#11a Instagram photo

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
To shoot the photo I used my iPhone 6’s normal photo format and I did not use zoom or flash. Before posting it I brightened the photo in Instagram’s own editing tools. I also used the editing features in Instagram to straighten the photo so that the door looks straight. The photo was posted in its original rectangular format to Instagram and a constraint here is that when you see the feed on my profile the photo will be square which can make the photo look weirdly cropped.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I shoot three photos off which two were a bit blurry so therefore I picked this one. When posting it I added the location where the photo was recorded (Carlton). I wrote a caption and used yellow colors for the emojis to match the door.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
The photo was posted on Tumblr and Stellar through apps on my phone. On Tumblr I was able to keep the same caption and hashtag. On Stellar it was posted on my portfolio of doors, which constrained me to not write a caption or hashtag.

#10b Instagram Video

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
The video was recorded on my iPhone 6 using the normal format and no zoom or flash. I did not edit the video before posting it to Instagram. I shot the video in one recording due to the fact that there was a lot of people around and I found it a bit embarrassing filming there. I muted the audio as I did not find it relevant.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
As mentioned before I only recorded one video. I added ‘Melbourne’ as location before posting it. My caption supposed to be funny and relatable to those who often grocery shop in the late afternoon where every other Melbournian also seems to be grocery shopping. My video is short (only 3 seconds) and I it repeats on Instagram sort of like a gif.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I posted the video on the 9gag app which I did because the apps has funny videos and posts. I also posted video on Stellar as a part of my portfolio there. I used the same caption on 9gag as on Instagram but deleted the hashtag. Here, the video format is to repeat so it looks a bit like a gif.

#10a Instagram Photo

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I shoot the photo on my iPhone 6 using the normal photo format and no zoom or flash. I edited the photo on Instagram before posting it to make it brighter as it was taken in a dark light. It was a constraint that the light was a bit dark outside and it did not help using the flash. I posted the photo in its original rectangular format to Instagram and the constraint here is when you see the feed on my profile the photo will be square which can make the photo look weird.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
When recording the photo I took four photos and I picked the one where the door was centered in the middle of the photo and at a direct angle. I added the location (Fitzroy) to the Instagram post. My caption refers to the fact that I the door is for a clothing store and I was shopping when I recorded the photo.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I posted the photo on Jodel and a photographer’s app called Stellar. Both I did through apps on my phone. On Stellar it is posted into my portfolio of doors, so I am constrained to not write a caption or hashtag. On Jodel I kept the same caption but no hashtag. On Jodel I experienced that the photo “disappears” after about a day due to new posts and it is not easy to find old posts.

#9b Instagram video

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
For the video I used my iPhone 6’s rear facing camera not using any flash. I recorded two short videos which I assembled to one video using the iMovie App. When shooting a video on your iPhone, it is a constraint that there is only one format to choose (whereas you can take a square or rectangular photo). Therefore, it does not fit entirely perfect into Instagram’s square shape. When filming I moved closer instead of zooming in to achieve the best quality possible. I muted the video on Instagram.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I had thought about how I wanted the video to be recorded so it only took one shot to get it right. The video has a caption, an emoji and a hashtag. I did not add the location because I didn’t find it relevant for this video.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Aside from Instagram I have posted the video on Stellar as a part of my portfolio there. I also posted it on the 9gag app which is an app I found because I was looking for a place for funny videos. I kept the same caption as on Instagram but deleted the emoji and hashtag. Here, the video format is to repeat the video and thereby it turned into a (very long) gif.

