Micro Project 4: Exquisite Glitch

(In collaboration with JJ, Youlmae and Tanya)

Original

We were tasked to take a self-portrait of ourselves, either an image of our face or any part of our body. Thus, I chose to take a photo of my eyes.

First Iteration

And so begins, the glitching process.

As we can see, the first form of glitch was a little subdued with just an addition of what appears to be a filter of small mosaic tiles. I believe that for most of the first iteration was not as exaggerated could be because we were directly editing the original image, thus feeling a little apprehensive about glitching the image. It could also be that we did not want to glitch it too much because we were aware that the image would inevitably go through more layers of glitch.

Second Iteration

In the second iteration, we can see the exaggeration escalate.

This edit, the image was skewed to create a deformed look.

Third Iteration


Things get interesting here. Youlmae decided to try and glitch the image through the audio editing software Audacity.

And this was the result. She decided to export the file as small as possible, thus the image came out really tiny.

Fourth Iteration

I was deciding whether to enlarge the image for the final iteration. However, I embraced glitch and kept it that size. Nonetheless, I added some other filters which created more contrast within the image.

As we can clearly see, the transformation from the first image to the final image was drastic. In the final image, we do not see the slightest resemblance to the first image, it became completely unrecognizable.

Research Critique 2: Micro Project 3

The Walking Story

A collaboration with Chen Jingyi on Facebook Live as a third space.

For a detailed Description of the Walking Story and video, click here.

Two wandering souls, Fizah and Jingyi, enlisted the help of each other to aid in their journey around ADM. Leaving the decision on where we end up to each other, we rely on each other to decide the direction we should take when we come across two paths using a piece of paper with written directional signs (up, down, left, right). The other will respond by performing directional hand gestures.

After five minutes, we stopped in our tracks to reveal where we ended up.

Fizah

Start: Basement near lift lobby

End: 1st floor at the corner of the locker area

Jing Yi

Start: ADM Library

End: 3rd floor facing the grass patch

Third Space

For Micro-project 3, I felt that we tackled the idea of third space as another form/way to interact and communicate in different geographical location.

This can be seen from MOO (MUD Object Oriented) where it is “focused on social interaction rather than gaming” (Chatzichristodoulou, Maria. Cyposium the Book, (2012)).  Upstage is an example of such third space where audiences attending a live event are able to chat while the performance unfolds.

There are many third spaces out there that allow for communication between people from different places. One such example is video-calling platforms such as Skype, Google Hangout, Tango, etc. To me, a phone call could also be considered a third space if we are looking at it in this context. Considering this, wouldn’t Message, WhatsApp, Telegram be considered as a third space too?

Essentially, third spaces have evolved to become a part of our daily lives without us being aware.

“But most startling is the fact that the third space is simply an integral fact of everyday life in the 21st century. The digital natives have never known another reality, they are the standard bearers of this brave new world.” (Packer, Randall. The Third Space (2012))

Galloway, Kit; Rabinowitz, Sherrie, «Hole in Space», 1980
Photography | © Galloway, Kit; Rabinowitz, Sherrie

The Hole-in-Space, one of the first telematics performance, also showcases how third space is used as a form of communication by connecting people walking past the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts (NYC) and The Broadway department store in Century City (LA). These two groups of people were separated from each other by approximately 3,944km, however, the artists “severed the distance between both cities and created an outrageous pedestrian intersection” (Chatzichristodoulou, Maria. Cyposium the Book, (2012)).

Similarly, in the Walking Story, this physical boundary where myself and Jingyi are in different locations are “severed” by both of us being in the same third space (Facebook Live) at the same particular time and communicating through it.

Leaving the decision that may create an impact on your life to someone else may be difficult, scary to some. In the Walking Story, the intensity of the decision is obviously lowered. However, we are put into a situation where we have to subconsciously put our trust in each other to bring us to a location. This creates a sort of intimacy between the both of us. It is like asking a stranger for directions where you have to trust that that stranger is giving you the right direction.

Conclusion

In the beginning, third space was something that I found difficult to comprehend. After going through Micro-Project 3 and readings, I am better able to understand the concept of a third space.

 

Research Critique 1: Micro Project 2

First Impression (In collaboration with Felicia and Hazel)

Naturally, we get curious about what our first impressions to other people are. It isn’t “socially acceptable” to ask people you just met about their first impression of us, we usually only ask this question once we get to know them a little bit better. However, by then, they would already have forgotten about the first impression or their judgment could be clouded by their current impression they have of you. Thus, we decided to conduct an experiment to ask people we have never met before about their first impression of us.  Generally, the use of art as a way to tackle or bring awareness to social issues in our community has become prominent.

