New Media History and Theory Randall Packer

Recent Posts

Symposium Hyperessay: On History and Challenges of Social Broadcasting

Vanessa

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 02:50:25 pm

The means of social broadcasting have been constantly evolving, and due to the various tools involved, the purpose of social broadcasting-conveying content to an intended audience-has gone through various challenges posed by the limitations of the tools themselves. Often with the emergence of the new tools, the limitation of the old ones are shattered, but the new model Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay

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Randall Packer

Apr 03, 2018 - 03:08:55 pm

Vanessa, you make an excellent point about the "unfinished" nature of the communications revolution, or as you point out, the promise of social broadcasting. Countering your argument about phatic expression, as I understand small talk that doesn't really amount to much, how does in fact the online viewer engage more deeply in what I refer to as creative dialogue. So you point you make at the end that I think is very important, is how the artist designs the experience to engage the viewer in interesting ways. If you look at Hole in Space, for example, which many would consider the classic work of telematic art and viewer participation: would we consider the reaction of the audience to be phatic? If you were to read a transcript of the back and forth interaction in Hole in Space, it all may sound somewhat everyday and trivial. However, that was the point, I think. To create a free and open space for people to engage. The quality of that engagement was quite dynamic even if the what was said did not have very much useful information. It was the act of communication that was so important. So with the chat space in the Symposium, where there was a great deal of intellectual and phatic discourse, I wonder if we can look at the quality of engagement as an important indicator of its purpose and content. Personally, I felt that the chat was very dynamic, lively, playful, active, encompassing a full range of expression. So I think it would be quite interesting to open up a discussion tonight to examine exactly what constitutes meaningful audience participation in the context of a telematic live performance. I'm not sure anyone has a clear answer but we can certainly discuss! Thank you for raising such important points.

Final Hyperessay: Artist Selection | Refik Anadol

Kapi

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 02:32:54 pm

@ Kapilan Naidu

About the Artist

Refik Anadol is a contemporary media artist that works across a large variety of digital media. Born in Istanbul, Anadol is currently based in Los Angeles, California in the United States where he is a lecturer and visiting researcher in UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts. He holds a master of fine arts degree from University Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay | Process | Research

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Randall Packer

Apr 26, 2018 - 01:41:20 pm

Fascinating overview of the work of Refik Anadol. It's interesting how he is creating generative data works and embedding them into architectural and physical spaces. This kind of post-digital work is becoming more and more prevalent. A few comments: -- The assignment asked for a critique of a specific artwork and your analysis was a general overview of the artist's work and ideas, but without the specificity of an actual work. -- You were also supposed to incorporate references from concepts, artworks, readings, etc., from the class. Your writing is very clear and you have researched the artist in an articulate manner, but you left out some of the main elements of the assignment

Randall Packer

Apr 26, 2018 - 01:43:17 pm

I see now that you included an analysis of a work the previous assignment so I can credit you for that, but the earlier assignments were intended as research for the final hyperessay, which was to include everything.

Symposium Hyperessay- An Unfinished Communications Revolution

Pohsuan

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 01:51:05 pm

@ The Studies of Art, Media and I Have Never Discovered

The symposium which I participated was the first and the last, and Annie Abrahams and Jon Cates, they all demonstrated a performance and talked about their own piece, webcam interaction and glitch art. As a third-space audience, it was a very interesting experience and some of audience talked about online chat culture as well (will be discussed later). Even, the Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay

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Randall Packer

Apr 03, 2018 - 02:43:21 pm

Very thoughtful response and some excellent points. I was particularly impressed with this thought about the online audience:

Interestingly, I think online chat room could be also a kind of unknown trading, and we were all participating. If the purpose of chat room is to have a general consensus, even just a listener, you can still obtain new information through other’s discussion.

The idea of finding new information about the work in the chat space is a very interesting one. Normally the "information" of a performance comes primarily from the stage and the performers, with the audience playing a purely reactive role. However in this case, there was a running commentary from the chat, and since it was positioned in the same space as the performance, it essentially became part of the performance, providing new "information" as you pointed out. Thus the audience had a direct impact on the performance by in a sense providing additional text, language, embellishment. That is what is possible in the third space, how the local and remote can complement one another and create something entirely new. I also liked your description of Annie Abrahams' performance, how the worked honored and celebrated the latencies and distances and made something that was a synthesis of the performers Webcam imagery, as well as their voices and languages. We will talk more about the work in class tonight. Very good research and critique of the Symposium.

