Micro-Project – ◢ ◤

Adobe Connect Second Front Interview

The clock on my Mac showed 11pm and I was drained with an entire day of back to back events – but I actually felt the energy through the third space during the session on Adobe Connect with Second Front that kept me engaged. Perhaps, this was a form of virtual leakage (of energy)?

Some latency and some bits of sunshine were shown on their grids as the session kicked off. I found this strangely cinematic. It was night and all in Singapore while these folks had sun over there! Just like Skype sessions, it’s always intriguing when you’re interacting with someone at the other side of the world. It is also fascinating to be able to sneak a peek into the other parties’ spaces and scan across their backdrops. Or rather, for Singaporeans, we just call this ‘kaypoh’ or nosey :b

Amidst the virtual talkshow, adding on to the sunshine and chatter was definitely Bibbes. With the boundary that the virtual world creates, along with Bibbe’s already eccentric character, she was definitely a good example of how people can be bolder, or rather, even bolder when in the third space. Hence, it was actually possible for your true personality to shine even virtually, in contrast to those that want to come off as another personality.

As mentioned in class, it was indeed a thing to multi-task during such sessions. I found myself googling over Bibbes as she was speaking, as I recalled she was the mother of Beck. What I found even cooler was that she personally knew Andy Warhol! She actually participated in Andy Warhol’s factory! I! am! so! stunned! And actually honoured to be in the same third space and being in conversation with the members of Second Front. Great opportunity we had here, thanks!!

Research Critique: Second Front

Every week as I embark on writing research critiques, I know I would raise my eyebrows. (Why thank you Randall for the fascinating and hard-to-understand-at-first-glance case studies.) This week, it was no different as I entered into the realm of Second Front, as I attempt to decipher a gist of it.

So, what they’re doing is not a game. Neither were the Second Front members ‘performing art member’ but performance art members. I deem them as performers of artistical critiques of certain issues they aim to raise, using graphcial animation and third space as their stage. One thing surely, is that they rely heavily on improvisation and unintended actions – which actually makes the magic. I’m a goer for that!

Second Life

What drew my attention greatest out of their works was the idea was the new world they created through Second Life. A virtual world where people come together, sell stuff, stage performances with no main objective – it was practically and literally a second life, lived through the third space. The fact that it engaged one million active users meant that it had an incentive for people.

It just made me wonder – Could it be that people are living their alter egos in Second Life? Or is it the fantasy element that people could actually live their ideal lives in the third space that attracts users?

Then again, this isn’t something particularly new as there are similar sites with the same concept, like habbo hotel. No particular objective but a virtual community where people are increasingly bold with the way they interact with strangers behind an anonymous image.

But one thing for sure is that people feel an inclination towards the virtual world because of the fact that they could be anyone else, just like everyone else there.

As my mentor once told me, not everything in art has a meaning behind it so don’t try to hard trying to understand it – trying too hard will spoil the art. Indeed, this is one work/artist group I dont plan to truly understand or decipher as it may be looking too close or too far into the whole picture they want to paint.

But I believe this can be a good thought about how with the third space, things can be real, and yet not real at the same time.

As I did my own research before reading the interview, I found that this quote actually resonates to my previous thought although it was meant for another context

“……a two way exchange between the virtual and the real, through which new hybrid meanings can be made….”

Hence, with the advent of such virtual platforms, it can be said that an amalgamation of the two worlds (real and virtual) have formed, transpiring us into a new ‘in-between’.

Looking into the future, in my take, is this question that we will ask:

‘What is even real anymore?

Cross-streaming Facebook Invite Test

So Facebook decided to up their game and created a ‘invite’ feature for ‘live’ videos, inviting countless ideas to the already many ideas we have for our final project.

This feature helped my partner and I communicate better – it became two-to many from the one-to many. Pretty interesting as we could now give commands to each other without hassle.

Technical errors: Bandwidth and a stable connection is really the core of delivering a good ‘live’ broadcast to a large extent. My partner’s face would be lagged with a failure icon at some points, breaking the flow of the broadcast.

