Category: Experimental Interaction – G4

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Final Project: Elemental Hunt

Group members: Joseph, Frederick, Samantha, Reuben and Jiaying

First Week

References: Running Man, Pokemon Go

We were inspired by Running man as they create a narrative and by having games to help them uncover the mystery.  They also have a segment where each player have a name tag and they need to ensure that it not removed by others in order for them to survive throughout the game.

We also took reference from Pokemon Go. We intend to create a map through the application called World Brush. World Brush is an AR experience that lets users draw for others to discover. The drawings are only visible  at the location where it was created. This app helps to merge the virtual and real world.

Initially the location we wanted to use was Chinese Garden. And with the buildings and sculptures being  very Chinese Asian style. We felt that we could towards this theme.  So the players would look for treasures such as orbs to increase their powers. And the power help them to challenge the final boss and to win the game.

Different Elements: Water, Fire, Earth and Air.

However, we require the groups to be connected to facebook live. Hence, wifi would be a problem. Our project relies heavily on the internet. Thus, we decide to change the location. We though of places like shopping malls. However, we are not sure if we could use those spaces and we are also afraid that the wifi signal is not strong. Therefore, we decide to work within the school. So there are three spaces that we thought would be possible, Chinese Heritage Centre’s Garden, The Hive and ADM. Our first choice is the garden we thought that it is the closet link to Chinese Garden. However, the garden was under renovation. And the nearest location was Chinese Heritage Centre.

– 4 groups with 3 players
– Each group would be given a element to represent themselves
– Different Stages
– Used of World Brush to draw out the map (find treasures)
– They have to collect as many treasures to increase their power
– Mini games and quest along the way
– Complete those games to get to the next stage
– Used of Facebook live to connect with the game masters.

Week 2 ( Trial Run)

Problems: We had our trail run one week before the actual game. Our initial location was Chinese Heritage Centre but the building turns out to be a learning centre. It was very quiet and the amount of space we can use for the game was limited. It makes us afraid that making noise would not be allowed. Because of this, we had to find a new location and rethink the narrative.
We decided to change the location to the Hive. The looks of the building reminds us of the bee hives and thus we create a narrative based on the bees.

Narrative: Queen Bee is killed by the assassinator, and the players had to find out and kill the assassinator. If a player successful kill the assassinator, he/she take the throne as the new ruler. However, the assassinator wants to kill everyone to be the ruler, be careful!

We started by going around hive to find some out the interesting features. The hive have a total of 8 levels.There is a lot of public spaces and it suitable for us the run and make noise.

Before our trail run, we had to draw the map on the World Brush app. However, we had some issues. After drawing the map, we realised that the outcome did not match what we drew. The app could not recognise some areas and the drawing shifted. Other difficulties was that the map overlapped each other. The drawings on level 1 could be seen from the over levels above. Other thing we realised was that it was the submission period. It was difficult to find people that would participate in our game.

How we solve it: After the trial run, we felt that the mini games are taking up too much time and the players may be bored of it. Thus, we scale down the game and allow it to flow faster. And because of that we reduce it to 2 person per team. And to solve the world brush app problem, we dare the paths level by level, with each path ending and starting at the stairs. Then the player would have to draw the conclusion and link the dots at places without the drawn path. We also separate the routes by using different colours. Each colour represent the route for each element.

Final Week

Roles of the audience and group member: The fours groups will be accompanied by the team masters, the role of the team masters was to help facilitate the games and to record down the process. And one of the group member is the spy in the game.

Stages: There are three stages. The game starts of with the player receiving a code. In their groups, they have to crack the code in order to receive hints of where the power(element)  is located. After they have collected their element,  they will receive the last mission. Which is to find out who is the assassinator. Half way through the game, the MPC will announced that assassinator is among them.

First Stage: These codes were inspired by the mobile phone key pads. These codes will reveal their element.

Second Stage: This video shows one of the player finding their element.

During the execution day, there were a couple of unexpected scenarios. First would be the waiting time. After the participants got to their location, they had to wait for the game master to send out the mission. However during our trial run, the five of us try out our own game.  We are aware of what we are suppose to do and where are those elements hidden at. On the actual day, there is a group who had trouble finding the elements, because of that the flow of the game was interrupted.

Secondly, we did not set any rules for our players. We allowed the participants determine how they want to win against their fight with another teams. There is a one girl who is wearing long sleeves and a watch. Therefore, we hid her waist band under the watch. Which makes it harder for the opponent.

Lastly, we did not expect our assassinator, Reuben, to be killed through collaboration. Our initial plan was to let him survive till the end, we thought he would win as he is clear of the rules. But he was betrayed by the other group members.

