Symposium Performance and Cyberformance Critique

The title of the Symposium Performance/Cyberformance, “we r now[here]” causes enough intrigue within itself. It questions the ability of the virtual world to collapse time and space to create intimate connections in the third space. Our class of Media and Performance was lucky enough to be a part of this exciting experiment, and it was no small feat.

Our class began by participating in Mobile Cam Exercises. The first of the series included engaging with another student on Adobe Connect Mobile in order to test out our connections and recognize some of the bugs and issues that could arise during the performance. My experience with this included many bugs, but so it goes in the virtual world.

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The second and third exercises were discoveries and rehearsals of our intended future journey from our personal space to the collective performance space in the ADM library. Along the way, we noticed noises, connection drop outs, relevant images, and the timing of our journey.

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The cast of our performance met up again in the virtual world on a collective writing app called Pirate Pad. Here, we collaborated with written text to poetically describe the experience with the virtual world and the meaning behind the title of “we r now[here].”

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“People from anywhere in the world could appear as avatars and relate to one another through text, movement, and other forms of expression” So Far and Yet So Close: Lessons Drawn from Telematic Improvisation by Adrienne Jenik

Finally, on the evening of March 31st, our performance came to life. This approximately 45-minute exhibit was presented to the curious members of our audience as they watched before their eyes, the collapse of time and space.

The entire process of the Mobile Cam Exercises, Pirate Pad, and rehearsals were meant to allow us to gain a sense of comfort within this virtual world. The timing and our images had to be well thought out which does not come without practice. When individuals engage in a conversation on a social app such as Skype, it may take a few minutes for them to get comfortable and finally forget the distance between them. In turn, “the traditional rules of etiquette” can be forgotten:

“A virtual space creates social situations without traditional rules of etiquette.” Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, “Welcome to ‘Electronic Café International’” Page 347

Our repeated and consistent use of our mobile phones and this app allow us to break the barriers of distance and further connects our spaces, allowing us to forget the limitations of the virtual world.

There are a variety of works that were discussed within our class which aided in our ability to comprehend and improve upon our performance for “we r now[here].” The Big Kiss by Annie Abrahams is a work that questions distance and its impact on intimacy shared within the virtual world. Similarly, our performance was in contest with the ideas of distance as we began physically separated in the different rooms (even by different countries as Ashley was in Canada), but connected on the same screen in the library. Eventually, we were physically together, but seemingly distanced within our separate spaces on the screen. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, the authors of Hole-In-Space, describe in their text, “Welcome to ‘Electronic Café International’” this breaking of barriers with physical separation or distance:

“We first explored composite-image space because we wanted to create a performance place with no geographical boundaries, in which we could collaborate with no geographical boundaries.” (Page 347)

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There are moments within our performance that relate to our experiments with the Collective Body on flickr and the Telematic Embrace on Adobe Connect. By placing each of our cameras on our faces to create “selfies,” we are reminded back to our previous experiments that collapsed our physical separation by connecting visually in the virtual world via these similar actions.

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In conclusion, this work, process, and performance allowed me to further understand the true meaning of distance and time: there isn’t really any meaning in it at all.

Project Hyperessay #3: The Conclusion

The Telematic Dinner Party, hosted on March 22nd, 2015, was just like any other regular dinner party, but it was held via Adobe Connect in the 3rd space. It included the same elements as any old dinner party: different arrival times of the guests, soft jazz music playing in the background, a toast, three different courses, chatter, jokes, and the final goodbye. However, as it took place in the virtual world, it also included some elements from the 3rd space: lag, connection drop-outs, and other technical difficulties. The entire dinner party lasted one hour, but has been condensed into five minutes for the purpose of this project.

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The Telematic Dinner Party was a very sentimental moment for me. My roommates and I do everything together. The five of us will cram into our small student kitchen in picturesque Kingston, Ontario to make five separate meals together, just so that we can have a collective dinner. We’ll sit around the living room and chat, and we’ll even crawl into bed together to watch the newest episode of our favourite show. After not seeing them for 4 months, I’m going into serious withdrawal. My newest favourite family was separated by thousands of miles, with each of us in different corners of the world: Canada, Singapore, England, and Hong Kong. But I guess what they say is true: love conquers all, doesn’t it?

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Skype and FaceTime made regular appearances in our constant conversations, but it wasn’t the same having this one-on-one interaction as it used to be with the five of us together. When our class began having classes on Adobe Connect, I started to understand how the barriers of distance can be broken in such a large virtual interaction.
Throughout this class of Media and Performance, we have studied and analyzed the Internet and our interactions within what is called the third space. In a world where my roommates cannot get together in the 1st space (where I am) or the 2nd space (where they are), we have no choice but to create this 3rd space in the virtual world. We’d set up Skype dates so that we could catch each other up on the happenings in our lives, but it wasn’t quite the same as the 5 of us sitting around at home in Kingston. The 3rd space was necessary to collapses the 5 different spaces that had been created by our distance to invent this collective space for our connection. So that is where the birth of the Telematic Dinner Party came from: the need for a reuniting of 5 girls who were always meant to be best friends.

