Sketching video with a smartphone: integrating design methods into the media studio

Seth Keen, RMIT University, MINA 2015 Symposium presentation, 19/11/15 1

Sketching video with a smartphone: integrating design methods into the media studio

I propose that ‘sketching’ as a design method can be used to teach the production of

video content using a smartphone, as part of addressing fast-paced changes in

technology and transformations in new media practices.

Drawing on the experience of teaching a ‘mobile videography’ studio within the professional

production strand of a tertiary media program, I will flesh out this proposition by covering the

following;

Where video sketching originated from…

Adapting video sketching into a design method…

Sketching as a core design process…

Video sketching in the media studio

Concluding with several points that look at how video sketching helps students bring together

the skills and knowledge required to work with changing technologies and practices…


Video Sketching

I experimented with the notion of sketching with video in my PhD research. The idea was

adapted from Miles’ concept of using sketching as a process in the production of interactive

video for publication online. Miles experimenting with what is referred to as a ‘softvideo’,

aimed to utilise the affordances of video, computers and the network, by working with (quote)

“domestic, ready to hand recording technologies and editing tools” (56-7) (unquote). Miles

proposes that the types of works produced are (quote) “informal, vernacular, serial, and

aligned to a lo–fi sketch practice rather than being high resolution, professionally crafted and

closed works”(56-7) (unquote).

For Miles the objective with softvideo, was a type of practice that utilised the serial and

repetitive nature of the web. Videoblogging is provided as an example. This is an online video

practice that relies on the regular posting of content and in most cases the use of ‘brevity’, to

produce multiple small-scale video works, as a unified collection.

Video sketching as a design method

The idea of developing video sketching into a design method occurred due to using

Rosenberg’s concept of “poetic research” from the design field. I used Rosenberg’s notion of

the “hunch” to invigorate what was a practice-led inquiry.

Rosenberg uses Bakhtin’s concepts of the “centripetal” and “centrifugal” as a way of

understanding the relationships formed between the practitioner and the practice. The

centripetal moves inwards and refers to an established body of knowledge, while the

centrifugal moves outward to something that is yet to be realised: the centrifugal is intuitive,


risky, a step away from conventions and norms (Rosenberg 2006). Applying the idea of

following a “hunch” opened up my practice to being iterative and evolving. I became

interested in what might happen to my practice, if there was space that allowed intuition to be

followed, with the idea of not knowing what could eventuate. It was video sketching as a

process that enabled me to utilise the void that had been created, to explore possibilities.

Video sketching in combination with poetic research shifted my practice towards design.

Sketching in design

Analysing the design process, Grocott puts forwards the notion of “figuring” as a method to

visualise design research (67). Figuring as a concept is informed by Rosenberg’s idea of

poetic research and the friction that occurs for the practitioner between the centripetal, what is

known, and the centrifugal, the unknown. It is the discord between the two, according to

Grocott, which enables the designer to come up with something original. Figuring as a

concept is positioned within the broader notion of allowing “speculation” to occur, which is

referred to as (quote) “an experimental, investigative space” (72) (unquote).

Two methods of drawing “diagrams” and “proposition drawings” are used by Grocott to frame

figuring. These two types of drawing methods are taken from a taxonomy of drawing types

created by Lawson from an evaluation of the processes designers use (45). It is Lawson’s

outline on the “proposition drawing” that provides some insight into how video sketching is

being used in my own practice and teaching, in relation to integrating it as design method into

media production.

Lawson argues that the “proposition drawing” is situated at the very core of the design

process and it provides a space for the designer to make a start. The proposition drawing


puts out into the world an idea in a visual form that can then be used as a focal point to begin

the design process. According to Lawson, the “proposition drawing” is what Schön would

have defined as a sketch that enables a conversation to get underway.

In reference to Lawson’s evaluation of drawing in design, different types of drawing form an

integral part of the design curriculum. Drawings as a form of visual representation are used to

externalise what the designer is thinking and as Lawson states (quote) “may be seen as a

kind of window into the designer’s mind and consequently into the designer’s knowledge

system and method of mental representation” (33) (unquote). I propose that using video

sketching, as a type of drawing in a different form, in media production, presents an

opportunity for students to visualise ideas and explore a varied number of potential outcomes.


Video sketching in the media studio

In the ‘Mobile Videography’ studio I teach, video sketching as a process is developed as a

skill across three phases.

Phase one involves completing a few sketches as a warm up exercise, and getting a sense of

the process. A video sketch is undefined in terms of what students are expected to make.

Students are left to work out what they think a video sketch is…and how it can be made using

a smartphone. For instance, there is no set duration it can be as short or long as required. A

video sketch can be a time-based still image, a single shot or a sequence. The only constraint

is the limited production time, which is used to make students work quickly and intuitively.

