Final Project – Provocative Objects

PDF: Final Project – Provocative Objects (Ashley)

 

Videos used in the installation:

Bellwire in situ:

Participants reactions in class:

 

Main references:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayZIxo3TeXM

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-buzz-wire-game-arduino/

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/connecting-arduino-to-processing/all

Glitch tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHN2GSkAP8

Stopwatch tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd9o62x_6pY&t=209s

Line animation tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYWGWATVWVI

The Merits and Demerits of Grading on a Bell Curve

Research Critique 6 – Destructive Games

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fd9CWNO-B2z2KdnrQeM09APYvlVEcCwb-fpYFEav9I0/edit?usp=sharing

What is the main purpose of the concept of destruction in the arts?

Destruction is the action or process of causing so much damage to something that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired.

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.”

― Pablo Picasso.

With regards to the destruction in the arts, my personal interpretation of the quote from Picasso are of the following:

Image from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/453596993697960904/?lp=true

1. Destroying old ideas to create something new and of higher quality

An artist’s ideas and design process are constantly evolving, and without forgoing or destroying previous ideas, the artist would not be able to move forward to create something that is better than before. For example, a product designer will have to choose one final version to work on, forgoing and destroying the previous ideas

Image from http://www.mr-dt.com/materials/paperandboard.htm

2. Destroying the natural and original appearance of materials to create something useful

The original state is destroyed to be valued as a new product, for example, paper. It goes through the process of papermaking which completely destroys the appearance of a tree. Additionally, when we write or draw on the paper, we destroy the original empty appearance of the paper in order to create something that is of higher value to us.

Image from https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/10/banksy-painting-spontaneously-shreds/

3. Destroying one’s work to create value (to send a message, or to create social interactions, etc.)

  • Iconoclasm
  • Banksy is an anonymous artist and his works are worth millions at auctions. He installed a shredder machine in the frame of his painting and activated it once it was sold at the auction. It sends a message and creates discussion about art auctions, where artists don’t get much even if people are willing to pay for ridiculous amounts of money. The destruction of something valuable (to its audience) causes a panic at first but is seen as something more valuable now with more meaning attached to it.
  • The Destructive Tug-of-War game from the reading “Destructive Games: Creating Value by Destroying Valuable Physical Objects” is a game where each player places a money note into the laser cutter, and then tries to direct the laser into the other player’s bill. Despite destroying the note, many of the players came forward with positive responses saying that the destroyed note created social interactions with others as they use the destroyed note as an interesting topic to talk about.

According to the reading, it was mentioned that while the primary objective of engineering (or art) is to create, artists and researchers have occasionally reversed this main underlying principle and explored destruction. Therefore, they created destructive games as a way to explore destruction. It is defined as a game that results in an object that is owned by a player or a valuable object being destroyed.

The robot DESU 100 is named after the acronym of DEstruction and SUicide. It explores the question, “Are humans tempted to destroy robots?” The DESU 100 robot is a metal cube with an arm that moved autonomously when it drove around and played a melody to indicate its current destruction status. Next to the button on a pedestal is a label that reads “Please do not press”.

By pushing the button, the robot will hit itself immediately with its arm, giving a direct response to the player’s action. Besides the visual appearance of the robot, every user-controlled hit also changes the overall behaviour of the robot. The more damaged the robot is, the more destructive it behaves. Its arm starts to wave, to hitting the floor and eventually hitting itself. The melody gets less harmonic and the driving behaviour becomes less fluently, which strengthens the impression of destruction.

What effect does irreversible consequences have on the participants of the artwork?

Traditional games are worth playing because it produces a positive net balance; the value of engaging in the game is larger than not engaging in it. It produces enough value (which is fun) to justify the expense in time.

Unlike traditional games, physically destructive games contain events of material loss in the equation. These increase the risk of running into a negative net value. Therefore, a physically destructive game has to produce enough value to outweigh the loss from the destruction. According to the reading, these are the following qualities to construct an effective destructive game

1. Irreversible Consequences

It adds on to the excitement as the player cannot undo their actions. There is no going back once they decided to play the destructive game.

