Tag Archives: Media Arts

Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium

Sourced from PBSoffbook

GIFs are one of the oldest image formats used on the web. Throughout their history, they have served a huge variety of purposes, from functional to entertainment. Now, 25 years after the first GIF was created, they are experiencing an explosion of interest and in novation that is pushing them into the terrain of art. In this episode of Off Book, we chart their history, explore the hot bed of GIF creativity onTumblr, and talk to two teams of GIF artists who are evolving the form into powerful new visual experiences.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Posted in Citizen Journalism, Film, Photography, Publishing, Web 2.0 | Also tagged , , , , | 1 Response

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

Presented at the Library of Congress, June 23rd 2008.

more info: http://mediatedcultures.net | Video sourced from http://bit.ly/nxBaSW

0:00 Introduction, YouTube’s Big Numbers
2:00 Numa Numa and the Celebration of Webcams
5:53 The Machine is Us/ing Us and the New Mediascape
12:16 Introducing our Research Team 
12:56 Who is on YouTube?
13:25 What’s on Youtube? Charlie Bit My Finger, Soulja Boy, etc.
17:04 5% of vids are personal vlogs addressed to the YouTube community, Why?
17:30 YouTube in context. The loss of community and “networked individualism” (Wellman)
18:41 Cultural Inversion: individualism and community
19:15 Understanding new forms of community through Participant Observation
21:18 YouTube as a medium for community
23:00 Our first vlogs
25:00 The webcam: Everybody is watching where nobody is (“context collapse”)
26:05 Re-cognition and new forms of self-awareness (McLuhan)
27:58 The Anonymity of Watching YouTube: Haters and Lovers
29:53 Aesthetic Arrest
30:25 Connection without Constraint
32:35 Free Hugs: A hero for our mediated culture
34:02 YouTube Drama: Striving for popularity
34:55 An early star: emokid21ohio
36:55 YouTube’s Anthenticity Crisis: the story of LonelyGirl15
39:50 Reflections on Authenticity
41:54 Gaming the system / Exposing the System
43:37 Seriously Playful Participatory Media Culture (featuring Us by blimvisible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxHKgQyGx0
47:32 Networked Production: The Collab. MadV’s “The Message” and the message of YouTube
49:29 Poem: The Little Glass Dot, The Eyes of the World
51:15 Conclusion by bnessel1973
52:50 Dedication and Credits (Our Numa Numa dance)

The Numa Numa quote is from *Douglas* Wolk (not Gary Wolk as I mistakenly said in the talk).

Posted in Viral Video | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment