It is named after the Kochel listing catalogue number of Mozart’s concerto N. 18 in B-flat major. It can be seen here.

With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?

It was made by Paik in 1964, this was very early in Paik’s foray into modern art, and was his first attempt at automated robot.

How was the photo or video authored?

The concept of the robot came from Paik wanting to create a robot for impromptu street performances that create a “sudden show” or “split-second surprise”. To create K-456, Paik used a selection of metals, cloth, speakers and wheels that he scavenged from various sources. This reflected what would become a staple of his artwork, repurposing cheap and disposable materials into brand new technologies. Its physical composition (body parts, human-like frame etc) also showed Paik’s desire to humanise his robotic creations.

How was the photo or video published?

The robot itself was published with the intention to be ongoing. Paik had an idealistic view of the future of modern robotics, and so wanted his robotic creations to be changing constantly. He did not view k-456 as an inert invention, but rather something that could be refashioned or constantly re-modelled if he so desired. There were elements within the robot that were published traditionally however, as the robot played audio recordings of JFK speeches through a speaker. These would have been captured with a microphone during his election campaign / presidency and Paik took them, presumably from a Creative Commons or public audio library.

How was the photo or video distributed?

The robot was originally distributed to the public via street performances, but then it was also used as part of the Robot Opera at Judson Hall in New York in 1964. It also featured in a series of performance exhibitions throughout the ’60s. It lay dormant for quite some time, but then returned to the public sphere in 1982 when Nam June Paik had their first museum exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. During this exhibition, Nam June Paik took K-456 onto the street and orchestrated what he described as an “accident” where the robot was made to cross 75th street and was struck by a car.

References:

Artelectronicmedia.com. (2020). Robot K456 – Art And Electronic Media. [online] Available at: http://www.artelectronicmedia.com/artwork/robot-k456/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

cyberneticzoo.com. (2020). 1964 – Robot K-456 – Nam June Paik (Korean) & Shuya Abe (Japanese) – cyberneticzoo.com. [online] Available at: http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots-in-art/1964-robot-k-456-nam-june-paik-korean-shuya-abe-japanese/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

Gagosian Quarterly. (2020). Life and Technology: The Binary of Nam June Paik | Gagosian Quarterly. [online] Available at: https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2018/10/16/life-and-technology-binary-nam-june-paik/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

Tate. (2020). Nam June Paik – Exhibition at Tate Modern | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/nam-june-paik [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

The Art Story. (2020). Nam June Paik Art, Bio, Ideas. [online] Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/paik-nam-june/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

 

Henri Cartier-Bresson – Place de l’Europe Gare Saint Lazare (1932)

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?

Henri Cartier-Bresson was an incredibly prominent French photography throughout the 20th century. Born in 1908 just outside of Paris, Cartier-Bresson studied in central Paris and began focusing on photography in the early 1930s after he discovered the works of Martin Mankacsi in Arts et Metiers Graphiques, an arts magazine active from the 1920s until 1939. Active from the early 1930s right up until the early 2000s, Henri Cartier-Bresson was perhaps most known for both his surrealist approaches to photography and also as a founding member of Magnum Photography (an international photojournalist cooperative) that Cartier-Bresson himself described as “…a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.” (Pro.magnumphotos.com, 2020)

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?) 

The photo I have chosen is Place de l’Europe Gare Saint Lazare. It is currently available to be seen in person in person at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, or online at this address.

With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?

The photo was produced at some point in 1932.

How was the photo or video authored?

The photo was captured on Cartier-Bresson’s Leica camera, very soon after her purchased it in the same year. He used 35mm film to capture the image. As for mis-en-scene, he attempted to capture the moment right before the worker hit the ground, in an attempt to create a timeless sense within the photograph. This became an enormous part of Cartier-Bresson’s philosophical view on photography. He coined the term “the decisive moment” when aiming to capture these kinds of fleeting images. It is also interesting to note that this particular photos is one of the very few that Cartier-Bresson decided to crop. Usually, he would leave the entire image in its entire, but Cartier-Bresson decided to crop out a portion of fence in the foreground that slightly protruded into the bottom of the frame.

