I Light Critique

I managed to catch a few of the interactive works when I went for I Light. The first being ‘Facey Thing’ by Uji Studios which was a sort of satirical take on the selfie culture amongst the masses in this day and age.

Fig 1. Facey Thing by Uji Studios, 2019, I Light, Singapore.
pictures screenshot from video taken by: En Cui

When you first encounter it, ‘Facey Thing’ is a bright huge screen that is twice the height of an ordinary human.

Diagram 1, mock up of Facey Thing

So the set up is simple, consisting of a screen which is hooked up to a single camera that captures the passerbys that are oving in front of the work. The code that runs this work is set to capture the faces of the people who are standing in front of it.

Fig 2. Facey Thing by Uji Studios, 2019, I Light, Singapore.
pictures screenshot from video taken by: En Cui

Fig 3. Facey Thing by Uji Studios, 2019, I Light, Singapore.
pictures screenshot from video taken by: En Cui

When your face is recognised by the screen it is boxed up as seen in fig 2 above and would later evolve to fig 3. In Fig 3, the faces of the passerbys are blown up and dragged upward almost as though painting the canvas with their face. So in this case the images on the screen are temporarily changed by the people who interact with it, if not it is no more then an ordinary close circuit video recording. It warps the initial intention of Selfies to be one that portray one self as ‘glam’ to being very ‘unglam’ instead by warping the passerby’s faces.

Fig 4. Facey Thing by Uji Studios, 2019, I Light, Singapore.
pictures screenshot from video taken by: En Cui

The people that decided to interact it were waving their hands of moving about oddly to try and get their face recognised by the system.

Subsequently I caught “Shades of Temporality” by SWEATSHOPPE – Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy.

Fig 5. Shades of Temporality by SweatShoppe, 2019, I Light Singapore
Text: 你好 Lei <3
Written by: En Cui, Christine and Elizabeth

This work has two elements to it, the first being the visualiser projecting the ‘painted image’ on to the wall, and the second being the paint rollers.

Diagram 2, Mock up of the painting brushes used in Shades of Temporarity

Diagram 3, Mock up of the set up of Shades of Temporarity

When the button in diagram 2 is pressed the paint brush head up turns green. this is then sensed by the camera and the visualiser will send an out put of light that will corespond to the area where the paint brush touched, projecting a loop of graphical illustrations of Singapore.

In this case the audience are encouraged to make temporary graffity designs on the wall, hence creating art. the audience is given the ability to write what ever they want to express themselves in anyway they see fit.

January 24, 2019

A Critique on Interactivity

Crystal Universe by teamLab, Future World,Art Science Museum, Singapore
picture taken from: https://faithjoyhope.blogspot.com/2016/03/new-what-you-can-expect-artscience.html

The first art work that I chose for this critique is ‘Crystal Universe’ by teamLab. What I find intriguing about this work is the way entering the space is like entering a different realm. It is an aesthetic work, if you want to classify it, but what makes it so effective is that because it is so ‘instagram worthy’ it draws crowds of people easily. The work is described as a ‘galaxy of hanging leds’ by vice.com. True enough the LEDs light up like a galaxy of stars in the dark room, and one is allowed to travel through the path created, experiencing the LEDs from different perspectives. The interactive element comes in two forms, the first being immersing ones self in the atmosphere created by the twinkling LEDs and the subsequent one being actually changing the LEDs programming through your smartphone. By doing so the viewers control the way the LEDs shine, creating a reflective space that suit them. As such the viewer becomes both the audience as well as the artist who shapes their experience of the space.

However, on a more realistic note, the experience of creating your own experience is not always a pleasant one, considering that the number of people that visited the space, and the lack of limitation of the people walking through the work at all times which hinders the viewers experience of the work.

The Treachery of Sanctuary 2012, by Chris Milk, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
Picture taken from:http://milk.co/treachery

The second piece i chose was Chris Milk’s “The Treachery of Sanctuary”. The piece consists of three monolithic screens that are shone with light. When a person moves in front of the screens their ‘shadow’ is shone over it, triggereing the art to react. What I found interesting about this piece is how it took the image of the person and warped/disinitegrated it. The wor

The work is a representation of its own creative process, which I find hilarious.

The first panel represents “the genesis of the idea, when you finally have a breakthrough.”

