LAB IS ON TODAY

This week's lab, Monday Oct 29 runs as normal today.

THIS WEEK'S MAS110 MONDAY OCT. 15 LAB IS POSTPONED

Hi all,

Sorry, I'm still not recovered and would only deliver a less than best tutorial for you tomorrow, which I don't want to do, not to mention risk your health, which I don't want to do either.  I hope all went well for your photo essays and I look forward to seeing you again, instead, the following Monday, Oct 22, same time, same place for the first of our computer game design workshops.  By then you'll have enjoyed the first lecture introducing the topic, so should hopefully already have some ideas about how to approach the next project.  It's a good one.

See you then.

sincere regards,

Bronwin

MAS110 Photo Essay: Zoe Nicholson & Jesse Field

Our group decided that the terrace houses of Glebe would make a good sub theme for our Urban scene theme. We expected this would provide some great shots as well as a glimpse of the interesting contrast of both life in the days of early European migrant culture engraved in Australia with the modern urban scene that has developed around the area today. 

It was very interesting to see the significant difference in style, shape and colour of the terrace houses on our walk through the heart of Glebe. But what we found more interesting was the way some of the houses in their own way defined the people living in them. As an example in one of the photos in the photo essay, a bicycle is visible on a verandah of one of the terrace houses. It appears to be in good condition without rust or spiderwebs so we can assume that someone in this house rides a bicycle frequently. Other houses displayed various arrays of pot plants, wind chimes, fairy lights all in an attempt at some individuality in the seemingly perpetual lanes of terraces.

In retrospect, we had a great time taking the shots and putting the movie together and we managed to get a fairly decent range of photos to choose from for the movie. We were quite satisfied with the end result and were inspired by the theme to learn more about 19th century culture in Australia.

References:

Murray, S 2008 'Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol 7, no. 2.

Music: "Dewdrops" by MAC OS X Garageband

Photo Essay: Kathryn Mansour and Brianna Burkett

As outlined by Murray, photography "whether professional or amateur" (Murray, S 2008)  is a platform for expression and interpretation. The eye has the ability to look past the mundane aesthetics of the everyday, in search of deeper, redefined forms of beauty. Thus, a common everyday theme of leaves, specifically fallen leaves are common aesthetics that hold potential for alternative and inspiring textures, colours and patterns. Furthermore, the typically mundane, forgotten, stepped-on fallen leaves are mediums for the redefinition of beauty in the everyday.

The theme for our photo essay is Leaves, with the sub theme Fallen Leaves. We have captured our photos using a Canon D6500, and have photographed our subject in Sydney's Inner Western suburbs.
By means of iPhoto, we have saturated our images in order to resonate warmth and the turn over from Autumn to Spring. This, we believe is an illustration of the ways mundane leaves are given further meaning and beauty. Our 30 second movie clip was created using iMovie. We have chosen the song Orange Crush by composer George L Smyth. This song comes from the soundtrack Sounds of Ambiance, and resonates warmth and natural tranquility. We believe this will reveal to the audience the natural, textured beauty of fallen leaves despite the neglect they face as everyday aesthetics.

References:

Murray, S 2008 'Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol 7, no. 2.

Music: Song - Sounds Of Ambience Show #28 - Orange Crush
Composer - George L Smyth
Collection - Rory Tory/Netlabels
NonCommercial - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

Photo Essay - The Rusted Decay - Nicholas Aria, Crystal Kim & Leticia Villalba

Nicholas Aria, Crystal Kim & Leticia Villalba

Photography, “whether professional or amateur” is a powerful medium which allows for one to express their emotions and feelings. In everyday digital photography, there is an implicit acknowledgement that rests upon old versions of the self as well as collections of objects and experiences encountered in everyday life. The theme of our photo essay, ‘Urban Jungle’ and the sub-theme, ‘The Rusted Decay’, explore the urban eye and it’s ongoing decay into nothingness. Through our photos and edits we attempt to locate the beauty and ‘everyday aesthetics’ of everyday mundane and forgotten run-down infrastructure. This is why the style of our photos resemble the new category of photography, ‘ephemera’, which seems to speak to a new aesthetic and function.
 We have saturated the colours of our photo in order to convert feelings of sadness and loss and shift them into a new idea of liveness and beauty which highlight the confluence of digital technology.

Through programs such as iPhoto and iMovie, we edited the style and look of these images, increasing saturation, definition, position, contrast, fading of music etc. Furthermore, we only used two transitions throughout the entire video to allow for a smooth flow in between each image. The music also complements the video creating a feeling of longing in relationship to the temporal in urban aesthetics. We used the track ‘Sandstorms’ from the band Thunderthief, we obtained copyright permission through Nick asking the band member/friend Nicholas Johnson if we could use the song (this conversation can be seen below).

