Final Proj E&I

The day before the actual game, we sent out an online notification through Instagram story to let everyone know that we are going to play a game. We invite the live audiences to come in to watch the stream and allow them to influence the results too.

Meanwhile, we also have set up a set of briefs for the chef and artist

We have chosen our artist and drawers for the two groups of people we want to compare: The Noobs in Round 1 and The Pros in Round 2.

The Noobs

Artist: Jacob

Chef: Tiffany

We have deliberately moved them away from their strengths, as Jacob can cook well but cannot draw, and Tiffany can draw well but cannot cook. It is also funny because she initially said that she could cook rice without a rice cooker, which was quite a difficult thing to do. Turns out, she could ONLY cook rice. Oops.

The Pros

Artist: Alena

Chef: Hannah

This time, we deliberately let them play in the role that they are good at so that we can compare the results between people who knows what they are doing and people who don’t.

We have also ironed out the kinks in the logistics. We will stick to cooking in Hall 2 but find a location with better connectivity.

and have split up our roles: Brendan and I will be the facilitators for the Chef, while Dion and Joel are the facilitators for the Artist.

We have decided to split up the equipments we bring. I brought the plates, bowls, and utensils; Dion brought the chopping board, knife, and cards; Joel brought the condiments and his trusty pan; and Brendan brought his camera equipments.

The final recipe:

Recipe for Quesadilla, including the random ingredients we added in to throw the chef off.

So before anything else, let’s talk about the game.

This is the flow of the game in both rounds. The game starts with the facilitator giving the ingredient name to the artist, which the artist will have to draw within 7 seconds. After that, they will be stopped and the drawing will be shown to the chef. The chef will then interpret the item and buy the item that fits best to the interpretation. If the chef gets confused, the audience can help or influence the chef by interpreting their own version of the item. After purchasing the items, the chef will move to the kitchen for part 2. During part 2, the facilitator will then show the artist the steps to cook the dish, and within 40 seconds, the artist will have to draw it and show the chef. The chef will then interpret the drawing without using their instincts to guide them. This means that they have to follow what is drawn, no matter how illogical it seems. Audiences can still influence and help the chef at this point. After the dish is done, the artist will be invited to the kitchen to eat the dish they have made together.

The DIWO

DIWO: Players Tiffany and Jacob participating together in the game

DIWO: Players Alena and Hannah participating together in the game

DIWO comes in with the players, as they work together with other players to create the dish together. This thus becomes an unscripted performance that is participated by the players. The DIWO aspect also comes in from the audiences where the audience can interact with the players as well to “do it together” (although I’d say, the audiences join merely for the entertainment). The outcome of the game will be a combined effort between all parties.

The Third Space

The Third Space is the online platform in Instagram Live.

On this platform, we are able to reach out to a massive audience of friends, family members, and friends of friends. Within the Third Space, the players are able to communicate with each other despite the distance, as well as communicate with the audience. This online space bridges the spacial gap and allows for maximum participation in all parties with minimal effort, making the entire game really fun and engaging. Although the players do not actually create a Third Body, the players have made full use of the abilities of the Third Space to create the final dish.

The Glitch

The glitch comes in the form of mis-drawings, mis-interpretations, and mis-cooking. There is a complexity in the flow of the game that allows for multiple opportunities for glitches to happen. This is very visible in the first round , The Noobs, and less apparent amongst The Pros. It is interesting that glitches that happen at the from affects the glitches at the end quite a lot, and this amplified glitching reminded me of the glitch micro-project that used a similar activity of glitching a glitched image.

Gameplay

Set-up

We set up our booth in a quiet and isolated room so as to allow our artist to concentrate on the game without any interference. The tripod holds Joel’s phone that will livestream the artist’s perspective of the game. The drawing block is for the artist to draw on.

On the other side, we have Tiffany meeting Brendan and I at Giant supermarket near Canteen 2 to get ready for the game.

Round 1: The Noobs

Part 1: The Grocery

After getting ready, we kick off the game with the first ingredient drawn: Tomato. Tiffany got it right immediately. Moving on, we have Onions.