Third Space – We made us of Facebook live function for the players to stay connected. The purpose of this function was mainly for the final segment. Where the groups could see the other group live video and find out where they are hiding at. There is also a point where 2 groups joined the live steam, and try to find out where each other is hiding at. Our element hunt was also conducted on the virtual space. They are using the world brush app to find there elements.

Glitch – Due to the poor internet connection in hive, glitch can be seen on the live videos itself. There was some point was the lag in the audio. Because of that, the action and sound do not match.  We made use of live stream function, the background noise could create confusion, it make it harder for the players to differentiate whether the noise is coming from the live stream or the environment they were in.

DIWO – We did not set any rules for the player. Therefore, are allowed to determine how they want to win the game. There are groups that team up to kill others. However, there is also a group that got betrayed. Thus, all their decision resulted in the outcome of the game.

Reflection

I felt that this final project was very interesting. As we get to incorporate the concepts we learn in class. It was an accomplishment to create a interactive game together with my group mates. The feedbacks we get from the participants was although it was tiring, but they enjoy themselves. I felt happy when they say that. I was really afraid the players would get bored while playing the game. To my surprised, they got really competitive and are willing to run and kill each other.

Some points that we could improve on might be having a strong narrative and setting a few rules. Such as no hiding of waistband.

Despite all the problems and difficulties was faced, we still complete the game successfully and also of those feedbacks given by the participants , I think our game was success, And the most important part was that all the players including my group had fun. A big thank you to all the participants and my group members. I really enjoy myself while doing this project.

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Hyperessay: Online Symposium

The online symposium was held on 29st-31st March. I attended the first and third day of symposium. I got to witness how far art has grew over the years with technology.

Day 1

Maria Chatzichristodoulou started off by talking about the telematics art. She provided a clear key definitions of what telematic and interactive performances is. She mentioned ” It transform the screen into a live encounter, in the sense it joins the space of the live performance and the audience, making them co-performers.” She talked about how the social have grown over the years into a global democratic culture, where artist from different location come together to create a art/performance via the internet. Which challenges the traditional linear way of creating a piece of art.

After Maria Chatzichristodoulou’s keynote,  Annie Abrahams expanded on that idea and collaborated with 5 other people to put up a live performance. Her collaborators come from different countries, where they connected through Third Space using Adobe Connect on that day itself.

When they first started this performance, I do not understand anything. I thought there was a lag/ hang when all 6 of them closes there eyes and no sound was produced. After a while, I realised that the performance shows Annie Abraham’s way of creating third space where her co- performers and herself come together.

In the online performance, lagging was observed. They have to accept the disruption and make do with the imperfection. I felt that it was tough for them to create a live performance in third space, as they could not control these unforeseen circumstances. There is only one chance, they could not redo or restart it, therefore had to embraced the glitches and lagging. And there was a point of time where the Annie Abrahams microphone was not working, she cannot hear any sound.

This performance needed collaboration and compromise. Which emphasised the concept of DIWO and Third Space. Where many artists come together to complete an artwork.

Day 3

The live performances started off with 2 princesses with filters over their faces. This performance reminds me of our video selfie assignment, where we have to create an alter ego. I thought this performance bring across the message of our digital identities.  How a person conceals her identity, and how she wants the society to view her.

After that, the performance moved on to Roberto Sifuentes. He is seen with leeches on his body and face. I felt that this performance stood out the most. There were blood flowing down, yet he remain motionless. His performances involved ceding total artistic and physical control. he remain motionless the  the lady had the freedom to place the leeches at where ever she’s wants to. who  I thought it will be more interesting if the placing of leeches is open to the audience.

I felt that the performance by Roberto Sifuentes is similar to Yoko Ono’s Cut piece. Where the audience had the control to cut off as much cloths as the wish too.

In my opinion, I felt that the symposium could be more interactive if the audiences could participate in the performance, eg. the leech or maybe even asking the internet audience where to place the leech. Because we do not know if Roberto Sifuentes is in cahoots with his assistant.

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Micro Project 7- Video Selfie

For micro project 7, we were asked to mimic an artist’s persona, I knew who I wanted to be. Plaaastic!

Plaaastic is a Vietnamese artist who is famous because of how she portray herself on social media. She has depression and is a victim of bullying.

All her images show her persona. Her with black lips and not smiling. Most of her images of Instagram are gothic and sad photos. Because of her personality, all her images bring out the meaning behind it.

Certain spaces provokes the a person’s alter ego.  Personally, I feel most comfortable at home and that is where my secondary personality appears.

This video selfie helps to alter my identity because it gives me the opportunity to portray myself in a way that is different from my true self. People always see me as a happy and cheerful person. However, this video shows a totally opposite of who I really am. The used of filters and makeup which helps to blur out the real and virtual, which conceal my real identity. If I were to show this video to a person, they might not be able to recognise the character.

