Monday, September 20, 2010
Micro-mentary website link
I found a site that shows that something like this has been done... but not really. This was a film festival of one-minute documentaries, done in/for Nepal. One minute isn't really enough time to really get into some things, I feel... hence why I wanted to keep them at a three-minute maximum. Click the picture to go to the site!
Micro-mentary
Just had this really awesome idea, actually mostly thanks to a suggestion by Chloe... what if I did my entire documentary section of the project as a series of very short (I'm talking less than three minutes if possible) micro-documentaries?
It would allow for me to do a great many different subjects in a short amount of time, without having to spend a long amount of time on any one thing. This fits perfectly with the attention-deficit type of mentality that we seem to have these days, with videos taking just long enough to cover one single idea without getting sidetracked or too boring.
It could also allow for mixing and matching several different micro-mentaries to sort of "roll your own documentary." I could have an interface for people to either watch a selection of several randomized "micro-mentaries," or select them one at a time from a master list, or even watch by category. Perhaps there could even be tagging and all that crazy stuff. It could be nuts, I tell you... NUTS!
...I really like it. It's getting my "awesome senses" tingling. That is a very good sign.
It would allow for me to do a great many different subjects in a short amount of time, without having to spend a long amount of time on any one thing. This fits perfectly with the attention-deficit type of mentality that we seem to have these days, with videos taking just long enough to cover one single idea without getting sidetracked or too boring.
It could also allow for mixing and matching several different micro-mentaries to sort of "roll your own documentary." I could have an interface for people to either watch a selection of several randomized "micro-mentaries," or select them one at a time from a master list, or even watch by category. Perhaps there could even be tagging and all that crazy stuff. It could be nuts, I tell you... NUTS!
...I really like it. It's getting my "awesome senses" tingling. That is a very good sign.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Opening/Closing Statements
OPENING STATEMENT
What's in the Lumberman's Museum, anyway?
CLOSING STATEMENT
I want to make it so that people will care about the museum once again.
What's in the Lumberman's Museum, anyway?
CLOSING STATEMENT
I want to make it so that people will care about the museum once again.
Milestone Review 1 Thoughts/Stuff
I don't really know what I'm supposed to put down here. I guess I can write about my presentation's flow.
First, I'll give my opening statement and "sell" the project a bit. I don't know whether this was something that we should be doing for the first milestone review, but it is a quick rundown of everything the project should entail, and in a better format than I've been using to describe it previously.
Next, I talk about where I am... which is completely and utterly lost. I'll show off the emails I've sent off and thus far have not had a response to... although I may need to change aspects if I do get a response before Monday. And then I'll end with my statement that I want to bring people back to the museum.
I need to practice the Powerpoint (a good powerpoint, I hope?) before I can show it off properly. Must do that before Monday. Must do that before Monday. Must do that before Monday. There's no place like home... there's no place like home...
First, I'll give my opening statement and "sell" the project a bit. I don't know whether this was something that we should be doing for the first milestone review, but it is a quick rundown of everything the project should entail, and in a better format than I've been using to describe it previously.
Next, I talk about where I am... which is completely and utterly lost. I'll show off the emails I've sent off and thus far have not had a response to... although I may need to change aspects if I do get a response before Monday. And then I'll end with my statement that I want to bring people back to the museum.
I need to practice the Powerpoint (a good powerpoint, I hope?) before I can show it off properly. Must do that before Monday. Must do that before Monday. Must do that before Monday. There's no place like home... there's no place like home...
Updated Gantt Chart
I updated my Gantt chart for Milestone Review 1. Click it for a bigger version, or click here. The entire flow of the project has changed and has become a lot more realistic. Of course, until I know what my full project will entail it's still very rough. It's also more organized and such.Ganttproject is fast becoming my sworn enemy...
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Lumberman's Museum "Computer-Free Capstone" Idea/Thoughts
It’s a hard prospect to think about a computer or technology-free approach to a project that in part hinges upon the purchase of a television and other related technology. In essence, the “media room” suggests that there will be media of some type within it. However, I can work with the spirit of this idea, to try to bring it to life without the use of computer technology. The whole purpose of this plan of mine to help the Lumberman’s Museum is to give them some form of new content that will excite people coming to the museum, and allow them to better connect with the exhibits they will find within. In reality this begins with a nice television and sound system, but where do you begin when there is nothing of the sort?
