TimelineJS
Here’s a nifty tool that can help you create visual Timelines.
It’s called TimelineJS and was created by Northwestern University’s Knight Lab. Check it out.
Marriage Equality Mashup
Our nation has grown and changed considerably since the Constitution was pinned and while the wording in the original founding documents spoke of equality and freedom for all, all but a handful of elite groups have had to fight for their own personal freedoms in one way or another. Throughout our history, humans were once owned and traded as property, women refused the right to vote or earn a comprable rate of pay, Asians rounded up in camps and African Americans treated as second-class citizens behind the rouse of a ‘separate but equal’ mantra. Countless minority groups have suffered discrimination at the hands of the majority, each forced into action to enact change.The most recent group beginning the fight for their rights are the LGBT community.
Homosexuality was once thought of as a disease that one could catch, and consequently, be cured of. While most of these theories have been debunked, there still remains widespread discrimination against the group. The majority of states ban gay marriage, and many religious groups view same-sex relationships as immoral.
Recent national events have shown that public sentiment is beginning to turn. In the last election cycle, Washington, Maine and Maryland voters approved marriage of same-sex couples while Minnesota became the first state to reject a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. California’s controversial Proposition 8, which also bans same-sex marriage, recently received a second judge’s ruling that the law was unconstitutional.
While I am heterosexual, I feel compelled to speak out on behalf of some of my friends, coworkers, and fellow Americans to help break down the barriers of social injustice, intolerance and ignorance. The arc of history slowly bends towards equality, and sexual orientation should be treated no differently than race, color, creed, or sex.
Here is my mashup video that begins with some of the hate and fear out there and ends with a plea for marriage equality for all and to maintain the separation of church and state. The clip uses news footage, signs from rallies and a strange public service announcement from the 1950s. The music was used by permission from James Roy.
The Storm. Is. Coming.
An analysis of a 2009 political parody by Funny or Die titled “A Gaythering Storm“, which mocked the National Organization for Marriage’s TV Ad – “A Gathering Storm.“
In 2009 the National Organization for Marriage, or NOM, launched a $1.5 million campaign to “protect marriage and religious liberty throughout the nation.” Part of that campaign was a 60 second ad titled “A Gathering Storm” which uses a thunderstorm as a metaphor for the rise of acceptance for gay marriage in the US. NOM was founded in 2007 and is primarily a lobbying group based in Washington, D.C. Co-founder Maggie Gallagher has written several books on marriage and advocates for the formal definition to be between one man and one woman. The group has been credited with raising money that lead to the successful passage of Proposition 8 in California, which may soon be debated by the Supreme Court, as well as ballot measures in other states – including the recently defeated measure on the Minnesota ballot. In the ad, actors stand in a ‘lightening storm’ and speak with solemn faces directly at the camera. The actors give several specific examples of events that have occurred in states where same-sex marriages have been allowed that NOM says are infringing on the freedoms of faith-based organizations and people.
In response to the ad, several parodies were made, but none had close to the number of views as Funny or Die’s “A Gaythering Storm.” Funny Or Die was created by Gary Sanchez Productions, which includes actors Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy. The company is a mixture of user generated content as well as exclusively produced videos using celebrities and established or up-and-coming comedians. With over 200 million video views on YouTube, the group’s videos are among the most popular. Funny or Die has no stated agenda on their website, but their political videos do tend to skew towards the liberal side. Co-founder Will Ferrell produced a video just before the election advocating for the re-election of President Obama. “A Gaythering Storm” uses roughly the same background and filming techniques and follows a similar pace as the original NOM ad. Throughout the parody, the actors repeat most of the original script while adding color commentary.
“Gaythering” and its accompanying website, giantgayrepellentumbrella.com, were released in April of 2009. The video has been viewed over 1.3 million times making it one of the more popular videos on Funny or Die’s website.
Critical Analysis
Political Satire and the Parody Idiom
Gaythering is a form of political satire and uses parody as the main idiom for the message. A political satire often uses ridicule and shame in an attempt to change individuals or society. The use of satire to evoke social change or bring awareness to issues is not a new concept. In fact, Most satire is done comedically, as is the case of this video. Satire often uses wit and sarcasm though the art of parody. A parody is used to imitate a work though mockery. Through imitation, a parody works to make the original work trivial and in the case of political satire, works counter to the original meaning of the imitated message.
