Category: Research

Second Front :: Network Conversations - Adobe Connect. Interview by Randall Packer.

Research Critique: Second Front Interview on Networked Conversations

November 1, 2017 / / 1 Comment

The interview with the Second Front members were exciting and inspirational. They have set me thinking about performance art and their approach or opinions on it. It is so fascinating to see them getting so excited when they crash the internet. Usually when the internet crashes, people start to panic and try to fix the problem asap. Through their reaction, it made me think through how I could approach the similar matter if my internet crashes or lost of internet connectivity instead of getting all panic.

Grand Theft Avatar. Second Front. Credits Randall Packer oss.

Second Front based their experience in theatre performances into the virtual space where they could do anything. In the world of possibilities, many may feel that Second Life would be more interesting since they could go wild in whatever they do as compared with their First Life or personal life. The audiences they have are actively participating in the performance they create however in some instances, they target passive-in-world audiences. It is interesting that having been around for many years, their audiences are still highly active. The link shows the amount of audiences that have participated/ watch their performances. 

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/returning-to-second-life/

“Imagination is the only limitations towards performance.”

Bibbe Hansen

It is interesting that they feel the only thing limiting their performance is their imagination mentioned by Bibbe Hansen. Usually we see our surroundings or environment as our limitations but drawing the fact that imagination is the factor. I guess in their case the need to have limitless imagination is the key to constantly create interesting performances. 

“Based on what happens…”

Patrick Lichty

Their works are mainly based on happenings where they played with identities. Second Front steal their audiences identities or making the participants as an avatar without them knowing. In such cases, some are scripted while others are not. It brings the question as to when they decide when it is scripted and when it should be spontaneous. They agree that it depends on the intention of the artist and director, what they want to portray on and their targeted audiences. For Grand Theft Avatar it is a heavily scripted narrative whereas Summer of Love 2.0 and Car Bibbe is spontaneous since the focus is on happenings and events.

Grand Theft Avatar. Second Front performance. secondfront.org.

Car Bibbe. Second Front performance. secondfront.org

“As technology evolves without any boundaries… rewiring our brain in technology” is what Liz Solo mentioned in the interview with Second Front. It seems they are progressing further in their experimentations with incorporating various technology with their performance just as Patrick Lichty said. It is interesting that they are already using various platforms, google docs, odyssey art and performance simulator to create their performance personally or for audience. The exploration of world based performance to virtual space is happening currently in their works now.

“Connected with others using tools, immersive, digital culture with 2 foot in”

Doug Jarvis

Collaboration is a huge factor in their performance. Doug Jarvis mentioned in the interview where connecting with other enables him to interact with people all over the world. Since Second Front members are located all over the world, it makes sense that the digital platform is needed for collaborative work. Just as Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, creators of Hole in Space mentioned that “…create a performance place with no geographical boundaries…” and here Second Front is also demonstrating the same fact. Just as Hole in Space interacts with the audiences through the use of first and second space creating a third space, Second Front also interacts with their audiences in the same manner. 

Second Front :: Network Conversations – Adobe Connect. Interview by Randall Packer.

Overall, the interview with the Second Front members created lots of thinking and made me think of how many times I wanted to separate the virtual and reality. At the same time both realms also portrays me just through a different manner. When performance art push the boundaries, the bodily aspect is not always necessary but the emotions that we have can also be portrayed through an avatar too. I wish that one day I could collaborate with the Second Front members which I could learn from them their performance art vision.

Grand Theft Avatar. Second Front. Credits Randall Packer oss.

Research Critique: Second Front

October 23, 2017 / / 3 Comments

Second Front, founded by a seven member group in 2006, is the first performance art group in the virtual world of Second Life. The members are Gazira Babeli (Italy), Yael Gilks (London), Bibbe Hansen (New York), Doug Jarvis (Victoria), Scott Kildall (San Francisco), Patrick Lichty (Chicago) and Liz Solo (St. Johns). 