Link to post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxXKN-fl76Q/

#9a Instagram photo

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I used my iPhone 6’s rear facing camera to author the photo. Shooting the photograph, I stood close to the beach booth so I did not have to zoom in and thereby I got the best picture quality as possible. I was aware I had to have some space in the top and bottom of the photo, because I used the normal rectangular photo size (the iPhone standard) that does not fit into Instagram’s square sized frame. I used a filter to brighten the photo before publishing it. There was some constraints in the process of authoring the photo on my iPhone. One is the quality that is good, but not as good as a professional camera. Another is the shape of the photo which is does not match Instagram’s settings.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I recorded several images before deciding on one. I took pictures of five different beach booths and decided on this one due to various reasons: it was in my opinion the aesthetically best-looking door, the image was better framed than the others I shoot and the light was best in this image. I put in a caption, emojis and a hashtag for the photo and then I added the location. The reason why I added the location was that it was a public place and perhaps others would like to know where it is.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Besides Instagram I also posted the photo on a free photographer’s app called Stellar. This is an app where you can make your own personal portfolio and I figured it would be a good place to gather my photos in an aesthetically pleasing way. So far I have added five photos and videos. The constraint here is that you cannot write a caption for each photo – only for the whole album. I also posted the photo on the app Jodel where it can be upvoted, downvoted and commented on by anonymous users. Here you are restrained to only write a short caption which mine was. On Jodel I deleted the emojis and hashtag as I found they were not commonly used.

Link to post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxUoflphG1Y/

#8 Networked video

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?The practitioners I have chosen are the two American artist Josie Keefe and Phyllis Ma who calls themselves “Lazy mom” and have the Instagram @lazy together. They have been practicing together on Instagram since 2014. They do mostly stop-motion videos that they post as gifs on Instagram where they have 65,3K followers. They use the Instagram to make short versions of their artwork to tease for upcoming exhibitions.

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?) The caption for the Instagram video is “maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s…butter. 🤔🍞”. It was published on February 12th 2017. Link to the video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BQX-ZpwDV9K/

How was the video authored?
The video was authored with professional equipment and using a model who puts butter on her foot and inserts it into a sandal made out of bread. It is a simple one-shot video. They use music from an artist called aaaahchugg.

How was the photo or video published?
The short video was published on the @lazy instagram account, however it is a teaser for a longer video that can be found on their website and in different art exhibitions.

How was the video distributed?
The video was distributed to @lazy’s 65k followers, but the video has more than 3,75 million views which shows that many people visits their profile but does not necessarily follow it. I noticed that many people have tagged other people in the comment section which can explain some of the many viewings. Also the videos that Lazy mom does are often absurd and have a special and very recognizable esthetical look which can attract more viewings.

 

Reference

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/t-magazine/food-as-art.html

#6 Analogue Video

The practitioner
Nam June Paik (1932–2006) was a Korean-American artist, who is considered to be the founder of video art. Paik startet practicing in approximately the start 60’s. His work was very innovative and attracted a lot of attention. He often uses tv-screens in his artwork.

The artwork is called Golden Buddha.

 

Production
This specific artwork was first exhibited in 2005, so I can imagine it was made in the within a year before that time. Paik has earlier made a similar artwork in 1992 called “TV Buddha”.

The authoring
The artwork is a physical instalment that consists of an installation with a 27-inch monitor, a video camera and a bronze Buddha painted by the artist with permanent oil marker. The dimensions are 118.1 x 269.2 x 80.6 cm.

The publishing and distribution
The instalment was published and distributed in a Hong Kong museum as a part of the Gagosian programme. That means that viewer physically has to visit the museum to see the artwork in real life. Admirers of Nam June Paik can find pictures and information about Golden Buddha on the internet.

References

https://gagosian.com/artists/nam-june-paik/

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/arts/design/nam-june-paiks-work-at-asia-society.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_June_Paik

#5 Analogue Photography

The practitioner
This week’s practitioner is the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who was a French humanist photographer and painter. He started taking photos in 1929 and became famous for his street photography that he practiced all over the world.

About the photo
The title of the photograph is Prostituées. It is a one of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s pictures taken on Calle Cuauhtemoctzin in Mexico City in 1934. © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum

The authoring of the photo
The photo was taken in Mexico City on a street known for its many brothels. It looks like it is taken pretty spontaneously (because he also has another similar photo from the same street also of a prostitute). He thinks a lot about the composition of the photo. The two windows show his eye for architecture and shapes and the photo is taking from above as if he is looking down at the women. The women do not seem to mind him and they look quite comfortable.

Publishing
The photo was printed in 1946 (23.4 x 34.6 cm gelatin silver print). I find this a bit strange since it was shot in 1934. I guess it tells a lot about the time; that is was not very usual to take many photos and you rarely got them printet.

