Together Split
The concept of collaborative artworks was introduced by Lei through a game called Exquisite Corpse. Each group of four were given a piece of paper which we were tasked to fold into four sections. Subsequently, each member would take a turn to draw on part of a body. We were not allowed to have a peek at what the person before us drew. Instead, we were only given a tiny mark of where the previous artist left off. It was an exciting activity where the results were somewhat unpredictable. Although we knew we were creating a rough human-like species, we never knew how the final artwork would turn out.
The task for Micro Project 3 was to create a collaborative artwork using a live-streaming platform. The platform connected my group members and I in a digital space where we worked together to form a single artwork.
We decided to use the Instagram video call function to create our video artwork. It took us a lot of brainstorming to decide on what we wanted to create. Being inspired by the call screen for a group of three, where the screen sizes were not equal, having a screen on top was larger than the two at the bottom reminded us of an arcade game setup.
At first, we wanted to simulate the old but gold “Street Fighter” arcade game where players pressed on buttons to attack their opponents, however, we realised that a fighting game was not going to cut it for a minute long video without continuously repeating the same fight moves. It kind of got repetitive after the first twenty seconds. Nevertheless, it was a good attempt, with the help of Lei starring in our video.
You can view our video through the link below:
In order to make the video more engaging and less repetitive, we decided to change our video game reference. We chose to reference story-telling games where users could control their characters instead. Thus, we set Yi Xue to be the controlled character while En Qi and I manoeuvred the controls buttons. It started off great until we realised everything was in real time and waiting for a lift took really long… Furthermore, we accidentally muted out microphones so all our instructions weren’t actually being passes to Yi Xue and we also weren’t able to hear what he was saying. Despite the setbacks, it was a really fun and enjoyable experiment and although we did plan out our artwork, we realised we all had different perspectives of the outcome, which ultimately led to the creation of something we all would not have imagined.
You can view our video through the link below:
Which project did you feel you had the most creative control? Why?
I felt that I had the most creative control in Micro Project 1. For this project, we were simply tasked to capture the spaces of ADM which meant something to us. We were all given individual creative freedom in the space we chose to capture and how we chose to capture them. Although it ultimately ends up as a curated space with images taken by my peers, my individual posts were still created solely by me. This is unlike Micro Project 2 and 3 which involved people of various mindsets coming together to create a sole artwork.
Which project had the most unpredictable outcome? Why?
I think Micro Project 2 had the most unpredictable outcome. As mentioned above, Micro Project 1 was solely an individual creation and the outcome was planned. Though the ultimate space created through the hashtag was a compilation of different student’s images it was all still parts of ADM.
As for Micro Project 3, my group and I had planned a specific outcome we wanted to achieve and we worked together to create that despite our different views and opinions. However, for Micro Project 2, the source crowd was totally unpredictable. There was no discussion between the sourced crowd and us as we barely even knew who would be participating, needless to say, what they would create.
Which project best illustrates the concepts of DIWO & Open-Source? Why?
All three projects did demonstrate their share of DIWO & Open Source, however, I believe that Micro Project demonstrated these concepts best.
Although Micro Project 1 started with all of us taking our own shots of spaces in ADM that meant something to us, it only became the virtual space when all our individual photos were connected under the same hashtag. This clearly exhibits how when doing it with others, results in creating something bigger and better. The project also demonstrated the concept of Open Source through the collective effort between the various ADM students involved. Each of us had differing belief and opinions, however, what we have created together has united us and now allows viewers on the outside to see us as one. This truly expresses the value of Open Source.
A group effort with:
En Qi & Yi Xue