The Third Space is an opportunity.
The third space offers an opportunity like no other for collaboration; a space not limited to the constraints of the physical. Suddenly, the biggest problem of all between collaborating artists is gone. The problem of distance, and not having a common ground to showcase works of art, has been made null by the existence of a common ground accessible to not only both artists without problem, but also all audiences.
With technology, nothing is impossible anymore online. If you ever were short of materials such as paint or pencils, fret no more because computers allow you to make digital art that look just like traditional art without having to fret over the costs of paint or paper. If you ever lacked the time or the workshops to create 3D art, computers allow you to render 3D mockups to make sure you don’t waste that much time prototyping and having to be constrained to your imagination as to how the project would look like in reality. With the boundless possibilities of what a computer can do, the third space has not only allowed for limitless connectivity and collaboration, it has also collapsed several key problems that have held artists back. Any constraint that’s physical, all those aren’t problems anymore.
On top of all of that, the ability to collaborate LIVE is yet another perk the third space has offered. An issue with an online platform is always intimacy; how does the art feel real? How does a digital illustration of the Mona Lisa differ from that of the real deal sitting in the Louvre?
They say that no matter how many times you tell a child the pot is hot, he’ll still have to touch it just to be sure, and I quite relate to this statement. Nothing feels quite as real as having a piece of art to hold in your hands or touch with your palms. The physical being of it is enough to add an extra layer to the art that digital art just cannot replicate. That is one of the biggest flaw of art being digital, yet it doesn’t change the fact that art in the third space can be intimate.
With live feeds, the ability to interact in real time gives art in the third space a different kind of life. To know that you can work in real time with someone halfway across the globe and create art, that is beauty in itself. It may not be pixel perfect, or even time-synced perfectly, but all these tiny flaws add beauty to what we call art in the third space. The fact that we can attempt to interact in real time on a platform that is virtual adds intimacy to our art, to tell audiences and to tell ourselves that it is possible to create art regardless of physical boundaries.
With neutral objects in between, we can always try our best to falsify a feeling of realness. Throwing objects, moving objects or drawing the same object across screens; such actions that try to combine the actions of two separate parties into creating one single form of art or movement create a single art piece. The idea of creating a single object despite being in two different locations being brought across allows for two artists to bring across an image of togetherness in the creation of something.
And just like that, as long as there is a fluidity in movement and speech of the two artists, a connection is created. It allows for the audience to feel a collaboration in the works; that there isn’t just one artist but two. Two artists creating one art piece.
My project with Melody
In our little endeavour, we tried to create the illusion of throwing food across two screens with the help of our friends. In that way, the audience essentially see the magic of food being thrown from Melo’s hand in one location and magically appearing in another location into my mouth. While it may not be the most realistic of art pieces or even the most interesting, the struggles and laughter that came along with creating the art piece are what made it real. Because of the time lag that came with using an internet connection and streaming live, people start to empathise with us as artists and laugh along with us with each attempt we make in order to try and get it right.
By using the third space we have allowed for us to do something “impossible”. The third space was a platform for us to create an illusion that something like this was possible.