Any Canadian / Australian vidders out there?

Because I'll be travelling a bit these next two months, I'm wondering if there are any vidders out there who might be interested in being interviewed. Any Sydney / NSW vidders from now until early July, and then I'll be in Brisbane, QLD in early July and in Toronto, Canada from mid-July to mid-August. If you're out there and interested, drop me a line!

Guest post

I just guest-posted on Supernatural fandom, vidding, and intertextuality over at FandomResearch.org. Check it out!

Dear Vidding: How are you so awesome?

Just finished writing up a guest post for Fandom Research (I'll post the link when it goes up) on the different ways Supernatural vidders manipulate genre and use outside sources to tell their stories. Ten seconds later, I am scrolling through the latest Meta Vidding Newsletter and downloaded Ash's "Supernatural at the Movies":



How utterly amazing is this vid? Especially in terms of how useful it would be for my own research, as lately I've been focusing on how vidders are so media literate that they are able to make use of television cinematography, editing, and genre conventions to manipulate the source footage to tell any sort of story they desire.

And here it is!

Ash, between this vid and Channel Hopping, you are my new favourite person in the whole world. XD

Holy crap

I'm FINALLY done my transcriptions from VidUKon! It only took... oh... 9 months?? I really need to do a better job getting my data down after Vividcon. I don't want to still be transcribing when I should be writing because it's very distracting.

But I will say there are worse ways to spend your time than sitting outside in the Australia sun, even in the 20 degree C "winter", listening to vidders chat about what they love.

Video Remix Origins

Check out this parody of a German propaganda film from 1941, which takes footage from Nazi rallies and edits it to a popular musical number from the period to make the German WWII troops look ridiculous:

Link Here.

It may not be of the vidding tradition per se, as that grew out of fandom in general and the fanfiction tropes and traditions specifically, but I think it certainly does constitute one of the earliest video remixes I've ever seen. Fascinating!!

Thanks to my colleague Ruth Walker for pointing this out to me.

What I Do In My Office All Day

I probably watch 5 vids a day, every single day. Some days, it's up to 25-30 if I'm cataloguing the vids from the vidding discussion thread on LJ. and i figure... why on earth am i keeping all these to myself?! so i'm going to try and rec more vids as i find them, so here's today's:

the aforementioned thread has been flooded by star trek vids in honour of the new film, and i have to share a few with you. i've never been into trek - every other fandom on the planet, yes, but i seem to have missed this one. but i found the new movie to be really fun and enjoyable even for a non-trekker.

so i'm recommending "Who Found Mr. Fabulous?" by kuwdora. it's fast-paced and tons of fun to watch. check out the imeem stream here.

here's a great one for classic trek: steady as she goes by jesuit24. it's a deliciously fun and campy romp through TOS. check out the stream below:



and for something completely different: i highly recommend chamalla's "dust in the wind" for the whole of BSG. it's a heartbreaking overview of the series now that it's over.



switching gears again so as not to depress you all to death...

SPN slashers has discovered misha collins (aka: castiel/jimmy) and i giggled myself to death watching danegen's "luv song". god help him. check it out at imeem here.

that's all for now, folks!v

Chapter Two

A Wordle art for my second chapter. Excerpt forthcoming.

CEDIR Second Life Workshop

Our workshop to-do list:

1. Border authentication
2. Creating an account
   
3. Logging in
4. Friending: Click "Communicate", then and add Rina Ethaniel as your friend
   
5. Groups: Click on "DIGC101 New Media Communication" in my profile and join the group so that I can communicate with you.
   