How was the photo or video published?

The photo was published in a Gelatine Silver process. Silver salt is suspended in gelatine is coated onto the desired print medium (paper, glass, plastic, film etc) and then exposed to a negative. The coating holds a latent image, which is then revealed with a developing agent.

How was the photo or video distributed?

This photo is most known from a book distributed by Simon and Schustser in 1952. It was a collage of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work encapsulating his ideology of capturing moments in time on film. The book titled The Decisive Moment ( originally Images de la Sauvette in French) is one of the most famous in photographic history, as it assembled an enormous variety of Cartier-Bresson’s early works. This particular photo is one of the most well known from the collection and can now be seen in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

 

References:

ABC News. (2020). Place de l’Europe. Gare Saint Lazare 1932. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-26/france.-paris.-place-de-l27europe.-gare-saint-lazare-19322c-b/2857312 [Accessed 8 Feb. 2020].

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. (2020). Biography – Henri Cartier-Bresson. [online] Available at: https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/hcb/biography/ [Accessed 8 Feb. 2020].

Pro.magnumphotos.com. (2020). History of Magnum. [online] Available at: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAX_2&FRM=Frame:MAX_3 [Accessed 7 Feb. 2020].

Steidl Verlag. (2020). The Decisive Moment – Henri Cartier-Bresson. [online] Available at: https://steidl.de/Books/The-Decisive-Moment-0516515559.html [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

Wade, J. (2015). The Leica I: The Camera that Changed Photography. [online] Shutterbug. Available at: https://www.shutterbug.com/content/leica-i-camera-change-photography [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

The Art Story. (2020). Henri Cartier-Bresson Artworks & Famous Photography. [online] Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/cartier-bresson-henri/artworks/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].

The Most Influential Images of All Time. (2020). See The Story Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare. [online] Available at: http://100photos.time.com/photos/henri-cartier-bresson-behind-gare-saint-lazare [Accessed 8 Feb. 2020].

 

 

A1: Annotated Bibliography – Jack Fahey

A1: Annotated Bibliography

Assignment 1- Annotated Bibliography
Name: Jack Fahey s3382553

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

Blog reflections

SESSION 1
SESSION 2
SESSION 3
SESSION 4

Annotated Bibliography

Selected text 1 – The Design of Every Day things (pages 81-87) (word count 535)

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things, Basic Book, New York pp 81-87

Chapter 4 in Norman’s (1998) book, The Design of Everyday Things, outlines the concept he identifies as “constraints” and explains their importance to designers specifically when they are producing content/objects for consumption. The chapter postures that an objects constraints (things that limit the function of an object) can aid the user in determining the correct use and/or function of said object. Norman (1998) goes further into detail by also positing several different types of constraints that an object may have, listing four categories in total (physical, semantic, cultural and logical). The chapter also goes into detail explaining a study involving adults assembling a Lego motorcycle without instructions/guides and provides photographs detailing the task.

The article provides utility by very simplistically explaining the subject matter; the impact that constraints can impart onto objects, from a designer perspective. The results of the Lego motorcycle test is somewhat limited in application and scope (doesn’t outline method or sample, which severely limits any study’s capacity to be extrapolated), however the test isn’t intended to be used as evidence of a widespread phenomenon, but to merely simplistically illustrate to the reader the general aspects of the topic. In this sense, it is functionally useful content for the chapter to contain. The four different categories of constraints that Norman (1998) specifies (physical, semantic, cultural and logical) perfectly illustrate the different reasoning that an average adult would use in order to complete the task outlined at the beginning of the chapter. One issue with the chapter that could possibly limit the usefulness was the way Norman (1998) seems to completely ignore any potential for accidental completion of a task/use of an object. While he does go into very precise detail outlining his various hypotheses of affordances and constraints throughout his entire book, and obviously within this chapter, he will often neglect to acknowledge that perhaps the reason an object like this was built without instructions could be related to someone accidentally doing something correctly. That is to say, there is perhaps too heavy a focus on deliberate actions throughout The Design of Everyday Things, though it may be impossible to deliberately design an object to be “fortuitous” so to speak, which could be the reason that this topic is not covered. One last factor that may limit utility to readers is how much the industry of design has grown and developed since the publication of the book. Decades of shifts and changes in the marketplace may render some of the more contemporary arguments in the book either irrelevant or at the very least muted in effectiveness.