Final Research: Artist Selection

Chloe

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 01:16:13 pm

@ I see Technology in Art

Overview

Huang Hsin-Chien is a contemporary new media artist from Taiwan. Huang is expert in large-scale interaction, performing, mechanical apparatus, algorithmic computations and video installations. Now he is also the director of the Digital Content and Technologies Program in National Cheng Chi University in Taiwan, my home university.

He studied mechanical engineering in National Taiwan University. Then he studied Read more →

Categories: Process

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Randall Packer

Apr 06, 2018 - 09:57:40 am

Excellent Chloe, I look forward to reading more about Huang Hsin-Chien. Since you missed our last class, be sure and note the assignment for next week, which is to choose the work(s) of the artist and share with the class.

Randall Packer

Apr 06, 2018 - 09:58:04 am

Also, please be prepared to present your Symposium Hyperessay next week. Thanks.

After Art of the Networked Practice(2018)

Chloe

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 01:16:02 pm

@ I see Technology in Art

Through attending this online symposium at the first and second day, I would like to pick up some works and views that catch my attention.

Dissolved in Station House Opera in 2014

Through the interview with Julian Maynard Smith, the director of Station House Opera, he wants to show that this space is Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay

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Randall Packer

Apr 03, 2018 - 01:38:23 pm

Very interesting and thought provoking hyperessay! I would like to address this statement:

It makes me come up with the point, if people are not building relation, keeping in touch with others or their communities, does it also mean that people might easily disappear or be forgotten in this world?

I thought it was most interesting how you were analyzing the quality of relations, between audience and performer, and between audience members. Perhaps that is the "unfinished communications revolution," how we use the Internet, whether it be performance or dialogue or keynote talks, how can we create an atmosphere of interaction, community, and human relationships that collapse the distances between us. In the third space, as you point out, there is a new role for the viewer, that is, they can comment, they can participate, they can explain, they can laugh, they can complain, they can even indicate when there are technical problems. It is essentially an open, fluid space where the traditional hierarchies can break down. I thought you did an excellent job pointing out how this relationship worked in the Symposium, and your conclusion with the Steve Dixon quote is very appropriate and ties your ideas together nicely.

Final Research Hyperessay: Artist selection

SEUNG

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 12:31:50 pm

@ Seung hyun Kim

이혜정 Lee Hye Jung (aka 이혜ㅈ Yi Heads )

Lee Hye Jung was born in late 1980’s in South Korea. She graduated from the Korea National University of Arts with a degree in Fine arts and has worked in Seoul. She is a media artist usually using live streaming on youtube and her own websites. She is trying to capture disappearing Read more →

Categories: Process

0 comments.

Social Broadcasting: Making a temporary imaginary community sharing interface

SEUNG

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 12:31:42 pm

@ Seung hyun Kim

Interface on the screen

The adobe connect interface was made of video, keynote, Chat, Information and Attendees list windows. The interface was changed from time to time by presenters. Presenters could expand specific window or turn on-off their camera and voice.

Selecting the way to present or absent

It was pretty amazing experience that I participated in online symposium Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay

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Randall Packer

Apr 03, 2018 - 01:23:18 pm

Seung, I am very excited about your discussion of the temporary community that was formed during the Symposium. In fact, Gene Youngblood the media historian would call this an "autonomous reality community," and I think you touched on this idea very closely. In a sense, the distributed audience from around the world formed a community that functioned as a moment of a constructed reality, a constructed space, where dialogue, actions, performance could freely be exchanged. I found your description of the online viewers very interesting also, as a parallel performance, commenting, critiquing, responding, and as you pointed out interpreting what was happening at any given moment. This could never happen in traditional theater, where such audience discourse would be a distraction rather than be complementary. In the third space, the silent chat becomes an accompaniment, which in turn can affect the performance since the performers can see and pay attention, if they want, to the audience reactions. And I thought it was very interesting, how in the discussion, there was a return to more conventional hierarchies. It is true, that with the performance, there is a moment of a new reality, a flattening of hierarchy, a community space where everyone can participate. Excellent work!

