Looking into IMJ, reading the directions! A digital story critique

http://www.zachwhalen.net/posts/imj-a-web-based-tool-for-visual-culture-macroanalytics/

What the heck is macroanalytics, visual culture and why would you make a movie barcode? 

While completing a recent Ds106 assignment I stumbled on this web page that takes movie stills and turns them into bar codes, montages and plots. Cool right- Well if you follow the directions...Thankfully I did read a little after the fact of course, and I found this blog entry by the creator. It would have been very resourceful to read it prior to creating the assignment, but hindsight is 50/50 right! 

Microanalytics:  (from the freedictionary.com)

n. pl. mi·cro·a·nal·y·ses (-sēz′)

The chemical identification and analysis of extremely small quantities of matter.

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mi′cro·an′a·lyst (-ăn′ə-lĭst) n.

mi′cro·an′a·lyt′ic (-ăn′ə-lĭt′ĭk), mi′cro·an′a·lyt′i·cal adj.

Visual Culture: 

Visual culture works towards a social theory of visuality, focusing on questions of what is made visible, who sees what, how seeing, knowing and power are interrelated. It examines the act of seeing as a product of the tensions between external images or objects, and internal thought processes. (Georgetown.edu)

Involvement: 

There is a lot of involvement, in this piece. From the creation of the IMJ site, to the expected users, and then of course the users that are using the site. The creator created the site because there was not a user friendly site available, he created it for his students, and the general public to use. I love the idea that he has made it so simple, but then also offers his blog page on the creations for deeper understanding, furthering the involvement by all the users. Because the site also incorporates three different outputs, I think that it reaches a further audience, and creates greater usability and involvement. 

Literacy Dimensions

The literacy dimensions of the blog post are easy to identify, and it becomes obvious that it is written by a teacher. Though I am not really a tech person, Whalen uses terminology that is easy to connect to and offers explanation for those that are not, making decoding and using quite easy. Whalen's person is apparent, as an educator in a digital affinity he does not claim professorship, leadership and shows that he is open to learning from those that use his site, read his blog by asking for ideas, suggestions and improvements to the program. The quickness of the program and the multiple outputs allows the user to make meaning and understand the program by just playing around a bit. 

I don't think that there is much that I would change, I always like to have a how to video, but the instructions are so well laid out that there is really no need. Where does one find this kind of stuff, would be a section that I might add, I think that it is important to keep the participant engaged, so perhaps a few links to other similar users or what other people are doing with this technology.  

The technology is easy enough, and l was pleased to see that even Whalen used the program to chart color change over a period of Van Gogh's work, it gives yet another interesting aspect to talk about in art fused with 21st c skills and technology. I am going to have to try it again, this time with better understanding as I have read the instructions, I expect that I will have a much better end product.  

What other uses do you foresee with this technology and program? What film or artist would you IMJ?