User-Generated Content 用戶原創內容

User generated content has also been characterized as 'Conversational Media', as opposed to the 'Packaged Goods Media' of the past century. The former is a two-way process in contrast to the one-way distribution of the latter. Conversational or two-way media is a key characteristic of so-called Web 2.0 which encourages the publishing of one's own content and commenting on other people's.

Grassroots experimentation then generated an innovation in sounds, artists, techniques and associations with audiences which then are being used in mainstream media.

UGC often also has a collaborative element to it, as is the case with websites which users can edit collaboratively. For example, merely copying a portion of a television show and posting it to an online video website (an activity frequently seen on the UGC sites) would not be considered UGC. If a user uploads his/her photographs, however, expresses his/her thoughts in a blog, or creates a new music video, this could be considered UGC.

Motivating factors include: connecting with peers, achieving a certain level of fame, notoriety, or prestige, and the desire to express oneself.

Mere copy & paste or a link could also be seen as user generated self-expression. The action of linking to a work or copying a work could in itself motivate the creator, express the taste of the person linking or copying. Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com, leaptag.com is a good example where such linkage to work happens. The culmination of such linkages could very well identify the tastes of a person in the community and make that person unique through.

Adoption and recognition by mass media: Scoopflash

from: Wikipedia

Entrepreneurial Generated Content provides a less diminishing and much more meaningful and positive expression for what has generally been called User Generated Content, Web 2.0, Consumer Generated Media (CGM) or User created Content (UCC).

Web 2.0 --> UGC + SNS

UGC就是User Generated Content，這是大家都知道的Web 2.0基本元素，但也是常被濫用的一個字。UGC有一個蠻嚴格的定義，譬如讀了新聞評選這篇新聞好不好看，不算是UGC；看到好棒的文章馬上收錄到del.icio.us，也不算UGC。嚴格的框限UGC定義是為了表示UGC的真正美好處，它不只是「平民發聲」，不只是「全民評分」，它最美之處是在「平民內容」，這才是重點。因此所謂真正的UGC不見得是原創，但絕對要是分享一個本身蘊含故事的內容，譬如，一篇自己身邊的新聞、一段自己小狗的影片，一小則自己引吭高歌的錄音podcast、一段自己摸索出來的使用說明、一支自己寫的Flash遊戲、一張自己拍的美麗山景照，不必搞得太專業也可以放到CNN I-Report、YouTube、Photobucket、OhMyNews、eHow，全球一起分享。在「內容是王」的情況下，這個網站真的有原創物在裡面。這是真正提供一些值得大眾閱讀、欣賞素材的內容網站。

至於「SNS」，Social Network Services，社群服務、社會化服務皆有人譯。社群網站始於六度分隔理論的交友服務，字義愈來愈廣，到了今年它變成一個蠻空靈的字，儘管最近人氣很旺的Twitter、MyBloglog、Meebo等都號稱自己也有某些SNS功能，但它們的成功各自有自己的造詣，並不是源自於真正的SNS公式，對這個字義嚴格一點，也是想強調SNS的厲害，從目前真正成功的幾個兩年內爆紅、超過1000萬名會員的「社群網站」如Myspace、Bebo、Facebook來看，真正厲害的SNS有幾個關鍵元素，最重要的，是讓個人有個公開的首頁，在這首頁之上，交朋友、設立群組、放東西，然後再針對它們留言討論，所謂SNS公式是Web 2.0網站最近才摸索出來的，到目前為止依然是人氣的保證；添加這些SNS元素，能讓網站的黏性大增。

from:Mr.6 ＂Web 2.0退場後，「UGC + SNS」火熱依舊＂

VJ Software Interface Research

vidvox


virtualdj


Resolume_3


Onyx-VJ


motion_dive_tokyo


modul8


ArKaos GrandVJ

Privacy and Street Photography

Documentary photography is a way to record what is happening in the moments at present for future reference. However, documentary photography has always had the inseparable connection with portrait with its reflections on people in daily life. The series of images below aim to reflect the moments of people’s imagery status in the public from photographing. In this set of images, I try to explore and present people’s personal life in the public in terms of imagery status by taking photographs from absent-minded people. These images revealed the disconnection from their spiritual status to the world. Even existing in the surrounding of crowds and noises, the isolation of their spiritual status remains at those particular moments.