They are influenced by Dada, Fluxus, Futurist Syntesi, contemporary performance artists where they challenge traditional performance art and bring it into the virtual world.

Grand Theft Avatar. Second Front. Credits Randall Packer oss.

One of their works, Grand Theft Avatar(2008) is a live performance by Second Front in Second Life. In this virtual world they have their own currency, Lindens, their own laws, rules and systems where it allows people to live in a virtual world. They robbed the Linden Treasury, disguised themselves as different characters and do all sorts of crazy acts to flee from the bank. Grand Theft Avatar challenges the role of traditional game structure. Also they questioned game strategies, the authenticity of currency, rules and lifestyle to Second Life.

Grand Theft Avatar by Second Front performing in Second Life. (above) Credits: http://www.secondfront.org/Performances/Grand_Theft_Avatar.html

Grand Theft Avatar by Second Front, directed by Scott Kildall. (above) Credits: Patrick M Lichty (2017), https://youtu.be/RoHctMuI_HU.

Through the work done by Second Front, I am impressed and fascinated by their idea of a performance art. I have always thought that performance art must involve physical people but instead they used their own personal avatars. It brings a new experience and approach of how performance art could be further explored into. From the reading of their interview, I really liked how they bring gaming environment into their performance and how they make the performance a success despite the difficulties. They combined different areas together where virtual space through gaming environment and creating an avatar (making ourselves virtual instead of showing ourselves through a screen), and performance art which breaks the traditional conventions of one to many but creating a collective narrative performance art (many to many).

“By engaging the contrived space of an online gaming environment the challenges to perform are exaggerated by the parameters that persist as the interface with the context, the others members of the group, audiences and the templates of performance as an art medium.”

A leap into the void: interview with Second Front, TRAN SPIRE a.k.a Doug Jarvis.

Performance art in their context could be both physical where they broadcast to people viewing it and virtually where they are the ones doing a live broadcast of ‘themselves’ a.k.a their avatars. In this way, it is bring the first and second space together to make the third space exist and create a collective narrative together. I would imagine myself as an avatar roaming around the Second Life world and being part of the narrative with the other players and also showing it via Live at different places. It just blows my mind of how creative they are in pushing the boundaries of performance art and making it something new.

“…but in order for VR to produce meaning that breaks from the real and from past artistic social practices, and to become a medium that produces singular works, the binary of the real vs
virtual must be dismantled. Only then, will we be able to look at VR not as a simulation of the real, but as a simulation of itself.”

A leap into the void: interview with Second Front, ALISE IBORG.

The current trend of technology is Virtual Reality (VR) where many games are exploring and/ or tapping into this resource. From the interview, the meaning of VR to incorporate into performance is by the combination of real and virtual. It is something that is happening now where the boundaries of both are blurred off. It is quite scary to think about how we would be more comfortable living in a virtual world and how we live our lives are based on the virtual world we have created. At the same time, it is quite interesting to incorporate both aspects into art. Elaine Warren, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, once said “A visionary premise … the lines between imagination and reality were blurred almost to distinction” and here we have the exact same thing said.

I could see that the Grand Theft Avatar performance could be another way of exploring the upcoming final project my group is working on. Each member could be portrayed as different avatars playing different roles. It is a brand new way of creating a live broadcast.

Overall I really liked this performance or Live broadcasting using avatar-based which makes me think of the different possibilities I could venture into when creating performance art or collective narrative with the use of first, second and third space. The artists have a common vision despite being in different places. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz mentioned “…create a performance place with no geographical boundaries…” which is now being practiced by Second Front.

