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experimental all-class collaborative google doc

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Final App Video

https://vimeo.com/139891319

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Statement - Assessment 2

Q: 1

Artwork:

Scroller

App

Dimensions variable

2015

Scroller is an app and artwork exploring the mediating interface of the screen between user and new digital metaspaces. As place and space are translated into the virtual arena with the exponential rise of networked computing, we are posed with the question, what does it mean to have an alternate physical space recreated in the digital world? These new ‘spaces’ though immediately connected to the physical realm, negate the laws of the physical through their online re-representation. Within the app as the user scrolls through web images of landscapes from the physical environment they engage with images that are connected via a shared google search such as “white, tall, snowy mountains”. Yet each image is immensely divergent in geographical location, context and time taken or posted online. These images slowly bleed into one another signifying the coma or stupor scrolling through social media feeds can induce, the app mimicking this perpetual flow of images. This underlines the mindlessly navigation of others representations of their experiences due to over saturation of digital images, signs and symbols. Dina Kelberman spoke about this phenomenal in regards to her project I’m Google 2015, stating “I feel that my experience wandering through Google Image Search and Youtube Hunting for obscure information and encountering unexpected results is a very common one”. The nature of this ‘wandering’ is evident in Kelberman’s project as the individual is able to scroll through images she has culled from the internet in a long stream-of-conciousness. In the aesthetic rendering of ‘Scroller’ the endless ability to journey from one location to another seamlessly was highly inspired by I’m Google by Dina Kelberman.

Additionally this perpetual scroll through the Earths landscapes presents the hyperreal metaspaces that exist online, engaging the audience in a hyperreal journey through digitally translated physical spaces, and a fantastical navigation of the Earth that is constructed and distorted by the artist. This emanates the feeling of navigating Google Earth. Exploring the physical landscape without the limitations of physics, time (Google Earth images being taken approximately every 2-3 years), and our own human limitations such as exhaustion. Justin Clemens in his essay ‘New New China Tracy’ on Cao Fei’s artistic practice on Second Life, stated that the translation of physical space into the digital realm signifies “A kind of anticipated leap into a space where real cities become secondary to virtual ones”. Cao Fei in her work i.Mirror 2006 presents human interaction with these virtual spaces through injecting these spaces with human emotion. In the film China Tracy, Cao Fei’s avatar, is documented interacting with RMB City on Second Life and forming human narratives such as romance. As such Cao Fei presents the humans attempt to navigate their environments online and off, thus navigating a sense of identity and self between these two environments. Scroller through its utilisation of scenic holiday-esque landscape images and pictures that are symbolically familiar to the user, attempts to utilise emotions and recognition to prompt the audience to not only consider online spaces, but reconsider these physical spaces offline.

By scrolling through the images on ‘Scroller’ the users scrolling distance is calculated, the measurement between the top and bottom of the screen, presenting the non-physical distance travelled by the user on this digital journey. The user is able to scroll through these landscapes infinitely, presenting the infinite ‘distances’ individuals cover of physical spaces due to its translation into the digital realm and access through the medium of the screen. This presents a somewhat ugly truth, individuals have most likely scrolled further than they have ever travelled physically. Through interaction the ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ notions of distance and travel are intertwined. This intersection of virtual and tangible is inspired by Tully Arnot’s work Digital Forest 2015, part of his ongoing series Nervous Plants. Arnot integrates complex technologies into the everyday, creating a flinching forest that explores feelings of anxiety in an increasingly connected, but ultimately disconnected world. Through the works interactivity, Arnot addresses the value of human to non-sentient relationships, and the means in which we construct notions of the ‘human’ in relation to each other. This human to digital relation is emanated in the physical action of scrolling in Scroller, humans having to participate and exert physical energy in order to interact with digital space.

Bibliography

Arnot, Tully. Digital Forest 2015. Artificial plants and robotics. Web. 9 September 2015

Clemens, J ‘China Tracy’s New New Second Life’ Minimal Domination. Surpllus,Victoria NSW, 2011.

Fei, Cao. i.Mirror 2006. Film. Web. 9 September 2015

Kelberman, Dina. I’m Google 2015. Blog. Web. 9 September 2015

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Video of the app in action. Side bar swipes over and an artist description will be added.

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Images from app

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Mock up of app design

Designing the app from images that share a google image search eg “white snowy mountains” and then slowly transition into another google image search eg “green hills” so disparate landscapes (in terms of geographical location) are brought together and experienced like a social media feed by a shared google search and aesthetic.

The bottom of the app will calculate the distance travelled by the user. This will be in unconventional way, calculating the distance they have scrolled ie the distance between the top and bottom of their device as they scroll, rather than physical distance. Yet still using physical distance units of measurement: cm, m, kms etc.

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I’m Google

http://dinakelberman.tumblr.com/

Really inspired aesthetically by this project.

Dina Kelberman: I’m Google is an ongoing tumblr blog in which batches of images and videos that I cull from the internet are compiled into a long stream-of-consciousness. The batches move seamlessly from one subject to the next based on similarities in form, composition, color, and theme. [… ] I feel that my experience wandering through Google Image Search and YouTube hunting for obscure information and encountering unexpected results is a very common one. My blog serves as a visual representation of this phenomenon. This ability to endlessly drift from one topic to the next is the inherently fascinating quality that makes the internet so amazing.

This project aesthetically embodies the disparate yet interconnected nature of images online. Images being disconnected by time, location, context yet brought together through a shared google search or aesthetic. Interesting when placed in the context of how humans now navigate space/ place, with similar searches presenting them with environments that are brought together through shared aesthetics or tags rather than shared location or time.

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Apps !?!?!

