About A and B

photo from the Media Me pool: Robert in Toronto.

Next to the voice of Pictureman there are two other voices talking.
I call them A and B.
They’re like commenters, sitting in an editroom, surrounded by lots of machines.

I wrote this ten days ago on this workblog.
In ten days anonymous voices can become true characters. As long as you keep on writing, they become persons. Invisible, but still.

Today A stands for Andy, a young men who’s lying in bed. Tired, not ill.
He likes to be on the sideline of things. An observer, a curious ‘lurker‘.
Andy is in a constant dialogue with B, who started talking like a Machine more and more over the last week.
That’s why B’s official name is now: Machine.

Machine has the voice of a young woman. Warm, gentle and emphatic, but also very demanding and straightforward.
She’s in charge of the conversation. She knows everything and sets the rules. A superdirector.
The dialogue between Andy and Machine sounds like a telephone conversation in the middle of the night.
(Note: They’re not in the same room anymore.)

Machine has her own manners.
She invites Andy into the world of Media Me and introduces him to Pictureman in nine steps.
“You’re my model”, she says to the old man.
Andy comments: “I don’t think I’m ready for this. What are you doing? Who is he?”
Pictureman is in between the two of them, just being himself. The official narrator.

Preview of the first pages of the audioscript can be found here: at Imagine me, where it starts.

Pictureman is alive

Akbar Simonse.

We sat in quiet restaurant, near the Central Station in Amsterdam.
Coffee and sandwiches with chicken, bacon and mayonaise.
Very unhealthy but tasteful.
He’s on a diet.
After the photoshoot with Marco Habanero he stopped smoking, just like that.
He rides his bike now every day for two hours.
His doctor told him he had to make drastic changes in his eating, drinking and smoking habits, otherwise things could go bad.
I mean really bad.
That would have made Media Media interesting, he laughed. Very dramatic: A dead narrator.
Yes, I said, the project would become historically interesting immediately.
I prefer Pictureman alive, he said.
Me too, I said.
But it would be interesting, right?
Of course, I said.
We talked about accounts of dead people. Very weird. Digital cemeteries. What happens with your digital life when you’re dead? Does someone else takes it over?
We’re all creating our own personal paradise online. Who wants to live in hell? Todays uploads are tomorrows archives.

I needed more stories for the script, so we talked about his experiences on Flickr, his on and offline friends, religion, youth, concerns about the future, ideals, poetry, miracles and memories.
Everything you say can be used, I said.
I know, he said, you’re collecting material.

After our meeting I made a first rough sequence of the videoclips so far.
They are listed now in the category: Nine Scenes, 1 t/m 9.
New text fragments will appear under these clips.
Comments can be used.

Post

Maurits Burgers: “Thinking of Pictureman”.
Photography: Viory

Wireless

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Video by Maurits Burgers.

Testimonials

Akbar Simonse. Photo: Bas Bogers.

For the script I’m collecting testimonials for Pictureman. Testimonials are nice remarks and compliments about a person. Like recommendations. In a testimonial you can read what other people think of you and appreciate. You’re characterized by others in a way. Perceptions.
These I found on Akbars profile. Very suitable.

His work is a serious empirical study of our decade.

Day by day he surprises his virtual community with his wonderful, strange, sad and humorous shots.

A real artist, because he does his work obsessive and without the pursuit of profit.

Just knowing, that he has to do what has to be done.

He is a remarkable person. Very gentle.

Watching his endless stream of pictures gives a wonderful image of this modern hectic world.

He has the gift to ‘see’ with his camera what we see through our eyes.

His pictures are real life stories, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always honest.

If I look at his pictures I always get the same feeling: it looks like I’m really there and see what he sees.

He is truly the Father of Digital Photography. Ancient records show; he purchased his first digital camera in 1902, while traveling from Malta, herding wild camels. The Russians were trying to deport him for Multi-tasking, he was chewing gum and smoking at the same time.

Maurits Burgers wrote this testimonial for Pictureman:

Pictureman is the anonymous nominal personification of everybody’s visual internet, the omniverse of photo collections worldwide. He is the non-hero. Everyman.

More testimonials for Pictureman are welcome.

[update] Check Bas Bogers website, including text en video by Maurits Burgers.

Translator

I’ve put the sentence ‘You’re in my story’ into the Google translator.
Here are the results. If you notice a mistake, please report.
(Can be used both as graphic and voice.)