Abstract onions. Or maybe a striped ball?

Tiffany immediately shouted “ONIONS!”, but proceeds to buy garlics as onions ran out of stock. This is quite unfortunate as we knew that Giant sold onions.

The next ingredient is the banana which is a decoy ingredient. Tiffany got it right again, but as she doesn’t have any cooking experience, she do not find it weird.

Next, Jacob drew a quite interesting take on Chicken Breast: a side profile roasted chicken, with the arrow pointed at the breast part. HOWEVER, the facilitators, audience, and the chef couldn’t understand it because it looks like vegetables on a plate. Thus, Tiffany bought peanuts.

These are the remaining drawings, with some that are comprehensible and some that are difficult to understand.

Tiffany figuring out what this drawing means

Here are some screenshots of the actual live stream during some of these drawings.

Tiffany looking for the halal symbol on the cheese

Here are some shots on-site with Tiffany.

The items we bought – Bananas, slice cheese, shiitake mushroom, eggs, orange, tomato, garlics, cucumber, peanuts, macaroni, chicken hotdogs

At this point, the live stream was filled with audiences, that gave a lot of comments. It was interesting as they are participating a lot, giving not just a lot of tips but also funny comments that entertained all of us.

After this part, I have noticed that the glitch is very real. The mis-drawing and mis-interpretation have thrown off the entire recipe. I can’t imagine what we can cook out of what we have. The lack of an actual way of communication between the players have really glitched the recipe. Even the audience can’t help now…

Part 2 – The Cooking

After getting ready, we started part 2.

I’d say Jacob’s drawing here are very comprehensive. He even stuck to using the same drawings as he did in the previous part to not confuse Tiffany. However, because the items are already wrong, he couldn’t unglitch it. Tiffany blatantly follows as she does not really know what is going on. This results in hilarious things that she do.

Cutting the garlic as a whole instead of splitting first

Tiffany chopping the peanuts into tiny pieces according to the instructions which calls for chicken to be chopped up instead

Here are some screenshots documenting what happened.

RESULTS:

Tiffany made scrambled eggs with cheese, hotdogs, mushroom, and peanuts. I am very surprised that we still managed to make something that is edible. It was not that bad tasting it, just that the mushrooms are slightly undercooked, and the pan is burnt. The glitch have not just taken place, but also snowballed from the beginning down to the end. Still, despite this uncontrolled glitch, we manage to create a result that is somewhat satisfactory, and it have at least created an outcome that falls within the boundaries of what we have in mind (something edible).

I think that the cooking phase is the part that fixed everything together, as the cooking part will allow any of the ingredients to become edible. Thus, we can actually use this round as an example of how uncontrollable glitch can still somewhat be controlled, and that cooking isn’t all that hard. We can pretty much shuffle the ingredients we buy, use the same cooking steps, and end up with pretty okay edible food.

Reflections from Tiffany: She enjoyed the whole process even though she knew she screwed up a lot. It was a learning experience for her because she hardly cooks. She also find it fun to be entertaining others.

Reflections from Jacob: He enjoyed the game and finds it interesting and funny when the two players are chosen to get out of their comfort zone. The audience comments are funny to him too. However he felt that as the artist, the game is more fun at the front than at the back.

After we concluded the first part, we took a 15 minutes break and cleaned up. We managed to salvage the pan and everything was fine.

Round 2: The Pros

Once we are ready, we started the

Part 1: The Grocery

Overall, Alena drew alright. But there are quite a few items that are glitchable. For example, the tortilla wrap looks so much like oranges that Hannah almost got oranges. But as she knows how to cook, she find that it does not make sense to have oranges. So she went around and found tortilla wrap.

Another example is the butter, which Alena just drew a cube. I like how, due to our understanding of what butter is usually depicted, we understand that a slab of something is usually butter.

Despite the potential for glitch, Hannah still understood them right!

