Micro-Project 7: Video Selfie

Video Selfie

I am a messy artist, but that’s okay. I make things work, out of what doesn’t.

This is my performance for the video selfie. What I did was to open my wardrobe to a mess and start rummaging through it. I picked out certain objects to look at it / wear it. Finally, I found the item I am looking for and turns around, to which I pick up my phone to show what it is — a cactus and a succulent. I watered them and rotated them to reveal that there are more parts of the plants than what it was initially shown to look like.

Some screenshots:

ONE OF THE JUNK COINCIDENTALLY LANDED IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA

Meaning

Here are the significant objects I used

From top left:

Some random junk – Junk thoughts
Spoilt vinyl record – My love for music
Whiteboard – My love for organisation
Poster of the game “Portal” – My love for gaming
Vietnam hat – Just a prop honestly
My plants – The representation of a good idea that can be developed
Batik prints from Penang – My appreciation for art
Nerf Gun box – My love for fun stuffs
Acrylic painting from Hong Kong – My appreciation for art

This video represents me as an artist in the way that I search for ideas. My mind is a haphazard mess and my ideas are represented by the objects.

By opening the wardrobe to reveal the mess, I am showing the inner workings of my mind. The items I threw out are what occupies my mind. Random thoughts, music, plannings, games and playing, art.

After searching throughout and emptying my thoughts, I found my idea and brings it to the window. These are revealed to be my cactus and succulent. I water them, which represents me nurturing the idea. Afterwhich I turn the plants to reveal that the cactus has small buddings (unintentional that it looks phallic… It’s just the way my cactus grew #dontjudge) and that the succulent have an extended part to it. This represents the way I can grow ideas to change perspectives.

Music Choice

Image taken from https://genius.com/Shura-white-light-lyrics

I chose White Light by Shura, specifically the part from 5:17~.

What I love about it is that at about 5:51, there is a sequence which reminds me of a journey (through space). I tried to time everything so this part will start when I pick my plants from the wardrobe. This represents the finding of something important and a shift in pace.

Also, this song stuck with me for about 3 years, which is a classic for me, so I thought it was appropriate to have it to represent me.

Questions

How can the video selfie be used to alter identity?

To me, the video selfie is just a representation of my inner identity and not something that alters it. It may be scripted, which can show people what you want them to see, so it can be faked easily. I feel that the video selfie says little about a person, unless the video selfie shows something impactful or shocking. Perhaps, like any other selfies, they are mostly insignificant.

How might video be used to conceal identity?

As mentioned above, it can be scripted. It can be made into a very elaborate performance, but that may not represent you.

How do the objects that surround you contribute to your sense of identity?

They are representation of my inner thoughts, and so they do offer some insights for others to know who I am. In some ways, the objects create intimacy.

Conclusion

Overall I want to portray myself as haphazard and messy, but also can provide the world with a piece of myself that is fresh and can change perspectives.

14 March, 201814 March, 2018

Micro-Project 5: The Art of Destruction

Destruction of Traditional Artwork

Our group printed out black-and-white parts of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and put it up together to form a 53 by 77 cm image of Mona Lisa, which is the actual size of the original painting. The iconic Mona Lisa is a representation of all traditional form of art, and may even be the icon of Art itself. The replication of Mona Lisa is a form of destruction of its originality, where the artwork is stripped of its colours, texture, and reality. By piecing up many pieces of the Mona Lisa, we also glitched it up slightly as it now is a combination of 8 pieces of paper rather than a whole canvas.

Our artwork is a performance where we would burn this piece of “artwork” as a symbol of rebellion. It represents the destruction of the rules tied to art that have been established for many years. To burn the icon is to say that art does not have to have an image tied to it too. Art should be formless, everywhere, and most importantly, it should be free. It should be like the air surrounding us.

The performance art itself is also a destruction of the meaning of art being just a static piece of painting, as art in modern day is broadened with introduction of things like performance art and concept art. Therefore it breaks the idea that a painting should represent art itself.

By destroying the artwork, one does not only reject traditional art rules and forms, but also liberates the art from its frames, releasing itself from its own rigidity. As it turns into smoke and ashes, it leaves in its new and better form — freed, formless, and eternal, rather than being trapped in the painting.

