My father is bringing me out to the fair in the city to drum along with him!
Great, I’m sick of this small village – everyone snaps at me for making noise.
Why can’t they understand that all I wanna do is beat my drum.
I don’t wanna be making haystacks or pick up firewood.
One day, I beat my drum a little too loud as we were walking through a forest…
I’m afraid now I can never drum again. All I wanna do is forget the assault.
// BACKSTORY
I stood in front of my shoe rack and spent a few minutes staring at all my shoes; slippers, sandals, trainers, boots, heels — I chose the noisiest ones. These are my Miista Esi Suede Leather oxfords that I’m trying to wear in. I knew for a fact they make so much noise as they hit the pavement – PERFECT!
I walk round the perimeter of my student accommodation here in NTU, Pioneer Hall and started thinking of what I wanted my story to be like. As my heels kiss the ground, i hear:
CLACK CLACK CLACK, BOOM BOOM BOOM
Sounds like music; Sounds like the beating of drums. So i told the dramatic story about the Little Drummer Boy and his father, accompanied by the clacking of my lucite heel in replacement of the beating of a drum.
There was construction nearby and lots of these manhole covers. Thought they would make for interesting atmospheric noise for the soundscape. Used the noisy bits to add drama to the story I was crafting. 😛
I was born in the age of the internet. As bad as it may sound, I have become extremely dependent on the internet to carry on with my normal life. I’m able to read do my homework online, purchase things on the web and even find directions. Its hard to imagine having to live without WiFi… what more without the internet.
However, all these while, I’ve been thinking about the internet merely just as something that is THERE – I’ve never thought about how our computers processes the data that we feed them or how browsers work to show us information. The last thing that I thought was possible was to create art online.
I’ve always thought of art as being something tangible; something we’re able to look and marvel at while touching the surface of the art piece. Something you stick in a frame, or something you can hold together with glue or duct tape. This class on open source studio certainly has widen my eyes to the other types of art forms out there and ways of expressing oneself; not only to web and net art, but also to the art of the glitch… there is beauty in the flaws of the web (I stand corrected).
An example is Google Maps – the ever trusty app you can use to find your way around (almost) every inch of the planet. This is what you’d expect to see if you searched for NTU ADM:
On the other hand, you may find glitchy Google maps here.
We are on the internet so often that we have begin to expect and assume what a web browser would generate a website like.. so what happens if those expectations are torn down?
Mark Napier, Shredder 1.0 custom software, internet 1998
Mark Napier’s net art and performance art piece, Shredder 1.0 interface which takes existing websites and deconstructs and messes with their code to create abstract compositions of expressionist-like artwork. The Internet may be a valuable tool for individual use, but it is far more important as a social mechanism and Napier’s work takes the social context of the internet and exploits it into art pieces.
The web browser is an organ of perception through which we ‘see’ the web. It filters and organizes a huge mass of structured information that spans continents, is constantly growing, reorganizing itself, shifting its appearance, evolving. The Shredder presents this global structure as a chaotic, irrational, raucous collage. By altering the HTML code before the browser reads it, the Shredder appropriates the data of the web, transforming it into a parallel web. Content become abstraction. Text becomes graphics. Information becomes art.
– Mark Napier on Potatoland.org, Artists’ Statement, 1998
The most interesting thing to not about net art is that its focus is many-to-many interaction. The interaction between people and the net IS THE ART, unlike in sculptures and paintings. Shredder is both interactive and generative as the users of Napier’s work has to input their own websites – and then is able to watch as the codes are (de)generated to create these wonderful pieces of glitch art.
Napier cites Pollock and Smithson as his inspiration. It is interesting to note that the artists he emulated and took inspiration from worked with tangible materials such as paint and sand. From there, he created similar bodies of work for exhibition and participation on the net.
Convergence (1952), Jackson Pollock
Spiral Jetty (2015), Robert Smithson
He explains in his approach: “I wanted to expose raw material that make up the ‘design’, ‘content’ and ‘information’ of the web. Of course, this material is a construct of software and the graphics display. It is ‘raw’ only by virtue of the context The Shredder creates”.
(Green, R., 2004 Thames &Hudson, p. 100)
With that, I end my research post with a screengrab of my OSS blog being shredded… no more homework! HAHAHA I’m just kidding 😛
“If I lay here; If I just lay here.
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?” ― Snow Patrol
The stroking of hair and the gentle caressing of the side of someones face – these are gestures that we sometimes take for granted. Touch is our primary means of compassion and our primary means for spreading compassion. Touch is a language essential to what it means to be a compassionate human being.
