Key Work Selection: I’d Hide You

I’D HIDE YOU by Blast Theory

For my Hyperessay, I chose a new media piece by Portslade-based artists’ group, Blast Theory, renown for their works that mix interactive media, digital broadcasting and live performance. The piece is an interactive, immersive, and collaborative work called, “I’d Hide You”. Linked below is the trailer for Blast Theory’s, “I’d Hide You”.

The basic premise of “I’d Hide You” is that people are equipped with live cameras and are divided into teams in which they play a game of tag around the entire city. The immersion lies in the second layer of the piece, in which these cameras send live footage to the internet; allowing anyone to watch the game as if they themselves were running. The interactivity can be experienced in the final layer of the artwork in which the viewer is now a part of the team, he or she can help the runners and chaser find one another through GPS location by updating the online the location of the other runner’s location.  This interactivity is not only personal but also collaborative. The outcome of this project can be seen in the video below by Blast Theory who summarizes the entire event.

Unlike the other works by Blast Theory, “I’d Hide You” is not a politically or socially stimulating piece meant to impress eager enthusiasts but instead a simple form of interacting with, collaborating together, and immersing oneself in the experience. When creating this collaborative work, the artists took the most rudimentary form of interactive games, filming oneself running. This simple idea of running and catching has been a form of human entertainment even before the onset of technology.  For example, physical games like “tag”  and animated cartoons such as “Tom and Jerry” revolve around the idea of a runner and a chaser. The entertainment comes from the adventure the runner and chaser experience during their journey as well as the ultimate conclusion that follows the long arduous journey. In the case of the participants for I’d Hide You, they get to experience this entire journey alongside the runners.

“For all its apparent simplicity as a player experience, “I’d Hide You” is actually doing something very radical in terms of its relationship with an audience and with space.”

From the Blast Theory Website

During our History of Design class, as mentioned by our Professor, New Media art contains three aspects that make it unique and stand apart from any other forms of art. Interactivity. Hypermedia. Immersion. Under interactivity, there is also collaboration, which I believe is also very important in the work that I chose by Blast Theory.”I’d Hide You”, as mentioned before, contains interaction, collaboration, and immersion. There is Hypermedia in this work, but it is limited to the interface used by the team in order to communicate with the runners as well as the live streaming cameras used to document the chase.

Picture from Blast Theory

The interactivity in “I’d Hide You” can be seen between the runners themselves as well as the audience and the runners. The interaction between the runners refers to the actual game of chase that they are playing where each person is simultaneously trying to hide from other runners while catching them. The interaction between the runners and audience is documented by them watching the live stream and helping the runners either hide or find each other. Through this journey, the participants, runners, and artists all become collaborators who have created a whole new experience and outcome by dabbling with the different variabilities in the work. Variability. One of the five Principles of New Media discussed by Lev Manovich. In “I’d Hide You”, variability, is the strongest principle as the integration of multiple human interactions have created a multitude of different end results. Not only is there a man to man interaction but also a man to machine, or even a machine to man interaction. The audience is also interacting with technology (and vice versa) as they use it as a tool to communicate with the “performers”. But by inserting themselves in this experience with the use of technology, they themselves have become “performers”.

A scene from “I’d Hide You”

This immersion into the experience happens both virtually online as well as physically offline. The physical immersion occurs amongst the runner as they are literally thrust into the outside world to complete this piece. The places they are running around are completely candid with none of the passerby or store owners having been told what was happening prior to the game. The virtual part of this piece materializes onto the digital screen in through the live streaming video. This video is made possible by the camera and LED ring light each runner is equipped with before the start of the game. The runners are also given GPS trackers to constantly locate and update their location online, as well as given a phone that updates them to Intel given by their team members. The runner is constantly holding up the camera for their team members to see, this makes the participants the runner’s new “eyes”. Eventually, the participant immerses himself or herself into the experience and becomes one with the runner. Not only does the participant get to see what the runner sees, but he or she also gets to see it at real time. This real-time immersion can be seen in older works such as Ivan Sutherland’s “Head-Mounted Display” and newer games like “Pokemon Go!”.

The interface

“I’d Hide You” is a simplistic and exhilarating game that brings together different people for a fun night together. Participants follow runners on a tour of the nightlife in the city while playing a rigorous yet digital game of Tag and Hide-and-Go-Seek.

