plan for the end of the semester:
to have this piece, in its first iteration, fully completed and shown in a gallery.
1. top-view. begins with murky water projection on the floor.
2. water imagery rises on four walls.
3. water recedes to the floor, leaving ‘watermark’.
4. water continues to rise to different levels, leaving watermarks, then receding.
Txt version:
- visitors enter a darkened space, at least 4m in height
- there are ambient water noises, as well as audio excerpts in Indonesian from 8 collected “flood stories” – people in Jakarta recounting various experiences with recurrent flooding
- a projection from above casts an image of water across the floor
- projected graphic of water rises gradually to a certain point on all four walls, stops and leaves a “watermark” line before receding. Water then rises up again to different levels, continuously, each level marked by a “watermark”. These levels correspond to flood heights over time in Jakarta. The highest recorded in the flood stories is 4m, hence the height requirement.
I gots a vision..
This revamp is brought to you by the incongruity of walking-in-water with subtitled-video = prototype 1.
i’ve received a lot of helpful input over the past week – special thanks to alison cornyn, marina zurkow, georgia krantz, toby schachman, felisia tandiono and filipa tomaz. the nth iteration of my thesis now looks something like:
- eight projected videos on 4 walls, of people telling various stories of flooding in jakarta
- water is on the floor, at its highest 6-8 inches high. people wear vinyl shoe covers (provided, of course) to enter the space
- directional sound makes sure the videos’ audio doesn’t overlap, and also lets ambient water noise fade in and out
the website front page mockup looks like:
the prototype that i’ll set up this week looks like (vinyl shoe covers included):
the table with clothes refers to the girls’ story told in the video – a flood ghost comes and tidies up the clothes in the marching band room.
actively searching for a space.. and funding.. but first, have to get the concept fleshed out.
Week 5
- Prepare a written design treatment and implementation plan – approx. 5 pages
- Draw up simple mockup of website in journal
- Subtitling and After Effects work
- Continue collecting information for website
- Continue thesis reading
- Draft production schedule further
- Rapid prototyping – buy plexiglass container, use water, screen, cellophane, lamps, paper for “sensors”, chair, etc. Make first prototype
Week 6
- Prepare mid-semester presentation
- Collect information on Jakarta floods and collate, for website – final
- Make/edit opener
- Work on audio
- Work on code for sensors, video transitions
- Work on rising water effect
Week 7
- Preliminary project/prototype development – finish writing code for sensors, video transitions, water effect
Week 8
- Project/prototype development – put everything together
Week 9
- Project/prototype development – make website
Week 10
- Further develop all aspects of projects/prototypes
- Write a user-testing plan
- Write outline of publication-ready thesis paper
Week 11
- Write outline of publication-ready thesis paper
- Develop preliminary prototype demos and thesis presentation
- Prepare materials for Thesis Book double spread
- Project done, version 1
Week 12
- Consolidate written descriptions from class sessions 2-5 for process documentation and write 1st draft of publication-ready thesis paper
- Refine project
Week 13
- Finalize in-class presentation for guest critics
- Write 2nd draft of publication-ready thesis paper
- Refine project
- Final presentations
Week 14
- Final presentations
thesisey reading to-do list:
- catastrophe and culture: the anthropology of disaster
- waterworlds project at univ. of copenhagen
- BBC on learning to live with floods in bangladesh
- coverage of pakistan floods (various)
- narrating the storm: storytelling as a methodological approach to understanding hurricane katrina
- the politics of storytelling: violence, transgression, and intersubjectivity
- susann ullberg on the normalization and naturalization of recurring flood disaster in argentina
taking suggestions for any and all related films/books/installations etc. to check out.
visual representation of influences –> thesis
*experience – various photographs of floods in jakarta
*representation and documentary – storycorps’ 1972 elmira floods story collection; jeff howard’s “the figure 8″
*disaster – aernout’s mik work, particularly “refraction” and “middlemen”
*water and viscerality – olafur eliasson’s “notion motion” and bill viola’s “ocean without a shore”
*narrative and physicality – alice miceli’s “88 from 14,000″
deliberately chose black posterboard as the backdrop, since i envision the installation as being in a darkened space. also, cursive in white/grey is kind of something i do. 
on a friend’s recommendation, i went to see brazilian artist alice miceli’s piece at meulensteen gallery today, “88 from 14,000″. miceli taped video of 88 khmer rouge prisoners’ photos in turn, projecting their images onto falling sand – a kilogram of sand falls for each day the person is imprisoned. what struck me about the piece was the audio – rumbling noises reminiscent of a waterfall, going along with the impact of the volumes of sand. i think it serves well as inspiration for the audio of my thesis piece. however, it was pointed out to me that the tone of miceli’s work was exceedingly sombre. not exactly what i’m going for with all of the video pieces. all in all, i appreciated the aesthetic of “88″, though i would have much preferred to see the actual sand falling, giving more physicality to the experience.
