https://katherinebundy.com katherinebundy.com Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:47:39 +0000 https://katherinebundy.com en https://katherinebundy.com/Homepage Fri, 12 Nov 2021 16:50:49 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/Homepage <img width="1080" height="1080" width_o="1080" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/845f1a46628d67009f1ec3db78c8724614a1790da66d01292d4e83cfd0b9d013/kate-website-portrait.png" data-mid="235996462" border="0" data-scale="95" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/845f1a46628d67009f1ec3db78c8724614a1790da66d01292d4e83cfd0b9d013/kate-website-portrait.png" /> She/her Cuban American ︎Montreal, Canada You can call me Kate. I’m a bold humanist in the age of AI. My research &amp; creative work focuses on how technologies bring us closer to what’s important: Connection, creativity &amp; generative impact.&nbsp; I’m available for website strategy consultations for small to medium-sized organizations and projects.&nbsp; Let’s connect&nbsp;︎︎︎ ︎&nbsp;︎ Featured interviews Le Devoir article on Jardin botanique<img width="732" height="699" width_o="732" height_o="699" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f06db903f6c5741fc1e82220a69355126c5927e89ee1ae40dc2db3d23a7e5d8/screenshot-le-devoir-16-juin-2026.png" data-mid="249548495" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/732/i/9f06db903f6c5741fc1e82220a69355126c5927e89ee1ae40dc2db3d23a7e5d8/screenshot-le-devoir-16-juin-2026.png" />Full article in French&nbsp;︎︎︎ Podcast on album release, Isthmus Don’t Bother Wearing Seatbelts (An Elephant 6 Recording Company Podcast). Podcast about teaching with AI&nbsp;“AI &amp; Education” a podcast interview with Christine Jean-Charles (UXbyMIA) Concordia University article&nbsp;Embracing versatility:&nbsp;an interview with Concordia University’s Continuing Education program https://katherinebundy.com/research Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:52:13 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/research Research I stay curious and informed about web technologies, knowledge communication, film studies &amp; pedagogy.&nbsp; <img width="424" height="609" width_o="424" height_o="609" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/500987fa22461e9b611ea2ddcd16c13bb1d3ab6254889ee2b0e998916949487e/Screen-Shot-2021-11-12-at-2.44.24-PM.png" data-mid="124392087" border="0" data-scale="44" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/424/i/500987fa22461e9b611ea2ddcd16c13bb1d3ab6254889ee2b0e998916949487e/Screen-Shot-2021-11-12-at-2.44.24-PM.png" /> Publications <img width="1339" height="833" width_o="1339" height_o="833" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f521d8d3db1bafec55134c0a7eab79e8cbe37baa4d2797647c4171c1ce933ffe/Case-Studies-All-Metadata-CDM-.png" data-mid="225565215" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f521d8d3db1bafec55134c0a7eab79e8cbe37baa4d2797647c4171c1ce933ffe/Case-Studies-All-Metadata-CDM-.png" />Dissertation <img width="1419" height="1419" width_o="1419" height_o="1419" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e86b3051408a049c37ecd4f5d2731d723ef29c6c555636761fda584b63c7210/Bundy-Kate-PSEWEB-2023.jpeg" data-mid="225846706" border="0" data-scale="63" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e86b3051408a049c37ecd4f5d2731d723ef29c6c555636761fda584b63c7210/Bundy-Kate-PSEWEB-2023.jpeg" /> Public scholarship https://katherinebundy.com/publications Sun, 26 Jan 2025 23:46:35 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/publications Publications I write &amp; publish about technology, education, film, and literature.&nbsp; <img width="432" height="648" width_o="432" height_o="648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9ad655740fab458f18abda0f1075a1b9a510890be898b22b2c0cdd195b2b073/animation-in-mexico.jpg" data-mid="225566408" border="0" data-scale="85" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/432/i/e9ad655740fab458f18abda0f1075a1b9a510890be898b22b2c0cdd195b2b073/animation-in-mexico.jpg" /> Animated Cinema in Mexico, 2006 to 2022“Politicized Web Praxis in Mexican Animated Short Films: “Reality 2.0” (2012) and “Retrato Político” (2013), Animated Cinema in Mexico, 2006 to 2022: Box Office, Web Shorts, and Streaming.