The problem the museum faces is that its content is not engaging to the younger generations. It has had the same exhibits and look since before I was born, and has barely changed since. The museum itself is sort of as historical as the items it houses. New visitors to the museum are not as engaged with the content as people would have been previously. So, the solution is to find some way to “jumpstart” the minds of the people before they go through the museum proper. To me, the reason why people aren’t interested in the museum any more is because they don’t understand the woods and just what it meant to work as a logger or lumberman. Even twenty or thirty years ago, people in the area were more in tune with the logging industry and could understand what it meant to use all the old tools and machines. I would see my job, in this anti-technology stance, to bring some semblance of this old way of life to the people who were entering the museum. It would be like taking them through the woods before taking them through the museum, so that they understood the conditions. There would need to be some way to set the items of the museum against the backdrop of the forests they were used in… “a museum without walls,” as Jon has told me on several occasions now. It wouldn’t really be prudent to actually take these really old and rusty tools out into the forest and actually re-use them… the possibility that they would break is very high, and nobody wants that. But I think a tour of the woods, set in the mindset of a lumberman, would really make people think more clearly about what all these old tools mean and why the museum is still important.
The problem the museum faces is that its content is not engaging to the younger generations. It has had the same exhibits and look since before I was born, and has barely changed since. The museum itself is sort of as historical as the items it houses. New visitors to the museum are not as engaged with the content as people would have been previously. So, the solution is to find some way to “jumpstart” the minds of the people before they go through the museum proper. To me, the reason why people aren’t interested in the museum any more is because they don’t understand the woods and just what it meant to work as a logger or lumberman. Even twenty or thirty years ago, people in the area were more in tune with the logging industry and could understand what it meant to use all the old tools and machines. I would see my job, in this anti-technology stance, to bring some semblance of this old way of life to the people who were entering the museum. It would be like taking them through the woods before taking them through the museum, so that they understood the conditions. There would need to be some way to set the items of the museum against the backdrop of the forests they were used in… “a museum without walls,” as Jon has told me on several occasions now. It wouldn’t really be prudent to actually take these really old and rusty tools out into the forest and actually re-use them… the possibility that they would break is very high, and nobody wants that. But I think a tour of the woods, set in the mindset of a lumberman, would really make people think more clearly about what all these old tools mean and why the museum is still important.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Lumbermans Museum Media Room Media Proposal
Abstract
I intend to use the skills and ideas I have learned through my years in New Media to help the Lumberman’s Museum in my hometown in Patten develop a multimedia center and a variety of media content.
Why/Where
This opportunity to work with the museum is once-in-a-lifetime, a chance that just happened to come to me through talking with the museum curator. Thanks to a grant, they have a certain amount of money available to purchase content for a new media area. Patten and the museum itself is not a very media-savvy area, and this is a big step for the Lumberman’s Museum. This is an opportunity to give the museum a great beginning and the ideas and help they need to get started on producing their own content (or hiring out for content).
Proposal
I propose first to act as the “technical advisor” for the museum, giving advice on what types of equipment to
purchase with their grant. While this process goes on, I will work with the material available at the museum as well as developing ideas of my own to produce several different types of content for the media center. At the moment, I am envisioning several short films on different subjects, such as the museum’s history and the vast amounts of stories and poems and songs that the Museum and the people in the area who worked in the woods have. I would also like to produce a humorous short or two. Beyond this, I would also like to aid in spreading the word about the museum through giving it a presence in social media (Facebook), and possibly re-working the museum’s website. Finally, I would also like to attempt to educate the museum board and/or the community on the process of the creation of my media pieces, perhaps through a short “class” on media creation in the spring.
Timeline
See Gantt Project timeline here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/4951429890_4f8335c9b6_b_d.jpg
Resources/Costs
See tentative budget here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/4951429908_1e21d374e6_b_d.jpg
Getting the Word Out
CREATING WEBSITE
The Lumberman’s Museum website is very static and boring. In the course of this project, I would create a new and much more dynamic website for them, including ways to post museum news and goings-on. Their store section seems to work well enough at present, but to this I would add a blog, a much-expanded history/educational section, and perhaps a calendar application to post their upcoming events.
PROMOTING WEBSITE
After this was completed, I would begin to promote the website, as well as the changes to the museum through the new website. They already have a good domain and show in the major search engines, so that element of promotion is taken care of. I feel my promotion would be mainly to alert people to the existence of the website, and the new features it has. I would instruct the museum curator to put the URL on all future museum material, especially promotional material. I would also ensure there was a link back to the museum page from the Facebook group I intend to create, as well as attempting to share links with other museums in the area.
