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Authoritative Hypertextual Video
Although the authority of the author is prevalent in all parts of the conceptualisation, selection, presentation and interpretation of the work, there is the less authoritative section (the local section) where the user can view
the entire unedited video footage. This is a common ethnographic approach and reveals how I have later indexed the video into the four analytical categories.
The Internet does not rely on the same time based parameters of broadcast mediums, meaning that a program started at 7.00PM does not have to end at 8.00PM. There was no need to cut the video footage because the user has complete
control over the beginning and end times; has repeated access; and can start the video at various points. To cut the video would perhaps even remove some of its historical worth as an intact archival resource.
The close analysis of the film provided by the four categories is part of the overall interpretative argument of Milkbar.com.au. I have utilised the potential of the SMAFE engine in this project as an applied analysis engine. This is not analysis in the
traditional sense where the historical artefact is separate to contextual (codex based) writings about the artefact. The SMAFE engine itself forms part of the (meta) interpretation of the artefact.
The (meta) authority that I have provided over the material is within a broad set of (interactive) controlling parameters. This is in concurrence with many of the claims of hypertext theorists who assert that the division between author and user is blurred in
a hypertextual work. Thus the user becomes in part ‘author’.
The authority enforced by the creators of a hypertext work can be less controlling than the sequential reading that the book ensues. A user can, if the ‘authors’ allow, experience a hypertext project within a broader set of parameters
than those permitted by the printed book.
In Milkbar.com.au when the user clicks on one of the four categories of globalisation, a number of different people will appear who talk about Fitzroy. The user can view the interviews in any sequence and from within
any category (and even combine each category). The user becomes in part the inquisitive Historian, searching for themes, contradictions, and evidence to support the initial thesis.
History is an ill-structured domain but if the Historian did not attempt to structure the past into some sort of narrative form, then there would be few ways to understand it. In this work, ‘the narrative’ is in part dependent on how the user interacts with it through the faces that they click on. The SMAFE engine in turn,
generates four separate historical narratives of various individuals speaking about Fitzroy.
It does not champion one voice, nor does it unduly demonstrate that historical knowledge is advanced simplistically. I have recorded and provided the historical information, then applied a structure to understand this
information. The user is encouraged to view the interviews from a number of perspectives and then make their own narrative connections between them.
[History]…entails more than a simple familiarity with important facts and concepts; it involves being able to conceptualise historical events from multiple perspectives and to relate a myriad of seemingly diverse historical data within
such perspectives. Historical thinking is an understanding of human situations and the complex web of relationships embedded in them.
When using oral-history evidence, Historians must understand both the opinions expressed by those telling the stories and the larger contextual structures. A common misconception about history is that witnesses have the most
privileged perspective. This is only partly true, as it is the Historian who later has to assemble the confusing, chaotic and contradictory accounts into some form of narrative explanation.
The
SMAFE engine provides a broad structure for the user to view
some of the contradictions, boundaries, and reoccurring themes
of life within an inner city Australia community. I admit that
this is a rudimentary and fragmented skeletal structure, but
these are still early days in the application (and conceptualisation)
of new technologies to historical tasks. We can either conjure
up ‘blue sky’ technological solutions and make imperious and
inept judgements from the comfort of the codex, or we can learn
to critically apply and understand the new technologies that
we actually have at our disposal. more>>
Authored
by Craig Bellamy© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
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