The Mother of Facetime

On a November evening in 1980, a remarkable performance art, Hole in Space was held on the two sides the United States. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz had their two life-sized screens installed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City and the department store at the open-air Shopping Center in Los Angeles. The audience at Los Angeles and New York City could see and speak to each other through satellite technologies. The audience was extremely excited to interact with people across the state. As it was not easy to travel 2789 miles (est. from east to west in the United States around the 1980s. Even now, it will take estimated 5 hours to travel from Los Angeles to New York City by air. Also, video call was only common for consumers in the early 2000s.

The travel distance between Los Angeles and New York City https://www.google.com.sg/maps/dir/New+York,+NY,+USA/Los+Angeles,+CA,+USA/@36.349707,-114.2788323,4z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xc80b8f06e177fe62!2m2!1d-74.0059728!2d40.7127753!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c2c75ddc27da13:0xe22fdf6f254608f4!2m2!1d-118.2436849!2d34.0522342

On the first day of the performance, the audience was unsure about what was going on with no instruction or signs were provided. They started to interact with strangers on the screen to clarify their thoughts. Interestingly, from 04:50 in the video above. We can see the change in audience’s body language that they moved closer to the screen. They were trying to imitate the physical interaction, and chatting casually with each other, although they might be complete strangers. A middle age male audience even questioned the interviewer if the people he saw on the screen are actors.

On the second day, the audience went to the installation to participate in the performance through the word of mouth. A male audience wearing sunglasses declared that he heard it from his friend. I think this performance art had encouraged the interaction beyond the performance to the certain extent. On the last day, most people decided to come after mass media announcement to meet their friends, family and loved ones, just like how we Facetime our friends nowadays. The reaction of the audience likely reached the climax of the whole performance. They were laughing, screaming, and shouting at each other. You can see the audience jumping and kneeling on the floor to express their excitement near the end of the video attached.

In my opinion, this performance art is a success, as it encouraged audience engagement. Where the audience were fully involved in this piece. The setting of the performance is the key to encourage people to be interested in participating.

“The sculpture gives form to a social space that is at once displaced and intimate. People are enthusiastic to make contact with others in a much more uninhibited manner than could be found in the normal urban environs of New York or LA.”

Firstly, there is no description and instruction which created curiosity among the audience. Secondly, the performance was held in the public space with its life-sized scale screen to attract attention. Lastly, it was able to create emotions, such as happiness and excitement when the parents saw their daughter on the screen (from 10:25 in the video). The artist’s’ role here is to create the space for the audience to participate in the performance instead of letting the audience watching the artists chatting using satellite technologies. Last but not least, this performance was probably erasing the geographical boundaries, and pulling people closer, even strangers through the “third place”.

References 

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/hole-in-space/

http://www.ecafe.com/museum/history/ksoverview2.html

The Third Space

Foth, Marcus. 2012. From Social Butterfly To Engaged Citizen. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

 

FOUNDATION 4D PROJECT 4: POETICS OF TIME

PROJECT BRIEF

Choose a specific location in ADM, and create an encounter with any medium that expresses one of the following categories of time. 1. Measured time 2. Experienced time 3. Edited time 4. Biological time.

 

OVERVIEW

I started this project with research on two artists, Tehching Hsieh and Marina Abramovic who are the pioneers of performance art. I decided to have a performance art for this project after having a better understanding of it. Due to time constraints, my performance was recorded and presented in the form of installation. The purpose of this performance is to cause realization of the current issues. INDIVIDUALISATION

 

PROJECT PROPOSAL

PROJECT 4 PROPOSAL

 

PROCESS

I had 21 meals alone for 15 days, as I skipped some and there were technical issues for a few meals that were not recorded. All the video clips were edited to the similar scales to keep the consistency. The edited video was presented in the installation is 2 hours 11 minutes in clock time.

There is a speed up version of part of the original video. The scale and framing are able to capture my movement and the environment. There is no surprise in this artwork as all my movements are similar. The regular movement suggests my oppressive emotion, and also form a contrast to the irregular movement in the background. The contrast of an individual against the group emphasized my loneliness.

DINING ENVIRONMENT REFERENCE https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490118371940344390/
DINING ENVIRONMENT REFERENCE https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490118371940344355/
TRIAD COLOURS http://www.tigercolor.com/Images/Triad.gif

Moreover, the deliverable of this project is an installation of my recorded performance. I created a dining environment for my audience to experience the artwork. The images above are my references. The style of the dining environment is colourful and bright like where a group of friends normal hang out at. I used two orange, two green chairs, and one white table for my installation to achieve the ideal effect. I chose the colours according to colour theory that triad colour which are green, violet and orange to create the playful environment.

MENU REFERENCE https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490118371940398927/

TABLE SET UP
TABLE SET UP

Further, text is used in my installation to clarify the content and emphasize my emotion. I wrote down my feeling after every meal and consolidate those into a menu-like sheet with the performance art title and other information. It was placed on the white table for the audience to read while they are watching the video. Some small notes were also placed on the table to deliver my message to the audience.

 

FINAL INSTALLATION

INSTALLATION SET UP
INSTALLATION SET UP

The installation lasted for 2 hours and 11 minutes started from 1230pm on 20th November 2017 at ADM level 2 outside 2D studio. I invited my friend for lunch at my installation. That was my first time eating with friends in 15 days. My friends and classmates had pizza with me and also shared their opinions with me. The whole installation was recorded by Gopro. There is a five-minute video  of some moment above as I could not be able to upload the whole 2 hours video.

 

ALL IN ALL

SOCIAL EVENT
SOCIAL EVENT

This is the first time that I am having performance art and installation. I was always curious about those in the past. Finally, there was a chance for me to do so. Eating alone seems to be an easy task but it is difficult for me as I am an extrovert person who loves to socialize. I am also self-conscious that I care about how people think of me. Putting myself in the situation without company in the public is torture. I felt insecure when I was eating alone. In addition, I did not expect that this performance art would affect my social life that much. I missed several chances to enjoy great food with friends because I need to follow the rules I set. Actually, I only spent around 2 hours in total eating alone but I felt like the time was double. It is because those experiences are unpleasant. However, I felt that time past faster when I was sharing food with friends at the installation. This project is interesting that I never think about time in depth as it is just something we experience every day. I appreciate that we actually have the ability to design time. Lastly, I think this project also helped me to discover my potential, and decide my major.