assignment two: Geo-narrative rational

For my second assignment for networked media production, i chose to create a geo-narrative. The narrative I have created is a contrasting visual tour of Canberra, through the past and present. I used photos from Canberra's past and recreated the shots, to give the viewer an visual idea of how Canberra has changed over the years and what features have stayed the same.

To create this, I first had to find photos taken in the past that showed of interesting aspects of Canberra, like views of the city and shots of the city center. I found what i was looking for on the National library of Australia's website, which features photos that illuminate Australia's past. But to use these photos in my narrative, i had to gain permission from the National library to recreate them. Lucky this was a fairly easy process, all i needed to do was fill out a form, that was provided online, about what i intended to use photos for and sign that i would comply with the restrictions set in place for recreating these photos. Then it was a simple thing to go into the library and talk with the photo office about the assignment and I gained permission to use the photos.

Next I had to travel around Canberra and recreate the photos, to show how Canberra's landscape has changed. Then all I had to do was use Google maps to create the Geo-narrative by uploading my new photos to Flickr and then link both these photos and the photos from the National library to location markers on my Google map and give contrasting descriptions with each photo about how Canberra has changed over the years.

The interesting thing about this type of networked media production is its potential for unlimited creative, interactive storytelling. By having the ability to link images to locations on a map with such ease, can allow media producers to give greater depth to locations. Because it's digital recreations of images, various images can be used in different ways and locations to show off different narratives. The this can also become a problem, as with such ease of reproduction, copyrights on photos may not be followed and an artists photos may be stolen with out their permission. So it is always important to respect the owners wishes, when recreating their digital content, otherwise your own work may be stolen in the same way.

Anyway i hope you enjoy my visual tour of Canberra and how it has changed over the years. ols