&nbsp;SUNY Press. Ed. David DaltonAbout my chapter <img width="827" height="1168" width_o="827" height_o="1168" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/471bf1c71917fae717f791b83ac7e0df9515611e42538c958368a211d0182b34/latin-american-digital-poetics.jpeg" data-mid="225566397" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/827/i/471bf1c71917fae717f791b83ac7e0df9515611e42538c958368a211d0182b34/latin-american-digital-poetics.jpeg" /> Latin American Digital Poetics “Augusto de Campos: Avant Garde, Post Flash,” Latin American Digital Poetics, Palgrave Pivot for 2022. Eds. Luis Correa-Días and Scott Weintraub Purchase or request the book <img width="424" height="609" width_o="424" height_o="609" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/500987fa22461e9b611ea2ddcd16c13bb1d3ab6254889ee2b0e998916949487e/Screen-Shot-2021-11-12-at-2.44.24-PM.png" data-mid="225564592" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/424/i/500987fa22461e9b611ea2ddcd16c13bb1d3ab6254889ee2b0e998916949487e/Screen-Shot-2021-11-12-at-2.44.24-PM.png" /> Pushing Past the Human in Latin American Cinema “Re-ordering material hierarchies of human, non-human, and posthuman in Jossie Malis Álvarez’s animated short film series, Bendito Machine (2006-2017)” Pushing Past the Human in Latin American Cinema, SUNY Press, 2021. Eds. Gisela Heffes and Carolyn Fornoff About my chapter <img width="1695" height="2560" width_o="1695" height_o="2560" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a724c7ee161dab545e5c6ab6295362e8a617444adbe93ea580e1684d2c3cc14d/digital-encounters.jpg" data-mid="225564596" border="0" data-scale="83" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a724c7ee161dab545e5c6ab6295362e8a617444adbe93ea580e1684d2c3cc14d/digital-encounters.jpg" /> Digital Encounters: Envisioning Connectivity in Latin American Cultural Production “Cyborg Citizenship in Keiichi Matsuda’s Colombian short film, “Hyper-Reality” (2016)” Digital Encounters, University of Toronto Press, 2019. Eds.&nbsp; Cecily Raynor and Rhian Lewis About my chapter<img width="425" height="673" width_o="425" height_o="673" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b721f80fa1b5ec51eadfcd207750c697d5b0bb77886161c1620d8287e0069aff/Screen-Shot-2021-11-12-at-2.45.32-PM.png" data-mid="225564594" border="0" data-scale="86" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/425/i/b721f80fa1b5ec51eadfcd207750c697d5b0bb77886161c1620d8287e0069aff/Screen-Shot-2021-11-12-at-2.45.32-PM.png" /> Voices of Resistance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Chican@ Children’s Literature “Was it all a Dream?: Chicana/o Children and Mestiza Consciousness in Super Cilantro Girl (2003) and Tata's Gift (2014),” Voices of Resistance: Essays on Chican@ Children's Literature, Rowman and Littlefield, 2018 About my chapter https://katherinebundy.com/voices-of-resistance Tue, 16 Nov 2021 20:59:33 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/voices-of-resistance “Was it all a Dream?Chicanx Children and Mestiza Consciousness in Super Cilantro Girl (2003) and Tata's Gift (2014)” Voices of Resistance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Essays on Chican@ Children's Literature, Eds. Laura Alamillo; Larissa M. Mercado-Lopez &amp; Cristina Herrera, Rowman &amp; Littlefield, 2018. <img width="600" height="338" width_o="600" height_o="338" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a0b771df9aa39a27a7f5f1f54aad1f869dae386e838f46fa39e3caf330dcf8aa/TatasGift.jpg" data-mid="124790125" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/600/i/a0b771df9aa39a27a7f5f1f54aad1f869dae386e838f46fa39e3caf330dcf8aa/TatasGift.jpg" /> I started my career teaching Spanish in public schools, and found that some of the most effective ways to teach language and culture was through storytelling. Finding authentic stories by Latinx and Latin American authors to present to my students was my priority, yet it was surprisingly difficult to find literature in Spanish or Spanglish that was not a direct translation of “mainstream” children’s classics. This has been changing for several years now, and it’s even really awesome that my uncle, Pablo Cartaya is an award-winning Latino young-adult’s author. &nbsp;Early on in my doctoral degree, I started developing ways to critically engage with books and media that were “meant for kids,” but in fact needed to be taken quite seriously as political activism through dreaming, expression, play, and radical action. Working on this project could not have come at more critical time when controversial legislation that targeted Chicanx and Mexican American youth began cropping up including the Ban on Tuscon, Arizona’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum, and the increasing visibility of DREAMers and DACA recipients while deportations happened everyday.The great Gloria Anzaldúa’s words echo in my mind: “Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes al andar.”This act of bridging worlds through movement -- across lands, between dreaming and reality, humans and nature, magic and technology -- this notion is narratively and visually developed in both of the works that I wrote about that are part of the multicultural