GET PRESS
Once the media room is complete and ready to function, I would send letters to the local papers (Bangor Daily, Houlton Pioneer Times, Katahdin Times) to alert them t
o the news. Hopefully at least one of them would send a reporter up to get a story on the fancy new equipment and media I would be producing. I would also mention it to the campus newspaper, in case they thought it might make a good story.
PUT UP FLYERS
Near the point when the media room is set to open, I would begin to put up posters advertising it around Patten. Good places to do so would be on telephone poles in and around town, as well as the large bulletin board outside Ellis Family Market. I would also try to put a bunch of posters up around the museum itself.
SAMPLER/TEASER
While I can’t really give a “teaser” of the media room itself, I could most certainly put up teasers of my media work. Once my documentary video begins to take shape, I could post a small portion of it on Youtube and link it on the museum website, to get people interested. If I end up doing a video tour, I could also post an abridged version to Youtube for people to get a very quick overview of the interesting things at the museum.
Annotated Bibliography
Available here.
I intend to use the skills and ideas I have learned through my years in New Media to help the Lumberman’s Museum in my hometown in Patten develop a multimedia center and a variety of media content.
Why/Where
This opportunity to work with the museum is once-in-a-lifetime, a chance that just happened to come to me through talking with the museum curator. Thanks to a grant, they have a certain amount of money available to purchase content for a new media area. Patten and the museum itself is not a very media-savvy area, and this is a big step for the Lumberman’s Museum. This is an opportunity to give the museum a great beginning and the ideas and help they need to get started on producing their own content (or hiring out for content).
Proposal
I propose first to act as the “technical advisor” for the museum, giving advice on what types of equipment to
purchase with their grant. While this process goes on, I will work with the material available at the museum as well as developing ideas of my own to produce several different types of content for the media center. At the moment, I am envisioning several short films on different subjects, such as the museum’s history and the vast amounts of stories and poems and songs that the Museum and the people in the area who worked in the woods have. I would also like to produce a humorous short or two. Beyond this, I would also like to aid in spreading the word about the museum through giving it a presence in social media (Facebook), and possibly re-working the museum’s website. Finally, I would also like to attempt to educate the museum board and/or the community on the process of the creation of my media pieces, perhaps through a short “class” on media creation in the spring.Timeline
See Gantt Project timeline here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/4951429890_4f8335c9b6_b_d.jpg
Resources/Costs
See tentative budget here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/4951429908_1e21d374e6_b_d.jpg
Getting the Word Out
CREATING WEBSITE
The Lumberman’s Museum website is very static and boring. In the course of this project, I would create a new and much more dynamic website for them, including ways to post museum news and goings-on. Their store section seems to work well enough at present, but to this I would add a blog, a much-expanded history/educational section, and perhaps a calendar application to post their upcoming events.
PROMOTING WEBSITE
After this was completed, I would begin to promote the website, as well as the changes to the museum through the new website. They already have a good domain and show in the major search engines, so that element of promotion is taken care of. I feel my promotion would be mainly to alert people to the existence of the website, and the new features it has. I would instruct the museum curator to put the URL on all future museum material, especially promotional material. I would also ensure there was a link back to the museum page from the Facebook group I intend to create, as well as attempting to share links with other museums in the area.
GET PRESS
Once the media room is complete and ready to function, I would send letters to the local papers (Bangor Daily, Houlton Pioneer Times, Katahdin Times) to alert them t
o the news. Hopefully at least one of them would send a reporter up to get a story on the fancy new equipment and media I would be producing. I would also mention it to the campus newspaper, in case they thought it might make a good story.PUT UP FLYERS
Near the point when the media room is set to open, I would begin to put up posters advertising it around Patten. Good places to do so would be on telephone poles in and around town, as well as the large bulletin board outside Ellis Family Market. I would also try to put a bunch of posters up around the museum itself.
SAMPLER/TEASER
While I can’t really give a “teaser” of the media room itself, I could most certainly put up teasers of my media work. Once my documentary video begins to take shape, I could post a small portion of it on Youtube and link it on the museum website, to get people interested. If I end up doing a video tour, I could also post an abridged version to Youtube for people to get a very quick overview of the interesting things at the museum.
Annotated Bibliography
Available here.
Lumberman Proposal Annotated Bibliography/Links
Timber Mafia
This is a recent documentary about questionable logging practices in Indonesia, produced by Journeyman Pictures. It was one of the few documentaries that have been produced about the lumbering industry in recent years, and made me wonder if it would be a good idea to do more research about overseas logging, and how it compares to our practices in North America.