The participants then notice a flock of birds above them– as they reach out, their body begins to break down and birds begin to emerge.

this represents the viewers becoming the idea behind the work, and later in the secon panel, the flock continues to rain down on their ‘shadow’ pecking what is left of the shadow. This the artists says represents the hardships faced during the project. Finally, the last panel is the triumph where you become a bird yourself.

The entire work is coded to act in a certain way, but will not be able to do so without the audience interacting with it. Hence in this situation the audience is still sort of the artist shaping what is viewed on the screen.

For this project the audience still plays a huge role in the artwork by interacting with it and creating the visual imagery. However as always the artist has created the code which limits the reaction of the work, meaning they have set the narrative and setting of the art work, everything else is free to be influenced and changed by the audience.

Questions:

Interactivity and aesthetics, how do you attract people to your work without prompt
Viewer experience and will a large audience affect the experience of the work compared to a small audience

References:

Crystal Universe:

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/yp555v/enter-a-real-life-matrix-in-teamlabs-crystal-universe
https://www.teamlab.art/w/crystaluniverse/

The Treachery of Sanctuary:

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/53wbw8/chris-milks-the-treachery-of-sanctuary-unveiled-at-londons-digital-revolution
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/chris-milk-installation
http://milk.co/treachery

April 5, 2018

The Online World

Hyperessay

The third space network is a live video broadcast, which focus on broadcasting creative dialogue all over the world.

At the start, what becomes prominent in the broadcast is the various technical issues that appear in the broadcast. Glitches with the sound system, where the poor keynote speaker could not hear everyone else. Glitches in film, where the video would pause but the sound would run on. The speakers would sometime speak out of the microphone and no one can hear them. The intresting thing is how people adapt and make do in this highly connected world, where something goes wrong, there are a few other devices that can be made use of to keep the symposium afloat.

(An image of the group chat slightly after the first symposium started. The Key note speaker could not hear anyone speaking, so cues were given through the group chat.)

Day 1, 29 March 2018, 8pm-11pm

The first day starts of with Keynote speaker Dr Maria Chatzichristodoulou who talked about the telematics art.

From Google, the definition of Telematic is the branch of information technology which deals with the long-distance transmission of computerized information. More simply put Dr Chatzichistodoulo describes Telematic to be live/liveness and interactivity.

She says, ” It transform the screen into a live encounter, in that sense it joins the space of the live performance and the audience, making them co-performers.”

This ability to link people in real time, gives the audience, once only silent witnesses to an art form, a chance to interject their opinions and ideas into the work, influencing the views of their fellow audience, and sometimes the work itself. In a way this form of art embraces the connection between interaction and the media. Once, the media had only carried the recordings of art works. The media then could not influence the its audience in that contemporary moment and time, however, through telematics communication technology, everything is brought into the now, no matter where you are, so long as there is a screen before you.

(Source taken from: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/hole-in-space/)

Dr Chatzichristodoulou brings in works like ‘Hole in Space’ by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, to emphasis the potential that interactivity gives performance art. As we explored in a previous essay, ‘Hole in Space’ is a satelite connected projection of two areas in USA, one in Los Angeles and the other in New York City. The projection had first invoked curosity from the people of these separate states, before they started to make use of the opportunity to ‘meet’ each other, on screen for the first time in many years, for some. It creates a sort of unpredictability as various people come together with different intentions in mind. As such this experience, would result in very different reactions which creates a unique shared experience and can influence the audience better as it involves them.

(Screen shot of Dr Maria Chatzichristodoulou explaining the work ‘Telematic Dreaming’)

Subsequently she mentions this work ‘Telematic Dreaming’ by Paul Sermon. ‘Telematic Dreaming’ is done in two locations, the first with the artist and the other location has the audience. The work features a projection on a bed, and the audience and the artist can interact with each other on the bed through this live video projection. What was interesting about this work was a scenario Dr Chatzichristodoulou had pointed out, where a memeber of the audience had abused the artist projection on the bed. Dr Chatzichristodoulou had then begun to question the idea of ethics of such actions, whether this abuse would be considered as such, just because the artist was not physically harmed.

It made me consider the power of the third space. How in this day and age, how millenials spend so much time on the third space that it almost seem as though we could be physically in it. This kind of abuse, we label it as Cyber bullying, where one would spout or post various threats online to ‘hurt’ others but not really.

