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 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.

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.

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

 

Social Media Sentiments of Young Adults / Live Broadcast: Television Show

View it here.

In this broadcast, I seek out young adults to give their viewpoints on social media, in particular Facebook. What better platform to host it other than Facebook Live itself! However, in Singapore, it seems Fb Live still remains a platform which people know about, but do not use as often as other social media platforms (me included).

I thought that these particular incidents were interesting, where fb users actually took advantage of fb live to broadcast less than desired footage, (and henceforth ignoring the viewers as they remain set on ultimately achieving their goal: the incident of the girl who documented her suicide on fb, and sadly, of two journalists shot dead. It was interesting to note that my two interviewees did not know of these incidents.

This week’s video seemed like a continuation of last week’s – but more in the context of a live television show. I continue to maintain: it is difficult to multitask, to look out for feedback from Fb about my online viewers, and to concentrate in the real space with my kind interviewees. It is obvious in the video where I accidentally placed the people out of shot, and changing the orientation of the film. Granted,  I could have asked a helper to help me hold the camera, but then, it wouldnt be my very own television show anymore.

Lastly, I would like to thank both interviewees for so kindly being willing to be interviewed.