Category Archives: Experimental Interaction – G4

Final Project: Glitch Singapore

To view more of our ideation process, you can click here!

This is our final concept – IDLE,
an interactive performance whereby the participants’ objective is to help 4 kidnapees escape by navigating them via commenting on the Instagram live stories to look for clues and keys.

Location: IKEA@Alexandra Road
Duration: 30min
Number of players: ~10

 

How does this work? How was it made?

Each kidnapee will be hosting one Instagram live story. The 4 rooms which make the “kidnapper ‘s home” are:

@idle.bedroom (Melo)
@idle.livingroom (Siqi)
@idle.studyroom (Kai)
@idle.kitchen (Desmond)

When the accounts of the 4 rooms go live, participants can comment in the chat section below to find clues and ultimately, the key. Here are some mock-ups of how the Instagram story live would look like during the interactive performance.

ACTUAL RUN & TEST RUN GAMEPLAY

A screen recording of @idle.livingroom during the actual run (The blackout happened at the end and we have to end the instastory)

From our test run to our actual game, we had several things revised. My group and I had to discuss and come up with new hints as the old ones were too vague. Initially, we used vage words such as, “WITHIN” and “ORDERLY”. So, we changed it. For each room, there will be a clue which contains a riddle. Solve the riddle and participants will know the EXACT location of the key. One of the riddle was: Wanted by dusk, headless by dawn. (Answer: Pillow) Other than the main clue, we included 2-3 other clues, all leading to objects which are near or associated with the key. For example, one of the clues were “Floral” (Key was behind the floral cushion on a chair). Also, instead of white paper, we used yellow paper to make sure that the hint was more obvious to the participants from their screens. Lastly, we gave a clearer set of instructions and even examples of possible commands they could use.

GLITCHES AND UNEXPECTED ELEMENTS

Even though we made some changes to the test run in order to avoid glitches and accidents, during the actual run, there were still glitches occurring.

To me, the technical glitches that happened during the actual run were rather unexpected as for example, the lag experienced by the participant or the blackout was entirely unintentional and I actually panicked when my phone (@idle.studyroom) was lagging and eventually stopped recording. But thankfully, this “blackout” coincides with our narrative and we told the viewers that @idle.livingroom blacked out for a moment because of the fire in the house. Although impromptu, we ended up adapting to these glitches as even the lag could be seen as something hindering the participants from finding the clues. Judging from the participants’ reaction, they tend to show a sense of urgency and panicked when the live video went black or was lagging – which was a good sign as they were more compelled to find clues quickly before the kidnapees “die”.

Initially, there were supposed to be 4 kidnapees with 4 different room accounts, but also, due the unforeseen circumstances, insufficient participants turn up online on the actual day itself. Thus, we made do with the current participants and tweaked our narrative. We told them that one kidnapee turned on the stove while trying to escape, which led to a fire in the house and they have only 30 minutes to help everyone escape. In my opinion, this tweak enhanced the narrative and actually gave us opportunities to interact and talk to our participants. At some point in time, we will remind them that the kidnapees have limited time by saying “the smoke is getting to me…” etc. Which one of them so happened to be the actual technical glitch that I experienced.

ARTIST REFERENCES

Mainly drawing inspiration from these two interactive performances/game from Blast Theory, we wanted to incorporate the third space, similar to how they did. It is interesting as to how online players can interact with the people who are physically in that area. As for I’d Hide You, the use of the third space really changed the dynamics of the game. If weren’t for the use of third space, it would just seem like an ordinary game of tag.

IDLE, is similar, as we wanted to change the dynamics of the ordinary escape room/game setting. Thus, I would say that the live video function really contributed to the core of the game.

SUMMARY OF CONCEPTS INTEGRATED

CONCLUSION

This project, I would say, had a few distinctive stages which led to the final interactive performance – Ideation, Implementation and Reiteration. From my previous post, it consists mostly of the ideation and planning part. In this post, I focused more on the implementation and reiteration – where we try out the game and make refinements to it. Although we encountered glitches in our final run, it was fun and exciting to adapt to these glitches which unexpectedly changed our narrative a little. Being site-specific (IKEA), contributed to the fun of this project as it allows many glitches and unexpected elements to occur.

