Tag Archives: Broadcast

Project Hyperessay #2

November 5, 2015 Jaysee 1 Comment

Thus, the project is centered around navigating the physical world using the virtual world. The theory that both worlds cannot be present with any individual simultaneously is evident here. So there needs to be a constant flow that links the physical world to the 3^rd space to illustrate this theory and the dependency on virtual tools by individuals like ourselves.

Hence, the technical realization has been constructed based on the past experiments, consultations with Randal Parker and of course, brainstorming. For the past 2 weeks, I have been trying out different recording techniques to capture the process of my navigation. The first being the voice recording of my process and my feeling, verbally, in one phone while navigating with Google Maps using the other.

The limitations were the visuals and the noise of the surroundings. Hence for the 2^nd experimentation, I will be explored the navigation in an unknown route at night. The reason was to reduce noise that would be a form of distraction to me. The overall experience was more focused and there were less disruptions to my path.

However, after showing Randal, we realized that there is no connection or link to the physical world. It was so glued to the Google Maps that we are not able to relate to the surroundings or a see the difference. I had to re-focus on the core objective. The objective of the project in short, was initially to weigh the dependency of virtual tools in our own physical world; to illustrate how the virtual world has taken over the role of the physical world. Hence with comparison to my objective, the direction of my experiments only covered the virtual aspect.

After brainstorming with Randal, we decided since this had a psychological issue tagged that makes it impossible for any individual to be present in both worlds simultaneously, I needed to show the physical world’s disconnection to the present when I am emerged in the physical world. With the advice of Randal, I decided to metaphorize this using the direction and the angle of the camera angle.

Thus, the main component is Google Map and Skype. Hence, I will be using two phones; one for Google Maps and the other for streaming the recording of the Google Map navigation via Skype. I will be Skype to Randal who will then webcast it via Wirecast Pro. The camera angles will not be fixated to the Google Maps app. There will be constant view of my feet and through body transitional views, re-route back to Google Maps in intervals. Hence, this will be live streamed via Skype and to WireCast Pro for youtube uploading. The location will be somewhere far enough for me to reach back to school in 10 mins. However, to spice things up, I decided that I would add a narrative element to this final project. I would put myself in a situation where I am late and I have to reach class in 10 minutes time. This adds the narrative position where the natural panic mode no longer trusts the self but rather trusts the technology. I will strike an analogy, through the documentation of myself navigating, of how individuals in the panic state and urgency will be dependent on the Google Map app to get them to their location in the fastest route. This will further link back back on our disconnection with the physical world once we are emerged in the virtual world. The only factor that I have not considered is the interaction of the viewers in my project. Perhaps, there might be a way, where people could interact with me to help me route the fastest path or to feedback to me.

Final Project, My Work

Project Update 2: YouMAP Night Experiment

November 3, 2015 Jaysee Leave a comment

The previous experiment was in daylight, everyone awake and the streets busy with something or someone. The noise was a distraction and so were the visuals.

Hence to fully experience dependency on the Google Maps, I decided to take the experiment to the night time and to go through a path that I am aware but am not sure or have travelled before.

Thus, I chose the pathway connector that is relatively near to me and to go to my sister’s ex junior college. The pathway was previously a rundown mash and that i was familiar with. But 3 or 4 years back, they renovated and eversince then, I have actually travelled beyong the 200 ms after the basketball court, least to say at night.

So today was the day, I travelled and see how it went.

The whole experience was peaceful yet creepy to a certain extent. The peaceful was that there were not much noise or sound which also became the creepy part of this experiment. The navigation overall was good and was focused. The only disappointment was that the path was straight throughout and that there were few turns. It would be have been interesting if I tried it with a bit more twist and turns; spice up the whole experience.

At the end of the experiment, I decided that I will go back through the same path ( it was not difficult to recognize since it was a long straight line) to see how the environment was. The experiment had my phone right infront of me to avoid the view of the surrounding. So this would give a bit of view of what I initially travelled. It was dark, so let’s not expect too much of a visible view.

Next week is the final. So I will use periscope to record the whole experience while navigating through the other phone with Google Maps. I was intending of taking a bus to a untravelled path ( nearby neighbourhood flats) and navigate my way back to class – on time!

Let’s hope I don’t get lost and that I manage to capture a variety of audiences. Perhaps, I will find ways to come up with options and hopefully be directed by people’s response through periscope!

