Micro-Project VI – A Day in the Life of Super-Participation

https://www.facebook.com/groups/981877025312775/

Groupmates: Desmond, May Thu, Joseph & Teri

Time: 11am 9/3/18 to 11am 10/3/18

For this activity we voted this day as our most interesting day of recess week. However, I think we did not share as actively as we should have. We mostly shared things that we were doing; all pretty trivial things such as going to class, going home, eating etc.

Joseph and I shared quite a lot, followed by May Thu and Teri. Desmond only started sharing after half a day had gone by. We also tried to comment on each others post as much as possible, most of which is reaction to the post. Sometimes we would ask about the shared information like where we were and what it was for.

I think the motivation behind this super-participation is to gain company for being alone, sharing joy and letting others know about your current status. Its always nice to let people know where you were in case you drop into a canyon and had to amputate your own arm. (127 Hours traumatized me)

Because we are all in different locations, we use the facebook page as an extension of our senses. It allow us to communicate and express ourselves in many different ways – text, stickers, videos, images etc. Through sharing we want to try and gain a reaction from others. It could be shock, empathy, sync emotions or amusement.

In my group I do not think anyone of us were trying to a certain persona by force but the things that we choose to share does reflect our personality and character.

Micro-Project V: Art of destruction

Groupmates: Bryan, Reuben , Kaiting and SiHui

We burned a photo-copied version of the Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci which is the most well known artist associated to the Renaissance. So burning the Mona Lisa is an action that rebels against the norms of art – where art needed to be in proper perspective, proportionate, chiaroscuro etc.

End result – Ashes of burnt laser ink (brown).

The use of fire turns the ‘painting’ into ashes which releases the artwork from its frame. In the act of destroying traditional art, we created and turn it into new artform. This is to show that art is ever-changing as now in modern day the scope has broaden along with technological advancements. Art is ethereal.

Close up of ashes. The printed image can still be seen vaguely.

The process of this destruction happens over a period of time – watching it light up, the flame growing and then finally watch it die. Somewhat of a slow motion effect. It was suggested to be similar to Ai wei wei’s artwork of dropping a Han Dynasty Urn.

Micro-Project III – Tele Drift

Posted by Dion Chew on Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Dion and I decided to do a performance where the both of us coordinate to be a single person in the third space – lets call her Third. She did 3 things – walking, washing hands and writing.

  • Walking

We thought it would be interesting to walk down some stairs. We went to different staircases and held the cameras to our hips, hers on the left and mine on the right. Together we tried to coordinated our foot steps one after another to make it seem as if Third is walking. It turned out really awkward because after every step there would be a short pause before the other leg moves; as if she was limping. I could not quite follow the left leg because of a lag in connection and it finished the stairs before me.

  • Washing hands

After trying to synchronize our legs we decided to synchronize our hands. We went to the 2D workshop where there are a few taps by the window to stage Third washing her hands. Even though we gave cues and communicated the results were not perfect. It was difficult to position the camera so that the faucet lined up with Dion’s faucet. We timed to turn on the water at the same time but one of use was still a second behind. Syching our hands was fairly easy and believable but I was to quick to wash.

  • Writing

We were afraid that our video did not make the 5 minutes cut and thus Third wrote a sentence on Microsoft Document. At first we tried to type on different places e.g. search tab match with Microsoft Document. It looked strange because the transition was so abrupt. Third was suppose to be a single person  so we wrote on the same platform to achieve a more seamless split screen. Again, we did not know what the other was going to type which makes the end result funny.

Conclusion

The idea of a third space gave me +1 knowledge because I have never thought about it before- a place where the real and virtual world combine.

When we reviewed everyone’s work, the class was filled with laughter. Trying to communicate without speech through a screen apparently makes for good comedic skits. Despite all the difficulties in coordination I think this activity was really fun. We really had to see, hear and react accordingly to make Third come to life.