If I could change something… it would be the number of participants. Afterall, we did limit the number of players but maybe it could be on a larger scale whereby there are many characters trapped and the players all have to rescue them. Or, it would be that we improve the narrative and coordination in such a way so that all the rooms are interconnected. For example, if one kidnapee successfully escapes from a room, the key will lead to the next room. This might actually give a more coherent flow to the game rather than people switching in and out of the different instagram accounts. Lastly, incentives maybe?? 🙂 So as to reward those who manage to find the clues and keys! (and a way to find more players)

Overall, experimental interaction was truly interesting and different from what I normally do. I’ve learnt many concepts (some strange as well) but beneath that, there is always a lesson learnt at the end of the day. Hope I’ll be able to incorporate what I’ve learnt this sem in the future!! 🙂

Final Project: Process

For our final project, Glitch Singapore, my group (Siqi, Melo and Desmond) and I, started brainstorming for ideas and locations which we could conduct our game at.

IDEATION & PLANNING

Possible locations: IKEA, Big Box (Jurong East), Chinatown.
Concerns with IKEA and Big Box were that we might get chased out. We initially wanted to choose Chinatown or similar areas, where there is ample space for players to move around. But, we decided that the concept and narrative of our interactive performance would best match a public space such as IKEA.

But, we went ahead with IKEA anyway.

WHY THE NAME, “IDLE”?
Inspired by escape rooms and fps (first-person shooter) games initially, we wanted to integrate the first-person point of view and the third space to create an interactive performance. Thus, the name IDLE came about as we, the kidnapees, are idling in this actual (yet virtual space to the participants), waiting for the participants to help us escape via their commands.

INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE (IDLE):
A group of 4 friends are trapped in 4 different rooms of a kidnapper’s home. The objective is to help everyone escape by directing the victims to look for clues in the room. Players are able to navigate each person via commenting on the Instagram live stories.

Location: IKEA @ Alexandra Road
Duration: est. 30min

Instagram live stories via:
@idle.bedroom
@idle.studyroom
@idle.livingroom
@idle.kitchen

RULES:

Number of players: Cap at 15*
but only for those who sign up during registration prior the game.

Players can sign up for the game via online registration before the game.

  1. No asking questions. Only instructions/directions.
  2. Do not spam instructions in the chat. Characters will only carry out an action after the completion of the previous action.

LOCATION RECCE
Before we had our test run or actual game, we recce the location, looking for rooms which were suitable for our interactive performance. It had to be different types of room, which will be located a distance away from each other, looking at how IKEA showrooms are being structured. Mostly, we chose rooms which were secluded and not within a central junction where it could be seen easily, slightly smaller in size and have many things in the room so that we could hide the clues and keys.

TEST RUN
6/4/2018, Evening, IKEA@Alexandra Road

Siqi as @idle.bedroom
3-4 participants

Melo helped Siqi navigate around and I took some photos and video of them 🙂

     Siqi’s view and the view from the phone’s screen.

Behind the scenes: Siqi and Melo following the instructions given by our participants.

Clues written on a piece of white paper, found by our participants. It says “ORDERLY”.

The participants found the key eventually! (Hidden in one of the pockets in a pair of jeans)

Here are some short snippets of the test run!

Some takeaways from the test run:

Overall, we encountered several problems during the test run. Some problems that we highlighted were:

Incoherent commands via instalive comments

Some feedback that we got from our participants was that they did not know how to comment initially. As not many rules were being set, some participants ended up spamming several commands in a row. Also, they were not sure whether should they comment “pick up clue” or was it assumed that it will be picked up if they have seen it.

Clues on white paper lack visibility and were too vague

Although the clues were clear on our screens and from our point of view, it was not as clear on theirs, When we joined the instastory to experience what the participants are seeing, we realised that it was mostly overexposed and the words written on the paper was very faint.

Moving on, my group and I will be coming up with clearer instructions/commands for the participants. Also, we start to create 4 of IDLE’s instagram profiles and inform our participants before hand.

Symposium Hyperessay

Having to attend 2 of the online symposium sessions live and watching the other through a recording, it was definitely an eye-opening and phenomenal experience for me. The symposium has shown how the limits of social broadcasting can be pushed, creating a whole new immersive and sensational experience through the performance art.

The concepts from the keynotes by Maria X and Matt Adams included a revisit of what I have learnt and discussed in class, for example, Uncle Roy All Around You by Blast Theory. I felt that it was a good head start to have a basis of these concepts as the performances, later on, became more abstract.

