…and once again, all the great photos in this entry are made by the very talented Anne Helmond!
And on yet another rainy morning in Amsterdam (not surprising, you get used to it after a while!), full of curiosity and hopes for the day, I went to the second day of the Video Vortex - Responses to YouTube conference. I was hoping that today would be more fruitful than yesterday, and indeed, what a pleasant surprise! Well, call me selfish, but instead of giving a general overview I will focus on the session that was the most interesting for me personally: Curating Online Video.
On a rainy morning in Amsterdam (that demanded lots of coffee!), the Video Vortex - Responses to YouTube Conference was kicked off at Club 11. I will be blogging on the conference for movingweb, but I was also there because I have been involved with the project through my work at the Netherlands Media Art Institute where we made an exhibition with the same title and related topics. Well, the program of the conference is quite extensive, and I was very disappointed by some of the presentations today (that seemed unprepared, unfocused, had nothing new to say…a total contrast with the first Video Vortex conference in Brussels!). So I will focus on the gems of today’s presentations!
“There are times where mystery is more important than knowledge”
JJ Abrams (LOST, Cloverfiled, the new STAR TREK) talks about his obsession to mystery.
And he’s even funny.
via Projector Films.
While some media reactions to the Apple Keynote presentation were dissappointed because Steve Jobs had no new jesus-like gadgets to show, the effect on the online movie business could actually be tremendous.
Itunes now has a serious movie rental system. The big suprise is that every major film studio participates!
Movie rentals cost from 3-5$, but you only can watch the film for 24 hours from the point you start it. When the service will launch in february (USA only) it’ll have around 1000 movies. I think that’s not enough to really reach big user groups, we want all the full back catalogues, too! So it’s not the big breakthrough but having all studios onboard is the first important step to really get online movie rental going!
Apple also improved the AppleTV, now becoming a serious home entertainment device.
Read a full feature list of the new intunes and Apple Tv on Newteevee.
Visit a big exhibition during the day, watch some crazy art performances, and then go to a big concert - how does that sound to you? Last Saturday, me and some friends and colleagues visited the STRP festival in Eindhoven. The organisation of the festival describe it the following way: “STRP is unique because it presents visual arts and music ranking alongside film, games, and robots”. So a promising concept! And yes, despite the messy built-up of the exhibition, the dominance of rather older installation works (actually, some of them were developed in the Netherlands and so have been shown plenty of times before), there were some gems! Overall there was a great atmosphere, and since I guess a big part of the public came for the concerts of Roisin Murphy, Trentemoeller, Goose, 2many djs, and so on and so forth, the exhibition did give a lot of people who are normally not involved with media art a chance to experience it! So in that way it seems successful - they had over 18.000 visitors in 3 days!
I allready wrote my last script with Celtx, but when I started a new one lately, I was amazed how the software improved. You can not only write your script with it, but also your storyboard, do your scheduling and reports and many more functions. Moreover, you can put the project on a server and invite different team members to collaborate.
“Celtx has all the tools you need to write, organize and collaborate in one modern, Internet friendly, free software application. It’s the most complete media pre-production software program available anywhere, at any cost.”
The market of video converting software is crowded and confusing.
Lifehacker has put a together a handy list.
Also read the comments to get some more advices.
Well, I hope that nobody is under the impression that we are trying to go commercial here! This is about being in love with media arts, and if there’s an organization that deserves your support, it’s rhizome.org! And it’s not about donation, it’s a membership.
“Founded in 1996, Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Through open platforms for exchange and collaboration, our website serves to encourage and expand the international communities evolving these practices. Our programs, many of which happen online, include commissions, exhibitions, events, discussion, archives and portfolios. We support artists working at the furthest reaches of technological experimentation as well as those responding to the broader aesthetic and political implications of new tools and media. Our organizational voice draws attention to artists, their work, their perspectives and the complex interrelationships between technology, art and culture.”
During the New Cultural Networks Conference in Amsterdam (Friday 2nd of November, organized by Stifo@Sandberg), PIPS:lab presented diespace , the first internet community for people who have passed away!
PIPS:lab are a group of artists from Amsterdam based Sandberg Institute, and what they do is a mixture of new media art projects, theater, performance, (live!) music,…well, it’s really an experience and it really stirred up the audience of the conference!
After Vimeo there is another company called Akamai, which is pulling of streaming HD.
Right now they are running a demo portal called HD WEB. According to the company, right now only 10-20% of the users have the needed bandwith to receive the streaming HD files. If you don’t have the bandwith you can still download the clips to test the awesome quality.
Go watch the stunning Sigur Ros Heima Trailer as an example.