Here are some screenshots from the livestream:

Turning chicken into fish nugget since there isn’t any chicken left

Alena drew butter and Hannah got it right

One thing that happened was that the staff of Giant was on a lookout for us as we were asked to stop filming during round one. To avoid getting caught, we kept our distance so there wasn’t much documentation or footages.

During this round, there wasn’t much audience also, which is probably because of the lateness (we started at 7pm). It could also be because we have done it once, so the second time wasn’t as entertaining. Thirdly, it could be because Hannah was doing everything very smoothly so it became somewhat boring.

It was also impressive to see that Hannah actually got most of the stuffs correct. I would hypothesise that this is due to her instincts, being someone who knows how to cook and assemble recipes together.

So after the shopping, we bought all the things and went back to the kitchen. As we have already went through it once (actually, twice, including the test run), we could do it properly this time. With that, we quickly started the second part.

Part 2: Cooking

For this part, Alena did pretty well, and like Tiffany, she used the previous visuals to make sure Hannah understands the different ingredients.

Meanwhile at the kitchen:

Again, here are some live stream footages:

Alena draws as Hannah waits patiently (by patiently I mean play with the dog filter)

Hannah, being pro at this, effortlessly cooks

As Alena and Hannah are also friends, the entire stream was more friendly and conversational. It didn’t really mattered that there wasn’t much audience, as there is a lot of communication between the two of them. We even started playing with Instagram filters like the dog filter, which made the stream more fun and engaging.

It was also interesting that Hannah keeps requesting for the next step while the previous step is still ongoing. This is perhaps also part of her instinct as a person with cooking experience, as she do not want to be waiting for instructions while the food is cooking so as to not overcook or burn the food. Hannah also have done everything properly and really well, showing off her excellent cooking skills. She fully understands what Alena draws as the instructions are very straightforward to her.

Overall, this round was much smoother, quicker, and effortless. Despite this, we were bored easily and went with the motion sometimes without actually seeing what is going on because we had too much trust in Alena and Hannah handling on their own. This creates a situation where the game wasn’t as entertaining and engaging compared to round one. This also winds up in lesser viewers, and I think this actually created another effect where the two can be more intimate with each other as they don’t have to entertain anybody.

Compared with the first round, this round was really a lot different in terms of the smoothness, the viewers, the entertainment, the timing, the speed, and communication. Perhaps one really important aspect of a good game is the glitch itself. Without mistakes, what is there to watch?

With these, we created a trailer and highlight video. REALLY APPRECIATE BRENDAN for doing these videos!!! He did a really good job compiling everything and presenting this awesome videos!!!

Final words

In conclusion, I conclude that the Noobs did a better job entertaining everyone, despite the food being badly done. While it was enjoyable to eat the perfect Quesadilla, I do not really enjoy the process. As I have mentioned in Research Critique 3, a successful performance is in its process and not the outcome. Therefore, I believe that, despite the Pros winning this game, the Noobs have won our hearts.

Also, I would like to reiterate the DIWO aspects of the game. With the players, we have allowed people to come together to participate and perform together in this game. Audience also came in to be part of the game, commenting, chatting, helping, and influencing the outcome of the game. This have created a large body of players, creating a whole DIWO experience. This could not be done without the Third Space, as we need everything to be communicated through the screen and the chatroom. The usage of the Third Space as a means of communication have allowed for maximised participation, making the entire game more successful. Lastly, without the Glitch, the game would be unentertaining and lose viewers like in Round 2.

My personal take away would be to be able to create an experience of such complexity using these concepts that are sort of closely related. It got me to be more aware and observant in these concepts on other platforms that helps me to understand certain digital arts better.

If there would be an improvement to the game, I would separate the days such that Hannah will be playing on another day. I would also change some parts of the game at round 2 (eg. maybe change the recipe) so that audiences will join in to watch the difference instead of watching them cook the same thing.

Our group presentation can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1E7nOSiH_iG4l8tcNk47lWRyv0n70YQZAoOwIZnZWO6g/edit?usp=sharing

It was a great experience hosting the game and learning to apply these concepts. It’s been a great sem learning with you Lei 🙂 I really learnt a lot. So yup. That concludes the project, as well as the semester. Byeeeeeeeeee!

