Final Broadcast (For Collective Documentation Purpose Only)

The Death of Privacy ☠
by Third Front (Putri Dina, Siewhua Tan, Tiffany Rosete, Valerie Lay)

Project Summary Description

Our project aims to explore the boundaries of glitch, abstraction, disconnectivity & connectivity, distortion, latency and the frustrations of social broadcasting. Inspired by the television screens, each one of us has our own individual screens (top left: Siewhua, top right: Valerie, bottom left: Tiffany, bottom right: Dina). Taking on the topic of giving up of data, each of us are essentially doing so by sharing about ourselves online, by web browsing, skype calls, vlogs, etc.

Final Live Broadcast

Posted by Dina Anuar on Tuesday, 14 November 2017

The Roles

Tiffany’s role is someone who decides to go on cam and talk about whatever she was feeling, doing at the moment and also talking and interacting with whoever that is watching her.

Siewhua’s role is someone who also goes on cam but to broadcast her desktop activities. She realizes her friend, Tiffany who is also broadcasting now and decides to join in Tiffany’s broadcast simultaneously browsing through her facebook feed on her own broadcast. We decided to use facebook as a metaphor for data.

Valerie – Conceptualizing and guiding the art direction of the project. Through the various live broadcast assignments done previously, I found these aspects almost unavoidable: 1.Latency 2.Error screens 3. Bandwidth and connection issues. Hence, knowing of these recurrent technical errors, I decided that if we can’t get rid of them, we make use of them. Therefore we turned to glitch aesthetics and concept that isn’t bound by latency.

Dina’s role acts like a control station and watches closely to the movements of each of our broadcasts while taking on a hidden identity by blending in with us by going on cam to vlog like Siewhua and Tiffany. She switches between screens at times and watches each broadcast individually and switches to another just as Scream strikes its victims. (Is this a act of hiding certain content that had gone wrong from the public?) Ultimately, she kills Scream but her hidden identity remains ambiguous as to whether she is a hero who killed the killer or was she the mastermind of everything where Scream was just a puppet of hers.

Side note: for a project that is all about glitch and disconnectivity, there was a lot of coordination and planning require in real life.


Individual Broadcasts

Dina’s individual / Final Broadcast:

Posted by Dina Anuar on Tuesday, 14 November 2017

Siewhua’s individual:
(Part 1 – FB Browsing)

Posted by Siewhua Tan on Tuesday, 14 November 2017

(Part 2 – Death Cam)

Posted by Siewhua Tan on Tuesday, 14 November 2017

Tiffany’s individual:
(Part 1 – Co-Broadcast)

Posted by Tiffany Anne on Tuesday, 14 November 2017

(Part 2 – Death Cam)

Posted by Tiffany Anne on Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Valerie’s individual:

Posted by Val Lay on Tuesday, 14 November 2017

 


Influences:

Inspired by Jon Cates’ Bold3rrr, this piece focuses on the frustration between netizens and the network. When the network and its bandwidth fails, which it mostly does, tension is created. For Cates’ work, the disruption becomes the surprise element, and seamlessly blends into the performance. In our work, there is a mutual abjection between the network and us as the users. As users, we are frustrated when the network fails and as the network, it starts to glitch due to too much traffic. Our surprise element is not merely the element of the network but also the users.

Jon Cates

Like the fans and haters of Jennicam, the actions of viewers range from passive to shocking (what happens next will shock you).

There is always the small doubt and paranoia that sets in when we share our data and in Jennicam’s situation, she received threats and violent reactions from her fans when she cheated on her boyfriend. Our work plays on the element of paranoia becoming a reality when users are terrorised by an unknown masked character.

Jennifer Ringley’s Jennicam

Process:

Initial Process: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vzr7RAJIi1ZscL8N972Ejjv9AUFixvqSbIQzhuRmNHQ/edit

Discarding our initial dilemma of the 7 different ideas, we decided to base our project on the aesthetics and character of the old television screens. Initially, we wanted to do something where latency does not matter (drugs) where it has a constantly transforming visual composition and media lends itself to disruptions and breakdowns yet have some degree of control. We then moved on from there to the idea of creating a purge.

The Purge:
An environment and the four of us friends are trying to get connected to each other but do not realise that our ‘live streaming’ videos are being broadcasted on National television. Due to that, the bad people manage to track us and one-by-one, we get eliminated (in other words, murdered – imagine towards the end, one of our screen suddenly goes blank, static, disconnected and it will happen to the next person and so on).

Just testing out the look of overlay old tv screens.


Test 1:

https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/putridin001/2017/10/30/internet-art-culture-final-project-technical-test-i/

OBS Controller removed ‘No Signal’ video off Val’s grid.
Siewhua was shooting the landscape outside her window when Dina’s webcam overlapped with hers.
Val disappeared?
Everyone’s grids! Tiffany was away for a moment.

Main ideas: Dina overlaying into our rooms, Empty rooms, FB browsing, Visible feeds on some screens but no signals screens on some, All visible feeds.

Test 2:
https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/putridin001/2017/11/02/internet-art-culture-final-project-technical-test-ii/

Changing according to our tests, we decided to go with the idea of a masked killer going around killing others but unknown to all there was an even greater mastermind behind everything. To add in the element of surprise we decided to all be in one place.

Datamosh Final Project FB Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1140305776106354/

A closed Facebook group was created so we could carry out multiple tests without bothering other FB users.

