EDITING AND NARRATIVE/THE NETWORKED IMAGE

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During almost all of the prototyping modules this trimester I have been trying to see what is possible with different kind of technqiues. I have tried things that I have never used before, trying to expand my horizons and seeing what else is possible. In order to experiment with these techniques I used the data footage that I have been collecting for a while now (also using codes learned during prototyping classes). The reason I used this footage is mainly because I didn't really know what I found so interesting within this footage. This was a way for me to see if - using certain codes and techniques - this would inspire something about the footage that I have collected. I have barely made new projects during this trimester because the photobook had such a big pressure with it. This is why I decided to use the data for my photobook project for experiments during prototyping.

This is also why I don't have a specific project for one module. They are all a little bit of Editing and Narrative and a little of Networked Image.

- DEGRATION DIGITAL FILE/ For prototyping I have been doing a bit of research into what a digital file is. For me the first step is to see how degration and 'error' works within a digital file. For this I took one of my webcam footage files and applied different techniques. Below are screenshots of steps I took and the results.

- ORDERING OF FOOTAGE/ During the Networked Image we worked with different techniques in which you can apply multiple images to certain values. I tried to do the same experiments we used in class. The reordering of images according to brightness was a nice result because it created a kind of film, with different cuts from footages through eachother. But nothing amazing.

- PIXELS/ A failed experiment, but I what I tried to do what to extract all the pixels from one image of my webcam footage collection (a random image), and my plan was to put them together into a newly assembled image. But this proved to be impossible because the amount of pixels and the processing this required, my mac could barely take it. I have a small row of pixels added to eachother, but thats how far i got. It would be interesting to continue with it, I would like to create new images out of image data.

- LINES/ Another experiment was made changing my webcam footage into black and white edge detected images. It does create aesthetically interesting images regarding graphics.

- FOLLOW RULES/ In the beginning when I started recording my webcam, I wanted to see how I would respond towards being recorded constantly. I made a list where I would write down things that I would have to remember or adjust in my appearance on the webcam. These were things I would not really think about but everytime it would come up suddenly I would write it down. Not only things like: don't toch my nose, don't look tired. But also: show my cat, be in movement etc. I tried to find a way of creating a different narrative to looking at this footage by means of clicking on the 'rules'. When clicking on a rule you can see only the part of the clips that relate to the rule itself.

- FREEZE/ This is for now the only thing I would like to continue with, I think there is more potential in this then I previously thought. My inspiration for this part of the module were my old home videos of when I was younger. I don't have these VCR tapes anymore, they were recorded to a DVD a long time ago. But in these DVD's are certain errors, moments on which the screen freezes and stays with one image only. The interesting thing to me was that this is probably the only way I'll ever see and remember this footage. Because of the loss of the medium VCR, and the VCR player, and the inaccessibility it brings along with it. Now, because of these 'glitches' the moments that freeze seem maybe more important than they appear. What I did as a first experiment for this fascination is to record all these error moments and paste them together into one video. After that I took all the frames from the video as jpegs, and printed these as actual photographs. I eventually pasted a few of them into a photo album to see if that would add a certain value. I don't know whether it did, I feel like I need to re-look at this little project after I had a moment to rethink my motivations. Definitely after the assessment with prototyping when Barend inspired me about the technical side of this. The error that you see in the DVD is not an error at all. It is a way the mpeg coder tries to cover up the frames which it cannot read. So it's basically a coverup the digital medium creates to compensate for not recreating the original file from the VCR. And this, this might even be more interesting than my first intention.

In the end I think the last half year prototyping was a good tinker and experiment lesson. But now it is time to focus on a subject which I can apply to a deeper concept than 'just an experiment'. If I keep experimenting and never finish things I will go crazy with inspiration. Time for focus next trimester.

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