 

 

 

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Research Critique 3- Glitch & The Act Of Destruction

As described by Menkman, R. (2009) in Glitch Studies Manifesto, ‘The glitch is a wonderful experience of an interruption that shifts an object away from its ordinary form and discourse’.

For micro project 5 ,my group decided to used styrofoam as our medium. Using a few discarded piece of styrofoam from the recycle box,  we connect them and form our own artwork. We used 2 hot guns and heat the foams, the medium is then transformed from its original form. The outcome of this work is unpredictable.

The process of destroying and destruction could usually be done in a few secs. However, if you watch the video, you will realised that the styrofoam takes some time for it to disintegrates.  It started by forming uneven textures and after a while, it slowly disintegrates. In order to take better notice of the changes, we had to fast forward the video.  Another thing that I found interesting was that the styrofoam disappeared, we thought it would leave some bits and pieces.

I felt that destruction refers to the process of causing something to change from its ordinary form, be it good or bad. For our case, the end product was a pleasant surprise.

According to Randall Packer, Conversation with Jon Cates (2014) Hyperallergic they mentioned “They might be glitched, and they might be imperfect and noisy, and that might be what attracts us or me to those systems.”

I thought that this is very relatable as glitch art is more widely seen in recent years.  Glitch is no longer rejected by people, in today’s world, we are more open to art. We do not need to have a perfectly painted work for it to be art. What we once understood as glitch is now a new form of art.

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Micro Project 4 – Glitch

Original Image

First Edit:
I glitch it with photoshop to increase the noise level of the image. I also tried to distort my hand by swirling the image.

Second Edit:
May Thu used photoshop and added some oil painting effect.

Third Edit :
Brendan edited the colours. It reminds me of Vincent Van Gogh paintings.

Final Edit:
I pixelate the entire image.

There are no rules or boundaries, we are allowed to edit the photos however we want to. Each of us have a different style and we have no control as of what the next person will be doing.

At the end of the transformation, I could barely recognise my hand. It looks more like a distorted chicken. I felt that this project is similar to our DIWO assignment as it is a artwork made by the 3 of us. Which prompted us to realise this effort was truly collaborative.

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Research Critique 2- The Third Space

The third space has been compared, by Randall Packer, to “a space of invention and possibility, like lucid dreaming, where participants might assume their avatar identities, engage in post-human, cyborgian manifestations, or perhaps reinvent the world in the image of their own making”.

The third space refers simply to the “networked-ness” of relationships – be they in the form of interpersonal relationships or virtually collaborative performances. To “assumer avatar identities” and “reinvent the world in the image of their own making” is, in less bombastic language, simply called imagination. It is human nature to imagine – in fact humans are distinguished from other sentient creatures by our ability to project unto the future, a process that would be impossible without imagination. So to suggest that it’s “post-human” and “cyborgian” is sensationalist at best, and at worst, simply inaccurate.

We don’t behave the way we are around friends when we are around our in-laws; we don’t behave the way we are around our spouse when we are around our boss; we don’t even behave the way we are on Facebook when we are on LinkedIn. These are all different ways in which we “assume an avatar identity”, and herein lies the criticism of Packer’s article, because the inhibition of the third space should be viewed not in absolute terms, but along a spectrum.

Of course there have been cases of people living their lives on Second Life at the expense of their real lives to tragic consequences, but these are at the extreme end of the spectrum and should be viewed as what they are: anomalies.

Reading Packer’s article, with his apocalyptic declarations that “the laws of the known world have been all but abandoned in the third space”, one gets a foreboding sense of pessimism; that society today is at a sorry state of evolution. But i would argue that to live in the third space, to have the ability to “inhibit a swath of networked space, no longer constrained to the singularity of a single moment or place” should be viewed instead as a great enabler that has allowed us to collapse previously insurmountable boundaries

As i type this in my room, i am looking at my boyfriend who’s in Taiwan via Skype while messages are constantly coming in on Whatsapp from friends scattered around the world. Just the other day, I “attended” Jay Chou’s concert despite being at home in my pajamas because it seemed everyone at that concert were posting live stories on Instagram.

In that sense, I would align my views more closely with those of Maria Chatzichristodoulo as her article on Cyberformance paints the “third space” in a more optimistic light.

Written in 2012, she is prescient in her prediction that streaming platforms will “become more ubiquitous and embedded within our daily lives”, and that there will be greater “use of Skype, VOIP and other internet telephony protocols to converse with family and friends”. In fact, the most popular messaging apps today (WeChat, Line, Whatsapp) all have call functions and they have proliferated to the degree that we take the closeness and intimacy that this third space provides for granted.

From having to wait for a myriad number of factors to converge before we could meet a loved one residing overseas, we are now complaining when the Facetime connection is poor. The extent to which we are able to touch, feel and connect with another person remotely is so embedded that it is no longer possible to imagine a world without it.

