[H Y PE RR E S S AYY] – Colourful Digits

Colourful Digits

Internet Art. Freedom. Expressionism. Equality. Devilish. – These are topics that I could come up with when I think “Internet Art“. What. is. Internet Art?

Allow me to share what I initially thought of Internet Art. I thought that there wasn’t any meaning to it and found that it was for the most part “artistic” or “cool-in-a-different-way-kinda”. Internet Art, did not convince me that it was a thing. I refused to recognise this as an art form.

As we got deeper into the different concepts, I was still hesitant but I had a better understanding of it and made some sense out of it. Basically these are the concepts covered but listed based on my own interpretation summarised.

Internet Art: Expressionism with the freedom to use any technology available to help convey the message or art direction in an easier way for the general masses to interpret yet room to have multiple understandings based on each individual’s intellect of the world and on-goings on a digital platform which may or may not necessarily be reproduced in print or any other representations.

So, Internet Art has got a meaning. But why the revelation?

Empowerment:

Alternate media or anything other than mainstream media allowed for ideas and concepts to be publically expressed in any way deemed possible subjected to technological limitations. The best part about this limitation was that it pushed one to explore “work-arounds” to solve the problems. Videofreex was a good example with this. They used what was available to them coupled with their idea on how they feel media could be done right, made them such a huge success. This allowed people of the general masses have their voices heard and also take ownership of their own work. This empowered them.

https://media.giphy.com/media/xUA7aMcImWHJ5tD9h6/source.gif

Ispossible:

Because of the advent of Internet Art, or for that matter, Internet, many things that were once imaginary was now possible to materialise despite it still being fictional. Before, we could not show others what they were thinking in their mind but with the advancements, we can do that. And this opens up so many possibilities that could one day exist in this physical world. Take Hole in Space by Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz for example. People from a different time space can now communicate through a shared dimension in the third space. I would say that this was revolutionary in bringing individual ideas and having the possibility to turn them into collaborative ideas. It allowed for communities to grow in their own concepts. Think of this as the visualisation of what goes on inside the brains of many individuals as a result of a collaborative piece.

Relativity

Does it ever occur to you that you are nothing but a number? Or that you are just a speck of dust in this vast universe? Do you think you really matter? Can your voice actually be heard by others? Who are you?

I would like to draw a link between Internet Art and Relativity as a concept or theory. (Based on my own interpretations) The Third Space is like a canvas, very much like a universe (if you do believe it exists) and, we are one small little living matter drawing energy within it. This space that we can’t touch but only see is ever so powerful because it is limitless. The extent to which you can do anything is beyond imaginable. And this is how relativity falls into place. How we interpret our surroundings and how we believe we belong gives us meaning in this world. Of the past 6-7 weeks, the pieces that we were involved in gave us a footing. Take the collaborative piece we did on Flickr and on Adobe Connect for example.

I felt like we were more than just numbers and specks of dust. There were people viewing and/or listening to what we put out and that felt wonderful. Using OBS to broadcast and to interact or involve others further allowed me to discover myself.

Cross streaming and FB live opened further a world of possibilities of interaction and based on the history of Internet Art and Culture, it will challenge the notion of what freedom of speech actually means and the values and cultures that comes with it. Social Broadcasting, as an extension of Hole in Space, is an epitome of what to expect of The Third Space. What Win Zaw and I initially came up with was to play charades but soon was hit by the limitation of bandwidth. We then thought of doing a live portrait collective by interviewing random people we find around the school. The concept worked but the hardware was the limitation.

And, this made me realise, like what I mentioned in my earlier posts, that concepts had remained stagnant while technology improved, may not be true afterall. I would like to believe that, Internet Art and Culture’s concepts did evolve with the shift in cultures and so did technology. However, technology, perhaps, was not improving fast enough to support our ideas. Maybe, this whole Third Space concept, is all about the pursuit of what never is. And that because of this, we drive the advancements in technology we constantly see.

Now What?

