Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Talk Outline
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Workshop Purpose
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The proliferation of digital technologies has increased the ease with which graduate students use self-made still, moving, and interactive images to support their research. Despite this trend, images are often added to dissertations, presentations, and publications as an afterthought. This workshop will encourage us to think critically and creatively when we use visual images moving, still, and interactive in our research by exploring the use of photography, film, and interactive media.
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Digital technology
Information
Stable, established Mature Relatively centralized Formal One-to-many Top-down publication Unified layers (bits linked to atoms) Writing presented per publication Largely mono-media (text) with separate repositories for different media/genres (pictures, artifacts)
Hypermedia
Unstable, emerging Immature Relatively decentralized Informal Many-to-many Distributed publication Discrete layers Write once publish anywhere Highly multimedia & intermedia (text, image, audio, video, multiple document formats; multilingual, modular)
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By Visuals I Mean
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Photographs, film/video (sound and image), any recording made with a camera as data to be studied
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Still images, films, videos, PowerPoint presentations, any visual media made to convey or illustrate the insights and analyses of academic research.
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Absolutely. Two modes are mutually informative. But important to consider each mode separately. Generally, these are techniques, forms, and norms of data capture established within disciplines and sub-fields.
The question is, how to craft your images so they are consistent with the discourse in which you operate?
As scholars, you already have mastery in certain forms of communication, in particular, reading and writing texts. Whatever the medium, thoughtful acts of representation begin with these basic questions:
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What do I want to say? Who is my audience? What is the best way to say it?
Whats my main message, or thesis? Whats my goal or purpose in making these photographs; this video, slideshow, webpage, or other media presentation? Whats my investment in the subject?
Who is my audience?
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Oral: lecture, discussion, informal speech Written: essay, book, email, letter Pictoral: photos, illustrations, diagrams, graphs Mixed & multimedia: PowerPoint presentation, film, video, website, other new media
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My Frameworks
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M.A. Visual Anthropology, USC, 1993 Home Economics: a documentary of suburbia, M.A. Film The Experts of Everyday Life: "The Experts of Everyday Life: Cultural Reproduction and Cultural Critique in Antelope Valley," M.A. Thesis
Synapse Columbus project & Computer Curriculum Corp. Cyborganic, Netscape, Disney/ABC Cable Networks
Assistant Lecturer, Freshman Writing, U.S.C. Lecturer, Cinema Dept., San Francisco State Lecturer, Information & Computer Science, U.C. Irvine
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Rhetoric
Representation is a rhetorical act
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Its never just a pipe. The images you make are not prima facie evidence. Even the most straight forward illustration involves interpretation and construction.
Although we often hear that data speak for themselves, their voices can be soft and sly.
Frederick Mosteller, Stephen E. Fienberg, and Robert E.K. Rourke, Beginning Statistics with Data Analysis, 1983, p. 234.
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Reception, cultural construction A picture may be worth ten thousand words, but o You, the producer, dont get to choose any of those words o They may not even be in your language All acts of representation are partial, situated, interested, and occasioned o Creating, using, and reading visuals in social science requires attention to these contexts
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Power/Knowledge
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Filmmaking
Two parables, an aphorism, and three aspects
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Kuleshov Effect
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The ability in perception to select one desired sound from a background of ambient noise. E.g., at a party, where many voices speak simultaneously, we can 'focus' our ears on one conversation and filter out voices and sounds which are equally strong. A microphone cannot filter noise from signal thus and, placed at the party, records a babble of sounds. Perception is interpretation.
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Cut Frame Shot Choice of media (film stock, video, etc.) Laying down music and cutting to the beat.
Contrast with:
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Intersecting Aspects
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Technical
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Subject is in frame, in focus, and well illuminated Camera, sound, and editing as crafts that support narrative and aesthetic aspects. Film time is not clock time. It is story time, time is condensed, expanded, elided. Narrative time is configured. Time governed by plot. Plot: drawing a sense of whole out of a chronology Characters: agents who both act and suffer Classic Three act structure: beginning, middle, and end Technical craftsmanship does not detract from message. Form and content work together Be especially aware and reflexive of the aesthetic to which you appeal.
