Digital Anthropology
Communities
For the past ten years, I have been researching the media anthropology of technology and space and how this impacts the social engagement of the user. Through participatory observation, statistics, and deep ethnographic skills the researcher becomes the researched. Thus, the designer learns to navigate the communication message as the user ensuring the greatest possible exchange of information.
We do not believe that physical social networking is extinct. Instead, we strive to distinguish ourselves by integrating the physical and digital through comprehensive design so that each of these community aspects builds upon each others' strengths, so that the harmony of the physical matches the rhythm of the digital.
Yemen - Participatory Social Media from Cortlan McManus on Vimeo.
My event planning does not only take place at the physical event but is embraced by the digital infrastructure; my digital work doesn't ignore the physical interaction of user, machine and space which acts as the foundation for the digital building that may house an online community.
Is it simple enough to engage by being on Facebook and posting a few tweets each day/week. Does this have real and lasting relevance with which to re-engage participants time and time again? Is it no wonder that what is termed "social networking sites" come and go almost as quickly as turning forward the calendar? Since our work bringing the connection with technology and society with one of our first projects, "Divisions," in 1999, I have been researching and bridging the digital divide that not only exists for many without access to tools, but more essentially the divide that is an element of every digital project that does not include the physical.
ShareThisWorld Cultures
The little buddhas high-light some of the countries and continents where we have worked on branding, integrated communications and digital anthropology projects. Map was originally drawn in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius.
Africa
ShareThisAlgeria
Eagles & Vultures from Cortlan McManus on Vimeo.
A conversation with Algerian Ambassdor and peace mediator Mohamed Sahnoun
A short experimental documentary within the "ethno-visual narrative" genre developed by Cortlan McManus. As part of his exploration of cine archeology, this film explores the lifework of Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun juxtaposed with Idler #22, "The Vulture," written by Samuel Johnson in 1758. Too often we reminder historical figures and leaders who advocate war over peace, revenge over diplomacy, destruction over a new path. Buried within the culture archeology of human species, at least as many thinkers have offered a different perspective. "Eagles & Vultures" brings to light just two of these, in particular, Mohamed Sahnoun. Part of the Algerian struggle for independence and later imprisoned and tortured by the French government, he later would become the Algerian Ambassador to Morocco, Germany, France, the US as well as the UN. Later, serving as UN Special Envoy to conflict areas in Africa, including Somalia, Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, he stands as a symbol of peace and love in the face of torture, war and civilian casualties.
ShareThisMorocco
Morocco from Cortlan McManus on Vimeo.
I was working with a Casablanca hospital on the Millennium Development Goals. It was my first time in a hospital setting in Morocco. A few years later I had to go to ER here in NYC and it was like night and day. The ER staff took more than two hours to process the intake form; none of the rooms were stocked; doctors were forced to use their iPhone to take pictures because all of the photography devices were not stocked with film. It was a complete wake-up call in terms of how many other countries are handling health care and how we handle it in the US. As many of you astute readers will know, infant mortality effects many developing countries as well as developing. The thumbnail from this video is from a baby who was just born ~ I filmed the baby a few minutes after being born, healthy, and ready to be hugged by mommy and daddy.
ShareThisAsia
ShareThisIran
Green Iran: From Election Day to the 31st Anniversary of the Revolution.
The first documentation of the documentarian, this short doc by Jahan Azadi and Iranian citizen journalists shows the beauty and peace in the week before the June 12 Election Day, followed by the sustained violence, rape, torture, false imprisonment and death in the months after up until the present. Many of the foreigner press left in the days after Election Day ~ Azadi is presumed to be the only one who is now in the diaspora to have shot a documentary non-fiction film while in Iran throughout the month of June 2009.
One thing that has been discounted by the official Iranian experts both in Iran and those that form part of the mediated diaspora, is that the movement will continue until its goals are achieved. As the short film documents, the Iranian regime cannot kill us all. Live Uncensored Performance coming to the diaspora in Spring 2010 with Iranian performances to follow.
My time in Iran can be best summed up by the above short film.
I waited eight years to get my Iranian visa.
It was a hard visa to get, the hardest as you can read below:
1) FBI/NYPD background check
2) fingerprints
3) HIV/AIDS
4) all other STD tests
5) letters from my bank attesting that I will always support my family and go five star whenever possible, and;
6) letters from people who know me swearing that I'm a swell guy.
7) what else am I forgetting?