American Loggers
American Loggers is a recent television series by the Discovery Channel. It follows a logging company based in northern Maine, and chronicles the ups and downs of the loggers and truckers as they attempt to stay afloat in the industry. I would say that this is probably the only new piece of film to do with the Maine logging industry in ages, and should definitely be a part of my research and development.
Dead River Rough Cut
This documentary is one of the few that the museum sells in its gift shop. So, right away I can tell that this is something worth looking at. It chronicles the story of two lumbermen, living together out in the woods and making a living off the land. The two of them appear to be real characters, making for a fun and rather politically incorrect documentary. The sort of stories I saw just from their previews on this site are exactly the sort of thing I want for the storytelling portions of my documentary work.
AMNH Explorer App
The American Museum of Natural History recently produced this iPhone/iPod Touch app for patrons of its museum. It walks users through pre-defined tours, and also allows them to create their own tour path through the museum based upon the exhibits they want to see. While something like this would be way overpowered for the Lumberman's Museum, it's still an inspiration as to how technology can add to the museum experience.
MemoryMiner: Digital Storytelling for Museums
MemoryMiner is a program that allows users to view pictures scanned into the program in high detail, and answer questions to begin to form connections between the various photographs. It has been used to form connections just in terms of a single family's photos, and now museums are using it with their vast collections of photographs in order to uncover hidden connections and stories that they never knew existed. The Lumberman's Museum has a large collection of old photographs. See the connection? I certainly do...
British Museum works with Wikipedia
The British Museum invited several top Wikipedia contributors in for them to learn more about the museum's collection, and the museum to be able to suggest places to aid the Wikipedia articles. While the article seems a little strange (why invite Wikipedia people in when the museum could have just edited articles themselves?), it shows the need for the "old" institutions to try to embrace the future and work with Internet heavyweights like Wikipedia.
Take a Side Trip to the Denver Art Museum
This is a person's firsthand account of an interactive exhibit called "Side Trip" at the Denver Art Museum. It accompanied a "rock art" exhibit, and allowed people to create their own types of rock art and basically interact with an area designed in the spirit of the pieces. I like the idea of interacting with a space that corresponds with the items you are looking at. For the Lumberman's Museum, though, that would mean being in a forest. Still, something to think about.
Ralph Appelbaum's Transformation of the Museum World is Clearly Evident
(From the Washington Post) Ralph Appelbaum and his design company has been behind the re-working of many museums in recent years, bringing them up-to-date and relevant to the modern world. His mode of operation is to turn the museum into less of an area for silent contemplation of exhibits, and more into an overall experience that makes you feel something. It turns the museum into a place where there's an overall "big picture" for you to discover, and that is felt throughout all the exhibits. I'm not exactly sure that this sort of design could be used in terms of the Lumberman's Museum, but it is the recent trend in museum design and thus should most definitely be researched.
Redone American Galleries, Satisfyingly Staid
(From the Washington Post) This article covers the re-opening of the American Galleries at the National Gallery of Art after some extensive renovations. However, unlike the design philosophies of Ralph Appelbaum above, the galleries look about the same as they did before. The galleries are still just pieces of art hanging on the walls, with no other fancy media things going on. In the point of view of the author, that lets the pieces of art continue to have the gravity and full attention of the viewer. It's better for them to be "staid" and "lifeless." In a world where we want to make everything more lively and exciting, this sort of viewpoint is interesting. I feel that when I do my work for the museum, I shall have to strike a precarious balance between keeping the past in place, and making things more lively.
Virtual Museum of the Pacific
This is a new venture designed to combine the standard exhibits of a museum with elements of social media. Visitors to this virtual museum are presented with a 400-item "collection," and tools that they can use to find exactly what they want to look at. Using a tagging system, users can sort and search through the items in the collection to find connections between items, and look only at items which interest them. I found this idea of a "virtual museum" very interesting. Apart from the big exhibits, looking through a museum's collection can often be an exhausting task. This site condenses the experience and makes it incredibly easy to find what you're looking for. This sort of viewpoint towards the museum collection is perhaps what I need to take as I start to look at what I'm going to do for the museum.
Lumberman's Museum
And finally, the Lumberman's Museum web site. Old, static, and boring. This is a representation of all that I need to work on for the place. It needs work to bring it into the new age, and I'm just the one to do it.
