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Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

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Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, in addition to the artistic aspect of it, he wanted to educate people about what actually happens to video when it is sent to youtube. This is much more relatable than saying, "I wrote this shell script..." Also, having the log of all 1000 versions on youtube is interesting as well. The other thing about art is that time is usually not a large motivating factor...

The thing is, I'm not convinced that it's youtube's fault; apparently he converted it to mp4 on his own computer after the download from youtube, before re-uploading it. I wonder if he'd have had the same effect if he'd uploaded the same format he ripped from youtube.

Nobody is blaming youtube, video compression or anything of the such. This is to expected behaviour. And no normal person should be able to expect, or want to upload and download a video 1000 times, or even more than 10.

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#92
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me try again: Only a supremely self-involved, judgmental, narcissistic asshole would think it's appropriate to look down on others for having different ideas about how they want to spend the short time we get on this planet. Truly, it's hard to imagine how badly one's parents would have to fuck up to raise a child that thought that such sentiments were appropriate. Those who might look down upon others for engagi…

I guess the irony of your statement is lost on you. Funny, though.

It's not ironic.

Calling somebody an asshole isn't a positional declaration. It does not say you are better or worse than them, just that they are an asshole. Presumably you have flaws as well. Everyone does.

Saying you look down on them, on the other hand, is a direct claim to superiority.

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#93
post #83
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me try again: Only a supremely self-involved, judgmental, narcissistic asshole would think it's appropriate to look down on others for having different ideas about how they want to spend the short time we get on this planet. Truly, it's hard to imagine how badly one's parents would have to fuck up to raise a child that thought that such sentiments were appropriate. Those who might look down upon others for engagi…

I think some people are rather contemptuous of individuals who brought art down to the standard of "simply a bunch of paints splattered on a canvas". So much so that it become indistinguishable from a mess. I could even imagine a bunch of every-day normal freelance laborers cleaning an art gallery and accidentally throwing thousand of dollars worth of art piece simply because it is indistinguishable from a mess. Art…

When you don't understand a piece of art, do you say that you don't understand that the artist was trying to say... or do you say "I look down upon the artist."

I'm guessing you're a reasonable person and just say 'I don't get it, and don't care.' As opposed to the utterly unreasonable opinion espoused by the OP, in which instead of not caring, he looks down upon the artist.

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#94
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Savages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_ignorance

Good point, but it's possible that he enjoyed the process somewhat. Recording 'I am sitting in a room' probably became a little tedious for Lucier as well, in all the time he spent from conceptualization until completion.

And even if he did not enjoy it at all, patio11 makes another good point about it being a better background story for the piece.

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#95
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_ignorance

Good point, but it's possible that he enjoyed the process somewhat. Recording 'I am sitting in a room' probably became a little tedious for Lucier as well, in all the time he spent from conceptualization until completion. And even if he did not enjoy it at all, patio11 makes another good point about it being a better background story for the piece.

Yes, you are probably right. My comment was aimed at the snobbery over the unwashed masses.

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#96
post #93
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think some people are rather contemptuous of individuals who brought art down to the standard of "simply a bunch of paints splattered on a canvas". So much so that it become indistinguishable from a mess. I could even imagine a bunch of every-day normal freelance laborers cleaning an art gallery and accidentally throwing thousand of dollars worth of art piece simply because it is indistinguishable from a mess. Art…

When you don't understand a piece of art, do you say that you don't understand that the artist was trying to say... or do you say "I look down upon the artist." I'm guessing you're a reasonable person and just say 'I don't get it, and don't care.' As opposed to the utterly unreasonable opinion espoused by the OP, in which instead of not caring, he looks down upon the artist.

There's a difference between saying "I don't get it" and saying "after careful analysis and consideration, this artistic expression is either pointlessly obscure in its meaning or absolutely meaningless".

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, in addition to the artistic aspect of it, he wanted to educate people about what actually happens to video when it is sent to youtube. This is much more relatable than saying, "I wrote this shell script..." Also, having the log of all 1000 versions on youtube is interesting as well. The other thing about art is that time is usually not a large motivating factor...

The thing is, I'm not convinced that it's youtube's fault; apparently he converted it to mp4 on his own computer after the download from youtube, before re-uploading it. I wonder if he'd have had the same effect if he'd uploaded the same format he ripped from youtube.

He does say "and the mp4 codec" in his speech, so that's acknowledged at least.

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#98
post #50
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re-encoding an mp3 doesn't do much Sure it does, typically. It’s no different from video in this way: ideally, all of the image features that would get thrown out were thrown out the first time, but the codec isn’t that smart. Most implementations of lossy compression algorithms don’t have stability under re-encoding as a goal. (A few do – some image editors are smart about passing through unchanged JPEG blocks, for…

Why hypothesize? Create a directory. Copy your favorite MP3 into it as both "source.mp3" and "orig.mp3". (orig.mp3 is just for convenient comparison later.) Then: for i in {1..100}; do lame source.mp3 dest.mp3; mv -f dest.mp3 source.mp3; done Then listen to the resulting "source.mp3" at the end. Send whatever params to lame you want in that command line, though the defaults strike me as pretty good for this test. BTW…

[deleted]

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#99
post #50
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re-encoding an mp3 doesn't do much Sure it does, typically. It’s no different from video in this way: ideally, all of the image features that would get thrown out were thrown out the first time, but the codec isn’t that smart. Most implementations of lossy compression algorithms don’t have stability under re-encoding as a goal. (A few do – some image editors are smart about passing through unchanged JPEG blocks, for…

Why hypothesize? Create a directory. Copy your favorite MP3 into it as both "source.mp3" and "orig.mp3". (orig.mp3 is just for convenient comparison later.) Then: for i in {1..100}; do lame source.mp3 dest.mp3; mv -f dest.mp3 source.mp3; done Then listen to the resulting "source.mp3" at the end. Send whatever params to lame you want in that command line, though the defaults strike me as pretty good for this test. BTW…

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/86yiq/hear_what_...

A reddit post on that exact experiment. Sadly, the file is down.

As a side note, I had a post here that I deleted about this, worded something like "Yes, they used that song". I went back to read the topic, and found I'd made nearly the exact same comment on the story over a year ago. I guess I'm a tad predictable.

Edit: Aha! A megaupload link was posted that still works. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ALZY0LCD

Also related, the same experiment but for .jpg: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/86v2z/see_what_h...

Re: Guy uploads, downloads, then re-uploads the same video to YouTube 1,000 times

#100

Was the aspect of using YouTube's servers so critical to the artistic quality of this project that he couldn't just substitute a shell script that encodes the video 1000 times over? Would've taken a heck of a lot less time than the year he spent.

Because "YouTube" has a meaning for regular people, while "x264" doesn't.

A lot of people I speak to associate x264 with pirated film downloads.
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