Friday, February 9, 2007
The Machine is Us/ing Us
Bud Hunt shared a transcript of the text of this fascinating video. If you haven't seen the video, view that first, and then tell me what you think of the experiences of viewing the video and reading the transcript. I'm going to post my initial opinion on Bud's site, but I am interested in knowing what others think and invite you to comment here.
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5 comments:
Hi
I liked the video and the transcription enough to compose and podcast a "found poem" of the project.
http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/
Kevin
If I had not seen the video in class and only read the transcript, I would not think that this piece would have any power. The movement , the visuals, and the music in the video create what words alone would not do. I almost see the transcript as a weakening of the message. Maybe this is only because I saw the video first. It would be interesting to show and discuss this with students. I'm wondering if I would show the video first or last.
I agree that the video has more power for me than the transcript. What happens, though, when you view the found poem and listen to the podcast Kevin created? In sharing all this with others, how do we decide what would be "first"? I'm inclined to go in the order that I discovered it and that it was created--video, transcript, poem, podcast. But now that all of that is out there, someone else might well discover it in a different order. What difference would that make? Does that make a difference?
the first form in which we experience something like this makes significant difference in interpretation, sometimes rendering subsequent forms nearly unrecognizable. it is like a first impression of someone that sometimes becomes very difficult to shake, even if it seems incorrect after more interaction with that person. what would a reverse-ekphrastic painting or sculpture based on this video look like? would it change your perceptions about the original video?
For me, simply because it's more engaging, the video is much easier to understand than the text.
But putting the text aside, I'm tempted to use Louise Rosenblatt's efferent/aesthetic way of talking about kinds of reading as a way to try to understand this video.
I kept feeling the urge to stop this video in the same way I feel compelled to stop in the middle of a text I'm reading to understand. I felt like I should be making notes.
It wasn't an aesthetic experience in the same way, say Little Miss Sunshine, or any movie that tells a story is.
The text was even more efferent.
Hope this makes sense.
More later.
Best,
Jack
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