First and foremost I’d like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012!

The starting of the new year (and having a few days off) was a good opportunity to work on updating my blog and portfolio sites.

Best wishes for 2012.. and a web design update! continued »

(This article was cross-posted on the Masters of Media blog.)

In his presentation at MOTI‘s “I don’t know where I’m going but I want to be there” theoretical neurobiologist Mark Changizi elaborated on the research method he applies to investigate the field of why it is that the human brain processes optical information like it does. Instead of trying to look for answers in and around the exact ‘wiring’ of our brains, which largely is still a black box, Changizi in his books looks at the natural and evolutionary indicators that have influenced how our brains process imagery. Mark Changizi – “Cultural selection as the new blind watchmaker” at “I don’t know where I’m going but I want to be there” continued »

(This article was cross-posted on the Video Vortex conference blog.)

From video artist Joanne Richardson (GER) was invited to give a presentation in the session called “Online Video as a Political Tool”, she immediately had problems with the terms ‘online’, ‘political’ and ‘tool’. As Marx had wrote in the Economic Transcript, a social revolution will “not get to the next stage” when the state is used as means to overthrow the state. Here’s the opposition between Heideger (using the available tools) and Nietzsche (somehow doing something completely different) becomes relevant in considering the subjectivity of activism and the traps of deconstruction, a few of the central topics in Richardson’s work.

Joanne Richardson about the critical distance in political filmmaking continued »

(This article was cross-posted on the Video Vortex conference blog.)

In Friday’s first session called “It’s Not a Dead Collection, it’s a Dynamic Database”, media archivist and researcher Teague Schneiter (US/CA) took off with an elaboration about the ‘IsumaTV‘ project she’s currently working on. The people behind this initiative aim to set up an accessible infrastructure for streaming and uploading video content in indigenous subcultures. This is not only a technological challenge, but also requires a lot of media literacy within these communities. Other than with traditional heritages, it doesn’t focus on the long-term storage but instead prioritizes the accessibility of the users.

Teague Schneiter about preserving indigenous heritage with IsumaTV continued »