The Third Space exists as the interaction between two individuals, unbounded by the limitations of time and space. As we attempt to dwell into network culture, we investigate this relationship through Facebook Live split screen feature, played out by a few people.
Posted by Joseph Tan on Monday, 5 February 2018
(Begins at 1:30)
In our work, we attempt to visually represent the interaction of different individuals in cyber space. At every moment, there will be one person in the screen, taking turns to jump in and out of the screen. This is as if the individuals are communicating within a network forum, leaving their cyber footsteps behind. At the same time, different individuals can transcend through multiple 3rd spaces, interacting with one another. The closeness and intimacy of the 3rd space can be shrunk by doing actual physical contact, such as doing activities of progressive intensity. We can collapse the barrier of 3rd space by creating an illusion of one identity jumping from the screen. This can be done through a process of wearing identical clothing, masking our face and also doing the same actions.
Process
This project was primarily difficult as we had technical difficulties making the Facebook Live function work. We had initially arranged for the project to be done in a secluded area to minimise the background understanding of our project environment, since our targeted audience is ADM population. This unfamiliar environment would create the necessary effect of jumping through space and time since they cannot visualise the distance between the two environment.
We mitigated this issue by moving back to ADM for this project, which has a stronger WIFI connectivity.
The coordination of this project was also a hassle as we had three members to coordinate the jumping scenes. It took 4 tries before we finalise the arrangement and achieved the desired outcome. However, the extra members did give us an additional manpower to create the effect that we intended to feature. We realised that communication was key in this concept, where we would look at the screen to initiate the command of jump sequentially by a left-right jumping direction. We finally achieved a level of coordination we thought was ready to be uploaded as our final video, although speckled with a few glitches.
Boundaries of Third Space
In the exploration of the different questions posted to us regarding the third space, I went haywire in the research and went into some additional but somehow relevant information. In the questioning of boundaries within the Third Space, I felt that net neutrality and specialised new media company is worth mentioning. Net neutrality is essentially the action of making internet data equally accessible without control or restriction. Since this has been a highly debatable topic revolving around the Federal Communication Commission’s repeal and John Oliver’s vigilante fight for internet equality through Youtube. (A debatable net neutrality supporter) In relations to the Third Space, net neutrality would kill off the sanctity as it creates a specialised tiered data service that limits the freedom to explore within the Third Space. Specialised new media company like Netflix can profit off of net neutrality by paying for the tiered service, driving up competition, prohibiting access of the Internet. This effectively scales down the infinite space of the internet down to what the organisation allows you to.
Digital Divide
I also explored on digital divide, the concept of inequality in the data distribution around the world. This is highly contended especially in the artwork “Guilty Landscapes”, where the artist connects to the audience live via the Internet to execute his artwork. This artwork could be stumped if the location he was carrying out in had really slow internet connection due to a weak Internet services provider, or even any providers at all. Essentially, digital divide creates a cyber landscape that only hovers around the developed countries, making the Third Space non-existent to the less developed countries. This can be salvaged through sharing of information and resources. The investment of MNCs in such less developed countries could drive up the need to have strong Internet in such places and in terms expand the Third Space’s connectivity.
Essay
