Project Hyperessay #3 – Swappie 2.0 Conclusion

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Swappie 1.0 was about the distortion of facial image. Swappie 2.0 on the other hand, is the distortion of spoken words and sung lyrics.

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A second installation of Swappie, Swappie 2.0 aims to distort, rewrite and stretch meanings and bringing it into the suspension of disbelief much like “putting words in someone else’s mouth.

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I worked on the opening and closing transitions of the videos and ended up with these:

To achieve this swapped meaning, I sourced for songs that have rather ambiguous lyrics – or when the singer slurs his/her words. Then, I add text that seemingly reinforces the meaning of what you’re hearing and makes it seem more credible and believable even though that’s not what the singer is actually trying to convey.

This is the same technique used in advertisement; where the advertisers frequently apply the power of manipulation to plant an idea in someone’s mind. They hide a products perceived flaws and only focuses on its unique selling point – sometimes reinforcing the USP with words flashing quickly on the screen.

Our Average Attention Span Is Now 8 Seconds –
1 Second Less Than A Goldfish

(No) thanks to these short nano ads and current social media rends like Vine, Snapchat and Instagram, our attention spans are now shorter than that of a goldfish.

The use of really silly preset transition effects on the words is a parody of (bad) effects in the media as well as social media. This being said, in this modern day and age, anyone and everyone has access to high tech video-editing and recording tools – even people with no artistic talent are able to produce a seemingly decent piece of advertisement or media content.

Our media and popular culture play into our short attention span with the current social media trend of really short nano videos and images; Vine, Snapchat and even Instagram. Swappie 2.0 is like video art made for (but also mocking) the social media generation – a manipulation of communications forms.


Essentially, what I’m trying to do here is to mimic our current absurd media and popular culture and making it even more absur. Swappie 2.0 is like video art made for (but also mocking) the social media trends and generation by manpulating communication forms. It also plays into the suspension of disbelief – allowing us to forget our disbeliefs for that moment and be immersed into a situation that is unreal. Our minds, for the moment that we’re watching these videos above, believe that the lyrics and meanings of the songs are real for that moment in time.

In the future, I could expand this project from where it is right now to actually stripping audio from commercials and manipulating the existing soundtrack and make it undergo a vocoder processing. Doing that will allow me to make more absurd renditions of videos and input my own content to the ones that are already in existence.

Project Hyperessay #2.5: Swappie Realisation

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The one video that served as inspiration and got the Swappie snowball rolling is the Iggy Azalea freestyle rap video where some flabberghasted netizens tried to add subtitles to what she the lyrics to the actual rap was. She was seemingly spouting gibberish as the audience members cheered her on. This confused me for a moment but then I realise that what made it funny was the audio, then the subtitles, followed by the visual.

In Swappie 1.0, I concentrated on the distortion of facial images.
However, in Swappie 2.0 I wanted to distort what people are saying

I started of with this Buzzfeed video of Obama advertising Obamacare. I watched it a couple of times without audio and tried to see what text I could substitute it with. Without matching audio, the subtitles were less believable 🙁 Hence, Randall suggested I added some effects or sound effects in the background. What we experimented with in class was music without any singing. I experimented further and came up with these:

The two videos above were really helping me progress into exploring my topic. Upon showing these to Randall, he said that they were missing some kind of opening and closing – like an ad would usually have.

The video above didn’t really work very well – just like the Obama video – because I was trying to suggest that Louie Louie sounds like Nutella on bread but not really HAHAHAHA.

I made some more videos and appropriated more media which I will further discuss in my Project Hyperessay #3 Post.

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Exercise #3

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I’ve decided to change my location for the final performance because I realised this journey gives a nicer and more interesting perspective of ADM. I want to start right on top of the hill where the side entrance of ADM is; cause I realised everyone that visits ADM would take pictures here. I’ll start right at the top and walk slowly down the steps while focusing on the views per step. Because the ADM building is very reflective, I think its interesting if the audience could catch a glimpse of my cam through the reflective surfaces; yet not be able to see me.

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Following that I’ll walk towards the sunken plaza – everything around the sunken plaza is reflective glass.. DSC_1987

Then, I’ll cross the stone “bridge” –

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Even showing my foot/feet as I cross the water.

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Then I’ll continue my way towards the inside of the ADM building.

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And even show some artworks along the way.

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Ultimately, I will walk through these doors and walk into the ADM building.DSC_1993

 

And up the long flight of stairs – occasionally showing where I was earlier through the glass on the inside.DSC_1994

 

This is how it would look when I point my camera out the building.DSC_1995

 

And the view of the steps; occasionally my feet..