On the other hand, Street Photography is extremely easy disputed by law, such as how and where you take or use the photograph. Especially in the situation of violate Portrait from the citizen. In theory, it is against the law of the Portrait when someone takes those personal photographs for business purposes without the represents’ permissions. However, to remain people’s reflections of the moments in documentary photography has to photograph them immediately at the time when things happen in order to record the facts. Nevertheless, most of time people don’t realize they have been photographed while it’s happening, therefore, photographers can capture the actual image they wanted from the person at that special moment. However, in this case, there seems to be a contradiction between the right of expression oneself and the power of the law in one’s portrait. At the result, Street Photography has been retrained a great quantity of ideas expressing from the right of Portrait.


Inspiration:

The spirit of Street Photography - Bruce Gilden


Bruce Gilden, born in Brooklyn, is known as the "archetypal street photographer" and is famous for his unique attitude towards photographing, which shows a strong spiritual force in his photographic works. He brings the philosophy of the survival on the street into art. For Gilden, the images of all objects and people are his inviolable private properties; he must be cruel to "capture" them even with the risks of any conflictions. My favourite image of his works is a photography called “Two Members of the Yakuza Asakusa”. The characters have drawn the distinctive personalities and dramatic tensions into his photographic. However, his approach of shooting was full of controversy. Bruce Gilden once claimed, "I'm known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get."



Privacy Policy - Cases Study

“Heads ＃13” by Philip-Lorca diCorcia


In 2006, Ermo Nussenzweig accused photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia of violating his privacy and Jewish Orthodox faith, by displaying, publishing and selling his portraits without his consent. However, based on his portraits has been taken in public places, and was recognized as works of art, the court ruled Ermo Nussenzweig lost in the end. New York court ruled that the works of art, which were for sale in a limited numbers, were still under its artistic; it is not equivalent to profit-seeking behaviour. Even so this work was sold 10 copies on the sale price of 30,000 U.S. dollars.


Cardiff at Night (2008) by Maciej Dakowicz



Like Bruce Gilden, Maciej Dakowicz used the "violent" approach, toughly and quickly took pictures of the targets. His latest works “Cardiff at Night” aroused the widespread discussion. He spent four years in the regional capital of Wales Cardiff shooting a series of photographs of people’s nightlife, represented the scene of night of the Cardiff Street.

However, the most interesting part for me is the deputing of the right of portrait in his photographs. In his works, most of the people have been taken photographs while they were in their drunken states, such as vomiting on the side of litter, or passing out in the middle of the road. These kinds of images might even have affects on the personal image and life. It would have a lot of attentions for the right of portrait and the follow-up impacts of it are worth to investigate.

In my opinions, the timing is the most difficult thing of street photography. Neither for the legal or moral considerations, it is impossible for me to take picture without concerns of these kinds of issues in the course of shooting like Bruce Gilden does. I only manage to wait for the best moments and take some snap shoots. In addition, compared to some other countries, the privacy policy is much more concerned in the United Kingdom, which also encountered some difficulties in the process.

I explore this project by using black and white images to create the dramatic tension and intend to congeal the moments. Compose the image based on colour levels of monochrome in black, grey, and white to inspire the appreciator with its power of simplicity.

Peyton Chiang 04/06/2009

The Fine Art of Digital Imaging

It's been over 150 years since the beginning of photography, and there’s always been a fine line between photography and painting. The aim of this series of photography is going to investigate the relationships between painting and photography in this digital era and the authenticity of digital images.
These five images are finalized by postproduction. They are the results of combinations of several realistic photographs, for example, the boy who dresses up as a vampire under London Bridge, the scenery of River Thames and the people walk in central London. However, after decomposing and recomposing the elements from each photographs for these reproduced images, they become the hyper-real and aerial photography.

