HYPERESSAY: What it means to go live

Image result for the joy of painting run time

Source: The Joy Of Painting with Bob Ross – Youtube

Cue the iconic slow jazz entrance of the legendary artist Bob Ross. Ross, born in 1942, was a classically trained artist that became an icon in pop culture due to his hit television series where he “paints happy little mistakes” and his “tree friends”. Ross guides audiences on a surreal 30 minutes journey through television as a medium, at the same time, talks with them about his philosophy in art.

Image result for live television news 1980

Source: CTVNews – Then and Now

On Ross’ show, The Joy of Painting, he usually stares directly into the camera when addressing his audience, drawing similarities to live television broadcasts, and also as if he was conversing and interacting with his audiences back at home. This was unusual in the 80s as the only live platform people were used to would be onsite news broadcast to studios which would then be live telecasted to televisions all around the nation. The live concept would never have involved the millions of audiences sitting at home.

One could argue that beyond the fact Ross was creating art through his brush strokes, he was also engaging in a form of performance art. (Explains performance art) And through the medium of performance, Ross not only was able to convey his feelings and messages, he captivated a whole generation of audiences and beyond. With the rise of popular media, Ross quickly rose to the leagues of Mr Bean and Bill Cosby as iconic pop culture icons because of visual performance art.

In the same time, in another part of the world, another form of performance art in a not so wide spread medium was taking place.Image result for marina abramovic body

Source: Marina Abramovic Institute (YouTube video screengrab)

Marina Abramović, a performance artist, who engages in social topics of feminism and the role of a female figure in society, was tackling issues in the realm of reality. Her performances would range from gasping for air as her and her partner kiss with nose plugs, to laying out equipment and tools for people to do anything they want with her naked body. A very distinct part of many of her performances is the form of intimate interaction with the audience. This participatory interaction with a sense of anonymity in the past would cultivate a platform for people to actively engage in her performance without any filters.

With the advent of current day modern technology, we have the ability to live stream instantaneously to all our followers. And they, our audience, would receive a notification about the art right after. The ability and access to view the medium of performance so easily has changed how we access art and performance. With digital interventions, we close the gap of physical space with a portal through our phone and let the voices of our audience be heard. This changes the experience of what it is to perform.

Image result for twitch plays pokemon

Source: Twitch, Twitch Plays Pokemon Stream

Image result for twitch plays pokemon

Source: Reddit, Twitch Plays Pokemon Original Team Fan Art

Very briefly, Twitch plays Pokemon was an experiment to see if people would be able to cooperate on a platform to reach the final goal of becoming Pokemon Champion. Millions of audiences on the stream can input their comments onto a stream of Pokemon Blue is while a bot goes through them and executes a command after a command is complete on a PC emulator. With millions of people on the stream with the mindset of disrupting or moving the game forward, you can be sure there was chaos. A reddit forum thread of the experience was created and even had many story elements of randomly nicknamed Pokemon portrayed as mythicalogical beings, or habourers of destruction. Different modes were later added called Democracy or Anarchy that would determine how the game was played. The community made a simple stream of a game into a much more woven narrative that have captivated millions of people on the internet.

Source: Instagram, @jxketan

In October 2018, I was in Baltimore, Maryland for my semester exchange. Whilst there, the infamously cheap fast food branches would regularly compete for market share by offering ridiculously low prices. To comment on this situation and to understand what it means to perform art, I did a live stream of myself eating a hundred nuggets.

I would sit by the window of my apartment flat with my room mate’s cat who casually enters and leaves the frame as calming lo-fi music plays in the background. This was what the kids called “big mood”. What the audience doesn’t know is to get that stream to work, I had to move many items in my apartment and it was a highly curated art direction. It was nothing less of a set in terms of production. My performance was a big hit as a lot of my followers joined the stream to understand what was going on.