JenniCAM. Jennifer in different scenarios in 1999. Credits http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37681006

Research Critique: Jennicam

October 16, 2017 / / 1 Comment

The idea started off with a friend joking about using the camera Jennifer Ringley bought to update her website to do a FishBowl cam of a person which pilot the JenniCAM. It started off as still images of her daily life from her webcam to her website where her friends was her main audiences in 1996. It later progress to become a real-time video as the technology evolved. JenniCAM was a worldwide phenomenon for seven years. During this period, she practically lived in front of the camera where she did all the things people would do in their personal life for 24/7. The project was not clear whether it was performance or showcasing every single details of her life. In 2003, she announced that she was shutting her website down since the audience started to die down and on 31 December it was completely gone. From then on Jennifer was practically uncontactable and there seems to have no information of JenniCAM or herself.

Jennifer Ringley started the JenniCAM when she was 19 years old. She was the first artist/ designer/ performer to broadcast her life in front of her Webcam.

JenniCAM. Jennifer Ringley on her bed with her cat on 5 Dec 1997. Credits http://web.archive.org/web/19980515012951/http://jennicam.org:80/gallery/69.jpg
JenniCAM. Jennifer eating on her sofa with her dog. Credits: Randall Packer.

JenniCAM is a inspirational and revolutionary real-time broadcast project as I was reading and researching on this. Who would have thought of showcasing their own personal life activities in the 90s where the internet was just starting to take flight or even to think of something extraordinary which was to broadcast live or even show still images of their lives, it was none other than Jennifer Ringley. This project attracted millions of viewers and subscribers where they just watched her life 24/7. I was shocked that so many people would actually watch this. I guess this was something that was fresh since she took a whole new approach to live broadcast where it was more common to see news live during the 90s rather than oneself personal life. 

JenniCAM. Jennifer in different scenarios in 1999. Credits http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37681006

What impressed me the most about JenniCAM was the courageous act of the 19 years old Jennifer. The act of giving up what I call personal space or life in Jennifer’s case she is willing to expose it to everyone. It would never cross my mind to show everyone how I would lead my personal life as I felt that it was intruding my privacy.

“Because I don’t feel I’m giving up my privacy. Just because people can see me doesn’t mean it affects me – I’m still alone in my room, no matter what.”

Jennifer Ringley. JenniCAM. Credits: http://web.archive.org/web/19980124154026/http://www.jennicam.org:80/faq/general.html

In the quote above, she felt that this project does not give up her privacy means that she viewed it in a different light. I found it interesting because her idea of privacy seems that when people are in the same environment as her and watching her then it means giving up her privacy when millions of people are watching her via the internet.

JenniCAM. Jennifer showing a how she feels with a paper. Credits http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37681006

In JenniCAM the interaction with the audience is through an email where they could make suggestions of what they would want to see or give her feedback of the project. Jennifer would read it and may reply to the emails sent to her but other than that there seems to be not much interaction with the audience via live. I am curious on how the interaction would be like if the technology had allowed the interaction be both ways. But she did change the way of live broadcasting in the present age.

TV show talking about JenniCAM with Jennifer Ringley and David Letterman.

There are many live apps such as Twitter, Facebook where people around the world show their everyday lives. In Korea, many celebrities use the social media: Instagram and V Live to communicate with their fans and to share their personal life. They can see comments by their fans and talk to them via live without having to type back to them. It creates an interaction with the celebrities and fans around the world. 

Image result for korea live stream app
A screenshot from V Live App, where Korean celebrities talk about their blood types and other personal details with fans. Credits https://www.techinasia.com/video-streaming-apps-insights.

In China, millions are also broadcasting their personal lives through broadcasting apps ever since the popularity of it. A 19 years old student Nic Li spends 3 to 4 hours streaming online where she talks and sings for her viewers and feels a sense of satisfaction. She likes attention from her audience since she feels lonely and this could be a way to kill boredom and create conversations.

“Sometimes I feel lonely and want to talk to people,” she says. “It feels nice when viewers are paying attention to me.”

