Tag: internet

Telematic Stroll with Joan

Part 1:

Telematic stroll – Neighborhood and going home

Posted by Joan Li on Monday, 6 November 2017

Part 2:

Telematic Stroll – Neighborhood and going home (cont.)

Posted by Joan Li on Monday, 6 November 2017

I collaborated with Joan in this telematic stroll project. It was quite an experience having to do things simultaneously and having to synchronise with each other. Usually having people doing things together on the first space is quite challenging since everyone is just so busy in their lives. Coming together to do things together in the third space is even more challenging since we had to synchronise without any practice at all.

There is 2 parts to the video because my phone died half way through the live feed. It was my fault as I did not check my phone’s battery before going live. I have learnt that all times I need to make sure my phone is fully charge so that when through a live feed (which drains lots of my battery especially using data) I would not have disappeared halfway through. Having said that, the experience of filming the east and the west side of Singapore was quite interesting since we get to see different side of Singapore HDB and also our house. It was as if we are in the same house doing the same thing at the same time. Even though there was hiccups and technical problems when we were doing the live video on Facebook, I enjoyed the process.

Final Co-broadcasting technical test 2

Technical test

Posted by Goh Chersee on Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Posted by Xin Feng on Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Technical test 2

Posted by Hannah Kwah on Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Research Critique: Second Front Interview on Networked Conversations

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.

Final Co-broadcasting Test 1

Hannah & Joan live broadcast

Co-broadcasting final test 1

Posted by Hannah Kwah on Tuesday, 24 October 2017

 

Cher See & Xin Feng live broadcast

Test broadcast

Posted by Xin Feng on Tuesday, 24 October 2017

 

Combine broadcast

XF, CS, HANNAH, JOAN testing

Posted by Goh Chersee on Tuesday, 24 October 2017

 

Roles: Cher See (Police), Xin Feng (Police), Hannah (Thief), Joan (Thief)

Co-broadcasting reflections:

One of the technical difficulties that we face while we were broadcasting was the lagginess of our stream. We kept on disconnecting with each other and the constant need to stay connected to the internet had therefore limiting our hiding spot. The problem was that our stream requires a certain level of responsiveness. The time delay between all of the live feed might cause confusion and disarray in our communications with one another.  

The audio quality was surprisingly loud and clear and the vocal communication between the co-broadcasters was smooth. At the beginning of the broadcast, we were all in the same room and the echo of audio transferred between the five devices was very interesting. The close proximity of the devices also created some audio feedback. At around 00:13 & 24:00, we experimented with this echo and feedback effect.

As the race started, the thieves headed off to various hiding spots and were able to converse easily through the broadcast. We also noted that the clear audio recording allowed the policemen to eavesdrop easily on the thieves’ conversation and deduce their locations. The comment section for Joan and Hannah live feed was smooth and did not run into any problems. Cher See(police) have posted some riddles for the Thief team to guess.

 

Future Improvements:

For the thieves, we could improve on our camera angle and reveal more of our locations so that it would create interesting footages. It would also allow the policemen to have a better idea and better regulate the race.

As for the riddles given by the policeman in the headquarters, if the thieves are unable to guess it another riddle will be given. If the latter are able to solve it, the policemen will reveal one of the numbers of the padlock.Maybe the police could change position with each other so that the police team would not tire themselves.

We could also add in special effects, sound effects and make our combine stream more aesthetically pleasing.  

Research Critique: Second Front

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.

Research Critique: Jennicam

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.

Co-Broadcasting Experiment

Co-Broadcasting Experiment

Before the broadcast, I was quite shocked that we could do a split screen via Facebook Live. I was excited that we could do that since it tied in with the final project my group was about to embark.

When the live broadcast was starting, I was facing some difficulties with the internet connection in school (as usual). I had to seek help from my classmates on how to do the split screen after inviting my partner, Joan. After struggling for some time, I finally got the split to work and the both of us was very excited about it.

It was interesting that we could hear each other from both side but only the person who invited the other person could see both sides. The other person could only hear the invited person voice but could not see the face. The only problem was that both sides could not see each other.

Overall, it was quite an experience where we could co broadcast without finding other means to see each other face-to-face. I enjoyed the experience. 

Co-broadcasting

Posted by Hannah Kwah on Thursday, 12 October 2017

 

Hyperessay 1

Concepts in Social Broadcasting: Cross-streaming

The thoughts that comes to my mind about social broadcasting is people introducing their personal hobbies or exploring different areas while travelling or introducing nice and strange food or willing to expose their own personal lives to others. I could not understand what is the trend about going live through social media and how people are so excited about it. My theory about social broadcasting is if you are willing to expose yourself to the dangers of the world then by all means go ahead but I am comfortable without going live. When the class requires going live through social media, I was very skeptical and uncomfortable. It have been five years since I was active on Facebook and the first thought was do I have to?

