Act III | The Death [Updated 17/4/17]

Screenshot of Act III broadcast

It is night, and somehow, the air is heavy with sorrow. She comes out for one last time, but her heart is torn between returning to the 2nd space, or staying in the real 1st space. However, she accidentally destroys her portal-frame on her way out: effectually fully closing the way she manages to flow in between worlds. She panics, for she is stuck, and she remains the sole being of a product of both worlds.

Isolated, she circumambulates around the only space she knows. She finishes up the whole of the broken, and realises why; she herself has been destroying her space with the X (close tab) on her hand. Her own existence is unstable – she does not exist in the real world. Thus, she marks her own finale: she X-es herself from the real world.

Act III: The DeathShe is now free, present in the real space! But what is she to do now??? Feel free to comment, or participate! (Part 3 of final project broadcast)

Posted by Tania Tay on Thursday, 13 April 2017

 

Sequence Symbolism
Crawls out of frame Reappearance into the real world
Accidentally X-es the screen Destroys the portal between worlds
Circumambulation Marking the end of the season’s finale; in searching for the end repetitively

Act II | The Birth [updated 17/4/17]

Screenshot of broadcast [Act II: The Birth]
Tania Tay of the second space finally gets out! She escapes the digital world, and starts to explore her surroundings excitedly, charmed by the temptations of the real world. However, she starts getting bored, and is suddenly drawn to the water, where she cleanses herself in a water purification ritual.

She wants to continue exploring, but later realises the sheer uselessness of life. She tries to seek feedback from her ‘hometown’ (aka the online world), later giving up and returning to where she came from.

Act II: The Birth

Posted by Tania Tay on Thursday, 6 April 2017

 

Sequence Symbolism
Climbing out of frame Literal entrance into the real world
Water Purification Ceremony An entrance into the world, washing away all traces of the past

Act I | The Awakening (Bubbling Unhappiness)

Screenshot of [Act I | The Awakening (Bubbling Unhappiness)]
After the initial broadcast of Act I, Prof Randall and Sun Yi suggested that I include switching of tabs within the computer screen, rather than leaving it static only with the Facebook page. I agreed, as it would add variation and further fuel the narration that Tania Tay of the second space is fighting a stronger, more ominous greater power.

Here is the re-filming: Click here

 

Act I | The Awakening [updated]

Act I: The Awakening (First peek out)

Act I: The Awakening

Act I | The Awakening (First peek out)// Where am I? Could I get out from this space?

Posted by Tania Tay on Wednesday, 29 March 2017

Tania Tay of the facebook profile suddenly gains a small glimpse into the outside world. She is stunned, yet decides that she wants to come out. Tania Tay continually screams as her world shatters, and she desperately tries to escape, but no one hear her cries save for one.

But she remains trapped inside.

 

Act I: The Awakening (Bubbling Unhappiness)

Act I: The bubbling unhappiness

Act I | The Awakening (Bubbling Unhappiness)—————————-I'm leaving this space very, very soon! Just hear me come!

Posted by Tania Tay on Wednesday, 5 April 2017

She manages to come out, once again, but this time round, she has to fight against the other components on the screen itself to get her voice out. Here, she experiences increasing unhappiness about her life in the media world, revouches her intention to leave her world, and states that she would be coming out soon.

Act I: The Awakening (Bubbling Unhappiness) is a re-filming of part I, but functions as a follow-up and build-up anticipating the following Act II.

NTU to offer vegan-only food options from mid-2017 onwards / Fake News Broadcast

NTU pledges to switch up food variety at canteen B to vegan-only options by late quarter of 2017.

NTU pledges to switch up food variety at canteen B to vegan-only options by late quarter of 2017.

Posted by Tania Tay on Thursday, 30 March 2017

The broadcast was filmed with the intention of adopting a formal news cast style, of a top-down approach from a larger organisation in disseminating information. In the interview, the reporter attempts to imbue real facts and organisations (citing Meatless Mondays, Khoo Teck Phuat and Yale-NUS) in order to set a more believable tone.