Nic Li, 19, China student.
Credits: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2016/06/02/in-china-millions-are-broadcasting-their-personal-lives-online-including-the-countrys-richest-man/#28a176781a0c

Online web performer Wang Weiying, 18, broadcasts a live stream from her smartphone in a cafe in Beijing in February. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein). Credits https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2016/06/02/in-china-millions-are-broadcasting-their-personal-lives-online-including-the-countrys-richest-man/#28a176781a0c

Through one person starting the trend of broadcasting herself live which created an uproar of streaming apps around the world where people openly share their personal life or even chatting with people. If Jennifer Ringley did not start JenniCAM we would not know of such platform of live broadcasting and probably we would not have Facebook Live or other streaming apps. Personally I am impressed by her ongoing live broadcast for 7 years even as technology evolved she tried to keep up with it. Her openness to showcase her life from sleeping to eating to being nude in front of the camera made me respect her courage as I would not been able to do it. She has inspired me to be more open to broadcasting about my life but there are some restrictions I would take such as being nude in front of the camera.

Douglas Davis, "The World's First Collaborative Sentence" (1994). Detail.

Research Critique: The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence

September 21, 2017 / / 1 Comment

The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence is a classic internet art was commissioned by Lehman College Art Gallery in 1994 where people around the world can participate or contribute to the never ending sentence. It is an ongoing textual and graphic online performance. It was previously run using HTML and CGI where they had problem configuring the Korean characters, Hangul which appears as symbols. Now it is switched to HTML and PHP where Asian languages are able to be viewed on Windows computer only as there are still some problems on the Mac side. Participants can use words, photographs, graphics, videos, web links and sounds via their personal data, websites, etc. on this internet art. The world’s longest collaborative sentence is now preserve by Whitney Museum.

Douglas Davis, “The World’s First Collaborative Sentence” (1994). Detail.

Douglas Davis was the pioneer of video art. He collaborated with Nam June Paik and Joseph Beuys in 1977 where they took part in the first international satellite telecasts with the live performance ofThe Last Nine Minutes. In the 1980s to 1990s, he also explored with different types of interactivity through the use of various media. Douglas Davis was also a teacher in various universities and colleges, not only that he also wrote books about interactivity and media art.

There’s a quote in his essay “The work of art in the age of digital reproduction (an evolving thesis: 1991-1995) describes my feelings towards his work on The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence when I see it.

“You’ll have to look hard in this collage of images, sounds and words at anytime, now or in the next century, to find a single universality. Each fragment, each image, each sound is unique, personal, quivering with the sense of self.”
Douglas Davis

Personally I am inspired by The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence as it is another way of creating a collective narrative through the use of internet. It creates an environment which brings people together through the use of a simple idea of constructing a sentence that has no end. As I read it, the content seems to make no sense but at the same time it makes sense where it creates some sort of a narrative. It is chaos in order. 

The video of a section of The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence (below):

I was thinking of creating an art piece revolving website and installation for my future project. After looking and researching about this work done by Douglas Davis, I can envision a similar approach of bringing people together to collaborate with each other through the use of internet art. 

In The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence, the interaction through the use of internet cause multiple people to contribute to the sentence actively. They share a platform, the website and collaborate through the use of words, images, videos, links, sounds, etc. which shows super participation. Until now, people are still actively contribution to making the longest sentence ever despite having different sections. No one cared about grammar, the words said and how bizarre it got.

“The Sentence has no end. Sometimes I think it had no beginning. Now I salute its authors, which means all of us. You have made a wild, precious, awful, delicious, lovable, tragic, vulgar, fearsome, divine thing.”
Douglas Davis, 2000

Through the reading, I am amazed by the amount of work needed to be done to restore The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence and when people are exposed to the web for the first time, they are excited to participate. Despite technological limitations, people did not stop participating and thought of ways to overcome the difficulties. I could also see that they invited those who are proficient with Asian languages to edit the work which also reflects another type of super participation. They also participate in the restoration work not only the contributing factor towards the sentence.

