residual media: instagram analysis
DESCRIPTION
Presentation for a graduate course on Residual Media (at the University of Waterloo), in which I analyzed Instagram through the lens of McLuhan's laws of media.TRANSCRIPT
CRITICAL MEDIA OBJECT:
ENGL 799 :: Residual Media :: Anne Galang
What is Instagram?
Photo and video sharing social networking serviceMobile app: iOS and AndroidLaunched: October 2010Acquired by Facebook: April 2012
How it works…
Take a photo on your mobile phoneApply filters to the photoShare to Instagram, Facebook, TumblrFollow others and be followedComment and “Like”http://instagram.com/#
Who is is using Instagram? Source: pcmag.com
“Capture and Share the World's Moments. Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends and family.”
Praise and criticism
“Instagram combines simple-to-apply photo and video effects with an addictive social network centered on pictures and video.”
– PC Mag
Praise and criticism
“Instagram is debasing real photography. [… F]ilters are the antithesis of creativity, and make all pictures look the same”
– The Guardian
Praise and criticism
What’s new about Instagram?What does it enhance? How does it mediate better?What does it obsolesce or push aside?
Feature Enhances… Pushes aside…
Smartphone camera app
Accessibility of photography Standalone camera (dedicated hardware)
Instagram photo filters
Photo manipulation Actual manipulation of ISO, aperture, shutter speed
PhotoShop and other photo editing software
Photo sharing Speed of publishingStorage limitReach of audience
Printing/UploadingPhysical photo albums
Social networking Sharing images with social networks
Text-based “status updates” or blog posts
What does Instagram retrieve?
VINTAGE ANALOGUE PHOTOGRAPHY
The Poloroid camera
“Vintage” filters…
but also…
Pre-alphabet: Chronicling events through images
Instagram: Chronicling events through images
Reversal potential
Technological reversal: Sociomatic – Concept for a physical Instagram camera
Meaning reversal: Loss of meaningful sharing of memories?
Pitfalls and potential
• The mundane on Instagram• Real art on Instagram:
– Banksy– Museum of Modern Art– Virtual Tourism
• Instagram as cultural database?
DISCUSSION
Possible discussion questions
•This week’s readings explores the end of print. Does Instagram obsolesce print photography? •Vilem Flusser, in his book Does writing have a future?, argues that the written word is losing it importance. Do you agree that photos/images other visual forms may replace the dominance of writing?•What are your thoughts on Instagram? Does this medium provide potential for authentic cultural production, or does it degrade photography?•How might use the data/information available in the massive repository of photos that Instagram generates in a study of culture?•How does Instagram frame our sense of time, place, and space? What about our sense of public vs. private spheres?•How does Instagram contribute to the idea of the “acceleration of history?”