16 April, 2018

Bryan Leow Ee Kwang

16 April, 201816 April, 2018

Project 2B – Locale (Process)

I revisited Marsiling on 25th March.

After the 17th March visit to Marsiling, I decided to revisit it to plan my shoot. Here are the few selected locations:

Forgot where this is but nice wall textures

So, pinpointing these locations, I planned my zine’s Art direction. I decided to go for a spacey theme as I want to depict Marsiling as a strange “planet”, using a pun I got from Marsiling (Mars and iling). Using this idea, I want to try to depict a tourist’s trip to this strange land called Mars iling.

Here’s my mood board:

I want to go for a vacation-esque style stereotypical tourist. So by merging this theme and the space theme, I designed my character — a space tourist.

With these in mind, I prepped my props.

Space Helmet

I couldn’t find a space bubble helmet so I got a beach ball from Daiso and started making paper mache.

Afterwhich I used a heat gun to melt a few sheets of transparencies to create the “glass” capsule.

It fits but I really dislike it as it became very crumply due to the transparency sheet not being the proper shape to warp it down to a sphere. Still, I rolled with it since I couldn’t find any other materials.

Other Props

I also bought some other props: this beach-mat looking canvas and a yellow towel. I also bought an extra beach ball, red umbrella, books&magazines and wine glass to add to the aesthetics.

My model is Jeremy Lim, my good friend from my NS days.

Please follow @j.emery on Instagram 🙂

For the attire, I went for holiday shirt, a straw hat, shades, shorts, and slippers.

Shoot

I went on a shoot on 30th March. I brought all the props, as well as a DSLR and a disposable camera (Fuji Simple Ace, 39 shots, 400 ISO). The DSLR is a backup to the disposable camera in case the shot did not go well, as do with all disposable cameras. The DSLR is also a really great way for me to test my shots and compose it before taking it on the DSLR. Despite the higher quality, I opt for the film for a more personal effect. I shot halfway and it rained, so I couldn’t continue and decided to go back and shoot again.

On the 1st of April, we went on another shoot and this time, we braved through the rain (AGAIN, it always rains when I go Marsiling) and we completed the shoot by 8PM.

Halfway through, I found an actual fish bowl in an aquarium shop and I went for it! So the second half of the photos are Jeremy with an actual fish bowl on his head.

Here are some shots:

These are from the disposable camera.

The shots from the DSLR:

Getting the ball to be in the frame properly took a few tries and this can only be done on DSLR so it’s worth trying out first before taking on disposable camera!

Although the quality is MUCH better, I decided to stick to the disposable film shots as it really creates some sentimental value and uniqueness.

Photo edits

So in order to get the effect of the “portal” and “strangeness”, I decided to photoshop my friend such that two of himself is in the frame.

This is one example of said edit, but on a DSLR photo. I tried around with editing the DSLR shots before moving to the films.

Here are some examples of the shots I have edited. These are to convey the “portalling” between pillars.

Zine!

So finally, I went to do on the ACTUAL ZINE!!!

I separated the zine into 3 parts: Space, Portals, and Dimensions.

Space – Showcase the quietness of the location by using spaciousness

Portals – Show the transportation from a world I am familiar with into a different world (Mars iling)

Dimensions – Show the strangeness of Mars iling

Using some inspiration from Rubbish famzine by HolyCRAP, as well as zines from my moodboard, I decided to create a vacation documentary that is not just personal, but also minimalistic.

I started with a few variations of my cover page:

Then, I tried out some spreads:

With these, I consulted and selected my cover page. I also got the feedback that my images are all the same size, which is undesirable. I wanted to try for the photobook effect where all images are the same size, but it seems to not be working. I was more harsh on my image selections and tested out new spreads.