6. Moving
   
7. Communicating - main and IM chat, group chat, voice
   
8. Using objects / interacting with the environment
9. Profiles
   
10. Search
    
11. Map
    
12. Teleporting and Landmarks
    
13. Editing Appearance
    
14. Inventory
15. Freebie Sites
16. Making Money
    

A list of useful in-world locations you can link to, known as "SLurls":

• Sandbox . Head here if you need to unpack a box!
• The Pond. A Telstra-run island with some great builds of Australiana.
• ABC Island. The ABC's own island with tons of cool buildings and sites to explore.
• Vassar College. A recreation of this American college's campus, featuring an exact replica of the Sistine Chapel built by the students.
• Alliance Library Island. One of the many libraries in the SL library system, where you can check out information on a variety of topics, with support from actual librarians.
• October Country. A Hallowe'en build that plays old radio dramas. Sit around the campfire and listen to the plays by turning on your audio (click on the "play" button next to the music notes above your Inventory).
  
• Bogart's Jazz Club. A formal dance club that plays classic jazz music. Make sure to turn on your audio, and be warned of the etiquette codes of the club!
• Alice's Looking Glass. A fun build based on Alice in Wonderland. Fall down the rabbit hole and look for the club.
  
• Jokaydia. A build by an instructor from Wollongong TAFE, this island is used by a variety of SL educators to teach classes in-world.
  
• Chichen Itza. A build by Tourism Mexico in an attempt to promote the site for one of the Eight Wonders of the World.
  
• Avilion Grove. A medieval role-playing group. Be careful of the etiquette requirements of the sim.
  
• Georgia State University. Check out the library for a extensive selection of landmarks in various fields. They also have a library of notecards on how to use SL.
  
• Princeton University. Explore how the university promotes itself in-world.
  
• Ohio University. Another great example of how universities are able to promote their campuses in-world.
  
• RMIT University. Check out this space for a completely different take on university presence in world.
  
• Australian Film, Television, and Radio School (AFTRS).
  
• Garden of Da Vinci. A really unique build which models the different inventions of Leonardo da Vinci.

Feel free to explore any of these sites or find ones that interest you through the search. If you are having difficulty, try asking another Resident for help.

VividCon Fieldwork

I'm gearing up to prep for my fieldwork at VividCon, and I want to talk a bit about what I'm planning to do there because I think it's important to be transparent about your research methods.

Methods

Here is a short rundown of the methods I plan to use while there.

- Participant Observation: this is a classic anthropology method which essentially involves me being a convention attendee - attending vid shows, listening to panels, etc. - and making notes on what is going on.
- Short Interviews: The formal term for "asking questions". I might ask someone what they think about fair use, or using YouTube, or the vid they just saw. Very straightforward.
- Extended / Formal Interviews: I would like to sit down with some people individually and go through a list of questions on your vidding practices, the vidding community, copyright and fair use issues, and issues around fandom in general.
- Roundtable: The ConCom has asked me to give a roundtable presentation on my research, where I will be outlining my approach, theories, and research thus far so that people can give me feedback and ask questions.
- Focus Group: If people are interested, I would like to get 4 or 5 people together to talk with me in a focus group, which is similar to an extended interview but tends to deal with more complex questions and lets all the group members discuss it together with me.

Ethical Concerns - Consent, Confidentiality, and the Right to Decline

My University requires that each participant read this participant information sheet and sign a consent form like this one before particpating so that everyone is fully informed. All must be over the age of 18. You need to sign your real name on the consent form, but after that I will assign you a random pseudonym and obscure your personal details so that you remain fully anonymous unless you choose to be identified by name or by a particular nickname (like your vidder name or LJ handle). I know some people are concerned about copyright suits, and I will do my utmost to protect your identity. The consent forms will be kept locked a file cabinet in my office and destroyed after the end of the project. You may refuse to answer any questions, and may cease participating at any time with no hard feelings. :-)

Research Guidelines

I have been in touch with the ConCom, and they have provided me with several guidelines to follow for your protection and mine. They are as follows:
- Consent forms will be required from all participants.
- Interviews will mostly be arranged in advance but you can also approach me and ask for one at the event.
- I will be introduced at the beginning of the con so that people know who I am and can approach me or avoid me if they are not interested. Please do not feel shy about telling me you do not want to participate - I completely understand and I will not be offended.
- I will be interviewing away from the main con space where there is some privacy.
- I will not make any recordings or take any photos during the convention. I would like to audio-record my extended interviews, but these will happen away from the main con space and I will ask each person individually for permission.
- I am going to be handing out a flyer at the con with details on my work and how to contact me.


