fwd from parriska -Re: [-empyre-] some questions about vogs

["empyre-admin" <empyre-admin@imap.cofa.unsw.edu.au>]

  Adrian Miles wrote:

>
>What made blogs so popular was the ease to
>publish. Practically anyone who could write
>and use a browser was a potential blogger,
>without the need to learn new technologies.
>Don't you think that vogs demand much more
>from potential voggers, with a much steeper
>learning curve, setting them apart from the
>blogger movement?
no i don't. i've just finished writing the first part of a tutorial
about how to use quicktime pro to build a movie collage (looking for
somewhere to publish it right now). using only quicktime pro (US$30)
i have non new media students making collaged vogs in one class. it
is easier than html. (seriously). and you can do it all in quicktime
pro (not the sprite tracks, but certainly layers, text tracks, and
some limited forms of interactivity).
it would also be not very hard to make a tool that would provide most
of the functionality with a simple interface. (in fact i'm trying to
get funding for such a tool for cinema studies teaching, but it would
also be perfect for simple vogging, hadn't realised that - *thank
you*!)


adrian also wrote...
i got oodles more to say 'bout this, but nuff for now. if this is all
bleedingly obvious *please* say so, otherwise you won't shut me up.

oh, and i'm supposed be the guest here, so you're supposed to set the agenda
:)


oh this is interesting, and i'm really excited that you raised this point
Nemo.
whether or not there is an actual difference in the learning curve between
vog & blog production, (and i have to take your word for this, adrian,
having never vogged- and this is key), there certainly is the perception of
one. and this discussion is evidence of that. adrian, you are in that
uncomfortable position of the diseminator of knowledge, I'm afraid, because
of this divide, but i don't think it's something you should feel
uncomfortable about. we'll chip in with our hooks as we find them, and we
are, but this topic is necessarily going to have a different tone because,
unlike in the blogging discussion, we're the consumers here. (interactivity
& death of the vog artist notwithstanding.)
i think something else that's key in this is the text/image divide that sure
many of us would like to see frustrated. (and although i agree, lachlan, we
need new language and new disciplines and i do think that the academy is
recognizing this in its slow way, i find it interesting that the language
and ideas you're putting foward are ones i would locate in poststructuralist
lit theory- expanding notions of "text", intertextuality- barthes,
kristeva...)
but we've been talking about that divide here mostly in terms of the way we
read. and now that i've invoked barthes, i'm going to tell him to shut up a
moment, because i think there's a major difference when it comes to the way
we write.
in terms of production, we (oh... damn.. by "we," i mean the kinds of people
who are likely to stumble on to the internet), are more textually literate
than visually literate.
we produce text on a far more regular basis than we produce images (...i
can't believe i'm saying this... text does of course have a visual
component. but again, it's the perception that's key. with a very few
exceptions, as has been noted here, most people see text as transparent.)
it's something we can do without a great deal of self- consciousness.  so
even if i could easily master the vog production apps so that it was
technically as quick and dirty for me to post a video as to post to my blog
(... you know, i'm going to have to be convinced on this one. ), my lack of
fluency in image-making means that it would be a long time before i could
just spew something off the top of my head to my vog as i sometimes do with
my blog.
please understand, i'm not saying this is a bad thing. after all, i work in
MOOs, and people are constantly throwing the learning curve in my face.
i sympathize, but i do argue there, and i think the case could be made here
too, that if we're going to see new modes of expression emerge in the new
media, we're going to need to stretch ourselves a bit. and that might
require some effort. and a little blood.

oh, and thanks adrian for clearing up your response to my earlier post! :)
i'm so sorry i lost the thread there, cause i think there's a lot more to
say, and i feel that we've only scratched the surface on blogging here,
though a much deeper scratch than i've encountered elsewhere.... guess we'll
take it to the blogs.
katherine