References

Murray, S 2008, 'Digital images, Photo-Sharing and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 131-146.

Music: ‘Sandstorms’ by Thunderthief, purchased/downloaded from: http://thunderthiefofficial.bandcamp.com/

Permission from Thunderthief member:

Photo Essay, Water, Luke Amasi 42848229

For the video I made, for the photo essay on 'Everyday Aesthetics' described by Murray in Digital Images, 'Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', helped me come to grips with the ideal of using everyday items and having the ability to document them via the use of a camera or photographic device, and being able to produce and show them in a way of self expression and visualisation of something so mundane as water into something of a deeper and more spiritual level.

I chose water as my singular ideal of an everyday aesthetic because it plays an integral role in life on earth, i chose many of the natural scenes of water which i had taken on trips to Bali and New Zealand over past holidays because i found the different shades of water due to chemicals in the water quite unique. Also the different ways in which people use water to survive, entertainment and spiritual purposes it has. The photos of the different shapes of waves in the sink i used these photos and others to represent the mystical properties that many cultures view water as having. The supposed healing qualities and the natural 'magic' that many people believe water has, i have tried to represent in this film. 

Water plays an integral part of human life and although it can be manipulated in many forms and used for unnatural purposes like industrial uses, i have tried to give the film a very natural but tribal feel to it with the use of mostly natural photos. But with my editing i did try to add a magical appeal with the coloured photos. Also the use of bright lighting in some photos was used, as i was trying to attempt to give a spiritual appeal to the video.

The music i chose was a natural water sound off Imovie and a bell sound also on Imovie. I also edited the photos and the film on Iphoto and Imovie respectively on an Apple PC.

  
References:

Murray, S 2008 'Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol 7, no. 2.

Music: - Imovie sound Water Lake

           - Imovie sound Bell Buoy

Photo Essay - Sporting Equipment: Stirling Coates and Elliot Mills-Connolly

Sporting Equipment

By Stirling Coates and Elliot Mills-Connolly

For our photo essay Stirling and I decided to focus on sporting equipment as both our theme and sub theme. sporting equipment was chosen due to the “everyday aesthetic” (Murray, 2008, pg. 147) of sport, particularly the importance of sport on day to day life in Australia. We see sporting equipment as part of day to day life in Australia that is generally overlooked, thus feeling that we should use this as a perfect example of Harmon’s view that "The nature of photography now is it’s in motion. It doesn’t stop time anymore, and maybe that’s a loss. But there’s a kind of beauty to it" (Harmon, 2005, pg. 1).  Sport is a theme we both feel is a great topic due to the fast paced 'blink and you will miss it' nature of photography while being something that can be captured by the ‘amateur’ due to its accessibility and day to day presence in todays society.

In editing this photo essay through iMovie and iPhoto, we decided that it was best to use filters for the photos as it helped even out the quality of the photos by making them similar through slightly distorting both the higher resolution photos and lower resolution photos to make them feel more balanced. We took the photos outside and around Sydney too show the equipment used in natural setting and also give some variety in environments and lighting. Transitions where also used to help with the flow of the presentation and ultimately bring the presentation together in a nice complete package. 

We chose the song “Starflex” by StatueOfDiveo due to the fast beat and tempo, as we feel that it accurately portrays the heart pounding intensity of sport as a whole while fitting the 30 second time frame that we are limited to. this is combined with the editing to create a quick and concise way to demonstrate the photos we have taken, while being engaging to the audience.

References:

Murray, S 2008 'Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol 7, no. 2.

Harmon, Amy (2005) ‘Stop Them Before They Shoot Again’, New York Times, 5th May: Section G, Column 4, pg 1.


Music - “Starflex” by StatueOfDiveo (2011) Creative Commons: Attribution Share-Alike http:/www.jamendo.com/en/track/832955/starflex

PLEASE NOTE

- Your lab tutor Bronwin Patrickson is sick with Bronchitis and may need to postpone next week's lab, Monday Oct 15 to Monday Oct 22.  Confirmation emails one way, or another will be sent out and notice will be uploaded to this blog by 6pm Sunday.  Please let your partner know and check back at that time.

