Category Archives: Micro-Project

Micro-Project 7: Video Selfie

ABOUT THE PROJECT

To create a one minute video of yourself that constructs your selfie as an “artistic alter ego:” the artist or designer you want/choose/aspire to be!

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You would normally expect a person’s alter ego to be represented in a more positive setting and atmosphere, seeing as what someone aspires to be would usually be something good, and therefore positive. I, however, decided to play things a little differently.

“When the tough gets going, the going gets tough.” – Joseph P. Kennedy

There are three significant elements present in the video: myself, the rain, and the view, respectively symbolising myself, the tough, and the going.

Shot from the other side of a window, the raindrops that land in front of the camera recurrently distort the image of myself, standing in the heavy rain outside. Sometimes it seems as though I’m being pulled into two, sometimes into threes, sometimes I’m completely wiped out, and other times I’m left completely undisturbed. This comes as symbolism of the internal conflicts and struggles that occur during times of distress, where everything becomes a blur.

MY ALTER EGO

Despite the rain, I keep my vision focused on the view, thus symbolising who I want to be
– someone who’s able to keep her vision ahead even when things get tough.

*1) Pulled into two, 2) Pulled into threes, 3) Wiped out, 4) Undisturbed

On top of this, it seems as though what I’ve created is rather the opposite of what my alter ego should be. Most people refer to me as someone who’s very ‘happy-go-lucky’, where I tend to turn many situations into humour. Could it be that I’m already living the ‘positive alter ego’, and this is my hidden (and therefore, still alter), internal ego?

Here, I ask you to watch the video again but this time, without sound.

I feel that watching the video without sound brings a whole new experience, because now it seems as though you, the audience, are watching something that’s personal and hidden inside of me – and you cannot hear what’s going on, yet you can still sense the struggle and desire to look forward purely through the visuals.

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How can the video selfie be used to alter identity?

A video selfie comes in the form of curated content. Whether or not the video is edited, curation allows for any form of ‘lie’ to be represented by the individual, which is the only thing that will be able to be seen by the audience, therefore creating an alter identity as the audience is kept in the dark of what went on, or goes on behind the camera.

How might video be used to conceal identity?

The content creator may choose to leave in or out whatever information he/she wants to about him or herself. This is very much like the ‘daily vloggers’ on YouTube who create videos about their ‘daily lives’. A full day lasts 24 hours, yet most videos only last about 10-20 minutes as usually, only the ‘good stuff’ are left in the video for the audience to see, thus allowing the perception that these vloggers have ‘perfect lives’.

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

The objects (or rather the rain and the wide view) help to serve as symbolisms within my identity, as explained above. It’s more so the symbolisms that are important, as without them, I could very well just be someone who’s standing in the rain and watching the view.

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P.S. I was very cold after filming this.
The rain was also being blown in my face and hurting. my. eyes.

Micro Project: Super-Participation

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24-Hr SSJD by Si Hui, Si Qi, Jia Ying & Dion

The four of us had settled on a random Monday for our super-participation.

Throughout the day, I noticed the different kinds of information that the four of us were sharing through our posts, allowing for an understanding of how different individuals react to having to take super-participate in an online activity.

Jia Ying and I shared more about what we were doing at the different times of the day, Si Qi shared more on her random thoughts, memes and once in awhile what she was doing, while Si Hui was the one who shared the most random things, including the things she was doing as well as about her continuous partake on Habbo Hotel.

Personally, all the posts that I shared were personal as they all came from the baseline of sharing what I was doing. Overall, the things I shared generally include: when I woke up, what I was eating for my meals, whether I was doing work, watching FRIENDS, playing Habbo, going out, dancing, when I received news that I got my insurance claim from the school for breaking my finger on campus, and when I was going to sleep. The information that I shared were representative of what I was really doing, including several selfies that were definitely not ‘glorified’, and therefore there was not any form of persona or image trying to be created. I would say that this is the same for Jia Ying, seeing as we shared the same types of posts.

*I even asked the others to help me name my pet pig on Habbo… very personal there.

Si Qi’s and Hui’s posts on the other hand, may allow us to infer other things.

Majority of Si Qi’s posts were very random, apart from the occasional updates of an interesting place she was visiting, having Subway for lunch and having a not-very-nice-breakfast. She posted random memes and images with short captions that did not allow for much ‘analysing’ by readers:

From this, I inferred that she could perhaps be portraying the persona of someone who is more private and less comfortable with sharing her everyday life on social media.

Lastly we have Si Hui, who posted non-stop throughout the day because fun-fact: we had TWO Si Huis! One in reality and one in third space. On one hand, Si Hui shared a few posts that included real-life photos, sharing what she was doing. There is definitely no form of trying to portray an online persona here, since it is a proper ‘life update’.

However, third space Si Hui shared more ‘intrusive’ or ‘fun’ updates…

(WARNING: This is going to be a rather confusing paragraph)
I realised that essentially, Si Hui’s ‘third space self’ is still Si Hui in the end, given that the posts are still made by the real her. By creating a persona that was intended to be separate from her actual self, the two personas have actually combined to create one digital identity of Si Hui.

Understanding that third space Si Hui is still Si Hui, the posting of all these random, fun events on Habbo while pretending to not be the real Si Hui creates the idea that Si Hui herself is a fun person, while also private in the sense that she would rather share all these things in a fun, non-personal way (Habbo) rather than as her ‘real self’.

Micro-Project 5: The Art of Destruction

IS IT STILL CLEAN?

Step 1: Clean your dirty hands with the water.

Step 2: Restore the water to its clean state with cleaning devices.

Step 3: Destroy the water with diluted Starbucks.

Step 4: Restore the water to its clean state with cleaning devices.

BEFORE

The process of destruction and restoration:

AFTER

Micro-Project 4: Exquisite Glitch

Micro-Project 3: Tele-Drift

description/objectives

Ying Hui and I focused on creating a first-person perspective of a being in a third space through a split screen, conducting several different actions that includes walking, walking down a staircase, washing our hands and typing on a screen.

location

We walked on different staircases and floors on the second floor of ADM. Ying Hui was on the staircase near the 2D studio/handicap elevator while I was on the staircase at the end of the bridge leading to the classrooms. We then continued walking on the floor.

As for the hand washing, we initially intended to have one person wash in the toilet/3D workshop and the other be in the 2D studio. However, due to terrible connection, we were both in the 2D studio at different sinks that had different backgrounds – one facing a window, and one facing a wall.

Finally, we both filmed the screens of our own laptops to type.

outcome

Due to poor connection, our synchronisation was… pretty bad. This can be seen by how we were sometimes walking both feet at the same time, or when I had finished walking the stairs while Ying Hui was still on hers.

We felt that there was no other way to communicate other than speaking to each other since we were filming a first-point perspective and our feet/hands definitely couldn’t communicate on their own. The typing, however, was easier to ‘communicate’ as it was easier for Ying Hui to see when I have finished typing so she could continue the sentence, as compared to waiting for me to finish taking my step at a normal walking pace.

Overall, I have learnt that a person in a third-space involves a lot of communication and synchronisation. This micro-project came with a lot of problems along the way, but still turned out to be a fun learning experience.

dion

no, not celine