Artwork is on display at the Darien Library as part of a public art installation called "Draw On! Goes Green," a community project sponsored by the Darien Arts Center. The drop-in art project March 21 was part of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum's festival created to inspire creativity. Participants were invited to use discarded dictionary pages to create one-of-a-kind drawings, doodles and designs. Photo: Contributed Photo, Contributed / Darien News

“Draw On! Goes Green,” Darien Library on March 21, 2014. Photo: Contributed Photo, Contributed / Darien News.

There is an art installation which I came across and it is called “Draw On! Goes Green” (above) displayed in the Darien Library. It was part of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum’s festival to inspire creativity where participants could create drawings, doodles and design with the use of discarded dictionary pages. It seems that they had the same approach to The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence which allows interaction to collaborate through participation. This creates super participation in the physical space.

Overall, I am so impressed and excited about how internet art can create such a craze where people are still participating in the 1994 work. I see that no matter which era we are in, as long as there is technology involved people will be collaborating and participating which in turn creates an artwork.

Image from the exhibition: http://gl1tch.us/GlitchArt-wit-jonCates.html

Research Critique: Bold3RRR

September 13, 2017 / / 2 Comments

Image from the exhibition: http://gl1tch.us/GlitchArt-wit-jonCates.html

The first impression I had when I first watched Bold3RRR was full of confused as I did not understand the concept that Jon Cates was trying to portray. All I saw in the first 10 minutes of the video was many words overlaying the screen which I assumed was what the artist was doing, switching of screens on the desktop and also broadcasting of Jon Cates face, and different background sounds.

As there were many elements going on at the same time, I felt irritated for not understanding how it works so I decided to rewatch the video in the perspective of Jon Cates who is a glitch/ new media artist. After rewatching, it made me experience a whole new perspective and I found Bold3RRR inspiring and interesting. It opened my mind to how distortion can be a form of art installation and how I would perceive incorporating the different elements to form a live broadcast installation.

Basically, Bold3RRR is about the explorations of fragments, errors, overlaps and recursivities. It is a processed document which was recorded through jonCates’ screen in realtime and the constant change in camera view from desktop to self. Bold3RRR was an exchange of data across 3 different countries where different languages were seen and heard through the broadcast. It was broadcast from Chicago to Taipei to Boulder and back again which was performed via Skype live in Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

Bold3RRR Video:


Jon Cates is not only a new media/ glitch artist but also a Chair of Film, Video, New Media and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He explores most of his work with glitches and d1Ɍ+y̶ ̶N̶3WWW_M3DI∆ which he identifies with and attracts him too.

BOLD3RRR… Realtime: Reflections and Render-times by jonCates (2012)

Personally I feel that Bold3RRR creates an arrangement of multiple computer screens with various background sounds accompanying the artwork which shows Desktop as Mise-en-Scene. It shows a progression of personal screen space evolving to a virtual performance space where people in the museum are able to view Bold3RRR.I think that Jon Cates experiments with glitch effects, realtime audio-video performances, d1Ɍ+y̶ ̶N̶3WWW_M3DI∆ art, video, noise musics and texts on his desktop screens to create an arrangement of ‘performance’ so as to visually create an art stage via his desktop.

Amidst the different distorted sounds and talking, I caught something that Jon Cates has said in the video which I felt that it was so beautifully said.

“…to be lost in proversation and caught amidst in the sense of wonder and surprise, this is glitch unravel in the sense of something wonderful is happening, these are glitch operations, malfunctions and they have gone wrong, so beautifully wrong…”

jonCates’ video Bold3RRR

Many people may feel that glitch is something that went wrong but as for some artists it is something that creates a beautiful artwork or even tells a story about their personal life or personality, making each piece unique.

The reading of Glitch Expectations: A Conversation with jonCates mentioned about the popularity of glitch aesthetics, connected to one another as assemblages and the combination of technology and art creating a performance of our daily lives. Glitches have been mentioned to be imperfect, impure yet exciting which somehow reflects on our own human lives. Personally I feel that there are three different ways of responding to glitch art as a way of storytelling. One is finding it irritating, annoyed and dizzy by different screen movements and background sounds. Second is having no feelings or can’t be bothered by it since it does not affect their lives at all. The last is that they find it so meaningful and attracts them to want to create or incorporate into their art work. No matter how different people respond to this art as a performance, there is no way that I can please everyone through this.

Image from 4RTCR4X0RZ: Hacking Open Together:
New Media Art, Activism and Computer Counter Cultures: http://gl1tch.us/4RTCR4X0RZ.html

Through the reading and video I realised how our desktop screens can be a performance of everyday life which we do all the time. It shows how I can combine human and machine languages with art (desktop/ installation) to create a new type of art performance. Glitch reflects the human nature in the same way where we are imperfect and impure. It does not comprises of just art but also sounds.

I figured that jonCates has a fetish with glitch and it is reflected consistently with all of his artwork and also his life. He focuses on glitch as a way of surprise and managing people’s expectations of it. The quote below shows how he viewed d1Ɍ+y̶ ̶N̶3WWW_M3DI∆ which I really liked. It really shows how he incorporates these in his life and passes down to his unique art pieces.

“d1Ɍ+y̶ ̶N̶3WWW_M3DI∆ as a way of lyfe + as an approach to artmaking is a way of foregrounding these faxxx, these realities, of our lived exxxperiences, + acknowledging how situated we all are w/ all of these systems, + artifacts that we have made, unmade && remade together.”

Glitch Expectations: A conversation with jonCates

Performance art is not just people interacting with each other but also using different mediums to create interaction and Mise-en-Scene. Distortion of sounds, changing in camera view and screens on the desktop through a live broadcast is also a way of performance where there are audiences watching what you are doing all the time. This somehow scares me that I am embedding technology in my life where I treat them like a human and it is being integrated in my life. But also at the same time I am able to integrate fragments, errors, overlaps and recursivities along with art. It is just like chemistry where combinations of the right different elements create a whole new product.

Virtual Classroom via Adobe Connect. Credits to IM and Randall Packer.

The Virtual Classroom

September 7, 2017 / / 2 Comments

Virtual Classroom via Adobe Connect. Credits to IM and Randall Packer.

The experience of having a class in the third space is quite similar to the traditional class where I still interact with the lecturer and my own classmates yet it is different because we are seeing each other in a screen instead of physical interaction. It was quite an interesting experience of having a class through the use of third space as I have never experience having to communicate through the use of a third space.

I felt that the interaction was limited to a few students at a time so it gave different perspective with the same question being asked. The discussions were more compacted and in-depth, not only that different people had different sharing which made me take note of things in a different light. I think that some parts were too fast and quite heavy in content where it was quite hard to catch and digest. I felt more obliged to participate through the questions and even though it takes some time to think about some matter where I felt that I did not have the time to do that. I felt that it was a different kind of experience to interact with my classmates because I prefer to see my classmates physically then virtually as they seem to have some sort of a separation. I felt alright with using a webcam since it was not through the whole lesson so it did not feel too burden.

I think it help me experience the concept of the third space since we could view each other through the use of first and second space. The interactions of the third space made me more aware of the different spaces. I felt that it was like a creative space since it integrated art and technology together. It seems quite intimidating rather than playful since I do not like to broadcast myself publicly. It could lead to an artistic performance and installation where we can do things together to create an artwork. I do not mind having some classes on Adobe Connect since it is just different from normal classes. However I would appreciate if the chat on Adobe Connect can be kept to class related things and probably if there is some technical issues that needs to be raised. As it was quite distracting where I felt that I had to listen to my lecturer and classmates sharing, taking down notes and also interact in the chat which made me confused.