This is a recent documentary about questionable logging practices in Indonesia, produced by Journeyman Pictures. It was one of the few documentaries that have been produced about the lumbering industry in recent years, and made me wonder if it would be a good idea to do more research about overseas logging, and how it compares to our practices in North America.
American Loggers
American Loggers is a recent television series by the Discovery Channel. It follows a logging company based in northern Maine, and chronicles the ups and downs of the loggers and truckers as they attempt to stay afloat in the industry. I would say that this is probably the only new piece of film to do with the Maine logging industry in ages, and should definitely be a part of my research and development.
Dead River Rough Cut
This documentary is one of the few that the museum sells in its gift shop. So, right away I can tell that this is something worth looking at. It chronicles the story of two lumbermen, living together out in the woods and making a living off the land. The two of them appear to be real characters, making for a fun and rather politically incorrect documentary. The sort of stories I saw just from their previews on this site are exactly the sort of thing I want for the storytelling portions of my documentary work.
AMNH Explorer App
The American Museum of Natural History recently produced this iPhone/iPod Touch app for patrons of its museum. It walks users through pre-defined tours, and also allows them to create their own tour path through the museum based upon the exhibits they want to see. While something like this would be way overpowered for the Lumberman's Museum, it's still an inspiration as to how technology can add to the museum experience.
MemoryMiner: Digital Storytelling for Museums
MemoryMiner is a program that allows users to view pictures scanned into the program in high detail, and answer questions to begin to form connections between the various photographs. It has been used to form connections just in terms of a single family's photos, and now museums are using it with their vast collections of photographs in order to uncover hidden connections and stories that they never knew existed. The Lumberman's Museum has a large collection of old photographs. See the connection? I certainly do...
British Museum works with Wikipedia
The British Museum invited several top Wikipedia contributors in for them to learn more about the museum's collection, and the museum to be able to suggest places to aid the Wikipedia articles. While the article seems a little strange (why invite Wikipedia people in when the museum could have just edited articles themselves?), it shows the need for the "old" institutions to try to embrace the future and work with Internet heavyweights like Wikipedia.
Take a Side Trip to the Denver Art Museum
This is a person's firsthand account of an interactive exhibit called "Side Trip" at the Denver Art Museum. It accompanied a "rock art" exhibit, and allowed people to create their own types of rock art and basically interact with an area designed in the spirit of the pieces. I like the idea of interacting with a space that corresponds with the items you are looking at. For the Lumberman's Museum, though, that would mean being in a forest. Still, something to think about.
Ralph Appelbaum's Transformation of the Museum World is Clearly Evident
(From the Washington Post) Ralph Appelbaum and his design company has been behind the re-working of many museums in recent years, bringing them up-to-date and relevant to the modern world. His mode of operation is to turn the museum into less of an area for silent contemplation of exhibits, and more into an overall experience that makes you feel something. It turns the museum into a place where there's an overall "big picture" for you to discover, and that is felt throughout all the exhibits. I'm not exactly sure that this sort of design could be used in terms of the Lumberman's Museum, but it is the recent trend in museum design and thus should most definitely be researched.
Redone American Galleries, Satisfyingly Staid
(From the Washington Post) This article covers the re-opening of the American Galleries at the National Gallery of Art after some extensive renovations. However, unlike the design philosophies of Ralph Appelbaum above, the galleries look about the same as they did before. The galleries are still just pieces of art hanging on the walls, with no other fancy media things going on. In the point of view of the author, that lets the pieces of art continue to have the gravity and full attention of the viewer. It's better for them to be "staid" and "lifeless." In a world where we want to make everything more lively and exciting, this sort of viewpoint is interesting. I feel that when I do my work for the museum, I shall have to strike a precarious balance between keeping the past in place, and making things more lively.
Virtual Museum of the Pacific
This is a new venture designed to combine the standard exhibits of a museum with elements of social media. Visitors to this virtual museum are presented with a 400-item "collection," and tools that they can use to find exactly what they want to look at. Using a tagging system, users can sort and search through the items in the collection to find connections between items, and look only at items which interest them. I found this idea of a "virtual museum" very interesting. Apart from the big exhibits, looking through a museum's collection can often be an exhausting task. This site condenses the experience and makes it incredibly easy to find what you're looking for. This sort of viewpoint towards the museum collection is perhaps what I need to take as I start to look at what I'm going to do for the museum.
Lumberman's Museum
And finally, the Lumberman's Museum web site. Old, static, and boring. This is a representation of all that I need to work on for the place. It needs work to bring it into the new age, and I'm just the one to do it.