Both performances which I have watched, “Entanglement” by Annie Abrahams and “igaies” by Jon Cates, were spectacular and an eye-opening experience for myself, which I will discuss in-depth later on.

Social Broadcasting: A Communications Revolution

With the advancement and rapid changes in this world, we are bound to experience some sort of revolution – in this case, a digital revolution. This hyperessay closely looks at social broadcasting being a communication revolution. The symposium is an interconnected platform whereby artists collaborate and perform together through the Internet and a networked third space (Adobe Connect). The analysis includes exploring collaborative performance art, the boundaries of networked spaces and how these artists pushed the limits of performance through a networked space to create an immersive experience for the viewers. The symposium also demonstrates the embracement of glitches and errors during the performance.

Social broadcasting via a networked space is claimed as revolutionary. Having to experience this symposium, an online third space environment, it is evident that the shift from one-to-many to many-to-many forms of live performance changed the dynamics of how a traditional one-to-many social broadcasting can be.

1. Telematic Connectedness Through Social Broadcasting

The first performance, “Entanglement” by Annie Abrahams on Day 1, exemplified this change in dynamics. In Entanglement, 7 artists remotely performed via their webcams. Despite being in different locations and even countries, the performance showed telematic connectedness as the artists were mostly in synced. Collaborating was key here. Common motifs were seen throughout the performance such as their hands and fingers on the screen or circular objects and the artists each had a phrase to say, accompanying the object. Also, it seemed like the position and movement of the objects are being mimicked by each other to create a sense of connectedness.

Although explained later on that the lag was unintentional, Randall Packer brought up a relevant point by saying that this is too, a glitch that occurred naturally. Linking back to our syllabus, glitch surrounds us in this world and embracing glitch is an art. Also, this performance is exemplary of DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) by Marc Garrett, where it involves people all around the world to create artworks and performances together, yet remotely.

According to Annie Abrahams,

This is a notion of freedom and expression. They are able to express whatever they want and whoever they are.

These actions seen throughout the performance represent how free these artists can express themselves by using objects and also how the flexibility of the networked space grants greater control for these artists; the very essence what freedom means.

The underlying meaning of this performance resonated with what I have learnt in class and this very performance was a unique and eccentric method to show how abstract and collaborative a live performance art can be, breaking away from the conventional performances. Comparatively, looking at, for example, Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece (1964), the core of Entanglement relies largely on online viewers from all over the world, whereas the latter, was a traditional and physical performance; both demonstrating different kinds of experience and involving different degrees of audience participation and involvement.

On Day 3, there were 2 distinct parts during the “igaies” performance by Jon Cates which I would like to highlight – the front section from xXxtra.Princess which focused broadcasting aesthetics and the later part which includes placing leeches on Robert during the performance.

2. #SocialBroadcastingAesthetics

“Cute” is what everyone described it as. The split screen function shows the artists, xXxtra.Princess, using filters to alter their avatar and their shared screen (as shown below).

Camera filters as avatars. Bitmoji. Lots of #Hashtags.

I was bombarded with internet terminologies. Yet, I really enjoyed how the xXxtra.Princess conveyed their narrative, touching on societal issues.

Some felt that it was redundant to utilize an alternate avatar with the phones placed in front as it does not affect the nature of how collaborative this performance is. However, I felt that the use of internet aesthetics was perhaps a method to veer from the ordinary and traditional. These methods curate creative dialogues and suggest modernity and the digitalized world.

3. Broadcasting X Phenomenal live performances = Revolutionary.

Close up screenshots of drawings from Arcangel Constatini and arkTeria.

The second part of the performance includes the audiences placing leeches on Robert. Meanwhile, Arcangel Constantini is seen drawing quirky alien-like illustrations on
petri dishes, resembling bacterial forms. In screenshot above, arkTeria was seen showing eccentric text as the “leech ritual” continued.

As mentioned by arkTeria,

“We are the leeches. The leeches are us. We are each other. And the Internet is also an animal. I think it’s beautiful.”

Initially, I was confused by this. But as the discussion went on, I have learnt that this “leech ritual” refers to a body alteration which demonstrates glitching. The whole idea of this was about the interconnectivity of life forms, drawing similarities to the third space network interconnectivity.

