COFA1002 - Conceptual Thinking

Welcome to my uni blog for COFA1002, blogging all things conceptual, inspirational and creative!

[mitchconceptual-blog]

FINAL PIECE: Main Image + Close Ups

Concept: Connectivity - Through Technology

- My final piece was constructed by combining my two main iterations throughout my process/documentation. Using the screenshots of the 'physical locations' I overlaid the information of the geographical coordinates and the mutual friend amount of my unknown Facebook friends. 

- Inspired by the work and concepts of Shannon Rankin and Jim Sanborn the final piece was focused conceptually on the process of 'Un-Creativity' and the developing process included divergent thinking.

- The final piece focuses on communicating the connectivity humans have through technology and to illustrate how we feel this connection due to the information that can be accessed providing us with a sense of belonging.

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Ten

Practical Experiment: Iteration

- Taking inspiration from Jim Sanborn's 'Public pieces' (Documentation Eight) I have collated the information gathered from each Facebook friends profile about their location/area and the mutual friends we share.

- The geographical coordinates of their location is followed by the number of mutual friends we share in bold.

- Similar to Jim Sanborn's piece the information is unclear at first glance but the viewer will understand the text over a period of time as it is uncovered. 

- Critically: The iteration incorporates the information well into the piece and it resonates a similar concept to that of Sanborn's work (un-creativity). Although the information is incorporated strongly into the piece I believe that it would have more conceptual depth if the info was combined in some way with the 'physical location image' in the final piece.

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Nine

Practical Experiment: Iteration

- Using the conceptual process of 'Un-creativity' I have recreated Shannon Rankin's work 'Patterns in Pieces of Maps' (From previous documentation) by using the gathered screenshots from my Facebook friends locations.

- By masking the screenshots into a circle shape and resizing appropriately I have attempted to recreate as best as possible the piece. The scale and patterning is not identical but at a quick glance it resembles quite well.

- Critically: I quite like the result of the iteration/experiment however I would like to incorporate more of the information documented (geographical coordinates & mutual friends amount) into the final piece.

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Eight

Artist - Jim Sanborn, Piece -  Public Pieces

Through Jim’s work he incorporates hidden forces/content in text and language which reveals an unknown story or information. These public works are designed to exude their information slowly to the viewer over time.

- Jim's work is inspiring to my conceptual process as his work focuses on the revealing and incorporation of information, similarly to that of my investigation about my Facebook friends. With the information that I have gathered I could possibly manipulate it in some way into a piece which eventually would be revealed to the viewer.

Source: <http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/jan/26/jim-sanborn/>

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Seven

Inspirational Work:

Artist - Shannon Rankin, Piece - Patterns in Pieces of Maps

 Using little discs of maps for her installations Shannon uses “the language of maps to explore the connections among geological and biological processes, patterns in nature, geometry and anatomy”

- The use of maps and geographical location to demonstrate connectivity resonates strongly with my own documentation and concepts. My gathered information about my friends locations/areas could be used in a similar context as Rankin's work.

Source: <http://weburbanist.com/2011/05/30/creative-cartography-15-artists-transforming-maps/>

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Six

Practical Experiment: Location of Friends

- From Documentation 5 (Practical Experiment) I recorded the personal information that was available on each page.

- Using their listed area/location and information about school, college, hometown etc I searched on Google Maps and documented the geographical coordinates and screen shotted the area.

- Having the geographical coordinates allows me to physically visit these sites/locations. However, the concept of physical location has changed with technology and do we consider visiting somewhere using technology (Google maps) just as physical as in real life?

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Five

Practical Experiment: Facebook Friends Investigation

- To investigate how connected humans can be through technology I accessed my friends on Facebook and searched through and viewed the profiles of my Facebook friends that I had never actually met in person before. 

- I searched there profiles, surprisingly with a lot of given information and documented the area that they lived and the amount of mutual friends we have. 

I have 1,003 Facebook friends.. Does that make me connected????

STATISTICS: (American) Among age groups, 18-24-year-olds are the most likely to have a profile on a social network (86%), and also sport the highest average number of Facebook friends, at 510. 

Source: <http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/direct/18-24-year-olds-on-facebook-boast-an-average-of-510-friends-28353/>

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Four

Gretta Louw: Controlling_Connectivity

Gretta's piece of work Controlling_Connectivity (2011- 2012) was a project encompassing an online durational performance. The performance continued for a 10 day period at the Art Laboratory Berlin and involved the artist making herself available for online contact 24 hrs/day for the duration of the piece. 