Evolution of my Cover Page

trying out adding graphics onto the photo

discovered a nice scheme using complementary colours

Evolution of SPACE Spread

experimented with adding more images as layouts as I don’t want to waste my images

Adding void deck appearance to add complexity

Added pillars using gestalt’s law to imply pillars

Evolution of Portal Spread

added images to not waste them, and also added duality by making the 2nd part pink

decided not to have the images and added the word portal

added more colour and glitch, which amplifies the portal effect

Evolution of Dimension Spread

I had the most difficulty with this spread as I don’t really know what to do with it. I added a lot of elements to experiment

Decided that the portal has got to go, and focused the page mostly to dimensions

glitching it up to showcase the idea of a world that’s beyond our own

FINAL

Overall, all my images are glitched somewhat to create a more otherworldly feel, although I try not to overdo it so as to keep it subtle.

For the cover page, I chose this image because it embodies everything I want to convey in the zine. It also have the best composition and colours. I really love the pink that the disposable camera created, which reminded me of the photographer nguan. This inspired me to use the pink scheme. I used a mint-green colour to complement the pink, creating a zine that is unconventional, energetic, but strange.

The extra graphics I added are to frame the model, as well as to bring out the pillars.

For this spread, I spaced out the kerning for the word “Space” so that I can get the message across by typography. The whole page was supposed to be very spacious and empty, but it does not fit the other pages. So I added in the complementary colour scheme to make it harmonious. The lines are arranged to look like pillars so I can show that the idea of space and quietness is in the spaces between the pillars and void decks.

The image used was a 4R image of the tourist sitting on the beach mat enjoying himself. This is to convey the idea of a vacation right from the beginning so as to set the mood. The poetry is used to explain what I am trying to do with the space to depict emptiness. At the same time, as this zine is supposed to be personal, I want it to be expressive and not just informative. I want the information to be understood through expression.

The text at the right side is spaced to not just amplify the idea of space, but also to create the idea of the texts aligning to the pillars.

Finally, the image on the right is another image that I want to show to depict the holiday-ness that goes together with the spaciousness.

This spread talks about portals. Although the background does not have much to do with it, I really liked it as I think it have a lot of potential to be an image that covers the entire spread. I instead use the difference between an outdoor and an indoor area to suggest the idea of portals. The odd placement of the circular HDB void deck window in the middle of the spread is to add on to the idea of portals and strangeness. The usage of the complementary green/pink is very present here. This is to expand on the idea of duality in portals. In terms of placement of texts, photos, and colours, I have played around with increasing the space between linked objects to distant them. eg, distancing a single image with 2 colours, but they are linked in the same image, or distancing two sentences, even though they go together.

Another thing I did here is to connect the photo of Jeremy holding the selfie stick with the background. The grass and buildings align with the background, creating a separate, yet interlinked relationship between the image and background.

The poetry and the subject’s touristy action is a representation of the tourist. Again, I made sure to make him very stereotypically touristy. The background of the image is also a suggestion of emptiness as there are nobody there. I also purposely made the poem pretentious so as to convey the pretentiousness of stereotypical tourists.

Finally, I added half an image on the bottom right side so as to link the spread to the next page, conveying another idea of portals. In this case, it’s the portal from one page to another.

This spread is about dimensions. I combined the first two spread together to create this page — a combination of space and portals. Repeated and glitched “pillars” are created to show the idea of space, but also in a different world. I try to arrange everything vertically, so as to construct the pillars like in the first spread. The usage of all images present here are images of Jeremy entering from one pillar and exiting another pillar. This helps convey strangeness, and some sense of portalling.

In the 4R image, Jeremy is holding a telephone. This is to represent tourists’ curiosity with strange object, specifically objects with heritage like an old telephone. It suddenly clicked in me that phone is a representation of a transportation of sound. I tied everything together like this:

Jeremy is going through a portal through space
the phone represents sound, which is the main thing I am focusing on actually about Marsiling, which is that it is quiet
At the same time, this telephone is old, so its also a link in time
Combining everything together, I formed the poem.

The colours, again, I used the complementary scheme that is consistent to my other spreads.