It was worth it!
If I have a top two country list, Iran would be on it. The culture, the language, the food, the society, the great respect and practical use of technology and media, not to mention the US/Iranian history are all reasons to love Iran and the Iranian people.
I generally will tune out when the select few other countries scapegoat all Iranians under the umbrella term of Iran and how both the US and now another country are using the term "axis of evil" to describe Iran. I feel that these currents share more with the world about these countries then they do about Iran.
ShareThisEurope
ShareThisNorth America
ShareThisUSA
I hope to add more info from the various projects we have produced and worked on across the USA. Because I'm feeling the need for speed, I think I'll post a pic right before skiing down a five mile mountain in less than ten minutes. Nothing like the most vert in the lower 48, right?
ShareThisSouth America
ShareThisMexico
Divisions: From the Aztecs to the 21st Century from Cortlan McManus on Vimeo.
Based on the Aztec mythology of the Five Suns, "Divisions" tells a tale of society at the brink of the 21st Century and the impact of our use of technology. YOUR MAN is torn in between the Fifth Sun of ultimate technology and no society and the First Sun where one can shed all forms in the hopes of being able to discover their true passion. Shot on the grounds of an Aztec ruin in addition to across the US and in New York, "Divisions" is an avant-garde film, the first of Cortlan McManus' "Cine Archeology" projects.
Filmmaker's Statement
I began my first investigation into technology and society through an interactive film based on Aztec mythology from the 15th and 16th century. This was a further outgrowth of undergraduate research I conducted on Latin America.
One of the surest ways to change a society's perspective on space + time, is to alter the technology landscape. This is retold through the cultural trajectory of the Aztecs, where they begin their creation tale in the First Sun until the Fifth Sun when the Aztec capital and culture were destroyed by Hernan Cortez in 1519. In this case, each Sun lasted for approximately one hundred years and only would the next Sun begin when a significant technology or societal change was introduced (i.e., corn through agriculture). Therefore, the calendar itself informed Aztec relationship to space + time.
I wished to synthesis that description into one that describes social technology and how that repeated use actually creates different types of social environments with their own behavior codices. As an anthropologist, non-verbal communication is in my experience one of the most heightened and sophisticated forms of expression. Ethnographers As someone who has found himself too many times in too many different countries where my spoken language skills are lacking, non-verbal communication can communicate some of the the most penetrating streams of consciousness between two people. Of course non-verbal communication can presently only occur in a physical environment. When communication is mediated, through telephones, televisions, computers, radios, hand-held devices, and embedded computers, what accompanying transformations does the social aspect go through.
I began this production in 1998 with research and pre-production. In 2000 it was screened at various film festivals and screening venues, including the Millennium Film Workshop, and later in 2002, an interactive non-linear narrative was deployed. Unfortunately, the non-linear piece was developed using Director, which is effectively a forgotten platform for media development. Not only is the prior story one apt to reflect on the role of technology on society, but also one that describes the importance of archiving and preserving formats so that a digital piece can carry on to the next platform of access.
ShareThisVisual Ethnography
One trait that truly sets us apart from most other information designers and digital savants is our training and practice in visual anthropology. This is a special skill-set crafted and refined over time and upon experiences. First came the desire to respect all visual systems, sometimes which unfortunately goes sight unseen by many others.
It is not enough to determine a digital system "intuitive" to the users and simply let it rip, loose into the wild digital sphere.
It is not enough to design iconography and believe that the images will translate to all cultures, all spoken languages and all hemispheres in the same mode.
It is not enough to determine that one flowchart that may work for one set of audience members from one particular cultural background will work equally well with a distinct audience in a separate but equal cultural group on a different continent speaking different computer languages and accessing media with different tools.
2015: Millennium Development Goals from Cortlan McManus on Vimeo.
It is not enough to conduct user research with one group and determine that another distinct yet equal group will follow the bread crumbs in the same fashion, using the same logic.
We are all different as individuals, as groups of individuals and as cultures of groups so how is it even possible to set up parameters to account for so much diversity in the first place? If one is trained, practiced and a master of visual anthropology ~ that is, the visual cultural communication system ~then diversity is not only accounted, it is enhanced through the inclusion of each voice from the targeted audience.
Going full circle, it must start with an informed targeted approach knowing who you want to reach which then informs the creative approaches to deliver on the offer and message. This starts at the onset with deep visual anthropology, a skill that very few possess. On one hand, I'm sad about this reality, and on another albeit more selfish for my clients and myself, I couldn't be happier that I am one of the few ;-).