2. Destruction in front of an audience

To show that the destruction is intentional rather than accidental.

3.Using the destroyed object as a messenger

What kind of value is created from destroying the object? What kind of messages are sent to the audience?

Irreversible consequences engage the player to think about their actions in the case of DESU100. By pressing the button, the player contributes to the destruction of the robot. Knowing that the robot cannot be brought back to its original form, the participant has to think carefully whether they want to press the button.

For the first player, they can only assume that the intended consequence is the robot hitting itself by seeing the position of the arm. They press the button anyway to see what happens to the robot.

After seeing what has happened, the following players have the choice to damage the robot even further or do nothing. I would imagine one to question themselves whether they should press the button after seeing the robot hitting itself, or thinking that since the robot is already damaged, there is no difference whether they decide to press the button or not.

 

What value does destruction bring to the artwork?

Although the function of DESU 100 is to destroy itself, some of the participants felt sympathy for DESU 100, saying that it is cruel that it is forced to destroy itself. However, each player has a choice to press the button and the only obstacle is the instruction saying politely not to push the button (“Please do not press the button”). Participants still did it anyway as the satisfaction of pushing the button to watch the robot destroy itself outweighs not pushing the button and the sympathy felt for the robot.

This is because humans are controlled by two drives: The life drive (Eros) which strives for creation, and the death drive which strives for destruction. Fulfillment of the creation of destruction leads to the feeling of pleasure.

Therefore, it makes us question whether an inanimate object with perceived animacy deserves to be destroyed in order to feel a sense of satisfaction.

 

Project Development Drawings

  1. How does your audience experience your project?

The participant will have to complete a game of buzz wire loop game and is promised a prize if they hit the targeted timing. However, the twist at the end after completing the game is the bell curve adjustment to the initially targeted timing. A participant who has managed to hit the initial timing will not receive a prize due to the adjusted timing. A participant who did not manage to hit the initial timing or adjusted timing will not receive any prize too. At the end of the game, we encourage our participants to protest online by posting a photo of our game accompanied with the hashtag “#stopcurvingmygrades” (may change the hashtag) to raise awareness of the bell curve system and also to advertise our game for more people to participate.

  1. Is it for a single person to engage with your project or for multiple participants concurrently?

It is meant for one person at a time.

  1. What is the interaction or situation you are creating for your audience?

We wanted to simulate the bell curve grading system which is present in our school. The participant puts in the effort to hit the targeted timing in order to receive a prize as promised by the system. It represents the effort that students put in in order to get a good grade and recognition for their efforts. The adjustment at the end of the game represents the bell curve grading system, which limits the amount of As that is given out to students. By engaging our participants to protest online, it is a form a DIWO, where we work with the participants to spread the message.

  1. What is the intention of this interaction?

We wanted the participants to experience the unfairness of the bell curve grading system which is present in many of the schools today. After experiencing, we wanted the participants to work together with us to protest online, so as to raise awareness and to express our unhappiness of the system.

Micro-Project 3 – Together Split

left hand v right hand

For micro project 3, we were tasked to create a collaborative performance that involves split-screen video chat features on social media. We decided to use the group video chat feature on Instagram as we were already familiar with the platform. 

Our initial plan was to form a face using parts of our face to perform a series of facial expressions.

Draft for the first idea

This was hard to execute as we were not able to “connect” our faces together on the group chat to form a face. We then decided to tell a narrative about a pair of hands, and how the owner is unable to control them and is more like a spectator instead. 

We performed it in the ADM building at different locations and coordinated our movements based on what we see on our screens. We synced our screens to show the same position before we started the performance. The objective of this performance was to entertain our viewers and also to see if we could coordinate without being physically next to each other. 

