From geert at xs4all.nl Fri Apr 3 11:18:36 2009 From: geert at xs4all.nl (Geert Lovink) Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 11:18:36 +0200 Subject: Joost Teams With Social Network Netlog Message-ID: <67667ED6-30B1-4076-A4F9-55E92DEE351C@xs4all.nl> Joost Teams With Social Network Netlog Thursday 5 March, 2009 More evidence that the major video-aggregation sites are morphing into hubs and distributors of content rather than pure destination sites: Joost has announced an agreement to make its library of over 50,000 videos available to users of the homepage of Belgian social-networking site Netlog. http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-joost-teams-with-social-network-netlog-another-video-aggregator-leaving/ From sabine at networkcultures.org Tue Apr 14 15:41:30 2009 From: sabine at networkcultures.org (Sabine Niederer) Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:41:30 +0200 Subject: YouTube collages Message-ID: <31375DB2-67EE-4A78-B54E-A5A212B889F3@networkcultures.org> A friend just forwarded me these YouTube collages. They are freely available for downloading (and printing). Ciao, Sabine ///// Source: http://www.joshpoehlein.com/ModernHistory.html "Modern History is a series of collages assembled exclusively from screen grabs of Youtube videos. This is a work in progress and the site will be updated as I finish new pieces. I am offering large files for personal printing at no cost. Computer files are the most easily reproducible information on the planet. In this particular case I see no reason to imbue a false sense of preciousness on the work. The information I gathered to create the collages is publicly availaibe, and the collages themselves are no different. " -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sabine at networkcultures.org Wed Apr 15 15:20:27 2009 From: sabine at networkcultures.org (Sabine Niederer) Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:20:27 +0200 Subject: Call for Online Video Curating project Intermerz Message-ID: Dear all, this is a call for the call for 'online video curating' project Intermerz. Feel invited to submit your curatorial video selection at http://tiny.cc/Xwwrt . INTERMERZ is an ongoing curatorial experiment, reconsidering exhibition formats for single screen based video. It is a traveling exhibition with a highly variable form, always adapting itself to its hosting environment. Browsing is curating. INTERMERZ is not only a physical exhibition but also a database, a digital platform. INTERMERZ explicitly denies the conventional borders between the artist and the public, the specialist and the amateur. In the 'age of the user' where video has become the global vernacular through online platforms, browsing has become a form of curating. The curating process is open. For INTERMERZ, both artists and the wider public are invited to upload their video-work to the database. Next to that, and in the idea of 'browsing is curating' and 'senders receive' we also challenge everyone to send us their series of online video, i.e. to add a series of favorite online videos which generate beauty or meaning through their interrelation. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From joomen at beeldengeluid.nl Thu Apr 16 05:30:50 2009 From: joomen at beeldengeluid.nl (Johan Oomen) Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:30:50 +0200 Subject: ArtBabble.org - Play Art Loud In-Reply-To: Message-ID: ?Are you an artist? Would you like to become one? If you nodded along to either question, this portal is more than certain to appeal to you. In essence, it is a community resource where individuals the world over convene to discuss anything that has to do with art. The site www.artbabble.org has a very exciting range of options and features on offer. User profiles are spotlighted on the main page, and you can see each user?s favorite videos and media from the main page. News and video quotes are prominently featured too, and the site will give you a very good umbrella knowledge (and more) about what goes into the inception of a work of art. Registration to the site comes at no cost, and all you have to do is choose a screen name and provide some basic information. Besides, you can sign in using your Google or Yahoo ID. All in all, a very nice resource that will let you fuel your creative fire until it shines brighter than ever. Pay it a visit by following the link below and start browsing