Research Critique 3

Group members: Fizah, Azizah, Naomi and Qistina

Medium: Stop-motion

About: Destroying the original quality of a living thing. By using a flower to represent human and it is placed in a soil where it is comfortable in. Then using different actions, such as stabbing, cutting and stepping on it, to create deterioration to the flower. Aside from the objects, we verbally abuse the flower in a poetic way and it gets harsher as we took turns to say each line.

At the start of our stop motion, we make each frame goes by sequence then half way through the video, the sequence gets messed up creating glitch, which means error to us.

How does your project embrace problems, inconsistencies and accidents?

When we were compiling each images into a stop motion video, some of the images gets messed up as they were not in sequence. Hence we decided to embrace it which lead to some of the images not sequence.

'But the way to not be stuck is to focus on glitch as a form of surprise and as a way of glitching people’s expectations.' – Randall Packer, Conversation with Jon Cates (2014) Hyperallergic

To us, glitch means error and mistake. Hence by having those error and mistakes in our video, it distort the audience way of viewing it.

How is the medium in your work transformed from its original state through the act the deterioration and destruction?

By using stop motion, we are able to rearrange the sequence of the images which makes the audience to familiarize then unfamiliar with the linear narrative of the video. However, we kept the last frame to the flower being buried into the soil as an ending to show the original state has being destroyed.

'Glitch studies attempts to balance nonsense and knowledge. It searches for the unfamiliar while at the same time it tries to de-familiarize the familiar.' – Menkman, R. (2009) “Glitch Studies Manifesto'

The actions that we did to the flower, such as stabbing, cutting and burying on it, shows the process of deterioration of the flower. By having those actions, it gives the audience some hint about which action comes first although the video is not in sequence.

With the voice added into our video, it gives an impact that the flower is going through a negative state. However, we did in a poetic way to show that even in a nice way of saying something it can be vulnerable to a living thing.

How is glitch and destruction an act of artistic expression?

From our micro-project, it a metaphorical destruction as we use object to represent human. We did not set any rules on how we wanted to destroy the flowers, and how we arranged the sequence of each images. Instead, we just go with the flow which lead our video to have traces of our error and mistake.

“I manipulate, bend and break any medium towards the point where it becomes something new. This is what I call glitch art.' - Menkman, R. (2009) “Glitch Studies Manifesto'

February 17, 2018February 17, 2018

Research Critique 2: Third Space, Third Person

What is the third space to you?

My understanding of a third space is that we are in different places physically and we become one virtually, example through the Facebook live.

'transformative social space into the online medium' (Randall Parker, 2017)

How do we collapse boundaries in the third space?

'telematic work, which aimed to bring together artists that were separated by physical and geographical boundaries.' (Maria Chatzichristodoulo’s Cyberformance)

As mention above, one of the ways to collapse the boundaries in a third space is using telematics. For our micro project, Minjee and I were at the same geographical boundaries but we were at different places, separated by the physical boundaries. And through telematics work which is the Facebook Live, we were able to collapse the physical boundary and become one.

Minjee & I becoming one in a third space

How do we create closeness and intimacy in the third space despite being in different locations?

Projection of half of our faces using the split screen

Firstly, it is through the life size projection of our faces. By using the split screen, we created a third person by projecting half of our faces, like we chatting with the viewer face to face.

Secondly, is copying each other movements as it was our first time doing a project together. Hence by copying each other, we break down the awkwardness between us. This also creates a certain level of comfortableness between us.

How did you virtually touch, hold objects, create a “third” body using different gestures despite being in different locations?

We created a third person by combing both of us, with the use of split screen. One of the things that we did was drawings. It is like a 2 separate drawings that become 1. From the viewers point of view, they will see that all the things are done by one person.

February 4, 2018

Research Critique 1

How is your crowd-sourced time-based artwork a departure from traditional art making by a single artist?

With the use of social media, Instagram, the artist will post instructions and polls of the game, asking the audience to vote, who can do better, through the polling systems. The audience have the freedom to vote between the two choices. (Fig 1.) And once they finished voting, they are able to see the result of the poll instantly. After the polling session ended, the artists will take a video of themselves competing the game against each other. This is to meet the expectation of the audience and the unknown result.

Hence this is different from traditional art making by a single artist because it enables the audience to have control of the outcome, by predicting who can do the games better.

Fig 1. From left to right: Instruction, Poll & Screenshot of the Video

How is this method of peer-to-peer social interaction as found in open-source practices a departure from traditional proprietary modes of artistic creation and production?

It allow audience to input their thoughts and opinion through the polling system in Instagram. And with the power of social media and connections, not only our circles of friends are able to vote and watch the videos, but other people from different types of background and culture are able to join in the fun and input their opinion.

Quoted from Jeran Fraser, What Happens When Crowdsourcing And Social Media Merge:

"From crowdsourcing their opinions on a potential product idea to building contests that invites users' thoughts, social media uses crowdsourcing as an invaluable tool more often than we realize."

How is your crowd-sourced time-based artwork similar or different from the examples show in our open-source artists discussion?

Artwork chosen: Craig D. Giffen, Human Clock (2001 – ongoing)

Similarities

Both works include the audience thoughts by inputting something. For Craig D. Giffen’s work, audience are able to submit images of the time and it will be shown in the website at that point of time. And for our micro project, audience are able to submit their thoughts and opinion through polling and instantly they can see the result.
Both works are close source works as only the person, team or organization are able to maintain, control and modify it at certain time. For example Craig D. Giffen’s work, he is able to modify the layout of his website. (Fig 2.) However we, as audience, can’t modify it and we can’t control the image according to the timing. As for our micro project, we as a group can control and modify the questions we set for polling.

Fig 2. Sreenshot Craig D. Giffen, Human Clock Website

Differences

Both works have different timeframe. For Craig D. Giffen’s work, he’s work is a continuous timeframe where audience can continuously submit images of the time. As for our micro project, our instruction, questions and videos has a limited timeframe. Each instruction, question, video can last up to 15 seconds as this is one of the default setting of Instagram.

Quoted from Marc Garrett, DIWO (Do-It-With-Others): Artistic Co-Creation as a Decentralized Method of Peer Empowerment in Today’s Multitude:  

"Even though the Web and DIWO possess different qualities they are both essentially, forms of networked commons. They both belong to the same digital complexity, each are open systems for human and technological engagement."

For our micro project, both the games and Instagram have different qualities, such as the games are played physically but the Instagram is through the web, and both of it needs a network in common. For the games, we need audience to input their thoughts by voting. Hence with the use of Instagram and the power of connections, we can easily get more people to join in and collate the votes instantly. In conclusion, social media uses crowdsourcing as a very useful tool to gain more people to participate in a common goal.

References:

DIWO (Do-It-With-Others): Artistic Co-Creation as a Decentralized Method of Peer Empowerment in Today’s Multitude.

What Happens When Crowdsourcing and Social Media Merge

What is open source?