The parody idiom is a broad category, from political cartoons to full-feature movies.
A political Cartoon parody that creates a different meaning from a famous image (A revolutionary war flag)
Wag the Dog was a movie that some speculate was a parody of the actions by real life George W. Bush and the lead up to the Iraqi War.
Gaythering can be classified as a political parody in a couple of ways. First, the video’s main goal is to make a mockery of the original video that associated gay marriage to a weather phenomenon. Taking the “gay storm” literally, at one point in the video, it begins to “rain gays.” When the literal words are used, but given different meanings, this is what French literary theorist Gérard Genette calls a minimal parody.
Following the gay storm concept literally, Funny or Die uses the imagery of gays raining down from the sky as a bit of political satire.
The video can be classified as belonging to the political parody idiom also because it has a political message with a call to action against the original message. The video’s introduction paragraph reads:
There is a storm being caused by gay marriage and we are all in serious trouble. This is a parody of NOM’s Anti-Gay Marriage PSA. Watch the original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp76ly2_NoI&e and then contribute to equal rights at http://www.hrc.org
By having the call to action “contribute to equal rights at http://www.hrc.org,” the video’s intention of ridiculing and creating humor to enact change are clear. HRC stands for the human rights campaign, one of the largest pro-gay marriage organizations in the US, and acts as the counterbalance to NOM’s efforts.
Copyright Considerations
Under the current copyright laws, this parody would fall within the Fair Use category. According to Section 107 of the Copyright Act, fair use for the purposes of criticism or comment is not an infringement of copyright. Furthermore, the video does not directly use any of the original content, but rather, uses a the language and overall concept of the original.
Filming/Photography Technique: Layering
While we don’t often think of video and photography in the same category, videos are a series of photographs strung together. In Scott Stuckey’s “National Geographic Compete Photography,” (p 104) the concept of layering is discussed. Layering is used to build substance and express meaning. The parody uses layering in a couple of ways. For the foreground, we have series of close-ups to give focal weight to the subject that is talking. In the middle layers, the authors use secondary characters to both support the subject that is talking as well as give a sense of scale to an otherwise surreal landscape. In the background are the storm clouds that provides the context.
The concept of layering is used to provide a subject in the foreground, supporting elements in the middle and context by the storm in the background.
Word to Picture Relationships: Word Specific
In his book, “Understanding Comics,” Scott McCloud defines the different ways that words and pictures can interact to tell a story. In Gaythering, many of the scenes would be considered Word Specific. Word Specific refers to the use of pictures to illustrate, but does not significantly add to the meaning of the message (p. 153). In one of the opening scenes, the actor uses the spoken word to describe the scene behind him. The images in the scene itself are illustrative and adds little to the significant meaning of the words.
In word-specific relationships, words convey the message without the aid of images. Here, the actor tells the audience: “That’s why there’s these clouds behind me. They represent a storm that’s gathering.”
Content Analysis
The content of the video has a fairly straightforward agenda – to mock the original NOM video while advocating for marriage equality. The video uses sarcasm and literalism to attack the notion that gay marriage is becoming a threat to the heterosexual way of life. The use of humor through parody to promote and sell the opposing viewpoint to the public can be just as powerful as a direct, less subtle rebuttal.
In her 2010 Ted Talk, “Drawing on Humor for Change,” Liza Donnelly suggests if you don’t like the rules, use humor to change them. Satirical humor so often takes what we know and twists it – eliciting a laugh. Her primary medium is the political cartoon, but the concept can be applied to the Gaythering video as well. Gaythering takes what we know − storms and umbrellas, and mocks the NOM video by drawing attention to the over-hyped nature of the argument. On some level, the NOM video was an attempt to turn the table on who is the victim – the LGBT community or the heterosexual community. Proportionately, the LGBT community have been victims of bullying and hate crimes far more than faith-based organizations and individuals who stand for the definition of marriage to remain between man and woman. Any suggestion otherwise is met with skepticism and doubt, which is why the parody works so well.