Pictorialism and Photorealism

In the era of invention of photography, many painters were photographers at the same time. As the result, a large number of photographs showed the similarities in not only the compositions but also the lightings of paintings back in the early days. Therefore, photography was also described as ‘The painting of light’.

The English photographer Peter Henry Emerson claimed in 1886, photography was a pictorial art, ‘superior to etching, woodcutting [and] charcoal drawing’ (Emerson, 1886, p. 139) in the article of ”Photo: A Pictorial Art”. Besides, he declared that there should not be any boundaries either in between art and science, nor in painting and photography, which contributed to the Pitorioalism. Pictorialism emphasized on the pictorial elements such as, hues, lines, and balances of the images and discarded the realistic facts, which were valued in the documentary photography.

Painting has always had a significant influence on photography. Even nowadays we can still repeatedly recall shadows of traditional paintings from photographs. For instance, Gregory Crewdson’s technique is very different from Henry Cartier Bresson’s “The Decisive Moment”. First, the compositions of his photograph were intentionally planned ahead like the rough pencil sketches of a painting. Besides, the process of capturing the moment or visually speaking as an image was progressed as if making the movies. They are a series of reproductive clips rather than one single irreplaceable shoot. Moreover, the colours were even retouched by computerizing afterwards. Undoubtedly, all of these techniques are entirely against the realistic characteristic of photography.


Untitled (2003) by Gregory Crewdson

However, photography on the other hand, has also played an important role in paintings since its origin. Photorealism paintings in the 60s had a magical way of keeping the realistic characteristic of photography. For instance, Richard Estes’s paintings represented the surreal beyond the reality by using the amazing realist painting skill.


Untitle (1972) by Richard Estes

Benjamin believes that the invention of photography absolutely has the significant impact on modern art: the reproduction of photographic destroys the “aura” of original art works. Nevertheless, Photorealism using photography as a creative source, they dissipate the replication of the images with their superb skills. When the unity of creation is from the mechanical reproduction of images, the questions such as “what is aura?” and “where is aura? cannot be explored anymore.

Reality and fabrication has become extremely difficult to identify their differences since the occurrence of digital photography. Lev Manovich discussed this subject further in ‘The Paradoxes of Digital Photography’. He suggested that, “Computer images are not inferior to the visual realism of traditional photography. They are perfectly real -- all too real.“

Nevertheless, the difference between traditional and digital photography is that the former believes in fabricating the image with objectivity and the intension of photography while the latter stands for opening its fictitious process. Nowadays we live in a society of artificiality, therefore, the virtual image has become rather indispensable in our lives. The comparison between image and reality is no longer as important as it used to be, which allows the world lies somewhere in between dreams and realities.

Digital photography allows the infinite freedom in imagination. Through working on collage pieces, I try to deconstruct the realities in photography by intentionally place conflicting elements into one image to create the narrative imagery. For instance, River Thames becomes a green field where lie two face-to-face camels and a man on the cell phone in the desert. However, only by adjusting colours and hues would make the elements seem exist in the same time and space. In my opinion, contraction is the most important feature in digital photography.


Reference:

Untitled (2003) by Gregory Crewdson from Luhring Augustine
http://www.luhringaugustine.com/index.php?mode=artists&object_id=66#

No title (1972) by Richard Estes from Collection of the National Gallery of Australia
http://nga.gov.au/PrintedLight/details/40365.cfm

Benjamin, W. (1936) The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.
In: Liz W. The Photography Reader. Routledge. P.42-52

Lev M (1995) The Paradoxes of Digital Photography. In: Liz W. The Photography Reader. Routledge. P.240-249

Peyton Chiang 04/06/2009