Among my favorite books is Gene Youngblood’s Expanded Cinema, in spite of originally being published in 1970, it still offers a fresh perspective on the possibilities of new media art. Imagine a collection of essays that takes Youngblood’s book as a starting point. Well, here you have it! Fluid Screens, Expanded Cinema, edited by Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord, is a collection of articles that takes Youngblood’s Expanded Cinema as a jumping off point and offers a variety of perspectives illuminating the shift from traditional “filmic” cinema to new “post-film” forms that include performative, interactive, and net-based media, which is part of a larger trend in which digital technology is transforming our visual culture. The articles present provocative questions of interest to both academics and practitioners: What’s new about new media? What’s different about digital aesthetics? How does the role of the viewer change? How does storytelling change? What are the political implications of these new forms? How does community production change the media? I read the essays with great interest, offering an opportunity to reflect critically on my own media making practice.

Perhaps now, with the ability of everyone to “broadcast themselves” we might see some of the future that Younglood envisioned forty years ago. A media form in which the demands of commerce and narrative give way to personal experience, personal perceptions taking precedence over the demands of traditional narratives. As Youngblood challenges his readers then and now, we need to create new narratives that are authentic, based on our personal experience, and thus truly unique. We have the means of making, collaborating, and distribution in today’s internet-based mediascape to bring Youngblood’s vision of synaesthetic cinema alive.

The personal computer allows us to merge the traditions of photography, typography, graphic design, audio and moving image production, interactivity, interaction through sensors, and more, into an expanded palette of infinite possibilities that Lev Manovich refers to as “hybrid, intricate, complex and rich visual language” in The Language of New Media (Leonardo Books, MIT Press, 2006, p. 11), which I like to call computational media. It encompasses every conceivable media form in a computational environment, which essentially makes it a hyper-medium.

I prefer terms like computational media and hypermedia over multi-media or digital media. The important transformation in photography and cinematography has not been digitization, but the embodiment of the medium in a computational environment. Computation is what is truly new in new media. Now, forty years later, we are living in an environment that makes expanded cinema not only possible, but necessary. Youngblood suggests that artists are ecologist crafting the environment and that expanded cinema will bring art and life closer together. We have a ways to go before we achieve that vision. As the internet becomes a new space for commercial conquest and net neutrality is threatened, we must fight to preserve this brave new medium so we may see the vision of Expanded Cinema come alive in our lifetimes.

Anyone who makes or consumes media should read this book. It’s an essential component of our intellectual diet for a sane planet.

I encourage you to support your local independent bookstore or museum shop, however, if those are not easily accessible, you can order from amazon.com and help support this web site.

I recently finished reading The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott (Cambridge University Press, 2nd. edition, 2008). This book is by far the best introduction to narrative currently available, encompassing the range of narrative forms including literature, cinema, and new media. Abbott emphasizes that narrative is not just in found in literature, cinema, and theater, but throughout the ordinary course of our lives.

The book is informed by recent scholarship in the field, but avoids the more esoteric arguments in order to present a clear and concise introduction to the most important topics in narrative studies. The book covers the definition of narrative, the rhetoric of narrative, closure, the process of narration, interpretation of narratives, adaptation across media forms, character and self in narrative, truth and narrative, narrative worlds, and more. Abbott provides a excellent starting point for both students and specialists in a wide range of fields from literature to media studies, and each chapter ends with recommendations of both secondary and primary texts for further study.

Abbott begins the book with several definitions of narrative, but states that if we had to choose one answer above all others, it should be that “narrative is the principal way in which our species organizes its understanding of time,” he continues in the introduction of the book,

[...] wherever we look in this world, we seek to grasp what we see not just in space but in time as well. Narrative gives us this understanding; it gives us what could be called shapes of time. Accordingly, our narrative perception stands ready to be activated in order to give us a frame or context for even the most static and uneventful scenes. And without understanding the narrative, we often feel we don’t understand what we see. We cannot find the meaning. Meaning and narrative understanding are very closely connected [...] the connections between narrative and meaning are many (p. 10)

The origins of the word narrative are ancient, rooted in our process of knowing the world:

Hayden White pointed out in his book The Content of the Form that the word “narrative” goes back to the ancient Sanskrit “gna,” a root term that means “know,” and that it comes down to us through Latin words for both “knowing” (“gnarus”) and “telling” (“narro”). This etymology catches the two sides of narrative. It is a universal tool for knowing as well as telling, for absorbing knowledge as well as expressing it. This knowledge, moreover, is not necessarily static. Narrative can be, and often is, an instrument that provokes active thinking and helps us work through problems, even as we tell about them or hear them being told. But, finally, it is also important to note that narrative can be used to deliver false information; it can be used to keep us in darkness and even encourage us to do things we should not do. This too must be kept in mind. (pp. 10-12)

If you read only one theoretical book on the topic of narrative, this one is a good candidate. While theoretical in perspective, it’s written in a manner that will appeal to anyone involved in telling stories.