For more information, please don't hesitate to contact me. You can email me at fanthropology@gmail.com or leave a comment at this post or at my LJ. You can also contact the ConCom and they will be able to pass your concerns on to me anonymously. If you haven't yet, please fill out my survey over at Survey Monkey.

I'm really excited to get to attend this great vidding event and meeting some of my vidder heroes!

Practice what you preach

Well, following the example of several of my colleagues I'm going to try and follow the practice of transparent, open-source scholarship to try and garner some collaboration opportunities and such. So in that vein, I would like to share the presentation I gave at the PCA conference I just attended in New Orleans. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know and I will be happy to answer them for you. Feel free to use any part of this as long as you cite me.

PCA - Veni, Vidi, Vids!

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Research supernatural fandom

Veni Vidi Vids! - Katharina Freund

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Research supernatural fandom

It's Conference Time!

I'm going to be off to the Popular Culture Association National Conference in lovely New Orleans on Tuesday to give a paper on my thesis topic, hoorah! I've already been in contact with some people who are going to be attending. I'm really looking forward to doing some networking with the other people studying vids and fandom out there.

I'll be giving a modified version of the paper I gave here at the Postgrad Student Conference, which I blogged about before. I'm going to be focusing on how vids can manipulate the source in a multitude of ways by using a variety of vids from Supernatural that take the essentially action-thriller-horror show and change it into a melodrama, a slash romance, a AU about serial killers, a critical commentary on women in the media, and an intertextual masterpiece.

As much as I adore it, I had to take out "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..." by deirdre_c because the presentation was just way too long the last time I gave it and I have another slash vid in there already ("Here In Your Car" by dalyn03).

Got my suit tailored and bought new shoes, so I'm all ready!

Thoughts on "This World" vid by Buffyann

I first saw this vid at VidUKon, a vidder's convention in the UK, back in October while I was doing my fieldwork there. It played as part of the "Unexpected Choices" vidshow, due to the unusual selection of the nouveau-jazz / trip-hop song "This World" by Zero 7 (confession: it's a favourite band of mine) to scenes of violence, destruction, warfare, and general angst from the early seasons of Battlestar Galatica.

What struck me was just how much the musical choice can affect the interpretation of the vid. I noticed about 3/4 into last year that I was putting way too much theoretical emphasis on the visual aspects of vidding, and was forgetting entirely that this is an AUDIO-visual medium. At VidUKon many of the editors patiently explained to me that the idea for a vid tends to grow out of a SONG first - that the music somehow reminds them of a certain aspect of their favourite television series. The music is the instigator for most vids, from what I was told (there are, of course, exceptions but this seems to be the trend.)

Back to the vid in question, then. Consider how different this vid would be if we traded the cool beats and mellow voice of Zero 7 and traded it for a punk rock song? Or an operatic aria? How differently would we interpreted the intention of the editor in such a case? To me, at least, this particular musical choices makes this vid a thoughtful meditation on these humans of the Galactica and the fleet and their struggle to survive.

But I'll let the vidder herself describe to you how she understands the show both conceptually and aurally:

"The idea for this came very early on from watching the pilot of BSG and whenever the opening credits came in, there was just something about them that totally marked me then. It wasn't the usual SciFi music, it carried so much more, so much pain and hope as well. it was clearly established then for me, how the show was not about scifi, but about this lost civilization looking for a meaning and a way to survive. It's always been what dragged me to BSG. And so this vid is suppose to mirror this idea. The lyrics tell you the rest better than me."

