I would also like to talk about the process and conception of my phase 2, now that it is already posted online for people to watch. I want my video to be understood and decoded at several levels.
First, I wanted to make a hypertextual video -this is almost impossible to actually make, as the motion picture is inherently linear. But I wanted instead to play with the hypertext idea of the "story within a story", which seems to suggest a break in the linear impositions, by presenting the stickman writing the thoughts and dreams of another one. Secondly, I present 2 confronted ideas: the hypertext as a utopia and the hypertext as a distopia. It is remarkable the way both of them are displayed on screen. The first one is part of stickman's dream, and I try to express these ideas as part of what he is dreaming and would like to get (a utopia, something to be understood as an aim). And the second one, marked by the stickman's fall, is set to be realistic and focuses on the limitations/negative aspects of the hypertext
At the same time, I had also played with music connotations, by presenting a very different tone when I present hypertext as a distopia and when I do it as a utopia And last, my goal was also to do something visually engaging with homogeneous colours and continuous characters.
jueves, 26 de febrero de 2009
limitations of hypertext-
As hypertext systems have progressed over the past 20 years, several problems have surfaced. The main point of my video "Behind the hype" was precisely to remark these problems which are usually overwhelmed by the utopian idea of the hypertext revolution. Some of the remarkable limitations of the hypertext are:
- getting lost in the hyperspace: It is feared that readers who are used to finding their way through books with the aid of tables of contents, indexes, footnotes, and marginalia might become lost within hypertext systems. As databases grow, navigational tools such as the global map of links and documents and the history of paths taken, though complex themselves, become necessary. Several intersting studies seem to suggest that "the hypertext structure places an extra burden on the reader in terms of navigation and consequently leads to poorer performance". And with the advent of hypertext "it has become widely accepted that the departure from the so-called linear structure of paper increases the likelihood of readers or users of getting lost".
- cognitive overload: users are presented with so much information that their human circuits burst with cognitive overload. While reading through a document, choices must constantly be made about which links to follow and which to ignore. Following several paths at once may lead to the navigation problem described above.
- re-thinking several concepts: that hypertext revolution either take by granted or assume the hypertext revolution will eventually lead them to change. This is the case of big concepts like: privacy, commerce or rethorics.
Privacy matters is becoming a huge issue among one of the best-known social networks on the Internet: Facebook, as the terms of use are being constantly and highly critized by users and even by government institutions. This problem might seem an "involution", rather than a "revolution" of the hypertext (not the hypertext by itself, but a bad consequence of its development).
The e-commerce, which consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems using hypertext, has not been revolutionary in the sense it has not changed commercial relationships between user/buyer-user/seller.
At the same time, concepts such as rethorics or aesthetics haven't either been altered by the hypertext systems (the Internet has not changed the form of the written word and the motion picture), unlike some of hypertext utopian conceptions might suggest.
- getting lost in the hyperspace: It is feared that readers who are used to finding their way through books with the aid of tables of contents, indexes, footnotes, and marginalia might become lost within hypertext systems. As databases grow, navigational tools such as the global map of links and documents and the history of paths taken, though complex themselves, become necessary. Several intersting studies seem to suggest that "the hypertext structure places an extra burden on the reader in terms of navigation and consequently leads to poorer performance". And with the advent of hypertext "it has become widely accepted that the departure from the so-called linear structure of paper increases the likelihood of readers or users of getting lost".
- cognitive overload: users are presented with so much information that their human circuits burst with cognitive overload. While reading through a document, choices must constantly be made about which links to follow and which to ignore. Following several paths at once may lead to the navigation problem described above.
- re-thinking several concepts: that hypertext revolution either take by granted or assume the hypertext revolution will eventually lead them to change. This is the case of big concepts like: privacy, commerce or rethorics.
Privacy matters is becoming a huge issue among one of the best-known social networks on the Internet: Facebook, as the terms of use are being constantly and highly critized by users and even by government institutions. This problem might seem an "involution", rather than a "revolution" of the hypertext (not the hypertext by itself, but a bad consequence of its development).
The e-commerce, which consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems using hypertext, has not been revolutionary in the sense it has not changed commercial relationships between user/buyer-user/seller.
At the same time, concepts such as rethorics or aesthetics haven't either been altered by the hypertext systems (the Internet has not changed the form of the written word and the motion picture), unlike some of hypertext utopian conceptions might suggest.
martes, 24 de febrero de 2009
miércoles, 11 de febrero de 2009
behind the hyper -dystopia of the hypertext
I'm really excited working on new ideas about the phase 2. Finally I decided to make a video replying, in a way, the "The Machine is Us/ing us" and, thus, create a "dystopia of the hypertext" by focusing on the limitations and disfunctions of the hypertext/media revolution.
Following some of the ideas posted before in the brainstorming list, I think I'm going to do a story-line with everything I want to say (introduction-ideas-conclusion) and then translate that into images to make the video.