Photo Essay: Teacups Hannah Moore & Melissa Bahrum

 

MAS110 PHOTO ESSAY: TEACUPS

 

Hannah Moore & Melissa Bahrum

 

 

Rationale

 



The theme of cups and the secondary theme of teacups were chosen as a result of their relation to Murray's conceptualisation of the “everyday aesthetic”(Murray, 2008, 147). Teacups capture the “new aesthetic” (Murray, 2008, 155) one focused upon an “ability to locate beauty in the mundane” (Murray, 2008, 155). The emphasis upon a relatively unnoticed everyday object such as teacups works to reiterate the amateur photography trend of expediency or “ephemera” (Murray, 2008, 155) that Murray discusses. Such a choice of theme encapsulates the idea behind social photo-sharing sites such as Flickr that photography works to build a narrative and an acknowledgement of temporality in digital photography.

 

The approach that was taken during the editing process involved alterations to brightness, contrast and exposure in order to highlight often neglected structural and stylistic elements, such as colour and pattern, of the mundane object of the teacup. Highlighting elements such as these is pivotal to the representation of the ' everyday aesthetic'. The aim was to augment the natural beauty of the objects in question. Therefore, it was essential that the photos were not over-edited or stylised. The same aim was addressed when creating the video. Panning, zooming and simple cutaways and transitions were used to highlight, again, the structural and stylistic components of teacups whilst remaining engaging and interesting to the viewer.

 

The music selected for the video essay is an instrumental guitar track; ‘A Quiet Night’ by Roberto Diana was accessed through the Creative Commons search portal. This particular piece of music was selected as a result of the mood and atmosphere it evokes. The song connotes a sense of mystery as well as an atmosphere of serenity. A song such as this, despite its simplicity, helps to lift the concept of teacups outside of a mundane, everyday context, instead, it provides an interesting edge to these objects in an engaging manner.

 

REFERENCES 

 

 

Murray, S 2008, 'Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Other Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 7 issue 2, pp. 147-163

Australian Research Council Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation, 'What is Creative Commons', Pooling Ideas

 

 

Music

 

Roberto Diana (2012), 'A Quiet Night' from: http://www.jamendo.com/en#/en/track/888919/a-quiet-night.   Accessed under an "Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported" license" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 



Photo Essay - Street Art - Olivia Kierdal and Dianna Lainson

Art is the most natural form of expression. It allows one to share one’s feelings, ideas and opinions and is a reflection of identity of an individual or group. Expressing oneself is a part of everyday life, an ‘everyday aesthetic’. An art form which allows public expression is street art, also known as graffiti. Graffiti is a form of communication through words or pictures. While it is sometimes referred to as vandalism, it can also be decorative – often with a unique meaning and purpose behind it.

The video produced was an attempt to showcase a few of the most striking and unique pieces in the inner Sydney suburbs. Its aim was to capture one’s everyday encounter with graffiti as this particular art form relates with each Sydney-sider due to its common nature and popularity. Graffiti is a daily part of contemporary culture. Murray (2008) describes this concept as an everyday aesthetic in the journal ‘Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics’, the everyday image becoming something that amateurs can create. The production of the video includes the use of a Nikon D-3100 Digital SLR, iPhoto and iMovie. The soundtrack supporting the video is Sam Santana’s ‘Mok to Love’, licensed under Creative Commons: Non-Commercial Sampling Plus 2.0, and accessible through Jamendo.com.

References:

Murray, S 2008, 'Digital images, photo-sharing and our shifting notions of everyday aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 147-163.

Music: ‘Mok to Love’ by Sam Santana: available at Jamendo, published under Creative Commons: Non-Commercial Sampling Plus 2.0

Photo Essay: Urban Decay

By Georgia Spencer and Hayley Vesperman

We chose to depict the concept of 'Urban Decay' in our video. The main themes this video portrays are isolation and abandonment. Each picture evokes a sense of loneliness and decay within the audience. 

During the process of capturing each image, we considered camera angles, texture and contrasting colours that would assist in enriching these themes. For example, close-ups of rust and graffiti evokes a sense of degeneration and neglect. 

When capturing images we also chose to focus on certain prominent features in order to create a sense of isolation and singularity. 

We each took 24 photos over the space of two weeks in several separate locations using a Canon 50D digital SLR. Locations included the suburbs of: Terrigal, NSW; North Avoca, NSW; Riverstone, NSW; Kenthurst, NSW; Schofields, NSW. We chose these locations in the exercise of differentiating each photo from one another so that we were able to choose from a wide variety of images for our final photo set of 24. 

We utilised the iPhoto software to edit the images, focussing on increasing saturation, definition and enhancing the shadows of each image to give the image set a cohesive personality. 

iMovie was used to collaborate the 24 images in a way that allowed a consistent flow through the use of the 'Ken Burns' effect. A panning effect was added to the clips in order to focus on a prominent aspect of the image that reflects the themes of the video. We also utilized the 'Cross Dissolve' effect to add to this cohesion. 

