04
- May
2006
Posted By : Adrian Chan
Content and its discontents

I’m not content with the contents of the content here, and that’ not said just for the sake of discontent. But to be honest, I’m having trouble with video
content. Writing, we all get. Audio, well it accrues sentimentality, and personal memory and recollection over time.

Aside: Music is personal, and isn’t that one of the reasons that playback control is so important? Streaming music is background music, music for airports, or films, or workspaces. Music you play, and songs you skip forward to–that’s music you know. If you know what you want to hear, you know what you want to hear again.

Video, I like to show. So for a few days after finding something funny I might show it to friends, email or link them to the clip for shits and giggles. And this is weird, but I don’t have as much interest watching something over and over unless there’s somebody else here with me. With my favorite music, it’s the opposite. I don’t really want to be interrupted or distracted if I’m listening to my favorite track.

Video may be a more viral phenomenon, may be more communicable than audio as an attachment, object, or token of trade. But over time, I have to wonder, will the clip fade away, as did the home video craze that began with the hand-held video camcorder? When’s the last time you shot a video at Thanksgiving dinner?

Is it possible we’re excited by new means of distribution, and that our fundamental relationship to the content is the same as it ever was? Do we want more video, in more ways, in more places, at more times?

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