children’s genre: Super Cilantro Girl (Juan Felipe Herrera) and Tata’s Gift (Dionisio Ceballos). A year and a half later, I saw my words in print alongside an impressive collection of essays about Youth Activism, Pedagogy, and Chicano Children’s literature. I was honored as well that the author of Super Cilantro Girl, Juan Felipe Herrera, wrote the introduction to the volume. ︎︎︎ Purchase the book here︎︎︎ More writing &amp; publications https://katherinebundy.com/dissertation Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:53:48 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/dissertation Ibero-American short films in Web 2.0 as indicators of (Trans)nationalism <img width="1339" height="833" width_o="1339" height_o="833" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f521d8d3db1bafec55134c0a7eab79e8cbe37baa4d2797647c4171c1ce933ffe/Case-Studies-All-Metadata-CDM-.png" data-mid="225932495" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f521d8d3db1bafec55134c0a7eab79e8cbe37baa4d2797647c4171c1ce933ffe/Case-Studies-All-Metadata-CDM-.png" />I used Google Maps to visualize how nationalized short films span the globe through deeper metadata analysis. Overview My dissertation is just as much about metadata as it is about short films. I discuss how content and form propel one another, inform each other and betray the other, and how these processes reflect the messy combination of human thinking and machine thinking in the Internet age. The implications for this across disciplines are vast, but my narrow point of entry into this discussion is in demonstrating how national labeling of short films associated with Iberia and Latin America manifests in Web 2.0, and why these metadata practices can affect the visibility of independent short filmmakers and producers. I get asked a lot: Why short film? Why Web 2.0? Short film is vastly underappreciated not only in scholarship but also in commercial theatres. If you cannot come up with your favorite short film, you are not alone! The reason for that is that short film has a distribution problem. Shorts are largely associated with student work and for serving the function of an industry “calling card” for filmmakers and directors. What that means is that film festivals have become the main venue for shorts. I myself started a Short Film Festival in 2008 at a very dynamic moment for short filmmaking. Huge changes occurred around this time like the shift from film cameras to digital technology, the release of the iPhone and cellphones with video functionality, the creation of YouTube and Vimeo for user uploads, streaming and sharing, and the beginnings of social media and content creation across apps and platforms in which is the fundamental aspect of Web 2.0 versus Web 1.0. All of these changes are part of what David Weinberger identifies as the Third Order of Information which essentially means that both humans and machines work together to organize digital objects and how they are found. Unlike limitations of space and labour from the past, the traditional rules of information organization don’t apply. Suddenly, there is infinite space, infinite ways to cross-reference an object with linking and filters, and a never-ending downpour of information that can bury and overwhelm any said item. Thankfully, we have sophisticated search tools, and a lot of this boils down to one aspect in particular: metadata. So, this is where my dissertation launches into an argumentative approach towards a more pluralized and networked way of visualizing the (trans)national processes of short filmmaking during Web 2.0. National metadata tension: an example Porque hay Cosas que Nunca se Olvidan actually broke a Guinness World Record in 2009 for collecting over 300 prizes in film festivals. The national label for this film is just “Spain.” The film was made in Italy, with Italian actors by an Argentinean. The funding and distribution company came from Spain. So, the film is labeled “Spanish.” How might this success story have been different if it had been labeled Italian? Argentinean? There are clearly tensions between economic influences, marketing, and national messaging. I use cyberculture studies and global cinema studies paradigms to argue that while there is a lot of fear that the Global North will dominate and homogenize online life for late comers from the Global South (IE: “Other Internet”), the solution for this isn’t necessarily an “erase and replace” model. To visibilize the economies and peoples involved in short filmmaking, more nuanced and networked metadata is needed, and the case of my dissertation, I’m looking specifically at national metadata. This is where Jeffrey Pomerantz’s take on metadata as “potential information” comes in. I