We used the website: www.jamendo.com to download a piece of music to complement the images in the video. We used the song 'Games' by the artist: The Windy City. This song is available through Creative Commons and has a Attribution-Share Alike (BY-SA) license. We chose this song as the repetitive lyrics 'by myself' create a lonely atmosphere, alluding to our main themes. This song can be found at: http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/767990/games .

We used the article Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics as the basis for our themes and the way in which our photos were taken. 

This video can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO_yoS8rero

REFERENCES:

Murray, Susan. (2008) Journal of Visual Culture, Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics; SAGE, pp.132-148.

Article in MAS110 Reader: What is Creative Commons in Pooling Ideas. (2009) Published by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. pp.151-168. 

Online Media: 'Games' by The Windy City, downloaded from http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/767990/games. Site accessed: 11/10/2012.

MAS110 PHOTO ESSAY RATIONALE: ALLEYWAYS

MAS110 PHOTO ESSAY RATIONALE: ALLEYWAYS

By: Morgan Loveday and Rosemarie Cruz

In the present society, our cultural adaptation of the quick, immediate and temporal capture of reality is understood as the shortcuts of the "everyday" life. The representation of that "shortcut" to a destination grasps this idea of recognising an alleyway's purpose in creating pathways for the everyday person to arrive at a destination in a short period of time. All around the world these passageways appear unnoticed and unappreciated for its purpose thus grasping the essence of the "everyday" aesthetic. As a sub-theme we thought alongside this concept of alleyways, the idea of journeys for an individual to walk or in this case, run through life not noticing the surrounding environment to get to a certain destination which these alleyways allow them to get to rapidly. Murray (2008) emphasises this understanding of the "everyday" culture of photography as being organised around ephemeral themes and collections. By doing so, this concept of "ephemeral themes" demonstrates alleyways to be a temporary sense of noticeable and appreciated passageways in the everyday life. 

Inspired by the film Touch of Evil, directed by Orson Welles (1958), the dark tones moulds into the flow of the narrative alongside the music composition. These characteristic between the dark saturation of the shadows with the bright tones of the open area, we composed to fit a dramatised theme and narrative of a journey within alleyways from one position to another. Accompanied by the music derivatives of ponopower, the emphasised beat in each transition of photographs creates this mysterious realm that befits the essence of the everyday aesthetics. As majority of the photographs are in motion, the journey throughout the alleyways and how this everyday aesthetic, becomes artistically represented as "shortcuts"to the destination, thus immersing the viewer in the journey that we composed together. By creating variations between motion and stationed photographs, this effect produces a balance within the narrative of the video and a sense of direction in the journey. The transitions between each photograph allows a sense of continuity in the flow of images but through simple transitions, we believed that the quality of the photographs should not be overpowered by the effects as the melancholic ambience is emphasised through iPhoto and iMovie. 

Photographers and Producers: Morgan Loveday and Rosemarie Cruz

Music Composer: ponopower - soft loop

References:

Murray, S 2008, 'Digital images, photo-sharing and our shifting notions of everyday aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 147-163.

Music - "soft loop" courtesy of ponopower: Available at http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/909441/soft-loop, published under a Creative Commons Attribution, 3.0 Unported Licence, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, accessed 9.10.12

Welles, O 1958, Touch of Evil, DVD, Universal Studios, France.

Music – “Runaway By The Past” courtesy of PeerGynt Lobogris: Available athttp://www.jamendo.com/en/track/596332/runaway-by-the-past, published under a Creative Commons Attribution, NonCommercial, ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/, accessed 5.10.12


 n.b. If you use share alike media you have to publish share alike yourself

Mas110 Photo Assignment: Mailbox

MAS110 Photo Assignment Rationale

By Kathryn Camilleri & Andrew Gillin

Our choice of mailboxes as our theme for this photo assignment with a sub-theme of varied textures was influenced by Susan Murray's article in Journal of Visual Culture, as she explores the creation of photo blogging sites such as Flickr in which uploaders are not involved in distinctions between amateur and professional photographs, but rather in many online communities that seek to enhance the value of inanimate, everyday objects.

We chose mailboxes as our everyday object and set out to find a wide range with a definitive set of textures, evidently providing a varied perspective of existing mailboxes. We montaged them in ascending numerical order to give it a more linear storyline, thus making it more of an accessible viewing experience for the audience. We decided to capture the photos in the daytime, as receiving mail is primarily associated with midday. In terms of the framing and composition of our photos, we discovered that trying to capture the varying textures and shapes of the mailboxes through the employment of close up shots would prove most effective.

