I am using a review, "Me, Myself, and I: Technology creates multiple partners," to make my points. This review and the way it's presented online point out what I think are a series of ironies.
The first part of the review is devoted to a performance by choreographer and dancer Philippe Decouflé who is, as Jowitt explains, "an expert in media mania." Decouflé integrates a range of media into his performances, which can serve to "amplify or counter movement."
Well, here we have an article about how projected video and other uses of technology are integrated in the performance environment but no thought has been given to how online newspaper readers and fans of dance use technology - in this case the Internet - to learn about and enjoy online dance content.
If I were writing a review, the first thing I would do is include a link to Philippe Decouflé's website. His website is Flash-based and annoying, but there is some good video content. When you get to the home page, click "cliquez pour entrer" and then select "La Galerie" and then "Des videos." (That's the problem with Flash. You can't link directly to specific content).
On his video page, you can access video excerpts from "Le Solo" which he performed in New York at the Joyce Theater and is the work that Jowitt reviews. Plus, you can watch three video excerpts from his film "Abracadabra" that Jowitt references in her review:
New Yorkers who saw his film Abracadabra at the Walter Reade Theater in 2000; Shazam!, performed at BAM by his Compagnie DCA, in 2001; or Tricodex, presented by the Lyon Opera Ballet (also at BAM) in 2004 know how skillfully he manipulates imagery.
You can also watch the following two performance videos on YouTube, which overlap with the videos on Decouflé's website:
Here are my questions for Jowitt and The Village Voice:
1) How come you don't link to these videos so that online readers of your newspaper can see with their own eyes excerpts of the films and performances that you reference in your review? When it comes to dance, doesn't the visual take precedence over the written word? (Many dance bloggers already embed videos into their posts. But The Village Voice and just about all other newspapers I know about do not do this).
2) More broadly, what is the social context in which you write your reviews? Jowitt writes as I quoted above "New Yorkers who saw..." What if you didn't see? What if you aren't in New York? Does your publication not work from an economic (or any other) perspective to the extent that your readers do not consist of theater-going New Yorkers? And, in any case, whether they saw or did not see the films or performances, why not give them direct access to the video content anyway?
3) And why not write your review by referencing these online video materials directly? Don't you think your review would be more interesting and engaging if you could point your readers to specific sections of these clips to help dance fans better understand and appreciate the work of Decouflé? I enjoy watching the above videos, but I'd enjoy them a lot more if I had a dance expert provide background and insight.
Social Networking without the "Network"
What makes The Village Voice's lack of links to relevant content and its lack of interest in incorporating available video content directly into the context of its articles amusing is that it has already embraced the concept of Web 2.0 and social networking.
If you go back to Jowitt's review, you'll see that you can subscribe directly to the newspaper's RSS feed - click on the little orange button to the right of "printer friendly version." You can email the article to a friend and submit letters to the editor. And there are a number of social bookmarking buttons for saving this review.
I interpret The Village Voice's embrace of Web 2.0 as either a phony effort to be on the cutting-edge or simple ignorance about the optimal way to put the Internet to work. Essentially, The Village Voice (like many other online publications - even many in the technology arena) is offering tools so that readers can save and share their articles, but they are taking a closed-wall approach where the only content that matters is their own content. And if good helpful materials exist outside their website - such as dance video, they are not about to link to it.
If multimedia in the dance environment can "amplify" our understanding of movement, why can't incorporating multimedia into our dance reading experience "amplify" our knowledge of dance?
Posted by Doug Fox on March 22, 2007 8:02 AM
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The lack of direct linking or embedding of YouTube videos may well be a legal and a practical one.
Those YT videos are unattributed and may be there in violation of copyright therefore subject to removal without notice. If they are removed then the VV has a couple of dead links in their article and they won't take the responsibility of keeping an eye on them to make sure they stay live.
Viacom's legal spat with the Tube is only going to make this issue worse, not better.
I wrote "If I were writing a review, the first thing I would do is include a link to Philippe Decouflé's website" - I did not write "YouTube." Although I did not clarify what the relationship between an online publication and YouTube ought to be - I'll return to that topic.
There are many challenging issues relating to dance videos on the Internet. And based upon what I know, the dance community at-large is taking no proactive action whatsoever to discuss and address these very pressing topics.
The first issue is how dance companies, dance writers/critics and major newspaper publishers should work together in the online space. Everybody stands to benefit if dance companies provide dance writers with performance videos that can be incorporated into online articles and reviews:
1) The online articles will be more interesting and engaging with the video footage and dance writers will be able to share their knowledge and insights about dance in ways that were previously not possible,
2) More readers will see online dance footage and, possibly, attend performances as a result, and
3) Newspapers will increase their online readership and sell more online ads.
