The Language of New Media Prologue

Reading Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media Prologue, one learned alot about the purpose and meaning behind the movie. Manovich emphasizes key points to the reader in order to explain the concept of the Man With A Video Camera.
Incorporations of camera controls marks a historic moment in video. Manovich explains "Directing the virtual camera becomes as important as controlling the hero's actions" when filming something. The incorporation of the camera is important to the context of the video because otherwise, there would be a loss of solid foundation in the movie. Editing and Montaging was also important to the making of this video. The montaging created false realities that built a story out of a collection of different stories. Broken pieces were collected to become one image. Zoom was critical in the movie. Utilitizing the zoom allowed for concentration. The cameraman is compared "to a surgeon" who uses the zoom to allow for the best performance. Modernization also adds to the complexity of Man With A Video Camera. Adding limitations of physical space, it forces the viewer to acknowledge the intention of the actions. The relations between the objects creates another story in itself for each scene. Vision and perspective have an influence on the viewers outlook on the movie. The perspective and view constantly changes in the video confusing the viewer. The question is always who is the view the camera is depicting, whether it be computer, a person, or different people and different narrators is never answered.
The levels of viewing are split into three different layers. The first, is the cameraman's view from behind the camera, and what he can see that the viewer cannot. The second being the viewer and the audience's. What the camera portrays is what the viewer sees, but with the use of editing and montaging, what the audience sees is not always what is really there. Lastly, the film itself is a level of viewing. What the film records is different to what the other two levels may see and because of the many different locations that the video takes place in also changes how the film records what is captured. The director, Dziga Vertov never resolves to a certain type of cohesive language in a way or portrayal speaking. The film is untamed and the "effects" and techniques are endless, allowing for chaos in the video. Turning the "effects" into artistic language was possible through the lack of constant view. He then used the term "kino-eye" to describe skewed views that allowed for an artistic perspective. Manovich then explains that the camera becomes part of the cinema's apparatus. The camera decides what we see and how it is filmed allowing for it to be the main narrator. Manovich also says that Vertov overcomes the limits of human vision and coins the term "kino-eye" mentioned earlier which means he uses "new techniques of obtaining images and manipulating them", which he says can be used to decode the world.

Well That Was Different

The experimentation with different types of story telling in There is No End To More was more than varying. In the beginning when we watch an interpretive dance along with a whispered narrative that confused me as to whether I should look at him or listen. So I did both, and then each one separately. When he said "my ears are stars", I began to wonder where this was going and for how long it would last.
There was then what seemed to be a talk show, but there were no contestants and the host is a man pretending to be a child. He then has conversations with pre-recorded voices played on speakers around the theater. Flashes of old and new popular imagery in the background and sounds of barking and howling, followed by animated characters who are eaten by another cartoon. Ending in a 3 minute dialogue about a little girl shrinking that ended with "my mom's gonna kill me when I get home" was enough to wrap up the hour long performance that was too long.
The show was beyond confusing and very odd but I will commend him on the use of technology in the presentation. He used audio and visual and touched your senses with both. Flashing lights for the images and then colors later on when he began to interpretively dance again brought things to your attention. The loud sounds on the audio and the immature jokes he used entertained but also made you listen. The use of technology worked for his advantage on this tumultuous show.

class

Today, I was in a class where the teacher explained to us that he had not printed out syllabuses because the English department had decided to go Eco-friendly and post everything on blackboard. To then please the people that needed to SEE the syllabus while he read it aloud (I being part of that group), then opened this nifty projector that showed us what was on his computer. He also, while taking attendance, printed out the wrong attendance sheet. So he had to go online and look at the attendance list in front of all of us, because he did not know how to keep that off the projector. I find it funny that this technology has progressed so far, and yet people who are forced to use it, often do not know how to use it properly. Should there be classes for this type of development in the classrooms? Should we let them learn how most people my age learn, by experimenting and trying new things that also include mistakes? Its a tough situation and you have to think of what is the solution for this, if there is.

Hey! So I guess I should introduce myself and whatnot. My name is Holly Gooden, I'm a Sculpture Major Senior (although I have 2 more semesters left) and I'm from Queens. Now that thats out of the way, I thought I'd post a video from youtube I saw recently that I thought was a great example of how technology has advanced and not only influenced music videos but is referenced in them also. This is Video Phone by Beyonce and it features Lady GaGa. Although I did enjoy the video, I have posted it for an academic reason, that being the reference to the large amount of technology and the abilities of digital technology in the beginning of the year 2010.