The musical piece used in collaboration with the photo montage is Last Night I Heard Everything In Slow Motion by Oliver Tank. The build-up of the music compliments the ascending order of numbers shown on the mailboxes, and evokes an emotionally reflective response for the viewer. The emotion that we aimed to evoke, by using the musical piece, is a sense of discomfort and not belonging. It gives the audience the feeling that they are looking into a perspective of homelessness (i.e from the mailboxes and address juxtaposed against the lyrics "...you said it will be alright, but i just don't know").

In terms of editing, using iMovie was a creatively enjoyable experience as it is user-friendly and are able to choose a personal aesthetic that was well suited to our chosen photographs, that we think we have positively achieved.

Photographers: Kathryn Camilleri and Andrew Gillin
Musical Composer: Oliver Tank

REFERENCES
Murray, S 2008 'Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics', Journal of Visual Culture, vol 7, no. 2.

Original music track can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZnqxoGNoHo

Music – “Runaway By The Past” courtesy of PeerGynt Lobogris: Available athttp://www.jamendo.com/en/track/596332/runaway-by-the-past, published under a Creative Commons Attribution, NonCommercial, ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/, accessed 5.10.12


 n.b. If you use share alike media you have to publish share alike yourself

Online Essay - 42910714 - (Medical Extension Granted)

Discuss the phenomenon of digital media convergence in relation to Advertising & New Media.

Digital media convergence refers to the “flow of content across media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences...” (Jenkins, 2006.) With respect to advertising and new media, digital media convergence is the progressive integration of traditional media such as film, images and the spoken and written word, with online, interactive media in order to create ‘new media’ culture. This spawns audience migration to online media, whereby consumers are able to archive, annotate, and share media content through advertising-funded mediums (Battelle, 2005; Spurgeon, 2008). Thus expanding media platforms and consumer resources, as well as heightening consumer/business interaction online.
Furthermore, digital media convergence has resulted in ‘new’ integrated media platforms that necessitate contemporary and innovative advertising mechanisms in order to reach nomadic digital audiences (Khamis, 2012). This is seen through the study of the ‘Madison and Vine’ trend (Spurgeon, 2008), and notions of 'Product Placement' and ‘Viral Advertising‘.

Advertising and new media have been influenced greatly by convergence of traditional and online media platforms. The internet is understood to be the most pivotal, contemporary development for advertising (Spurgeon, 2008). In this technological age social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are frequented by 250,000,000 to 750,000,000 unique monthly visitors. Thus, there is a need for traditional advertising techniques to be reshaped in order to address the mass, multi-layered consumer market online. This is resonated by the ‘Madison and Vine’ trend. First initiated by Scott Donaton, Madison and Vine is based on the “strategic alliances between advertisers and entertainment companies” (Spurgeon, 2008). Rather than informational advertising, the Madison and Vine trend proposes that the incorporation of pop culture in advertising creates new avenues for reaching consumers with more engaging messages, so much that they are inspired to share and seek the advertisement for the entertainment of themselves and others (Kotler, 2010).
A primary example of ‘Madison and Vine’ advertising is the 2004 Chanel No.5 short film staring Nicole Kidman. The short film ran for a total of 3 minutes and starred Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman, was directed by Baz Luhrmann and included couture outfits designed by Karl Lagerfeld. The Chanel No.5 advertisement cost approximately 27 Million Australian dollars to create, with 80% of the costs allocated to production. The remaining 20% of expenses were allocated to television distribution. However, the full length feature only appeared on television once, due to its large time bracket. Instead the full length film was put online. Thus, electronic communication stood as the main source of publication for this film (Spurgeon, 2008). As a result of the cumulation of popular, socio-cultural enticers such as film, fashion and celebrities the Chanel No.5 advertisement is still widely consulted with over 3 million views on YouTube, years after its release (YouTube). The film attracted as much attention as the latest blockbuster films (Martinson, The Guardian, 2004) and thus depicts the ways in which digital media convergence necessitates innovative advertising movements, in order to address ‘new media’. 

Source: YouTube

Often used in conjunction with Madison and Vine is the notion of ‘product placement’. The ways in which advertisements are communicated online and through ‘new media’ is dependent on product placement. It is the avenue through which advertisers beat the “clutter” of the online population, and address their target market (Khamis, 2012). This is done through the strategic placement of advertised products in film, music, television and social networking sites.
A primary example of product placement is   the placement of Vitamin Water in the Sex and the City film. The product appears in numerous scenes, particularly surrounding fashion and beauty. This therefore isolates the target market of women through specific, strategic product placement. Thus, as the audience seek to relate to the characters in the film they are drawn to the products the characters use, by default. Furthermore highlighting the need for innovative advertising in ‘new media’, due to digital media convergence.