My first experience of broadcasting was pretty interesting where I had the choice to showcase myself or the surroundings. It was uncomfortable at first but when people around are also doing the same thing, I felt that it was more bearable and less nerve-wrecking. I realised that broadcasting and social broadcasting are two separate things. Social broadcasting involves integrating people in my live feed where multiple people are broadcasting at the same time. When multiple live feeds are seen together and played in sync, it gives me a whole new perception and experience of social broadcasting.

The weekly readings and research topics are an eye opener where different artists have their own concept when creating their artworks. Through the research critiques, I found two of the research critiques very memorable. They are Bold3RRR by Jon Cates and The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence by Douglas Davis.

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

Bold3RRR was a new perception of glitch for me where it reflects the world we are in. I have never thought of it before and how we view performance is no longer going to the actual place but bring it to the viewer. The arrangement of our desktop also show our personality and tells a story of a person. The playfulness and whimsical layout of jonCates’ work shows how passionate he is towards glitch aesthetics. 

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

The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence revealed to me a revelation where chaos and order, an oxymoron could be incorporated together. The idea was as simple as asking people to contribute words but having to implement it is complicated. Yet, it brought my people of different countries together without having to deal with social problems such as racism. This gives me an idea of how anyone could be a part of an artwork and collaborating together. Nonsensical it maybe but yet it shows no matter which era you are in people are still fascinated by it. The two artworks are different yet the same where the artists use ordered chaos as their basis.

After experiencing multiple social broadcasting through the use of Facebook live and OBS, I felt that there are still many areas that I could explore with. My perception of doing social broadcasting have altered a little. In the beginning I was not for social broadcasting but after researching about the different areas and the different types of explorations that have been explored I felt that social broadcasting is quite meaningful.

My Desktop stage performance. OBS with Facebook live.

Even in social broadcasting, there are pros and cons. The pros are people could connect together without binding themselves to their geographical locations, it is free for all just like how the VideoFreex created their own show with a portable camera and creating collaborative work with the world.

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

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz

The cons are people are more easily exposed to dangers where our datas are everywhere on the web and freely showing people our daily lives. Personally I love to watch crime shows such as criminal minds and CSI where people are killed or kidnapped due to webcam or technological devices. I became more concern with going live or even sharing via social media. However I feel that social broadcasting have to be done in moderation for people to still be open with it.

Personally I am interested in creating a web-based installation or probably performance art where the world could be connected together. I felt that the use of glitch art reflects how the world is now: messed up, waging wars, break down of technology and even the words we say are no longer censored but yet at the same time there are still some beauty in it.

“…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

I was thinking of how I could incorporate glitch with web-based collaboration and also performance of the third space. It would be interesting to see how our facial expressions are when we type on our computer and how words can be translated to gibberish where it can be another type of glitch. We cannot speak properly shows how messed up our minds are.

Last week broadcasting was an interesting experience. I felt that the discussion before going around to explore broadcasting was a way for us to interact and learn different kinds of methodology used.

Concepts in Social Broadcasting: Cross-streaming

Concepts in Social Broadcasting: Cross-streaming

During the broadcasting, I still had some technical problems where some open areas do not have connection to the school WiFi but I would interpret as a kind of glitch art where things still goes wrong beautifully surprisingly. Instead of communicating with people via the live feed I communicated with people face to face. It was another way of interaction which made the whole experience different too since we are so used to communicate via a device.

https://thirdspacenetwork.com/cross-stream-joan-hannah/

Video

Comments to communicate with each other.

First video experience:

Posted by Hannah Kwah on Thursday, 21 September 2017

Video 2

Video 2

Second video experience:

Posted by Hannah Kwah on Thursday, 21 September 2017

The pros is the experience of creating a third space together and making your own kind of art. The cons is the internet connection and not being able to sync the phone and computer at the same time.

Overall, I learnt many different aspects of Internet art from social broadcasting to third space to collective narrative to desktop-en-scene to super participation. I felt that the whole experience was interesting despite the fear behind it. It may perplex someone about the art created through these medium but on the hand, some others may appreciate it. As for me I am super inspired and amazed by all the different works I have come across and thinking of weird ideas as to how I can incorporate it in my future artwork.

Research Critique: The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence

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.

The collective body

The Collective Body

Collective Body

Collective Body

The collective body project makes me see how different parts of our body gestures can show our personalities and how it interacts with the other person’s photo posted. It influences the way I would react when I see the photos of the class being put together. It made me think that the human figure in the digital age can be deceiving as we only can see one view of how the person would portray themselves to be when the photo is taken. We may change or edit our photos to make others impressed with different parts of our bodies even if we are unhappy with them. When different people post different parts of their bodies on the same day I see that a story is being unfolded where different photos put together can tell a story. Since we are doing all together it seems that we are participating in this activity together showing a collective composite of selves. The composite body reflects how we show another part of ourselves differently and would always portray ourselves in a more cautious manner when we post photos of ourselves on the internet. This will cause others to misinterpret how we actually are in real life or remember us because of the photos we post and comment on how we are in real life.

Collective Body Live