The second issue relates to what seems like an avalanche of dance videos appearing on the Internet during the last few months. What is really needed is collective action on the part of dancers, dance companies, unions, service organizations representing the dance community and others to figure out what to do about both the risks and benefits of online video distribution. Some type of forum - face-to-face or online would be a good way to jump-start this process. Ignoring this issue is not a reasonable approach and will lead dancers to lose control of their own content without benefiting in any financial and creative ways.
The third issue relates to intellectual property issues which is a very important part of the discussion that I recommend takes place right above. Maybe the dance community can form an organization along the lines of the Future of Music Coalition.
"1) The online articles will be more interesting and engaging with the video footage and dance writers will be able to share their knowledge and insights about dance in ways that were previously not possible,
2) More readers will see online dance footage and, possibly, attend performances as a result, and
3) Newspapers will increase their online readership and sell more online ads."
I'm sorry but you don't explain how those things are going to happen.
Simply having video material online will not equate to new or larger audiences.
For dance the effect is not immediate enough. A dance performance by one company can only happen in one place at a time. An online video relies on the right person seeing it at the right time and reacting by visiting the venue if the performance happens to be local to them or in a place they can easily get too.
The statistics for dance do not work in its favour because the online community with an appetite for dance is not yet large enough.
Dance video, for me, is much more of a slow burn effect. It needs to be there for reference and for information, as a promotional tool the numbers are simply not high enough.
Also, from an editorial perspective it may be against the newspapers editorial policy to review a work and show a section from an archive copy. Writing about one thing then showing another may be considered unethical
While your questions and ideas about linking video to dance are good, you haven't thought about the economics of doing it. First of all, dance companies have to have enough money to provide a good video, perhaps from several cameras. Then, the critic would have to take the time to find that segment of the dance to link up what they're writing about. Critics often have same night deadlines, and are racing to finish writing their article, and wouldn't have time to look at a video to link it up - and it also means either the company would have to video it before hand, at another time (which means it wouldn't be the same performance the critic was writiing about), and have the space, time, and money to arrange for the video and then distirbute them to critics before or immediately after the performance. When most dance companies are strugglling just to sruvive, where is the extra money/management going to come from, and how can critics find time to link up to the video?
In terms of whether online dance videos will lead to larger audiences, I think they can - although there are challenges, as you point out, in getting the right people to see the video at the right time. But there is a larger question about the overall economics of dance that I was referring to when I asked who the ideal readers were of The Village Voice.
As things stand now, dancers and dance companies do not make money directly from the online availability of their content - either as earned income or contributed income. But this can and, I hope, will change. Dancers need more revenue streams. As better quality video can be distributed online, there are more opportunities for advertising revenue to be generated and for videos to be sold. Plus, the tools already exist for offering compelling Internet-based fundraising efforts. So over time, dance videos will not just be about building audiences, but will be about creating new and expanded revenue streams.
Finally, I don't see why there's a problem showing/linking to an archive copy of a performance if the newspaper simply describes the nature and source of the video.
- I think it's very important that dancers and dance companies start exploring new Internet-based revenue opportunities. In December of last year I wrote "Generating Revenue with Dance Videos." While I'd make a good number of changes to what I wrote just a few months ago, these are some of my thoughts about how dancers can profit from online video.
- As you point out, with the economics as they stand now, most dance companies cannot afford multi-camera shoots. So it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: Dancers need good quality video to generate online revenue, but they can't afford to produce the video until they create the revenue stream. Practically, I think that there will be a few innovators that will take the risks and show what works and doesn't work - that will minimize the risks for other dance companies.
- I agree that it would be difficult for a critic under deadline to incorporate video of current performance into an online story - unless the writer had access to previously shot archive version. But at same time, I think that nature of dance writing will change - there's no rule that says that dance writers can only write reviews. As better quality dance videos are made available online, there's no reason that writers cannot write about different aspects of dance by incorporating (embedding or linking to) these dance videos. In December, I wrote "Deep Tagging, Linking and Searching," which offers new approaches to writing about dance.
- And even in case when dance critic writes a review by referencing archival video of a different performance of the same work, I don't see a problem with this - as I mentioned in my comment to Michelle. Video of a work is better than not having any video. And if a writer can direct readers to specific sections of the video to highlight different elements of the performance, this guidance can be incredibly helpful.
Since 2005, Doug Fox's blog has covered the intersection of dance and the Internet. A primary focus is to help dancers and dance companies use the Internet and their dance videos for marketing, educational, creative and revenue-generation purposes.
Email Doug Fox with inquiries, questions and feedback about Great Dance.
The lack of direct linking or embedding of YouTube videos may well be a legal and a practical one.
Those YT videos are unattributed and may be there in violation of copyright therefore subject to removal without notice. If they are removed then the VV has a couple of dead links in their article and they won't take the responsibility of keeping an eye on them to make sure they stay live.
Viacom's legal spat with the Tube is only going to make this issue worse, not better.