--Buffyann, http://buffyann.free.fr/battlestar.html

For Buffyann, who I had the pleasure of talking to in the UK, the lyrics of the song describe the story she is trying to tell. The song is the backbone that ties all the visual scenes together and knits it into a narrative rather than just a clip show. Have a look, and let me know what you think.

BSG - This World - Buffyann

sowing misconceptions

One of my mailing lists pointed me towards this documentary on SL by the CBC. You can watch the entire video online through the website.

I was so struck by the misconceptions and sensationalism in the doc, even from the very beginning - it continually refers to SL as a game and never brings up the term "virtual world" or "online world" at all. I was also disappointed in how SL was blamed for the problems in these people's marriages when I suspect that those problems already existed, and SL was an escape bringing some happiness to them. I don't like to see the platform scapegoated for ruining marriages. Also, it made me really angry when the doc kept saying that these women had fallen in love with "fantasies" - there are real people using those avatars, communicating with them and listening to them. Also quite tickled to see the scenes framed as being of an "unhappy household" of the woman in Pennsylvania showed the husband cleaning up around the house, doing the shopping, and spending time with the children while the wife got some time to herself. I personally think she took it too far, but I still strongly disliked how the doc made it seem that she should be the one doing all these things while her husband got to leave the house and be "breadwinner". Last time I checked, CBC, it was 2009, not 1952.

Argh.

still not dead

just got back to oz last week after a month back home in canada for xmas. desperately trying to get things back on track with this thesis, as i've ended up quite behind as of late due to a pile of interferences.

i'm currently in the pipeline to upgrade from an MA thesis to a PhD dissertation... i was offered a scholarship, but there seem to be some problems getting it approved so i'm currently in limbo because i can't afford to do a PhD without the free monies. argh. it's been 6 weeks or more now with this awful limbo... if i get the PhD it will drastically change how i proceed. i need to know one way or the other so i can get my act together and bash out some actual work!

still trying to transcribe all my notes from my time at VidUKon - how sad is that? like i said, i've gotta get on this...

(p.s. happy australia day!)

blind-sided

wow. strange day on monday for me. my advisor has, several times already, asked me if i'd like to consider upgrading my thesis from a MA to a PhD, and several times i've said no to him. of many, many factors, one of the biggest decisions in my choice to just finish my work on vidding at the MA level is the fact that i simply cannot afford to pay any more tuition.

okay. flash forward several months. meeting with advisor. he says, "if you agree to stay, i'll go to bat for you and get you a guaranteed scholarship for three years."

i freak out.

i agonize over it for many, many days.

i freak out some more.

i say yes.

i won't hear for a while if i will get the scholarship or not, and i cannot stay if i don't, but right now it looks like this could be a PhD on vidding, and another three years in oz for me. SCARY!

mild successes

while i'm still kind of in the dumps about my thesis in general, i am feeling slightly more enthused about the topic after the really lovely feedback i've received after my first proper presentation on my topic here at my uni.

for our little in-house research student conference, i gave a 20 min presentation on vidding - outlining what it is, who is doing it, blathered on about some of the semiotic crapola that's involved, and showing off a bunch of shiny videos to impress the academics, lol.

while i didn't get a chance to dry-run it (and time it) it was waaaay too long, but the response from the audience was quite positive. it seems as though the topic of vidding was really fascinating, because a great deal of people came up to me afterward and asked a lot of good questions... or just asked me to tell them more about (which i did, happily). one of the conference organizers commented to me something along the lines of "you must have done a good job because you seem to have your own fan club now" because there were so many people standing around me. i don't actually think the presentation went over that smoothly as i had to shorten and skip a lot of content and that's always awful... but hey, a good response is a good response.

here's a short rundown of my vids playlist:

(i stuck to supernatural to make the ways in which the vidders play with the source material much more obvious as they can see how the same footage is used in different ways.)

1. we will rock you, melissa (aka proofpudding).

this video showcases all the manly camaraderie, action-adventure, car-chasing, ass-kicking fun of the series, and is generally in-line with the CW's vision of the show.