Similarly, the potential power of online advertising is seen through the notion of ‘Viral Advertising’. Introduced by Steve Jurveston and Tim Draper in 1996, the notion is reliant on electronic word-of-mouth (Porter, Golan, 2006) in spreading content online and in a social context. It is prevalent in todays society with reference to the rapid mass movement of content across the web, resulting in some form of reaction from society. This is constituted by the ability of online audiences to share, comment on and archive media online. 

Source: Facebook

Source: Twitter

One example of viral advertising is the KONY 2012 campaign. Released on March 14, by charitable organisation “Invisible Children” the KONY 2012 campaign aimed to bring international criminal, Joseph Kony to justice. Essentially, the 30 minute film outlined war crimes occurring in Uganda and illustrated an urgent situation of turmoil. The film called upon the worlds youth to “make Joseph Kony famous” by sharing the film on media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more. The campaign went viral with the YouTube film accumulating over 92 million views (YouTube) and the Facebook page receiving over 900,000 ‘likes’ (Facebook). Essentially this occurred through one person ‘sharing’ the campaign to their online network, and so on and so forth. Thus, consumers on social network platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have the power to produce media by sharing, commenting, liking and retweeting online content; furthermore blurring the line between consumer and producer by means of ‘new media’. Hence, the ways in which media platforms are expanded and consumer/business interactions are heightened, as a result of digital media convergence are depicted in relation to viral advertising.

Therefore, it is evident that digital media convergence is the coming together of multiple media platforms to enable wide scale media flows. Through the development of 'new media' advertising cultures have been reshaped in order to address the modernised media landscape. This includes nomadic audiences, extended media platforms and resources and customer/business interactions. All of which are seen through the study of the ‘Madison and Vine’ trend (Spurgeon, 2008), and notions of 'Product Placement' and ‘Viral Advertising‘.

Digital Media Convergence

Digital Media Convergence 

The Online Music Video

By: Andrew Gillin

Media convergence, according to the article by Ander C(ed 2007), is the process by which modern and advanced technologies are accommodated by existing media and communication industries and cultures. 

The transformation of the music video to online broadcasts, social networks, and smart phones holistically demonstrates the phenomenon of digital media convergence. Since the Internet was introduced to the general public it has had a dramatic impact on different mediums and on media convergence.  

The power and importance that the Internet has over its’ consumers initiated the convergence of numerous forms of media. Furthermore, the desire for consumers to obtain multiple services on a single platform on devices like a laptop or iPhone has further prompted this integration of media. 

The transformation of the music video to online media was made inevitable with the continuous change to the media environment. The ever-increasing demand and attractiveness of online broadcasts had forced music videos to implement some changes in order to attend to the masses of online media, and to the continuing demands of technology.

With society being engulfed by a multi level convergent media world, the way we interact with each other has been modified. Even the way we consume, purchase, learn or communicate with each other has been adapted. Convergence therefore marks a shift in culture because consumers are persuaded to gather new information and make connections among disperse media content (Jenkins 2006).

Music videos originated in the 1960’s, with the Beatles’ mocumentary Hard Days Night and became increasingly dominant on the successful music program MTV, which has directed the market for music videos. However, in the 1990’s, MTV shifted its primary programming from music videos to reality TV, Animations, and even Game Shows (Austerlitz 2007). This shift was extremely detrimental to the music video industry, and caused the business to decrease, as it was no longer a committable investment for record labels. According to Austerlitz (2007), this is what made the Internet the new host for music videos. 

Also, the transformation in digital media and the relocation of the music video to the Internet has increased the opportunity for independent artists to promote themselves. Artists could upload their own music videos and display them on the Internet for a broad market all over the world. Formerly, the TV music stations would play particular genres of music for their consumer base to engage; BET would play hip-hop and MTV would play Pop music. 

Nowadays, online media has created the opportunity for consumers to engage in music forms from all over the world. With that in mind, online media as a form of sharing has brought forth the most powerful tool in social media, the ‘viral effect’.

The ‘viral video’ is shared through; video sharing websites such as YouTube, social media forms like Facebook, and email hosts (Nikol 2006). It is a concept by which ideas, news and music is spread between individuals and it has gained significant attention, as it is part of the foundation of an online culture.