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But then the question arose: would this Telematic Dinner Party be the same as having a “family dinner” in the 1st space? Would the obvious presence of physical separation and a computer connection diminish the interaction between us? There was only one way to find out, and find out we did.
As you can see from this video, the presence of a computer was irrelevant to the connection that we shared. It brought us back to the days of sitting in our living room to share a meal, watch a movie, or just hang out and chat. We were able to truly connect, interact and have intimate conversations despite a great amount of physical distance, some technical difficulties and a conversation taking place in the 3rd space. The internet did not take away from our intimate dinner party. The conversations that you have just watched were unfiltered, we all spoke freely. Although I was unable to show the entire hour long party, I have showed you the special moments, where we catch up, fill each other in, make jokes, and talk about how much we miss each other. A dinner party in the 1st world is unfiltered and can have some profanities, so why can’t a dinner party in the 3rd space have that too?

We first saw an example of the shattering of the barriers of physical distance in Kit Galloway’s and Sherri Rabinowitz’s A Hole-In-Space. When those individuals from New York and Los Angeles were able to connect despite their grand distance, we saw how intimacy and a great connection can overcome physical separation. The third space has allowed such progress among human communication in this digital age and it has allowed my roommates and I to reconnect and enjoy the company that we take for granted in the real world

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This project was a performance. Although all of the speech and conversation that you have witnessed was all natural and required no prompt, the mere knowledge of the presence of the camera makes it a performance. As seen, my roommates were taking photos of this event to document it, they were fixing their hair and constantly looking at themselves in the screen to check their appearance. Funny jokes were made, and at first, some things were held back until everyone eased into the comfort of this dinner party. Each member began to suspend their disbelief as they ignored the ever present physical distance and separation between us to believe that we were together again in our living room and sharing a meal. At one point, without any prompt whatsoever, Holly begins to shatter the concept of distance (3:10) and partake in the “collective embrace” just as we had experimented with in class on Adobe Connect.

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The Telematic Dinner Party was, at least in my eyes, a success. Not only was I able to partake in an exciting experiment in the third space, but I was able to connect with people that I really love and have missed dearly. Physical distance has become something that is very easily overcome with the use of the virtual world and the 3rd space.

The Telematic Dinner Party Video can be seen below:

Mobile Cam Exercise #3

My tour from this computer classroom to the lobby is quite interesting. It begins closed in, surrounded by computers (a form of teleportation into the third space), follows down a narrow hallway, and then suddenly opens into the larger lobby of the building, surrounded by glass into the real world.

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I was able to time my performance to the 10 minute mark, included intentional pauses as I continued along. I have to be careful of the echo that can happen in the classroom that I begin in, and then the hallway that I continue down. However, once I enter the open lobby, the sounds of the building take over the audio.

Wi-fi is not an issue as I am on my data plan for the duration of the performance.

Walking without the pauses in my journey takes approximately 2 minutes.

Mobile Cam Exercise #2

My location is a computer classroom on the first floor of ADM. I have chosen this classroom because, to me, it is all about connection; the room is filled with wires, internet, a projector, lights, sound speakers, and many many computers. When this room is full, the students are together physically, but they are separately engrossed by their own computers and in their own virtual world, disconnected from those around them. This reminds me of my text from our collective class text on Pirate Pad:

“If we’re speaking to each other through a technology box, are we really in the present (now)?

I feel as if I’m having a relationship with my computer, the concept of you, rather than you.”

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I begin in this room. I exit through the only door, you can hear the sound of it opening and closing.

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I walk down a long, cement hallway that slowly curves as I walk; there is little to no sound.

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I end up at the ADM lounge on the first floor. There is a flurry of voices (at the time I scouted this location, there was no such noise as it was a Sunday evening).

I go downstairs to the lobby and join my peers.

Throughout this journey, there will be the background noise of a full ADM building and the sound of voices.

Micro-Project V: My Desktop World

I would be lost without my desktop; it holds some of the most important documents of my every day life.

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When I analyze it (which I have never done previously), my desktop is actually a perfect mirror of my personality: I am endlessly organized in real life, while my desktop has a variety of folders with specific titles, within which there are sub-folders for all of the individual documents. However, I sometimes “let go” and get behind on my organization, which can be seen from the documents which are yet-to-be-organized and have been left astray on my desktop.

My desktop background of the map is my encouragement of self-education. I am a visual learner much more than I am an auditory learner, so I find looking at the map (along with any other informative images) to be the best way for me to learn about the part of the world that I am living in.

At the bottom of my desktop, I have very few application icons. This reflects my admiration for keeping things simple and only having what is necessary. It personally drives me crazy when others have a wide assortment of applications at the bottom or side which they so obviously rarely use.