In this particular performance, my main focus revolved around considering both type of audiences – the online viewers and the physical participants. With both concurrently happening, it constitutes and curates an alternative social world. This live performance is not just merely “live” for one group of audiences there, but “live” in another layer as online viewers are watching it as well. This was a unique aspect of this performance as we can see both the performance from and outside of the audience’s perspective. With this, the online third space environment is expanded to an extensive audience all around the world as they experience this live performance. In addition, this shows the power of a networked space and social broadcasting of many-to-many. This is what, I feel, makes it revolutionary.

In conclusion, through experiencing the symposium myself and analysing these performances, I can see how artists break away from the conventional performance art by playing with the online third space environment. It is an enriching experience as they successfully integrated concepts, narratives and brought up societal issues through the performances and chat conversations.

 

Bibliography

“Uncle Roy All Around You | Blast Theory”. 2003. Blasttheory.Co.Uk. https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/uncle-roy-all-around-you/.

“Yoko Ono’S Cut Piece Explained | Art | Agenda | Phaidon”. 2015. Phaidon. http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2015/may/18/yoko-ono-s-cut-piece-explained/.

Micro-project 07: Video Selfie

Lines. Trips. Glitch. 

Lines. Trips. Glitch. is a short 1 minute video selfie which expresses my artistic alter ego, mostly inspired by minimalist artist Sol Lewitt and glitch art. This video selfie explores traditional drawing and digital glitch art – and maybe the converging of both.

I was mostly inspired by Sol Lewitt, an American artist who is linked to art movements such as Minimalism and Conceptual art. He is recognised for his line artworks, where Lewitt would fill the entire canvas with just lines. Although abstract, I felt that Lewitt’s lines encapsulate more than just forms; perhaps even emotions.

As I chose an artist to express my artistic alter ego, I felt that the location would be best held in an artistic space, like this drawing room. The props in the room were arranged deliberately to create the desired mood, like how the painting at the back shows the contrast of a figure painted and a real person who is situated in front of the canvas (me). The effects of the video, mostly glitchy, added a trippy feel to it. (The painted face looks pretty demonic when the colour changed (00:58) secs) Accompanied by the song that I chose, (Erza by Flume), I wanted to portray a distorted state of mind as an “artist” inspired by Sol Lewitt, the imaginary double. Personally, the entangled lines which I drew symbolised being torn in between, confused and lost (mostly negative and thus, the distortion).

How can the video selfie be used to alter identity?

By taking a video selfie, we are given more control over the outcome of what we want to portray to the audience. Higher control also means that we are able to record according to what we want and we are able to stage any persona that we want to portray to the viewers. In addition, there is no limit to the takes and this ensures that we are able to perfect that persona if we wanted to.

How might video be used to conceal identity?

There are endless possibilities to our choices here in the digital world. We could choose to record the video selfie upfront, showing our faces but we could also choose not to show it at all. The viewers can only see what is shown in the video and nothing else, thus, the control is still being overpowered by the creators and not viewers.

How do the objects that surround you contribute to your sense of identity? 

As mentioned, the location, the song choice and effects are deliberate ways to create the desired mise en scène. Without any dialogue, but just through my actions, the props and space, viewers are able to distinctly recognise myself as an artist who is drawing on a canvas.

Overall, I felt that this creating this video selfie has more thoughts put into it as we delved into digital identity. On a daily basis, as we post Instagram stories online, we neglect such aspects; we don’t consider whether do we actually alter our identity or not. But, through this micro-project, it instilled a greater sense of digital identity awareness in me.

Micro-project 06: A Day in the Life of Super-Participation

In this project, my group (Myself, Melo, Bryan, Samantha and Nikki), were tasked to publish posts on Facebook during our recess week. Firstly, we did not set any rules but we agreed to start posting on Wednesday, 7 March, 8am for 24 hours.

To be honest, at the start, I did not know what to post. And knowing that I slept late the night before, I used the schedule option to schedule my posts at 8-10am. And yupp, when I woke up at 10am,everyone was already active on the Facebook page, posting about their daily activities, what they had for breakfast and there I was, still on my bed.

As the day went by, I got the hang of posting more things. However, I tend to not share too personal information online as I fear being judged. Afterall, the internet can be a scary place. So, I posted things which I only felt comfortable sharing, some trivial, but mostly about my daily activities and probably things that interest me, such as food. Also, I realised that throughout the day, I tend to forget to post certain things when I am busy with work or occupied at the moment. Because of this, some of my posts are not posted in real-time but are lagging behind an hour or so.