I've thought about doing this using "stickmen", because there are plenty of hilarious stickmen on youtube that may be useful!! Also, the idea of the stickmen might help people understand these concepts (which are difficult to translate into image-language) and, at the same time, it makes me easier to focus the story with a protagonist doing things (jumping, clicking, writing, thinking, being lost...). I guess I will have to post more in the blog regarding the ideas I want to express, but my main conclusion will go in this direction:
Re: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
Following some of the ideas posted before in the brainstorming list, I think I'm going to do a story-line with everything I want to say (introduction-ideas-conclusion) and then translate that into images to make the video.
I've thought about doing this using "stickmen", because there are plenty of hilarious stickmen on youtube that may be useful!! Also, the idea of the stickmen might help people understand these concepts (which are difficult to translate into image-language) and, at the same time, it makes me easier to focus the story with a protagonist doing things (jumping, clicking, writing, thinking, being lost...). I guess I will have to post more in the blog regarding the ideas I want to express, but my main conclusion will go in this direction:
Re: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
i got an idea! -phase 2
After talking to Nadine about my ideas on phase 2... I knew I had to re-arrange everything in order to make my video more specific. The videos I linked in the previous post are amazing, but because they express their ideas in such a strong and powerful ways... it's really hard to use them in order to change their meanings or to do something different -adding another perspective. Doing another video about the same (how cool the hypertext is!), without any original material would not make any sense.
That's why I've been thinking about my project (or rather, re-thinking) and kind of decided to focus on the idea of hypertext as a dystopia. I've been reading some texts concerning hypertext revolution that deal with the idea (at least, tangentially) of the limits of the hypertext. That is the case of this text, and also this one.
I'm still on the idea process, so I show you some of the brainstorming ideas I made last nigh:
getting lost
broken links
links that don't go where you expected
missing information
making non-sense associations (forcing the association)/ false forkings
clicking here and here / the feeling of being active, rather than real activity
the idea of chaos and principle of casuality
fragmentation / incoherence / spontaneity / aleatority
immediaty / inestability / randomness
That's why I've been thinking about my project (or rather, re-thinking) and kind of decided to focus on the idea of hypertext as a dystopia. I've been reading some texts concerning hypertext revolution that deal with the idea (at least, tangentially) of the limits of the hypertext. That is the case of this text, and also this one.
I'm still on the idea process, so I show you some of the brainstorming ideas I made last nigh:
getting lost
broken links
links that don't go where you expected
missing information
making non-sense associations (forcing the association)/ false forkings
clicking here and here / the feeling of being active, rather than real activity
the idea of chaos and principle of casuality
fragmentation / incoherence / spontaneity / aleatority
immediaty / inestability / randomness
lunes, 9 de febrero de 2009
back! -phase 2 going on...
Well, after this HUGE break, Jorkjeimer's blog is back! I have been certainly out of the loop on the electronic landscape course and all the material, and it's hard to get back on track again... but I have some ideas I would like to post here, just to see how things are progressively coming out...
I focused my phase 1 on the ideas of hyperfiction, specially in the way it claimed an active role in regards with the reader/user, and thus confronted the two main opposite ideas/theories that have been coming around the hypertext literature over the past 50 years. In the same way, my in-class presentation dealt with the kind of the same ideas, since it was an analysis making an interrelation between 3 very important texts on hypertext theories (from technological, biological and literary perspectives).
My idea for the phase 2 of the project is to keep on the same track, and make a video about the hypertext! I've found several videos on Youtube on this matter, and they're really good! Here I show you 2 of them, which I'm sure I will use at some point in my final version...
The Machine is Us/ing Us
Information R/evolution
Both of the videos explore the more or less the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information... with the hypertext revolution (the future of the Web and the skills needed to harness, evalute and create information effectively). Just right after being searching a bit about this issue, I found out the videos are made by the same person! -I reached them through different ways, though-. It happens to be an hypertext professor from Kansas University, who is apparently an expert in hypertext and digital information issues.
I would like to follow this idea, but I still need to think more about it... -as you may see, I've changed my mind about what I was planning to do (on surrealist cinema and the panopticon theory) before the strike started.
I focused my phase 1 on the ideas of hyperfiction, specially in the way it claimed an active role in regards with the reader/user, and thus confronted the two main opposite ideas/theories that have been coming around the hypertext literature over the past 50 years. In the same way, my in-class presentation dealt with the kind of the same ideas, since it was an analysis making an interrelation between 3 very important texts on hypertext theories (from technological, biological and literary perspectives).
My idea for the phase 2 of the project is to keep on the same track, and make a video about the hypertext! I've found several videos on Youtube on this matter, and they're really good! Here I show you 2 of them, which I'm sure I will use at some point in my final version...
The Machine is Us/ing Us
Information R/evolution
Both of the videos explore the more or less the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information... with the hypertext revolution (the future of the Web and the skills needed to harness, evalute and create information effectively). Just right after being searching a bit about this issue, I found out the videos are made by the same person! -I reached them through different ways, though-. It happens to be an hypertext professor from Kansas University, who is apparently an expert in hypertext and digital information issues.
I would like to follow this idea, but I still need to think more about it... -as you may see, I've changed my mind about what I was planning to do (on surrealist cinema and the panopticon theory) before the strike started.
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