basically want to stretch this potential as much as possible to unpack the fetishization of national-belonging in short film, especially as short filmmaking became more accessible online in the digital age. The forecast for short films Many theorists claim that cinema as we know it, is dead. While this proclamation is most likely alarmist, it is true that we’ve all witnessed a pivot of the cinema industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Film festivals have migrated to online formats. We’re watching films and media on computer, tablet, and phone screens almost exclusively, and incentives to make (short) films without travel, without close contact, and with an increasing amount of animation and motion graphics in software is changing cinema. Localizing it and globalizing it further simultaneously. I have many questions about how this will turn out, but my dissertation takes a special interest in from which point this all began to unfold at an accelerating pace. If the third order of information is the paradigm, then metadata is most certainly the impetus.Download my dissertationSee also: Mapping filmic metadata [i]By Ibero-American short film, I mean that the short could be associated with either the region of Latin America or Iberia, or a collaborative production between the two regions which is a frequent case. I choose not to use “Hispanic” or “Spanish-language” since this excludes populations that are not majority hispanophone and the films that are made in those other languages. https://katherinebundy.com/hyper-reality Tue, 16 Nov 2021 22:36:34 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/hyper-reality Cyborg Citizenship in Keiichi Matsuda’s Colombian short film,&nbsp;Hyper-Reality&nbsp; A book chapter in Digital Encounters in Latin America<img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6301991e4983397117b6511d08f80e21679a197a42cb4755cff8622de17e84c8/hyper-reality_09.jpg" data-mid="124801716" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6301991e4983397117b6511d08f80e21679a197a42cb4755cff8622de17e84c8/hyper-reality_09.jpg" /> image from&nbsp;http://hyper-reality.co/ I’ll always remember the moment I found Keiichi Matsuda’s short film, Hyper-Reality in 2016 while preparing a Spanish class.&nbsp; When I showed it to my students, they had widely mixed reactions:fascination, horror, confusion, sensory overload, enthusiasm...this short film frankly blew me away. While it seemed like pure science fiction at the time, I had a sneaking suspician that this was merely a speculation of the immediate trajectory that we are on ... at hyperspeed. It’s a continuation of imagining how we have been and are going to continue living a hybrid life between the increasingly indistinguishable realms of the analogue and the digital as cyborgs, posthumans, technologically-dependent humans, whatever you want to call it.&nbsp; It’s a film that reminds you that wherever you are, the governing forces behind the Internet (aka algorithms in the hands of tech companies ie: FAMGA) are constantly augmenting your space, your decisions, your motivations, and your perceptions of self.&nbsp; Question is: Could you opt out? Even if you wanted to?&nbsp; I ended up getting the director on the phone and having a great talk with him about how the film got made and how his trips to Medellín, Colombia informed his idea of what augmented reality architecture would look like in a place that’s not one of the major tech metropoli of the world and part of the so-called Global South.&nbsp; I’m so grateful to the editors for their tireless work and efforts to make this volume a reality, and I’m honored that my work will appear alongside seasoned cyberculture scholars such as Eduardo Ledesma, Carolina Garza, Norberto Gomez, Thea Pitman, and others. ︎︎︎ Order the book https://katherinebundy.com/writing-for-web Tue, 16 Nov 2021 22:36:30 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/writing-for-web Writing for the WebCreating written content for the web is not without its challenges. Here are the main guidelines I live by to meet those challenges head on. Guideline # 1: One idea only. I’ve been writing for academic research for a while, and that’s all about that 3-ring circus of dense argumentation. Most people don’t have that kind of time. Writing for the web needs to engage and offer information in a blink of an eye, literally. When I’m brainstorming and drafting content, I choose that “clickable” approach that is “bottom line” forward. Just one idea is all it takes. Guideline # 2: People-forward, audience-focused.Since I’ve worked in digital content for higher education, I’ve had the objectives clear in my mind to prioritize the people that power these initiatives and to keep