This micro-project motivated me to explore my digital identity in just 24 hours. I realised that as I was influenced and obliged to post, there are certain aspects about me that would not change, such as the type of posts or my attitude towards social media and perception of myself while using an online platform. Yes, I might have great control over what I can post and can entirely fake an identity if I wanted to. But because this was a closed group and that we knew everyone we were sharing our posts to, we naturally let our guards down and be comfortable with our posted content. From here, it is evident that the type of audience who have access to my information played a vital role in my content posted.

It was also an interesting journey as I get to understand each other’s persona through what we share.

Kai; The Chill One

I, myself, was identified as a person who is very chill, and sleepy (literally, as I woke up the latest and scheduled posts while I was asleep). My posts later on in the day learn towards more of a chill and relaxed vibe. All of these are in fact true to my real personality.

Melo; The Meticulous

As for my group member, Melo, we concluded that she is a meticulous person when it comes to aesthetics. Her posts have to be edited before she can post it online. Perhaps, as a person who enjoys looking at aesthetically pleasing photos, she would do the same when it comes to her as well. Nowadays, online content can be extremely influential to a person.

Bryan; The Workaholic

As for Bryan, we concluded that he was definitely the most hardworking group member out of all of us as he was already doing work early in the morning (while I was STILL asleep). Throughout the day, his photos about his work were posted consistently. To encourage one another, every one of us liked one another’s posts and gave nice comments – something which I felt, encompasses social media activities. “Likes”, “Favourites” and “Share”. All of these functions are extended ways we could express ourselves, rather than just words. This is also a unique aspect of online social media.

Niki; The “Trouble” Magnet

“Trouble” magnet not in terms of a bad way, by the way! Speaking of nice comments, what we remembered from Niki was that she was always in some sort of a “trouble” – whether if she was sick, or injured her finger. Mostly, we commented something encouraging, such as, “Get well soon!” etc.

Samantha; The Bubbly One

Lastly, as for Samantha, I felt that her posts were a mix of work and fun, like the video she posted of herself helping her friend to film. I also recalled that she posted a picture of food early in the morning and that definitely made me want to get breakfast too. The persona for her seemed to be a bubbly and active person.

Through super-participation in this micro-project, I have learnt that there are many intrinsic and extrinsic factors which influence the motivation of our actions on a social media platform. By analysing how we shape this online persona via our posts, we are able to uncover key behavioural insights from a person and indeed, we try to create a persona of how we want others to perceive us. However, in my opinion, there is a fine line between the degree of control we have; it all depends on the intent and aim. The example from Amalia Ulman proves us otherwise. Excellences & Perfections (2014), was an interesting example which displayed utmost control in creating a digital identity. It is a four month durational performance taking place directly on her personal Instagram. The artist fabricated a fictional character with the intention was to prove how easy an audience can be manipulated through the use of mainstream archetypes and characters they’ve seen before. Surely, no one went that far while creating a fake identity.

All in all, the exercise and the examples shown in class allowed me to see an array of personas and digital identify created (a range from actual self to perceived self).

 

Research Critique 3: Glitch & The Art of Destruction

For micro-project 5, my group’s (Myself, Bryan, Si Hui, Reuben and Ying Hui) concept revolved around capturing the destruction of art through performance art and media. First, we printed a photo of one of world’s most famous artwork – Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da vinci. This renaissance artwork is highly regarded, thus, belonging to the “high renaissance” period, a period of grandmasters with impeccable skills. Then, we set the printed photo of the painting on fire and recorded it.

The art of destruction. The destruction of art.

By burning this artwork down to ashes, we wanted to bring about the notion of seeing the destruction of art as a form of art. We “embrace accidents”, or even, we create them.

One may see it as literally destroying art, but the element of deconstruction in the destruction process was that we wanted to highlight. We wanted to highlight that destruction could even be in something which everyone admired and thought highly of. We also wanted to show a deviation from the norms of “art”. As art is usually thought of as classy and placed in a museum, or even a bulletproof glass (for the Mona Lisa), we wanted to rebel against this perfectionist mindset. Instead of cutting or tearing the paper apart, we decided to burn it to create a duration-based artwork; a performance which the audience could watch us burn the picture. Through this, the Mona Lisa transforms from a static piece of artwork into something new, such as an experience or a performance.