through the available contents ? the layout of the site alone will make it an enjoyable and fulfilling task. ? Visit website: http://www.artbabble.org (source: http://www.killerstartups.com) Best wishes, Johan Oomen Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From geert at xs4all.nl Thu Apr 16 19:55:04 2009 From: geert at xs4all.nl (Geert Lovink) Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:55:04 +0200 Subject: first draft of the video vortex 4 program in split (croatia) Message-ID: <380CF9F4-10FD-4AD8-AC77-002C7CDC53D0@xs4all.nl> VIDEO VORTEX 4, SPLIT-CROATIA, MAY 21-23 2009 OPENING EVENING: THURSDAY 21 MAY 2009 17:30 Afternoon Screenings Preview at Kinoteka Zlatna Vrata, Split 19:00 Opening evening at Multimedia Cultural Center, Split Word of Welcome by Geert Lovink, Miranda Velja?i? and Dan Oki Introduction speech by Lev Manovich (to be confirmed) 20:00 Exhibition opening (with food buffet) 21:00 Performance: Emile Zile - Post-It Kino (Buses to the hotel at 22:30 and 23:00) DAY ONE: FRIDAY 22 MAY Conference at Multimedia Cultural Center, Split (Buses to the Conference at 9:00 and 9:20) 9:45 - 11:30 SESSION 1: Tele-image Research Strategies Moderator: Sabine Niederer Presentations by: - Andreas Treske - Nathalie Bookchin - Dalibor Martinis Discussion COFFEE 11:45 ? 13:45 Session 2: The Database Moderator: Tomislav Medak Presentations by: - Maarten Brinkerink - Kuros Yalpani - Albert Figurt - Alejandro Duque Discussion LUNCH 14:30 ? 16:15 Session 3: Video Art meets Web Aesthetics Moderator: Leila Topi? Presentations by: - Vera Tollmann - Vito Campanelli - Sarah K?ssene Discussion COFFEE/TEA 17:00 SCREENINGS Presented by Dan Oki - Lemeh42, Study on human form and humanity #1, (2?00?). - Cornelius Onitsch, *AV*, (5?00?). - Ivana Runjic, Show me your hard disk and I will tell you who you are, (7?00?). - Nathalie Bookchin, Parking Lot, (15?00?). - Shelly Silver, In Complete World (53?00?). Q&A 20:00 CONFERENCE DINNER (Buses to the hotel leave at 22:15 and 23:00) DAY TWO: SATURDAY 23 MAY 2009 Conference at Multimedia Cultural Center, Split (Buses to the conference leave at 9:00 and 9:15) 09:30 ? 11:15 Session 4: Online Video Theories Moderator: Geert Lovink Presentations by: - Jan Simons - Gabriel Menotti - Amir Soltani - Stefan Heidenreich Discussion COFFEE 11:30 ? 13:30 Session 5: Online Video Narratives Moderator: Brian Willems - Jasmina Kallay - David Clark - Valentina Rao - Paul Wiersbinski Discussion LUNCH 14:15 - 16:15 Session 6: Politics of the Moving Image Moderator: Petar Milat Presentations by: - Sasa Vojkovic - David Teh - Ana Peraica - Antanas Stancius Discussion COFFEE/TEA 16:30 ? 18:00 Session 7: Social Cinema Moderator: Dan Oki Presentations by: - Perry Bard - Evelin Stermitz - Dagan Cohen Discussion Evening: 19:00 CONFERENCE DINNER 21:00 PERFORMANCES - Cym, 30?00? - Surprise Act 22:00 VIDEO VORTEX PARTY (Buses to the hotel leave at 24:00 and 02:00) From sabine at networkcultures.org Fri Apr 17 10:44:16 2009 From: sabine at networkcultures.org (Sabine Niederer) Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:44:16 +0200 Subject: VV Split update Message-ID: Dear all, On 22-23 May, 2009 the fourth edition of Video Vortex will take place in Split, Croatia. It is organized by the Department of Film and Video at the Academy of Arts University of Split and Platforma 9.8, in collaboration with the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam. After previous Video Vortex events in Brussels, Amsterdam and Ankara, Video Vortex Split will focus on the moving image on the Web. VV Split includes presentations by: Perry Bard, Nathalie Bookchin, Maarten Brinkerink, Vito Campanelli, David Clark, Dagan Cohen, Alejandro Duque, Albert Figurt, Stefan Heidenreich, Jasmina Kallay, Sarah K?ssene, Lev Manovich (to be confirmed), Dalibor Martinis, Gabriel Menotti, Ana Peraica, Valentina Rao, Jan Simons, Amir Soltani, Antanas Stancius, Evelin Stermitz, David Teh, Vera Tollmann, Andreas Treske, Sasa Vojkovic, Paul Wiersbinski, Kuros Yalpani. Performances by: Cym and Emile Zile, and screened work by: Nathalie Bookchin, Cym, Lemeh42, Cornelius Onitsch, Ivana Runjic, and Shelly Silver. The draft program is online at www.networkcultures.org/videovortex. We hope to see you in Split! Sabine Niederer Institute of Network Cultures /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// VIDEO VORTEX SPLIT OPENING EVENING: THURSDAY 21 MAY 2009 17:30 Afternoon Screenings Preview at Kinoteka Zlatna Vrata, Split 19:00 Opening evening at Multimedia Cultural Center, Split Word of Welcome by Geert Lovink, Miranda Velja?i? and Dan Oki Introduction speech by Lev Manovich (to be confirmed) 20:00 Exhibition opening (with food buffet) 21:00 Performance: Emile Zile - Post-It Kino (Buses to the hotel at 22:30 and 23:00) DAY ONE: FRIDAY 22 MAY Conference at Multimedia Cultural Center, Split (Buses to the Conference at 9:00 and 9:20) 9:45 - 11:30 SESSION 1: Tele-image Research Strategies Moderator: Sabine Niederer Presentations by: - Andreas Treske - Nathalie Bookchin - Dalibor Martinis Discussion COFFEE 11:45 ? 