Self Portrait & Live Media

Video collage of my top ten “On Repeat” songs on Spotify

Music is a big part of my life and I feel my personal music taste is a more accurate representation of myself than a digital visual of my physical appearance. My original idea was to have a clickable video collage website based on this tutorial but was unable to translate the images to videos. I decided that a static collage would still do a decent job at being a self portrait. One version I thought of was a screen filled with videos all playing at once (chaotic constant thoughts). Then I found this tutorial and was interested in learning how to do the onmouseover Event (hover) to play interaction.

Full screen version here!

Reference: Used this tutorial as my main inspiration

Writing Prompt:

Write a blog post detailing the last "live" media you consumed. Answer these questions: What was it? Why did you consume it "live" or in real time? How was your relationship to the media or others affected through the "live" consumption of it? What was missing in your experience?

Instead of listening to the radio or Spotify I occasionally opt to listen to live streamed DJ sets, mainly from The Lot Radio. The streams consist of a DJ in a small colorful DJ booth playing music in live time. I see it as a video based radio station that only plays live mixes.

When I have the time and energy I love to go out and dance but unfortunately, I don’t go as much as I would like. Listening to DJ sets while working and hanging around the house brings that energy I enjoy from dance parties to where I’m at. The option to listen to pre-recorded mixes is there but I intentionally choose live streams. When I watch/listen to sets live I get to see the DJ’s excitement in real time which makes jamming along more immersive. When listening to live music over recorded it also means there are others around who are listening at the same time as me. Even though I can not see, hear, or know those others it still feels as though i’m part of a community. We are all enjoying the same music in sync.

Although it is great to have the music live and easily accessible it will never replace the feeling of being in the same room as the DJ and dancing with others. In the video streams the DJ’s usually have a guest or two and there is a noticeable animation about listening to the set in person that can be seen through those guest.