So what happens when touch is taken away and replaced with sight instead? What happens when one can’t touch?
Both artist and participant are made to react to each other on the virtual space. It is human instinct to try. What we can then observe are people trying to connect with one another – and trying to touch the projection.
The installation, aimed at an interactive and intimate installation experience exists over ISDN Digital Telephone Network. The participants walk into a dark gallery with a bed taking centre stage. This, however, is no ordinary bed. A projection of the artist is projected onto it and he reacts to the participants in realtime, while being at a totally different location.
Being touched and touching someone else are fundamental modes of human interaction. Human beings are all wired to connect. We instinctively feel the need to try to connect and communicate with our surroundings. In this performance installation, Sermon has successfully proven that point – most visitors to his installation touched him in one way or another. Herman Melville once said:
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
It is interesting to note how the visitors reach to “being touched” in the third space. Although they knew that Sermon wasn’t really able to touch them when they weren’t physically in the same space, some participants actually moved away from away to avoid being “touched”. Also, when Sermon was laying still, some participants themselves try to do the touching. This induces visual delight as a “mime dance” somewhat unravels between artist and participant.
Telematic Vision was performed by Paul Sermon in 1992
and Telematic Dreaming was performed by Paul Sermon in 1993
Just an afterthought when reviewing this performance; could this technology be used to solve Japan’s increasing problem depression due to lack of touch and physical intimacy?
…or could this technology possibly accompany the visual projections that visitors see by introducing touch too:
I’ve always thought that working with code is an extremely daunting task. The vast array of commands and characters – where do I even begin.
Thankfully, there’s Juan to the rescue.
Firstly, I learned that /* disables the function and if you just delete that, it would make the code “alive” and coloured again. I also realised that normally, the higher the number, the larger the quantity/size of something is. However, in code, 20 will generate a significantly smaller image compared to 7. (these were just random numbers)
Notice how the circles are tiny and how it looks like a constellation of stars. How about decreasing the amount?
The “stars” begin to take the shape of planets instead.
Scratch that, readded the /* on the circles SVG and removed it from the lines. Same thing happened..
This is rather embarassing; but thats all I knew how to change. Thats a start, but I’m looking to change the images to something else.
Toyed with the cheesy idea of changing the images to diamonds. Cos you know what they say… Diamonds are a girls best friend. 😛
Found this .png image online. Tried to copy the link:
Neither worked. Something went awry but I have no idea what.
Just sent an e-mail to Juan and I’m hoping he can help me out, cos right now I have no idea what I’m doing – which brackets to open or close. Will update this post again if Juan replies! 😀
—————————-(( UPDATE ))———————————
Juan replied and turned out all I forgot to do was remove the */ at the end tag (-___________-)”
Here’s what happened when I embedded the flickr image. Turns out my flickr link was https and the picture wasn’t able to load.
(but its quite fun looking at the default error image flooding my data visualisation hahaha)
However, undeterred, I tried the other version of the .png and came up with this.
Changed the values of the height and width from 100 to 10 and here’s what happened hehehe.
You may view my diamond constellation here:
http://codepen.io/rznrhm/pen/oDpaL
Maybe this happened cos I was listening to this while attempting to code 😛
Often, we skim through Facebook notifications to see whats new with our friends and with our own profile pages. Sometimes, we do it to get rid of the annoying red bubble on the header. Either way, we have access to our friends information and almost everything they decide to share and post on their pages.
You then go on and quickly scroll through your news feed; game requests, music suggestions and family photos… more family photos. On your own page; selfies, cat videos, music videos, photos with your classmates. You wanted to share these with your friends.
Like many, I spend hours everyday surfing the net everyday. Meanwhile, companies exploit my data and gain all the benefit from knowing what websites i visit, who I am friends with, the videos i watch.
There is no such thing as privacy on the internet anymore.
“If you look at privacy in law, one important concept is a reasonable expectation of privacy. As more private lives are exported online, reasonable expectations are diminishing.”
Facebook apps allow you to play games, take quizzes, and set up a family tree. Facebook allows apps to make the site seem more useful to its users. The company says 70% of users use apps each month. But what happens when the external companies that create these apps are allowed to gain access to your personal information?
They sell it and make money!
You didn’t share all these internet data with them, they stole it from you – and they’re the ones making all the money! Quite a despicable plan they have set up, and we have little to no control about what kind of data and information they can mine from us.