In the book, “The Medium is the Massage,” Marshall McLuhan talks of the information war and how it is being fought constantly though subtle electronic forms of media (p. 138). While the original meaning was in reference to the cold war, his message remains relevant today and in the context of the content of this video. During the last election, the LGBT community made up only 5% of the total electorate, but in Maryland, Washington and Maine they won the right to marry and for the first time ever defeated a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (Minnesota). For the 5% to stand alone and win any majority vote would not be possible without the support of groups of people beyond their own. The public opinion polls have shown a steady increase in acceptance of gay marriage over the past decade leading to Obama endorsing the idea and the Democratic Party adopting the acceptance of gay marriage as part of their platform. Ten years ago, this acknowledgement would have been political suicide. The newfound acceptance is a least in part due to videos like Gaythering.
The original video has a little more than 1.3 million views on YouTube. Perhaps what makes it so unique and an easy target for political parody are the underlying claims made by NOM that heterosexual, faith-based people are the real victims and not the LGBT community. To the outside observer, it would be difficult to draw that conclusion given that the vast majority of states still ban same-sex marriage while the freedom to marry heterosexual couples remains legal in all states.
For reference, here is the original NOM video:
Political satire such as Gaythering have helped turn the tide of public opinion. Moral shifts in individuals rarely occur overnight and are often preceded by the general public’s opinion shifting first. It would be impossible to tease out the specific impact of this video on public opinion towards marriage equality, but if more than 1.3 million views and the recent ballot wins are any indication, there is at least a strong correlation between the two.
Romney remix
With the elections less than a week away, I thought it was fitting to highlight this video about Mitt Romney. For the sake of fairness, The artist did a video of Obama’s “You didn’t build that” comment as well, but this one about Romney not only was more popular and funnier.
This video takes cuts from news footage, political commentary, speeches and debates from the primary election season earlier this year. Since the video was made in March, many of Romney’s latest gaffs – the 47%, Big Bird and Binders full of Women are missing. The artist, Hugh Atkin is an Australian lawyer believe it or not and is also known for the political videos he made during the 2008 campaign where McCain was Rickrolled by Obama.
From a formal analysis standpoint, I love the retro feel of the old school TV and I don’t remember the last time I heard the “chhhhhhhk” sound when I switched the channel, so maybe the artist is drawing on the past to build the future. Most of the clips play out in the word specific model where the images matter little, except to provide a face for the secondary voices. The notable exception to this rule comes at the end where there is a bit of iconic imagery with the ‘many’ Romney’s feeling the screen as an example of duo-specific word/picture relationship. The duo-specific relationship of those images add weight to the central theme that no-one really knows who the real Mitt Romney really is.
The story moves along in a series of scene-to-scene transitions. By the nature of the video – capturing words out of context, the scenes are edited with quick cuts and leave the viewer to deduce the references being made.
In terms of content, the artist is trying to show how Romney changes positions all the time, also know in the political vernacular as “flip-flopping,” or as Obama likes to say, he’s lying. Thanks to Romney being in the spotlight all the time, there is plenty of footage of his positions both previously and current and this video does a decent job of picking a few of those moments. One interesting thing to note is that most of the points made have little to do with actual policy decisions, but then again, the video was made to inject humor and highlight gaffs so the absence of real substance is understandable.
Bill Gates Photomontage: Charis Tsevis
Creating a montage is a skill generally associated with grade school. Using nothing more than a pair of scissors, a bottle of Elmer’s glue, some construction paper and our budding imagination, we created masterpieces that would hang proudly on the kitchen fridge. For most of us, this was the end of our exploration into this art form. For others, like Charis Tsevis, he took this simplified artform, digitized the process, and instead of glue and construction paper, we have cropping and digital images. Above is his take on Bill Gates, the ‘iconic’ founder of Microsoft. For the project Tsevis used the standard icon sets that came on four of the first five Windows operating systems to recreate a specific pose of Bill Gates from the photo below.
I find the work to be a contemporary take on the Dadaist tradition of the photomontage. The artist uses a combination of images, in this case icons, to create shape and give the collection an entirely new meaning.
Tsevis’ use of icons is also meant to symbolize Bill Gate’s status as an iconic figure, not only in technology, but the whole world knows who he is. Another thing I found interesting was why Tsevis uses icons to depict Bill Gates. Gates is an icon in one sense of the word so it is only fitting that the photos he uses are abstract icons.
Tsevis also makes it a point on his website to say he is not a huge Bill Gates fan, but adds this poignant quote:
I think it’s fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we’ve ever created. They’re tools of communication, they’re tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.
— Bill Gates
As we begin our study of McLuhan, I could not help but think how fitting this quote is. We have taken the medium, the personal computer, and made it an extension of ourselves, shaping it and using it to create our messages.