The project explores the hidden consequences and psychological implications of our growing reliance on the internet and online social networks.

- This piece inspires my research and conceptual thinking as it relates to the concept of connectivity through technology and it is similar in the way it investigates human interactions.

Source: <http://www.grettalouw.com/conconn.html>

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Three

                                    Researching further into the concept of connectivity through technology, this article unveils the way these connections are effecting human interaction and the dependence humans have formed to it. - This research assists in helping to define my concept and further inform my knowledge about the process I will undertake.

EXAMPLE: (Statistics) "Past evolutionary psychology research by British anthropologist and psychologist Robin Dunbar has revealed that people are actually limited to a certain number of stable, supportive connections with others in their social network: roughly 150."

Source: Technology is Destroying the Quality of Human Interaction, Melissa Nilles, January 24, 2012

<http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2012/01/technology-is-destroying-the-quality-of-human-interaction>

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: Two

An excerpt from an article of a personal point of view, investigating the power that technology has in making humans feel connected with one another. This article helped me to further my divergent thinking about the concept of connectivity though technology - 

  - "I discovered that when I was online, even if I was not logged in to a social network or chatting with someone, I felt connected to other people. There was a sense of being part of something bigger than me, of not being alone. The fact that I was online gave me a sense of belonging. It was the same with my cell phone. Even if I was not using it, by having it on me and knowing I was reachable, I felt linked to other people. Essentially, I viewed technology as what connected me to others and made me feel less alone."

 Source: The Ultimate Wifi: How to Connected Beyond Technology, Gaiam Life, <http://life.gaiam.com/article/ultimate-wi-fi-how-connect-beyond-technology>

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Documentation: One

A quote which helped me to think further conceptually about the idea of connectivity through technology... What does it mean to be connected?

“To best use the technologies of our age, we must expand our view of what it means to be connected.”

- Soren Gordamer

Source: An excerpt from Soren Gordhamer’s book ‘Wisdom 2.0’

[mitchconceptual-blog]

PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS: 

Focusing on the conceptual process of UN-CREATIVITY

- Taking the screenshots from each of the areas researched of my Facebook friends I masked them with a circle mask to create these forms.

- In an attempt to be 'Un-creative' I am copying the work of Shannon Rankin: Patterns in Pieces of Maps by using my researched/documented data to replace her chosen map thumbnails.

- Will further experiment with this outcome to create my final piece

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Practical Experiments:

- From my previous practical experiment, documenting information from my unknown mutual friends on Facebook I recorded their personal information that was available on their page.

- Using their location and information about school, college, hometown etc I searched on Google Maps and documented the geographical coordinates and screen shotted the area.

- Having the geographical coordinates allows me to physically visit these sites however, the concept of physical location has changed and do we consider visiting somewhere on google maps just as physical as in real life?

[mitchconceptual-blog]

Practical Experiment:

- To investigate how connected humans can be through technology I accessed my friends on Facebook and searched through and viewed the profiles of my Facebook friends that I had never actually met in person before. 

- I searched there profiles and documented the area that they lived and the amount of mutual friends we have. 

- Very interesting to see how much information people give on their profiles and the amount of mutual friends we had when i have never met them.

[mitchconceptual-blog]

PROCESS: Developing Final Piece

Focusing on the concept of connectivity of humans through technology I am documenting the amount of information that I can gather from some of my Facebook friends profiles to demonstrate how connected we really are through technology.

I have 1,003 Facebook friends.. Does that make me connected? Do I feel more connected having this many friends? How many do I really have a connection with?

STATISTICS: (American) Among age groups, 18-24-year-olds are the most likely to have a profile on a social network (86%), and also sport the highest average number of Facebook friends, at 510. 

http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/direct/18-24-year-olds-on-facebook-boast-an-average-of-510-friends-28353/

[mitchconceptual-blog]

RESEARCH: Techniques

Microcalligraphy: Artists create pictures by hand-writing the text which shape and form drawings and paintings into a story. The paintings illustrate the text. Artists use books of the Bible and other holy texts to create vision of the story. Microcalligraphy artists can write an entire Book of the Bible on a sheet of paper, parchment or canvas.

[mitchconceptual-blog]

RESEARCH: Inspirational Works

Jim Sanborn: Public Pieces

Through Jim's work he incorporates hidden forces/content in text and language that reveals a unknown story or information. These public works are designed to exude their information slowly.

"For the past 30 years, my task as an artist has been to release this hidden information at a rate commensurate with its importance, and at the time of my choosing so as to prolong the experience of discovery."