13:45 Session 2: The Database Moderator: Tomislav Medak Presentations by: - Maarten Brinkerink - Kuros Yalpani - Albert Figurt - Alejandro Duque Discussion LUNCH 14:30 ? 16:15 Session 3: Video Art meets Web Aesthetics Moderator: Leila Topi? Presentations by: - Vera Tollmann - Vito Campanelli - Sarah K?ssene Discussion COFFEE/TEA 17:00 SCREENINGS Presented by Dan Oki - Lemeh42, Study on human form and humanity #1, (2?00?). - Cornelius Onitsch, *AV*, (5?00?). - Ivana Runjic, Show me your hard disk and I will tell you who you are, (7?00?). - Nathalie Bookchin, Parking Lot, (15?00?). - Shelly Silver, In Complete World (53?00?). Q&A 20:00 CONFERENCE DINNER (Buses to the hotel leave at 22:15 and 23:00) DAY TWO: SATURDAY 23 MAY 2009 Conference at Multimedia Cultural Center, Split (Buses to the conference leave at 9:00 and 9:15) 09:30 ? 11:15 Session 4: Online Video Theories Moderator: Geert Lovink Presentations by: - Jan Simons - Gabriel Menotti - Amir Soltani - Stefan Heidenreich Discussion COFFEE 11:30 ? 13:30 Session 5: Online Video Narratives Moderator: Brian Willems - Jasmina Kallay - David Clark - Valentina Rao - Paul Wiersbinski Discussion LUNCH 14:15 - 16:15 Session 6: Politics of the Moving Image Moderator: Petar Milat Presentations by: - Sasa Vojkovic - David Teh - Ana Peraica - Antanas Stancius Discussion COFFEE/TEA 16:30 ? 18:00 Session 7: Social Cinema Moderator: Dan Oki Presentations by: - Perry Bard - Evelin Stermitz - Dagan Cohen Discussion Evening: 19:00 CONFERENCE DINNER 21:00 PERFORMANCES - Cym, 30?00? - Surprise Act 22:00 VIDEO VORTEX PARTY (Buses to the hotel leave at 24:00 and 02:00) From sethkeen at internode.on.net Sat Apr 18 14:59:08 2009 From: sethkeen at internode.on.net (Seth Keen) Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:59:08 +1000 Subject: another fantastic open video demo Message-ID: <86ECF715-8A24-4F00-A8EA-E8A9BFEF2E55@internode.on.net> http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=1218 - dated April 15, 2009. dialogue from the video screencast: "the user can interact with the webpage while the video is being displayed" --- sethkeen at internode.on.net >> sethkeen.net/blog/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jay.dedman at gmail.com Sun Apr 19 02:24:38 2009 From: jay.dedman at gmail.com (Jay dedman) Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:24:38 -0400 Subject: another fantastic open video demo In-Reply-To: <86ECF715-8A24-4F00-A8EA-E8A9BFEF2E55@internode.on.net> References: <86ECF715-8A24-4F00-A8EA-E8A9BFEF2E55@internode.on.net> Message-ID: <34ced5f40904181724qf98ab1k7789567ac604542@mail.gmail.com> On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 8:59 AM, Seth Keen wrote: > http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=1218 - dated?April 15, 2009. > dialogue from the video screencast: > "the user can interact with the webpage while the video is being displayed" I believe Chris Blizzard reposted it. Check out the original link: http://standblog.org/blog/post/2009/04/15/Making-video-a-first-class-citizen-of-the-Web Tristan does a great job of framing the issue of open video. It's still difficult to convince an average computer user why they should care,. Jay -- http://ryanishungry.com http://jaydedman.com http://twitter.com/jaydedman 917 371 6790 From vera.tollmann at gmx.net Mon Apr 20 20:58:46 2009 From: vera.tollmann at gmx.net (Vera Tollmann) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:58:46 +0200 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?q?Youtubes_sch=F6ne_Schwester?