The transfer of music videos to the online medium has encouraged a participatory culture (Jenkins 2006). The participatory culture is a culture that considers the consumers of media as contributors or producers rather than merely a customer. Recent advances in technologies, particularly computers and the Internet has enabled a link between media industries and consumers (Burgess and green 2009). In this day, anyone can make a music video that will reach a worldwide audience (Barker 2010). The circulation of this content across different media systems and especially the Internet depends heavily on the active participation of consumers (Jenkins 2006). In the digital age music videos have become so universal that sites like YouTube have allowed the opportunity for videos to be shared amongst others, through codes, and has permitted consumers to respond via comments, webisodes, or video response.

The participatory culture is immensely active especially in viral videos. You will find that most individual artists have founded their career from the viral video. With that being mentioned, when the youth are given the opportunity to express their thoughts on music videos it is noticed that they respond to things that they find humiliating or surprising to their music culture. Take for example Rebecca Black, who went from 4000 views to over 4 million views in a weekend on YouTube, due to the fact that consumers found her ‘talent’ very superficial (Talaricco 2011). Rebecca Black’s song Friday has been marked the ‘worst song ever’, and even still she continues to launch into international stardom (Talaricco 2011).  Even so, consumers continue to participate by creating parodies and remixes such as the death metal version of Rebecca Black’s Friday, which has more views than the original video. As the media expands and continues to develop, the online community has encompassed the music video culture and has provided great opportunities for artists and entertainment.

Bands, artists, and business have become increasingly creative with their music videos, and have benefited in many ways from what digital media convergence has to offer. Ok Go is one of the many bands that have innovatively made a name for themselves through their viral music video ‘Here it goes again’. Furthermore, the video Last Leaf was created with the Samsung NX100 and was a collection and formation of hundreds of photos (imaginginsider 2010). The photos were intertwined and formatted to create a music video clip out of an arrangement of images and hand drawn animations, which was further demonstrating the NX100’s technical capabilities and creative versatility, which exemplifies the lead in media and digital convergence. However, the more contemporary video by Ok Go and the Muppets, which did in fact go viral, substantiates the power that convergent media possesses and also proves that artists do not need to rely on record labels and/ or other companies to create a career on their behalf (chola 2011).

The Muppets were a childhood favorite and struck immense popularity up until the 1990’s, when they were replaced by more contemporary animations and cartoons, and therefore can be considered old media. However, due to the Ok Go collaborative project and YouTube as a sharing device, they have returned with the OK GO rendition of The Muppet show theme song (Chola 2011). As a result, the combination of the old media being the Muppets, the advertising of the Muppet show, and the new media, it is unmistakably proof of the contemporary convergence culture (imaging insider 2010).

Conclusively, it is extensively evident that as the media forms continue to develop and grow, music videos will continue to shape and revolutionize the online culture. The shift of the televised music video to an online medium has created a significant opportunity for artists to deliver their music and for fans to receive it, and thus has created a great potential for music videos to advance.

References

1. ·      Melissa Nikol (2006) Available from: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=viral+video
2.      Anderson C (2007) “Geekpedia” in Wired, Macquarie University Mas 110 introduction to digital media production
3.      Jenkins, H (2006) Convergence Culture: Where New and Old Media Collide, New York University Press, pp 1-24
4.       Austerlitz, (2007), Money for Nothing: A history of the music video from the beatles to the White stripes, New York, London: continuum pp 182-227
5.       Burgess J and Green J (2009) “Youtube and the Mainstream Media in YouTube: Digital Media and society series, polity press, Cambridge pp 15-37
6.      Barker D (2010) Internet saved the video star: the renaissance of the music video, in metro magazine Vol 160 pp 140-144
7.       Brittany Talarico (2011) available from: http://www.okmagazine.com/2011/03/rebecca-blacks-youtube-video-do-you-understand-the-friday-hype/
8.       Imagine insider (2010) Available from: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WbwpO2DJiboJ:www.imaginginsider.com/%3Fp%3D108206+media+convergence+%2B+ok+go&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&client=safari&source=www.google.com.au
9.        Enio Chola (2011) Available from: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/146626-ok-go-vs.-the-muppets/

 Digital Media Convergence

Advertising and New Media



The phenomenon of digital media convergence has influenced new media and all that are affected by the dramatic change of technologies. Advertising is something that decades ago was most prominent on the television set. The black box confined individuals to wait for their favourite show and sit through commercials absorbing the information that was being presented to them. Advertisers have been forced to converge their techniques alongside digital media convergence. They must 'adapt or die' to survive in the realm of new media. Many advertisers have been able to do so by amalgmating the 'Madison and Vine' concept that Christina Spurgeon had introducted in her text From the 'Long Trail' to 'Madison and Vine'. Another outlook on advertisment is one that actively involves consumers. Consumer sovereignty shapes the way advertisement agencies should present a commodity, and this is insinuated in Kim Bartel Sheehan and Deborah K. Morrison's Beyond Convergence: Confluence Culture and the Role of the Advertising Agency in a Changing World.