But amongst all these concepts and ideas, one thing remains evident. A boundless space for the manifestation of creativity. Then again, because of the nature of Internet Art, very often, there is no particular set boundary as to what Internet Art is defined by and thus, this draws variation in opinions of an artwork. Which, therefore is debatable.

Inspirations/references:
https://hyperallergic.com/263538/best-of-2015-our-top-10-works-of-internet-art/
http://www.complex.com/style/2013/04/25-internet-artists-you-need-to-know/an-xiao
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140326-how-has-the-internet-changed-art

Portray. by Win Saw & Isaac

Portray.

This is a collective interactive online artwork by Win Saw and Isaac.

What is this piece about?

We intend to find out how human to human communication exists with the use of a medium that takes users into the third space and how willing are users to participate in making an art piece.

The first test was the connection within the school. There was a 20 second lag but other than that, everything worked like how we hope it would. The only other issue is that my phone can’t film FB live in landscape mode. However, we can work around this by rotating the screen that we use to capture the live feed in OBS. So that’s all good:)

Stay tuned for more updates on the final portrait piece!

Hi. I'm testing

Posted by Win Zaw on Wednesday, 20 September 2017

Isaac’s live video

What went down on the actual day?

Best of Win Zaw’s video
https://www.facebook.com/wzaw2/videos/1546681358703840/

Best of Isaac’s video

Portray by Win Zaw and I.

Posted by Isaac Chu on Thursday, 21 September 2017

“The World’s First Collaborative Sentence” – How long is it exactly?

How long is it exactly?

By now, it would have been done with several trips around the earth. The world’s longest collaborative sentence is a very intriguing internet artwork by Douglas Davis in 1994. A year after I entered this world.
What this artwork is, is probably the conceptualisation of Super Participation using a digital/online platform. In my opinion, the onset of exponential growth of the World Wide Web was portrayed through this art piece. And it defines it really really well.

It shows us a definitive way of how people will behave behind a screen It tells us how we as users, as humans, would adapt to this non-existent yet ever changing environment. It is a window to the 21st Century. Which, is pretty epic if you think about it.

I didn’t think of this when I first saw this piece initially. My initial impression was that this was gibberish, that this is just nonsensical. Like, there isn’t any meaning to the sentences. However, when I revisited the site a few more times, it dawned on me the underlying message of The World’s First Collaborative Sentence. It didn’t matter how long the sentence was. What mattered was what were the sentences.

Undoubtedly, Davis must have faced some difficulties along the way and here are some hints as to what they were.

“it was probably build in java or php and they need to update the server.”
– Francesco of New York

The next one is a long one so brace for it.

“Their work involved not only updating servers and running legacy browsers on vintage computer systems, but also considering theoretical and ethical aspects of the conservation, conducting interviews with the original programmer to document what the lost software did, writing the new code for the work, addressing a host of thorny technical issues and documenting the results.”
– Restoring ‘The World’s First Collaborative Sentence’, Michael Connor

From what we see, the issues faced, with modern technology involved, was already so complicated. One could only imagine how much was put into this work by Davis. I shall not delve into the whole technicalities of his work. Rather, I want to discuss about how this paved the way for future big-scaled collaborative works across the world, that would otherwise not be able to be in existence if not for the WWW. More importantly, it also tells us how distance didn’t matter. Communication and the urge or wanting/willingness to communicate does.

The fact that his work was being preserved and restored by Whitney Museum and people still being involved and how we cherish such things tells us something very interesting about human to human interaction and how the medium we use to communicate with one another, shapes or affects the final outcome or impression made upon the other individual. I use to not believe that the third space was something existential in this physical world but now. Now, I think it does. But mind me, it is but a subset of the conscientious personification of the alter ego that exists within us, very much like how our personalities exists but are not visible or something you can touch. It is just expressed.

Thoroughly enjoyed this piece.