Friday, September 3, 2010
New Media Definitions, Part 3: Vin Crosbie
(For those not in NMD498, this is part of an assignment where we look at "Definitions" of new media by various people, and then decide whether our project fits within these definitions, and if we actually agree with the definitions.)
A. According to Vin Crosbie’s definition of new media (or the New Medium, as he’d like it to be called), my project has next to nothing to do with new media. My project involves films and creating a media room, where people will come in and view what the museum wants them to see. This is one-to-many communication, certainly not many-to-many communication. The only part of the project that could conceivably end up being many-to-many is my plans to possibly revamp the museum website, and create a page for them on Facebook. The only way that I can think of to bring my project more in line with his idea of many-to-many communication is to involve the Patten community directly in how the museum films are made, such as asking the town about the content and direction they wish to see me take. I suppose I could also consider my plan to educate the community about my films and the process which I took to create them as a form of many-to-many communication.
B. While I can understand Crosbie’s definition, I feel that calling the “new medium” simply many-to-many communication is both limiting, and also nowhere near what constitutes what we create as “new media” today. Perhaps the only reason why many-to-many communication seems limiting is because of the fact that we don’t really consider that as our key definition of new media in our classes. To me, it feels more like our “new media” is about creating new and innovative ways of expression, regardless of whether it’s one-to-many or many-to-many or many-to-one or whatever other kinds of expression models there might be. I do, however, believe new media has a strong focus on community these days, and a community is a perfect example of many-to-many communication. In a community, people stay connected… so perhaps this is the sense in which I should take Crosbie’s definition.
A. According to Vin Crosbie’s definition of new media (or the New Medium, as he’d like it to be called), my project has next to nothing to do with new media. My project involves films and creating a media room, where people will come in and view what the museum wants them to see. This is one-to-many communication, certainly not many-to-many communication. The only part of the project that could conceivably end up being many-to-many is my plans to possibly revamp the museum website, and create a page for them on Facebook. The only way that I can think of to bring my project more in line with his idea of many-to-many communication is to involve the Patten community directly in how the museum films are made, such as asking the town about the content and direction they wish to see me take. I suppose I could also consider my plan to educate the community about my films and the process which I took to create them as a form of many-to-many communication.
B. While I can understand Crosbie’s definition, I feel that calling the “new medium” simply many-to-many communication is both limiting, and also nowhere near what constitutes what we create as “new media” today. Perhaps the only reason why many-to-many communication seems limiting is because of the fact that we don’t really consider that as our key definition of new media in our classes. To me, it feels more like our “new media” is about creating new and innovative ways of expression, regardless of whether it’s one-to-many or many-to-many or many-to-one or whatever other kinds of expression models there might be. I do, however, believe new media has a strong focus on community these days, and a community is a perfect example of many-to-many communication. In a community, people stay connected… so perhaps this is the sense in which I should take Crosbie’s definition.
New Media Definitions, Part 2: Henry Jenkins
(for anyone reading that isn't in NMD498, this is part of an assignment where we read portions of "definitions" of new media, and then decide whether our project fits these definitions, and then if we agree with the definitions.)
A. On Henry Jenkins’ definition of new media, I think my capstone is a little lacking. I feel that my capstone best fulfills his definitions in convergence. I plan to hit as many new and old media outlets as I possibly can in developing a promotional plan for the museum’s media room, as well as for the museum itself. All of the different areas of media will come together, so that there should be no way that people can “escape” knowing about my project. Otherwise, I think my capstone is lacking on just about every single one of his new media traits. Perhaps the most glaring omission is in innovation… simply put, my capstone isn’t really innovating anything. It’s innovative in the sense that the small-town museum will be getting a great deal of media content, the likes of which they will have never had before, but it isn’t breaking any new ground in the field at large. Perhaps my project needs something more innovative, even if in a small-town way, to make it more new media and more acceptable as a capstone. I may have to dig deep into my stash of ideas inside my brain to try to come up with something dramatically new and different to add in.
B. On the whole, I think that Jenkins’ traits are fairly accurate as to the current trends of New Media. However, the “unequal” trait seems to contradict somewhat with the trend towards communities that I have noticed in new media. Throughout the past year, especially, everything new media has a community attached to it. Everyone has to have a social networking component attached to whatever they’re trying to do. While in many ways the world of the Internet, if not new media as a whole, is unequal, there is now a great push for people to join into more and more communities. The nature of these communities, to me, is that anyone can join into them and not be at any kind of disadvantage. While there are people who may have thousands of pictures and “friends” on Facebook, all it takes is a simple click for you to either become their friend, or they to ask to become yours. It seems to me that the idea of inequality is beginning to fall by the wayside.