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Narrative
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Aesthetic
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Informatics
Tufte: Scientific principles of Information design
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Edward Tufte
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Professor emeritus of statistics, graphic design, and political economy at Yale University Expert in informational design & graphics
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Some of the first films were ethnographic (1890s-1930s) City symphony films (early 20th century) Portable Sync Sound 16mm (1960s), technology gets smaller, more automatic Cinma verit, direct cinema
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Ethnographic film
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Positivism & scientific films Observational cinema Anthropologys Crisis of Representation Reflexivity, beyond observational cinema Ethics
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Rights of the subject Questions of audience, royalties, etc. The New Ethnography and New Wave in Ethnographic film.
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New Ethnography
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Dialogism, dialogic relationship between ethnographer and informant(s) Ethnographies of the particular (present ethnographer and subjects as specific individuals in specific social contexts Reflexivity Subjects speak for themselves Conscious focus on narrative structure (e.g. Geertzs fictions, anthropological representations are made not found)
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Home Economics
Choice of subject
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the domestic and everyday, rather than the exotic other. No voiceover narration, no explanatory titles Filmmakers questions included Real time takes, no cut away shots in interviews, whole replies included, not sound bites Reflexivity (inclusion of filmmaker in the frame) o Slow down I want to get the billboards Clear narrative arc (constructed nature of representation) Montage (portraits and landscapes)
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Authorship acknowledged
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Home Economics
Picture/Camera
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Filmmaker in the frame, but off to the side, not at the center Framing of whole bodies in the environment Set camera up, off to the side, so anthropologist and informant can talk face to face.
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Keep the equipment in the background Create casual atmosphere, kitchen conversations
Juxtaposition of interview (portraits) and montage of the build environment (landscapes) Hand-held shots of home interiors, emphasize domestic, everyday life.
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Home Economics
Sound
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Inclusion of long takes presents subjects as expert witnesses Music played in model home sequences is the actual music played in the models.
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Music played in scene of low-income housing was actual sound from the footage.
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Home Economics
Key informants saw final cut of film before they were asked to sign release forms
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Goes against what they teach at the Cinema School. Its risky and can backfire, but also builds trust.
Permission to film models and construction site came from the housing developer
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Workers not asked to sign a release Billboards shot without permissions Low income housing in long shot, reflects social distance between filmmaker and these subjects
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Guerrilla filmmaking
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Home Economics
Examines the ideals and norms of homeownership Explores specific cultural meanings of home
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Home Economics
as Cultural Critique
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Homeownership in contemporary American society is often achieved at the expense of the very values a home is said to represent.
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Informants as expert witnesses who testimony show both the values and meanings of homeownership and the ways those values are undermined by commuting, work, and other structural forces of the society.
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Home Economics
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practicum
Documentary Motion Pictures
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Pre-production
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Crew or one-man band? Practice. Video tape is cheap. Choose a cinematic subject Audience, genre, format, medium
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The more you know about the final destination, the better you can shoot for it.
Camera (and other equipment) size and footprint in relation to filmed event and logistics in the field, or on location.
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Shooting
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These all need to be intuitive Auto-focus: set and hold Play with focus, exposure, composition. Fold out LCD screens are great for composition, but no use for exposure or focus. Frame your subject tightly enough so its clear where the viewer should look. Crop out moise. Camera movement can be hard to intercut. Other benefits? (Face to face communication) If shooting handheld, bone-to-bone contact or shoulder brace?
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Shooting
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Let takes run long, heads and tails Log and label all footage on the spot Let moving objects exit frame before you cut Practice as though tape were cheap, shoot as if it were very expensive. Hang around and shoot a lot of film.
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Invisibility via ubiquitous presence (of camera) Dont try to sneak shots! Do put tape over red camera rolling lights
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Editing
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Creating film time and space What one thing are you trying to say?
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Story and character Build your story in sound and image (rather than voiceover and inter-titles).
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The clearer your aims in shooting, the easier this is to do in the editing room.
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Miles Coolidge
Safetyville America by Numbers Garage Photos
Associate Professor, Studio Art, U.C. Irvine
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Michael Wesch
YouTube video by Anthropology Professor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g mP4nk0EOE
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Wired Rave Award http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle /multimedia/2007/04/ss_raves?slide= 18&slideView=7 Entirely word-driven Cut to music
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