Links and references:

http://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/jun/12/restoring-douglas-davis-collaborative-sentence/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304800460_Analysing_’Super-Participation’_in_Online_Third_Spaces

http://ifilnova.pt/file/uploads/3412f3599cf326087355d5c02149cfea.pdf

Interactive devices #1

PARI – your personal hug companion

This Stuffed Animal Lets You Share Hugs With Your Loved Ones

This teddy bear lets you hug anyone in the world from anywhere in the world

Posted by NowThis Future on Friday, 25 August 2017

This device is actually a very simple one. What you need is a vibration motor to provide feedback to the hugger, bluetooth/wifi chip to connect to the app and a pressure sensor to detect and transmit data of how much you squeeze your hug.

I am however not certain of how good the sensor is detecting heartbeats. On Purihug’s website, they mentioned this:

“If Charlie is also hugging me at the same time, Mom and Charlie will feel each other’s heartbeats over all of those miles! (I’m an expert at reading heartbeat data from fitbits and apple watches, but if you don’t have one or don’t want to share the data, I’ll just use some magic — and guessing.)”

It is quite vague but it seems like perhaps it will require the use of another wearable device to gather data on the other hugger’s heartbeat. Everything works and the two difficult things I feel, is the making of the app and how to keep every individual’s information confidential and safe. And second, the manufacturing of the soft toy (considering the material used, production, costs etc).

It is a fairly simple device and I strongly recommend to making of it. I am a strong advocate of making things that have a meaning apart from it being artistic or aesthetically pleasing. I feel that most things that exist around us should have a purpose no matter how small it is and what way it exhibits itself in.

Stay tuned for the upcoming series on Interactive Devices as Chuwypotter bring you the latest interactive happenings right at your fingertips!

#staylit

Desktop mise en scene – my experience on OBS

(click on image to view live video)

The other world

INITIAL IDEA
My initial idea was to interact with my other quadrants. I pre-recorded one quadrant and wanted to use it as a base to refer to when I interact. (see top left video). The idea was to experiment and see myself exist in two time dimensions, meaning one when I was eating and the other 3, walking to class. But I failed to get it up live. Luckily, I hit the record button on OBS so I can show you guys what I was doing.

In any case, I did another live feed of myself mimicking myself eating as the base video (top left quadrant). I altered the looks of the other 3 feeds (eyes, mouth, face) and added delay to all of them. I then acted similarly to the base video but not always as I wanted to add an intentional “live delay”.

I am very interested in the idea of time-space dimension and wanted to find out what it feels like to live in between the then, the now and the the the the .. (get the pun? haha) Ever since young, I have never really been able to look at the movement of my eyes whenever I looked at the mirror. Doing this presented me the opportunity to try it out and see how my eyes move and watch it “real-time”.

There are many speculations on time travel and other dimensions that may exist and I am always intrigued by all of this sci-fi topics. I believe that we are able to harness the ability to control time (not too certain about space) and I think being able to do so live in a 2 dimensional space means something phenomenal. Like, I think that this can really be a possibility in the near future! Typing this out is already so exciting!

DIFFICULTY
The difficulty I faced was getting the video to go live, it took so long. I finally found out that my wifi router had some issues and when I connected to my neighbour’s router, I could do it. (OMG, cries). I did save the video but it was saved in flv so I’m trying to get it converted and will update it in this post when its done!

UPDATE:

Here’s the original live feed I tried to go live with

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swGfEC3gc3Q

Bold3RRR – A time manipulator?

I’ve always had a negative interpretation of glitches. To me this indicated that something was faulty. It never occurred to me how glitches can be artistic or appreciated artistically until i came to ADM and got exposed to the different work of art by artists around the world. Bold3RRR presented an opportunity for me to appreciate glitches even more. This probably gave rise to what is known as dirty new media.

