Editing, Montage and Composite

Core texts: Manovich, Lev. (2002). Compositing. In: The Language of New Media. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. pp138-160.

New media uses a form of montage, of different images that are combined to create a new meaning. Here we see the digital age montage compositing in the the example of Barry Levinson’s ‘Wag the Dog’‘ where blue screens are used in the scene.

The footage can be manipulated in real time. The elements are separated and the actress is the only ‘live’ element left. Her background, the props, music, and scenery and constructed in what is called “digital compositing”. The different aspects are completely modular, they had an individual Identity but can combine in many different ways to achieve a different meaning.

Agency, Role Play and Normalisation – Who is the real you?

Project brief – Questioning the everyday. (and how it intersects with media)

The Bear went over the mountain – William Kotzwinkle

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This book tells the story of how a bear, looking for a change in his life, take on the role of a book writer- and the media system elevates him to celebrity status as their perception of him fuels their desire of a narrative. He eventually takes on the role and becomes this identity.

The presentation of self in everyday life. by Erving Goffman

Goffman’s idea describe how we all enter roles in our life, that the individual desires to play a part, using costume (uniform) rituals (protocols) and conventions.
“All the world is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it isn’t are not easy to specify.”

Text examination – The Everyday

We read two texts to further our understanding of different concepts of the everyday

Papacharissi, Zizi A. (2010). Five New Civic Habits. In: A Private Sphere: Democracy in a Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity. pp138-152.

and

Deuze, M. (2012). Life in Media. In: Media Life. Cambridge: Polity. p235-264.

Key ideas from the Texts:

There has been a large recent shift in what constitutes a public sphere and what makes a private one. It may no longer be a specific location, but a frame of mind, of a certain exposure to media.

There is a huge variety of audience in Social Network Sites (SNS)

A control over ones personal projection – creating an image of oneself, an identity. This also covers a certain amount of self censorship as well.

Questioning the Everyday / (Re)Creating a Scene

We started by studying a text –

Text – Ben Highmore, Introduction “Questioning everyday life” Highmore, Ben. (2002) Questioning Everyday Life. In: The Everyday Life Reader. London: Routledge

We observed that the ‘everyday’ can be a massively diverse concept. It may be filtered through many lenses, that of the individual, thier culture, the framework it operates in. Power structures and conformity.

some notes on the text exploring what the everyday is and how it s represented:

• ‘Everyday’ can mean showing a more boring, mundane, marxigothc or even animalistic side of life, a resistance to the elite or established order As everyday occurrences are given prestige along with or instead of large world events. Maybe underlying animalistic urges. Hidden, Feminist, Cultural. Hierarchies and power.
• Individual habits and perspective add to the concept of the everyday and although may vary greatly, we all experience it, and so it is also a conformity – social conditions
• Things that are not everyday can influence the everyday (e.g. wearing a seatbelt to avoid car crash injury)
• Product from relationships and a process of society – morals, outlooks, language. These are both conscious and unconscious. Conformity.
• Common cultural phrases -a common ideaology. Cultural Habits.
• Can everyday life even be theorised? perhaps the experience itself is a better tool to analyse it heuristically.Experience.

Making it Real (or unreal) – CDP

the brief- explore video graphic images and interpret or re-imagine the conventions of realism.

First it is important to establish the conventions and archetypes of realism, starting in the 13th Century

The Garden of Eden. c. 1410. Tempera on wood Unknown master

The colours here are incredibly vibrant, almost a hyper-reality although not particularly extensive probably due to the resources of the artist and their desire to convey a vivid image. There are no shadows in the piece, rather flat depictions of 3 dimensional objects and people. This also creates a very odd perspective, where figures in the ‘background’ appear similar in size to those in the ‘foreground’ and objects appear as if drawn from conflicting perspectives.

Communicating Ourselves and Constructing Identity – CDP

First mini project

The Brief…

To explore contemporary identity and self  presentation and interrupt the conventions of photographic portraiture, thinking about who you are, what you want to become, how you present yourself to others.

This was all in order to put our discussions and ideas into a photographic studio that afternoon to create a photographic studio portrait.

Contemporary Aspect

Looking at portraiture before photography.18th Century portraits (oil paintings). conventional portraits that pre-date modern technology.

Portrait of Master Edward and Miss Mary Macro, the children of Revd Dr Cox Macro, c. 1733 – by Peter Tillemans

This is definitely a Presentation, portraying the subjects aspirational version of themselves. Wealthy, clean, relaxed but smart. Genders are seen with different conventions, the man is standing, his arm angular, a dog looking up adoringly while his sister is seen ‘beneath’ the brother, with softer curves and dogs by her side.