The final outcome has a unique texture — it appears solid, but it is soft. The burnt ink also created a sepia tone to the new Mona Lisa.

The Video

14 March, 2018

Micro-Project 6 – Super Participation

Super Participants

On Wednesday, 7 March, Kai Ting, Melodie, Niki, Samantha, and I took part in a 24 hours super participation project. We posted whatever we wanted to post from time to time within the 24 hours.

It was probably a sleepy and slow morning. We snoozed 582901 times and woke up unwillingly due to things we have to do. Meanwhile, Kai sleeps in peace, sending automated messages every hour. It’s a bliss to be Kai.

Lateness is a trait found in all of us, as we soon found out.

FOOD

Food is a common theme amongst us. Throughout the day, we post what we ate, what others ate, and other experiences tied together with the food.

Food is such an important theme for us and we have influenced each other because of it. Suppers are the most tempting, where a person’s post on supper could influence others to want supper. Envy is a driving force to hunger.

TRAVEL

In between activities, we like to also share our travelling experiences and thoughts while travelling.

It is during these period of time where really interesting things happens. Our senses are more alert as we are not distracted by activities. We notice things that are strange, curious, or funny.

In travel, we also made connections, unintentional or not.

The lack of things to take while travelling brought the attention back to ourselves, which have made other people notice things about ourselves that creates the connection.

HAPPENINGS

Things happen, we share. People meet, we share. As long as something new happens and it feels interesting, we make a post about it. The keyword is new. If it is something that seems to be a continuation of something that have been posted before, it is ignored. Happening posts are usually the beginning, or the end of something.

WORK

Work, on the other hand, is the opposite. We post about work while we are in the middle of it, perhaps, as a form of distraction. Either that, or that’s because there is no end to work. :’)

SLEEP

Another day ends, as always. We update each other on our sleepiness and our sleep times. We all are very late sleepers, and all of us slept past midnight, tired and dead from the activities in the afternoon. The last human update is at 3.40AM, and that’s the last goodnight we hear from all of us.

Then, we have Kai.

In our comments, we are very supportive. We feel for each other when we get hurt or when we share negative feelings. We compliment each other when we see something nice posted by a person. When we see something we have in common, or we can relate to, we post a comment.

Now come to think of it I guess we relate a lot more to work than to anything else.

Our posts are very personal and trivial most of the time. It is a more direct reflection of our life as we express outwardly rather than our internal thoughts. We are trying to create an identity that is controllable and relatable, that others can see, quickly know what we are trying to say, and move on. We don’t want a great deal of attention put on us. We are uncommitted to our digital life, and share only things that we think others may enjoy looking at, thinking about, or empathising with.

In this super participation, our motivation is to keep the page alive, while at the same time doing it minimally so we don’t overwhelm each other. We created a persona for ourselves, to a certain extend, where we only show what is worth showing. The more perfect and calculated version of ourselves that is showable, yet candid.

3 February, 20187 February, 2018

Micro-Project III – Teledrift Communication

Posted by Bryan Leow on Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Samantha and I are grouped to create our own third space in this micro project. Our theme is the uses of cup noodles, so we had an idea on calling each other through the gap between our screens, and so we linked both our screens together to form the third space where we can connect with each other with the cup noodles telephone. This third space exists because even though we are not connected physically, but we still can talk to each other through the ‘telephone’ as we can hear each other on the live stream. We have made the distance between us tangible using this third space. This performance therefore works. The intimacy created in our third space is the conversation between us.

We then continued the performance by cooking our own ‘telephone’. We went on merge our bodies together with the split screen, and cooked the cup noodles together by (almost) coordinating our movement with the ‘third body’.

Due to time constraints, we did not have time to practice, and so we are uncoordinated during the cooking of cup noodles. There was also another sequence which we wanted to try out but didn’t due to time constraint, which is to run from one screen to the other, before we go to cook our cup noodles. There was also an interruption of the performance as someone else wanted to use my water dispenser during the cooking sequence. That is one problem that may happen to a performance like this, the third space may be interrupted by another person of the public.