The concept of Madison and Vine is the idea that advertisers must amalgmate both advertisment (Madison) and entertainment (Vine) for consumers to be drawn into a product. Spurgeon touches upon two evils of advertising which consist of two key ideas that advertisers have to consider when creating a visual for their media audiences. One is that they cannot simply predicted that media audiences are passive (Spurgeon, 2008). The catalyst for this is that the consumer’s ability to access information online is becoming increasingly significant. Digital media convergence has opened doors to media audiences (Sheehan & Morrison 2009) that allow them to be much more critical before they decide to consider commodities. This is something that challengers advertising agencies. They cannot simply expect to persuade consumers to have faith in a commodity that is represented as desirable which relates to the second evil of advertising that conveys that “perfect information in a market can only be attained through rational, instrumental allocution”(Spurgeon, 2008). This echoes the ‘Madison and Vine'. An example of a successful ad campaign that has become successful through entertainment and advertising is a commercial for BMW, which was presented as a short 10 minute film. In favour of advertisers, this new way of representing a commodity was incredibly popular online. BMW sales increased by 12% in one financial year.

Kim Bartel Sheehan and Deborah K. Morrison's convey the concept of cultural convergence. The individuals are moving online to seek more and more information, which Jenkins refers to as "collective intelligence"(Jenkins, 2006)
Youtube is a key influence on the popularity of many advertisments. Once one video leaks over Youtube, it will effectively leak onto social networking sites which further promote a product. It cuts through the clutter, that is tedious advertisements. Individuals are moving ideas through the online realm, enhancing its value.

New convergent media has effectively created a foundation for individuals. One that holds a new way of doing things. As media has converged so have people, and they have created another life beyond the real, one that entitles the flexibility of space and time. Audiences do not have to wait for their favourite show to air on the television, and they do not have to plan their day around missing a particular show. The catalyst? New media. The internet is the most signficant media source of our current era (Sheehan & Morrison 2009). Audiences are capable of diregarding the tedious commercials that are presented on Television, and this is why advertisement agencies have turned online. Youtube is a forum where individuals are able to post content and vlogs to an international audience. Advertisers are utilising Youtube as a way in which is more cost effective and in a way that targets an international audience that will hopefully move a commodity through culture. Old Spice advertised men's scented body wash gained a profound 42 million views online. An advertisement that went viral. Online users of social netwroking sites such as Facebook and Twitter moved the video through new media, sharing the Youtube clip with friends and family who further moved the video to others online users. After this clip went viral, so did the face of Old Spice, Isaiah. Microsoft later emplyed him to be the face of their newest product. The sent Isaiah to Bondi Beach to promote a commodity, which inevitable worked to Microsofts advantage. The online video had made Isaiah incredibly desirable and humourous that enriched the value of the product. Because we had been exposed to one advertisement, another was able to 'cut through the clutter' (Jenkins 2006). It is interesting to note that this Ad had become an online sensation before making it to the television. This insinuates a tactic for advertisers, that online, they are able to test the popularity of a product before they decide to air something on television which evidently is much more economically repressing.

 

The process of digital media convergence has shaped consumers and the types of audiences that advertisers have to target. Because of this convergent nature of technology, audiences have become much more individualised. Their collective intelligence is moulded through the information they are able to access. This is why the Madison and Vine concept purposed by Spurgeon increasingly more significant for advertisement agencies. They must "adapt or die" in the exercise of being successful. Audiences are much more difficult to please, which is why advertisers need to combine the two concepts of advertising and entertainment to be successful. The videos that have gone viral have not just gone viral with one or the other. Both Old Spice and BMW's Star have cut throught the clutter through representing both a product to be sold and a form of entertainment that can we watched time and time again. A video that will be spread across the face of the online realm, reaching an international audience.

        References

• Spurgeon, Christina (2008) Advertising and New Media. Oxon Routledge, pp 24- 45
• Sheehan, Kim, Morrison, Deborah (2009) Beyond Convergence: Confluence Culture and the Role of the Advertising Agencey in a Changing World. http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2239/2121
• Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture: "where old and new media collide" pp 68 - 69