new concepts and new media – but not enough time

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It’s nearly the end of June, and the end of our short and sweet “new media production” class. It’s only been six weeks and we’ve covered so much in terms of online networking, tagging, creating databases and the wonderful world of Max MSP, Arduino boards, breadboards, and building documentary installations… but have we really “covered” these methods and media tools? It has been a very speedy, broad overview of the complex and multifaceted new media approach to documentary practice.

I’m going to make sure I satisfy the final requirements for the course, so pardon me as I follow the directions below on reflecting on the final project “Second Self”:

1) A link to your original idea
2) A short paragraph explaining how the outcome differs from or correspond to your expectations.

The final outcome of the avatar project Alexis and I presented, “Second Self,” kept pretty much within the scope of our original idea. The only thing I now am questioning is why we were so intent on having the interview clips play randomly. We probably were keen on the randomness because the Max patch had a random option. The video interviews of the participants in person ended up being played randomly; however, the avatar interviews played in a specific sequence because there were so many short bits of video we had to piece together for each interview conducted. Our floor plan/installation layout changed quite a bit. We ended up using a projector – this was not part of the original idea.

3) A short paragraph why the outcome differs or correspond to your objectives.

There were a number of issues we encountered with capturing video in Second Life. The videos recorded through the Second Life menu options created enormous files – 1 minute = 4 gigabytes. So in order to manage such large files, we tried to only record short bits of the interview in Second Life and then had to compress and convert the files using Quicktime Pro. Compiling the video bits in Final Cut wouldn’t work due to rendering problems, same in imovie. It took a long time to figure out that Quicktime Pro would work, convert our video files into smaller files that played at a very high resolution so the text of the Second Life interview could be readable – this was crucial as the small, basically 1 pixel text represented all that was being communicated from avatar to avatar. I’m trying to remember the details of the conversion, here’s what I can recall: we set the frame rate to 15, some ratio was 128×976, and the compression was set to ‘none’. All this meant that playing the avatar clips randomly wouldn’t make sense at all – the text of the interview would be so fragmented that no content could be gleaned. We had to arrange the avatar video bits in chronological order so the flow of text could be read.

4) A short paragraph identifying what you have learned from this process.

I learned that it’s a good idea to shoot video as soon as possible, or collect whatever data you need, and then start troubleshooting conversion or media playback issues as soon as you can. I can see that with installation projects having access to the space you are using is very beneficial because testing projections and electronic jigging and placement is all important. Having time to experiment is so important.

5) A short paragraph explaining what you would do differently

I talked about this already in the last post I wrote, but what I would do differently is have the idea much earlier so that outreach to more participants and production could start earlier. I also would adjust the framing of the Second Life videos to capture more appropriate and engaging images of the avatar. I would go buy some velum for images to be projected onto.

6) A Short paragraph identifying how new media affects or does not affect your practice.

New media affects my practice because I am very interested in creating environments or spaces where viewers can experience the concept of what I am representing, or whatever the project is. I’m into installations – manipulating a space so that people can go through some process to engage or interact with what I am presenting. I’m going to create an exhibition for my thesis project where I will install artifacts and bits of video interviews, so working on a multi-channel video installation piece was very helpful in terms of going through the motions of organizing where screens will go, where the projection will go, and how various sounds will be controlled. It’s fun to think about how people will experience the space, how people will flow from section to section, and take in the installation as a whole.

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