A Whole New World

Throughout the semester our Experimental Interaction class has dabbled in a concept known as the Third Space through media like Adobe Connect, Facebook, and videos. We have also been introduced to different artists and artworks that have further expanded our knowledge of the affect and use of the Third Space in Blast Theory,  Furtherfield, connecting a boundaries, and creating a new world. And for three days straight, we will be doing an online symposium organized by Randall packer, ADM, and other guest artists. Each day invites different people to present a keynote and further explain the works  in the case of Maria Chatzichristodoulou and Matt Adams; or people to perform an online performance in the case of Annie Abraham and the School of Art Institute of Chicago.

Online Ensemble

Throughout the online symposium we discussed many artists and related it back to the overarching themes of interactivity with the audience and the artists, connecting the world separated by physical barriers, and embracing the idea of a new alternative world. Companies like Blast Theory have been working on ways to make an interactive media that creates novel forms of art that engages the audience throughout the internet. Blast Theory focuses on putting you in the center of the work by making you the main character, the “player one”. People like Annie Abraham have been breaking through the entanglement created in order to bridge the gap between human relations and the geographical boundaries. The idea introduced to us by Gene Youngblood is the big umbrella idea that encompasses everything mentioned above. His idea is that that we should create an entirely new social world. preferably built upon Television. This social world will be “liberated” from the conventional practices of the media and instead embrace community activism, radical theory, and artistic experimentation. There is so much opportunity for humans to  “liberate” ourselves from the customary to embrace the unexplored that surround us. We see in this symposium the people who have seized these opportunities and created something beautiful from it.

Day One of the symposium started off with a small introduction by Randall Packer explaining the purpose of the symposium and a short description of the guests. Shortly after the introduction, we moved on to our guest key-note speaker Maria Chatzichristodoulou (Maria X).

Maria Chatzichristodoulou presenting her Keynote

She introduced to us some artworks, artists, quotes that she believed best exemplified telematic art. symposium. She even dabbled in responding to difficult questions on whether Telematic Art has fully fulfilled its aspirations to connect artists and audiences across geographical the geographical landscapes. Later we were re-introduced to Annie Abrahams, a telematic artist who we had the pleasure of meeting and creating with. The performance itself consists of the members appearing one at a time, at first covering their cameras and each saying certain numbers with additional noise. The interesting thing to note is that though we could not see their faces, whenever they spoke, the border of their box would light up blue.

Annie Abrahams’ Performance

The Christmas lights synchronized with the beats of a Chirstmas carol, the boxes lit up with a rhythmic flow that harmonized with the voices of the performers. Soon we saw them removing the black screens and replacing them with objects, and started to voice overs of political sayings in a very dramatic tone.

Annie Abraham’s Performance

We got to see in real time the genius of Annie Abrahams’ ability to organize and manage such an event where things could go according to plan and might go awry. Maria Chatzichristodoulou even stated herself that Abrahams’ work has the ability to concern itself in “both communication and miscommunication, absence and presence.” Annie Abrahams performance connected us with people from all around the world with different backgrounds- thus breaking down the geographical obstructions that divide the world. And in breaking down these geographical obstructions, Annie and her teammates have created an alternative world where it encompasses around a global village.  about some of the artworks and then mention my opinions and feelings. This world is connected by its limitations, in the sense that bandwith and connection are the factors that allow people from all over the world to gather yet are the factors that also cause discrepancy during the gatherings.

Annie Abrahams Performance

Day Two began with another introduction by Randall Packer, for the guests who were not present on the first day. After this introduction, we were automatically ushered into the keynote speaker Matt Adams as he began to talk about the works created by Blast Theory as well as the history and technicalities that come with each of the unique works. Blast Theory is an adventurous group of artist who use interactive media to create unique forms of performance as well as interactive art that engages the audience individually or as a whole. Their performances are generally site-specific, live, digital broadcasts and come in the form of videos and games. Blast Theory has several notable works such as Kidnap, Uncle Roy All Around You, and Can You See Me Now?, and I’d Hide You. Kidnap and Can You See Me Now? are two fo the more video works that Blast Theory has made while I’d Hide You and Uncle Roy All Around You are two interactive games.