“[…] art has become too narcissistic and self-referential and divorced from social life. I see a new form of participatory art emerging, in which artists engage with communities and their concerns, and explore issues with their added aesthetic concerns“ [34] (Bauwens 2010)

 

Artists involved:

  1. Felicia – the canvas (the one who will be “judged”)
  2. Fizah – the speaker (the one who will tell people what to do)
  3. Hazel – the videographer (the one who will record people’s reactions)

We begin by asking Felicia what she thinks her first impression is; bubbly, scary. We wanted to make a comparison on her idea of what she thinks versus what others actually think.

After which, we went to the ADM lounge to gather the first impressions. We got the participants to contribute to the artwork by writing their impressions on Felicia’s arms (only at the beginning) and back. We hoped that we could gather a plethora of impressions from different people.

As mentioned in Marc Garrett’s article on D.I.W.O (Do-It-With-Others),

“The practice of DIWO allows space for an openness where a rich mixing of components from different sources crossover and build a hybrid experience.”

Having collected enough impressions, we wrapped up the experiment and shared our findings with the class.

The finished artwork, co-created with our participants

Analysis

The artwork requires participants’ involvement through writing their first impression of Felicia on her back. In doing so, we (the artists) do not have control over the final outcome of the artwork. We (Hazel and myself) are there to provide instructions to the participant whereas on Felicia’s part she provides them a canvas. The participants have the freedom to respond in whatever way they want. Hence, we have no control over the direction and outcome of our artwork that traditional artists have.

The idea of involving people by allowing them to contribute can also be seen in the artworks discussed such as the Human clock by Craig D. Giffen and the Sheep Market by Aaron Koblin. Without participants’ contributions, the artworks will remain at a standstill without any development.

Similar to Cut Piece by Yoko Ono, we made use of the interaction between participants and artists where the participants were up close with our canvas and had to write on her. Differing from the Please Change Beliefs by Jenny Holzer which is web-based and does not involve physical interaction.

Micro Project 3: The Walking Story (Collaboration with Chen Jingyi)

Posted by Norafizah Normin on Monday, 29 January 2018

The video begins at 2:50

The Walking Story – A collaboration between Fizah & Jingyi

The Walking Story shows 2 wondering souls traveling around a place called ADM. They have enlisted the assistance of each other to aid them in their random journey through a Facebook Live.

As shy souls, we only see their feet as they wander around the school. The two souls begin their journey at different places unbeknown to each other. Using only a piece of paper with helping directions written (up, down, left, right), they ask the other for their opinion on which way they should go on their journey around ADM. The other will respond by performing directional signs only using their hands.

After 5 minutes of endless walking, the two souls stop in their track to reveal where they have ended up with the others direction.

THE END

Objectives:

To see where we would end up when you leave the decision on where you should go to someone else.

Outcome:

Fizah

Start: Basement near lift lobby

End: 1st floor at the corner of the locker area

Jing Yi

Start: ADM Library

End: 3rd floor facing the grass patch

Other Ideas:

We started off by brainstorming ideas of how we should work together in sync. The other idea we had was similar to charades. We will be in different rooms and each takes a turn to give each other things to choose from. For example, someone starts off by saying “winter or summer”, then after 3 seconds, we will both have to say out our choice and try to be in sync with each other. It will gradually get more and more difficult; for example, if we say “love”, we will see if we both could do the same actions associated with “love”.

However, the cons are that there wouldn’t have a “climax” for the game and we are also afraid that the live stream would lag causing a delay in the reaction time by a few seconds.

Experience:

Fizah

In the beginning, being unfamiliar with Facebook Live, we were unsure of how to do the split screen. With Lei’s aid, we managed to get back on track. Throughout the journey, I also got worried about losing Wifi connection while walking around. I started the live stream with 58% phone battery and ended with 1%. Thankfully, my phone battery survived for the 5 minutes of filming. It was personally a fun experience and broaden my mind on ways to interact with someone through a live stream.

Jing Yi

Personally, I learn something new cause I seldom use Facebook and even to go live will be a challenge for me. It provides me with a different experience and also we use the third space as an interactive platform to communicate with each other.