Tag: internet

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.