= References: <86ECF715-8A24-4F00-A8EA-E8A9BFEF2E55@internode.on.net> <34ced5f40904181724qf98ab1k7789567ac604542@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: An article about the "beautiful sister of Youtube", a smaller online video plattform called Vimeo, which is appreciated for its high quality. Sorry, the article is in German, maybe only some of you can read it: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,619600,00.html From seth.keen at rmit.edu.au Tue Apr 21 05:03:00 2009 From: seth.keen at rmit.edu.au (Seth Keen) Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:03:00 +1000 Subject: immobilite - A Foreign Film by Mark Amerika Message-ID: http://www.immobilite.com/ The world's first feature-length mobile phone art film. A story about a future world where the dream of living in utopia can only be sustained by a nomadic tribe of artists and intellectuals, Mark Amerika's Immobilit? mashes up the language of "foreign films" with landscape painting and literary metafiction. The work was composed using an unscripted, improvisational method of acting and the mobile phone images are intentionally shot in an amateurish or DIY [do- it-yourself] style similar to the evolving forms of video distributed in social media environments such as YouTube. By interfacing this low- tech version of video making with more sophisticated forms of European art-house movies, Amerika both asks and answers the question "What is the future of cinema?" best Seth Keen --- media lecturer >> sethkeen.net/blog -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mail at tilmanbaumgaertel.net Tue Apr 21 05:42:17 2009 From: mail at tilmanbaumgaertel.net (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?tilman_baumg=E4rtel?=) Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:42:17 +0800 Subject: immobilite - A Foreign Film by Mark Amerika In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <49ED4099.6020807@tilmanbaumgaertel.net> I think in the "future of cinema" films like that would be downloadable... Yours, Tilman Seth Keen schrieb: > http://www.immobilite.com/ > > The world's first feature-length mobile phone art film. > > A story about a future world where the dream of living in utopia can > only be sustained by a nomadic tribe of artists and intellectuals, > Mark Amerika's Immobilit? mashes up the language of "foreign films" > with landscape painting and literary metafiction. The work was > composed using an unscripted, improvisational method of acting and the > mobile phone images are intentionally shot in an amateurish or DIY > [do-it-yourself] style similar to the evolving forms of video > distributed in social media environments such as YouTube. By > interfacing this low-tech version of video making with more > sophisticated forms of European art-house movies, Amerika both asks > and answers the question "What is the future of cinema?" > > > best > Seth Keen > --- > media lecturer > >> sethkeen.net/blog > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > ----- > > video vortex discussion list > artist responses to youtube > > to change your settings or unsubscribe, please go to: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/videovortex_listcultures.org From J.A.A.Simons at uva.nl Tue Apr 21 10:25:29 2009 From: J.A.A.Simons at uva.nl (Simons, J.A.A.) Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:25:29 +0200 Subject: FW: sms sugar man now online Message-ID: <3E5C5B18CD1F014C865FA11958848480064CE179@devries.uva.nl> To my knowledge, this is the first feature length movie entirely shot with mobile phone cameras. It was made in 2007 by the South-Arfrican filmmaker Aryan Kaganof. It is available online. Jan Simons ________________________________ From: Aryan Kaganof [mailto:kaganof at mweb.co.za] Sent: dinsdag 21 april 2009 9:00 To: Simons, J.A.A. Subject: sms sugar man now online Dear Jan, The first full length feature film shot on a mobile phone camera is now online and can be watched in its entirety for free. www.smssugarman.com ________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 60359 bytes Desc: ATT835332.jpg URL: From mail at tilmanbaumgaertel.net Tue Apr 21 10:55:51 2009 From: mail at tilmanbaumgaertel.net (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?tilman_baumg=E4rtel?=) Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:55:51 +0800 Subject: FW: sms sugar man now online In-Reply-To: <3E5C5B18CD1F014C865FA11958848480064CE179@devries.uva.nl> References: <3E5C5B18CD1F014C865FA11958848480064CE179@devries.uva.nl> Message-ID: <49ED8A17.2050405@tilmanbaumgaertel.net> There was another feature length film shot with a cam phone in 2005 by two Italians: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY5g-nRPCrk It is kind of a remake of Pasolini?s "Comizi d'amore"... Yours, T. Simons, J.A.A. schrieb: > To my knowledge, this is the first feature length movie entirely shot > with mobile phone cameras. It was made in 2007 by the South-Arfrican > filmmaker Aryan Kaganof. It is available online. > > Jan Simons > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From:* Aryan Kaganof [mailto:kaganof at mweb.co.za] > *Sent:* dinsdag 21 april 2009 9:00 > *To:* Simons, J.A.A. > *Subject:* sms sugar man now online > > Dear Jan, > > The first full length feature film shot on a mobile phone camera is > now online and can be watched in its entirety for free. > > www.smssugarman.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > ----- > > video vortex discussion list > artist responses to youtube > > to change your settings or unsubscribe, please go to: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/videovortex_listcultures.org From sabine at networkcultures.org Tue Apr 21 12:46:29 2009 From: sabine at networkcultures.org (Sabine Niederer) Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:46:29 +0200 Subject: BeamClub References: <225d08500904210236g6a210347oa2abc7513e221fc7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi all, this is a new video program in the Trouw Building in Amsterdam, and the first edition is tomorrow eve. ciao, sabine > Rijksakademie >> BeamClub THIS WEDNESDAYNIGHT 20:30 at De Verdieping > > On a regular irregular basis we ask (current and former) residents > of the http://www.rijksakademie.nl/ to show footage. This includes > anything that can be beamed, from youtube to documentary, from > mobile phone uploads to found vhs. What will be shown is not their > own art, but what inspires them to make it. The Rijksakademie is an > internationally acclaimed art research residency, currently home to > 60 artist with 29 different nationalities. > The upcoming two nights will be kindly hosted by De Verdieping in > their ongoing wednesdaynight program. Doors open at 20:30, movies > start at 21:00. Entrance is FREE. > > De Verdieping (Trouw), Wibautstraat 131: http://www.trouwamsterdam.nl/2009/04/wo22apr > > or join us on facebook: group: Rijksakademie >> BeamClub http://tinyurl.com/c6pzlb > or Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahvsonsbeeck > > > > > -- > Sarah van Sonsbeeck > Studio A13 > Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten > Sarphatistraat 470 > 1018 GW Amsterdam > Telefoon +31-(0)20- 5270 300 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clockwork_big.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 33014 bytes Desc: not available URL: From geert at xs4all.nl Wed Apr 22 09:48:21 2009 From: geert at xs4all.nl (Geert Lovink) Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:48:21 +0200 Subject: RiP: A Remix Manifesto Message-ID: <62923671-8ABB-47D3-868D-51251E24D47E@xs4all.nl> RiP: A Remix Manifesto a documentary about copyright and remix culture Wednesday May 13 - 7pm Greater Union, Bondi Junction (Sydney) PLUS: an audience Q&A after the movie with director and web activist Brett Gaylor Live from Poland (of all places!) Hosted by Lindsay McDougall ("The Doctor" JTV, Frenzal Rhomb) Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th Century and shattering the wall between users and producers. The film's central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power, or indeed the Pied Piper of piracy? Examining the ambiguity of copyright law throughout the entertainment industry from Walt Disney through the brazen 'borrowing' of the blues via The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, the Napster Vs Metallica watershed legal feud, The Verve not getting a cent for their biggest single ever, right through the lesser known acts such as Negativeland who've felt the legal wrath of those with more power and money than themselves. Ultimately pondering the question - when is art not legally classified as art. Which side of the ideas war are you on? This kinetic, visceral and wildly entertaining and enlightening mixed- media documentary was recently the talk of the SXSW Film Festival and is ruffling corporate feathers the globe over. Join us for what's sure to be a heated and engaging debate between morality and commercial reality - a night not to be missed. More on Brett Gaylor: Brett Gaylor is a documentary filmmaker and new media director. He is the creator of opensourcecinema.org, a