audiences top of mind. I’ve done that by reaching out, making connections, asking real questions, and checking in with what people want to see in our window to the world. After conducting several website diagnostics like auditing, benchmarking, and UX testing, the people have spoken and they generally just want to see more people. Guideline # 3: Links, metadata, alt-text, accessibility SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a fact of life, and getting those crucial keywords and metadata in there is what makes content the Queen of the Metaverse. Accessibility is increasingly the top priority, especially as the Internet becomes more audio-visually focused. Sure, it takes time on the front end, but it’s so worth it to support any and all audiences on the Web. https://katherinebundy.com/pushing-past-the-human Tue, 16 Nov 2021 22:36:38 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/pushing-past-the-human Re-ordering material hierarchies in Jossie Malis Álvarez’s animated short film series, Bendito Machine A book chapter in Pushing Past the Human in Latin American CinemaEds. Carolyn Fornoff and Gisela Heffes, SUNY Press, 2021&nbsp; <img width="1339" height="750" width_o="1339" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d1ec87f4add6e2fd14be59881840c3a47123851fae140002ac03cab95c133b34/BM_3_PulltheTrigger.JPG" data-mid="124800666" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d1ec87f4add6e2fd14be59881840c3a47123851fae140002ac03cab95c133b34/BM_3_PulltheTrigger.JPG" /> This publication was thanks to a very weird and perfect combination of Animation and "Object Oriented Ontology" (OOO). &nbsp; While learning more about the history of animation, I started to feel very much that the principles behind animation connected deeply with the notion that objects and nonhumans can act and have agency (depending how you look at it). According to OOO, this is an ecological breakthrough by stepping outside out human-centered worldviews and considering what sentient and "non"-sentient beings do without us around. I had come across Jossie Malis Álvarez's work in the past when I was organizing short film festivals, and had always kept an eye on his work which tended to be quirky, humourous, yet deeply ironic and pessimistic about the future. &nbsp; When I saw his short film series online, Bendito Machine, I quickly saw how animation can present ecological arguments just as well as live-action films can. Do we need to see the literal wreckage all the time? Can we play out our speculations and the worst-case-scenario through animation? That's exactly what each episode of Bendito Machine does, and the 6 episodes altogether (from 2006-2020) present cyclical narratives that condense time, space, and cause-and-effect in a way that only cartoons can pull off.&nbsp; It's called suspension-of-disbelief,&nbsp;and we all set aside our material logic to ride the magic carpet thanks to animation. ︎︎︎Order the book here &nbsp; https://katherinebundy.com/mexican-animation-chapter Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:47:39 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/mexican-animation-chapter Politicized Web Praxis in Mexican Animated Short Films: Reality 2.0 (2012) &amp; Retrato Político (2013) A book chapter in Animation in Mexico, 2006 to 2022: Box Office, Web Shorts, and StreamingEd. David Dalton, SUNY Press, 2025&nbsp; <img width="1277" height="614" width_o="1277" height_o="614" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5427a64bed1768e968553878d14239a69dbd105bbf2ed322f5f7e3ab6b716c9f/Retrato_Politico_ScreenShot_11June_2020.JPG" data-mid="229233566" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5427a64bed1768e968553878d14239a69dbd105bbf2ed322f5f7e3ab6b716c9f/Retrato_Politico_ScreenShot_11June_2020.JPG" /> A screenshot of crowdsourcing stillframes that make up the animated film, Retrato político. Unpacking it, years later It’s a full-circle moment when I unpacked my complimentary copy of the edited volume when I arrived home from my web job at the office.&nbsp; I wrote this chapter when I was deep in my dissertation phase of my doctorate, and I wouldn’t have known that “web praxis” would become my trade, and that it would become the defacto way of life post-pandemic.&nbsp; I’m no longer an academic writing about the web and cultural products living in the web, but I’m working with the nuts and bolts of how web works and presents content that needs to be seen at the appropriate time.