In Marsha Kinder’s “Designing a Database Cinema”, the use of database narratives was explained through the analysis of The Labyrinth Project. Database narratives are very essential in providing accurate knowledge of historical events through storytelling. The Labyrinth Project combines new technologies with old events and concepts, such as Tracing the Decay of Fiction, where an interactive game is created to explore Hotel Ambassador and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Viewers can navigate the space and click hotspots within the hotel to reveal videos and newspaper articles regarding the history and incident.
I feel that database narratives are a very effective way of getting people to learn about the histories of certain sites through the use of storytelling. People love stories, and interesting ways of telling a certain story will maintain the attention spans of the audience. Putting it into a historical context makes information that was initially boring when said in a very factual way, to something interesting, that has a start and an end. Thus database narratives serve as an important tool for educating the masses about their history, their culture, or of about certain monumental events.
In addition, the advancement of technology in present-day paved the way for interactivity to be incorporated within these data narratives. Adding interactivity within a database narrative can allow for a better understanding of the storyline and historic information, by activating the other senses of the audience, rather than just viewing the narrative. By building the storyline through personal effort, the audience is able to see that in a much broader cognitive and ideological sense narrative is also a means of patterning and interpreting the meaning of all sensory input and objects of knowledge.
In a nutshell, database narratives help to boost interest in historical information and also acts as a modern archive, which allows people to learn through storytelling and be able to convey the information in a more efficient way.
The usage of virtual reality (VR) has been evident in the past and is one of the most prominent advancements in technology in today’s world. In the art scene, VR has played an essential part to bring many artworks into the digital realm, enhancing convenience and the interactive experience.
By implementing different types of gear for different body parts, VR allows people to have a fully immersive experience with the artwork. The most important part being the headset that shows a 360 degree of the virtual environment. There is a huge amount in the flexibility that artists can use in VR as the spaces are infinite and imaginary. One example of VR works that use this space is i-REAL, a hypermedia artwork that mixes the contributions of a trip in virtual reality, a map of JE(U) with i-REAL cards and in the future an artificial intelligence. The board game is the hotspot of the system. It is composed of about thirty i-REAL cards previously developed on the Instagram social network using the maximum of #hashtags available to install links between words / images. The use of three randomly available cards – but renewable – connected to the card JE(U) by an NTFC chip with the help of two dices, triggers the corresponding sequences in VR. To turn the map JE (U) – actually composed of three PART-i that can turn around the same axis – in order to connect the maps and reveal the locations where the keys will open the sequences in VR, the cheek must roll the dice and maybe, in a version 2.0, win the right to tackle artificial intelligence. (https://culturevr.fr/en/i-real/)
The use of VR stems from the concept of hypermedia, which was a concept that appeared after the war. It talks about the matter of which the World Wide Web is made. Much like the physical world is built of interacting elementary particles (Bosons and Fermions), the web is essentially a universe of myriad interacting hypermedia documents. But since the early 1990s, the general concept of hypermedia has been largely superseded in popular usage by the term “interactive multimedia.” And this term is now used to portray works that involve the interactivity of the human senses towards an artwork.
In terms of space and conducting of the artwork, VR helps to minimise the physical space needed for the work to occur, as the only gear required is the headset and the gear. It also increases the convenience of bringing the artwork around and the work can be experienced in different environments.
All in all, VR contributes positively to society and is a useful asset to many artworks as more artists pursue digital alternatives.
The ‘International Typographic Style’ also know as the ‘Swiss Style’ is a graphic design style developed in Switzerland, Europe in the 1950s that values and focuses on cleanliness, readability and objectivity.
Typical features of the style are asymmetric layouts, use of a sans-serif typeface and flush left, ragged right text. Many of the early International Typographic Style works featured ‘Typography’ as a primary design element, which means they focused more on typography because it’s the root of communication and then pictures and other design elements comes as a secondary design elements and this is the reason the title ‘International Typographic Style’ has the word ‘Typography’ with it.
International Typographic Design begins with a mathematical grid. These grids are considered to be the “most legible and harmonious means for structuring information.” Using a grid for design makes creating a hierarchy for the content much easier—think web design. Why are so many websites broken into grids? Grids are flexible, consistent and easy to follow. They are clear-cut and work well with ratios (Rule of Thirds, Golden Ratio, etc.). In addition to the grid, Swiss Style usually involves an asymmetrical layout, sans serif typefaces and the favoring of photography over illustrations.
The movement’s innovators combined elements of other artistic trends to create the beauty and simplicity of the Swiss Style that we know today. Elements from Bauhaus, De Stijl and The New Typography are sprinkled throughout the works of Ersnt Keller, Max Bill, Josef-Müller Brakmann and Armin Hofmann—i.e., the pioneers of Swiss Style.