Matt Adams explaining the interactive quality of Uncle Roy All Around You

However, all works somehow find a way to engage the audience not only physically but also emotionally. This interaction happens in the third space (maybe not in the case of Kidnaped). However, analyzing Kidnap in more depth, I have noticed that though the interaction does not happen in the “third space” (the space created through the combination of the phsyical and media) but it’s own form of space.  Kidnap finds a way to connect with the people on another level that is not just the physical space around them but in this bond that arises between the Kidnapper and kidnapee.  I especially like the work I’d Hide You organized by Blast Theory that brought together four runners and through these runners we get to experience “the world through the runners eyes as they stream video: ducking and diving, chatting to passersby, taking you down the back alleys to their secret hiding places.” I would love to be a part of this game and found that the general feel of the piece reminded me of the action and adventure movie Nerve, where people are either watchers or players. The watchers must give the players crazy dares and the more dares the players do the more money they receive. Along this idea, I’d Hide You interacts with the audience as they are the ones who take the picture, hinder other players, and help their team. They are the brains while the runners are the body that we control to experience the world around us.

Matt Adams discussing I’d Hide You

My afterthoughts of the experience was wonder. I wondered how it was possible something like this came to be and how smoothly this flowed for something held online. Even physical meetings in the same room have the possibility of falling apart yet this Online Ensemble managed to flow with out any major hindrances. I would like to participate in something like this in the future and maybe even play a more active role as well as it seems like a new and engaging way to interact with people in a completely new world. This world has shown me so much and I am eager to step into it once more.

The online symposium was made possible by the hard work of every single person involved from the online moderators to the performance artists to the those behind the scenes. These people each brought something to the table whether it be to introduce us an idea or share a piece of their passion with us.

 

The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence

The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence

“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

What is “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence”?

“The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” is an collaborative and collective network based artwork created in 1994 by Douglas Davis, an artist and media teacher. Though considered as the “author” and “artist” this art piece, Douglas Davis publicly credits those who helped him design the website and other coworker on his website. This artwork is credited as one of the first couple artworks to utilize the World Wide Web after its creation and integration to mainstream society. “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” started to take on a life of its own as viewers were given the opportunity and freedom to contribute to the sentence in what ever form or style they preferred. One can notice that there are some irregularities in format, theme, and basic flow of the sentences due to the a variety of people from all over the world. In 1995, “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” was donated to the Whitney Museum and preserved there since then. In 2012, The Whitney Museum planned to reopen this art piece. However, due to the upgraded software of the 21st century and the outdated codes of 20th century, the website was unusable. This led to the eventual conclusion to create a duplicate of the original artwork embedded with modern coding and software that allows the duplicated version to be edited on. That version was opened online allowing a resurgence of this collaborative piece. The original version is still preserved in The Whitney Museum, though it has been locked from further edits with some of the links redirecting you to an external website.

What do I think the “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” is really saying?

I believe that “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” is an interactive record of human development and mindset as well as an ironic commentary on our current society. When “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” was created, Douglas Davis probably had the intention for the website to continue for a long time. If the goal was to great a long collaborative sentence from people all around the world that has access to the World Wide Web, it could only be achieved if people continued to participate. The sentence’s humble beginning as a method of collecting honest feedback regarding a survey about his exhibition transformed into a platform where anybody can post what ever they want when ever they felt like it, regardless of the vulgarities or discrepancies with previous additions. This, in the end, has become a primary source that is still recording the true thoughts and behaviors of humans who tend to unleash their subconscious or emotions on the web. Humans tend to be more honest about their feelings or like to create a false persona of someone who they want to be online because they do not have to taste the physical judgement and scrutiny that befalls physical confrontations. We can see that the “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” slowly starts to become a platform for people to rant their feelings, as well as the linguistic changes throughout the years (different slang or vulgarities). This may not have been the original intention per-say but like everything in modern society that seems to transform and change, “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” has metamorphasized into something more than just a simple survey.

Tumblr Notes
Tumblr Notes

On a side not, this way of constantly adding onto an already existing statement reminds of me of the way Tumblr works, where people have a catalyst image or text that triggers a wave of never-ending reblog and notes. (Though these are not the most mature examples, these were the few that I could find)

The irony of the “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” is that it is written and stored on modern technology. Even though it may the longest textual sentences, it is not necessarily the longest lasting sentence. I say this because most of the links and images attached on the original version of  “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” can not be accessed because of the outdated codes or the deleted file the “author” trashed after several years. What people assumed would be permanently on the World Wide Web, in the end no longer exists, or is “broken”. This entire situation points out  “the ephemeral nature of the Web…”. This is why I believe that the longest textual sentence is will not be the longest surviving sentence.

And for the “longest existing collaborative sentence” it is still unable to display the proper Korean Characters. It has been 24 years and within those years there have been so many advancements in technology that should be able to help depict the Korean Characters yet for some reason it still remains a garbled mess. Maybe it because the Korean characters were sent in with the old coding making it more difficult to translate it and depict it, but maybe one day it will be possible to actually see what was written in 1995.

