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.

Image result for hole in space

(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.

Travel Easy

Micro-Project 9

So we were asked to make a video for our alter ego. Mine is kind of a wizard of some sort, the detail are ‘hush hush’ so we are not allowed to talk about it. So this video is about my alter ego travelling home every few minutes because it is that easy to do what ever it is she needs to do and come back within a few seconds.

Click Here for the video

‘Uh, so I forgot to mention that every room has a few portals that one can travel by. I promise not to use them when I visit unannounced….. Don’t tell my roommate.’

 

What is a desktop?

I guess anything that can be customized would reflect your own personality.

you can see the educational ‘Ambook’ icon, which is an e book, I had a you tube converter, and many other apps that I used in school, its a real mouthful to explain them all.  I guess in a way its, a reflection of how I don’t take to change that well. Subsequently there is the games that I had downloaded with my cousin so that we could play together, which reflects how close i am with my family. lastly there is also a lot of flash files and a few design apps on my desktop which reflects the artsy side of me.

 

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

The Ghosts only your Phone can see

The art work

 

Image result for until the end of the world carla gannis

(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.

Image result for until the end of the world exhibition carla gannis selfie painting

(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:

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.

Cadillac Fatality.

(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

The pink period was one of the most popular.

in an attempt to cover the grafitti

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

 

Let us DIWO

DIWO and Maker Culture

During our Week 5 lesson we had the chance to have a lecture with Marc Garrett. He talks about the Furtherfield and how the idea of ‘Do-It-With-Others’ (DIWO) has allowed them to achieve greater heights.

What is so great about this idea of DIWO though?

Whilst many artist are able to create artworks by themselves, DIWO brings across this idea of community, a sort of shared experience that can be felt amongst others. It becomes a more accessible art, and even in the case they are almost like volunteery projects that help the community, or ‘Values-In-Action’ as we call it in Singapore.

Image result for furtherfield projects

(Source taken from: https://www.facebook.com/Furtherfield/)

On their website thery have various workshops like ‘Design 4 ACTION! Permaculture Course’ and exhibitions all aimed towards helping the community.

It explores the extent of which those who view and interact with work, including those from under-represented groups, becomes co-producers in the network, rather then the ‘audience’.

(Source taken from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beuys-7000-oak-trees-ar00745)

When I think large scale community progects I think of this art project by Joseph Beuys, ‘7,000 oaks’. ‘7,000 oaks’ start with 7,000 basalt stone, each a pair to one of the 7,000 trees, were piled in front of the Museum Fridericianu. Everytime a tree was planted the pile was reduced. While the project idea was started by one man, it took a community to help make this project successful, and later the project spread further into other communities with this idea of wanting to change.

Maybe in a way, its because this issues are important to the community, which will eventually become the drive, all the call to action.

Subsequently there is this idea of pooling ideas together to create something better.

Furtherfield connects people to new ideas, critical thinking and imaginative possibilities for art, technology and the world around us. Through artworks, labs and debate people from all walks of life explore today’s important questions.

Similar to them, our Experimental Interaction lessons aim to nuture this idea of collaboration. In our micro-project the tele-stroll,  we made use of the idea of the third space to create a video where two people in two different locations could interact as either a single person, or keep the company of each other. It is playful and brings together the ideas of two individuals to create something  even better.

Even a bit more recently, there is the idea of our glitched art works, which is a combination of the ideas of various people. It comes out differently, sort of representing how different each and everyone of us thinks.

The Conclusion

Thinking about it now, two heads are always better then one, and thats because our ideas are different, the way we work is different, and thats probably why DIWO would be a good thing for the makers culture, as the ideas of many would result in something far more creative then just the ideas of one.

 

When your N̸̰̙̻̖̮̭͚̊͆̑̄͐̉̕̕̕͝í̵̛̫̞͖͇͕̲̤̗̳͈͍̝͋͆̕g̶̡̡̡̛̣̙̹̣̠̳̞̞͉̻̱̓̎̽̈́̂͋͑͌͌͠h̸̨̨̟̺̙̖͉̺͈̻͔̻̱̗̓̏̒̄̍̀̓̾̚ṫ̶͓̠͎̗̞̬̺̟̲̭̀͐̂͆̽̔̒̒̀̇͗́͆́m̷̰͊̆̏̅͋̓̈́́͊͘a̷̢͙̤͇͓͉͇̹̞̯̰͈̮͑͑̃̈͝͠r̵̡̤̰̥͙̝̄͒͂̾̾͑̋̈́͑͌͠ͅe̵̛̼̲͕͖̗͙̝̣̝̍͗͗̓̂͝s̴̱̼͈͇͕̣͍͇̝̍̉͝ Become Reality