Hole in Space, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz. Video. Credits: youtube.com

Research Critique: Hole in Space

September 5, 2017 / / 2 Comments

Hole in Space:

Hole in Space, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz. Video. Credits: youtube.com

Hole in Space is a telematic artwork where a two-way satellite linked Lincoln Center in New York and Century City in Los Angeles through two large screens where life sized images are displayed. There was no public announcement but every day the number of people interacting increases where it lasted for 3 days. Hole in Space brings people together face-to-face through real time where they could hear, see and converse. It narrowed down the distance or space between the two cities as they communicate with each other. It created much interest in Internet telecommunications art. For instance, net art and networked installations.

The artists who worked on Hole in Space are Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz are the founders of electronic café. They explore with communications art as many of their artworks reflects this aspect including the most renowned artwork ‘Hole in Space.’

Hole in Space (NY and LA), Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz. Video. Credits: youtube.com

I feel that Hole in Space interacts with many to many basis where collective narrative is seen. The interaction uses the first and second space where ideas, information and conversations are shared and exchanged.

“A visionary premise … the lines between imagination and reality were blurred almost to distinction” 

LOS ANGELES HERALD EXAMINER, Elaine Warren

Despite being in different places, people are still able to communicate face-to-face. When I saw how people interacted with the screen, I could imagine how the composition of human body would be like as an artwork.

The reading of electronic cafe mentioned bringing people together through ‘virtual space’ where it is reflected in this installation. Technology and art are integrated together to form this meaningful artwork. Personally I feel that virtual space is good to a certain extend. The positive side, I can use this as a platform to get to know people who are different from us to create better understanding. Through this countries who are on bad terms or misunderstanding due to the long history, they have the possibility to interact with each other especially children. However the negative effect is the actual physical distance despite bringing technology to create interaction. Nevertheless it creates conversations.

Through the readings and video, I become more aware of how the combination of technology and art can create interaction among people. How collective narrative is not only communicating with people via Facebook live or Skype but extending to a larger scale of many to many interaction.

“…create a performance place with no geographical boundaries…”  

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz

Creating a space for human interaction has no limits and if we just bind ourselves with different boundaries we will be limited to our own restrictions not by our surroundings.

Video:

A Hole in Space LA-NY, 1980 — the mother of all video chats

 

Videofreex in the Lanesville TV control room

Research Critique: Videofreex film

August 29, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Research Critique

Videofreex in the Lanesville TV control room. Credits Randall Packer, OSS ADM.

“Here Come the Videofreex” is a film that amazes and fascinates me. They wanted to change the notion of passive television to something that would come alive. I never thought that broadcasting, television, radio, etc. would have such a breakthrough if not for the Videofreex constant perseverance exploring this area.

The group started off with a portable video equipment, Sony Portapak where they would film anything that was interesting and interviewed people. They slowly evolved to capturing real-world situation in which television broadcasted politically correct and manipulative. They recorded real life scenarios and understand the public view as they interact with them. Later, they made the impossible possible using a transmitter and antenna to create television signal to their broadcast which was illegal. They wanted to challenge the idea of illegal broadcasting but in the end the Videofreex made programs which the audience could give feedback. They had role plays, interviewing people on the streets and filming events happening which translates to our current day social media live feeds, live news and sports broadcast, radio, etc.

The control room of Lanesville TV with call-in number. Credits Randall Packer, OSS ADM.

“Taking a camera and telling

own story is unimaginable.”

Mary Curtis Ratcliff

This film made me see the transformation of broadcasting where media is language used by everyone and through this we can speak to the world. They broke the common notion of what broadcasting was suppose to be like in the 1970s which makes see how I can challenge the idea of broadcasting and changing the perception now. Broadcasting is not only one to many but also interacting with people out there to bring about personal opinions and ideas that would be useful. Back then they had a portable video camera but now it is changed to our phones and computer where we can bring it around to showcase what is happening around the world and sharing it through social media. It changes my idea of broadcasting where it does not have to be just filming my daily life but also what is happening around me can be a way of relying information to others first hand too.

Overall, I felt inspired by the Videofreex in their determination to follow their dreams and creating a new world of social broadcasting which makes the world a better place.