This book will help you think about new business models, how to build an audience around you work, and challenge the old notion that independent media makers should think of themselves as auteurs waiting to be discovered by the record, movie, or television industries or a forward thinking curator. The mainstream is interested in commercial product, the lowest common denominator, the latest fad. Once upon a time you had no other way to find an audience, the gatekeepers ran the show. Today you can find your audience using your own unique voice, rather than trying to fit someone else’s mold. It’s a brave new world and Scott’s timely book provides practical insights into carving your own path towards nurturing fans, making friends, and building your own following. We may always have mainstream media, however, today, as both audiences and media makers, the internet has opened up an alternative channel of distribution full of possibilities, most of which we have yet to see, which I hope will bring us a viable alternative to industrial media product, and instead, hand-crafted, authentic stories, unique messages with new points of view, and personal media to enrich the soul of a new generation. What do you want to express? You have the answer deep inside of you. What can you do to get your expression out to an audience? Scott’s book provides an introduction to how people have been doing that.

Purchasing the book through the links on this page provides Kino-Eye.com with a much appreciated commission, thank you.

With a keen attention to multiple perspectives, Kirsner presents the view of industry executives who are reluctant to innovate, and contrasts their views with the innovators who have advanced the many technologies like projection, color, sound, non-linear editing, digital projection, internet distribution, etc. that have transformed the industry over a century of change and revived it over and over again for many generations of audiences. Inventing the Movies is a lively book of interest to innovators in any field, as well as people who love movies and want to take a look at the business and technological machinations behind the many screens in their life: cinema, television, home theater, personal computers, portable media devices, and video-enabled phones.

Last week I did an interview with Scott Kirsner about the book, how the project got started, and what he plans to do next. The interview is currently being edited will be posted on this blog sometime before September rolls around.

The book is now available from Amazon.com. The book is also available as an e-book from LuLu. Scott Kirsners blog post on the book is here.

Here are my slides from the Opening Remarks I made at the Making Media Now: Filmmaking in Transition conference held yesterday at Boston University. A special thanks to Jennifer Kaplan, Bonnie Waltch, and all the people and sponsors who made this lively and engaging event possible.

Some folks asked me what I used to make the slides, I created them using Apple’s Keynote, a beautifully designed presentation program, however, you can do the same thing with PowerPoint, it’s just more work since PowerPoint’s interface is so clunky. Image credits are on the last slide.

Today I attended another wonderful meeting of Boston Media Makers held at Sweet Finnish in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, the first Sunday of every month. We go around the room and everyone talks about what they are doing, triggering interesting discussion, questions, answers, suggestions, and ideas. It’s an unmeeting much like an uncoference. Another thing that makes these meetings special is the mix of pros and amateurs, everyone is learning new things, everyone helping each other out, sharing pointers, tips, techniques, talking about their new projects, a really good vibe.

Steve Garfield talked about the start of Videoblogging Week 2007, so make a video every day for a week, and be sure to tag your videos with videobloggingweek2007 so people can find then. Steve also showed a demo of Joost, which I wrote about in a previous post. It’s a cool peek into the future of internet-television convergence.

John Herman talked about the RPM Challenge and the Nanoloop, a synthesizer and sequencer for the Nintendo Game Boy stored on a game cartridge, it allows you to produce interesting electronic music without additional hardware.

John Herman and I will be doing a session at Podcamp NYC titled, “Using cinematic language elements in your video,” for a long time filmmakers have been evolving a language for communicating efficiently using a stream of visual and audio elements over time, and this session will discuss some approaches applying this language to your video in order to increase viewer engagement.

My show and tell this month consisted of two books that I highly recommend reading, they both present some very important ideas. The first is Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. And the second is John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity.. This book offers a refreshing perspective on simplifying of the systems we design and the technology we develop, and even extends into business, and even your own life.

Joe Cascio continues to work on his email project that promises to deal with the spam problem in a manner better the solutions presented so far, he’ll be doing a session on email at Podcamp NYC.

Glen Cooper, a photographer who teaches photojournalism at New England School of Photography will be working on the new Boston Now coming April 17th. Publications on the net offer more room for video, text, and photos, Boston NOW wants citizen journalists to be featured right along professional journalists. They will not edit blogs except for profanity or slander.

Jack Hodgson is a new media producer, writer, and web-developer and the host and producer of the Uncontrolled Airspace, a general aviation podcast. He’s been flying since 1989. His goal for 2007 is to help his clients to use more audio and video on their web sites, move away from text web pages, and towards more audio and video. I say, “bravo.”