 



Difficulties & Overcoming:

Main difficulty: Bandwidth. Bandwidth. Bandwidth.

Siewhua and Tiffany: Wifi
Dina: Ethernet
Val: Data

Although our project embraces latency, the level of bandwidth we were getting was not sufficient to get the flow. We tried to go with the delay, but found it to be at least half a minute for Tiffany’s side. This made it tough to sync the conversation and ‘telematic talk’ between Siewhua and Tiffany.

We were all like

Scream character

At this point, we decided to just go all out and use our mobile data – all or nothing. In this course, 1AU = 1GB.  It was frustrating that even when Tiff was connected through the data, she still appeared very delayed on Facebook ‘live’. However, it was fine on Dina’s OBS screen. Dina was connected via the ethernet and it was facebook’s platform of live streaming that was clogged up with latency.

We decided that we could only just go along and perform the piece and see the outcome of it.

Then came the outcome…we overcame.

It was running smoothly especially via OBS, but sadly it wasn’t recorded. The stream on Facebook live had much more latencies, despite already being wired to the ethernet.


Final Project Idea & Insights:

STAGE ONE – No Signal

Initial Screens

Our initial screen was a 2 x 2 grid TV screens with static noise and No Signal sign on each screen. We had allowed a few minutes of buffer time to let the live broadcast settle down.

Each broadcaster got connected into the TV screens.

After some time, each screen was connected back to display webcams or desktop screens of each broadcasters (Valerie being the last one to give an element of surprise).

STAGE TWO – Giving Up Data

We started to build up characteristics of each broadcaster like Tiffany who talked about her current life situation and interacted with viewers who watched her live broadcast. At the same time, Siewhua was browsing through her Facebook feed when she saw Tiffany’s live and decided to join in.

Tiffany and Siewhua co-broadcasting

While the two girls were talking, Dina, who looked so normal and plain, was watching and controlling the screens of other broadcasters. She would switch screens to observe everyone at the same time or to analyse individual broadcasters. To remain ambiguous, she decided to blend in with them by also showing her Facebook feed and webcam.

Dina observing the screens and sometimes reacting to them

Lastly, there was Valerie who took the role of a masked character.

Val as a masked character, Scream


STAGE THREE – Siewhua Down

Scream suddenly went missing from her grid while Siewhua lost connection during the co-broadcasting.

Missing Scream and connection error on Siewhua’s side

STAGE FOUR – Tiffany Down

Thinking that Siewhua was joking around, Tiffany continued on with her vlogging as she described what she had been doing so far.

Tiffany’s solo broadcasting

However, she heard a knock on the door and, you have guessed it. It was Scream.

STAGE FIVE – Scream Down

Our audience should be guessing by now that the next victim would be Dina. She looked baffled at first when she saw what had happened but after awhile, she smiled a little. Why?

The reason behind Dina’s mysterious smile?

Because she was planning to wait for Scream? Or because her plans worked? Eventually, she brought Scream down.

But wait, what does the ending supposed to mean?

Things You Probably Have Missed
A quick glimpse of Scream in Siewhua’s screen before she lost connection.Another glimpse of Scream in Tiffany’s screen before she too lost connection.

We did not show Scream exactly attacking and murdering the girls. It was up to the audience’s interpretation what actually happened.

Dina imitated Scream in an overlay screen for a second before the static screen took over.

And Valerie’s chair moved while she was in Siewhua’s screen.

Lastly, can you guess where our location was?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by

Dina

Believes in creating works that someone can not only see or touch but be part of, to be within them.

One thought on “Final Broadcast (For Collective Documentation Purpose Only)”

  1. Excellent final project overview and documentation. I am very impressed with all the planning, coordination, rehearsal and effort that went into your project.

    Fundamentally, I think the work is visually stunning, the way in which you treated the material visually, allowed for the disconnection, lags, and interference to be revealed, and actually incorporate those interferences and so-called “problems” into your work. That in a sense is the power of your collaborative work and investigation of the network as a medium for artistic creation. The piece is kind of a celebration of errors!

    My main critique would be that with the complexity of the narrative, that perhaps more of it could have shown through, or been revealed. I think the main problem was the audio. It seemed as though because of the extreme lag and pauses, that you lost some of the continuity of noise, conversation, and other elements that would clarified the narrative and heightened the tension of the work. Perhaps the use of additional sound or even texts might have helped to bring out the many aspects of the narrative, character development, and storytelling that you were trying to communication.

    That said, it is a beautiful work, and the collaborative effort between each of the members of your group was stellar, and it shows. What you might consider doing is taking a series of screenshots to include in your portfolio, because again, I think the visual aspects of the work are the strongest, and the way you treated the signal disruptions was truly masterful.

    And so too, the interface was very effective, and particularly the way in which you alternated screens between four and two and one. That also kept the narrative moving forward effectively. If only there had been more audio or textual support to keep the continuum smoother and more continuous.

    Joan, as a final thought, after reading your OSS post, there was so much wonderful narrative and process and commentary that made me want more of that in the piece itself. Reading your post, I feel the tension, I understand the interactions, the collision of data, the abrupt interferences, and the clash of characters. I want so much for this to all come through in the work itself. Try comparing your OSS description with the work and think about how you might be able to flesh out the story in a way that the viewer at least has a stronger hint of the intention.

    You have truly embraced the importance of process and deserve to be highly commended for that. I hope your experience working on the project and all of the various steps involved will help you in future work. You are very detail oriented and that will be a great asset.

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