By stripping away the embellishments, Swiss Style eliminates distractions for the viewer and allows the information-heavy design to be read and studied rather than merely seen and admired. Because of this, the typefaces chosen to represent Swiss Style are those that really hone in one the movement’s key principles:
A K Z I D E N Z - G R O T E S K
Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin. Akzidenz indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial, or “occasional” or “jobbing”, print runs such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to fine printing.
Originating during the late nineteenth century, Akzidenz-Grotesk belongs to a tradition of general-purpose, unadorned sans serif types known in Europe as “grotesques” (“sans-serif” in the US) that had become dominant in German printing during the nineteenth century. Relatively little-known for the first few decades after its introduction, it achieved iconic status in the post-war period as the preferred typeface of many Swiss graphic designers in what became called the ‘International’ or ‘Swiss’ design style of the 1950s and 1960s, and its simple, neutral design has influenced many later typefaces. It has sometimes been sold as Standard or Basic Commercial in English-speaking countries.
U N I V E R S
Adrian Frutiger, one of the most influential typeface designers of the 20th century, created Univers in 1954. Pulling elements from Akzidenz-Grotesk, Frutiger created one of the first typefaces that formed a font family, allowing documents to use one typeface (instead of several) in various sizes and weights, creating a beautifully simple uniform via text alone. Originally released by Danberry & Peignot in 1957, the family passed through the hands of the Haas Type Foundry before being purchased in 2007 (along with all of Linotype) by Monotype.
H E L V E T I C A
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. Its use became a hallmark of the International Typographic Style that emerged from the work of Swiss designers in the 1950s and 60s, becoming one of the most popular typefaces of the 20th century. Over the years, a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths, and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. Notable features of Helvetica as originally designed include a high x-height, the termination of strokes on horizontal or vertical lines and an unusually tight spacing between letters, which combine to give it a dense, solid appearance.
Miedinger and Hoffmann set out to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. Originally named Neue Haas Grotesk (New Haas Grotesque), it was rapidly licensed by Linotype and renamed Helvetica in 1960.
An Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world.
Created by the Italian poet and author Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909through Futurist Manifesto.
Fusion of the cubist painting and the futurist poetry
Futurists were well versed and practiced in nearly every field of art, including painting, ceramics, sculpture, graphic design, interior design, theatre, film, literature, music and architecture.
F U T U R I S T M A N I F E S T O
A poem written by Marinetti, and it first appeared as a preface to a volume of his poems (written in 1908)
Marinetti and his fellow futurists were tired of Italy’s reliance on its classical heritage and disdainful of the present, and thus wanted to create a new aesthetic based on industry, war and the machine.
They wanted to burn museums and libraries, as they contained traces of the old traditions of Italy.
They also demanded purification by war – which influenced fascism and chauvinism
A R T S T Y L E S I N F U T U R I S M
Paintings
Used elements of neo-impressionism (post-impressionist works) and cubism to create compositions that expressed the idea of the dynamism, the energy and the movement, of modern life.
Used divisionism: breaking light and colour down into a series of dots or geometric forms.
Also incorporates high contrast and intersecting lines to show movement
Typography
Words in Freedom: destroyed syntax, used verbs in the infinitive, abolished adjectives and adverbs, suppressed punctuation, and employed mathematical and musical symbols.
Marinetti exhorted writers to “destroy the ‘i’ in literature: that is, all psychology,” to give up on being understood by the reader, and to abandon aesthetic concerns by creating the “ugly” in literature.
His prescription for Futurist writing was not only phonetic but also visual. He wanted to take advantage of the “typographical revolution” to use new fonts and arrangements of words.
use of different sizes, weights, and styles of type allowed them to weld painting and poetry, because the intrinsic beauty of letterforms, manipulated creatively, transformed the printed page into a work of visual art.
used intersecting lines within words as well to create directional lines that lead the eye from line to word
A D A P T A T I O N S I N F U T U R I S M
The use of Futurism has adapted into book covers and posters
Adapted the use of futurist mindsets of skyscrapers and neon interface
The act of engraving text and image onto materials for commonfolk to read has dated back to 750CE. The first engraved printing units were wood engravings, such were seen in the Chinese Diamond Sutra that was created in the year 868.
After these wooden engravings gained popularity, people started to make printing units out of metal plates using different types of metal – specifically copper and pewter. These metal plates were made able to print by a process in which an image in wax or bitumen was drawn on, or transferred to, the surface of the plate and nonimage areas removed by action of appropriate acids.
Photoengraving was only invented in 1813 by researcher Joseph Nicephore Niepce. He coated a pewter or copper plate with a photosensitive asphaltum and exposed the surface to bright sunlight through an etching of a portrait, which served as a positive image. Sunlight passing through the background of the etching hardened the asphaltum, while the protected areas, under the inked portion of the etching, were developed in oil of lavender and white petroleum to create an image in exposed metal. This image was then etched into the plate, and from the intaglio image, prints were made on a copperplate press.
