Research Critique 3

Micro-Project V:

https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/ytan149/micro-project-5-art-of-destruction/

In our Micro-Project V: The art of destruction, we printed the Mona Lisa in actual size and burnt it. The act of burning this iconic painting is against the tradition where the painting needs to be hung and framed on a wall to be viewed and enjoyed. As such there is aberrance in the aesthetic culture.

Jon Cates said that there was “poetic embrace of noise and error” in which is the balancing of nonsense and knowledge. There cannot be beauty without ugliness and ugliness without beauty. The aberrance created is rationalised; with purposed to reveal an important message – art does not have to be proper.

This can be further supported by the Glitched Studies Manifesto, “Here noise exists within the void opposite of what (already) has a meaning. Whichever way noise is defined, the negative definition also has a positive consequence: it helps by (re)defining its opposite (world of meaning, the norm, regulation, goodness, beauty and so on).”

Leftover ashes

If you watch the performance you may see that the Mona Lisa starts off as a proper image. As it burns, it crumbles and falls apart. Some leftover ashes of laser pigment stayed intact, with a vague imprint of the printed image. The act of destruction lifts the art from its physical form to an idea. The rules of painting – perspectives, proportions, chiaroscuro etc are quite literally erased and replaced by a new concept that we the artist introduced.

Again as mentioned in Glitched Studies Manifesto “These works stretch boundaries and generate novel modes; they break open previously sealed politics and force a catharsis of conventions, norms and believe.”

Media Burn (1975)

Glitch art is often associated with the Utopian view and freedom. In our performance, Mona Lisa’s ashes were prone to being blown away by the wind which represented art to be ephemeral and free. Chip Lord was constantly talked about creating an image and putting out there as a form of information throughout the Ant Farm’s projects. He also made a brief mention of Ethos. Ethics are mostly in question in performance art. For example Ant farm’s Media Burn performance in 1975 was used to create an image to critique and attack media.

As mentioned in Glitched Studies Manifesto “Once the glitch is understood as an alternative way of representation or a new language, its tipping point has passed and the essence of its glitch-being is vanished. The glitch is no longer an art of rejection, but a shape or appearance that is recognized as a novel form (of art).” A glitch is an adnormality but after it is popularize it slowly becomes a norm and ceases to be a glitch.

Micro-Project II – Open Source

Dion, Kai Ting and I came up with a crowdsourced artwork that reflects the emotions of the audience. The viewers are tasked to submit their current emotion represented by certain colours on an online poll.

The poll: https://www.surveylegend.com/s/kfk

How is G4 feeling today?

The resulting artwork was the colour with the highest percentage projected onto a screen for all to see.

Final artwork – turquoise/ bluish-green

This is similar to that of Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece performance in which the viewers are co-creators of our artwork. They however do not have complete control. The artist holds the highest ‘power’ for the final outcome– deciding the amount and type of viewers, the location, duration and colours.

The natures of these results are also ever-changing. In another event such as a carnival, people would feel more lively and excited as compared to going to a boring lecture. A larger number of participants would change the results abundantly too, as feelings are fickle and completely unpredictable.

Marc Garrett mentioned in his essay,

https://marcgarrett.org/2014/02/12/diwo-do-it-with-others-artistic-co-creation-as-a-decentralized-method-of-peer-empowerment-in-todays-multitude/

that “Whoever controls our art – controls our connection, relationship and imaginative experience and our discourse around it.”

In this work, we also mediate the interaction within the crowd, viewers relate to the other participants without direct physical interaction. When they look at the final results, they form a connection with the percentage of people that feel the same way.

Both artworks represent the crowd collectively as a whole. Just like in D.I.W.O (Do-It-With-Others) the collaborating artists remains anonymous and produces a unexpected outcomes. Everyone is equal as the hierarchy for ‘good’ and ‘bad’ art is absent. D.I.W.O is all about being down to earth and pure interaction between people.

Add On:

Anonymity is important because there would be no external influence. Makes results more ‘pure’. Emotions are private not everyone wants to share. So being anonymous also protects the participant’s privacy.

Research Critique 2

The third space is described to be where the physical overlaps with the virtual. It exists when people interact with one another within a virtual environment.

“We essentially inhabit a swath of networked space, no longer constrained to the singularity of a single moment or place.” by Randall Packer, The Third Space

It allows for countless possibilities because the laws of physics does not apply there. One may exist outside of your own space and time as said in Maria Chatzichristodoulou’s Cyberformance essay, which I interpreted as  transcending the concept of space and time. One can now be there and here, in present and future.

Being digital natives, the third space is as natural as air. Unaware we had entered a new ‘space’. This is because no physical traveling is needed to access the third space. It lives anywhere and everywhere as long as you are connected through the satellites.

Consciousness on the other side also makes it seem real and natural. This is done through the 5 sense and the display of emotions. However when you apply this to game characters causing a fourth wall break. It scares the player.

There was an exhibit at the Artscience museum last year by performance artist Stelarc. “For five days, six hours a day, wearing a video headset and sound cancelling earphones, the artist could only see with the “eyes” of someone in London, whilst only hearing with the “ears” of someone in New York. The body was also augmented by a 7 degree-of-freedom exoskeleton enabling anyone anywhere to program involuntary movement of his right arm, using an online interface. In the gallery space itself, the choreography could be generated via a large touch-screen.”

Visual and audio not only transports the user to these 2 cities creating a new reality. Quoting George Berkeley “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” Essentially what is real to us is what we absorb through our senses.

Paul Sermon, Telematic Dreaming (1993)

The location and setting in which the performance is staged can also create closeness and intimacy.

Annie Abrahams, The Big Kiss (2008)

Applying the idea of touch also bring the two in different places closer.

Dion & Ying Hui, Third Person (2018)

When we had our third space human wash her hand. We had to “connect” with each other by reading and predicting each other’s movement. We had to think as one and try to tap into each other’s thought. Touching mentally.