This course is an introduction to the history and theory of participatory media production. Motivations toward greater participation in media arts have three core agendas: 1) empowerment of people traditionally seen more as "subjects" than active producers of culture; 2) challenging the idea of the artist as solitary genius working outside of society; and 3) the use of media art to build and sustain community.
A simple and effective structure (one location, limited formal choices) allows your participants to shine. This felt warm, intimate and each person’s story felt very unique to them. Together, they gave a more nuanced and diverse impression of life in these dorms than any one would have alone.
I would have liked to have a bit more introduction to each of them (i.e., how far away from “frosh quad” are they now?). I got some of this by inference but I did spend a bit too much time wondering who these people were, which distracted me from their words.
Don’t know if it was planned or serendipitous, but Person 1’s discussion of campus tours and Person 3’s ending on the note of having to leave her freshman dorm provided a nice beginning middle and end feeling… on the down side, Person 2 doesn’t really say much to illuminate the particular experiences he has had (I assume because he just moved in!!) so the middle ends up being a bit more flat and less engaging than 1&2, who provide such emotional and intimate details.
I wasn’t sure whether these were stories, impressions, or memories. I guess there were all 3. Likely, I became lost several times along the way simply because of the amount of Williams specific slang (names of buildings and situations). This is probably a function of the project itself and, perhaps, doesn’t really matter.
1/ All shots of dorms, participants talking while pointing camera at what they speak about. Speaking about their experience while indicating location for each.
The places that people pointed the camera came from what they spoke about, but also seemed to provoke them to speak about particular experiences associated with other, nearby places. The timing of the three sequences involved a brief pause between each segment. Lighting and colors seemed consistent, natural.
The work seems to allude to the way in which people store memories, how they remember things, maybe how those memories are tied to certain physical locations. The device of (presumably?)the speaker using the camera allowed this theme to come through.
The momentary pauses between each segment give an indication that there is a narrative switch. The consistent color, sound, and lighting prevent undue distraction from the stories. The speaker's camera operation allowed for stories to be discovered and embellished.
The thesis seems to be about how memories are tied to physical spaces.
In some ways the disembodied voices of the participants creates a sense of collective ownership of these Frosh Quad memories. Conversely these memories seem to be quite personal while each of the participants offers their own unique stories.
The simple panning shots across the quad complement the film quite well which, as Brad highlighted, prevent distraction from the stories.
I am hopefully not repeating too much of what has been said, but I would agree that this video is successful in its delivery because it is simple, clear, and gets its point across.
Every participant uses the camera in their own specific way, but I am curious where Ko comes into the picture. What was your involvement in the process and did you do any of the shooting yourself? If not, why did you choose not to include yourself, because I think that is a distinct decision in itself.
The theme of this film reflects much of Ko's past work in the arts. Ko is again making us reflect on the subjective stories of different individuals and how different those stories are--even when everything 'looks' the same.
I think this is a very creative interpretation of the project! One of the aspects of the project I was most worried about was the in-camera editing. This project took care of that very nicely by only switching clips between participants, yet moving around the camera enough so that the audience does not get bored. Also, the aspect of having a single, long clip for each participant places the focus more on the story and character rather than any special effects.
I love the simplicity of the video, especially since the fact that it does not detract from the enjoyment of viewing.
I found the structure of the film evocative. It forces the viewer to consider the same physical space in different perspectives. I suppose this would have been hard to control, but I wish the stories had varied away from all being wistful and positive. A nice contrast could have been a story of a time that someone did not enjoy Frosh Quad.
The video begins with a pan of the frosh quad in which an individual recounts her time in her entry in Sage. We learn intimate and personal details about her experiences there. This scene sets the structural foundation for the rest of the video as each of the succeeding videographer-narrators tells us about his/her experiences in the frosh quad.
The tone is light-hearted and fun, yet intimate and personal as we catch a glimpse into some of the formative experiences these individuals had in their first years at Williams.
While I very much like the scenic structure of the video, I think it could have been enhanced by a little more variety. Perhaps having each person hold the camera and walk around the frosh quad as they discussed would have made for more variety.
Nevertheless, I think your approach was an interesting and creative one that explored the assignment well.
What the frosh quad is, to three people, proves to elicit very different responses, in just three people. I think that is pretty wild to contemplate. Did you limit yourself to three people? Why these three in particular? Although the stories were personal, the camera shots were an effective contrast to the intimacy expressed by each person.
The continuity of the shot (given it's one shot) provides a great feel. Since the class is an audience for the video, our attachments with the location provide us with our own memories while seeing others live the moments they indeed will remember. Parts of the video seemed very invasive as well (i.e. the zoomed shot into the window), which was a bit odd. However, our intimacy with the Frosh Quad makes it seem to me that it's perfectly comfortable. Excellent work overall.
I asked three people (one of them is a random person I asked in the frosh quad, second story, which was a bit flatter than the others stories told by my friends).
I realized that the second story was not as intriguing, but I did not want to put "value" to people's memory and stories in this project. My intend was not just to provide alternative viewpoints for the viewers but most of all, the participants a chance to talk about their experience. Thus, I did not want to cut someone story out or make them rehearse too many times before actually video-taping.
These were a mix of stories and memories. But I have to agree that many things were mentioned without explanation, assuming that the viewers are Williams-savy. But again, I intended this project more for the participant than solely for the viewer.
I basically thought the participants how to film and zoom. And ask them all the begin with a panoramic shot of the quad and the friend, "This is frosh quad." But since I didn't realize that you have to give a few seconds between each takes, final cut pro cut the tape a bit in the beginning of each sections- so the words are a little choppy, sorry about that!