Suggestions for our final broadcast

Work on concepts where latency do not matter
Think of the outcome of grids when collectively performed
Put two pairs together in other to create a ‘cross cross-stream’
Create a ‘two-to-many-ception’ with OBS screen capture

More technical tests to be done to experiment this! Trial and error yea?

Desktop Misc-En-Scene: OBS Experience

Video: https://www.facebook.com/wrongval/videos/10155150344678208/

‘Oh man’ I thought, when I found out we had to go ‘live’ again. And oh my, it’s using some new unfamiliar software – how am I gonna wing this?! These are some honest thoughts I had when I first found out about going live, streaming our desktop misc-en-scene and being potential glitch artists.

However, it was helpful that I’m been an ardent fan of trippy gifs and glitch art content. I guess the experience was really helpful in taking it to the next level by creating this content ‘live’ and using the desktop as my canvas.

I wanted to give myself sometime to be familiar with it but a thought just came to my mind while setting my stage – to just go crazy and just go ‘live’.

Hence, I just took it from there.

Art Direction

I’ve decided to always have something constantly moving in my misc-en-scene, as that’s what draws people’s focus and attention on, as compared to a static image pasted around my screen.

Hence, in my art direction I included gifs, and one of the main visual that set the stage was the constantly moving tunnel in the background. It was perfect as it acted as a smooth and cool transition into the videos I was playing.

When I’m on my laptop, I’m usually watching music videos of my favourite bands and CHVRCHES is one them, which I played during the stream.

I decided to put Jesus on my stage too.

I was also trying to be playful and did this

That’s me on top of Jesus’ head. What do you deduce from it?

At the spur of the moment, I decided to look for Randall Packer on YouTube. And amazingly, the video aesthetics fit perfectly into the glitch art and retro trippy vibe I was going for.

It was an amusing experience watching everything unfold before my eyes in glitch! It was extra cool when your prof himself were feeling the same vibes about your creation too

Also thanks for the shoutout Randall!

Look ma, i’m tagged in the same post as Jon Cates! FAXXXXXINATING

Alter ego: Music Artist

I aspire to be a Music artist and drive fast cars. But there's a glitch in this reality. This is for a school assignment so bear with me please!

Posted by Val Lay on Wednesday, 23 August 2017

‘I aspire to be a music artist – but there’s a glitch in this reality’ – Val Lay, 2017

Have you guys heard of Coachella? One of the biggest (used to be indie) music festivals of all time. I’ve always wanted to be there, not just a music lover or concert goer but as a performing act.

This is my alter ego.

Environment

The environment I used to portray my music studio is my living room. Props I used are musical instruments which are literally everywhere.

I own about 8 guitars, an electric drum kit, some ukuleles, and other random instruments. I am really an ardent music fan which not many might know, hence I thought this could be an alter ego to portray.

Performing

At the start of the video, I also performed a song for a few lines on the guitar. I initially wanted to smash the guitar (ive actually done it before) like how rockstars do it but I thought that was too ratchet for a one-minute assignment. This was simply spontaneous and I just sang the first song that came to my mind, which happens to be Chocolate by The 1975, a band that has performed at Coachella a couple of years back.

Suiting the look

There’s this certain Coachella style of dressing where concert goers and performers don, one of which is the bandana

Justin Bieber wearing it

Concert goer wearing it

You get it. Bandanas as hipster music artist prop to fit the look

How is video and social media used to alter identity? How might they be used to conceal identity?

As I read what Randall posted for us to think about, I realised these were the questions i’ve always thought about while scrolling through social media

I came to a conclusion: it’s all about being selective in choosing what you show to audience

aka all about the angles!!!!!!!!

As I was live, I was trying showing my audience how my living room looks like a music studio in the best that I can. Therefore, I panned to angles where the music instruments are.

However, as seen in this screenshot, you might’ve caught a glimpse of an untidy dining table. Which was not meant to be shown.

In other words, we very selectively choose to show what we want others to see. And this is done through angles in videos or other forms of images on social media

For example something like this – that happened somewhat close to us, at Clementi

Photo taken from http://thesmartlocal.com/

Exploring Glitch Art

In my caption, I phrased it as ‘I aspire to be a music artist but there’s a glitch in this reality’. This glitch was literal – seen with this filter used on purpose as well as how things are in reality.

