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<big>Greetings,<br>
<br>
This brief video, </big><big> <a
href="http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/vv-reader">Dr.
Strangelove's Edit,</a></big><big> brings together a number of
my responses to the new, exciting, and very significant <a
href="http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/vv-reader">Video
Vortex Reader II</a>: Moving Images Beyond YouTube.<br>
<br>
In the video I play the role of <i>enfant terrible</i> and take
up a contrarian stance to some of the claims' made by the text's
authors. One should keep in mind that I also agree with many of
the authors' claims, and the text is filled with significance and
insight. It is destined to become a key text for the study of
online video.<br>
<br>
My video is intended to act as a conceptual remix of the VV
Reader, in much the same way as music videos are reedited and
added to a video mashup by music fans. I am a fan of the text and
this is my amateur fan art, or fan amateur art, or art fan
amateur.<br>
<br>
The text of <a
href="http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/vv-reader">Dr.
Strangelove's Edit</a> reads as follows:<br>
<br>
There is incredible evidence of quality on YouTube<br>
It is liberating us from the control of commercial television and
state-sponsored moving images.<br>
The viewer of online moving images is never completely passive.<br>
The appearance of new media continues to shape our situation.<br>
Much has changed and there is much change ahead.<br>
All media use is social.<br>
The history and theory of cinema is not the key conceptual lens
through which to look at new media.<br>
Commercial forms of moving images must now share considerable
mindspace with user generated culture.<br>
YouTube is a hotbed of innovative aesthetics.<br>
YouTube is a centre of innovation in culture and style.<br>
It is a mistake to think that online video is transforming active
citizens into passive spectators.<br>
Online video is a centre of political and social activism and
collective action.<br>
Online video both enhances and degrades the authentic. <br>
It is neither completely the one nor the other.<br>
Online interaction, online video, is always connected to the
offline world.<br>
There is no barrier between the two.<br>
We live with our feet in both worlds at the same time.<br>
There is no shortage of ideological debates taking place through
online video.<br>
There is no shortage of collective responses being engendered
through online video.<br>
Online video is a collective, ideological, phenomenon, as much as
offline action is or is not.<br>
The Internet medium does not prevent us from putting two and two
together.<br>
The Internet helps us to make connections between ideas, between
peoples, and between individuals.<br>
The Internet community does not constitute and blind mob.<br>
Although it is clear that intellectuals have trouble seeing
clearly.<br>
Online video does not interfere with our ability to reflect
properly and respond accurately.<br>
There is genuine collective response from the online community.<br>
The activist potential is enhanced by online video.<br>
It is ridiculous to claim that the amateur image has completely
lost its status as documentary.<br>
It is exceedingly arrogant to claim that the Internet as a medium
is more interesting than most of its content.<br>
Massive usage is an indication of relevance.<br>
<br>
Seven days to VV #6!<br>
<br>
Dr. Strangelove<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.strangelove.com">www.strangelove.com</a><br>
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