&nbsp; I’m a rule-follower, and, in some cases, a rule-maker online, but this chapter is all about how two Mexican animators leveraged what was newly available to them, bent the rules, and created stories that move, transform, and make strong political statements through animation. Using Web tools for animation I focused on two short films by Mexican animators made around the same time period during Web 2.0. Reality 2.0 (2012) by Víctor Orozco&nbsp; Orozco’s website labels Reality 2.0 as an animated documentary since the film is comprised of mostly live-action footage mined from online clips as well as screen-captures of web browsing that are traced over with animation (rotoscope method). Not only is Reality 2.0 born-digital, but it could be considered almost entirely born-online since most of the material in the short film already existed as uploaded digital content that was remixed to create a narrative about living abroad in Germany and looking upon Mexico through the lens of posted online content.&nbsp; <img width="1201" height="676" width_o="1201" height_o="676" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d04473cb7f9815303d6dc60957c801b9e3ed0e43e7f0826337d6943a980d97b/Reality2.0_ScreenCapture_2min38sec.JPG" data-mid="229233865" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d04473cb7f9815303d6dc60957c801b9e3ed0e43e7f0826337d6943a980d97b/Reality2.0_ScreenCapture_2min38sec.JPG" />A screenshot from Reality 2.0&nbsp; at 02:38 of a YouTube reaction video with animation on top.&nbsp; Watch the short on Orozco’s website Retrato político (2013) by Güicho Núñez This two-minute short film uses animation to stitch together a montage of crowdsourced digital drawings of a headless political figure giving a speech. Núñez created a Facebook group to mount the project and collect the stillframes to animate the film. <img width="668" height="288" width_o="668" height_o="288" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4b5e5f4006faf09aa0e029c9e734faefd3b8defb46309e67a6dbc2be6ad7f1dd/Retrato_Politico_ScreenShot_11June_2020_1minute36.JPG" data-mid="229233916" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/668/i/4b5e5f4006faf09aa0e029c9e734faefd3b8defb46309e67a6dbc2be6ad7f1dd/Retrato_Politico_ScreenShot_11June_2020_1minute36.JPG" /> A stillframe from Retrato político at 01:36 during the speech in Spanish with English subtitles.&nbsp; Interviewing both directors I was once told by a professor to “never interview the filmmaker.” I promptly decided to ignore that advice, because my take on it is that good research means that if the filmmaker is still alive, you should try to reach out to them and find out what really happened when they were making the film. Interviewing both Víctor and Güicho to write this article revealed so much about their animation practice, their journeys as artists for financing and creation, and some really crazy stuff that happened to them online that inspired their films. My favourite quotation from Güicho: “I think that the biggest quality that animation has is the power to transform. I think that we can deform reality and mold it ... make it what we want. This quality in amiation is rebellious in and of itself.”&nbsp; (Interview translated from Spanish, 18:00-18:25)&nbsp; My favourite quotation from Víctor when we talked about the explosion of content generation online: “That transformation of content generation that I saw made me think, ‘okay what’s my position as an artist?’ If I’ve been robbed of my unique ability to create content, then by necessity, I’ve become a curator. Therefore, I select material to then generate a new syntaxis of sorts -- but with content that is created by other people -- not just by me.”&nbsp; (Interview translated from Spanish, 11:32-12:23) Huge thanks to both Güicho &amp; Víctor for sharing your thoughts and talents! How to access my chapterIf you’re interested in reading my chapter, let me know! To see the anthology, you can&nbsp;order it through SUNY Press or request it at your library. https://katherinebundy.com/mappingmetadata Sun, 03 Apr 2022 13:56:39 +0000 katherinebundy.com https://katherinebundy.com/mappingmetadata Mapping filmic metadataUnpacking hidden potentialities within notions of “national” short film <img width="1349" height="871" width_o="1349" height_o="871" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/be3713acc5e59c9eeef7eb6c1bf229bd5384ea607ecfc3573b8134fa226a84bc/Screen-Shot-2022-04-03-at-10.16.09-AM.png" data-mid="138464322" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/be3713acc5e59c9eeef7eb6c1bf229bd5384ea607ecfc3573b8134fa226a84bc/Screen-Shot-2022-04-03-at-10.16.09-AM.png" /> <img width="1339" height="833" width_o="1339" height_o="833" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f521d8d3db1bafec55134c0a7eab79e8cbe37baa4d2797647c4171c1ce933ffe/Case-Studies-All-Metadata-CDM-.png" data-mid="138463843" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f521d8d3db1bafec55134c0a7eab79e8cbe37baa4d2797647c4171c1ce933ffe/Case-Studies-All-Metadata-CDM-.png" /> Image 1: the existing national labels of 3 short films online Image 2: (trans)national affiliation of 3 shorts across 6+ metadata aspects play with map Everyone says it:&nbsp;“Oh, I just watched this amazing [blank] film!”Lots of descriptors could fill in that blank, but maybe half the time you might use a word that links to some expression of nationality. And we do it by unintentionally recalling the national markers either in the film, around the film, or the national label of that film where you found it. So that’s where my inquiry departs from...