Adam Weiss, who does the Museum of Science Podcast, is now blogging for O’Reilly Digial Media Blog, very cool.

Phillipe Lejeune did a great video collage covering the recent Barcamp that gives a nice sense of what went on for people who missed the event.

There was lots more, but I’ve got to cut this short and begin preparing for my shoot tomorrow. Check out some of the photos on Flickr.

With all the excitement over Google’s purchase of YouTube and videomakers making money putting Mentos into Diet Coke bottles, you’d think that the viral video phenomena is where all the action is. But for independent filmmakers who are looking to get some financial return on their work, there are some serious distribution and revenue opportunities emerging on the web, but it’s not YouTube. Alternative sites like Brightcove, blip.tv, IndieFlix, and CustomFlix offer a range of services to filmmakers who would like to take reaching an audience and distribution into their own hands. Scott Kirsner’s new book, The Future of Web Video: Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers provides the most comprehensive guide to web video to date from materials gathered in 2005 and 2006. The books is available as an e-Book or printed book. Since sites in this space and the services they offer are changing so rapidly, it’s a good thing that Scott has made his chart, Getting Paid: Sites that Help Video Producers Make Money available online for free.

For years pundits have predicted that the digital revolution will eliminate or completely change mass media, paper documents, bureaucracies, trips to the supermarkets, etc. John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid book help us cut through these crazed visions of the future and understand the social forces at work in the sea of technological change. The authors argue that the gap between the pundits and reality is due to the “tunnel vision” bred by information technology. The book provides a highly informed and optimistic view showing that the transformation of education, work and social institutions is not simply the result of technological change, but a complex interaction between technology, organizations, communities, and people. Of particular interest to me was chapter seven which explains how groups form around documents. Brown and Duguid draw upon the research described in Benedict Anderson’s seminal book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, offering insights in the workings of “Imagined” communities: communities whose members may never know each other in person, nonetheless they share a bond that is often stronger than traditional community ties.

Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation by James Utterback, Harvard Business School Press, 1994

James Utterback is a Professor of Management and Engineering at the MIT Sloan School and has written a book about technological innovation that is refreshing, informative, and dare I say, entertaining. Through detailed case studies he examines how innovation creates, transforms, and sometimes even destroys an industry, illustrating along the way the behaviors and strategies of firms with respect to technological changes and long-term survival. Case studies including the harvested ice industry, which at one time efficiently transported harvested ice as far away as India, yet was unable to envision refrigeration. It took industry outsiders to do it. Sound familiar? History repeats itself. Utterback discusses in detail how market leaders prior to the introduction of a new technology are rarely the market leaders after the acceptance of the technology. Utterback’s explanation is that entrepreneurs and innovators are squeezed out of established companies by what he calls the “incrementalists.” Utterback writes “…From a practical point of view, their managerial attention is encumbered by the system they have—just maintaining and marginally improving their existing systems is a full-time occupation.”

The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School Press, 1997

Clayton Christensen examines how new companies with products based on disruptive technologies at first cut into the low end of the marketplace and eventually evolve to displace established high-end competitors. The most important contribution of the book is an approach for anticipating new technologies by understanding how they expand from a lower need-defined market into a mainstream market. Incumbents often misunderstand the danger of a disruptive technology and how to address it. The Innovator’s dilemma is “how to allocate resources to developing a technology that will target a smaller market and at lower margin than your current technology.” Existing customer needs often distract companies away from their future markets. One day you wake up and your competitors are stealing away your customers with an “inferior,” yet disruptive, technology. Christensen suggests that innovation should be more integral to corporate strategy. Clayton Christensen is a Professor at the Harvard Business School.

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine and Doc Searls, Perseus Books, 2000

This book challenges the traditional axioms of marketing. It’s much longer than it has to be and ventures deep in the zone of hyperbole, however, there are some valuable nuggets of insight contained within these pages. Locke et al. suggest that exposing yourself is the new way to do marketing. Markets, at their core, are about conversations. This book is to marketing and communications what the open-source movement is to software development. The writers believe that the traditional “broadcast model of marketing” will eventually fail as more customers go on-line and participate in professional or special interest forums. On the net people have become accustomed to talking with each other in an honest conversational manner which is at odds with the traditional one-way communication forms of television, radio and print. The authors argue that having employees openly and honestly participate in online conversations can be infinitely more useful than traditional corporate advertising.

Each of these books provide valuable insights as we welcome in a new year in times of rapid change. Many pundits are full of hot air, but collectively the authors of these four books offer some sound insights we can use to make sense of the environment around us. Happy reading and best wishes for happy 2001.

Note: this article was originally published on the old version of my web site and has been placed in blog format since the old page now redirects to this blog post.