A. On Henry Jenkins’ definition of new media, I think my capstone is a little lacking. I feel that my capstone best fulfills his definitions in convergence. I plan to hit as many new and old media outlets as I possibly can in developing a promotional plan for the museum’s media room, as well as for the museum itself. All of the different areas of media will come together, so that there should be no way that people can “escape” knowing about my project. Otherwise, I think my capstone is lacking on just about every single one of his new media traits. Perhaps the most glaring omission is in innovation… simply put, my capstone isn’t really innovating anything. It’s innovative in the sense that the small-town museum will be getting a great deal of media content, the likes of which they will have never had before, but it isn’t breaking any new ground in the field at large. Perhaps my project needs something more innovative, even if in a small-town way, to make it more new media and more acceptable as a capstone. I may have to dig deep into my stash of ideas inside my brain to try to come up with something dramatically new and different to add in.
B. On the whole, I think that Jenkins’ traits are fairly accurate as to the current trends of New Media. However, the “unequal” trait seems to contradict somewhat with the trend towards communities that I have noticed in new media. Throughout the past year, especially, everything new media has a community attached to it. Everyone has to have a social networking component attached to whatever they’re trying to do. While in many ways the world of the Internet, if not new media as a whole, is unequal, there is now a great push for people to join into more and more communities. The nature of these communities, to me, is that anyone can join into them and not be at any kind of disadvantage. While there are people who may have thousands of pictures and “friends” on Facebook, all it takes is a simple click for you to either become their friend, or they to ask to become yours. It seems to me that the idea of inequality is beginning to fall by the wayside.
New Media Definitions, Part 1: Lev Manovich
(for anyone reading that isn't in NMD498, this is part of an assignment where we read portions of "definitions" of new media, and then decide whether our project fit these definitions, and then if we agree with the definitions.)
A. In the terms of Manovich’s definition of New Media, I feel my project does hold up in several ways. One of the strongest comparisons to the definition is in the project’s modularity (the second of Manovich’s principles). I envision the project as having several different components, including films and picture slideshows, each of which can stand alone or be combined or used in many different ways. Beyond this, the initial video files and photos can be taken away from the whole and used and recombined in new and different ways. Depending on what is necessary for the museum, the project can be very modular indeed. If I had to choose an element that my project does not excel in according to Manovich’s definition, it would definitely be in automation. There will certainly be some automation used in the project, considering I’ll be using today’s current and most powerful video editing software to edit videos, and there will be many simple tasks handled by the computer. But beyond that, there is not much automation that will be seen by the end user. They will sit in front of a TV and watch a video, or watch a slideshow, or something else… in other words, the experience will be human-controlled. I don’t know if I could really add any sort of extra automation in, considering the museum will want to control the experience. However, I think that may be where I would start to look in order to bring my project more towards Manovich’s definition.
B. For the most part, I would also agree with many of the points that Manovich brings up. Modularity (including the idea of remix) has always seemed to me to be a large part of what we are taught in New Media classes. I also agree with his idea of media becoming programmable, and changeable in a very deep level thanks to computers. Beyond even interaction with our media, before new media we were never really able to change and manipulate what we see and hear and work with as much as we can now. However, I do disagree with the idea of automation being key to new media as a whole. Many different things to do with new media can be automated, but I really can’t see it as being key to the definition of a new media work. Unless, of course, we count the simple automation of common tasks by a computer to be all the automation necessary to define a work as an automated work of new media… in which case I would agree and say that most any piece you could consider new media has been automated.
A. In the terms of Manovich’s definition of New Media, I feel my project does hold up in several ways. One of the strongest comparisons to the definition is in the project’s modularity (the second of Manovich’s principles). I envision the project as having several different components, including films and picture slideshows, each of which can stand alone or be combined or used in many different ways. Beyond this, the initial video files and photos can be taken away from the whole and used and recombined in new and different ways. Depending on what is necessary for the museum, the project can be very modular indeed. If I had to choose an element that my project does not excel in according to Manovich’s definition, it would definitely be in automation. There will certainly be some automation used in the project, considering I’ll be using today’s current and most powerful video editing software to edit videos, and there will be many simple tasks handled by the computer. But beyond that, there is not much automation that will be seen by the end user. They will sit in front of a TV and watch a video, or watch a slideshow, or something else… in other words, the experience will be human-controlled. I don’t know if I could really add any sort of extra automation in, considering the museum will want to control the experience. However, I think that may be where I would start to look in order to bring my project more towards Manovich’s definition.