At the bottom right, I added a ziplock containing two 10 cents coin, which I labelled as “souvenirs”. This is a representation of tourists keeping souvenirs found in foreign lands. This concludes what I think about what tourists in Mars iling will do, as well as concludes my perception of Mars iling.

On the last page, I included credits and contact details, as well as a map. In the map, I try to label the different parts of Mars iling, categorising them into zones that I find define each area best. In specific areas, I placed the few significant images that I took at the area to let readers know which image is from which zone. I try to make it as if Mars iling is a planet, which is why I added “stars” and a label “space” outside the map.

And that’s my zine!

LASTLY

I’d like to show off all my disposable camera photos. I REALLY LOVE THEM.

Takeaways & Reflections

I really enjoyed this project, even though it was really tough. I am really grateful of my friend Jeremy for carrying all the camera equipment and props around Marsiling with me for two days. I enjoyed shooting with an intention in mind and directing the shots, as I have never done it before and it’s about time I actually do something that helps me to train my assertiveness and decisiveness. I also enjoyed thinking about the art concept and direction, and generally love the idea of having props and weird props around. There was even once I wanted to buy an inflatable flamingo float just for this shoot and I held back. I REALLY LOVE THE BEACH I GUESS?

OH. and I was also exposed to like a lot of different zines and that PUMPED ME UP a lot. They are really nice to look at and inspiring.

I also have discovered a new love for film and I really would love to go do more photoshoots from now on.

About the zine, I have relearnt how to use InDesign, and it’s quite good even though I disliked it at first. I was a bit reluctant to use it as I was too comfortable with illustrator. After a while, I decided to bring everything to Indesign so as to try it out. That was when I realised that the guides and spreads in InDesign actually makes everything easier.

One more thing is I learnt about composition, layout, and colours. These are always important, but I finally knew how to control it in pages.

I am proud to have created this zine even though I could still improve it, and even though I am not pursuing graphics design, I believe I’ll continue making zines for fun!

15 April, 201816 April, 2018

Project 2A – Locale (Research)

On the 24th of February, Saturday…

I went to Marsiling!

The journey was from my house, Punggol -> 119 -> Sengkang -> 161 -> Woodlands -> NS Line -> Marsiling

Upon reaching Marsiling, I was a bit unsure on where to start. Before this trip, I had not researched on Marsiling so that I will take in everything raw. I will make my own impression of Marsiling rather than let other people do that for me.

Zone 1

Zone 1 marked in yellow

So I decided to walk the most obvious path, which leads me to these low rising houses. They looked old and the first storey have a lot of plants! It was interesting to me as I never seen such things before (or maybe was just too used to the lack of plants in the crampy new gen HDB I live in)

As I explored, I noticed the HDB have these metal thingy jutting out of the HDB. They are bamboo pole hangers (probably upgraded as I never seen it designed like this before)

I started to notice the spaciousness of the area under the HDB. There is really very little people there.

Then, it started to rain. I took a glipse of the abandoned school which I find is interesting. It is not reflected on the Google Maps so I was surprised to see it.

I waited for the rain to clear and continued my journey up. So I entered Zone 2!

Zone 2

Once the rain cleared, I walked up towards Woodlands Secondary School to explore the barren lands around it. This was when there were more people — students. It’s the time for students to go home, that’s why. The barren land had a bit of construction equipments on it.

So I ended up walking towards the customs. Knowing that, I u-turned back to find more HDBs which interested me more than anything else.

Zone 3

This HDB says Welcome so I decided to enter.

I found A LOT of cats after that. It wasn’t all from one area, but around the deeper part of Marsiling, there are really a lot of them.

Some interesting structures I found in buildings around here. I started to notice these “windows” that I thought was interesting. I questioned why they existed in the first place, as they don’y really need to be around honestly.

Mini marts are also a common thing around here.

Zone 4

After walking around more, I chanced upon an industrial area, which is even more empty. I decided to take the long walk around the Heavy Vehicle Park. My battery was dying at that point so I did not take a lot of pictures. That place is just… abandoned.