Internet Art & Culture, Research

Jennifer Ringley’s JenniCam

October 8, 2015 Jaysee Leave a comment

No, its not porn. No, its not about being a peeping tom. And its definitely not Skype! Whether she is the pioneer of self-ies, we’ll never know. It’s a glimpse into the life of this women and what she does in front of her webcam. And that woman is Jennifer Ringley. In 1998 (when I was just a freaking 8-year-old boy) she most probably kick started the whole concept of reality television. A dozen thousand photos, hundreds of hours of recording and just one main protagonist- herself. Back then in the 1990s, I can imagine with Windows 95 being the ultimate to have OS, this would become a phenomenon like no other. Creepy yet additive, intrusive while juicy – what more action do you need to narrate a box- office hit.

We have all seen Kim Kardashian, Survivor and all the commercially glamour reality Televisions. But they are all decorated with the ideals that society is constantly looking towards, perhaps. Jennifer Ringley is as real as it gets cause initially she just acts and lives the way she is. But notice, as the years pass by, we see certain things like relationship romances etc coming into the screen. Something you don’t usually do infront of your computer but perhaps done for the mere sake of narration and to spice it all up. Perhaps, she got bored but one is sure, reality gets no longer becomes reality when its not spontaneous response or natural in reality. To me, everything changes but its whether we do it because it’s for a natural course for others to stay tuned. Perhaps, I am just being too critical. The whole idea and concept, over the years is something I am very impressed. Memories in virtually. What more can do you to preserve memories then recording them down every moment!

So let’s get down to the details… every single nipple revealing detail. Notice, how she is mostly topless in, I presume, pre-bedtime period for the live stream. She seems to be at her natural state. If we were to observe in detail. Initially, she starts her day at her natural state where she does not care about the camera or anyone viewing, gets to be a little more cautious during the later part of the day and eventually when the battery is running low, she goes back to the natural state. Personally to me, its a very interesting form or rather state of mind that Ringley goes through. Imagine animals in a zoo ( I am not insulting her just a simple analogy for us to understand this better). When visitors are allowed, they might have this unnatural feeling and react differently but once the visitors have left, its back to their own self. Of course, this is only perhaps for the new animals. What happens to animals that have been there for such a long time that they couldn’t be bothered?

As the time flies in years, she gets less and less concerned about the camera. Her photos shows negligence towards the camera. Her angle used to be more cautious so that her viewers can see her. But it got worse along the years. Sometimes. I just see her hips, butt etc. This negligence might be from her side cause I am sure its not the same from the guys viewing her life through the webcam. Hence I think this attitude of not being cautious for the camera creates a more exciting story. She no longer has to create narratives cause it creates itself. People are aware of it and that’s how it gives them the impression that it is no longer staged at all. Every action she does is creates suspense – what is she up to, what is she going to do? She sits on her sofa cutting paper( or whatever it is ) or even sits on her bed watching TV, she tune in to see what is she up to next cause we don’t know when there will be change that might add some twist to the whole process. The suspense starts with nothingness. The nothingness starts with being natural. And here the natural state begins with not giving a shit about who is watching you ( cautiousness)

This is very different from Steve Dixon’s association of webcam pornography where he describes the need for the two to conference through the webcam so that the host will be able to gain loyalty. But question about the tons of pornography material that show you a glimpse into the actor/actress life and whatever biological touching they may be doing to themselves yet its a one sided window. It might be live or recorded but it still captures loyalty. Its the same for Jennicam which he himself has mentioned it as the most publicised live webcam production and it was from an unknown college student. So I ask if Dixon’s stand is still valid in the context. However, he does bring our very valid points with regard to it bringing out a ‘dramatic play – life portrayed’ and how sometimes there was apparently nothing to see cause she either left or switched off her lights. His term of ‘documentary realism’ is very evident in Jennicam when everything and anything is shown to the world through the webcam without any form of censorship or restriction eventually. Dixon even named her ‘Queen of Cyberspace’, implying like she had been inevitably been crowned through mere viewership ( no interactivity).

