It is unofficially/officially/whatever-ly the year of the GIF. Even though it seems like the year of the GIF has been going on for the past two years or so, this year the OED named “GIF” their USA word of the year and it turned 25 years old, ergo it’s the year of the GIF. That’s how it works.
Read the complete article at The Creators Project.
Matjaz Tancic is an established Slovenian fashion photographer, who’s lately been experimenting with shooting in 3D (much like Creator Sebastian Denz). After working in Europe for many years, Tancic’s currently based in Beijing, where he captures China’s historical spirit, the transient city landscape, and the daring new architectural designs in highly-polished fashion shoots. His ongoing 3D photography series titled “Mimicry” consists of large format, exhibition-worthy pictures that explore the idea of subjects blending with nature in unfamiliar, cold surroundings.
Read the complete article at The Creators Project.
A collection of examples from the Prosthetic Knowledge Tumblr archive and around the web on experiments which take the familiar animated GIF format and take it out of its 2D origins.
This has been a good year for the Animated GIF— not only has it reached its 25th birthday, it has also become America’s word of the year according to Oxford Dictionaries USA. It has been one of the internet’s most creative canvases since it’s availability, whether it has been employed in early homegrown HTML pages, to communities such as B3ta, YTMND, 4Chan and others. From it’s continued popularity, some creatives have explored ways to take the animated GIF into new contexts. Here are a few examples:
GIFPumper
Read the complete article at Rhizome.
The cityscape timelapse video is a tried-and-true YouTube favorite. But this video, shot in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, may just take the genre to a whole new level. It uses quick cuts, neck-twisting camera angles and a pumped up soundtrack to mesmerizing effect.
Read the complete article at Mashable.
Getting your picture taken by Google Street View twice was just luck? Or did you have an idea that they were photographing the neighborhood? What are your thoughts on Street View?
Yes yes, it was just luck. I had no control.
Street view is a great tool but the way it was implemented (imposed) was, in my opinion, at least questionable. They made private agreements with governments to scan the globe skipping any kind of people’s feedback, people who happen to be the subjects, beside the public environment, of this pretty intrusive practice.
I would be interested to know if these agreements were “economic”. This is an important step because in the end all the Street View material is copyrighted and private owned, resulting in contradiction with the subject matter, and of course, above all when you find yourself featured in it twice.
Read the complete article at Rhizome.
Think you could tell the story of the human race in only 100 pictures?
That’s the challenge that MIT resident artist Trevor Paglen tackled when he conceived The Last Pictures five years ago. The goal of the project is to record a montage of human life and achievements onto a medium that can last until intelligent life in the distant future discovers it, even if it takes a billion years for them to find it.
The aim isn’t simply to create a visual history of humanity necessarily, but a collection that synergistically offers more depth and narrative about human civilization. As Paglen describes it: “The Last Pictures isn’t really an archive so much as a kind of silent film or visual poem.”
Now on November 20, the special archival disc dubbed “the Artifact” with the images etched onto it is scheduled to launch into space onboard the EchoStar XVI communications satellite, which will reside in a geosynchronous orbit for the next 15 years until it is retired into a satellite junkyard. There it will sit potentially until Earth is no longer habitable and humans are either far away or extinct.
Read the complete article at Singularity Hub.
Oxford American Dictionaries has named GIF, the acronym for graphical image format, its word of the year. “Like so many other relics of the 80s, it has never been trendier,” said the head of US dictionaries at the press.
Now, it’s certainly true that animated GIFs, images that display an endless loop of frames, have enjoyed a renaissance in the 2010s, even playing a prominent role in the just-completed US presidential election. But it’s worth noting that, as an image format, GIF has never been less popular.
Read the complete article at The Atlantic.
When Robert Burley photographed Kodak Canada’s final employee meeting in the parking lot on the last day of manufacturing in 2005, he assumed it was an isolated act of corporate downsizing — the winding down of one facility to safeguard Kodak’s other operations. He now knows he was seeing the first domino fall. Two years later, Burley was in Rochester, NY, the spiritual home and headquarters of the once-giant analog film manufacturer.
“Kodak was blowing up one huge building after the other,” says Burley a photographer and associate professor at Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts in Toronto, Canada.
But the decimation of the film industry didn’t stop with Kodak. Burley stumbled into a multi-year project for which he was to photograph the demise of multiple companies.
Read the complete article at Wired.
Sometimes life just passes by, and you don’t have a photo to show for it.
Memoto is the solution to your memory-woes. This tiny, postage-sized, wearable device is an automatic camera, snapping photos every 30 seconds while you go about your day.
Read the complete article at Mashable.
Could you imagine the possibilities of a flying camera? No longer would friends need to take photos at parties when a robotic friend could hover about and snap photos throughout the event. The possibilities are limitless and could become a reality with a new hovering camera.
Read the complete article at Mashable.
Image source: Daily Mail
By Eduardo Navas
Note: This text was previously released on the Huffington Post on August 31, 2012. A week before the NFl began their official season.