Example of photoengraving on wood
In 1851, wet-collodion process for photography was introduced, and it provided a means for producing a photographic negative as the basic element in the preparation of engravings. This photographic process also provided a method of stripping the photographic image from the glass plate, permitting assembly of a number of images for plate making, and also making possible the geometric reversal of the image needed in letterpress plate making to produce a right-reading print on paper.
Soon after, the halftone process allowed people to produce shades of grey, in which the image is broken up into dots, and variations of gray tones are obtained by varying the size of the dots, thus controlling the amount of ink laid down in a given area.
The discovery of the halftone screen was primarily responsible for the development and growth of photoengraving; further growth was related to other developments in the printing and allied industries. The introduction in 1935 of the first practical colour film for amateur and professional use probably did more to accelerate printing developments than any single invention. By making bulky studio-type colour cameras obsolete and permitting the use of readily portable camera equipment for the production of colour images, on-the-spot colour photography became possible, greatly increasing the use of coloured illustrations.
At approximately the same time, the commercial production of coated paper and heat-drying printing inks for letterpress printing began. Many colour developments for films, printing processes, and materials followed.
Now in our current society, photoengraving is used for specialty printing, such as foil stamping, embossing on paper, wood and cork branding for the wine industry and chocolate coin engraving and molding plates. It is also used by designers to simulate various products for photography shoots and right reading plaques for casting in bronze.
The Garamond typeface was created by engraver Claude Garamond in the 16th century. Our current understanding of the Garamond font are interpretations of fonts that were inspired by drawings which were modelled after the punches of Claude Garamond.
C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S
Garamond was the first to craft letters to the medium. He was the first to deviate from a purely handwritten-style to make letters that would read better when printed. These letterforms were thinner and more delicate than those before it, which both allowed the ink to bleed on the page without overly distorting the words and used less ink. Other key characteristics include the way the top serifs of the lower-case letters curve back into the letter, the feeling of airiness from the generous openings in the letters, known as counters, and the tall ascenders. These letters were often used for printing of body text and books.
R E V I V A L
Garamond fell into decline in the 18th and 19th century, and people tried to revive the font, thus expanding Garamond into many different styles which have evolved into the modern Garamond fonts we have today.
T H E D I F F E R E N T T Y P E S O F G A R A M O N D
Garamond has evolved in its own way and different types of Garamond font has been created depending on different inspirations.
The one work that has piqued my interest from our trip to ArtScience Museum was the first work – Universe of water particles, Transcending Boundaries.
The work features a digital projection of a waterfall that extends from the wall to the floor. When one steps into the space, he/she can interact with the waterfall by either going up to the wall and standing infront of the waterfall to create a space between the waterfalls, or changing the flow of water on the floor by just standing at the same spot for a prolonged period of time.
What piqued my interest was the fact that the work was able to cater for a large group of people, in the way that even if there are many people, they are still able to detect the specific ones that stay in the same spot, so that the water can part. Using the sensors to identify these specific parties is very impressive, and also the fact that it can work simultaneously and smoothly. In addition, the feedback to the work is very positive, especially since the work is displayed in a very aesthetically pleasing manner.
Improvements that can be made would be smoother transitions when the water is parted, and maybe crowd control can be implicated so that more focus can be put on the animation and not on catering to sensing a big group of people.
On 22 and 23 August, collaborative INTER-MISSION showcased their artwork: Life Circuit: I/O, which incorporated Lee Kang-so’s Disappearance, Bar in the Gallery (1973) at National Gallery Singapore. The work showcased 2 parts, which lasted throughout the 2 days.
The first part showcased one of the artists wearing a headgear that covered his whole face, and wherever he moved, the device would send sound feedback which acts as a recording of his movements.
The second part showcased the artists and 4 dancers. One of the dancers was wearing a contraption that recorded himself and also projected that exact recording in real-time. The other dancers all had phones with them that were on a video call, and they danced around the scene, with the phone recording their actions as well. These videos were then combined and put onto 1 projector screen at the front of the exhibition. One of the artists (the one who was wearing the headgear on the first day) played the sound recordings that were received on the first day. After a while, the dancer passed the contraption to the audience to let them try out the projection. The performance ended when the artist wore the contraption and stood in front of the artist who did the sound feedback.
Videos
They adapted Lee Kang-so’s Disappearance, Bar in the Gallery (1973) by making the performance venue seem like an olden food stall, with wooden benches and tables set-up. The audience could buy food and drinks while enjoying the performance.
The concept behind Life Circuit was to provide an alternative reality to which the audience observes the artist record his movement and perception of the exact space that the audience is sitting in. The use of technological products highlights their experiments and explorations of intersections between video art, music and performance.
