vog (a BETA videoblog)

This was filmed on a domestic still video camera using its video function. Low data and frame rate MPEG4 (before H.264). The material is from a pretty good day walk in the Brisbane Ranges, Anna and I went with Sean Cubitt and Jeremy Yuille. It uses text tracks (two different ones), one of which provides a bit of textual commentary on the video, the other providing some theoretical commentary in response to something Jay Dedman had posted on the videoblogging list (or possibly his blog) in response to my raving about links in videos. This vog was a quick and dirty example of text links in video. It also continues my interest in low fi and high compression video, playing as it does with low data rates as well as deliberately dropping the frame rate down to make it staccato. Finally, it also keeps up the running effort to put text and video together as two different semiotic orders or economies. Video is not a replacement for text, and text is not a replacement for video (there was a lot of chatter on the videobloging list around this time about how video was just better than text and would somehow replace text). They are different, say and do different things, and when you bring them together you can achieve interesting things. Particularly if you don't let one merely serve as the patron, parasite or minor partner to the other.

I made a second version of this video which is identical, expect for two sprite tracks that toggle the visibility of the text tracks.