Skateboarding and Its Attachment to Video Cameras - Text 2
The Past and the Collective Imagination
From close analysis of the great quantity of discourses around the VX1000, I have concluded that it achieved its symbolic role in the community through a process of accumulation. A story in Jenkem Magazine entitled “Tracing the History of Skateboarding’s Most Famous Camera” explains that what caught the attention of members of the community was primarily the VX1000’s practicality. Its great portability (its light weight and handle on top) and low cost, the possibility of adding a fisheye adapter and its file formats, which facilitated archiving, were all elements appreciated by users. “The VX arrived at the perfect time to furnish a solution to an industry in need,” Jenkem informs us[5] — at a time when the production of skateboarding videos was on the verge of “exploding”. As a result, numerous official skateboarding films were made with this camera between 1999 and 2009.