2. forgiven and forsaken, loki.

unlike the previous, this video focuses on the melodramatic, interpersonal aspects of the show, giving the viewer some insight into the interactions between sam and dean.

3. things that make you go hmmmm..., deirdre_c

uses a lot of the same clips as "we will rock you" above, but to say something entirely different, drawing out the (unintended?) homoerotic subtext of the series.

4. here in your car, dayln03.

whereas "hmmm" just suggests the slash, dayln masterfully crafts this video uses advanced manips to slash 'dem brothers right up to sex town. (ahem.)

5. women's work, luminosity and sisabet.

you knew this would be in here. while the previous 4 vids focus on the boys, this vid reminds us of the unseen side. it highlights the (mis)treatment of women in SPN and changed how a lot of people thought of the show (myself included).

6. impulse, nycalls0909 (aka antigonesgift).

an AU vid where dean is a serial killer. i discussed how the footage is so readily re-purposed for any desire the vidder may have, and how the pleasure for a viewer is in recognizing how the source material has been taken out of context.

7. channel hopping, ash.

pure intertextual genius. this vid draws hilarious parallels between SPN and television as a medium, dancing from genre to genre all using the same footage. it shows just how media-aware viddes are, and how all-consuming the "mediascape" really is.



that's just kind of a quick word on what i got up to today... and i hope to refine this presentation further to give a guest lecture here at the uni at some stage in the upcoming semester (that's february btw, all you northern hemisphere types).

and now, i have a date... with my couch!

On my way!

Well, I'm about to start my fieldwork for my thesis... and I have to confess I'm a bit nervous. I am extremely excited, of course, but also a bit worried - I've travelled so far, you know? Let's hope it all works out. I don't have much time here in the Abu Dhabi airport... See you all soon!

Back into the fray

At my office... Taking a break from listening to my first interview I did back in July with a professional editor. I'd forgotten how draining it was to transcribe audio recordings. I'm a pretty fast typist, don't get me wrong, and I'm pretty used to using all the anthropology-style transcription shorthand, but MAN does it suck the life out of you. I've been working at it for a little over an hour now and I'm only 9.17 minutes in to a 1.13.11 long interview! But that's how the cookie crumbles, of course... It's okay. I kinda do really enjoy it, in a sick way. Now that I have my theoretical framework fully in place, it's great to find nuggets in this interview that support what I'm planning to argue.

So yeah, I finished my 6-month review and it apparently went really well (YESSSSSS!!!!!!). Sitting on the edge of my seat until Friday when I find out if I got approved for the money to go to VidUKon. Still thinking about converting into a Ph.D. but I don't know... Seems like a big commitment, and I'm not sure if I could stay so far from home for another 3-odd years. We'll see.

I guess my blogging break is over, and I'm getting back into it!

*ties a headband around her head, anime-style, and rolls up her sleeves*

Bring it!

The joys of the survey data

Still preparing for my 6-month review. I decided to include some preliminary survey data on the demographics of the vidding community just as an FYI for the panel. Under "Sexual Orientation", one person responded, "A bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."

I'm giggling too hard to decide what category to put that in.

Whoever wrote that? You are made of win.

Here it is... The questionnaire!!

Let the data collection begin! My official blurb is below.

I am a graduate student at the University of Wollongong in Australia, and I am writing my Master's thesis on vidding. I have create a questionnaire for the purposes of my research that I would love to have as many vidders and vid-watchers take as possible. If you are interested in taking my questionnaire, please click the link below. It should take about 20 minutes to complete.

Click Here to take survey

If you would like more information before you begin, please don't hesitate to leave a comment here on my LJ, on my research blog, or you can email me.


Please note: This survey is only open to those over the age of 18.

Thank you to all the great vidders and fans out there who have helped me with my research!

Crossposted to my LJ and the LJ vidding community.