ShareThisCase Studies - Social & Participatory Media
Social & participatory media has been my primary practice and research area for more than ten years. Participatory media is designed from the onset as an open system of communication between the original design team and the subsequent participatory media creators. New school people have coined the term UGC or user generated content to describe some aspects of this field. True to my ethos, content is only one foundational structure of social and participatory media ~ context and community are often forgotten in the rush to produce content which should never be void of the other two C's.
Instead of keeping these secondary creators on the marginal fringe, a social & participatory media project encompasses a system that is open to collaboration, a design that is fluid accepting the media creations of the system's participation, and a complete work that remains relevant through the direct inclusion of the actors and participants.
I wrote my first article on participatory media by focusing on the role of Andaluz gypsies (the Rom people) and their lack of cultural manifestations as documented and archived by the dominant segment of society (i.e., universities and independent research centers). From this curiosity expressed through a co-authored research paper with el Centro Sociocultural de Andaluz Gitanos, I began to design, create and experiment with different forms of media participation.
You can read about them all here or of course get in contact to further our combined reach.
ShareThisAndaluz Romani/Gypsies (1997)
I wrote my first article on participatory media by focusing on the role of Andaluz Romani (i.e., sometimes incorrectly and romantically known as gypsies) of Andalucia and their lack of cultural manifestations as documented and archived by the dominant segment of society (i.e., universities and independent research centers).
When I moved to Granada, Spain to study in the Facultades of Social Science and the Faculty of Filologia (or the love of words ~ translated into English would be Philology although rarely used in the US) I chose to live in what must be one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world: el Albayzin.
Seriously.
The East Village, another one of my ex-neighborhoods for more then half a decade, has a certain historicity of being "cool." In all honesty, it pales in comparison to el Albayzin, though every neighborhood in not only NYC but across the US this would be true.
I happened to move into a small house with three female flat-mates: one from Zaragoza, another from Cadiz, and the third from Morocco. I would practice yoga each night on our terraza listening to the sounds of India from a cassette deck. On one of the first nights, I heard dogs a plenty and a couple of horse sneezes. A few weeks after moving in one of the dogs bite me to my delight for I thought at the very least one of my neighbors would acknowledge my "payo" existence. Alas, it was not to come on that day or any other. My next door neighbors were Romani and very rarely would a typical Romani in Andalucia interact with a Payo: after all Payos had marginalized them for more then six centuries.
I ended up conducting research with and wrote an ethnographic report.
For me this undergraduate report, began my "official" interest on the subject of participatory media. The subject of the subject was on the cultural manifestations of marginalized groups and their dissemination within the larger public sphere as dictated by the dominant cultural group.
The next time your in el Albaycin, be sure to stop by el Centro Sociocultural Gitano Andaluz and have a read!
ShareThisFree Media Campaign (1999-2002)
The Free Media Campaign was an outreach project that focused on teaching media and video making skills to children and senior citizens in the South Bronx and Spanish Harlem in conjunction with the Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education.
The FMC had the following design:
1) conduct media anthropology research with the stories, visions, methods of production and visual communication styles of the youth in various urban neighborhoods;
2) teach skills to groups who are usually excluded from the media creation landscape;
3) examine the distinctions between self-produced media by a group and media produced on that group to see the bridge of exchange that can occur between these two groups;
4) learn from these grassroots levels about media consumption, participation, engagement and approaches;
5) have fun ;-)
The Aztec Techno-Social Dream (2002)
This film was shot in New York, Mexico, and across the USA as part of the Resonance Tour.
Film Description
Traveling back through time, YOUR MAN spans Aztec mythology is hopes of finding his true passion. At the time of Cortez' slaughter, the Aztec's had the most advanced notions of time and space. YOUR MAN dreams that instead of moving forward through the Five Suns, he will actually be able to go back in time traveling between major forms of technology in hopes of finding more social interaction. In the Fifth Sun, the Western year is 2089, a lone human is brought back to planet Earth to investigate contaminated waste. Reliant on the most advanced forms of technology, there is only one individual left at the peril of society. To order the complete film (30 minutes) please contact the filmmaker at rebirth AT cine.ma or visit either www.cine.ma or www.mcman.us
ShareThisThe Kitchen (2003)
Pinhole from Cortlan McManus on Vimeo.
