Metadata in the Age of Ubiquitous Media
Metadata rules the web. Are we witnessing the birth of a new regime of attention? What are its chances, constraints and power relations? Is metadata only ordering and describing data, or is it productive itself? Does it provide us with new forms of presence and emergence? This academic research project addresses such questions: On the one hand via theories that come out of cultural studies, media theory and philosophy; on the other hand through ethnographic research, interviews and experimental software.
Our main empirical focus in 2008 is on the Japanese video sharing community Nico Nico Douga. In 2009 we will conduct a similar research on a Chinese video platform. In London we look in 2008 and 2009 at several research networks, which create and implement metadata “ontologies”. Our ethnographic approach is combined with more experimental forms of research: We upload video files to video platforms and harvest afterwards the metadata. We also build an application for online video editing, including a system of metadata management.
See “outputs” for more infos about the project and the ongoing Nico Nico Douga case study. Or have a look at our research blog.