Self-publishing a book has never been a sure bet. One needs the time, stamina, resources, technical and business knowhow and, yes, writing chops to ensure that all the hard work and hefty investments (up to tens of thousands of dollars) will pay off. Then there is the prestige of traditional publishing houses and, conversely, stigma against self-published books from bookstores and many mainstream media outlets, which refuse to review them.
It seems, however, that this landscape is one of myriad being changed significantly by the digital shift. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported two weeks ago that self-publishing in general is on the rise:
“Is it worth it? Apparently, it’s at least worth the risk. In 2007, about 134,000 books were self-published in the United States. In 2008, that rose to more than 285,000 and in 2009 soared to more than 764,000.
In contrast, traditional publishers produced about 288,000 books in 2009, almost stagnant from 289,000 the year before, according to the firm R.R. Bowker, which tracks the book industry.”
The article ties this to the bright new future of self-publishing books online. It is one of a crop of recent write-ups on the topic, from USA Today’s more superficial, rah-rah trend alert to more nuanced articles like the Star Tribune’s or the LA Times’.
The e-book is clearly rising in relation to its paper kin – according to the Association of American Publishers as cited by the LA Times,
“Digital book sales make up 9% of the overall market and are growing rapidly. During the first 10 months of this year, they reached $345 million, a 171% increase over the same period in 2009 … Print book sales dropped 23%, to just under $4 billion, in the same 10-month span.”
This, combined with the ease of production involved in reproducing works electronically, the widespread availability of a new mechanism with which to self-publish online – via channels such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, PubIt! from Barnes & Noble, and Lulu – and an increase in potential financial benefits as compared to going through traditional publishing houses seems to have sparked an increase in electronic self-publishing. With regards to opportunities for profit, the benefits of going online and solo are blatantly obvious, and a big incentive: “Authors typically get 10% to 25% of the proceeds of digital sales if they go through a publisher, compared with 40% to 70% if they self-publish” (LA Times).
It would be valuable to see upfront self-publishing statistics from Amazon et al, a research paper waiting to happen. From the articles cited, however, you can at least gauge the anecdotal mood of selected sources, and it appears to be thus: online self-publishers swear by the new developments, while staid publishing houses dismiss their obsolescence as “cocktail party sensationalism” (quote from a publisher in the LA Times). This view of traditional publishing is characterized by Gerri Knilans in Trade Press Services’ Trade Secrets blog as “just the kind of arrogance that let Netflix, Hulu and others put Blockbuster Video all but out of business.” That might be particularly true if a method for reader selection of books a la Pandora music service emerges (LA Times), diminishing big publishing’s marketing advantage.
Challenges remain to self-publishers, and it has been pointed out that the successful ones quoted in the media are largely already well-established, resource-ready and marketing-savvy. However, considering the confluence of trends noted above, I for one am betting on the new, online self-published kid to increase substantially in market share. Here are a few things I think may happen in the near future:
- More and larger forums available for information on self-publishing. This will encompass information-clearinghouses, peer-to-peer support groups, and other advice-giving platforms for would-be and current self-publishers, in formats from the Internet, TV, radio, and “physical world” institutions.
- Traditional media outlets will review self-published books. “The trade
journal Publishers Weekly recently decided ‘to embrace the self-publishing phenomenon.’ For a fee of $149, self-published authors get their books on a listing
that includes a description and ordering information. From this list, PW chooses 25
titles – ‘gems worthy of attention’ — for a full review” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).
- Positive feedback cycle: the more stigma against self-publishing books erodes via developments such as the two above, the more such developments will occur, contributing to an overall spike in people choosing to go online and self-publish.
Who knows? It may seem increasingly likely you’ll be reading an e-book on the subway by the writer sitting next to you.
Sources:
i’ve been keeping a paper journal in which i scribble, jot and generally work my way through questions pertaining to thesis. i won’t be scanning it nor writing down everything i’m working through, but you can see glimpses of the process in assignments posted here from thesis seminar and project development studio.
i love me some pen and paper.