Apps are a particularly interesting recent user orientated digital invention. Defined as: a self-contained program or piece of software designed to fulfil a particular purpose; an application, especially as downloaded by a user to a mobile device.

There is a real intersect between the physical and digital environments in terms of user experience with apps. Many that fall into the social media category, like Instagram, twitter, facebook etc are forums for which individuals curate both their identity and 'real world’ experiences, elevating the everyday life to the social standard of their specific social context. As such within these social media apps space and place is manipulated and curated to elevate the social status of the user. With other apps such as game apps, users are able to compete against friends or strangers from a variety of disparate places from the comfort of their immediate screen. As such space and place is shrunk, perpetuating notions of globalisation as the world becomes increasingly interconnected via the web, users able to interact with geographies that are physically (due to distance) unobtainable.

My big idea with this - space and place when translated online is no longer measured in ‘real’ geographical distance, e.g the distance between countries, but measured in the scrolling distance between the top and bottom of the users screen.

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Artist: Tully Arnot

Tully Arnot’s interactive sculptural work ‘Digital Forest’ 2015 integrates complex technologies into the everyday. creating a flinching forest that explores feelings of anxiety in an increasingly connected, but ultimately disconnected world. Through the works interactivity, Arnot addresses the value of human to non-sentient relationships, and the means in which we construct notions of the ‘human’ in relation to each other.

Image from its most recent iteration on Cockatoo Island for Underbelly Arts Festival:

A really interesting aspect of this work is its interactivity. Arnot describing them as ‘nervous plants’ they twitch and shiver as though in anxiety. Then as the audience approached them at a certain distance they stop and freeze. I think this is a really interesting interaction between audience (the physical presence) and the plants (perhaps representing the digital) as the two navigate and respond to each other physically.

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Assessment two - thinking about space and place

Justin Clemens in his short essay titled ‘New New China Tracy’ exploring Cao Fei’s work on Second Life, in regards to the translation of physical spaces into the digital realm, said that is is “A kind of anticipated leap into a space where real cities become secondary to virtual ones”. I find this particularly interesting in context of what is mean to be human as our fundamental navigation of space and place - traditionally seen as physical distance eg kms and subject to the laws of physics, has evolved. As physical spaces are translated into the digital realm, and new metaspaces such as social medias are created in these virtual realities. These spaces negate all laws of the physical, most obviously not being restricted by the laws of physics such as gravity. They also have alternate representation of ‘distance’, this comes to light in examples such as:

1. Google images: scrolling through google image searches such as ‘sunset beach’ the images are remarkably similar in tone and content, yet each image is vastly disparate in physical geographical distance it was taken, the time it was taken and the context the photograph was taken.

2. Social media eg Instagram: Via posting images of our physical environments and the experiences occurring in these environments we are radically externalising memory onto digital platforms, where it can be relived by merely scrolling back through our personal feeds. This not only negates physical distance, being able to revisit sites digitally while remaining stagnate physically, but also time, revisiting the past from the comfort of the present.

I think this is wildly interesting as humans attempt to navigate their environments online and off and thus navigate their sense of self and identity within these environments.

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Statement assignment 1

The question of what constitutes the ‘human’ has endured throughout the ages. The introduction and prolific utilisation of digital technology has posed new possibilities for imagining the human and the environment in which humans react and interact. This has specifically come to light via the cultural penetration of social media use, causing us to examine how we express and construct ourselves as human.

Mutitudinal curated identities (importantly plural) are constructed to elevate the banality of everyday life to the standards of our specific social contexts. Yet the prolific penetration of social media use into daily life has caused a duality to occur. Our physical reality not only being the informant for constructing these curated public identities, but in turn the constructed identities are able to look back through the screen. Influencing how we continually construct the ‘self’ in our physical reality.

This comes to light via analysis of social media use such as instagram. Despite presenting curated and elevated versions of our physical realities to a digital audience via images and captions, individuals accounts and maintenance of those accounts causes them to seek out certain photo destinations, aesthetics, cultural events etc in order to appease this online audience. This presents a duality, a double-sided mirror of social media and digital identities. The ‘physical’ constructing the ‘digital’ and visa versa. A multitude of mirrors, varying in size, angle and placement have been utilised on the poster to emanate the fluctuating and multitudinous nature of these identities online and off. Additionally the configuration of the mirrors replicates a wifi map of Sydney, wifi networks presenting webs of possible human interaction and a new invisible environment of connection. As the audiences profile is reflected multiple times from multiple angles, metaphorically pointing to their representations of themselves as human online, it comes to light that notions of what constitutes human is evident not in singularity, but in plurality.

Final product in natural lighting

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Experiment

Experiment is multipul reflections pointing to the multipul curated identities re-presented on the web to various social contexts.

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Wifi network map of wider sydney

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Wifi network map of my area

A wifi network map of my area:

Humans by nature are interactive and relational beings. A large portion of our understanding of who we are emerges from our relations with others. Wifi networks, possible channels for public and private human interaction, sharing of public data or participation in shared digital spaces stand as both literally and metaphorically a means to forward this understanding of ourselves through relationship with others.

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Wifi mapping

http://www.wifimap.io/

This app enables the user to ‘map’ wifi in their area, interesting to see how many people are logged on to a virtual reality whilst navigating physical space. Interesting creation of duality of navigation, scale and space.

I think these configurations will factor into my final poster product...

Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor, particularly in his mirror/ reflective works, causes the audience to analyse themselves and notions of the ‘self’ via reflection in art, and distortion in the art. As such utilises art as a medium for self discovery. Interesting as the process of creating art has regularly been described as a road to expressing and discovering the self, in this case it is the finished product that aids this discovery. Does analysing as ability to view a multitude of ‘selves’ bring us to a greater understanding of ourselves a whole?

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