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Entangling Media – Assignment 2

PART 1: REFLECT

  1. Multimodality can be defined as “the simultaneous of co-deployment of resources within a single communication process of meaning-making purposes.”
  2. Bolter and Grusin explain, “We call the representation of one medium in another remediation, and we argue that remediation is a defining characteristic of the new digital media.” (Basaraba et al 2021, pg 391)

What is a better way to explains multimodality and new digital media other than using interactive contents in the article like An Article about Interactive Content. This article is not a narrative; however, it explains andintroduces me to different components I can use in a digital article to maximize the engagement of audience, including interactive pictures, interactive video, poll, augmented reality, 360-degree photo, interactive infographic, and hyperlink. These components’ similarity is that they are used to broaden our vision and perspective, and knowledge by forcing readers to scroll and click, which makes this an example of how to do new journalism if that is what I want to do.

For example, readers have access to the context when a photo is taken by turning the 360-degree photo or jump to a Metaverse by using a QR code. Instead of reading a long paragraph explaining what the photo is about, or what a graph is telling you, readers can now simply click or place the cursor onto the photo or the infographics for a short and sweet description to appear. Hyperlink can give readers freedom of exploration, blurring the limit of chronical scrolling and allow readers to move to the part they want to read first. The author even uses text to highlight the use of these components such as ‘I hope you are not reading in chronical order’ to remind people their freedom or consider the wait time to download Metaverse and say, ‘while you wait, read this first’. Everything is used to open the reading experience to the furthest, widest by giving more information, more details, more intimate, fun, and engaging.

But the best thing I discover in this article is interactive videos. It is like a marketing version of video game where audience can interact with the video by clicking, swiping, or even typing. The stories are usually branched and are proceed by the audience’s choice therefore encourage individual experiences and engagement by including audiences into the story making process. The Nike Air Max Dia Style It Yourselfcampaign, where audience can choose clothing items to style the model, is an example of an impressive interactive video. Like playing a video game, my engagement with interactive videos peaks and I never stop wowing as the world keeps on opening and answers so many ‘what if’ questions, therefore I would want to explore this medium and its application in multimodal media.

More traditionally, we have a photo essay on Instagram by @ingmarbnolting. This account runs by Ingmar Bjorn Nolting, a portrait and documentary photographer based in Germany, who has published photobooks that documented nonfiction, disastrous events such as Covid-19 and the Ukraine War. Photography is a medium where the photographer’s emotion and opinion about the subject is told via their individual style and therefore Instagram is a smart choice for a photo essay as it provides a comprehensive showcase of style and subjects. The carousel also gives audience more insights about a certain person or event, which is useful in this case. Ingmar’s distinct mood of his photos is dreamy and unreal while capturing the human in the most painful and traumatic events in modern days. Moreover, when combining with his writing that describes the factual stories of them not only provides audience evidence that broadens their knowledge but also deliver a much more powerful message about the events that strengthens the emotion of the audience.

For example, this photo captured the grave digging process for the soldiers of western Ukraine. The photo is far from dramatic as the context is. Its calm yet dull tone suggests a routine-like life of the people in Lviv. It also influences how audience reads the text. ‘Tens of thousands of refugees are crowding into the city; civilians are arming themselves, fallen soldiers are being buried, and aid supplies are being sent to the frontlines.’ We now read this traumatic report in a calm and quiet voice, and by swiping through seven photos in this carousel, we understand that this is just another day in a war-strike country, which evokes empathy and critics towards war.

 

 

Or this photo, capturing the new hospital beds in the exhibition halls of Hanover Fair, available for 500 Covid-19 patients that cannot be in the hospital due to the exhaustion of facilities and cannot be at home due to the course of their disease. The photo is as simple as it can be. The text is like a daily report. However, it is the context that is suggested by the word choices and the photo that makes the helplessness of the situation and the human’s effort to survive the pandemic to be powerfully delivered.

Personally, I am fascinated by the irony and the message that the context and the style deliver when standing together in a post, which to me is a form of intellectual montage. Life itself is full of irony yet so beautiful, and it is exactly what I portray for my own multimodal pieces.

References:

 

PART 2: MAKE

  1. Mirror

Audio Player

Boyle M (2011) Mirror, Hello Poetry.  https://hellopoetry.com/poem/87869/mirror/

Mirror is a poem about how one stands in front of themselves in the mirror and accept that the past has passed. I convey this poem in animation, audio, and most importantly using the medium of space.

If you use a projector, and project image into a mirror, and stand in between the two, the image will reflect onto you. This discover makes me much more interested in how a media piece is shown and how it enhances the delivery of the message. I also learnt how to do sound mixing on Adobe Audition and how to elevate speech with echo and delay; however, I failed to embrace the emotion of the poem in my voice, as I’m not a professional actor. I also used Adobe After Effects to design the animation and came to realise the infinite possibilities of motion graphic in portraying a text. There was so much more I could have done and explored such as what is the best environment to project and Projection Mapping; however, due to the time constraint I can only do one minute of both animation and soundtrack.

2. How To Get Home 101

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/58f05b5eb44e4b2f9c3964971ecee403

How To Get Home 101 is an experiment with interactive maps using StoryMaps where I tried to use all of the features. Every marked location has a description, like a little note, and I also tried adding an image to it. The story is told in a linear timeline, essay/diary style, recording my little thoughts about the last time I went back to my hometown.

The timeline s is not ideal as I wanted to portray the opposite attitudes of the event but it ends up being a clump of mixed emotion. I also wanted to use the map features more, such as drawing on the map or marking the area, in order to highlights the journey aspect of the story.

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