11 comments:
Ko:
A simple and effective structure (one location, limited formal choices) allows your participants to shine. This felt warm, intimate and each person’s story felt very unique to them. Together, they gave a more nuanced and diverse impression of life in these dorms than any one would have alone.
I would have liked to have a bit more introduction to each of them (i.e., how far away from “frosh quad” are they now?). I got some of this by inference but I did spend a bit too much time wondering who these people were, which distracted me from their words.
Don’t know if it was planned or serendipitous, but Person 1’s discussion of campus tours and Person 3’s ending on the note of having to leave her freshman dorm provided a nice beginning middle and end feeling… on the down side, Person 2 doesn’t really say much to illuminate the particular experiences he has had (I assume because he just moved in!!) so the middle ends up being a bit more flat and less engaging than 1&2, who provide such emotional and intimate details.
I wasn’t sure whether these were stories, impressions, or memories. I guess there were all 3. Likely, I became lost several times along the way simply because of the amount of Williams specific slang (names of buildings and situations). This is probably a function of the project itself and, perhaps, doesn’t really matter.
Tell us about your process!
1/ All shots of dorms, participants talking while pointing camera at what they speak about. Speaking about their experience while indicating location for each.
The places that people pointed the camera came from what they spoke about, but also seemed to provoke them to speak about particular experiences associated with other, nearby places. The timing of the three sequences involved a brief pause between each segment. Lighting and colors seemed consistent, natural.
The work seems to allude to the way in which people store memories, how they remember things, maybe how those memories are tied to certain physical locations. The device of (presumably?)the speaker using the camera allowed this theme to come through.
The momentary pauses between each segment give an indication that there is a narrative switch. The consistent color, sound, and lighting prevent undue distraction from the stories. The speaker's camera operation allowed for stories to be discovered and embellished.
The thesis seems to be about how memories are tied to physical spaces.
In some ways the disembodied voices of the participants creates a sense of collective ownership of these Frosh Quad memories. Conversely these memories seem to be quite personal while each of the participants offers their own unique stories.
The simple panning shots across the quad complement the film quite well which, as Brad highlighted, prevent distraction from the stories.
I am hopefully not repeating too much of what has been said, but I would agree that this video is successful in its delivery because it is simple, clear, and gets its point across.
Every participant uses the camera in their own specific way, but I am curious where Ko comes into the picture. What was your involvement in the process and did you do any of the shooting yourself? If not, why did you choose not to include yourself, because I think that is a distinct decision in itself.
The theme of this film reflects much of Ko's past work in the arts. Ko is again making us reflect on the subjective stories of different individuals and how different those stories are--even when everything 'looks' the same.
I think this is a very creative interpretation of the project! One of the aspects of the project I was most worried about was the in-camera editing. This project took care of that very nicely by only switching clips between participants, yet moving around the camera enough so that the audience does not get bored. Also, the aspect of having a single, long clip for each participant places the focus more on the story and character rather than any special effects.
It's very community-oriented!
I love the simplicity of the video, especially since the fact that it does not detract from the enjoyment of viewing.
I found the structure of the film evocative. It forces the viewer to consider the same physical space in different perspectives. I suppose this would have been hard to control, but I wish the stories had varied away from all being wistful and positive. A nice contrast could have been a story of a time that someone did not enjoy Frosh Quad.
The video begins with a pan of the frosh quad in which an individual recounts her time in her entry in Sage. We learn intimate and personal details about her experiences there. This scene sets the structural foundation for the rest of the video as each of the succeeding videographer-narrators tells us about his/her experiences in the frosh quad.
The tone is light-hearted and fun, yet intimate and personal as we catch a glimpse into some of the formative experiences these individuals had in their first years at Williams.
While I very much like the scenic structure of the video, I think it could have been enhanced by a little more variety. Perhaps having each person hold the camera and walk around the frosh quad as they discussed would have made for more variety.
Nevertheless, I think your approach was an interesting and creative one that explored the assignment well.
What the frosh quad is, to three people, proves to elicit very different responses, in just three people. I think that is pretty wild to contemplate. Did you limit yourself to three people? Why these three in particular? Although the stories were personal, the camera shots were an effective contrast to the intimacy expressed by each person.
The continuity of the shot (given it's one shot) provides a great feel. Since the class is an audience for the video, our attachments with the location provide us with our own memories while seeing others live the moments they indeed will remember. Parts of the video seemed very invasive as well (i.e. the zoomed shot into the window), which was a bit odd. However, our intimacy with the Frosh Quad makes it seem to me that it's perfectly comfortable. Excellent work overall.
I asked three people (one of them is a random person I asked in the frosh quad, second story, which was a bit flatter than the others stories told by my friends).
I realized that the second story was not as intriguing, but I did not want to put "value" to people's memory and stories in this project. My intend was not just to provide alternative viewpoints for the viewers but most of all, the participants a chance to talk about their experience. Thus, I did not want to cut someone story out or make them rehearse too many times before actually video-taping.
These were a mix of stories and memories. But I have to agree that many things were mentioned without explanation, assuming that the viewers are Williams-savy. But again, I intended this project more for the participant than solely for the viewer.
I basically thought the participants how to film and zoom. And ask them all the begin with a panoramic shot of the quad and the friend, "This is frosh quad." But since I didn't realize that you have to give a few seconds between each takes, final cut pro cut the tape a bit in the beginning of each sections- so the words are a little choppy, sorry about that!
I had lots of fun doing this project, though!
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