Appreciating art is nice and all, but being part of the process is even better. To be able to influence and play a part in creating something is what makes interactive media so interesting.
Projections are one of the many tools used in interactive media projects, and for Golan Levin’s Augmented Hand Series, it really came in /handy/.
This project was done by interactive media artists Golan Levin, Chris Sugrue and Kyle McDonald, and what it does is virtually distort the participant’s hand in real time; put your five-fingered hand into the box and boom, you get an extra finger on screen (and you can wiggle it too).
To be able to make someone believe what is not physically real, to make them look up at a digitally distorted version of their hand and think, “woah, look at how weird my hand is” is what I like about this artist’s work.
When we think of art, a piece that showcases beauty and perfection comes to mind; a flawless master piece that shows no mistake. Art is creation, but it can also be made with destruction, and that is what we set out to do for this mini-project.
My group decided to create a video showing the process of destruction of a block of styrofoam through means like cutting, stabbing, dissolving, and crushing. While the process was mainly physical, we also played around with the shakiness of the camera shots and added certain filters to further emphasis the chaos that can be destruction.
With every new method of disfiguring done to the styrofoam, the intensity of destruction increases. There was really no wrong way to do it; we were converting a smooth block of styrofoam into a state of imperfection, full of holes, scratches, and dents. There was a point where by the camera was too close to the block that it got hit, causing shakiness in the shot. Normally, this imperfection would mean the shot would have to be retaken or edited out. However, in this case, we chose to embrace this accident, incorporating it into the video.
The results of this accident actually brings out the unpredictability and chaoticness that is destruction. Accepting and embracing this error helps to capture the raw visualisation of destruction. As described by Menkman, R. (2009) in Glitch Studies Manifesto, ” the beautiful creation of a glitch is uncanny and sublime; the artist tries to catch something that is the result of an uncertain balance, a shifting, un-catchable, unrealized utopia connected to randomness and idyllic disintegrations.”
In addition to carrying out various methods of destruction and keeping all the mistakes made during the process, we also added a few filters and effects while editing the video. In Randall Packer’s, Conversation with Jon Cates (2014), Jon mentioned that, “they might be imperfect and noisy, and that might be what attracts us or me to those systems,” to which I agree with, thus leading to the decisions to make edits to our video. For the first few shots, a filter was added to make the footage look blotchy. As the video progresses, we changed to a negative filter, making everything look dark and distorted. The unnatural colours add a sense of surrealism and fear to the work, as viewing destruction would make one feel. Some of the footage was also done in time-lapse, speeding up the process of deterioration of the styrofoam. This sped up process allows us to take better notice that something is indeed happening, building the intensity of chaos and destruction.
Overall, I’ve learned that that art is not just about creating something perfect, but also about embracing noise and mistakes made. The world we live in is riddled with imperfection, and we tend to cover them up, but as artists, creating something with these raw imprefections can leave us in awe and captivate the attention of others, just as any other artwork.
Today, we learned how to create glitches in images, and this is a glitched portrait of myself. With four people in a group, we took turns editing and distorting one another’s portraits.
Since everyone could edit each photo as they pleased, there’s no way for the subject to control the process or know what the final image would look like. This mini-project is somewhat similar to a Do-It-With-Others (DIWO); There is a lack of control on the creation of the glitched image as everyone is free to edit, warp, and distort the portrait, working together to create the artwork.
For this portrait, it gets grainier and more distorted as it goes through each group member, but up till the second last image, we can still make out the outline of the hand and other elements. The last edit, however, with the enlarged cells, makes the portrait completely unrecǫ̴̢͇̙͓͕̲̳͂̂̊̏͞͡ͅgnisable. If anything, we can only make out the dark patch in the bottom-right corner to be my jeans.
Overall, I think this glitch could be improved (ironically, considering how I used to think that glitches were mostly accidental errors), by making the finally product retain certain key visuals, like the hand, while keeping the distorted look.
Nonetheless, no one has full control over the outcome of each portrait, and that’s alright;
it simulates the interesting inconș̸̪̖̻̳̾̓́̋̉͊͟͜͡i͔͔̺̱̍̉̍͆̌̾̇̕͜s̴̨͔͙͚̼̖̣̩̅̉̿͂̃͋̎̏͘͟ṯ̨̠̟̩̠̪̬̦͋́̉̿̀̈̄͞͡é̡̨͔̲̗͈̟̰̝̗̔͆̂͌̆͌̕͠ṋ̡̨̛͇̼͔͎̐̑̎̓̄̏͂͊č̩̠̤̱̞̿͂̎̌͡į̷̢̰̰͚̜̖̬͛̊̀͑̇͞e̷͚̘͓̯̖͈̥͂͂̍͐͗̔̉͐̅͢͝s̛̭͚̞̱̗̝̗̹̤͗͂͒̑̃̕̚͟ ĉ͕̩͙͈̩̪̃̊̀͂̕a̪̮͖͈̺̜̍͛̀̏͌̑́̕͘u͍̣͉̰̞͉̹͈̍́̾̃̅͐̀ṡ̢̧̮̺̤̞̰͐̄̍̍͑̕̚͞͞ͅe̵̡͓̼̩̥̪͑̿̍͑͌̐̃͟͡d̶͍̣̳̺̘̗̀͊̂͊̆̍͝ b̡̧̪̯̜̼͚̯̼̈͑́̆̀̆̂̿͢y̷̨̟̰͉͍̳͑͗̓̓̔͐̆ g̨̱̟̥̩͉̃͒̎͒̑l̵̮̪͍̣̫̃̾͛̌̄̓͡͞i̛͎̺̦̪̝̎̈́́͂͡͞t̷̡̟̮̪̠̳̘̙̐͌̈́̇̎́͘͘͝c̡͓͓̱͔̈̊̈̎͂̀̚͝h̸͕̹͓̦̫̹͕̭̜̏̌̋̐̀̄̔͑͠͝į̤̞̜̼̃̊̾͑͊̆́̾͝͞ͅn̴̛̬͓̥͚̮̈̅͑̀̈g͖̯͍̼̰͚̹͊͌̌̂̾͋̎̂̏͢.̶̢͔̮̗͉̺͑̈͒͟͞͠ͅ