“…that embeddedness has the word bed in there, we are in bed w/ them also, so they’re embedded in ways that are complex. they are not sterile, they’re imperfect, they are not clean, b/c they exist in the world, which is also imperfect”

– Jon Cates, “Glitch Expectations: A Conversation with JonCates

This work explores the use of “multicam” experience where the viewer is treated to multiple windows of what goes on realtime. This provides us a unique experience as we are able to see more than one thing happening at a given time as compared to how we would with our own ears since we only have one set of eyes and ears and we definitely cannot teleport or be at two places at once. There was also a therapeutic beat/music when the different sounds were all playing at the same time as if it was a symphony.

This is very similar to the idea of mise-en-scene as Jon Cates presents this idea very well and as I would interpret from what I saw, was somewhat preplanned in the content that he intends to present but what actually happens during the course of the live feed, are some uncontrolled circumstances which made this a unique piece. He places the contents in areas where he probably think would work and all these contributed to what he intends to present, almost like a play.

Amongst the many differences with live art, one thing remains the same. This is, context. I realise that the live feeds all provide the viewer with some sort of context (whether literal or not) in order for them to make sense of what they see. And I think that this is extremely important to bear in mind when we create our own works. This then presents us with the idea of time manipulation.

What this is, is actually the concept of harnessing time but only that it is not happening in a physical state. It is what humans would perceive it to and thus I feel live feeds or dirty new media for what it is, is but a representation of how others view time.

What do you think?

~Adobe Connecting you always~

What I have experienced with Adobe Connect with the class was a first and the most fun class because firstly it is convenient and secondly, everyone was just so much more interactive and responsive.

I am intrigued by the fact that we were able to communicate real-time with my classmates very much like two person separated by a window; you could see the very immediate reply or feedback by the other person just like how they would do so too neither is able to physically get a hold of each other.

This, is virtual reality. And the fun of it is the constant and known fact that you are never ever gonna be able to be physically involved with a second person unless we make a breakthrough with time-space travel.

#chuwylives

Is there really a Hole in Space?

A Hole in Space. Is it really?

This work proved to be a major piece that will go down in history as what is now known as, Teleconferencing of the most layman word one can think of, Video Chat/Skype. For 3 days, in two different cities, Los Angeles and New York, two hours. It was not mediated, completely up to the users to interact with what they see and hear. Galloway and Rabinowitz, the artists behind A Hole in Space wanted to create an electronic, composite-image space in which… people could come together to collaborate. (Galloway, Rabinowitz)

This art piece was very intriguing because of the opportunities to brings about to so many people. Closer, convenience, creativity you name it. “The absence of the threat of physical harm makes people braver”. But yet, when virtually “touched”, we still have the same feeling of being harassed. As an art form, of such scale, I am impressed. Because it allows one to be fully immersive in a space that is otherwise non-existent but yet exists.

A Hole in Space paved the way for an unplanned and candid expression of collective narrative. This was what made it so unique and interesting. Because it is something that cannot be replicated in any way. It is what it is. The beauty of a third space; a deconstructed view of the perceivable world.

“We look not only at their qualities and aesthetics, but how people interact when they are disembodied and their image is their (ambassador).” – Welcome to ‘Electronic Cafe International’: A Nice Place for Hot Coffee, Iced Tea, & Virtual Space” (1992)

This quote especially reminds me an the artwork made by local photographer, John Clang. His series, Being Together, also utilised the same concept as how A Hole in Space was executed. This whole concept of virtual vs reality is always an awkward interaction between one or more users behind screens. Like what I mentioned in my previous post, nothing much has changed except for technology. We haven’t yet progressed as much compared to when A Hole in Space was seeded.

I must argue that, we haven’t fully harnessed and grasp this whole phenomenon of time-space interaction. I feel that humans have always tried to achieve realism in a third space but to no avail. To me, this constant battle to turn virtual reality into something physical, is but an understanding of the gateway to the time dimension. As much as I respect the values and merits that the third space brings to aid in day-to-day human interactions (work or personal related), we don’t know much about time. I’m not sure. Perhaps I have a greater expectation and dream about a third dimension. It was always about harvesting the tangible from the intangible. What it now still is, is a barrier and a gateway to what future interactive communication may bring.