Subsequently, Annie Abrahams had done a live performance. she had collabed with a few other people who were from different parts on the world, relating to the idea of politics.

What i fould most interesting was the various voices and statements that were said, “excellent”, “status”, “3.961”, “144”, “excellent” “300,000 milliseconds”, it is like a computer comming online. Also, alongside the various images above, they would say various sentences, that they believe were something related to politics. It just brings across the point that in this day and age, it is so easy to connect and bring people of various backgrounds together to collaborate and make art.

Day 2, 30 April 2018, 8pm-11pm

The speaker Matt Adam’s had spoken of Blast Theory. Blast Theory is a pioneering artist group creating interactive art to explore social and political questions, placing audience members at the centre of their work.

(screenshot of Matt Adams explaining ‘Kidnap’)

His First example was ‘Kidnap’ which revolves around two voluntary members of the public winning a lottery to be “kidnapped’. Subsequently they were kidnapped and taken away to a safe house for 48 hours, with the video recording streaming them live for the entire 48 hours.

“Once you put on the bag, it feels very real” says one of the volunteers, “Like you are not in control of anything.” and it is true to an extent, handing all control to strangers, and trusting that everything is an act, when they do actually have the ability to make you feel vulnerable, to harm you.

(Screenshot of Matt Adams explaining ‘Uncle Roy’)

Subsequently there is ‘Uncle Roy’ which has two roles to play, the first being the people off the street with only 60 minutes to find the missing uncle Roy, through clues provided by a hand held computer. The second being the people online, whom can moniter the progress of the street player, and guide them by giving them instructions to where uncle Roy could be.

It brings across this idea of team work, and bring people of different communities together. It is almost as though they looking for Uncle Roy together in the same place. In the end they were made to answer a few questions regarding stranges, ‘whether they would help a stranger in a crisis’. I find this quite interesting, as it does reflect how connected the person is to society, how willing they are to help each other. It makes me realised sometimes, despite being so well connected, and willing to connect with strangers online, it makes some people reserved when meeting face to face.

Conclusion:

I feel that the idea of collaborating with others through online platforms has a larger potential to influence more people across various countries, so long they have the internet. The third space, that we have constantly talked about also has a various platforms and tools that can be explored to make art works more engagine and interactive. We consider them playful, and almost whimsical as collaboraters can create contrasting images, or interact in a certain way that goes beyond the boundaries of the physical plane.

March 19, 2018

Internet rage

The Artwork

Title: Angry Woman

Artist: Annie Abrahams

There is a total of 5 videos in the series Angry Woman made by Annie Abraham. In the first two videos 24 women of different nationalities would express their anger on camera at home, in their own language. The next two videos feature the women expressing their anger on camera in a single language, number 3 in French and 4 in English, but this time for only 12 minutes. the last one the 5 was a sequence of women screaming into the computer.

The review

Social Broadcasting can be defined as

The broadcasting of video, text and pictures directly to an intended audience through social media channels such as facebook, Youtube, Instagram and other channels as opposed to traditional channels such as radio, TV and print.

So why would this be considered a good medium for art?

(Screenshot from the third video of Annie Abraham’s ‘Angry Woman’)

First and foremost, it is unpredictable. In the third video there is the silent woman at the top left corner that illustrates her anger through actions and not words. She creates this visual contrast with the others, whilst their tone rises and falls with the passion of their anger, she remains quiet showing hand gestures like shooting the screen and biting her hands, to show the actions that we so deeply want to take when we want to vent.

(Screenshot was taken from the fourth video of Annie Abraham’s ‘Angry Woman’)

This also leads to the idea of contrast, with various women speaking and a single person only creating gestures it forms a vivid difference in that single video screen which draws attention to it. Subsequently, in the fourth video, where everyone was speaking in English, there was a single person who was screaming, or making incoherent bemoaning sounds. this hence creates a different sound effect to latch onto amongst the waves of others talking.

(Screenshot taken from the fourth video of Annie Abraham’s ‘Angry Woman’)

It is also about negotiation, where in a broadcast, one would like to synchronise their actions. In the 4 video, after about 7 minutes, all seven women on screen started taking calming breaths almost as if all of them decide to cool down together. Abit like what we did for one of our micro-projects.

When the performers’ Webcams were succumbing to technical issues, she transformed this problem by directing the group to intentionally turn their cameras on and off, creating a shifting, evolving, changing collage of images in direct play with altered configurations of the online interface.

