Tag: communication

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DIWO

I’ve heard of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) so many times unlike DIWO (Do-It-With-Others), so when I was first introduced to the concept of DIWO, it seemed like something almost impossible to achieve. Imagine a huge group of people contributing their ideas all at once, I can only picture a chaotic mess. However, I was given the opportunity to look into Furtherfield, which changed my mindset entirely. Furtherfield is a non-profit organisation started by Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow, whereby they create an online platform for individuals all around the world to work together to create something extraordinary. Unlike the DIY culture that focuses solely on the individual, DIWO stresses on the importance and significance of collaboration and sharing amongst different creatives. Making use of free and open software technology, they create a platform to expand one’s creativity by establishing connections with others.

Due to the introduction of open source technology, artists are able to better themselves and their works through a more elaborate research in collaboration with other artists.

-Randell Packer, IEEE POTENTIALS’s article

As I’ve mentioned before about open source, DIWO also shows relation to that. Rather than working alone, artists are able to discuss concepts with others and go through the process with others.

Screenshot of my social broadcasting video Source: My social broadcasting video

Going back to the first ever micro-project that we did, it shows how we can make use of the third space to converse with other people who may not be physically with us, hightlighting the possibility of interaction between individuals at different locations and different timezone.

From Telematic Embrace micro-project
Source: Taken from my phone

Bringing back some concepts from our micro-projects which I thought were appropriate to this idea of DIWO, similar to the telematic embrace project, DIWO provides a sense of intimacy and hence encourages the sharing and negotiation between users to create a piece of work with their collaborative efforts. DIWO allows effective communication amongst different parties, raising their awareness towards others.

Hello World installation
Source: http://christopherbaker.net/projects/helloworld/
Screenshot of the flickr group uploads
Source: OSS
Screenshot of the adobe connect with Marc Garrett
Source: https://vimeo.com/255880481

Although I was unable to attend the adobe connect on the actual day, I did look through the recorded video and found some points mentioned by guest Marc Garrett which I thought was extremely familiar and relatable. Quoting from Marc Garrett, he mentioned that DIWO is a “collective experience” and that it becomes a challenge of working with others, rather than only about ourselves. Individuals are also given the freedom to explore. These pushes an outcome of “Art for a better society” as mentioned by Randall Packer, allowing artists to venture outside their comfort zone and explore with different materials to create something new unlike their usual style, making full use of the advantage of working with others. The collaborative effort will in turn allow them to create outstanding unique pieces of work like the plantoids with BlockChain, as mentioned by Marc Garrett.

Plantoid, a Blockchain technology where different plants are created due to a combination of different interactions by different people
Source: http://okhaos.com/plantoids/

 

 

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Micro-Project #3: Telematic Embrace

Telematic embrace, what an appropriate name isn’t it! Although we have been discussing about the concept of a third space for awhile now, I find it very intriguing how the third space can offer a sense of intimacy that we used to think can only be experienced first hand in the real world.

The class going on adobe connect
Source: Taken from my phone

In this micro-project, what we did was to go onto adobe connect as a class and interact while following the instructions given each time. We did things such as trying to poke each other while synchronising our movements and angles, trying to form something with our arms with the whole class, and we also made use of objects to show regularity amongst everyone.

A shot of us on adobe connect
Source: Taken from my phone
A shot of the screen when we were trying to align our fingers together in pairs
Source: Taken from my phone
The class showing something pink that we have
Source: Taken from my phone
The class doing a cross across the screen
Source: Taken from my phone

Through this project, I realised the importance of communication and how we can actually interact and negotiate via this third space during the process of social broadcasting. We had to discuss and reach a consensus amongst everyone, before we were able to coordinate in our movements, to actually create something from it. I particularly like the one where we did the cross across the screen. Other than the fact that it looks really interesting in terms of composition, it also displays this fun side of working together in the third space. The first activity where we tried to connect our fingers together in pairs also aroused my interest in a sense that as we do that, not only were we connected in our movements (our fingers), but also connected spiritually although we were technically physically apart. Because of this project, it also got me thinking if the emotional bandwidth from the third space will eventually be strong enough to replace the feeling of intimacy from real human interactions since we will all be so absorbed and comfortable with our identities in the third space.