Our performance tells the story of the two hands, with one being playful and the other being more obedient. Our groupmate positioned on the top of the screen is the owner of the hands, while the rest of us acted as the hands of the owner. The owner acts as if she is a spectator of her own hands by showing her emotions through her facial expressions. The hands are able to cross boundaries (the screens) as they punch and wrestle each other. Even though we were all in different places, all three of our screens connected as one to form the third space.

The performance was improved with sound effects from the Superzoom feature on Instagram. The combination of sound and the video helps to tell the story in a more entertaining way. 

Our performance had a simple storyline but it is hard to execute as we had a limited amount of time. Even though we had rehearsed multiple times, the video still had mistakes as it was hard to coordinate through the third space. Firstly, we were not able to connect the hands properly as the dimensions of our phone are different, and it was hard to see if we were connected properly through our own screens as we were positioned in an awkward position physically. Secondly, we were only communicating through the screen, so it was hard to direct each other on the positioning of our hands through only verbal instructions. Even though we were not able to connect the hands as expected, we were happy with the outcome as we managed to bring some laughter to the class with our performance. We were still able to tell the story despite the difficulties.

This performance made me think about the possibilities of collaboration with people from all over the world. In this day and age, there is no need for creators to be present physically to collaborate together. We are able to interact with each other through the internet where we can share ideas and create new things that challenge our current outlook of the world, improving our everyday lives. We are now not limited to our locations as we can  all collaborate through the third space online (which can be platforms which are already readily available to us, e.g. social media, online telecommunication platforms)

reflection

Out of all the 3 Micro-Projects, Which project did you feel you had the most creative control? Why?

Personally, I feel that in terms of the intended outcome of the micro-projects, it would be micro-project 3. Our group and I planned, rehearsed, and performed what we set out to do. Even though it was group work, I felt that we had the same vision of performing the final piece together, therefore still being able to control the outcome of our work.

As for micro-project 1, we were not able to control the final outcome of the #1010adm third space, and the final collection of secrets in micro-project 2 which was not contributed from us. 

In terms of creativity, I feel that micro-project 1 gave me the least control as we were only limited to ADM and also had a time limit. Even though the pictures did give us a sense of belonging to the place, the pictures on the #1010adm gives off a feeling that they were rushed. 

Which project had the most unpredictable outcome? Why?

Micro-project 2 has the most unpredictable outcome as there were different creators to the artwork namely, us (the group members), and our respondents (strangers + our followers).  We were not able to control the answers of the participants as it was their own experiences. The outcome for micro-project 1 was predictable because we were all tasked to shoot at the same place where we are all familiar with. Many of the pictures that we have shot are ideas that we have thought of, therefore being able to relate to the third space. The outcome for micro-project 3 was the most predictable as we planned and rehearsed for it.

Which project best illustrates the concepts of DIWO & OpenSource? Why?

Micro-project 1 best illustrates the concepts of DIWO (Do It With Others) and Open-source as it is a collaboration among the ADM students who are using the #1010adm hashtag. It is DIWO as we worked together to create a third space on Instagram posting pictures which are unique to different creators. It is open-source as anyone can create an Instagram account, post a photo hashtagging #1010adm, contributing to the third space. Anyone can also view and comment on the posts, and can alter the entire space just by posting or removing a photo.

Micro-Project 2 – Crowd-Sourced Art

What is the content of the work and who is creating it?

Our work is a collection of people’s secrets.

We asked strangers and our followers on Instagram the same question – what is your deepest, darkest secret? 

Omegle responses:

Instagram responses:

Where does this work take place?

One of the 2 online platforms that we used was Omegle, which is, as quoted on their website:

Omegle (oh·meg·ull) is a great way to meet new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick someone else at random and let you talk one-on-one. To help you stay safe, chats are anonymous unless you tell someone who you are (not suggested!), and you can stop a chat at any time. Predators have been known to use Omegle, so please be careful.

We asked strangers to share with us about their deepest, darkest, secrets. 