Micro-Project 5

So we were playing with G̴͔̘͚̞͚̞͓̭͈͛̓͆̏̈́̅̀͒͂ļ̵̫̓̾́̃̈́́̐͝í̴̢̧̝̰̱̗̰͙̘̖̼̜̪͎t̶̬͓̙̹̊ͅč̷̨̢̜͖̪̪͇̫̼̭̳̎͒̈́̆̈͐͗̂̈́̕̚͝ͅh̸̢̭͈͈̟̖̖̙̱̼̠̝̽̑̇͛͜ͅ ̶̲̠͉̭͍̦͎̬̪̙̣̜́͐͆̎͛̉͑a̶̡̧̟̺͎̫̜̳̗̤̣͎͗͐͂̉̎͛͛́́͐̇̚͜͜͝͝r̵͇͆̓̾̓̈͊̀̅̇̇̓̉ẗ̴̨̡͓̩͎͖̦͎̘̪̟̲̲̬͔́̈́̀͆̀͌̑ Today.

We were asked to edit one group mates image and then save it. Next we pass it to the next group mate to re edit again. the process repeats till everyone has edited the image once.

So my group members edited my image something along the lines of the image below.

Its quite fun actually, defacing  each others pictures, in fact most of them did not look like ourselves after the entire transformation was over. Its more interesting when we don’t look like ourselves anyway.

Together, a story of many

Week 3 Essay

Hello World! Or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise

Artwork title: Hello World! or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise

Artist: Christopher Baker

Medium: Multi-channel multimedia installation

Year created: 2008

The Review

Hello world is a video installation where 5,000 video diaries of various individuals are played along a wall. The people in the videos can be seen speaking in their rooms, kitchens, a space of comfort.

Walking into the gallery space, one is instantly immersed in layers of voices, overlapping to the point that the words blend and become noise. It is as though you are listening to them talk about something intimate, nd at the same time, their personal issues are made public. You hear everything but at the same time you hear nothing in a sea of voices.

His works is a visual representation of the modern lifestyle of being constantly interconnected despite being far apart.

The concept is similar to that mentioned in Randall Packer’s writing ‘The Third Space’ in regards to the art work ‘Hole in Space’. He mentions the idea of a ‘third space’ being created, or a virtual identity being transimitted from one party to another through technology.

Image result for hole in space art

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

In this case the works differ in the the sense that ‘Hole in Space’ is a live broadcast, which is ephemeral, it is ever changing depending on the people and how they interact. On the other hand, ‘Hello World!’ is a collection of pre-recorded videos, hence the interaction becomes one-way. That means that there would be a distinctive lack of communication between the people whose videos are put up.

When we were in class, we talk about how communication is important when working as a collective whole to make a work cohesive. So it is amazing to see the images contrast with each despite the lack negotiation.

Credits

  • Christopher Baker: Hello World! (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2018, from http://www.huhmagazine.co.uk/3200/christopher-baker-hello-world!
  • Gallery, S. (n.d.). Christopher Baker. Retrieved February 07, 2018, from http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/christopher_baker_hello_world2.htm
  • Packer, Randall, Open Source Studio, IEEE Spectrum, 2015

Telematic Embrace, Together but Not

Mirco-Project 3 

The review

During lesson, our class went through what was coined the ‘telematic embrace’.

During the lesson we held a online conference on Adobe Connect. Then we were asked to do a few tasks in front of our web cams. From where we sat, we could all see most of our classmates undergo each task rather differently, resulting in a wall of rather interesting imagery.

(Source was an image shared by our proffessor Randall Packer)

The task above was to share a photo we have on our phone. Through this exchange, we are able to learn alot about our own classmate. The photos we have on our phone says alot about who we are personally. In a situation where they are placed next to each other it is a playful contrast of of our personalities, despite sharing the same major.

(Source was an image shared by our proffessor Randall Packer)

The task above was to place our clear water bottles over the screen to create and interesting effect. Despite being quite easy to create, to achieve such a synchronised collaborative art work, one must be willing to cooperate and negotiate. In each photo that we have contributed to, it is only due to our willingness to follow the instructions given to us that we are able to create a cohesive combined image.

The conclusion

This idea of ‘Do-It-With-Others’ would have rather unpredictable results despite the contributers having the same set of instructions. It makes the outcome of the works surprising and unique as various ideas contrast and complement each other.