Whilst this idea of negotiating and cooperating is apparent in certain ways of her work, the idea of negotiation can play a key role in making the social broadcasting fun (and covering up glaring flaws to the system).

But why is this done on social media and not the television. In a way social media is like a platform for a two way connection, where the tv and advertisment is a single connection (radio in some cases you can call in, but its still mostly one way). Anyone with a social media has the ability to take part in these works of art, in a way it gives like minded individuals, in this case ‘angry women’, the ability to join in the work and contribute it.

In a society where authenticity and privacy become endangered it is important to find ways to access our vulnerabilities and doubts, to make them public, to cherish our messy side. We need to make space for the beast in the beauty, to go back to reality, to claim the human.

Social broadcasting becomes a way for people to share issues that they feel strongly for, and be empathised with by a like-minded crowd. In a way, it creates a safe community for all to share and be vulnerable without fear of being judged.

Credits

http://www.starlightmediahouse.co.nz/latest-news/what-is-social-broadcasting/
https://thirdspacenetwork.com/symposium2018/disentangling-the-entanglements/
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/18236/18237

March 15, 2018March 15, 2018

The Ghosts only your Phone can see

The art work

(source is taken from: http://carlagannis.com/blog/)

Gallery name: Until the End of the World

Artist: Carla Gannis

Year: 2017

Carla Gannis’ “Until the end of the World’ exhibition is executed like the ancient Greek theater where the ‘actors will speak through a mask’. in this case the ‘mask’ is her virtual persona, one like our social media, and how we portray ourselves on that ‘third space’.

The exhibition consists of various art works, like multi-media installations and ‘selfie-paintings’. She makes use of new technology to create the work, where visitors can ‘hover over the static piece of work with their phone to see it move and interact with it’.

Her works have certain nuances that suggests that it is feminist in nature, commenting on a woman’s place in society, and also on how society is affected by technology and the possible changes across the centuries.

(source is taken from: https://www.artsy.net/show/dam-gallery-carla-gannis-until-the-end-of-the-world)

The review:

Digital Identity: A digital identity is information on an entity used by computer systems to represent an external agent. That agent may be a person, organisation, application, or device.

I mentioned Carla Gannis’ ‘Selfie-drawings’ and how you could interact with them when using a certain app. In a way this character in the app has assume the role of Carla, and it paints a picture of how she wishes the audience to view her.

Its funny, because you can only interact with her through an app, like how people communicate via social media.

(source taken from: https://www.artsy.net/show/dam-gallery-carla-gannis-until-the-end-of-the-world)

But Facebook appeared to some
writers as angel, and some as demon; to some as an emerging
global village, and to others as isolation in disguise; to some as an
opportunity for maintaining relationships, and to others as broadcast
narcissism.

As quoted from D.E. Wittkower’s ‘A reply to Facebook Critics’, it is a form of charade, this idea of digital identity, and it becomes a tool that helps some people disguise themselve, a safe heaven of annoymity to discuss certain subjects or to be unbothered, sometimes to decieve others for their own gain.

In this case this annoymity also acts as a platform for relatability, to be placed in the shoes of this character, like what Carla Gannis is doing in her work. She places the audience in an almost intimate setting with her virtual persona and allow us to interact with it, as though we have been physically transported to the third space.

Credits:

Wittkower, D. E. (2010). “Facebook and Philosophy: What’s on your Mind? A Reply to Facebook Critics,” Popular Culture & Philosophy
https://www.artsy.net/show/dam-gallery-carla-gannis-until-the-end-of-the-world
Carla Gannis, artwork: Until the End of the World (2017)
http://rhizome.org/community/47634/

February 28, 2018

The Day that Cardillacs Stands up

Artwork Review

(Source taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch#/media/File:Cadillac_Ranch.jpg)

Title: Cadillac Ranch

Artist: Chip Lord

Year created: 1974/1994

Medium: Installation

Overview

Cadillac Ranch is an installation of 10 Cadillac’s buried nose deep in a line, in the dirt along route 66 west of Amarillo.

Its almost as if they were droven off a cliff and plunged head first into the ground. Now useless, the owners wander off looking for help and the Cadillacs lay, left there buried with their tailfins in the air waiting for travellers to chance upon it.