Using physical computing, this interactive-participatory media project combines a user's physical movement with a random physical projector. Depending on what zone the user's shadow reflects, a corresponding video will be shown. If more than one user's shadow is sensed through a pinhole camera running custom MaxMSP application, additional videos will be shown. Also, this design allows for networked interaction at multiple physical sites.
While taking part in a Performance & Seminar residency at The Kitchen in New York City, I began to more fully explore the potential for social media created socially.
I love computers, software, and interactive components. I love it even more when these interactions are inspired and transpire in social settings which adds the missing dimension to traditionally designed software, campaigns and online social media environments. That is, the word of mouth experience begins on-site through the participants' engagement with each other which will then be taken to the nth degree through future conversations and online social media collaboration.
For Pinhole, the original problem the piece sought to solve was how can one individual experience a multitude of perspectives. Setting up an overhead camera, reflective floor surface divided into six zones, six video perspectives matched by six audio tracks.
Depending on where a user is standing, one video will be shown. If another user is sensed by the camera and software algorithm a second video will be displayed concurrently. Up to six people can stand and be sensed in this particular design which will show the perspectives of each to those who surround them connected through a network.
An advanced design for Pinhole includes multiple locations where the users in one location would see the perspectives of the users from the other locations communicating through cables, routers, software and finally to the social informal on-site locations.
Plus - (+ Minus) from Cortlan McManus on Vimeo.
A live interactive performance that combines documentation with live performance. In this case, the performers are the actual attendees of the event; this was unknown to them before they entered the venue, but when each participant was blindfolded and given a walking stick, they did not know that they would be surrounded by dancers, videographers, a light show and live music ambience. At the end of the evening, with all participants safely back in their seats, they were shown what they expressed blindly earlier in the evening. This is a recording of the live video mix from six different camera angles; the projection itself was filmed.
Minus +, which is the title for the performance piece Plus -, has an interesting back story. While working with a sound collaborator Sean Clute, we were designing a performance with recorded video and sound. He suggested a true rarity: let's blindfold everyone.
I was aghast!
A video maker makes videos that no one can see?!?! How can this be Sean!
After taking some quiet time, I came around to the idea but under a few conditions. First, six cameras would be set up including two roving videographers and these six video channels would be live-mixed to the same audience as the last performance of the evening. Second, the project needs dancers to continually move and gyrate through the blindfolded audience whose playfulness would only be revealed once projected. Finally, a lighting designer should be brought on to mix up both the color and temperature of the performance. The night before the performance Sean rounded up some folks heading off the hills of Central Park going stick collecting as it was decided each blindfolded participant should be given a long arm to touch the ground.
This video presents the live six channel video mix which itself was recorded at audience level.
ShareThisUnited Nations (2004-06)
2015: Millennium Development Goals from Cortlan McManus.
This multi-media project was shot in Egypt, Yemen, Jordan and Morocco documenting the Millennium Development Goals and funded jointly by the United Nations and the Arab Gulf Fund. For the first time, a philosophy of "development cinema" was used which not only recruited non-professional cast and crew for as many positions as possible but also paid each person at least their country's average monthly wage for each day that was worked. Shot at the the Great Pyramids, Wadi Rum where Lawrence of Arabia was shot, in Thula, Yemen, one of the world's oldest villages, and in Casablanca on the ground's of one of the world's largest mosques, "2015: Millennium Development Goals" was produced with the hope that the MDGs will be accomplished by 2015. For more information of the project, please visit:
www.2015mdg.org
2015 - Millennium Development Goals
More Information on the Millennium Development Goals
ShareThisEmbedded (2007)
The communications project "Embedded (2007)" is a participatory social media sculptural piece that embeds the viewer directly as a participant into the piece.
Many times we forget the role media has in our lives and the intellectual, physical, social and economic relationships that are ongoing. "Embedded" is a playful exercise that lets users extend their reality into their own field of vision maximizing participation, engagement and some good times.
ShareThisLibrary for the Performing Arts (2008-2010)
Responsible for producing and creating integrated content from the physical to the social media space working on one of the world's largest and deepest digital experiences (nypl.org) in addition to original content and first person role playing digital production.
ShareThisDubai Live
QIK - Videos
My live videos shot on the streets, on the porches and across the world's continents. Remember, these are shot live to the internet with no editing so enjoy...if you know what I mean!
ShareThis