Image result for mukbang

Source: TAKIS FRIED CHICKEN + POPEYES FRIES & MASHED POTATOES MUKBANG | Eating Show

Little to my understanding, a year later, the term “Muk Bang” was coined as a 4 dimensional, time based media to watch performers eat, either live or recorded.

This performance lasted a deep impression with my initial followers as I executed a similar style of live streaming nuggets for one of my micro projects. This led to a lot of my initial followers privately messaging me about it. Even a year later, the impression of 1 of my art forms have not wore off. This time, I would be more interactive with my audience.

With my exploration into performance and my surprisingly, analogous approach to live streaming, this has led me to recreating the popularised Bob Ross TV show into a live format where instead of the performer informing the audience on what to paint, the roles are flipped. Agency now lies upon the audience as they can stream their comments and let the performer paint intuitively and creatively on the spot. No longer will the audience be left in the dark as the spotlight will be shone upon their opinions.

The idea would be that it is sort of an exquisite corpse of everybody’s opinion; John123 could decide the color, and kawaiigirlxxx could be the one who tells me to paint a tree. A red tree is what they want, so a red tree is what they get. This form of power engagement would give audiences a sense of belonging on the screen, immersing them into an environment they are not physically in. Their voices carry consequences in my world, on my stream.

I would also want the message to be about the overwhelming state of our creative industry in Singapore where corporate marketing leads dictate the creative direction of artists and designers who train for their whole lives to create work in a critical and creative manner. In a way, I, along with the industry, are but technical monkeys. Trained well, but waiting to receive commands.

I view the internet space as some sort of reality of it’s own. Instagram, a gallery or museum of sorts that holds my live broadcast as a form of performance art. The act of me painting on the screen is but a mere portrayal of a performance solely led by the power of the people and the spiritual essence of Bob Ross’ performance. My body is now a tool, my voice and personality, but a medium to express Ross.

The idea is not to let audiences know that they are part of an experiment or that the stream they are watching is some from the internet or some other form of digital space, but to be immersed, completely and fully, into the performance.

Image result for the joy of painting run time

Project: Internet Art & Culture

Proposal for the final instalment of the Internet Art & Culture project

  1. Jake Ross Live Stream Painting Show
    Image result for bob ross
    A full episode of Jake Ross, complete with Easel, painting equipment, lighting, a black backdrop and calming music. Except I’m painting whatever my audiences tell me to.
  2. M.O.D.O.K
    M.O.D.O.K is an evil villain from the marvel cinematic universe.
    Image result for modok marvel
    The idea would be to 3D print one of these and put a smartphone in that is live-streaming my face into it and wear it to the Halloween Party in ADM. By modeling this in Germany and printing in Singapore, I am able to transfer and manifest material from 1 space to another across the world, and then, my presence.

Micro-Project 5: Glitch Aesthetics

The experimentation with editing the text file of the images started this way:

1. I don’t know what I’m doing, so I’ll see what I get
2. I guess I’ll also take a screen shot along with renaming what I changed to learn

This is my learning processes with glitching.


Original Image

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM (original image that was broken at )



Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 1(top weird to bottom)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 1(top weird to bottom)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 2(top to bottom, and things change)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 2(top to bottom, and things change)


Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 3(actually copy and paste)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 3(actually copy and paste)


Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 4 (Change 2 to 3)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 4 (Change 2 to 3)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 5(q to b)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 5(q to b)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 6(b to q) copy

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 6(b to q) copy

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 7(adding abc)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 7(adding abc)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 8(adding xyz)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 8(adding xyz)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 9(Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 9(Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz)


Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 10(top to bottom)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 10(top to bottom)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 11(mid to bottom)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 11(mid to bottom)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 12(abc)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 12(abc)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 13(bigger chunks)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 13(bigger chunks)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 15 (password)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 15 (password)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 16 (password+analog) copy
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 16 (password+analog) copy

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 17 (password+analog+is)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 17 (password+analog+is)

Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 17 (password+analog+is+dead)
Screenshot 2019-09-26 at 1.47.48 PM copy 17 (password+analog+is+dead)

The idea that my password is hidden somewhere in this code, along with one of my most successful artworks coupled with how I slowly tried to understand the process of glitching makes the piece very exciting to work with. If someone were to possibly download this image and track the differences made, they could find out either my password or the fact that this form of analog play is dead.