My desktop is my home base, almost a reflection of my bedroom; I keep it my way, its layout is my decision, and I keep my personal items there. From day to day, it is my jumping off point into another world.

Micro-Project IV: The Telematic Embrace

I believe that the third space remains the third space. In a way, by partaking in these collective movements (as seen below), it feels as if we are together because we are creating something together.

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However, there are distinct differences. When I am Skyping an individual, I am sitting at my desk, looking at my computer and talking to them about this or that. This is not a realistic interaction, unless it was an interview. In real life, my conversations elapse over an activity, be it washing the dishes, making a meal, walking to an event, or sitting over a cup of tea. It is quite rare that two individuals would sit across from each other, directly looking at each other’s faces, and sit there and speak until the conversation is over. A sense of intimacy and closeness can be felt from this interaction, as there is a similar stimulation coming from the auditory and visual parts of our brain (we can hear and see each other). Nevertheless, the interaction is missing the intimacy of being able to feel the physical presence of someone there with you. Of course the third space can be playful, absurd or compelling, as is seen in Hole-In-Space, when the knowledge of the third space and the protective barrier of known true distance allowed the individuals to act abnormally while remaining safe.10960101_10153101205616303_6749325897161791151_o

We R Here [Now] Response

We R Here (Now)

 

Poetic Response:

 

If we’re speaking to each other through a technology box, are we really in the present (now)?

I feel as if I’m having a relationship with my computer, the concept of you, rather than you.

 

The Ending?

 

I presume that the ending of this piece reflects on the true connection between people that are interacting in the third space.

I think a good ending could be someone missing an important event, such as a funeral or death, but is trying to be “present” through a webcam or Skype. Clearly the true connection is lacking and emotional ties are not as close as they could be in person.

My Adobe Connect Fail

Bridget, Kathryn and I attempted to have a conversation on Adobe Connect Mobile. We did so unsuccessfully. I’m unsure about what type of connection they were on, but I was on my data plan, so it should have been a fairly steady connection. I was unable to hear either of them for the most part. When I could hear Kathryn, it was incredibly lagged and nearly impossible to truly communicate. In regards to visuals, both of their screens were frozen for me (as you can see from the screenshot below). Throughout this entire “interaction”, our only true communication was through a Facebook chat on our phones. Seeing as how this was only 3 people trying to communicate, I am unsure of how it will work on March 31st with even more people trying to use this app.

 

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Project Hyperessay II: Technical Realization

My final project, where I will hold a telematic dinner party, will be entirely based upon technology. I will be using Adobe Connect, just as we have in our online classes the past few weeks. I will have my participants download the app and become a little more comfortable with it, myself as well. We will all act as we normally would throughout a dinner party: eating, laughing, telling stories, interacting, etc. However, I am aware that technical difficulties can arise. As we have experienced in class, when too many people are involved, the connection can become glitchy or lagged. It is for this reason that I am keeping the numbers small: 5 people in total. I will be sure to have all members on the laptops because, after experience it myself, the connection on the phone can be quite unreliable. As I have instructed all of the participants to be at home throughout the event, I trust that the internet connections should be quite steady.

Below is an image (screenshot) of my experimentation with Adobe Connect Mobile. As you can see, I am smiling in this photo because I am aware that it is happening. However, Kathryn appears “paused” and Bridget is not in the picture. This is due to our lag and bad connection, causing us to be unable to properly communicate.

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Research Critique V: Life is a Performance

I am intrigued by the concept of an audience member “suspending disbelief” when viewing a staged performance, such as a theatrical piece or fictional film. When the audience member enters a the doors of a theatre, takes a seat in the red velvet seat and looks up at the large stage before them, at the moment that the curtain opens, they enter the world of the performance; they are no longer sitting in a theatre, and technically, they no longer exist either. What is presented before them becomes the truth, despite any limitations that would exist in the real world: they suspend them. The reading, ‘Webcams: The Subversion of Surveillance’, refers to JenniCam in a similarly theatrical way: the audience is still expected to suspend their disbelief and enter the world of Jennifer Ringley. It is mentioned:

 

“The audience is content to suspend disbelief and accept slowly changing Internet still frames suggesting a place and on occasions somebody within that space. The space is a stage: we are in a darkened auditorium occasionally observing, confirming her existence, and maybe she ours, a convenient exchange agreement not unlike witness Samuel Beckett’s Not I or Waiting for Godot.”

 

This quote mentions JenniCam using the Internet as a stage. Although Jennifer claims on her site that nothing is staged and it is just “real life,” it is still a performance. Every single day, each person (including Jennifer) performs the variety of aspects of their life: they perform the social roles of a man, woman, doctor, mother, father, friend, or many other possible roles. Despite that these are all true and realistic positions to play, the act of participating is performance.