This entire book, and by extension this specific chapter, has been used all over the world by prospective designers in many different specialty disciplines and became a #1 best seller. It has, therefor, clearly proven its utility and importance to the design industry. It is perhaps even more important to the designers of today than it was in 1988 due to the fact that there is an ever expanding number of technological advancements/inventions in the software development market, and these applications are often picked up by consumers or completely forgotten based solely on their ease of use and intuitive design features.

Selected text 2 – New Media: A Critical Introduction (pages 163-169) (word count 449)

Lister, M et al 2009, New Media: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, New York. pp 163-169

Section 3 of New Media: A Critical Introduction explores both the history and the modern applications of the widespread adoption of the internet, specifically in relation to marketing strategy. It outlines both the importance and effect of the dot com crash in early 2000 and the role that the internet has played within an economic context over the following decade. The chapter suggests that modern marketing strategy isn’t only concerned with “exposure” for the brand, but also aimed at promoting “engagement”. Because strategies with high engagement can command higher fees,  Lister et al (2009) postulate that smaller audiences with high engagement can earn just as much revenue as mass audiences.

The chapter provides a good base for understanding in the introduction, before honing the argument down to a more specific and modern topic. It goes into great detail laying down its most important points and defining terms so that the reader can easily digest the information regardless of their experience or prior knowledge in this particular field. On possible drawback is that this publication is now 11 years old. Technology based strategies and information can grow at such a rapid, exponential rate that perhaps the arguments put forward in this article may have already been improved upon or rebutted in further works. Compounding this, its usefulness is somewhat limited towards any social media based marketing strategies considering the relative boom that social media has made in the time since publication. Some of the most popular social media applications of today (Instagram and Snapchat for example) weren’t even launched at the time of publication of this book. This would obviously limit its relevance and utility to anyone specifically researching that particular field of online advertising.

The chapter definitely provides a lot of utility, specifically in relation to anyone researching the early stages of the internet and the first evolution of online marketing. The chapter discusses the dot com boom and crash, the first forays into online marketing and the history of the topic at length, and this is the kind of data and analysis that ages particularly well. So, despite the fact that it was published over a decade ago, in regards to this field of research it is still very relevant. While the chapter doesn’t provide much in-depth, “fine-grain” analysis (and doesn’t aim to) it is still successful at asking questions that push the audience towards further works and it provides evidence from a variety of established, well regarded sources. So while it might not be the most useful piece of writing for experts, it does provide significant utility to people who are just beginning their research into online marketing and how it has changed since its early stages.

Selected text 3- Video: The Reflexive Medium (pages 1-6) (word count 395)

Spielmann, Y., 2007. Video: The Reflexive Medium. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp. 1-6)

This chapter on the Audiovisual Medium explores how the form of video has changed the medium since its inception, and to a lesser extent provides a background of how the audiovisual medium as a whole has developed since videotaping began in the 60s. There is one main assertion made throughout the chapter; that  the central factor separating video from film reliant predecessors is that it does not produce any physical images, even though it does produce pictorial quality. Throughout the whole chapter the writer relies heavily on theoretical frameworks to support their arguments, rather than empirical evidence.

A very in depth, philosophical framework is built throughout the first chapter of this book which goes into great detail to explain the nuanced difference between digital and film based video capture and reproduction. The arguments are supported with technical and theoretical based evidence. The first major drawback to the article that may hinder utility is the incredibly specific and technical jargon used throughout the piece. There is a lot of industry and technologically specialised language that is used without defining any terms for the reader. For an audience that is well versed in the subject matter, this would not be an issue. However, anyone new to the topic or attempting to start learning more with this book may not draw an enormous amount of use out of the chapter, or the book, because of the specificity of the lexicon. Secondly, the article doesn’t attempt to back up any of its assertions or arguments with any empirical and/or statistical evidence or attempt to reference previous works in the same field. It relies solely on the theoretical arguments put forward by the author and nothing else. While this can still be a useful text, it does limit the utility that it can provide to academic works, considering the claims it makes cannot be tested and/or proven outside of being internally consistent.