Micro-Project 4: Pirate Broadcasting

I recorded this micro project twice. One, in class, another outside of class.

Both were live streamed into the instagram platform. Both I did not manage to save on time.

This was from the second attempt, the day before my trip to Bremen, Germany for my artist residency. You can see I stopped the recording because I received a notification from my partner. I stopped the recording but did not manage to record another one before it disappeared.

I guess I was pirated by the very system and platform I chose.

The message has always been what we pirated, in the day and age of pirated DVDs to watch missed movies instead of waiting for them on broadcast television. Now the medium we broadcast is in a double edged, fast and connected sword. The medium is now the pirated message.

Micro Project 1. Anime Double

I am Naruto, I am also Ichigo, or maybe I am a titan or a 10th generation mafia boss. I am also the number 1 hero!

As the master of all 4 elements, I have become quite the figurehead in the anime community all around the world. With my new found abilities as a demon slayer, I mean, AR filter artist, I am struggling to balance what my new found followers want, with who I am, a techhead and artist at heart. I am still the small kid cheering on Kings and Heroes from Japanese animation, but it’s kinda not the same anymore. Crossroads of an alter ego that no longer represents me.

Micro Project 2. Open Subservient Source

We are all slaves to social media; we use when we wake up, while we’re brushing our teeth, while we’re taking a dump, even when we are out with a date.

We are so accustomed to whipping out the phone that some of our pinky fingers have grown a bump to better grip the phone vertically. We evolved to become better subservient chickens for our followers, for the likes and for the gram!!!

Of course the next step would to be literally controlled by social media.

We subjected ourselves, blindly, to our followers, for the views and the likes. Pinned is instructions of what will happen and how they can contribute to this performance.

“Stream ends when we meet or 20 minutes are up. To take part, comment <Jake/Mavis> <action> get creative! :))))))”

Fortunately we were able to meet within 11 minutes even though there were hiccups! Friends who wanted for us to meet the objectives, sometimes giving inaccurate or vague commands that costs the game to become longer than it should. But some of our friends just want to make us suffer.

Artist Notes:
Honestly, we were expecting way worse. Without proper instructions, of course we won’t be able to jump into the pond but we were ready to risk it all(even prepared and came in slippers.) But we are glad we had friends who were supportive.

A take away was that perhaps our friends had their names featured in the stream, it could have pushed them to make decisions that would not harm our friendship. Should full anonymity be given, the result may turn out very skewed.

Executed and performed by Mavis Lim and Jake Tan

Micro-Project 3. Together Split

Having performed micro project 3 relatively near each other, we were able to coordinate to what we wanted to do whilst helping each other out.

Using Instagram’s video call system, we were able to set up a split screen conference of 2 x 2 frames. However, it was not easy to coordinate to visual performance because everyone’s screen was displaying frames that were uncoordinated. We had to decide on using my phone and I started screen recording.

The entire duration of the clip was 12minutes and only about 70 seconds worth of trimmed footage made it into the final cut.

Out of all the 3 Micro-Projects,

  1. The project that made me feel I had the most creative control was Project 2.
    I was able to work together with Mavis to clearly articulate what we wanted to do and improvised together and created a really interesting and engaging concept using social media to engage with our friends and followers.
  2. Project 2 gave quite an unpredictable outcome.
    Because of the nature of a social media piece like this, it was totally up to the audience on what we could do. This made it quite nerve wrecking because of its unpredictability. Luckily it was not that bad and our friends were nice.
  3. Project 2 for me best illustrates the concepts of Open Source.
    Having people on the internet control your every movement, is pretty much the open source movement that is seen commonly on reddit. Threads get taken over and become other things, subreddits come to live because of the people that take over it.