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And then we arrive at the ADM lounge – some of the audience would recognise the old adm cafe/ now the new ADM lounge thats right next to the atrium space where the symposium is happening.DSC_1997

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Showing the screens of the symposium; (probably not juan behind the scenes)

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The overview of the ADM atrium…

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And this door near the atrium marks the end of the journey.DSC_2004

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Exercise #2

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For this mobile cam exercise, I will start my journey at the ADM bustop. Its significant to me because I’m one of the 300 odd students who signed a petition to have this bus top with a public bus route. (prior to this it was only purely decorative and there were no buses that would stop there)

Quite recently, this giant dandelion sculpture was built to accompany this lonely bus top and its beautiful at night cos the whole sculpture lights up (i think they are LED lights) and would look great on webcam, in my opinion.

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Then I move along, the the art pastry cafe alfresco dining where some people would be dining.DSC_1953

Then I’ll head to the automated door to the indoor dining space (this door makes a cool automated sound)DSC_1954

Then I’ll show you the adm cafe counter (but it would be closed by night)DSC_1955

people dining at the cafe  with ambient noise and talking..DSC_1956

Then i’ll walk the way down to the corridor leading up to the lobby. (you can hear echoes here sometimes)DSC_1957DSC_1959

Then we’ll head to the lobby where there is the Vishwaroop exhibition by one of the ADM professors which is really cool (you’ll see the whole thing in a bit)DSC_1960

We’ve reached the lobby! (Sound is abundant here – from the chattering of people hanging out at the arm lounge to the tings of the lift) HAHADSC_1962

Here is my contribution to pirate pad: Screen shot 2015-03-25 at 11.29.36 AM Screen shot 2015-03-25 at 11.29.44 AM

Project Hyperessay #2: Monkey Business

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For the second installment of my Project Hyperessay, I found better examples of the direction in which I’d like my final project to go. Coincidentally, both reference videos were of dogs. I referring an animal (who has no ability to communicate with us with words) and humanizing it is a topic that is engaging as well as entertaining to netizens.

In this first clip, music is added to the visual of a corgi shaking off. Due to the lyrics of the music clip, “bubble butt” it paints a different picture in your mind of a seemingly ordinary act by a dog. Some commenters have thought about the dog as “a better twerker than Miley Cyrus” due to the similarity of its actions compared to human twerking…

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The second video depicts a dog who was howling. The owner candidly voiced over the clip by pretending to be teasing the dog with food and that they were actually having an almost humanlike conversation with each other regarding the food. The timing of the voiceover was perfect and thus, alters our perception for a minute about a dog being able to converse. The simple act of adding a music clip has the ability to create an entirely new world, and to transform one reality into another.

This is my first humble attempt at sound manipulation with no prior experience whatsoever – I just winged it. I found this really entertaining video of a monkey doing sit ups and push ups on my facebook timeline and the song that played in my head was the Eye of the Tiger in the Rocky movie…

 

I felt that best way to execute this (that i’m more or less familiar with) would be to download the video and reappropriate the sound clips in iMovie that comes with my macbook.

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My iMovie page in the process of sound manipulation.

I thought it would be a good idea to upload the completed video on vimeo – then I realised that as I am not holding on to an upgraded vimeo account, every video I upload would take a quarter of an hour to upload :/

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Thus, I tried to upload it onto Youtube instead – which took far less time. I could then post the link to the video on my existing Swappie Facebook page.

Enjoy the Rocky Monkey 😀

OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Part II

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OSS Adobe Connect Mobile Cam with MJ: Part II

As mentioned, this is our second attempt using the Adobe Connect app platform on our mobile phones. We showed each other the overview of our rooms; MJ was at home and I was in my room in NTU hall.
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We then showed each other what we were doing prior to being online – MJ was writing his hyperessay #2 and I was making pages for my CVE class submission.

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We showed each other the artwork on our walls of our rooms…

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And even our beds…

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And not forgetting our snuggle buddies!Screenshot_2015-03-17-20-30-13

Then we both opened our closets;

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And showed each other our perspectives from where we stood.

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And included our hands in the presentation…

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And we both went back to doing what we were doing after logging off the app 🙂

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OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam Part I

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Mj & I met on our Adobe Connect phone apps twice during the OSS Symposium: Mobile Cam exercise. I will be addressing the encounters in 2 parts as it was only after our first session did we find out that our faces are not supposed to be in the frames – and our cameras were supposed to be pointed the other way.

 

Connect Session #1: 16 March 2015, Monday

I started giving MJ a tour of my dorm room in NTU Pioneer Hall.

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MJ moved on to show me the master bedroom in his home – and I showed him my side of my hall room.

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I found it difficult to take a screenshot on my Sony Z2 smartphone cause you’re required to press 2 buttons at once; and it was difficult for me to do that while still being in focus. I kept fumbling and pressing the wrong buttons – primarily the volume control button that is just above the screenshot button hahaha.

