Video Vortex Reader II: moving images beyond YouTube

212 Video Vortex Reader II Moving Images Beyond Youtubetechnological approaches213Clay Shirky’s presentation at the 2005 Long Now conference 8 discussed ‘degenerate’ systemsof classification and archiving: systems with a high level of redundancy, or overlap.Shirky offered the example of a city as a highly degenerate system. Rather than having onearea for residents and one for business, people can work and live in a number of differentareas. This means the city can accommodate the preferences of different people, and is resilientto re-zoning and other geographic changes. A second example offered by Shirky is theRosetta Stone, which was discovered in 1799. As the stone has the same text written in threedifferent languages, it possesses a degree of redundancy that eventually made it possible torecover the lost languages.My own example, online video, possesses more degeneracy than it can handle. WhileYouTube has become the generic brand of online video, droves of video hosting sites caterto similar but overlapping groups of users. This degeneracy creates cultural artifacts that arethemselves worthy of preservation and consideration. Why does a user choose one site overanother?These sites have numerous identical or similar features, functions and design elements thatbind them together as a genre. Each, however, is the product of a complex negotiation ofsocial, cultural and technological influences. In a work entitled Here Comes Everybody 9 ,Shirky describes three factors at play: a ‘plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptablebargain for the user’. These terms — promise, tool, and bargain— used in the context ofvideo are not necessarily the most authentic to his original coinage, but will be used throughoutthis essay (though not in that order) as they are useful in identifying the differences andsimilarities between online video sharing systems, between disparate platforms.As Sean Cubitt has pointed out, ‘there is no exchange of moving pictures without standardisationof the codecs on which the various proprietary players can function’. 10 Such isthe importance of the video sharing service as a tool. Subtle technical differences in codec,scripting, and resolution can have enormous implications for the unique possibilities of aplatform, and can have significant political implications. The users of X platform expect theconvenience offered by Y platform. Because codec specifications are connected to many differentorganizations, each with their own agenda, they cannot be ignored in this discussion.And yet, because the impact of proprietary codecs are for the most part ignored by the userbase of most sites, codecs only become involved in the negotiation between the user and thesite when they are part of the underpinning of the community, such as with EngageMedia, avideo sharing organization and website that is specifically devoted to social and environmentalchange. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the recent divide that has emergedbetween HTML5 and Adobe Flash. While I will not discuss the finer points of that debatehere, the decision by Apple to not support Flash on its popular iPhone platform, 11 and thesubsequent decision of a number of sites to experiment with HTML5, demonstrates howpolitical the technical details of video formatting can be. Vimeo, Dailymotion, and YouTubehave the resources to experiment with HTML5 so that they can gain market share by servingmobile devices, but smaller players may not have those resources. Those that operate withdifferent goals have less to worry about, or can afford to wait until the technology becomesmore popular. While standardization makes these exchanges possible, different configurationsmake each service unique.As I opened with reference to the legendary Michael Snow – whose structural film Wavelengthwas the roundabout inspiration for this essay – this is an appropriate point at whichto discuss the technological influences upon what might be termed ‘structural online video’.There are many historical and contemporary examples of media art that play with the limitsof the technology available. Two good examples of structural impulses on YouTube are ‘TheShortest YouTube Video Ever’ 12 and its companion ‘Longest video on YouTube!’ 13 Just asSnow’s Wavelength centres on a long zoom into a photograph of the sea, the two YouTubevideos mentioned take the technical limits of their medium to an equally absurd conclusion.The capacities of different codecs to limit file size also comes into play in the creation of onlinevideo, giving rise to a compression arms race for the longest video capacity. There are atleast five videos claiming to be the longest, with the reigning champion clocking in at over 36hours. On the other hand, the shortest video is limited by the constraints of video editing andexporting. As it is impossible to go below one frame, one user has created a video that playsupon the multiple meanings of the term ‘short’, 14 creating a video with the shortest height,rather than length – a move of which I am sure Snow would approve. Here we see the principleof degeneracy at work. The longest video on YouTube is 24 hours, and on Vimeo it is justtwo hours – but that is like comparing apples and oranges, for Vimeo’s structural tendenciesare towards production technology. Vimeo has positioned itself as a site for video enthusiasts,and as such the technical possibilities and restrictions are significant. For example, groupson the site are often devoted to specific cameras. This creates a number of videos that existonly to show off technological ability. 15The bargain aspect of online video is complicated, but one way to look at it is through therelationship between the site creators and site contributors. Relationships between usersare incredibly important, but the primary contract underpinning all others is the end useragreements or terms of service. Terms of service documents are important for understandinghow a service is guided by its owners, thereby leading and limiting the behaviour of the userbase through official standards of conduct. Each service or site has its own agenda, which isoften commercial, but can occasionally be altruistic. The agenda may be expressed in visu-8. Clay Shirky, ‘Making The Digital Durable’, The Long Now Conference, San Francisco, California,November 14th, 2005.9. Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody:The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, New York:Penguin Press, 2008.10. Sean Cubitt, ’Codecs and Capability’ in Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer (eds) Video VortexReader: Responses to YouTube, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008, p. 46.11. JR Raphael, ‘Apples’s iPad and the Flash Crash’, http://www.pcworld.com/article/188185/apples_ipad_and_the_flash_clash.html.12. ‘The Shortest YouTube Video Ever’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxhaBU7sOI.13. ‘Longest video on YouTube’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmoeXjsVzTk.14. ‘Shortest Video On YouTube!’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Cw80OhBv8.15. ‘RED 4K TEST’, http://vimeo.com/6618681.