After awhile, the work was subjugated to the whims of the travellers, meaning they were either defaced with graffitti or ripped apart as souvenirs. Whats left of these cars are but a line of rainbow coloured skins of their former selves, rebirth into comic relief for a travellers amusement.

(Source taken from: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220)

Ant Farm

As mentioned by Constance Lewallen, in his writing ‘Still Subversive After all These Years’

Ant Farm — a collective of radical architects who were also video, performance, and installation artists but, above all, visionaries and cultural commentators — offers an intriguing look into the conceptual activity of the late sixties and seventies, a time that has proved to be seminal for succeeding generations of adventuresome artists.

Their work embraces ‘the latest technologies to disseminate its scathing criticism of American culture and mass media’.

In the case of the Cadillac Ranch it is a commentary about consumerism and maybe pop culture. What a car and a crashed car is in society. More interestingly is how members of the online communitty take to the idea of a crashed car.

Its almost Ironic, how one can act so indifferent and even gleeful of the idea of chancing upon a crashed car. How satirical their photos get when they interact with the car itself.

Decades have passed. The Cadillacs have now been in the ground as art longer than they were on the road as cars. They are stripped to their battered frames, splattered in day-glo paint splooge, barely recognizable as automobiles. Yet Cadillac Ranch is more popular than ever.

As quoted from roadsideamerica.com

And in a way it is quite interesting as it changes in an unsual way with time. The artwork evolves with evey added touch of a new tourist own creativity into the mix. It keeps conversations going, give people something new to talk about.

Sources:

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220
http://www.stretcher.org/features/still_subversive_after_all_these_years/
http://amarillo.com/stories/070404/fea_artbeat.shtml#.WpaDXK6WbIU
http://www.spatialagency.net/database/ant.farm
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/107284
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch
https://www.eai.org/titles/cadillac-ranch-1974-1994
http://slide.ly/buzz/view/0753e05835bf697ae7eee5b1329f801f

January 30, 2018February 3, 2018

A guide to Intimacy for Asexuals

(Source taken from: https://thirdspacenetwork.com/annie-abrahams/)

Title: The Big Kiss

Artist: Annie Abrahams

Medium: Webcam performance installation art

Year: 2008

The Review

On October 10 2008, Annie Abrahams set up a live video shoot of her and Mark River sitting on opposite ends of a partition, simulating a kiss over a split video screen.

(Source is a screen shot from: https://vimeo.com/2070207)

From the image we can see the two artists manuvering their faces in front of the camera while looking towards the screen to see if their faces were match up forming a ‘kiss’. The live video consist of the both of them sticking their tongues out and pressing kisses againgst each other as though they are making out with each other physically.

According to the website thirdspacenetwork, Abrahams’ works explores the ‘intimacy’ and even ‘sexuality’ of humans ‘in the “telematic embrace”‘ which is the internet, and the idea of ‘being alone but together’. It draws parallels to how the millenials of the 21st century have used their technology like snapchat, skype, etc to have real time conversations with each other despite being in different locations. It is almost as if conversing with an object and not an actual person.

As mentioned by Randall Parker in his writing ‘the third space’, people can assume their internet identities in a ‘reinvented world of their choosing’. They can take walks with each other, converse with each other, initate acts of intimacy, etc without actually touching. It becomes this invisible barrier between two people that keep them apart, but still together at the same time. As a result, this ‘portal’ which allows us to see each other in different locations has the potential to become surreal or fantasy like because it does not show the ‘utimate truth’.

If we cross reference this work, with Nam June Paik’s ‘Egg Grows’ we can see a similarity with this idea of the third space being ‘decieving’.

(Source taken from: http://kmccarth.umwblogs.org/2015/01/26/nam-june-paik/)

From above we see an egg being broadcasted in real time ov various Tvs placed in different positions and of different sizes. As a result the images of the egg become distorted to fit the TV screens, making them bigger then usual, or positioned weirdly.

In conclusion this becomes an alternate reality that conincides with the actual reality we exist in, however, it has far more potential to be manipulated into something that we want to see of want others to see.

Sources:

http://bram.org/toucher/TBK.html
https://thirdspacenetwork.com/annie-abrahams/
Paker R. ,The third Space, http://www.randallpacker.com/third-space/
Video recording of ‘The Big Kiss’: https://vimeo.com/2070207