Reading Response #3

I decided to respond to Kenny Cuper’s article, “Walking As Do-It Yourself Urbanism,” because I was fascinated by the project that was discussed by Cuper in this article. Cuper’s project consisted of three parts; a photographic essay, an urban intervention and a website to illustrate the “breathing spaces” of London, England. The photographic essay constituted an investigation through walking, much like the practices of Film 116 and our drifts, to find unique places of London Cuper refers to as “breathing spaces,” that could potentially provide an urban walker a place for him or her to chill-out.

The project functioned as such: Cuper would trek all throughout London to find these unique places, or “breathing spaces,” not often seen by the public and photograph them. Cuper then would turn these photographs into post cards and would distribute them on buses, subways, sidewalks, and coffee shops. This is where the “urban intervention” came in. On the back of these postcards were directions to help the individual find the exotic location of the photograph on the front. Also written on the back of these cards was a website, wheredoyoubreath.net, which was part of goal three of this project. The website contained an interactive map located a series of urban spaces accompanied with an image and a short description of the area. The website also encouraged visitors to include their own favorite locations of the city within the map and share an image and description of their own. This website allowed visitors to see each others own walking experiences.

Cuper did this to answer questions such as “in what ways are people stimulated to see urban space in alternative ways?” and “Can a city be transformed by imagination by looking at it or by walking it?”

This project is extremely relevant towards the projects conducted in this class because it encourages people to look at an urban environment differently, and to find nooks and crannies that often go overlooked within a crowded and clustered urban environment.

Video Hardware/Software Response

1. How was your experience with the Olympus digital camera?
My experience with the camera went very smoothly. I never had any difficulties operating the camera and it did not prevent me from completing this project in any way.

How did it compare with other still or video cameras you have previously used?
In terms of capturing still imagery it was no different than past cameras I have used. As a video camera it was much smaller than the ones I have used in the past and seemed to have all the capabilities of other digital video cameras I have used before.

Were you able to successfully implement your Image Capturing Strategies using the features of this camera?
Yes, the camera did not prevent me from achieving my image capturing strategy in anyway.

In an ideal world, how would your still/video camera of choice function?
For this type of project, I would say that the still/video camera we were provided with was the ideal type. It was small, portable, and very easy to work with.

2. Discuss your choice of video-editing software and describe your history with this software. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental).
For this project I chose to use the old iMovie application to edit my imagery. I did not use the new, updated version because it is absent of special effects and transition elements. I chose the old iMovie over other applications because I was extremely familiar with it. I have used the application in nearly all of my other video projects from the past and was well aware of its capabilities and functions. My familiarity with the application allowed me to freely accomplish my creative goals as there were no problems that created frustration.

Will you use this software again for future projects?
Yes, I will most definitely use this software again. Until I have an opportunity to try out an application such as Quicktime Pro for free, I will continue to use the old iMovie, as it is reliable, free, and friendly to me, before I make an investment with software such as Quicktime Pro.