video remix community which supports the production of his feature documentary RiP: A remix manifesto. He is also the web producer of the Homeless Nation.org, a web project dedicated to bridging the digital divide - allowing everyone to participate in online culture. Brett is one of Canada?s first videobloggers and has been working with youth and media for over 10 years, and is a founding instructor of the Gulf Islands Film and Television School. From geert at desk.nl Wed Apr 22 10:10:17 2009 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:10:17 +0200 Subject: update on VV4 Split and beyond Message-ID: <60E323E9-02D6-45B0-B500-1183FE030F5E@desk.nl> Dear Videovortex networkers! Videovortex 4 is in a month from now. The preparations for the program are more or less done and it looks like a very exciting line up! If you are thinking of coming, let us know. Dan Oki is the festival director and coordinator in Split: danoki at xs4all.nl. The Videovortex reader came out in October 2008, a year after VideoVortex 1 in Brussels in October 2007. Number 2 happened here in Amsterdam (January 2008) and the third edition in Ankara (October 2008). To have number 4 already in May 2009, in the wonderful Croatian coastal town of Split is pretty amazing. It shows us that the field of online video is very dynamic and that there is very active, critical involvement of artists, theorists, programmers and activists in this area. The Videovortex reader has recently been reprinted (total circulation now: 3000). We might consider to produce a second Videovortex reader but, in part, this also depends on how the Videovortex research network will further develop. We would like to discuss this on this list. How do you see Videovortex as a project? Has it been too much old school, depending on a mailinglist, conferences and publications? Will additional layers of exchange on Web 2.0 platform add anything and reach other audiences? Where and when should Videovortex 5 happen? Or Videovortex 6 for that matter... When should we start producing a second reader? At Wintecamp in March, here in Amsterdam (www.networkcultures.org/wintercamp) we discussed how networks can become more sustainable. Soon the outcomes of this largest INC event so far will become available. Would it make sense to turn the loose Videovortex community into what we call an 'organized network'? Would it make sense, for instance, to create an editorial board for Videovortex as a whole? This and other things we would like to discuss in Split, and, if possible, make some decision there. All the best, Geert From geert at xs4all.nl Thu Apr 23 19:47:35 2009 From: geert at xs4all.nl (Geert Lovink) Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:47:35 +0200 Subject: could be interesting for the videovortex context Message-ID: <0EC266E6-4EAB-4AED-8B6E-CB60995CE25D@xs4all.nl> http://criticalcommons.org/Members/ironman28/lectures/database-narrative (the project launched on april 17) Database Narrative by Steve Anderson This lecture outlines some basic properties of database narratives, referring to the debate between Lev Manovich and Marsha Kinder on the nature of selection and combination in narrative. Database Narrative Kinder vs. Manovich debate -Manovich: database is the opposite of narrative! -Kinder: all stories, like language itself, derive from combinations of narrative possibilities! Virtually all stories - like language itself - derive from combinations of narrative elements -paradigm and syntagm -selection and combination ?Database narrative refers to narratives whose structure exposes or thematizes the dual processes of selection and combination that lie at the heart of all stories,? Kinder explains, ?particular data - characters, images, sounds, events - are selected from a series of databases or paradigms, which are then combined to generate specific tales.? Where novelists are bound by numbered pages and filmmakers are constrained by sprocket holes and time code numbers, the digital artist is afforded a seeming infinitude of possibilities through the recombination of SNUs (?Smallest Narrative Units?) The real questions then become: How and why do narrative conventions change? What drives new storytelling sensibilities? The usual answers? Television. Video games. The Internet. Programming languages. But changes in technology are only part of the answer The ways we read, watch and use media have been transformed at a fundamental