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We then moved on to our corridors…

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and then proceeded to show each other the view outside our windows (my balcony in hall)Screenshot_2015-03-16-20-14-20

MJ went down the stairs and I took the lift (totally forgetting that my data connection would be cut off)Screenshot_2015-03-16-20-23-09

but we still managed to reconvene again downstairs though Adobe Connect lagged quite a lot…Screenshot_2015-03-16-20-21-07

The whole time while we were downstairs, MJ froze when he was looking down – I could still hear him talking but he wasn’t moving an inch. P/S: I took the opportunity to take a selfie with a frozen MJ! hahahahaScreenshot_2015-03-16-20-24-59

Part II of this post will be posted up after MJ and I meet again on Adobe Connect – this time turning our cameras the right way round…

Research V: Paula Crutchlow and Helen Jamieson – Make-Shift

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A documentation of the networked performance event make-shift devised and brokered by Paula Crutchlow and Helen Varley Jamieson at The Home and the World Summit, Dartingon, Devon and BIARI, Brown University, Providence, R.I, USA.

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Each event is telematically located between two ordinary houses (usually in different countries) and an online performance space1 accessible to anyone with a broadband connection. We (Helen and Paula, one in each house) work with proximal2 and online participants to collaboratively ‘stage’ the work.
– Artists’ Statement

In this day an age, the Internet has become a virtual stage that connects millions of people and fosters interaction between them and collapses the boundaries and limitations that come with geographical location and distance. Now, more than ever before, with the widespread of webcam technology, it opens the possibility of new forms of art as well as new ways to engage in more familiar types of interactions. As the cyberperformance is conducted in real-time, it possesses surreal documentary authenticity and liveness that is central to its appeal. People log into their webcams to see what they’re doing/or what is happening in the space at the present moment; now.

Likeness and actuality are the ontological conjoined-twins of webcam; and this inextricably links the new webcam medium to the liveness and actuality of performance art. Of course, unlike performance art, the webcam is a mediated experience… Webcams essentially purport to be the virtual performance of real life.

– Steve Dixon, Webcams: The Subversion of Surveillance (pg. 443-455), Digital Performance, 2007

It also eliminates the distance between performer and audience and encourages public interaction. The audience is also aware of their power to influence the performance with their dialogue, actions and improvisations which makes the overall performance intimate.

This intimacy enables a sense of temporary community which is also an active negotiation of difference; alongside the socio-political content a space opens up in which audiences can think deeply, discuss, and shift their perceptions about local-global relationships, experiencing a sense of connection which leaves physical and virtual traces.
– Project Abstract, Make-Shift

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I feel that this project sheds light on how society operates. It gives us insight on how social relationships develop – the narrative arc and discursive participation- according to normative convention in relation to the knowledge of being watched in their personal spaces. In short, the awareness of surveillance brings about heightened actions despite it being “a fly on the wall”. In this way, the audience are able to experience the event in a way that would impossible by any other means. A webcam is categorized by having a generally opposite impulse towards openness, sharing as well as freedom of expression. Even if you don’t know someone personally, you feel like you do just because they appear or put their lives online. However, the challenge and the opportunity offered by make-shift, is that no one person can ever see or experience it as a whole.

 

Micro-Project IV: Telematic Embrace

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This post comes a little late cause the most frustrating thing that can ever happen when working with digital files happened to me – i lost my screenshot. OK, I didn’t quite lose it – I’m pretty sure its somewhere in my hard drive but I can’t quite figure out where it is so I was unable to post my entry for awhile 🙁

Undeterred by my minor setback, I asked MJ if he would be keen to try out the telematic embrace once more with me over Adobe Connect. However, – another minor setback- we realised that without Randall, the administrator online, we couldn’t turn on our video cameras. Thus, we made do with Skype (and still had problems split-screening the graphics).

All that aside, we managed to read a book together in the virtual space!

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p/s: many many many thanks to MJ who took some time off his recess week to achieve this with me!

 

Micro-project V – My Desktop World

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I’d like to think that my computer desktop is indeed an extension of myself. My folders are arranged in neat rows on the left of my screen while my menu appears on the right when my mouse hovers over. I have everything I need for the semester in their own individual folders; much like how I would treat actual paperwork. I would file my handouts and notes in a clear folder after every class. In a sense, I could be OCD, but this system keeps me grounded helps me function and keeps me on top of things. I have had to borrow my friends laptops and some of them do not have their folders snapped to a grid; hence, the folders are everywhere as they reign free from grid or any form of hierarchy – rather unpleasant for someone like me to navigate cos it irks me that there is no structure to things and where they go. I also like to personalise and customise my desktop as much as I can ; so instead of the default blue folders that Mac creates, mine are pink and some even have skulls as icons – I changed them using an app called CandyBar.

My wallpaper is an old picture of my friends from high school and I at our high school reunion. This picture is really dear to me as its the last time we got together. Faatin, who is in the middle of this picture is in the UK studying architecture while Siti, the one on the extreme right is on exchange in Oslo, Norway. Polka dots are also my favourite pattern (as you can see from my top in this picture) so that’s a plus!

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As mentioned, I absolutely hate it when things are not in its place and look what happened when my Adobe Illustrator was handling a big file; it wasn’t responsive, created all these strange blue, green and grey markings on my document and crashed soon after. Perfect example of me when I’m bombarded with too much — I crash!

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