We also used the questions sticker on Instagram, which is a photo and video-sharing social networking service where we connect with our friends, families, acquaintances, or even celebrities. The intended audience of using Instagram would be our followers, who could be our friends or acquaintances, or simply, people that we know. The questions sticker on Instagram allows us to ask our followers any question, or vice versa, and post the response on our Instagram Story without their Instagram handle and their profile picture. We did not use the feature of posting the responses on our Instagram Story as they are meant to be “secrets” (but since they are on OSS I guess they’re no longer secrets…….:)…..) We asked them the same question – what is your deepest, darkest secret? and got very different responses.

How does this work involve social interaction?

We ask strangers and friends a question through online platforms and receive answers that add to our collection of secrets. On Omegle, the anonymous people had responses that would include:

1. telling us their deepest darkest secrets (mostly, if not all sexual)
2. asking us back what our secrets were
3. would only tell us their secrets after we shared ours with them
4. ask if we had same/similar secrets as them
5. leaving the chat before answering.

On Instagram, our followers (who knew us) gave us responses that would include:

1. nonsense 
2. inside jokes
3. stories that were funny and disgusting
4. ignore our stories and not respond at all (which could mean that they could have REAL secrets but just unwilling to tell us)

The social interaction that we had were the exchange of information that we and the responders had. We triggered the responders to think about what their secrets were (no matter they answered or not), and in exchange, they gave us a response to contribute to our collection. 

How is your crowd-sourced project different from one that is created by a single artist/creator?

The different responses we got from this project were a result of different experiences from different people living very different lives. If only one creator shared their own deepest, darkest secret, it means that there will only be one response in our collection. The social interactions that could result from that would be reading it (one-way interaction) or leaving comments about it (two-way interaction) which does not contribute to the collection of secrets (unless they willingly share their secrets). Having a crowd-sourced project like this creates a variety of responses, and as questioners, it also makes us wonder about the psychology and reasons behind why strangers are more willing to tell us their secrets than people that we know or trust. The responders also play a vital part in this project as our collection comes from their contributions. 

Micro-Project 1 – Creating the Third Space

1. Why did you choose this space or object to photograph?

A place in ADM that has special significance to me.

I chose to photograph the lift as it not only transports us to different floors but is also space where we often interact with each other. In the small space, we often take awkward rides with strangers, rides that are full of laughter with our friends, and rides alone where we get temporary peace from the chaos in school. One thing that differentiates our lift from the others are the posters on the wall beside the lifts. It is always filled with posters about school events, which reminds me of the vibrant culture we have in our school.

2. What are some of the characteristics of this alternative virtual space you had created collectively?

The ADM building is a place where we grow to be better individuals/artists, and a place where many of us created many memories with our friends.

#1010adm photos
#1010adm photos
A photo and caption that we can all relate to :’)

Everyone’s experience as an ADM student is different, which is shown by the different photos shown in the #1010adm hashtag. Even though we all take different photos, it’s interesting how we can relate to the photos and captions posted by someone that we may not talk to before. (This can be seen from the likes and comments on the photos – see above) We post photos based on our own experiences on the alternative virtual space, which then becomes an experience that we all can share together.

3. Under what circumstance will this alternative virtual space change?

It will only change when someone posts something new, or someone deletes their photo. Also, the outcome of the alternative virtual space depends on the viewer. Any non-ADM student would probably think that the photos in the #1010adm hashtag are weird, random, and unrelatable. The students or faculty in ADM would relate more to the photos posted to their own experiences and would probably have the same feeling of 懐かしい (natsukashii – of some small thing that brings you suddenly, joyously back to fond memories, not with a wistful longing for what’s past, but with an appreciation of good times.)

4. How does this project relate to what we discussed in the lecture regarding co-creation, the concept of Do-It-Yourself (DIY), Do-It-With-Others (DIWO)?

Taking the photos of our own special place in ADM is DIY, as we try to capture our own experiences and feelings of that place. We are the creators of our own photos. Posting and hashtagging #1010adm on Instagram is a collaboration with our schoolmates, which is DIWO, where we create an alternative virtual space of the ADM building incorporating our personal experiences in the photos.