level expectations of interactivity and gratification, desire for liveness and responsiveness, as well as openness to complexity in temporal and spatial structures. Witness the ease and pleasure with which contemporary movie audiences traverse the disruptive temporality of a Memento or Kill Bill, to say nothing of the spatial disruptions and reverberant visual structure of music videos by Chris Cunningham or Michel Gondry. By some estimations, it is the emergence of the database that has enabled this fascination with repetition and dislocation. Cultural theorist Lev Manovich claims that the logic of the computer has become the logic of culture at large, arguing that the database should be accorded the stature of a symbolic form on the order of cinema or the novel. For Manovich, there is something more at stake in creating database art than narrative. ?A particular question which interests me these days is how can computer databases be used to represent contemporary subjectivity? While a pre-modern person was a part of a collective, a modern subject came to be defined in opposition to the outside world, with the border between the psychological interior and social exterior clearly marked. Today this border has dissolved, and our selves once again have become `distributed': stored in external corporate, medical, government and surveillance databases, broadcast to the world via blogs and web cams, invaded by media images. How can new computer- based representational techniques, and in particular databases, be used to portray this new sense of identity?? The most interesting interactive database narratives push beyond the mere recombination of elements from a preexisting heap of possible SNUs. Indeed there is nothing specifically digital about this type of structure. So what characteristics uniquely define the interactive database narrative? Arguably, it is these three: randomness, metadata and dynamism. RANDOMNESS Among the most interesting practitioners of what is sometimes called ?computational cinema,? Andrea Flamini www.flamini.com explores the possibilities of generative narratives using random sequences of image and sound which are set in motion by a user, but are not subsequently guided or controlled. Flamini has created an impressive body of work in recent years, ranging from multi-channel and site-specific installations to Net artworks easily downloaded by modem. The brilliance of Flamini's work is its ability to evoke a mood or a state of consciousness within which narrative elements seem to gain coherence while resisting conventional narrative logics of cause and effect. METADATA Metadata is invisible information (keywords, for example) that is attached to any data set. Metadata allows a database system to create combinations of story elements that are dictated by the logic of relational algorithms or a search engine designed to access and combine information in particular configurations. An example of a rigorously metadata-driven narrative may be found in Manovich's Soft Cinema project. The structure of Soft Cinema depends on what Manovich calls ?algorithmic editing,? an automated system for combining elements according to prescribed rules based on the formal properties or content of video clips. The result is a pattern of images predicated on a system of rules that is not always immediately discernable, simulating what Manovich calls the contemporary state of ?data-subjectivity? in which individuals are continually interpolated by layers of time, space and information. DYNAMISM Dynamism provides the antidote to the closed narrative system, allowing users to control not just the sequencing of designated SNUs, but to add or alter the basic narrative elements. A truly dynamic database must be expandable and reconfigurable, capable of ?talking? to a narrative engine by means of metadata and a predefined organizational architecture. Dynamism is a crucial part of the Labyrinth team's investigation of interactive narrative, both at the level of individual agency and in creating systems that are mutable and expandable. ?Embracing the interactive is important,? says Kinder, ?but we don't want to just fetishize the interactivity. Agency doesn't necessarily make something wonderful.? On a grander cultural scale, the open architecture database and the interactive narratives it engenders may be viewed in relation to the highly productive model of open source programming communities.