&nbsp; What aligns a short film to a particular nation in the digital age?&nbsp; What do those tensions between labels and other aspects of national metadata reveal about Ibero-American shorts during Web 2.0? Rationale My efforts to pin down and contextualize expressions of national belonging in online short film are not meant to uncover a singular solution or to produce a comprehensive formula for future national labeling, but to expand the potential of metadata through annotation and visualization through mapping. Surfacing unexpressed metadata is meant to pluralize notions of belonging, territoriality, and the importance of production, content, and the reception of the film itself that is embedded within online metadata that often is reduced to a singular national label. So, if metadata expressions could illustrate more national potential or pluralize the national affiliation of content and production within short films, colonial dynamics in filmmaking would not necessarily be resolved, but would be more apparent and contextualized for web users who are engaging with content while browsing (streaming) archives, databases, and collections online. For example,&nbsp;illustrating discrepancies in nationality between funding sources in Europe or the United States and film production labor and location in Latin America would not only create more online access points of metadata in Latin America, but the specific values assigned to one nation or region within the same short film would help clarify colonial power structures that are baked into a singular national label. [i] Why map metadata?“Metadata is a map. Metadata is a means by which the complexity of an object is represented in a simpler form.” - Jeffrey Pomerantz&nbsp;[ii] Metadata and mapping are tightly intertwined theoretically and practically speaking. While granular detail behind the (trans)national metadata of a short film may be difficult to demonstrate on a broad scale, an exercise of cross-examination and annotation is useful to dig deeper into the story of metadata; and, in the case of this study, to specifically locate the metadata. So, if metadata is a type of map, then a map is also just a more visually recognizable form of metadata. The first 2 images and map above are of a test sample of three Ibero-American short films that I consider to be highly transnational in both how they were made &amp; how they express themselves as audiovisual narratives. As you probably picked up on, all three shorts expand across the map considerably when taking into account other aspects of national affiliation besides their existing label online. Three case studies and determinents of national labelling With the three case study films, their metadata expansiveness was due in large part to the movements and migrations of the directors themselves, and the stories that they tell between these national spaces by casting international and multilingual actors. At the end of the day,&nbsp;the most consistent determinant of national labels correlate with the filming location and the institutional funding source. Little did I know at the time that my larger dataset from CortosdeMetraje.com* would indicate largely the same patterns of nationalized production via funding and filming location versus globalized or transnational narratives through the movement of actors, the languages they speak, and the simulation of fictional or culturally homogenized settings. &nbsp; I did a lot of analysis on the database itself (web analytics, user traffic, key search terms, user-centered tools and praxis) since I was generously handed the data from 2004-2015. Preliminary conclusions CDM is a successful website in its volume and variety of shorts, consistent growth, and appeal to Hispanophone user traffic on search engines&nbsp;but the relative absence of short films from outside of Western European and (neo)colonial Anglophone-dominant nations raises questions about how user-curated databases like CDM aim for more web presence from Global South and Hispanophone nations, but end up hosting the usual suspects of dominant national film industries during an era of the Web that was