Understanding the nuanced ways video has reshaped the audiovisual medium is important to people in a variety of disciplines, especially those wishing to become video content creators, film makers, producers etc. The article would be a useful text for anyone exploring the filmic qualities of technical advancements in video production as well as anyone that is seeking a further philosophical understanding of how image capture on film differs from its virtual replacement in modern video.

Total Word Count : 1470

Youtube and Social Media

An interesting point that was raised today in class was which apps we consider to be social media. Elaine asked the class which apps come to mind when we think about social media and all the normal staples of the industry were mentioned (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook etc). One that wasn’t mentioned by the class however was YouTube. Now YouTube is definitely a social media app by the definition, but why is there this disconnect between the others mentioned and apps like Youtube or Spotify that definitely do have social content on them?

I think, possibly, there are two reasons that YouTube wasn’t thought of in this context by anyone in the class. First, YouTube, generally, isn’t used by many people to communicate with their friends/followers. Obviously it is used in that way by the content creators on YouTube, but the vast majority of YouTube users would view themselves as consumers, not creators. When we think of a social media app, we think of snap chatting our friends, posting to an instagram story or messaging each other on facebook. I would guess that most people don’t even comment on YouTube, and so for the vast majority of people there is 0 social interaction on youtube. So, when we have that strong, direct conversational/social perception of what a social media app does, YouTube falls into a slightly different category.

Secondly, for most people on youtube, it is passively consumed content rather than active. When people are using Instagram or Snapchat etc they are often liking photos, messaging their friends, regramming or saving content they enjoy, posting their own photos etc. YouTube however, for the vast majority of users, occupies a space much more similar to traditional broadcast TV or modern streaming platforms like Netflix. People log onto YouTube, watch the content that is produced by their favourite channels and then thats where their usage on the app ends. They don’t use YouTube to message anyone, they don’t post comments, they don’t submit their own videos etc. Even when a someone wants to share a YouTube video with their friends on social media, they use a different app to do so (messenger or twitter for example).

The Long Tail

One of the extra resource readings for this class is an article published to online media outlet WIRED concerning the economic trend of “long tail media”, which basically describes the notion that the market for non-mainstream media content combined are bigger than the mainstream media that is consumed. The article goes on to argue that this line of thinking will shift the economy of media away from blockbusters/lowest common denominator content and into wider and more niche concepts. At a base level, it is true. Obviously, there is always going to be content filling niche’s that mainstream media isn’t going to bother to try and cash in on. Netflix has thousands of titles on its browser, for example, and they are deliberately picked to try and appeal to the widest audience possible. So while it is true that niche markets are big (and probably growing with the ever expanding content outlets online), the notion that the entire economic media landscape will shift towards that model doesn’t seem to line up with the current trend (especially in film and music) in content creation.

 

Currently, generic blockbuster movies are bigger than ever. Expanded universes, trilogies, prequels, sequels etc are dominating the box office. Cinema companies are, more and more, giving screens to the lowest common denominator films rather than taking chances on the more “niche” or (as they are sometimes viewed) “risky” options. I can honestly only see this trend continuing to a point where cinemas will only show blockbuster films and everything else will be only available online. And while, as the article points out, this online only form of niche distribution is rapidly growing in economic viability as a business model, its also getting harder and harder to find production companies that are willing to finance projects that aren’t tying in with some kind of established brand/actor/cinematic universe/source material. While it is true that the biggest market, inevitably, lies outside the top “X” percentage of songs streamed/movies played in cinema etc, that doesn’t mean thats where the most money is for the content creators. So while its true that Spotify makes a ton of money on the “small sales” (the top 10,000 songs get less plays than all the rest combined), it is increasingly becoming harder for bands to get their music onto Spotify if they aren’t an established brand. Similarly in film, while its true that a relatively sizeable portion of Netflix’s library that is streamed aren’t even released in cinemas, its getting harder to find backers with enough money to make those smaller movies with quality.