Tag Archives: the third space

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.