There is consistency within the Life Circuit works that are done by INTER-MISSION, in terms of the materials that they use – reconstructed industrial headgear, such as welding goggles, gas mask, and earmuffs, as video and audio wearable gadgets. Also in how they conduct their experiments, having one performance that is the input of the space, and the other performance being the output. However, the difference is the interaction between the artists and the audience, and how responsive the audience is to the artists’ feedback. The second performance involves the audience’s reactions and participation, giving the work more personalization where the audience’s perception of the space is recorded on the big screen.
Using Lee Kang-so’s Disappearance, Bar in the Gallery (1973) emphasized on the warped reality that the space provided to the audience. When I stepped into the performance space, it was no longer an open space in a gallery, but a small cafe setting and the artist’s mapping the space using their devices was a mapping of the cafe setting and not the gallery. It brought the audience to experience a certain memory that the artists had, even though it may be personal but still resonated within the audience. The atmosphere was less tense, with the presence of benches and tables, for the audience to sit around and interact.
The first day showcased the artist’s impression of the space and his impression of the reality seen through his goggles, which were 2 smaller screens that showcased what he ‘sees’, even though he could not see anything. The sound feedback was then used as a recording of his perception of the space later in the second performance, which was played as a contrast to the current group of people who were recording their perception of the same performance space through a video call. In addition, pure impressions from the audience were also recorded when they walked around with the contraption and it varied depending on how long they wore the contraption.
This work showcased the impressions of different people about the same space, while each person who were in this performance, audience included had a different reality and impression of the performance etched on their mind. Contrast was shown through the live video feedback of the dancers and the participants, with the sound feedback that was the artist’s impression. The reality differs where in the first performance the artist was not able to see or sense his surroundings and just walked around blindly, using sound as the feedback, while in the second round the audience and dancers could see what they were doing, or where they were going, thus they had more control over which direction they wanted to step towards, or the obstacles that were in front of them. The audience who sat around also had a different perspective as they had a view of the whole scene and what was happening to each party, they also had the choice to leave whenever they want or to stay throughout the whole duration.
It was interesting to watch the different perspectives that different people could provide about the same scene and the same performance. Although all of us were at the same scene at the same time, the different impressions created during that span of time was extremely unexpected (from the artists who knew what they were doing, and from the audience who had no idea what was going on). It also showed how technology can be used to show the tangibility of something psychological.
One piece of interactive art that has caught my attention is the “Face Instrument”, “Face Visualiser”, by Japanese artist Daito Manabe. Inspired by the work of French researcher Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne and Australian artist Stelarc, Daito Manabe decided to play with the interaction between electronics and the muscular structure of the human face, and by sending different electronic signals to wires taped to different parts of the human face, he could control the facial expressions of the participants. In addition, he added music tones to different wires and created a musical piece with the facial features of the participants.
The experiment works 2 ways, either Daito Manabe could send electronic signals to the participants and control their facial expressions (thus giving the participants no opinion/ control whatsoever), or the participants could move their facial features and send music feedback to Daito Manabe. It is interesting as there are different combinations and feedback depending on who is the main controller of the work. Also, I feel that this work is a prime example of using scientific elements (the human anatomy and electronic knowledge) to create a work of art that is light-hearted and can be appreciated by different types of people.
Concept wise, Daito Manabe was trying to highlight how eternally influenced expressions stand in contrast to a human smile caused by real emotions (everythingvisual.net) and to create music out of the human nervous system.
I feel that this work does highlight the manipulation of expression physically, and how external influence can change your exterior appearance, but not your internal emotions. In addition, with the usage of this device, the human expression can be cloned from one person to another, diminishing the uniqueness of the human expression. It highlights how technology can advance to the stage where even humanistic expressions can be manipulated, and the fact that true emotion may not be portrayed physically anymore.
On another viewpoint, this work can also highlight the importance of human emotion, as Daito Manabe’s collaborator said “we can make fake smile with sending electric stimulation signals from computer to face, but no one can make real smile without humans emotion.” Ultimately, no matter how much electronic signals can manipulate the human expression, the most natural expression on the human face can only come from true emotion.
Musically, this artwork has opened up many paths for musical exploration, as the human face was not thought of as a contraption for music expression. If the contraption was used in the format where the participant created expressions which produced different sounds, this work could be used to show how natural expression produced different sound feedback. It also provides a closer connection between the participant and the music they have created.
All in all, this work is a good way of portraying the importance of true emotion and the manipulation of human expression through electronic signals and it has inspired me to think of how much the human structure can be manipulated by different types of contraptions and devices, while exploring many more facial expressions the human face can make.
![Reflection: ArtScience Museum Trip [18.09.2019]](https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/alee041/wp-content/uploads/sites/2625/2019/09/IMG_0744-1200x1600.jpg)