Ju jeni në historinë time (Albanees.)
كنت في قصتي (Arabiers.)
Вие сте в моята история (Bulgaars.)
Ets en la meva història (Catalaans.)
你是我的故事 (Chinees, traditioneel.)
Du är i min historia (Deens.)
Sie sind in meiner Geschichte (Duits.)
Teil on minu lugu (Ests.)
Olet minun tarinani (Fins.)
Vous êtes dans mon histoire (Frans.)
Está na miña historia (Gallicisch.)
είστε στην ιστορία μου (Grieks.)
יש לך את הסיפור שלי (Hebreeuws.)
तुम मेरी कहानी में हैं (Hindoestaans.)
Ön az én történetem (Hongaars.)
Anda dalam cerita (Indonesisch.)
Sei nella mia storia (Italiaans.)
あなたが私の話をしている (Japans.)
당신이 내 이야기에있습니다 (Koreaans.)
Vi ste u mojoj priči (Kroatisch.)
Jums ir mans stāsts (Lets.)
Jūs esate mano istorija (Litouws.)
inti fil-istorja tiegħi (Maltanees.)
Du er i min historie (Noors.)
Ви в моїй історії (Oekraiens.)
Jesteś moją historią (Pools.)
Você está na minha história (Portugees.)
Vă aflaţi în povestea mea (Roemeens.)
Вы в моей истории (Russisch.)
ви сте у мојој причи (Servisch.)
Nachádzate sa v mojom príbehu (Slovaaks.)
Ste v mojo zgodbo (Sloveens.)
Usted está en mi historia (Spaans.)
Ikaw ay sa aking mga kuwento (Tagalog.)
คุณอยู่ในเรื่องราวของฉัน (Thais)
Nacházíte se v mém příběhu (Tjechisch.)
Benim hikaye bulunmaktadır (Turks.)
bạn đang ở trong câu chuyện của tôi (Vietnamees.)
Du är min historia (Zweeds.)

Windows became eyes

photo: Akbar Simonse.

Pictureman says:

Look closer.
Each photo tells a story.
First there were buildings.
I started taking pictures of buildings.
Then, after a while, I moved slowly from buildings to persons.
From stones to bodies.
From walls to skin.
I went inside.
Opened the doors.
Windows became eyes.

So, this is my town. My country.
This is where I live.
In persons.

Next week Akbar and I will meet in Amsterdam.
I need more information about him. Stories I can use.
Could he be the “owner” of the Media Me pool on Flickr, in the script?

The textdocument on my desktop is getting shape, in a chaotic way.
Chaos comes with the subject: The digital revolution.
Next to the voice of Pictureman there are two other voices talking.
I call them A and B.
They’re like commenters, sitting in an editroom, surrounded by lots of machines.

(…)

A: This is not about him, is it?

B: No, he’s just the narrator, a collecter.

A: Ah. I see. Can he hear us?

B: Shhhh.

made by Martijn de Boer.

Version two

Pictureman visiting the Mediapark in Hilversum. Center of old media productions.

Camera and edit: Ronnie Griens.

This is the second edit. Version one, by Matthijs Treurniet, is here.

Worklogs

made by Roel1943.

Since this worklog is on the frontpage of the new RVU website, here’s an update on Media Me, you’re in my story.

On this Media Me worklog visitors can take a look at video’s, pictures and texts, which will be used in a new film to be made: Media Me, you’re in my story. Sound, music and voice-overs will be added to the video’s in a later stadium. (So there’s nothing wrong with your computer. These are all half products you’re looking at so far; fragments, non-lineair.)

The film is about The Digital Revolution and what it does to us. Where will it bring us and how will it affect us?
The narrator of the film is called Pictureman and is played by Akbar Simonse, a streetphotographer from The Hague. I met him on Flickr. We just finished a photoshoot and now I’m working on an radioproof audioscript, inspired by the videoclips we made so far. The Media Me photopool on Flickr, where it all started, is still growing. At this moment it counts 5317 pictures and 537 members.

“I’m trying to put some things together right now.”

About worklogs.
When I start working on a new project, I start a new worklog.
I document the workproces in sound, image and text. Visitors can leave comments or come up with inspiring links, suggestions, poems, requests, questions, etc. All comments can be used in the script. That’s the deal.
Some visitors participate in an active way by getting involved as a related person, others just read and watch. When the program is finished and broadcasted, I publish it. Then the long-tale starts.

I used to write and direct radiodrama. I still do, but since the internet entered my work I have direct access to images and video’s as well. This inspires and fascinates me. I’m a Flickr fan. Next to that I use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for creative and practical purposes. As a mediamaker from Hilversum I have to reach masses, on my log and platforms I can reach persons. For connecting is the core business on the internet, communication in all kinds of forms and variations has become one of my main themes. My specialty is drama and fiction.

First worklog was about an iPod soundwalk for two persons in Amsterdam, Screened.
Second one: Flick Radio, from weblog, to radiodrama to tv-film.
Third one, about a trip to Poland: Een homo in Polen (about gays in Poland).
All projects are still online and downloadable. My radioarchive is here.

So as a programmaker I use the internet as a communication- and researchtool, as a stage and workplace at the same time.
I write in English, because we’re on the internet and Media Me wants to be an international project in which many universal themes will be explored and dramatised.