In phase two, which I refer to as “speculative sketching”, students are encouraged to produce

as many video sketches as possible, with the grading based on quantity rather than quality,

with a significant amount of sketches receiving a high grade.

I adapted this grading approach from teaching experiences put forward by Eric Booth who

has taught at prominent music academies in the United States. Booth argues that we are

often taught to follow through with our first idea, which is referred to as “satisficing”, rather

than explore lots of ideas and potentially a more significant creative outcome.

I introduced this quantity over quality because I found it difficult to get students to stop fixating

on one idea and working towards a finished video work to early.

Booth provides an example of a ceramicist teacher, grading students in two different ways.

The first was based on a student making their best single pot, the second class on the


amount of pots produced. In the class based on quality, students were quietly thinking and

carefully considering options before picking up some clay. In the class working on producing

as many pots as possible, students were busy, noisily playing and experimenting they worked

constantly in the medium. It is my aim in this phase to get students to work things out by

picking up a smartphone.

The final phase involves selecting a discovery (usually one sketch) that presents an idea for

development into a substantial mobile video work. This is often the most difficult stage for

students as they often lose sight of the discovery they have found and over complicate things

in an effort to create a highly polished work.

Using the sketching process has produced some outstanding works from students. I found

compared to approaches that I had used previously it opened up the potential to explore

ideas that would not normally be realised. A connection can be made here with “poetic

research”, and using a sketching process to move students out of their known world, into the

unknown.

Conclusion

Encouraging students to utilise a sketching process to scope out a variation of approaches

towards a problem, teaches them not to start with the first idea that comes to mind. Instead

sketching enables them to develop the skills needed to work with a problem from multiple

perspectives.


Visualisation

Using sketching as a design method in the media studio allows students to visually

conceptualise ideas in the medium being used. Visualisation is a skill that can be used to start

the design and production process, and explore a number of solutions to a problem.

Test

Teaching students to work quickly in a small-scale provides them with skills to test out ideas,

before committing to large-scale output. Video sketches as a disposable experiment provide

an opportunity to explore technical issues. Using small-scale tests to define the technical

approach provides students with the skills required to work with the specificities of new media

projects.

Process

Using sketching to focus the studio on the processes used to make a work is important due to

the shift to ‘Post-industrial media’ practices – the shift in emphasis from the production of

content to the practice of making media itself, both by professionals and non-professionals.

Affordances

It is important in a new media context for students to understand the affordances of the

devices, mediums and platforms they are working with in order to work effectively. Sketching

as a process allows multiple works to be produced quickly and learn through hands-on

experience, the properties of things and how they can be used.


Agility

Enabling students to take an informal, intuitive and iterative approach towards their practice

through a process like sketching opens up the possibility to work with the complexities of new

media productions. A changing environment requires a media practitioner to have the ability

to respond in a fluid manner to issues and problems as they arise.

Design integration

Integrating video sketching into the media studio enables students to utilise design to work

with changing technologies and practices. Design in this context can be considered as a

process that responds to problems that arise through change, and this is why it has become a

key feature of many of the practices associated with the fast–paced development of new

media. Designers are problem orientated practitioners who integrate hands on skills with

conceptual ideas, thinking though a making process to create solutions.

Design methods like sketching provide students with an agile way to engage with problems,

and determine the strategies and practices required, to work in an environment that is

undergoing rapid transformation.

Images from:

Keen, Seth. Ramblings of a Post-industrial Media Maker. Mobile Innovation Network Aotearoa, International Mobile Innovation Screenings, The New Zealand Film Archive, Te Anakura Whitiahua, Wellington 2013. Video

http://www.sethkeen.net/portfolio/a-post-industrial-media-maker/

References

Booth, Eric. Playful Brainstorming and Creative Experimentation. Juilliard, Stanford, 2012. Video. Buxton, Bill. Sketching User Experiences. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. Print. Grocott, Lisa. “Design Research and Reflective Practice.” Doctorate. RMIT University, 2010. Print. Lawson, Bryan. What Designers Know. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2004. Print. Miles, Adrian, ed. PIMP 01: Post-industrial Media: Education? . Melbourne: School of Media and Communication, RMIT University , 2012. eBook. Miles, Adrian. “Soft Cinematic Hypertext (other Literacies).” Doctorate. RMIT University, 2012.

Print. Rosenberg, Terence. “The Reservoir: Towards a Poetic Model of Research in Design.”

Working papers in Art and Design (2006): n. pag. Web. Schon, Donald. The Reflective Practitioner. London: Ashgate, 1983. Print.

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Sketching video with a smartphone: integrating design methods into the media studio