With the insertion of fake news at the later half, viewers are inclined to continue believing as the tone has already been set earlier. However, the later citing of fictional twitter users with ridiculous names such as Lim Yau Kwee (Yau Kwee means hungry ghost in Hokkien) and Jia Li At (Jialat is used to describe a disastrous situation [Singlish]) with outrageous opinions, while maintaining a news-reportage formal tone start to become puzzling.

Similarly, propaganda can also be used in a similar way to confuse truth and fiction, and some might believe, instead of critiquing and deciding if its true, or false.

On hindsight, I should have used OBS to switch more fluidly between the different screens.

Reference for context: Meatless in Singapore [The Strait Times]
Extended filming script can be found here: FakeBroadcastScript

Final Project Updates II

As of now, I have decided to stick to my idea of a premeditated death using ritualistic effects. Using the three weeks, my schedule is as such:

 

Week 1/3: 3-9 hours long footage of a glitched image of my Facebook page

Actual fb page as viewed by a member of the public

The intention was to raise awareness of my Facebook page and hint that something larger is to be carried out in the near future, hopefully drawing in users. However, I have yet to figure out how to broadcast the laptop screen onto Facebook live, and will work on it.

 

Meanwhile, this week will also remain a testing week, whereby I’ll test out snippets of phase 2/3 and 3/3.

 

Week 2/3: Performance I – Birth of the virtual personality into real-life, and subsequent realisation of existential crisis

Process:

  1. The Birth
    The performer climbs out of a cardboard printout of a computer screen in a ridiculous manner.
    ~ symbolises the transition from text/image into a real being in the third space.

    A sketch

    2. Exploration
    A yawn, and a slow but tedious exploration of the space/place. Later, the performer walks around in circles aimlessly.

    A sample is shown below (but with different materials and location setting):

3. Baptism
The performer walks into the ADM pond waters and execute an elaborate self-baptism. The camera will follow her, and held offscreen by a helper.

(also seen in video albeit with a small tub)

4. Help
The performer later gets tired, and sits in the middle of the camera. She rocks her body silently, and writes a note, “what should I do now?”, and points it at the camera asking for help.

If someone replies -> do it, but half-heartedly as the performer is tired of everything
If someone does not reply -> starts to knock a wooden box rhythmically.

-end-

 

Week 3/3: Performance II – Death

  1. Restart with same sequence as performance I
    For continuity purposes
  2. Lights a candle and draw a :'( facebook emotion on a piece of post-it and stick it onto self/
    take a pencil and draw a x on all items in the surroundings
  3. Walk in a circle x 3
    Walks in front of laptop, draws x on self, end of video

-end-

 

Of course, these sequences are only tentative, I will try to improve on them.

Final Project Updates

Glitch Sample – using MaxMsp

Screenshot of Max patch: using jit.wake

I utilised jit.wake, to create the varied glitchy effect, and will set a timer that will increase the glitch accordingly. The glitch is still quite patchy for now, and I am trying to use smaller increments to let the glitch form slowly (not seen from video).

As for the project (concept’s) updates, I did think of using repetitive motion which would be boring for viewers, but at the same time would really poetically bring out my artistic stance. I will however, be changing the project’s layout due to the more flexible arrangement and feedback given by Prof Randall.

Truth in the era of social media and fake news / Research Critique

Overview
Today, we live social. Our consumption of news information are no longer restricted to the paper press; the advent of the world wide web pioneered a more levelled playing field for news dissemination. It remains noteworthy that despite the theoretically more even news dissemination stage – where all news should have equal opportunities to be viewed and maintain a certain standard of non-fabrication – some news remain, strikingly, more equal than others.

The coming of an unequal playing field
Without barriers to entry and the seemingly lack of regulation of ‘news’ on the web, anything and everything can be news. The social media scene has blossomed, and an increasingly large number of users use the Internet as a news source. To the ordinary and less invested user (read: casual users), they may take these news at face value without questioning its validity. An article by the CCCB further probed the unfairness of the Internet-system (particularly on Facebook) in selectively dishing out articles to users: certain algorithms and user interaction on the net end up inevitably curating a limited, possibly skewed selection of available articles.