Network Art Symposium: A Review

Adrian Tan

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 12:09:48 pm

@ Adrian Tan

ART OF THE NETWORKED PRACTICE SOCIAL BROADCASTING: AN UNFINISHED COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION

This essay takes Matt Adam’s keynote titled “The Here, the Now, the Audience and the Spectator” as an entry point to analysing and critiquing the online third space experience of igaies (intimate glitches across internet error) a live networked performance directed by Jon Cates who Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay

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Randall Packer

Apr 03, 2018 - 01:12:19 pm

Adrian, such a thoughtful and thought provoking analysis of the Symposium. There is much I could comment on, but I would like to focus on your last paragraph, in which you compare the experiences of the local and remote audiences, and make a strong case of how they are both valid in their own unique ways. I couldn't agree more. I am really impressed with the way you positioned in the unfinished nature of the communications revolution. I think this fits into the strong case we have made this semester for the importance of process over something finished, behavioral as opposed to something static, and evolving as opposed to something complete. In thinking about this, you can surmise that the unfinished nature of the Symposium and how it attempted to address the various aspirations of the third space as an arena for global interaction, leaves ample room for new invention, new aspirations, new promise: the work is never finished. I look forward to discussing in more detail: excellent work and I am glad to see you raising more questions and unfinished analysis.

Review of The Art of the Networked Practice Online Symposium

JP

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 10:23:54 am

@ JP's ADM journey

I attended the first day and the third day of The Art of the Networked Practice Online Symposium, which includes the Keynote by Maria Chatzichristodoulou and the Internet Performance by Annie Abrahams and collaborators(Day 1), as well as the Internet Performance by Jon Cates and collaborators(Day 3). This Hyperessay will critique and discuss the certain contents in the symposiums I attended.

Keynote Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay

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Randall Packer

Apr 03, 2018 - 12:53:57 pm

JP, you brought up so many excellent and interesting points. I am glad to see that you caught Maria's keynote address to challenge the idea of the promise of internationalism. She discussed two works that dealt with isolation, refugees, and even death in the Middle East, so see if there are ways that artists can bridge the gap and open up new understandings of these condition. Your description is very well researched, however, I would be curious to know if these works and Maria's keynote deliver a sense of the promise of how the Internet can create meaningful relationships and unveil a new understanding of conditions in troubled locations. Perhaps in a way, the work of Annie Abrahams does speak to the promise? By overcoming the problems and limitations of distance, and by creating something beautiful out of those latencies, perhaps this represents a very positive step forward to the idea of the promise of internationalism? Is it symbolic in some form of the promise of the Internet as a connective tissue between us on some deep human level? And you addressed the performance by Roberto Sifuentes, which as you point out brings a very human element to Internet broadcasting, engaging people remotely with something that is so primal and emotionally powerful. Lastly, I look forward to addressing how the various audiences, local and remote, experienced the Symposium, how those spaces were activated in very different ways, how the local and remote attendees had very different experiences. Thank you for making so many provocative and interesting points!

Symposium Hyperessay: An Unfinished Communications Revolution

Kapi

Tuesday, Apr 03, 2018 - 06:58:49 am

@ Kapilan Naidu

The Art of the Networked Practice online symposium has been one of the few events that has truly challenged my preconceived notions as to what constitutes net art or performance art. Spanning a total of three days and spread across a wide variety of geographical locations, the symposium was a mix of online live performance works, keynote presentations by acclaimed artists Read more →

Categories: Hyperessay

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Randall Packer

Apr 26, 2018 - 01:56:40 pm

Fantastic Kapi! I really appreciate your critique and assessment of the form and concept of the online symposium, as well as how it was impacted by the platform itself. I agree, the most most powerful and transformative element was the audience interaction with the performances and keynotes. As you described, this differs from the traditional conference/performance setting where the audience must be silenced, as passive observers. However, in the case of the chat, the audience is dynamic, active, and engaged as participants, interpreters, and critics, all in real-time. It is also interesting as you point out, that despite the advances in networked technology and telecommunications, it is still profoundly difficult to socially broadcast with simultaneous multiple audio-visual feeds. It's not just a matter of the platforms, it's also contributed by the Internet itself, and the way in which our feeds are routed around the world. We discovered, in fact, that users in Europe were routed through the US before coming back to Singapore, causing serious latencies that undermine the ability to stay synchronous. That particularly affected Annie Abrahams performance, who were mostly situated in Europe. Anyway, it's all an unfinished communications revolutions, and despite the inherent issues, or maybe because of them, it is the artists who move the revolution forward. Excellent piece.