You Tube
Phone call 9a.m. yesterday. "Can we send a photographer around?" It's the local newspaper. They want to do a piece on my videos on You Tube –http://www.a-nunedited.co.uk/projects/youtube.com
Frantic panic to tidy the place up. The young photographer uses Audacity so we get to talking about podcasting. Some weeks ago I contacted them for help with tracing all the folk I filmed in The Changing Room gallery. The video piece is now several years old but the participants never got to see the finished result- until now thanks to You Tube. It would be good if I could put names to all the hands. ( My tutors at Glasgow School of Art used to nag me for not "finishing off" work properly and I guess this is another example, well I am trying…..)
Podcasting
OK this is reckoned to ultra cool , the most zeitgsty stuff around, and I was very nervous about moving into it.
I have still got too many memories of struggling with html and web design to view another "learning experience" as yet another battle with new technology .
But last night at the Electron club in Glasgow's CCA it was a possible experience and I am sold on podcasting. This is story-telling brought into the 21st century and yes I am going to take my laptop with me to Wales and start collecting some oral history there.
The whole evening kicked off to a good start, something I took as a very good omen,when I walked in and found people seated around a huge round table with Apple laptops ( mostly) .
I was in Apple country: intuitive, safe, arty,graphic , music.
At the end of the evening we had all made our first podcast and uploaded it to the net. No small achievement!…thanks to John Harris, Michelle Kasprzak and Simon Yuill.
So Apple are launching the iPhone! great news..it's not due on the European market until the end of the year but it will combine a mobile phone, internet access, IPod music and video playback features.
In 10 days time I am going to Wales to do some research for my online book and the thought of being without my computer for the best part of the week is making me nervous. Yes I could take my laptop but the places I am going to are remote with no internet access.
Huskies galore!
Yet another guy in North America has signed up for my video on huskies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h46JzGrSD7M
This is another example of what Chris Anderson author of 'The Long Tail' ( and editor of Wired magazine) calls the niche market. www.thelongtail.com
This little video – very old footage shot over 10 years ago in analogue during a stopover in Alaska en route to Japan was put up on the net 5 months ago. Its had 670 "hits", which is modest but the interesting thing is that it continues every week to attract new viewers. Its the "long tail" effect and it applies to everything digital.
And that's what makes it so exciting for the future .
All things digital have a different mode of culture and commerce, no longer dominated by mass media,cultural gatekeepers, Box-office hits and top-seller lists.
Podcasting Workshop
Have been meaning to get into podcasting for some time so I am delighted to see that the Electron(http://www.electronclub.org)
club based in the CCA(http://www.cca-glasgow.com/) – Centre for Contemporary Arts- Glasgow are organising a free evening on Wednesday January 10th.