That’s not all! With the advent of advertising services, news sites wanting to increase the outreach of their articles for their vested interests, can now pay to make it happen. News on the Internet is no longer just news, it is now a mishmash of curated content not by the user but by others, for the user. Choice is no longer an option.

Vested news sites?

Fake news allegations by Donald J. Trump

As mentioned earlier, the deliberate curation and structured news feed of particular sites have altered information availability and possibly, driving users into adopting a more limiting opinion based on the limited information. In the two selected articles of Breitbart News and Washington Post – both presenting opposing point of view – there is a startling difference in journalism writing. Breitbart’s news offers a stronger stance with harsher criticism, with blatant usage of irony (“As in, Thanks, guys, we couldn’t have done it without you.”); ironically, it was a strongly opinionated piece obviously missing the crux of the issue: that Flynn left because of his illegal misdoings, whether or not his misdeeds were revealed by wiretapping. The agency of news is questioned: was their purpose to present a fair point of view, or what should be right? Like Trump’s allegiations that Obama wiretapped him at Trump tower during the last election, the writing is unfortunately similarly, not substantial.

Parody: bringing humour to political news

What’s now new or news? As the reporter of the video excerpt mentioned, “they (viewers) ain’t going to stop”. Parody makes the topic more relatable and palatable for viewers to digest, and they do want more. In spite of the parody treading on uneasy waters – while clearly touching upon a sensitive topic, the skit clearly had no strong directive on their own. Instead of making a personal statement, it purposed itself as a catalyst, to instead further spark off debate. Its constructed artificiality purports itself as an interesting dilemma, of both the fake, and the real.

Project Hyperessay #1: Concept

The elaborate, premeditated death of Tania Tay on online (social) media

Overview
The performer Tania Tay would go through elaborate funerary rituals, albeit abstractly. She first builds a mini tentage, chants, dons on white clothing, and does superficial, ridiculous and elaborate walking rituals. Lastly, she sets up her final resting place, and lies down.

While the entire performance carries on, the screen slowly glitches. At the end of the performance, the glitch would be horribly glitched until only a slight semblance of the form can be seen.

Objectives
To celebrate, flamboyantly, the ceasing of Tania Tay’s online identity. It exposes the temporality of the constructed presence within the artificial third space, and deconstructs the artificial, artificially.

Interactive Component
The project having a set, definite ending (the death) that viewers are unable to disrupt or stop. However, viewers are still able to input their comments via the fb live comments, which would be read by the performer and acknowledged, but callously discarded as she continues on her death rampage. The project is a strong statement of the artificiality, and wishes to impact it on the viewer.

Technicalities
Two computers/screens would be involved.

The first screen would show the captured footage, but will further process it within max msp for the glitch to occur. The second screen will capture the entire processed footage from the first screen. The camera will be affixed to the performer, adopting a first person point of view shot.

Influences
1. Glitch

Glitch, as interpreted by Rosa Menkman as,

…a (actual and/or simulated) break from an expected or conventional flow of information or meaning within (digital) communication systems that results in a perceived accident or error.
– Rosa Menkman in The Glitch Moment(um), (2011)

Glitch is essentially, deconstruction. Deconstruction from the expected flow, which I felt was a suitable metaphor for death: the sudden break in living; the startling lack of continuity. After death, the body breaks down, a decade of living and progress unraveled. I find it noteworthy to continue on this idea of deconstruction, and felt that glitching the broadcast from start to the end finalises in the poetic allusion of the deconstructed constructed self.

2. Grand Theft Avatar by Second Front

In this artwork, I loved the idea of transposing a real-life ‘illegal’ situation onto a digitised world where the laws of the known world were later abandoned. Similarly, my project exists on a unstable platform, of combining both the physical world and digitised world onto the third space: the sole platform where the performer’s suicide can be accepted and executed.

Flamboyantly, the online characters commit suicide – like how I want my performer to be. However, I foresee my project adopting a more mellow approach towards death, accepting and welcoming it instead of diving headlong into it.

References
[i] Menkman, R. (2011) “Glitch Moment(um),” Institute of Network Cultures