mobile phones

Why do we take photos?

Being on exchange has brought about the companionship of my camera, but also an absence of a smartphone, resulting in a new collection of pictures, with a new goal in mind during their creation. You no longer take social photos on a digital compact – it’s not an SLR, so it doesn’t elicit a pose, nor is it an iphone. What I’ve found is that we pose differently depending on what kind of camera we are facing. The quick, quiet, unobtrusive snap of the iphone leaves no-one the wiser and lets us get away quickly with posing – if it didn’t work…too bad so sad, if it did…we can lol about it after.

I don’t have a smartphone here. I miss snapchat, I miss instagram. Or even simply, mobile uploads, where the selfie is validated because of the device it was taken on. We can pull faces, be idiots, because the mobile-phone camera does not hold an underlying history of preparation for a photo, of the one-off, the value of the exposure (and cost!). Mobile photography is designed to be quick, to be multiple, to be unobtrusive.

We don’t mind the SLR at the odd party or event. It gives the occasion some formality, and of course gives the one standing behind it a certain level of credibility.

I don’t quite know where my camera fits, the Powershot G1X. It’s really great, with full manual functions and a DSLR sized sensor, but it still gets in the way of the social photo; it takes it’s time to focus, it is kind of bulky and bigger then your average digital camera.
People have started saying, wow what a great camera, that takes really good photos. Soon I will reply, it’s not all down to the camera…

My photos are only on flickr or on this blog, I don’t want no Facebook owning my work! ha.

Mum asked for photos of my surroundings which has inspired a collection of grunge-type street photography, aimed at capturing spirit and life in Montpellier (yet still not really featuring any true Montpellier-ins ….) we’ll work on that.

will the frame change everything?

It’s interesting that our phones are designed to be held vertically – and so thats the way we film (sometimes)… it’s less obvious, it’s less intrusive – it’s got me wondering what it would take to change the way we watch films altogether…Image

Could this small detail have an influence on the way we create our films (well it already does) – I guess my real question is how much influence could this have on the way we view and create  media?

Like Instagram, Vine offers a square frame (seemingly more practicable allowing users to shoot either way) – this is useful, until you need to integrate it with other media (videos etc). I like the square frame, and I like what it allows us to do. It looks modern yet it makes me think of 120Film – the shape is fashionable.

Citizen Journalism… what the?

The Guardian’s new app looks to create a community of contributors – embracing citizen journalism, but not really offering anything in return.

While the app does have a bit to offer more then anything it’s frought with potential disaster; legally in regards to ownership and opinion, but hey, they’re taking steps to fill a hole created by the rise of mobile phones and the citizen journalist with mobile phones and the citizen journalist… go figure

those apps

I want to air my frustrations surrounding the apps available on Android phones (and Windows 8 – but that doesn’t really count).

When looking to buy my smartphone last year I was told a number of times that I should get an Android
“There’s heaps more free apps”
“The market’s not as controlled so there are more, better apps”  … or so they told me….

Unfortunately, for creating videos (and for good image editing), there doesn’t seem to be a comparison.
Apple wins this one. Hands down.

  • Vine
  • Lightt
  • Cinemagram
  • Lumify

Some of the great apps available exclusively to iOS users.

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WHY?

I don’t know. They are all free yet they are not on Android. Android where they can have ads!

So, I’m almost ready to buy myself my very first iPod.

Sound in the Sketch Task

I find it difficult to know what to do about sound in the sketch tasks.

I could spend all day long selecting and creating audio for the 10 second shorts. Because they are so quick, it’s like they deserve a more. But yet, I feel they are meant to be abstract, so what kind of soundtrack do they deserve then?

And even then, sorting through music on Creative Commons sites is not simple, and it takes some time – does this break the idea surrounding the post-industrial, dirty, quick, messy themes of the sketch task?

Gamification – Graffiti That Was

For the Gamification task, Caley and I decided to create a game using twitter and Qr tags that involves finding graffiti that has been taken down.

THE THEME: All too frequently artists graffiti is painted over and destroyed to uphold what the governing bodies feel is a better image. The game we have designed is intended to reveal the old graffiti works so everyone can see them and appreciate the Graffiti That Was…

THE AIM: To be the first to find the location of the graffiti that has been removed – and tweet it!

SYNOPSIS:

Our game is going to be titled “Graffiti That Was”. The game involves the placement of a QR code next to an old piece of famous graffiti that was destroyed. We are going to use the graffiti of the mouse and parachute by Banksy in Prahran which was destroyed by a builder and now has pipes through the middle of it.

To play the game you have to create a twitter account. Once you have your twitter account, you then need to search “#graffitithatwas” in the search box on twitter.

This will reveal a tweet which says “Graffiti Challenge #1 http://wp.me/p2P7ln-6  #graffitithatwas #netmed #gamification“

Once you click on the blog post, this will have a QR tag which is linked to a map, this will show you where to go next.

When you get to the location, the QR code will be placed where the graffiti used to be or near it.

After you have found the QR code and scan it, an automatic tweet will appear using your account.

This tweet will read: “the piece to the puzzle http://cdn.novafm.com.au/sites/default/files/styles/nova_article_hero/public/article/image/Banksy_Rat.jpg … #banksy#netmed ”

You will then click on the link to fill in the missing piece of the puzzle and problem solved! You see the original graffiti art that was there and know who designed it.

Caley designed a marketing image that fits with our theme. In the background are two letter J’s (representing our last names).

I created a blog too that fits with our game and uses the marketing image as a background.