The NFL prepares for its upcoming season, and during exhibition games on television, as wide receivers go deep for spectacular catches, I cannot help but be reminded of exciting moments from the London Olympic Games, particularly in track & field — when Usain Bolt ran to take three gold medals in the the 100 m, 200 m and 4×100 m relay.
Coincidentally, there has been speculation that Bolt may transition to professional sports such as football in the NFL, although he may prefer soccer. The main reason behind his potential future in either sport is not because he is a good ball handler, in fact, the ball is hardly mentioned. What matters is that Bolt is fast.
Image: Huffpost
By Eduardo Navas
Note: This entry was updated on August 19, 2012 with an extra commentary at the end of the main text.
As an educator in higher education and researcher specializing in remix culture and authorship, when I first learned about Zakaria’s admission to plagiarism, I was very disappointed in him, and thought that there was no way around it, that his admission of plagiarizing parts of Jill Lepore‘s work on gun control written for the New Yorker puts into question his intellectual integrity.
I thought that his apology was quick and to the point, but that somehow it was not enough. I thought that it was necessary for Zakaria to come forward and explain in as much detail as possible the reasoning for his behavior. And I thought that I wasn’t alone in hoping for this to happen–that if an actual explanation was delivered, it would all serve the constructive purpose of discussing the seriousness of plagiarism with students while providing a concrete example of a public intellectual who committed such an unacceptable act.
Image source: Washington Post
By Eduardo Navas
Note: This text appeared previously on Huffington post. Since its original publication on August 8, 2012, NBC decided to at least make available live streaming of the closing ceremonies. Other than this, much of what is observed in the following commentary remains relevant.
Viewers well versed in media expect delivery-on-demand for major events. This has created a peculiar tension when viewing prime-time Olympic coverage consisting of competitions that previously took place throughout the day, but which were not broadcasted live on TV. After the first week of events, it appears that audiences are tuning-in to NBC’s evening broadcast in larger numbers than previous Olympics, and this has become the network’s main justification for holding out on selected events until prime-time.
Image source: E News
By Eduardo Navas
Posted on August 1, 2012 on The Huffington Post
Social media spoilers are inevitable when the broadcasting network decides to block-out selected events and save them for primetime. This became evident to me as I experienced the Olympics during the first three days.
It began on Friday when I settled to watch the opening ceremony. At this time I briefly considered the fact that the broadcast was not live on the East Coast of the United States, where I live. I also realized that people on the West Coast would see the opening extravaganza three hours after me.
I said to myself that it did not matter because viewing a delayed broadcast of an opening event, sure to be considered historic, would not change my viewing experience. Such a situation is equivalent to one’s willingness to watch a television series knowing that it is a recorded production.
Things were different when I selectively viewed the first events on Saturday live on Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, and NBC Sports. The multiple broadcasts were also complemented with apps for mobile media, well supported with the nbcolympics.com website.
Throughout the day I checked twitter and Facebook for updates and comments. I soon learned that Michael Phelps took fourth place in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley, while Ryan Lochte took first, winning the gold. However, I was not able to experience the historic moment until primetime on NBC. At this point I was more interested in knowing how it happened, and was no longer invested in the event as I would have, had it been live.
The same thing happened again on Sunday when Lochte and Phelps participated in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay only to come second to France. Again, I learned about this in the late afternoon, but I waited to view it during primetime on NBC.
The decision by NBC to select certain events, from earlier in the day, and broadcast them during primetime began to be discussed as soon as Saturday, and by Sunday, stories were written on different online publications. Entertainment Weekly, in particular, ran two extensive stories. NBC apparently made its decision in order to attain higher ratings during its primetime broadcast. Understandably some people are quite unhappy about NBC’s decision, which is why, as I write this, the hash tag #nbcfail is still going strong with rants.
After viewing the events on Sunday night, however, I don’t think that the problem for NBC is that selected events are shown well after they take place. The problem, in my view, is that NBC appears to be selecting the wrong events for delayed broadcast at night.
To be specific, both on Saturday and Sunday during primetime, NBC went back and forth between gymnastics and swimming. When swimming came on, I could not help but think that I was about to see something which had already taken place. But with gymnastics, I did not mind the delayed broadcast at all. Why, I thought? I came to the conclusion that it has to do with the type of sport.
Swimming is an action sport, which deals with extreme physical performance dependent on time. It is defined by exciting moments such as when your favorite athlete does not even take third place. Add to this the possibility of breaking a world record, and you are sure to have a nail-biting experience as a viewer. Such thrill is unlikely to happen with a delayed broadcast of a major swimming competition such as Lochte’s and Phelps’ once it has been spoiled earlier in the day due to social media and online news sources.
Gymnastics, on the other hand, is a sport about physical strength, precision and gracefulness. Add to this the fact that it depends on points given by judges who, in large part, rely on aesthetics, and we have a dynamic that is closer to viewing a theatrical performance, and not so different from viewing the opening ceremony. Gymnastics is one of my favorite categories in the Olympics, and I don’t think I have ever experienced them live.
NBC’s situation actually makes apparent the fact that major networks need to better understand how to create a worthwhile experience for viewers who are likely to know already much about sporting events that took place early in the day (in this case the Olympics) which they decide to deliver during primetime.
If a network decides to hold out on a sport defined by its physical excitement, such as swimming, then an effort should be made in creating a viewing experience about how and why something happened and not “what will happen.” This approach would then make the juxtaposition of swimming and gymnastics a better fit given their differences as I explained. With this more realistic approach Bob Costas will not have to say “no spoilers” as he introduces the taped segment of Lochte winning gold while Phelps takes none, hoping that the viewers will have a thrilling experience. I did not.
The RE/Mixed Media Festival, now in it’s 3rd year, is an annual celebration of collaborative art-making and creative appropriation. It’s the artists’ contribution to the ongoing conversation about remixing, mashups, copyright law, fair use, and the freedom of artists to access their culture in order to add to and build upon it.
The festival – which this year will take place at the Brooklyn Lyceum – a 3-floor 10,000 sq. ft. venue on the border of the Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhoods of Brooklyn – will feature performances, panel discussions, live musical collaborations, hip-hop, sampling, film & video, DIY, food and drink, DJs, technology, interactive installations, painting, sculpture, software, hacking, and much more!
Read more at KickStarter and Remixedmedia.org
Post by Eduardo Navas
Note: Previously this entry read “book print.” This was a mistake on my part. It should be “book sprint.”
I recently read the “book print” New Aesthetic, New Anxieties by a group of media researchers, theorists and curators, who got together for three and a half days from June 17–21, 2012, at V2, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
The concept of coming together for just a few days to brainstorm a book is certainly something worth considering as an act of creative critical practice. The book from this standpoint functions surprisingly well, especially because its premise is delivered to match the speed of change that its subject (The New Aesthetic) experiences in the daily flow of information throughout the global network. I personally find amazing that a book of this sort can be put together with some cohesion.
by Eduardo Navas
Image: inversion Facebook’s front page.
This post also appears on Remixtheory.net
Digging through my archives, I found the list of my early updates on Facebook. When I joined Facebook back in 2008, personal updates read “What are you doing?” prompted with “Your Name is … ” I liked the idea behind positioning the Facebook user in a constant state of action. It was like a performance online. Because of this set up, I found myself always thinking of what I was actually doing at the moment that I entered Facebook, and thought of creative ways to approach the apparent triviality of the updates.
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Dear community,
We are currently conducting a survey for a Remix Studies book project and we would really appreciate your help. The survey is quick and easy and should take no more than a few minutes of your time. Your assistance will be invaluable in the development of the book, which we hope will be of great use to students, teachers, researchers and practitioners of remix alike.
If possible, we would also be very grateful if you could help us to distribute the survey to anyone within your networks who has an interest in remix.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C9MGRVV
Thank you very much for your time and effort – we value your input.
Kind regards,
Eduardo, Owen and xtine
Eduardo Navas
http://remixtheory.net
http://navasse.net
Owen Gallagher
http://www.remixstudies.org
http://www.totalrecut.com
http://www.criticalremix.com
xtine burrough
http://www.missconceptions.net
Image source: The Atlantic Wire
Written by Yong Kim
Kim Jung Il is dead. Sadam and Kadafi have been overthrown and executed. The model of the old-school dictator seems to be dying. Unfortunately, there’s a new dictator in town. Well, not really new, but its presence has never been more prevalent or obvious. This dictator is not just one person or regime. The neo-dictator is comprised of countless organizations, with its power being shifted and redistributed per agenda, so this dictator can’t ever really be killed off. Like any good tyrant, the neo-dictator is motivated by lust for money and power (the quench for which can never be sated). Naturally the neo-dictator’s most powerful tool is the law, laws like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which are designed so content providers and their bed fellows could hold onto their outdated and dying business models. Perhaps it’s just a tactic to slow down technological advancement while they catch up.
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Image source: Creators Project
Written by Yong Kim
Erik Kessels’ installation shows what 24 hours of photos on Flickr looks like in physical form. The installation got me thinking about the exorbitant amount of pictures we take today. I’ve never been a big picture taker, that was until I got a digital camera. I have a little over a hundred physical pictures I’ve collected over my lifetime, but I have thousands in digital form, most of which I accumulated in a span of 3-4 years, starting about 7 years ago. My physical pictures I view once in a while, with a definite level of fondness, sometimes wishing I had taken more pictures. I took those pictures to commemorate specific events: nieces’ birthdays, the first time I went camping with my nieces, my last weekend in San Antonio before I moved back to LA, my college graduation, nieces’ high school graduations, dad’s 60th birthday, the last party I attended in Boston before I moved back to LA, pictures from my cross-country trips, when the family dog was just a puppy, and so on. Most of my digital pictures, however, are rather insignificant.
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