As always, regardless of how well organised and prepared you think you may be, there are always little things that stray from the original plan, go horribly wrong, or take longer than expected than the original allocated timeframe.  Thankfully, major disasters were avoided, though the half hour we had to prepare the room before our seminar began passed in the blink of an eye.

Our guests appeared well before we were due to begin, first being Clayton Jacobson, director of Kenny, which starred his brother Shane as a plumber who works for a portable toilet rental company.  It’s rather funny upon reflection that I ran into him in the bathrooms just before we were due to meet in the building’s foyer.  Renowned editor Alicia Gleeson and 2014 Tropfest Winner Julian Lucas completed our guest list.  All our guests were lovely, talkative and despite their successes, still very relatable, which relieved a lot of the stress I had built up over the hours before.

Still, the time I had spent waiting for and speaking with them did make me feel as though I was letting the rest of the team down by not helping them prepare directly.  Like the hours before, our seminar passed even quicker.  All our speakers gave some excellent informative advice, and I was incredibly proud we had managed to attract such distinguished guests.

I was however, really disappointed that we were not allowed more time to set up beforehand, with some of the finer details unable to be tweaked to achieve what could have been a flawless performance from our entire group.  Though I understand that the room and allotted time frame was set in stone before the semester even began, I would strongly recommend that for future year levels, the room is booked for a longer period of time before the seminar, so that we may begin setting up in the room at least an hour before.

That said, I’m still very proud of not only the grade that we achieved, but the quality our seminar displayed.  It was a fantastic group of people to work with, and I gained many new friends and potentially future colleagues along the way.

What did you do well?

I feel that I strived to do well for my Korsakow sketch tasks and assignments, completing them to a high standard and maintaining high levels of creativity, as per my participation contract.  I have attended each class and a large majority of lectures each week.  The lectures were insightful and I found were always thought-provoking, particularly as they came after the readings had been set, so allowed for a greater level of thoughts and understanding.  Keeping tabs on blogs from my peers was also helpful in gaining a different perspective on the topics of discussion.

What have you learned to do better?

I have learned that by setting small goals and assessing progress on a regular basis, I feel like you set a standard to achieve for yourself to maintain a better performance throughout a longer time period.

What could you have learned to do better?

I found some elements of Korsakow difficult to learn and could have potentially tried to understand the program’s structure and interface to a better extent, however did seek help from my peers, and how-to blogs and videos.  I feel that I could have greater immersed myself in the course content and explored these new ideas to a greater degree.  As is always the case with my work ethic,  time management is an issue, and in future should maintain a rigid schedule for writing mandatory blog posts.  I would also benefit more by taking more notes throughout the lectures.

Korsakow research leader Matt Soar shares his thoughts on the future and longevity of non-linear documentaries, and given his position, it makes for an enticing read.  He predicts that these open source programs will eventually last longer than their commercial counterparts, because they involve a greater community involvement and offer much more diversity and are more readily accessible to the broader society.   Both arguments are huge factors when considering the evolution of software.

Perhaps the statement that resonated most with me was Soar’s description of Korsakow film as a medium, which he describes as “an extended exercise in interactive spatial montage”, where the term ‘spatial montage’ is described by Lev Manovich as “a number of images, potentially of different sizes and proportions, appearing on the screen at the same time”.

Soar goes on to discuss the crucial importance of the Korsakow interface for audiences, quoting Will Luers when explaining  that “the narration of the database is through the interface; its design, entry points, absences, spatial complexity and simultaneity”.

Soar, Matt. “Making (with) the Korsakow System: Database Documentaries as Articulation and Assemblage.” New Documentary Ecologies Emerging Platforms, Practices and Discourses. Ed. Kate Nash, Craig Hight, and Catherine Summerhayes. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 154–73.