After exiting the vehicle park, I walked down to find Marsiling Market. The area here is very crowded and I walked down further to find a super crowded plaza area. At this point, I’m left with 5% battery so I quickly scanned through. It felt very homely and neighbourhoodly, which gave me a warm feeling.

I found myself near Woodlands MRT before my battery went flat, so I went to Woodlands and went home.

Survey

So after the first site visit, I had the impression that Marsiling is a very quiet and out of place location. I decided to create a survey to confirm my idea.

Here are the results:

I find out that most people actually thinks that Hougang is the quietest place in Singapore. This is followed by Marsiling, and then Punggol and Dakota. Thus, this supports my claim that Marsiling is super quiet.

On the 17th of March, Saturday…

I visited Marsiling again! This time, I decided to explore further into a few parts of Marsiling that I find more unique in depicting quietness.

I went in the evening so it turned dark quickly. I decided to look at the space when it is dark and discovered that it is creepier.

I also took a closer look at the windows in the HDB void decks

So from this visit, I gathered some more insights.

Using SPACE to depict quietness

So, in order to depict quietness in Marsiling, I decided to compare space with sound. When a space is empty, it is usually quiet. Drawing that reference, I started looking into the HDB space in Marsiling. Even though its no different from most other older HDB estates, the spaciousness depicted the quietness I want to show.

Another way I want to portray Marsiling is through its strangeness. Being in Marsiling makes me feel out of place, and this is probably because I stay in Punggol which is a newer area. The old-ness and the kind of vibes it give out makes me feel like the place is quite eerie. To show this strangeness, I decided to make use of the HDB pillars to warp the space.

An example is this, where I use different perspectives to change the space to make it look narrow, even though its actually pretty spacious.

Lastly, I also want to make use of the pillars and windows found in the void decks to convey the idea of “portals”, as if transported to another world.

From this gathered data, I created my presentation slides which can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZioFV0ilk8j_H7TAQh9Xqbr7NAd4zpaDeCE7d3uiNRc/edit?usp=sharing

7 April, 20188 April, 2018

Hyperessay: Online Symposium

Held in Adobe Connect, the Symposium shifted performance into a new medium, the third space, where we rethink about the idea of a traditional “one-to-many” style of performances and embrace a new “many-to-many” style.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS

The performance on the first day is by Annie Abrahams, which she have different performers interact with the object on their webcam as seemingly random recorded phrases get played out. The webcams appear and disappear and everything appears messy. Annie then proceeds to lay silent on her chair and close her eyes, which the rest follows suit. This reminds me of DIWO where a group of people come together to do something collaboratively which they have a responsibility to perform and keep the performance alive. The overall unscripted-ness of this performance, together with the number of performers involved, creates quite a mess that I would call “glitchy”, where the unintended randomness is embraced during the performance that have made it glitched.

The first part of Annie Abraham’s performance, where we can see the usage of objects that is messily arranged on the screen

On day three, there was the performance by igaies. The performance started with the XXXTRAPRINCESS’ where they take on personas by using snapchat filters to simulate the characters in another frame. As mentioned in my Research Critique II, what makes a Third Space work is in participation where the parties involved must act according to their third space persona. By acting according to the persona and script, they have acted in the Third Space, where their third bodies have detached from the physical reality through the snapchat filters and the persona they play.

XXXTRAPRINCESS’ and their third space persona

The performance was then followed by Roberto Sifuentes, where he have glitched his body by allowing audiences to place leeches onto his body, which he then performs a series of ritualistic actions, before laying down on the ground to get the leeches removed by a woman. This performance caught many attention, including my own, and it had me thinking about the relationship between the audience and the performers in the Symposium, and I will talk more about it below.

“SOCIAL BROADCASTING:

AN UNFINISHED COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION”

The Symposium brings audiences together within a shared online space, only providing fixed perspectives for audiences to make sense of the performance as we piece them together to form an idea of the whole thing.