I said I dream I could be a musician that made it big and drive fast cars but in reality, all I have is a one-seater posh car for kids 3 years and below. Hence, that was what I was trying to communicate, that glitch in reality

In summary, this micro-project made me think quite abit on how Youtubers or ‘Influencers’ mould and curate their content to only show others what they need to see. Which actually doesn’t make them come off as ‘real’ as i’d actually like them to be.

On a side note, friends have texted me or mentioned to me that this social broadcasting exercise was cool!

Although some really don’t get it. But yet they want to be part of such projects next time.

Can’t wait to create more content soon!

Ciao for now!

Val Lay out.

Real-time aggregation

This is part of module help

Posted by Val Lay on Thursday, 17 August 2017

Look ma, my first Facebook Live video!

Hey people! Nice seeing everyone back in school after a good break! It was just the first tutorial when Randall dropped a bomb on us that we had to go ‘LIVE’ on facebook. Not for just 1 or 2 minutes but 15 MINUTES

We were all like

Stage 1. The ‘Really? Do i have to?’

Most of us were visibly unwilling as the idea of going ‘live’ scared us. That meant being unable to EDIT, FILTER and make any adjustments if something cropped up and we just we plain unglamorous. I believe this is due to the highly curated social media feeds that we (millennials) have. The rawness scares us. Nonetheless, we live by ‘YOLO’ and whipped out our devices, took a deep breath as I thought ‘Here Goes Nothing’

Stage 2. Ok we live now

It read ‘You’re now live!’ on my screen. 1 view. 2 views. And then 3. You start ‘feelin it’ and address the people viewing as if you’re doing a skype video call. Easy, I thought. I started becoming comfortable as I didnt see faces or my viewers staring back at me, which weirdly makes me feel more at ease. Initially, I had no idea what to do in front of a live audience. Gradually, I started going with the flow and reacting to people and things like how I would. I was actually starting to enjoy it.

Stage 3. Friends running away

As I went around ADM, I saw a couple of friends where it was a natural tendency to frame them in your misc-en-scene too. When I chased them and shouted, ‘Facebook Live!’, it was also a natural tendency for them to avoid the camera or runaway from it.

The screenshot shows one friend accidentally tripping and hitting the door while trying to get away from the camera.

A junior is also seen here doing the typical of blocking the camera with their hands. It sparked a thought here, why do kids not do this when you flash a camera in their faces? At which point did we start to feel uncomfortable in front of a camera? Especially being on ‘live’?

Closing thoughts

Cross-streaming and its Interesting perspectives

Throughout the live video, everyone was noticeably focused on what we were filming on our phones. It turned out pretty amusing to see the different perspectives of a same location when our videos were viewed collectively on screen. Certain angles of a same location or scenario can actually change how things appear on this third space, which we might not notice if we hadnt viewed all screens together.

The star of this ‘live’ video stream

So this pink llama appeared in almost everyone’s live stream. We were all probably amused by a random shocking pink stuffed toy on one of our tables. It replicates the idea of how each person can be interacting with a same object, but the different ways of doing it and perspective of it can be different in many ways. Also, before the live video, I was also playing with this llama with my friends and named him Kendrick. Shoutout out to ma people if ya got the reference

If not please refer to this meme

Technicalities

One thing that irked me was the incorrect format the video turned out. This was due to iPhone’s orientation lock which I forgot to toggle. Perhaps facebook’s User Interface team could provide a notification to tell its users that the format is incorrect. This was unknown throughout the whole live screening and it was disappointing to not have an aesthetic orientation.

Also, one thing I could do is to switch between the front and back camera for a better variety of views. Perhaps I should also keep my hand more stable and hold on certain frames to get a better composition.

In summary

As a whole, this was a fun run as everyone was as clueless as each other yet we still gave it a go. Indeed through this live video, we’re able to pick up some idiosyncrasies and behaviourals of our friends that we never knew! Looking forward to more sessions!