Where her prediction falls short is with regard to performances moving towards a virtual world. Performances have been increasingly consumed online, but a live performance being streamed online is still not the same as a performance that exists solely in and for the virtual world.

And as for collaborating with one another remotely in the third space, it is telling that Paul Sermon’s Telematic Dreaming does not sound dated despite it having been conducted 25 years ago. While the technology has so greatly advanced that anybody can easily do it now – for our micro project 3, Kai Ting and I made a symmetrical drawing despite being in different locations – the demand for such performances have not kept up.

That’s because performances are emotive experiences after all, and the feel of a live performance will never, in my opinion, be exceeded by that of a virtual one. The knowledge that “very single moment of a theatrical experience is entwined with the loss of a specific and unique relational experience that cannot be preserved or reproduced exactly so” is irreplaceable.

So I am, in Packer’s words, a “digital native”, and I am proud of it. But i reject his notion that we “cannot separate the real and the virtual”. The third space is indeed “an integral fact of everyday life in the 21st century”, but just because we embrace it does not mean we are consumed by it.

 

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Micro Project III

Posted by Kai Ting on Wednesday, 31 January 2018

The objective of this project was to make use of the third space to create an interactive artwork. To me, a third space to me refers to the ability to connect to people in the space regardless of the location. For instance, connection over a phone call, or Skype.

For our third space micro- project, Kai Ting and I took advantage of the split screen to create a symmetry drawing.

We initially had the idea of playing tick tac toe. However, we realised that we were unable to create a symmetrical template for the game hence we scrapped off that idea.

Kai Ting and I started the activity in different rooms seperately. However, we faced some technical issue with our connection therefore we had to troubleshoot it by moving to the same room while sitting at two different ends.

Besides, we tried to make our idea more interactive by introducing an activity where both parties had to create a drawing to mirror each other. In order to match each other drawing to create a perfect symmetrical shape, each party has to pay close attention and follow each other closely.

The poor internet connection was a major obstacle. Due to that, we had trouble coordinating as it was lagging. Another difficulties we had was the time constraint as we had to come up with an idea within the 30mins. As a result we were unable to practice our concept fully.

Overall, we felt that this activity was a good learning experience for us to understand the concept of the third space and how it works. The third space is important as it serves as a platform for people to connect with one another.

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Research Critique 1: CrowdSourcing (Micro Project 2)

“It can collide with mainstream culture but also exist deeper in the networked shadows, in accordance to the needs of whoever participates at any given time. It is creativity with a radical edge, asking questions through peer engagement, as it loosens up infrastructural ties and frameworks. It is a contemporary way of collaborating and exploiting the advantages of living in the Internet age.”

Inspired by the above quote from Garrett, we aimed to pursue his interpretation of D.I.W.O. in the most literal sense.

For our project, we decided to collaboratively produce a simple piece of artwork with an Internet audience. The mechanics of our project was simple: starting with a blank canvas, our Instagram viewers will – through a series of votes on our account – choose what is the next item for us to draw.

The voting between 2 simple choices – examples included “moon or sun”, “sand or grass” – could only be done via Instagram. This in turn meant only those viewing that Instagram account at that point in time were able to participate. We were literally “asking questions through peer engagement”, with the final artwork created being “in accordance to the needs of whoever participated at any given time”.

With Instagram being arguably the most influential social media platform for millennials right now, it is the most “contemporary way of collaborating and exploiting the advantages of living in the Internet age.”

As the voting progressed, we realised that while we have ceded the decision making to the voters, we still retained a large amount of creative control of what was actually drawn.

For instance, while the voters might have decided on “moon” instead of “sun”, there were many ways we – as the artist – could have interpreted this. While we eventually drew a simple crescent moon in the sky, ideas brainstormed along the way included using the surface of the moon as the setting for our artwork; drawing a rocket on its way to the moon; and even aliens.

Final Artwork

That prompted us to realise this effort was truly collaborative in the spirit of Garrett as it has flipped art making on its head. Whereas traditional art making installed the artist at its head and with it – full autonomy and control – this project ceded the decision making to the audience.

Yoko Ono’s Conceptual Art Performance

While not to the same extent as Yoko Ono (her’s involved ceding total artistic and physical control), she remain motionless and the audience had the freedom to cut off as much cloths as they wish. I would argue that our project is more in line with the spirit of what Garret has described as it is more collaborative.

After all, D.I.W.O. stands for Do-It-With-Others, so it is imperative that the artist also has some artistic license and creative control. Otherwise, the artist would just be another cog in the machine producing exactly whatever was dictated of him, which would tragically be the very thing that inspired the emergence of D.I.W.O. in the first place.