The few frames that we look into to decipher the performance offers an interesting perspective to the performance itself

We are merely audiences, only able to make comments and discuss the work, but not directly intervene the performance. By eliminating the possibilities for the audiences to interact with the performance, what purpose do we serve as online viewers, that is no different from that of physical viewers? This is where I find that we are able to openly discuss the performance critically and emotionally without affecting the performance, which would have been unacceptable in a conventional performance in a physical space.

Credits to Brendan. Real time comments on the performance by XXXTRAPRINCESS’ as it gets conducted, and we can see multiple comments and people agreeing to one another.

This open discussion is further enhanced as we all take on our online persona, our Third Body, which we express our thoughts, comments, and ideas differently from our real persona. Also, because of the lack of interaction with the performance and the ability to instantly make comments, our reaction to different sections of the performances can be expressed without hesitation, and this allow our reaction to be less controlled and more raw.

GLEECH’D

On day 3 of the Symposium, the bizarre performance by Roberto Sifuentes churned many comments on the chatroom.

Interesting discussion about the performance by Roberto

Roberto’s strenuous ritualistic actions with a metal rod

Roberto lies down to be have the leeches removed from his body.

In Roberto’s bizarre performance, he have added noise to his body by bleeding and sweating. He have thus cleansed his inner body of said noise, but at the same time glitched his outer body as he gets drenched in bodily fluids we dislike having on our skin. I find this relationship of glitch and purification interesting. Glitching is usually associated with impurity and ruination, but in this unexpected case, glitching and purification goes hand in hand.

As the performance goes on, the chatroom goes crazy as the audiences input their raw interpretations and comments. Some have made references to issues like gender and power, while others have made nonsensical, yet funny one-liners. This have led me to an idea: The different kinds of inputs of the audiences due to different interpretation and opinions have created a mess in the chatroom, adding noise and glitching it.

A compilation of the different kinds of comments that adds up to the noise

The chatroom seems meaningless to look at at first due to its messiness, but when we see the comments individually, we find them as the audiences’ method of release. We see the audiences’ reactions coinciding with the meaning I drew from Roberto’s performance where glitch and cleansing goes together. In this sense, the messiness, or glitch in the chatroom is a result of us clearing our mind, and reading it is a way of getting our mind cleared.

By allowing us to comment freely in the chatroom without affecting the performance, and by drawing this relationship between the performance and the chatroom, I feel that we the audience have now unintentionally participated in the glitch performance. We are now not just audiences in a chatroom, but are part of the performance on another frame, and are thus have turned the glitch performance into a DIWO.

We can now see the Symposium as having 4 frames instead of 3, since the chatroom is also another frame of the glitch performance

I find that this parallel relationship between the audience and the performance something that only the Symposium can pull off, which cannot be present in any other performance spaces. The Symposium have thus turned communication into the performance itself. Despite the audience’s limitations that this Symposium have set, this many-to-many relationship have still brought performances to a deeper level. With this, I believe that there are still many great potential in performances that the Symposium can bring that we have yet to have a taste of, and I would like to take part in another, given the chance.

5 April, 20185 April, 2018

Final Project – Split Chef (Discussion)

that little icon at the top right ruined this picture

We have transcended through time and space to meet up in the third space — Skype. Joel happen to me unable to meet us, so we decided to conduct a skype meeting.

During our skype meeting, we discussed on the things that we have to iron out so we can move on to the final work.

We finalised the player roles and what kind of players we want

We decided on the kitchen location to be either Hannah’s (our friend) hall, or one of the hall that we are staying in. The backup plan is to actually use someone’s house.
Next, we asked if we should have audiences to watch our show, and allow them to comment to help the chef. I think it will be fun and engaging to both the audience, the players, and facilitators.
Next, we finalised on the recipe so we are sure of the ingredients to buy and the steps we have to take
We also planned out what kind of materials we exactly need to bring and tasked each of us to bring certain items
We also ironed out some of the other stuffs that may affect the game

So what’s what we have discussed over this week. We wanted to go straight to playing the game for real, but was unable to find a good time to conduct it since everyone is busy.

I’d say, we are ready for this!!! This weekend, we will bring and make the things we need and prepare for the game on the following Monday! Excited!!!