Week 4 Synthesis: Curating Through MCBS

When planning for our wedding (18 years ago), my husband and I thought it would be a fabulous idea to have our guests take photos using disposable cameras. We thought we would get some really great photos of family and friends, as well as some unique perspectives that would come from untrained photographers. Well, we did get some unique perspectives. Many of the cameras were used by young children taking photos of who knows what. We did get some really great shots of family and friends too, but we had to sift through an awful lot of photos to harvest the rare gems. When BorrowedInsight, the author of Curation Before Creation, asked the reader to think “back to when you had a camera and a roll of film and all of that was costly,” I was reminded of this costly and cumbersome experience. So the ideas presented in the articles, as well as Not All Digital Media Assets are Equal, are very relevant.

LAC Group makes the case that quality must trump quantity in the article, Not All Digital Media Assets are Equal: The Case for Curation. Keeping every shot is not only expensive, but cumbersome. Sifting through endless files of media that will never be used is really not all that useful. My son created a wonderful project for his history class last year. He used my smartphone to shoot video of himself as the host, and himself as the guest for a talk show about a historical figure. The project turned out brilliantly, including some rather ingenious special effects. However, my phone’s data storage space was nearly maxed out with video that wasn’t included. I honestly didn’t give much thought to deleting all of videos after he was finished with the project. I do love watching deleted scenes and outtakes of my favorite movies, but even these do not show every single shot. I am certain that many shots are simply deleted.

These articles helped me to really reconsider what assets to keep and what assets to ditch, as well as the importance of organization and file management. As my assets grow, I may need to refine files even more. As most of my recent assets are stored in Google photos, I have struggled with waiting for photos to load and sifting through. I can see this becoming an untamed and unmanageable monster. These articles have really inspired me to clean up this mess of media and not keep every single thing because I can. This class has given me some really great digital media tools, but some valuable insight as well.