As a performance art, the deterioration of the artwork, from paper to ashes, creates a new quality through the destruction. Media Burn by the Ant Farm from the Interview with Chip Lord is a great example of such artworks, where it “exemplifies fascination with the automobile and television as cultural artifacts through looking at the impact of mass media in American culture.” It was their bold act which brought about their statement uniquely and in a new light. And what we challenge here, with our artwork, is to see beyond the act of “destroying” a beautiful piece of artwork. Instead, looking at the destruction in a whole new way and to defy the rules of art.

As mentioned in  Menkman, R. (2009) “Glitch Studies Manifesto”, “Glitch art is often about relaying the membrane of the normal, to create a new protocol after shattering an earlier one. The perfect glitch shows how destruction can change into the creation of something original.” With this, we wanted to set the world’s most famous painting on fire; a statement of defying the general rules of art. Thus, by shifting this perspective at how we look at destruction, it is the start of creating something original as the mass audience are used to looking at funnelled out content from the media.

Another example mentioned by Lei was Ai Wei Wei’s, dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), where Ai dropped an authentic antiquity. He was thinking about the themes of transformation and destruction. He embarked on collecting ancient vessels with the aim of converting them into contemporary art pieces. This is my first time coming across this piece and I found it really interesting how this artwork considered a form of consumer culture and heritage preservation.

Lastly, In Randall Packer’s Conversation with Jon Cates (2014) Hyperallergic , Cates mentioned, “there is a poetic embrace of noise and error.” and the whole geist of learning about glitch is as what he mentioned. Through the previous project where we created glitch and the most recent one, the art of destruction, it has brought me to rethink about “aesthetics”. Both glitch and destruction are artistic expressions which embrace flaws and errors. In my opinion, the element of deconstruction is what makes these glitches and destruction something way more than it is. Glitch is just more than just dead/flawed pixels or destructed matter, the beauty of it is that, it could be organic glitches, such as glitches during performances. As we commonly associate glitches with the errors we see on screen and technical errors, this case of demonstrating glitch through performance art brought out the flexibility of glitch art as it can be, very organic, occuring during a live performance as well.

 

Micro-Project 5: The Art Of Destruction

For micro-project 5, my group’s (Myself, Bryan, Si Hui, Reuben and Ying Hui) concept revolved around capturing the destruction of art through performance art and media. First, we printed a photo of one of world’s most famous artwork – Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da vinci. This renaissance artwork is highly regarded, thus, belonging to the “high renaissance” period, a period of grandmasters with impeccable skills. Then, we set the printed photo of the painting on fire and recorded it.

The art of destruction. The destruction of art.

By burning this artwork down to ashes, we wanted to bring about the notion of seeing the destruction of art as a form of art. We “embrace accidents”, or even, we create them.

One may see it as literally destroying art, but the element of deconstruction in the destruction process was that we wanted to highlight. We wanted to highlight that destruction could even be in something which everyone admired and thought highly of. We also wanted to show a deviation from the norms of “art”. As art is usually thought of as classy and placed in a museum, or even a bulletproof glass (for the Mona Lisa), we wanted to rebel against this perfectionist mindset. Instead of cutting or tearing the paper apart, we decided to burn it to create a duration-based artwork; a performance which the audience could watch us burn the picture. Through this, the Mona Lisa transforms from a static piece of artwork into something new, such as an experience or a performance.

The outcome of the artwork surprised me a little as the ashes looked different from what I normally see. (Lei says that it is brown because of the carbon).

 

Micro-Project 04: Exquisite Glitch

In this project, my team, Joseph, Dion and I, took turns to edit each other’s original photo. Through editing photos and transferring to the next person to edit them again using adobe photoshop and audition, layers of effects are collapsed. Each layer is creating a new form of its precursor. The collective image is a collaborative creative effort of each team member. By using different techniques due to our preferences and differences in software used, it adds on to the glitch transformation. The variety of these software editing tools contributed largely to the manipulation. As we decompose images, we are breaking down how much we are able to recognise our “self-portrait”, thus, the effects are seen as “distortions” to us.

01 Original Image

 02 Edited by myself

Tools used in Adobe Photoshop: Intensive increase in colour saturation, distortion tool.

In this particular edit, decomposition of the image was clear, through the pixels that were created not by adding an effect but by increasing the colour saturation of a selected colour. Evidently, this process of breaking down could be seen in how the colours are segregated throughout the image.

 03 Edited by Joseph

After Joseph’s edit, the pixels and noise were harsher and colours were more vivid. Only the distortion remained recognizable.

