Final thoughts….

One of the biggest achievements I feel from having completed my first Dreamweaver website is in how the narrative works. This was the first time I closely considered narrative in a virtual, non-linear setting. Sure, I’ve had to set up plenty of blogs through a media degree, but I don’t think I ever had to think about how everything was connecting to everything else. Blogs tend to be a bit wonderful in the way they’re already formated and set up for you, so you just need to plop in content and Bob’s your uncle.

For the Modern Primitives website, I spent a long time deciding how it was all to be organised. Building a website right from scratch, I have found, is quite demanding and complicated. I didn’t want to have all the pages right up front, instantly clickable. I chose to be a bit more demure in how I presented my content, letting people discover more should they choose to. That’s an Internet characteristic, is it not?

I’ve had a gander at my site map, and to a certain extent I’m a bit disappointed that it’s not at all indicative of my linking efforts. I. spent. ages. figuring out how all the pages would somehow link to each other. One section leads to another which leads to another which might get you back where you came from or stick you in another website. Who knows. But it’s not knowing that’s the point, it’s having those paths there.

I remember reading an article by the brilliantly obscure Brian Massumi, in which he details a theory on what the virtual is. In a nutshell, the virtual is everything that isn’t. It’s the name your parents might have called you, it’s a door that you didn’t forget to lock, it’s every single direction you are physically able to move in after you’ve read this. Virtually anything can happen in the next 5 minutes, but general patterns and happenstances and what not usually means the next 5 minutes is somewhat predictable.

And so we come to the virtual world of the Internet. It’s not about points or hubs or sites, it’s about relationships. It’s about how you get from one place to another and having that option or chance. On that note, Internet users ultimately create their own narrative. My biggest job was to be sure the journey always runs smoothly.

HOORAY!

View complete Modern Primitives website:

HAZZAH!

Remediation

Ah, that classic gem of postmodern technological society.

remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation remediation

I always think of remediation in terms of postmodern art. Martin Arnold is an Austrian film artist who is known for his remediation and reappropriation of 1950’s American popular television content. He takes clips several seconds in duration and edits them in such a way that they then may last up to 10 minutes. Repeats, slowing down some parts, quickening them in others, more and more repeats. In what he does, he destroys the original narrative. A few seconds of footage taken entirely out of context and extensively manipulated. What is interesting in some of his works is how he creates his own narrative. We can wonder about issues of authorship in the face of remediation. It’s not exactly his footage, other people entirely produced that piece of film. Martin Arnold seems to prove that you can have authorship and own narrative despite remediation.

Transcript for introduction video

The modern primitives; people in developed nations engaging in older practices, rituals, rites of passage. Activities seen as primitive and often related to body modification. So what are the modern primitives doing? Corsetry, tattooing, piercing, scarification, branding, cutting and body suspensions. In the past it was about group identity, it is not so different now. These rituals are often viewed as a kind of stigma, but these traditions have a rich cultural history. And they are becoming more widespread in the developed world through the modern primitives.

Introduction Video

Introduction

This weblog is an online documentation of suspension culture. Traditionally a Native American rite of passage, the ritual has been appropriated by contemporary body modification culture. Reasons for engaging in this activity is as varied and unique as the people involved. From spiritual to adrenaline-junkie motives, suspending is an intense and extreme ritual that may have profound effects on participants.

Through this documentary I hope to clarify to the public what suspension rituals indeed are as well as offer and encourage personal reflection and public discussion on why people choose to suspend.

Typical documentaries on suspending are successful at perpetuating the shock value, continuing the stigma surrounding suspendees (those who physically suspend) and suspenders (those who facilitate suspensions) alike. It is important, therefor, to allow a demystification of the subject to balance representation of suspension culture.

So what gives me authority on the subject? Firstly, it is a ritual I’m involved in myself. This is a 3 minute digitale I created in October 2007 that introduces my own reflections on why I choose to suspend.

Obviously…

Pwaoh-waoh. I’m in Dreamweaver trying to do some of the tutorials. I haven’t thought about all my content and have been tossing up over design layout for ages. It’s difficult to come into Dreamweaver and try to make my site without already having everything to go into it. I need to stop trying to get my head around technicalities and should begin writing up (perfectly, ready for publication) all my different pages.

So what do I have so far?

• introduction video
• suspension digitale
• radio interview
• web links
• pictures

What do I need to have written?

• written introduction to site – define modern primitive, explain focus on suspensions
• information about suspensions – what is, links, suspension teams etc
• information about the website? – should be self-explanatory
• COMMUNITY – built around suspensions
• ritual (ModBlog, community)
• spiritual (emotional and  physical)
• fetish (ties to bondage, possibly)
• performance art (Stelarc, my own videos inspired by suspensions)

And so all that to be done, then give layout design more thought, then see what I can do on Dreamweaver. Funky.