supposed to be even more globally accessible and participative. Here’s 2 of my maps of expanded national metadata from my 2010 &amp; 2015 samples from CortosDeMetraje. <img width="1411" height="836" width_o="1411" height_o="836" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/967059b165bbda4aba51642c52892762ce7dc0700d7da2737a11df976778797e/2010-CDM-Map.png" data-mid="138468644" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/967059b165bbda4aba51642c52892762ce7dc0700d7da2737a11df976778797e/2010-CDM-Map.png" /> <img width="1393" height="804" width_o="1393" height_o="804" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7dfdd22e03dbaed732f33dfa20513e709c3251733cce49648d2855e0389c66e/2015-CDM-Map.png" data-mid="138468645" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7dfdd22e03dbaed732f33dfa20513e709c3251733cce49648d2855e0389c66e/2015-CDM-Map.png" /> image 3: 2010 sample (50) of shorts on CDM;&nbsp;play with 2010 map image 4: 2015 sample (50) of shorts on CDM;&nbsp;play with 2015 map Except for two films in 2010, funding origins generally do align with short film national labels. Also in strong concordance with the existing national labels on CDM is the territorial location of short film production.&nbsp;So, both funding sources and production locations are heavily tied to the national labeling of short films on CDM across Web 2.0 years.A closer look at the 2010 and 2015 maps indicate that the most divergent factors from the given national label of a short film has to do with the national identity of the actors, the languages that are spoken during the film, and, to a lesser degree, the fictional settings of the shorts. In other words, filmic institutions during Web 2.0 years remain entrenched in the national whereas the people that power short filmmaking (actors, creators, producers) are increasingly transnational and multilingual. Concerning Ibero-American short film in Web 2.0 While limited budgets and resources for short films might narrow the scope of filming locations and production to a particular nation or region, the (trans)national potential for narrating outside the boundaries of nationhood signal how the Internet age and Web 2.0 ushered forth an era of cosmopolitan digital citizenship in which users can navigate through sites and content across the globe in an instant. Short films always have a distribution probem since they’re usually exclusive to festival circuits, institutional distributors, or not found in mainstream media channels. Through identifying how to pluralize and activate more (trans)national and multilingual filmic metadata, I aim to open pathways to continue to examine how historically nationalized cultural products like short films exist and evolve in online spaces that are accessible to more audiences around the world. What I tried and where we can go from here Per usual, going against the grain gets messy and difficult to articulate, especially when dealing with software that’s dependent on categoric purities and&nbsp; anglocentric informatics. So, I got creative, I asked experts for advice, I tested out methods, and I took the most direct path forward regarding my goal which is to show the importance of both content and material when examining the transnational metadata potential of online objects like short films.&nbsp; So, how can database administrators and online users promote more plurality and diversity of (trans)national short films that is both nuanced and accessible? Look no further than the textual seeds of the Web, metadata. The scales that have been historically tipped toward Anglophone, North American and Western European determinants can begin to incorporate more multilingual and (trans)national searchability for short films that have been largely pigeonholed as institutional national products.&nbsp; [i] Case in point: Sarah McClennen’s Globalization and Latin American Cinema: A New Critical Paradigm (2018) asks a daring question about one of the highest grossing films ever made of its time: “Is Titanic a Mexican film?” Her interrogation centers around the fact that despite the premise of the film set primarily between the U.K. and the U.S. in the Atlantic Ocean, the predominance of the English language amongst the nearly all-white cast, the production funding from the United States, and the director’s Canadian nationality, almost all the filming locations, manual labor on sets, and (post)production labor took place in Mexico (451). [ii] See p. 12 of Pomerantz, Jeffrey. Metadata, MIT Press: 2015. [iii] Cortos De Metraje (CDM) is a plentiful (non-profit, institutional) database (operating out of Málaga, Spain) of Ibero-American short films that features live-action and animated shorts uploaded by users and filmmakers.