 04 Edited by Dion

After Dion’s edit through Adobe Audition, the image segregated, adding on to the glitchiness.

 05 Edited by myself (Final)

Tools used in adobe photoshop: Filter > Distort tool > Wave (random).

As the image was already heavily manipulated, I tried to use a different tool. I used the random function so as to embrace the glitch variation in the transformation. The random tool actually chops up the image even further, breaking the flow of shapes and colours from the previous image.

Altogether, it was an interesting and unique experience to edit images while embracing glitch art and not in pursuit of perfection.

Research Critique 02 – The Third Space

To me, the third space is a space where realities are able to coincide due to technological advancements. It can also be a combination of a physical space and a remote space, where time and space is not relevant.

In this space, there are endless possibilities and many known boundaries are collapsed because of new innovations and a greater use of technology. People can supposedly interact with one another; yet, not being physically present. It allows us to experience the remote space on a greater level, incorporating our senses into this experience; sight, hearing, sound, and (seemingly) touch.

In Randall Packer’s article, The Third Space, he mentioned, it is the pervasiveness of distributed space and the degree and myriad of ways in which we are constantly connected. And from this ubiquitous state of shared presence we have come to inhabit an entirely new way of seeing via a fracturing of perception.

The term, shared presence, was what I felt, a reflection of telematic performances; the ability to feel one’s presence but not being physically there.

In my micro-project 3, Tele-Drift, Jia Ying and I created “Draw Together”. Draw Together allows participants to draw with someone else regardless of their location as long as they have a canvas. As they draw, they have to achieve their end goal together; to complete the drawing by contributing half/part of it.

In this project, there were no location boundaries and all we needed was a canvas and a live video function. Despite being in different locations, the involvement of more senses beyond sight and sound, the consistent first-person perspective of the canvas and the real-time aspect of the live video function created closeness and intimacy between the artists. While drawing, the object that is representative of the “third” body is the canvas itself. Although Jia Ying and I were not able to coordinate our hand gestures while we were drawing, I felt that the canvas spoke for us as the “third” body as we were interacting through pen and paper.

In Maria Chatzichristodoulo’s Cyberformance article, Paul Sermon mentioned, “The ability to exist outside of the users own space and time is created by an alarmingly real sense of touch that is enhanced by the context of the bed and caused by an acute shift of senses in the telematic space.” About his Telematic Dreaming (1993) performance.

Amongst all the telematic performances, I felt that Telematic Dreaming prevailed as the most impactful and intimate piece of work. In comparison with my tele-drift project, with the context of the canvas (vs the bed), it was evident that having an intimate object was more impactful.

Micro-Project 03 – Tele-Drift

Posted by Kai Ting on Wednesday, 31 January 2018

In this micro-project, I worked with Jia Ying and we created “Draw Together”. “Draw Together” allows participants to draw with someone else and as they draw, they have to achieve their end goal together; to complete the entire drawing by contributing half of it. At the start, we determine what to draw by contributing a word each. Eg. “Fat” and “Cat”. Depending on the words written by one person, the drawing varies. The outcome would then be a collective drawing by both.

In this case, the third space for us would be the drawing itself. Most of the time, we were focusing more on connecting the drawing rather than the movement and coordination of our hands. Although it might be a good idea, we realised that one of us is left-handed. Thus, we could only choose between – bad hand coordination or a scribbly cat drawn by someone who didn’t use their master hand. On the bright side, as the drawing looked pretty similar and complete, it looked as if the drawing was a piece itself rather than in entirely different locations.

The first person point of view used, in this case, created more intimacy throughout. As compared to having a camera placed from afar and looking at it from a third person’s perspective, this first person’s perspective helped to achieve an intimate and natural look; as though the viewer is looking at him/herself drawing.

Based on the examples shown in class, Guilty Landscapes (2016) by Dries Verhoeven and Telematic Dreaming (1993) by Paul Sermon, I felt that the projected visuals were key to creating an impactful third space in real time as they connected people and had more involvement.

Jia Ying and I faced some challenges while we were doing this micro-project. Other than the left-handed issue, we initially wanted to play tic-tac-toe on paper using the split screen. However, due to the split screen, we could not plot the Xs and Os across the other screen. Also, it could be interesting if the canvas filled the entire video space and there were more than 2 participants. With this, participants are able to connect their drawings not just side by side, but from all sides. Nonetheless, this micro-project was an interesting one to work on.