Companies that want to make use of the personal information people put online should pay for it. – US Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)
The security of personal data on the Internet and Facebook has become a hot topic among many netizens ever since The Wall Street Journal investigated and reported a high-profile glitch: Facebook in Online Privacy Breach. Following the investigation, it is found that many of the most popular applications on the social-networking site Facebook have reportedly been transmitting identifying information to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies.
The mining of personal data affects tens of millions of Facebook users – even the ones who have set their profiles to the strictest privacy settings. Putting anything up online is as good as offering the information for just about anyone to access.
“We have taken immediate action to disable all applications that violate our terms,” a Facebook spokesman said. Either way, even without Facebook apps, companies are getting smarter about how they go about data mining.
Zannier’s idea was simple – compile his own data and sell his data files for $2/day. He challenged this notion of companies secretly data mining by setting up a kickstarter page to sell his own personal data. His crass sarcasm made him money.
(click to view larger image)
“I’ve data mined myself. I’ve violated my own privacy. Now I am selling it all. But how much am I worth?”
“I’m selling this data for $2 a day. If more people do the same, I’m thinking marketers could just pay us directly for our data. It might sound crazy, but so is giving all our data away for free.”
Anyone who wants personal information can easily obtain much of it from your behavior on the Internet. Companies tracking and aggregating our clicks, taps, and swipes are the ones making money while the individuals are not. Our personal data information are worth billions to marketers every year. Should we be getting a share? Zanier’s project hopes to get more people thinking about the revolution of internet and big data.
According to Viktor Mayor-Shonberger, big data is “so fundamental a change… that it is important not just for every business, for every organization, for every government agency to look at big data… but also for society at large, because we need to put safeguards in place to make sure that big data does not control us.”
“Zannier says he is willing to “give away a lifelong, international, sub-licensable right to use [his] personal data” as part of an experiment to see if there might be a market for such data sold by the individual Internet users who actually generate it.” – reports PC Magazine
The project received overwhelming response and support. His initial target of $500 worth of pledges ended with $2733 – a whopping 546% funded. Clearly, many netizens shared the same sentiments as Zannier.
Federico’s Data Visualisation: (3 months) (which I think is so awesome. sure, i’ll part with $2)
Although Zannier is not the first to come up with the concept of exchanging personal data for money, he got a lot of people thinking, as well as commenting on social media platforms.
Every single day, web searches, movies, videos, music, apps and porn fly through the ‘internet highway’. Content is silently shared by millions of people around the world through the comfort of their own homes. Maigret wondered what this ‘internet highway’ might look like and as a result of his curiosity, The Pirate Cinema Installation was conceptualized.
People from all around the world have access to information like never before. Peer-to-peer sharing, although controversial, is rampant. Users share files from their computer and the data is transferred in fragments onto someone else’s computer via Torrents on Piratebay.
What a torrent download page looks like. FUN FACT: This is Pirate Bay’s oldest torrent file, the pioneer for millions to come.
In the installation, Maigret makes use of an automated data interception software of the same name that continually downloads the 100 most popular torrents on the Pirate Bay website. This software collects the geographical data information of the sender and the receiver of these torrents and the info is displayed on the screengrabs.
The data collected is then immediately projected in fragments onto a screen before being discarded. This is largely because downloading torrents is not a linear process. The completion of a file is done in a disorderly manner and at an an irregular rate.
As a result, it shows us the different aspects of hidden activity, the geography of peer-to-peer file sharing and the aesthetic dimension of its architecture. This depicts to us the amount and data and information dissemination in a world that is connected via the internet. The remote users are unknowingly creating an endless collage via what they chose to download from BitTorrents. This reveals to us the scale of the mass-sharing culture.
While peer-to-peer file-sharing of copyrighted materials is controversial, Maigret simply accepts file-sharing culture for what it is. In the end, ethics and ethos aside, The Pirate Cinema is indeed an interesting installation and experience.
What are your views about make up?
Is it a veil or mask to hide our faces, or is it a form
of artistic expression and creativity?
Here’s mine.
EDIT: I guess the same could be said about our avatars. In a way, we hide ourselves behind a tiny icon online. We choose that photo very carefully and are consciously choosing only the best to represent ourselves with.
The cold night breeze hitting my face as I walked over to my old hall of residence. Used to be my routine for a whole year. Now I’m back here, for the sole purpose of taking a photo for my class and not to turn in for the night :/
UPDATE: Received an email on the 26th of August and it said I’ve successfully got a place in hall. The initial offer was Hall 6 but somehow when I went to One Stop @ SAC they said to report to Pioneer Hall. Made the deposit and collected my keys and hurrah, I’m no longer travelling 2 hours to and fro from school everyday! 😀
You added Randall Packer as a friend