Distribution
The photo has been showcased in several museums over the last 30 years, among these are Museum of Modern Art, New York and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Thereby the photo has been available for public acces. I don’t know where it has been for the first 45 years.

#3 Affordances

The term ‘affordances’ seems like a simple concept. It explains what you literally and physically do with an object. It explains the object’s physically possible functionalities. In our everyday life we do not usually wonder about the affordances of different objects because most things nowadays are designed in a way that we intuitively know what to do with them. The other day I went to buy a chain lock for my new bicycle. There are probably hundreds of different kinds of chain locks but I immediately recognized it and was able to use it straight away. If I wanted to, I could have used it as a necklace to spice up my outfit. But I didn’t – because I knew it wasn’t meant for that. This exemplifies the term perceived affordances. Perceived affordances are about what the object signals you should to do with it. How it is supposed to be used. To understand these perceived affordances, it is required that you have a certain frame of understanding.

When discussing social medias such as Instagram it becomes more difficult to talk about affordances as these becomes metaphorical. In class we had an interesting discussion about why Instagram is so popular compared to other photo sharing app’s and websites. Looking at Instagram’s technical affordances, they allow you to shoot, edit and publish one or more photos. But almost everybody takes photos with their camera app and not directly through Instagram. Many also use different apps for editing. But why is that? I think it has a lot to do with the habits and norms. A lot of times when you take a photo, you do not immediately post it to Instagram. That could be a big factor here. But when making an Instagram story you would be more likely to actually shoot the photo or video through the app. Perhaps this is because there are different expectations and norms for posts compared to stories. A post is supposed to polished, aesthetic and finished off with a witty, thoughtful or descriptive caption. A story shows what you are doing at this instant and is not expected to be as well thought out as a post. There is a big difference between these two though – one is permanent and the other will disappear after 24 hours.
What I think is interesting here is that you can analyze different features of Instagram in regard to affordances and see how almost the same affordances can have two different outcomes when it comes to how we use them.

#2 Networks

When the American military and universities developed what we now know as the internet, they probably didn’t realize just how much impact this invention would come to have. By connecting a few computers into a network, they laid the groundwork of the most important invention of the 20th century. But in the beginning, the internet was not for everybody. We should all give a big thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, who not only invented the World Wide Web, but also chose to make it free for the public to use. The internet would not be the same without web.

The term “network” can be interpreted in many ways and it is a key word when discussing internet, web and social media. A network involves a kind of interconnectedness between different elements. When talking about the internet, network refers to a physical network, connecting multiple computers to minimize the risk of crashes as well as sharing information. Via the web, networks became more personalized with the popularity of social sites like MySpace, where you could create your own profile and promote yourself through it as well as connecting with other people e.g. through mutual interests. These social networks were wildly popular in the early 2000’s and they still are. Today we just call them social media. One big thing that has changed since MySpace’s days of glory is that everybody has smartphones now a days. As some told me recently: “why are they called smartphones when they only make us more stupid?”. I would argue that smartphones has had a great impact on web 2.0 and especially in relation to social media, which many use mainly on their smartphone.

Although the web seems open and free for most people to use we are now experiencing a much bigger focus on the fact that we are giving out a lot of data about ourselves when using the web. Web giants like Google and Facebook may very well know more about you than you think. They know where you live, what music you like, your political orientation and so much more. As users, we might not pay to use the sites with money, but we sure do pay with our data. But is that really so bad? Sure, they sell our data to third parties, but that means we get a customized experience when we use Google and Facebook. All search results, advertisements and posts are directed to you – you see what you want to se. Or do you?
It’s a known fact, that we surround ourselves with people, who are similar to us. Facebook and Google are trying to do the same with the material they show us. In my opinion this is very dangerous. By only being shown what you already like or agree with, you will never be challenged on your opinions or seeing things from a different perspective. What Google and Facebook contributes to is a kind of echo-chamber, where you are always supported in your ways and opinions. The algorithms of Google and Facebook has taken over the choices of what we should see – a choice that was previously made by first of all ourselves but also e.g. journalists when deciding what stories to bring in the newspaper. It is hard to say just how much influence these algorithms have but thinking about them in context to the postfactual society where fake news and radical opinions are becoming a norm they could potentially become a democratic challenge.