The Database Turn
We no longer watch films or TV; we watch databases. Instead of well-defined programmes,
we search one list after another. We are no longer at the mercy of cranky reviewers and
mono-cultural multiplexes. What we run up against is the limitations of our own mental
capacity. Which search terms will yield the best fragments? What was that title again? Does
anyone know that director’s name? What was that band called? What category was it under? Does he know someone else with interesting tastes? Was that reference blogged anywhere?
Does she know the URL? Was it under pets or entertainment? Welcome to snack culture:
watch a clip and move on.
[...]
Time is the message
We must take database-watching seriously, not dismiss it as ‘consuming video clips’. Watching
videos online is something people occupy themselves with for hours – longer than the
average feature film’s 90 minutes. It is inherent in the interface that we keep going and going
and the clip chain continues forever. Allowing oneself to be led by an endlessly branching
database is the cultural constant of the early 21st century. The online dream trip must not
end. The brevity of many online videos does not detract from this. Their short-lived character
suits the meagre concentration people can muster for the average media product. Why watch
when we already know the message in advance and figure out which one it is within a few
seconds? Packed within a few minutes of video can be hours of material whose deeper meaning
viewers can spend years deciphering. Have fun decoding the images. But no one will ever
get around to that again. Time Is the Message: what we are consuming with online video is
our own lack of time. And in all our haste, we forget to click ‘clear viewing history’.
The Art of Watching Databases: Introduction to the Video Vortex Reader
-Geert Lovink
Quotations from the book "Video Vortex Reader: Responses to Youtube"
Edited by Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer
BOOK IS FULLY AVAILABLE HERE:
http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publications/inc-readers/videovortex/
We no longer watch films or TV; we watch databases. Instead of well-defined programmes,
we search one list after another. We are no longer at the mercy of cranky reviewers and
mono-cultural multiplexes. What we run up against is the limitations of our own mental
capacity. Which search terms will yield the best fragments? What was that title again? Does
anyone know that director’s name? What was that band called? What category was it under? Does he know someone else with interesting tastes? Was that reference blogged anywhere?
Does she know the URL? Was it under pets or entertainment? Welcome to snack culture:
watch a clip and move on.
[...]
Time is the message
We must take database-watching seriously, not dismiss it as ‘consuming video clips’. Watching
videos online is something people occupy themselves with for hours – longer than the
average feature film’s 90 minutes. It is inherent in the interface that we keep going and going
and the clip chain continues forever. Allowing oneself to be led by an endlessly branching
database is the cultural constant of the early 21st century. The online dream trip must not
end. The brevity of many online videos does not detract from this. Their short-lived character
suits the meagre concentration people can muster for the average media product. Why watch
when we already know the message in advance and figure out which one it is within a few
seconds? Packed within a few minutes of video can be hours of material whose deeper meaning
viewers can spend years deciphering. Have fun decoding the images. But no one will ever
get around to that again. Time Is the Message: what we are consuming with online video is
our own lack of time. And in all our haste, we forget to click ‘clear viewing history’.
The Art of Watching Databases: Introduction to the Video Vortex Reader
-Geert Lovink
Quotations from the book "Video Vortex Reader: Responses to Youtube"
Edited by Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer
BOOK IS FULLY AVAILABLE HERE:
http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publications/inc-readers/videovortex/
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