As China made a breathtaking entry into the world stage, with a zillion flash lights working overtime and hundreds of TV stations across the globe busy reporting the ceremony live, I enjoyed watching every bit of it from the comfort of my Sofa. Fireworks, Music, Confucius, Glowing men, cute kids and so much more, all came together. It sure was a great moment! Audience cheered all the way, they waved glowing lights, they made the camera batteries work over time, and they made it the toughest day for the flash guns in their cameras.
But that was audience. What amazed me was the ubiquity of cameras, video recording devices, and mobile phones as the teams starting marching in. Almost all the contingents had a good number of people carrying their own cameras and digital video recorders. Some of them were even talking on phones. I do not know how many of us feel this way, but I was completely amazed by this. To me it was almost like a stage performer clicking or recording his audience. To me it was also like an individual recording a broadcaster. To me it was recording back! A spectator can be granted the trigger happy status – after all he is there to see and capture. However when I saw the participating sports person’s form different nations, doing that, it dawned upon me how proliferation of personal recording devices has subtly impacted the creation of meaning. 
Every performance now seems to be turning into a two way show, that which is being watched and that which is being watched by those who are being watched.
But that is not surprising, after all this the result of democratization of personal technology devices. However it would be more and more interesting to watch how people would associate meaning to events and occasions when the recording back would be watched by a larger set. Meaning would have multiple interpretations based on the Meta information that would be plugged in from multiple stand points (Meta Information can be called ‘the information about the information’ viz. recording the people who were recording an event, watching the actions of people who were watching the event, etc).
What is surprising though is people are choosing to record as much as they choose to experience the moment. Is this a new behavior or is this something we always wanted to do but never had the tools? Would we capture more and remember more but still end up having not experienced enough? Is this another proof point about people wanting to do more than feel more? Question aplenty.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Moments or Memories
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2 comments:
I dont know if i can answer the question on a general level but on a personal level, i think recording less is a habit that has been 'learned' by me by becoming familiar with recording technology. I went to Kashmir and recorded 4 - 90 minute tapes and i will never see them again. I lost out on defining moments. Humans enjoy films and that tells me that we typically don't like to see more repetition of the same thing. We like to see less of more if you know what i mean. With new recording technologies maybe we try and capture as much as we can till we realize that we probably can't cherish it. More like the classic case of over - eating na? Or the kid who put his hand in a jar full of sweets and could never get it out.
What do you think?
Noticed the cameras as well. Don't you think there can be a business model here? Live streaming of events through multiple eyes using crawlers (and also bandwidth) that are probably twice as efficient as we know them today? Or to start off - just a timeline led amalgamation of multimedia content with the same tags to experience an event once its over..
I think over-eating and the greedy hand stuck in the cookie jar analogy is apt. Live streaming of events through multiple eyes using crawlers and bandwidth is a great idea. Challenge with the latter would be managing it. Perhaps we need more enthusiasts to take up something like this - a parallel feed perhaps - what the BIG broadcasters miss (there was a lot of ranting here about the Chinese camera crew not shooting the opening ceremony well enough - demanding people eh!)
I had another thought which I thought I could share with you. Helping people learn the art of shooting and the joy of experiencing. Something like the recording basics, say "do not just look at the world through the lens". Or experience first, carry home later.
It might help people use their devices better.
Today the price of a gadget, the hard work involved in carrying the weight of it all the way to the mountain top, or expectations of people around makes people shoot more than see more. Perhaps there is a way for marketers of these devices to help people see more than just record. I do not want to sound preachy, but testimonials by leading (amateur) photographers or film makers could help people see more and cherish than just record and keep it in the lowest shelf of the chest of drawers or top shelf in the Godrej almirah.
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