Category: Open Source Studio: Internet Art and Culture

HyperEssay2: Miss Beauty 2018

Miss Beauty 2018

Click on our project page to find out more.

For our final execution, Viena and I decided to focus on people perception of beauty and aim to find out what makes a women beautiful from our online audience. We have created 10 different avatars, where their facial features are combined from our online data collection of what makes a female attractive. We also came up with 3 different avatars’ personalities from our data collection of what female characteristic is attractive.

The comments that I received from my friends are mostly negative, where they mention that the “contestants” that we created are not pretty or look photoshopped. Responses like this make us question “Ain’t all these features the one that you guys find attractive?” 

*PS, well… our photoshop skills might have reveal that its photoshopped somehow 

I feel that live broadcasting have helped us to reach out to audience from all over Singapore where we bring the performance to them instead of having them visiting the performance site itself. However, viewer who enter the broadcast late will have no idea what is going on as the performance was ongoing. I have friends who texted me and ask what is going on and also they pointed out the technical issues that we faced during the broadcast too.

From the live broadcast, I understand that some mistakes cannot be unseen by our viewers as everything is real-time. Also, internet connection is a big issue as we have to stop our broadcast half way through as our viewers start commenting that they are not able to hear anything. Which brings us to another point where we have direct communication with our viewers through an online platform, unlike the usual first space communication.

In a third space, we are able to create a “fake” world where we are able to execute our concept. With 10 avatars created from the data we collected, it is impossible to bring them to life as they do not exist. Therefore, carrying out this performance in a third space will make it easier by playing some trick with pre-recorder voiceover as well as portrait of the contestants to showcase to the online viewers.

Ultimately, I am impressed at how much an online platform are able to do such as collecting data, comparing data, having live interaction as well as direct communication with the viewers.

Final Project

HyperEssay 1: Another Me

For my final project, i would like to explore on the aspect of beauty with makeup. I believe that women puts on makeup to either camouflage themselves, to boost their confidence or to portray themselves in a way that the society wants. Why do they choose to camouflage themselves? They are usually more anxious and insecure about their looks thus they tend to use makeup to cover up their “flaws”. Where as some women wear makeup to boost their confidence and look more sociable. They wear makeup purely for themselves and not for others. How about portraying themselves the way that the society wants? Many are convinced that wearing makeup helps in many aspect in life such as from dating to job interviews. While others is affected by the fact that people judged them for their “original” face. 

Humans are always so concern about their own physical appearance. Besides the factors listed above, there has been influence from social media where it makes people want to change their appearance. In fact, its their own insecurity kicking in, it starts to shape their self-image and affects their behaviour.

Embrace your looks

This video above shows a lady being criticised about her looks, all those comments she received was mean and demoralising. Thus, she decided to put on makeup to conceal all her flaws in order to please the public. All her acne was gone, her face look flawless and “beautiful” according to the public. However, all these did not last long. People start judging her for putting too much makeup and she is not as beautiful as she was. In the end, she accept the fact that no matter how much she try to please the public, it will never be enough. She realised that being herself is more important and learning to love herself more.

This video above shows a group of people trying to spread the message that everyone is beautiful and the flaws in them is what makes them who they really are. They went online to find online status where people are insecure about their looks or was affected by people judgement on their looks. They then proceed to comment on their post to let them know that they are beautiful. They should not let the media dictate what is beautiful or attractive.

 

 

Micro Project 6: Glitch Aberrations

Animated GIF

This illustration with photo manipulation shows a girl suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder. The fear she have in social situation is so strong that they feel its beyond their ability to control. The glitch process shows that she is drowning in people judgement and rejection. They may appear to be normal however sometimes they are dying from the inside, screaming for help.

Micro Project 5: The Third Space (Sheryl and Jinyee)

Posted by Sheryl Sim on Tuesday, 25 September 2018

 

Sheryl and I tried to have lunch over the third space. Initially it was really difficult to sync our action and having to transport food over to one another. We have to plan out what we want to do and come out with the sequence. We tried a few times doing the same thing to get it “perfect” but there’s still some flaws. To be honest, it gets quite awkward for me because we are repeating the same thing on live over and over again. However, thankfully Sheryl is able to hold the stage and make things easier for me!

Micro Project 4: Pirate Broadcasting II

For this micro project, I decided to do a live stream on Instagram. I planned to do it when I was out with my friends. I haven’t met them in like 2 months and thought that it will be interesting to do it together with them. It was kinda impromptu because I did not prepare any question for them. Also, they helped me by asking me question too when there was an awkward pause.

Research Critique 2: The Collective Narrative (Hole in Space)

“Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz has created this installation to show that size and bandwidth matter can be used to question and promulgate the emotional effects of communication.” 

Hole-in-Space was tagged as the “Mother of all video chats”,  where it kickoff a conversation between different group of people across two different cities. In the past, nobody have seen a person on television reacting live to one another on a screen which was an eye-opening experience to them.  One even asked if those were actors on screen, where they find it hard to believe it was real time interacting with someone else (video 3.02mins). No doubt that how accurate the timing was in transmitting the data over plays a huge part in this artwork. Who would have expected that they could see each other emotions through a screen and not just through the usual talking through the telephone. 

In addition, this artwork allows audience to linkup via satellite between New York and Los Angeles. They collect data from one city and placed into a “third space” for the use of art where audience could interact with someone from another city, be it playing charades or having a conversation in real time. This creates temporary connection between people which help to bring a diverse community together with the use of advanced technology.

With reference to Randall Parker, Collective Narrative, where this virtual space allow sharing and exchanging of ideas among a group of people, creating shared experiences. Also, how it encourage different action happening concurrently in remote locations, an idea of how live telecommunication works. 

Reference link:
https://iphiahenry.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/hole-in-space-1980-installation-by-kit-galloway-and-sherrie-rabinowitz/

Research Critique 1: Open Source Studio

Photo: https://www.pinterest.com/

Open source system allows artist to establish a portfolio online where they are able to share it with anyone around the world. This allows artist to establish connection everywhere and being able to view other artist work. A portfolio must be able to bring out the best in you and an online platform might be the solution to this. It can get more creative and innovative as it has the flexibility to create an eye catching portfolio. In addition, as compared to traditional portfolio where you have to bring the physical copy to meet your potential client, an online portfolio allows the clients to see the abilities and potential in you through the design.

“We created a WordPress site that served as an integrated virtual studio environment for students to post and share their writing and research, document their projects, engage in online discussion, and participate in social media feeds.”

Open source system also allows everyone to leave a comment on one another work which helps different artists into an online discussion. By doing so, it benefits both party by exchanging ideas and feedback. While sharing your work online, you are also getting inspiration from everywhere. For example, Pinterest is being used as a platform to expose your work as well as getting ideas from there. Many designer love to visit different site to get inspiration that are able to assist them in generating new ideas.