For my response to the Remix Nation, I thought I would pull up my previous post I did as part of an essay on the subject. Larry Lessig has become someone who I admire a great deal and also has a few parts in the movie.
In my field, I think that we can see the future building on the past a great deal. Early on in software development and programming, the concept of “open source” was introduced. Since the “past” is “free” the future is inherently freer than in other industries. Literally millions of scripts, graphic designs, themes (including this one) are all offered for free. We can then manipulate them to meet either our personal needs, or that of the client. Even applications begin with a framework from which to build upon. Ultimately, this fosters a sense of community that instead of hiding proprietary secrets, shares what they have discovered which results in better products in future iterations.
Anyways, here is an expanded analysis of the “remixer’s manifesto”
I mentioned in my vlog about procedural rhetoric that YouTube (and really, all the social media tools) gives us a voice that has been missing in public policy for a long time. Not since the days of the Greek Polis have citizens had the potential to have such an active voice in policy decisions. We live in a changing world. We are no longer just consumers of media, we are also creators (thus the inspiration for the title of this blog).
With such a shift of power emerging, it is important for us to not only be aware of it, but to fight to protect it. Thus the remixers manifesto’s four basic principles can be applied:
1. Culture always builds on the past
2. The past always tries to control the future
3. Our future is becoming less free
4. To build free societies, you must limit the control of…
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Photo Essay
Homeless in Fargo
For my photo essay, I decided to chronicle the plight of the homeless here in the Fargo-Moorhead area. After visiting a couple of local shelters and interviewing a handful of people who were nice enough to speak with me, I quickly realized that its a diverse bunch. Two stats that stick with me the most: Nearly 1 in 5 homeless persons are children, and a third of all homeless are veterans.
Given the sensitive nature, the project proved to be a little harder to pull of then I had originally thought.
Since WordPress.com doesn’t have a photo gallery widget, I decided to make my own and host it on the NDSU server here:
http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~bedsaul/PhotoEssay/homeless.html
Let me know what you think!
Photo Essay Topic
Homeless in Fargo
I plan on doing my essay on the homeless in Fargo. My hope with doing this project is to break stereotypes of who homeless people are, why they are there and what led them to a state of homelessness.
Visual aids:
Images of families children? Silhouette style if there are privacy concerns
Images of facilities and places to go in town
Black and White or greyscale
Stark, yet hopeful (if possible)
Dim light
Words:
Statistics on homeless in Fargo/ND along with stories of families – how they got here, what happened. Working or looking for work.
Research:
Call the homeless shelters for information or police stats.
Get an idea of where to go and what time.
Visit shelters to find people as well as photo ideas.
Light photos
Here are a few shots of the IACC I took today. I didn’t see the contrasting shots we normally get between mid-day and the magical hours because of cloud cover but there still ended up being some contrast in the shots.
Composition Rules
I enjoy taking photos, but I will be the first to admit I am not as good as my wife. With a large repository of photos from our trip, I thought this assignment would be a good time to share a few with the class. Here are a few:
Bagan, Myanmar. This could be two – the balloons give us a sense of scale while the balloons and temples carve out some negative space from the dawning sky.
Girl at the Mewar Festival in Udaipur, India. Use of color and rule of thirds.
A woman visits a mobile clinic in rural India. She is the focal point while the boy over her shoulder draws the viewer back to her.
Giant Tortoise in the Galapagos Islands. Example of a close-up shot.
The Treasury of Petra, Jordan. Good example of scope of scale with the people as well as framing the shot of the temple with the rock opening.
Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Israel. Good use of framing.
Diving with sea turtles at Sipidan in Malaysia. Good example of layering with the turtle up front, school of barracuda in the back.
Rice terraces of southern China. Good use of pattern and texture.
Iguazu Falls in Argentina/Brazil. Use of Horizontal Line.
Machu Picchu, Peru. Rule of thirds as well as layers with the temple in the lower/left third and the mountain in the upper/right third.
Manual ferris wheel in Myanmar. Out of focus and blurry, so it must be breaking the rules.
Great Wall of China. About the longest “leading line” in the world. Also has a bit of sense of scale with the ant-size people walking.
Barichara, Columbia. Point of View from below, shooting up towards the sky and the church facade in the background.
Image Culture ☺ 