B. For the most part, I would also agree with many of the points that Manovich brings up. Modularity (including the idea of remix) has always seemed to me to be a large part of what we are taught in New Media classes. I also agree with his idea of media becoming programmable, and changeable in a very deep level thanks to computers. Beyond even interaction with our media, before new media we were never really able to change and manipulate what we see and hear and work with as much as we can now. However, I do disagree with the idea of automation being key to new media as a whole. Many different things to do with new media can be automated, but I really can’t see it as being key to the definition of a new media work. Unless, of course, we count the simple automation of common tasks by a computer to be all the automation necessary to define a work as an automated work of new media… in which case I would agree and say that most any piece you could consider new media has been automated.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Lumberman's Museum Media Room Proposal V2
Abstract
I intend to use the skills and ideas I have learned through my years in New Media to help the Lumberman’s Museum in my hometown in Patten develop a multimedia center and a variety of media content.
Why/Where
This opportunity to work with the museum is once-in-a-lifetime, a chance that just happened to come to me through talking with the museum curator. Thanks to a grant, they have a certain amount of money available to purchase content for a new media area. Patten and the museum itself is not a very media-savvy area, and this is a big step for the Lumberman’s Museum. This is an opportunity to give the museum a great beginning and the ideas and help they need to get started on producing their own content (or hiring out for content).
Proposal
I propose first to act as the “technical advisor” for the museum, giving advice on what types of equipment to purchase with their grant. While this process goes on, I will work with the material available at the museum as well as developing ideas of my own to produce several different types of content for the media center. At the moment, I am envisioning several short films on different subjects, such as the museum’s history and the vast amounts of stories and poems and songs that the Museum and the people in the area who worked in the woods have. I would also like to produce a humorous short or two. Beyond this, I would also like to aid in spreading the word about the museum through giving it a presence in social media (Facebook), and possibly re-working the museum’s website. Finally, I would also like to attempt to educate the museum board and/or the community on the process of the creation of my media pieces, perhaps through a short “class” on media creation in the spring.
Timeline
See Gantt Project timeline here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/4951429890_4f8335c9b6_b_d.jpg
Resources/Costs
See tentative budget here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/4951429908_1e21d374e6_b_d.jpg
Getting the Word Out
I have a few ideas for getting the word out about the project, including
-Advertising the new media room and videos on the museum’s website
-Putting up short previews of the videos on Youtube
-Sending out notices on Facebook to the Lumberman’s Museum page I will create
-Putting up a few posters around Patten about the new media room
-Perhaps a newspaper article could even be accomplished
I intend to use the skills and ideas I have learned through my years in New Media to help the Lumberman’s Museum in my hometown in Patten develop a multimedia center and a variety of media content.
Why/Where
This opportunity to work with the museum is once-in-a-lifetime, a chance that just happened to come to me through talking with the museum curator. Thanks to a grant, they have a certain amount of money available to purchase content for a new media area. Patten and the museum itself is not a very media-savvy area, and this is a big step for the Lumberman’s Museum. This is an opportunity to give the museum a great beginning and the ideas and help they need to get started on producing their own content (or hiring out for content).
Proposal
I propose first to act as the “technical advisor” for the museum, giving advice on what types of equipment to purchase with their grant. While this process goes on, I will work with the material available at the museum as well as developing ideas of my own to produce several different types of content for the media center. At the moment, I am envisioning several short films on different subjects, such as the museum’s history and the vast amounts of stories and poems and songs that the Museum and the people in the area who worked in the woods have. I would also like to produce a humorous short or two. Beyond this, I would also like to aid in spreading the word about the museum through giving it a presence in social media (Facebook), and possibly re-working the museum’s website. Finally, I would also like to attempt to educate the museum board and/or the community on the process of the creation of my media pieces, perhaps through a short “class” on media creation in the spring.
Timeline
See Gantt Project timeline here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/4951429890_4f8335c9b6_b_d.jpg
Resources/Costs
See tentative budget here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/4951429908_1e21d374e6_b_d.jpg
Getting the Word Out
I have a few ideas for getting the word out about the project, including
-Advertising the new media room and videos on the museum’s website
-Putting up short previews of the videos on Youtube
-Sending out notices on Facebook to the Lumberman’s Museum page I will create
-Putting up a few posters around Patten about the new media room
-Perhaps a newspaper article could even be accomplished
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