We dig it – Its all happening in real time and its entertaining. As mentioned earlier, it connects us in a unidirectional manner to her and its performance becomes something that we relate in our everyday life. We become fans, admirers and well-wishers… or do we? What if these fans, admirers and well-wishers grow to be more than that? What if reality is boundless for some. What if they become stalkers, haters and demoralizers? She is American, so its freed of expression and everybody soon gets into the trend. Imagine if she were in India or South America. Is she going to get the same kind of response both in virtually and in reality? I doubt so because she is woman ( I am not being gender bias). Cultures can change but people don’t. We have to understand that the web reality has its pros ( which I am so into) but it’s the cons that scare us once we are aware of them. Web Reality is regional no matter how globalized we are. Forget about interconnectedness because cultures have a defense mechanism that rejects ideologies or inner cultures from different regions. An example would be Singapore. In Singapore, we adapt a lot of Western and European cultural styles but when it boils down to defense, policies and even politics, we aren’t going to allow anyone to inject a dose of Western or European practice other than the idea of democracy itself. These are the pillars that make Jennifer Ringley’s experiment nice to watch but definitely ‘out of bound’ in the Singapore context for people to appropriate this method.

Cheers

Jaysee

Internet Art & Culture, Micro-Project

Micro-Project: Pirate Broadcasting II

September 17, 2015 Jaysee Leave a comment

My second broadcast for this week. Its still about Singapore and I think I will continue to broadcast Singapore for the weeks to come.

I think the overall experience minus the stares and smiles at times, was smooth. The idea of having to speak whatever you want and to telecast it live wherever and whenever, makes me feel like a reporter – the person who scans her or his grounds to feed their audiences with juicy information.

I think it has transformed how we view television cause its no longer vetted along the line. Its our freedom of expression and we don’t have to be biased based on government’s goal or objective but just on our own. I think narrating a perspective on my own creates self confidence for myself and perhaps for my viewer, especially when we have the common interest.

But only wish I had more views!

Internet Art & Culture, Micro-Project

Micro-project: Pirate Broadcast

September 10, 2015 Jaysee 1 Comment

Part I

The video is of me broadcasting environment to the world but in my perspective, that is through my voice, facial expressions and voice tones.

The basis of this is to give you a glimpse of my life without feeding you too much of the scenes. I want the audiences to follow me and to use their creative side to imagine what I describe.

The only problem is that I went abit off in timing but I think I would have not enjoyed the process or understood certain aspects such as movement and expression if it were shorter. So I apologize for making it more than 4 minutes but I hope you would enjoy watching it as much as I have enjoyed recording this!

Part II

I downloaded the Periscope Application and started the second part of this micro-project. I must confess that this was something I just noticed only a few minutes from the filming of Part I. So this was pretty much spontaneous but was definitely from the heart. I talked about issues of heritage in Singapore. That’s why I titled it ” Nothing is ever old or heritage in Singapore’.

It was my very first live broadcast though no one was there to view it. Doesn’t matter to me cause everything has to start somewhere. Just felt that I am no longer hesitate to take a video or broadcast anything, anywhere. Something that I previously didn’t have too much and was very skeptical to the whole concept. Felt proud of myself.

PS: I just had to create my first Twitter account!!!

Internet Art & Culture, Research

Camera Opera

September 2, 2015 Jaysee Leave a comment

The camera becomes the protagonist! Fantastic inversion in the role played between the camera and the broadcaster. Though the music could have been more dramatic, I think the overall performance was great. It is indeed a different way of looking at broadcast – an alternative theatre. But once again, when we reflect back onto our watching habits these days through social websites and video streaming channels, it is nothing new. Reality Television would not seem so real if the camera did not play its part. Its the way the angle of capture is taken, the way the camera walks with the character that gives us some form of excitement and interests us.

In my opinion, the way that the camera moves, angles itself and perhaps even ‘reacts’ creates the real-life and Point of View feel, as though we are the person. However, this installation makes us realize the impact it has on us. The curiosity factor. The same reason why we go ‘gaga’ over 3D and 4k resolution videos/movies. The experience of having to feel connected to the flat images that we are coming out of our ‘screen’ , to stimulate as close as possible the world behind those screens into our world – to connect with the images that are going through our mind that will eventually be our memories.

Perhaps, its the experience factor that we bank into our memory tank that we want to not just think about but feel. Hence, our perception is not only visual but gesticulative. I mean if movies like ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ can hit box office even with the terrible content they have, there has to be something more! This of course my take…..

Art2Act