REFLECTION

Looking through the effect and impact of “The World’s Longest Collaborative Sentence” has made me think about the idea of collaboration. A collaborative piece involves not only the artist but also the audience, both contribute to the outcome of a collaborative artwork. And continues to have effect as long as one person makes the effort to keep it alive. The beauty of a collaborative work is that each contribution made is unique and personal to the contributor. All these unique pieces amalgamate to an even more unique creation. For example, our current Experimental Class is doing a collaborative art piece. We all have to post one body part every day. (Insert screen shot here). Even this collaborative art piece is a record of our generation, from the pictures you can see different editing techniques and clothing styles, even camera angle techniques unique to each batch of students.

 

“Do It With Others”

 

 

A Telematic Embrace

SUMMARY

The third space. A space that combines our current space with another space. Yet, it is nearly impossible to coexist in two of the spaces simultaneously. However, this does not mean that we can not communicate with other who have stepped into the third space along side you. In a sense as we step into the third space, we are remodelling it to become our first space.

(Image of everyone coming online on Adobe Connect)

We used Adobe Connect, a more professional counterpart to Skype and FaceTime, as our platform to access the third space. Our third spaces is occupied by our entire class (except two students who could not manage to log on). Originally, we were meant to be located in different first spaces but for the sake of efficiency and time we stayed in the Foundation 4D room. We played around with different activities that connected all of us through the third space. We tried connecting our arms to create a row, touched fingers with the people next to us, covered the screen in a monochrome color, and more.

EXPERIENCE

(Image of one of the activities)

The entire experience was fun and amusing. There were a lot of laughs however, that was mostly because we were in the same first space that allowed us to make jokes and see the reaction with others as we did some of our ridiculous activities. Other than the occasional laughs, I felt that fascinated by the experience. Sure, I’ve used Skype to call a friend and gave her a “Hi-5” or exchanged food with Bella during our Telematic Stroll. But to something of this scale with so many people and such unique activities was a novel moment in my third space career.

DISCOVERY

(Images of activity requiring aligning our body parts)

Though we were in the same first space, we can see people trying to align their hands and arms without discussing it with one another. We had the opportunity and temptation to yell out to the student whose screen was above mine to align our fingers yet we withheld the urge and used the screen itself. This in a way shows how we truly cannot completely be in the first space as well as the third space. We were aware we were in the same room physically yet our mind kept telling us to focus our thoughts in the third space.

REFLECTION

(Image of our hands close up)

The third space. Though not an official word in the dictionary, is a word that relates to many of us in this society. We spend so much time in our third space then we do in any other space (granted we are usually asleep while we are in our first space). People usually assume that once we are in the third space or “glued to our phones” that we are completely isolated and anti-social. But they do not realize that the third space is like a community of other like minded people who we can interact and connect with.

Micro-Experimenting #2

Tele-Stroll

Summary

For this micro-project, my friends and I were put in a group of three. Resulting in my friend doing the project twice. However, for my project, we decided to do it about food. She and I are from different cultures and our original plan was centered around the differences in our cultures food. However, due to the factors such as; queue length and preparation time, we could not accomplish every aspect of our original plan.

Original Plan

Our original plan was centered around the plot of two friends from different parts of the world interacting with one another even though we are separated by land. In a sense we put ourselves in a third space, our phone screen, which in turn opens up a door for us to “pass on the food” and “apply lipstick simultaneously”. Our plan was to continue this tele-stroll until eventually we coincidently meet up at a certain location.

 

Posted by Daphne Natimin on Tuesday, 23 January 2018

*sidenote: my phone broke the morning of that day and I had to use my friends Facebook account

Discovery

However, Bella and I discovered something very unexpected. Small actions like playing with our hands to move our hair out of our face or shifting our glasses and even scratching our faces became synchronized without prior planning. It has been psychologically theorized that the more time you spend with someone the more you and the other person synchronize their movements– like a mirror. This proved to be true between Bella and me during our tele-stroll. Even though we were not physically together during the stroll, we both occupied and connected the third space together.

Reflection

Technology has advanced drastically. From its humble beginnings in factories to the growth of the internet, technology has become a tangible and standard part of human society. While some believe technology has done more bad than, there is an undeniable fact that technology has broken down the distance and branched together a new form of connection not obscured by distance or time. This connection creates a new form of space where people can together to play an active and cooperative role in society.

Let’s get the tele-stroll on the roll!