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Assessment 3 - Chinese Whispers 

For this assessment, my group and I chose the concept of glitch and reflection. We demonstrated this through a game of Chinese Whispers where one person from two groups picked a ‘stimulus’ and whispers it to the next person. In the end, we got the last person to draw the phrase they heard as well as say it out loud. We framed these drawings on the spot.  

The main topics we addressed:

-     Miscommunication and the notion of information being influenced by different things

-     The notion of information being skewed and twisted as a result of external forces i.e. media, social media, spoken word.

-     The combination of different media (e.g. drawing, oral) represents the overwhelming influx of media communications in our present social landscape

-     The idea of rumours

-     Racism (a point which we looked at during research)

-    The reason for the jar and the multiple pieces of the same stimulus (The illusion of the jar and telling them to believe that they are given different stimuli represents consumers’ vulnerability and accessibility of false information in the media which largely contributes to miscommunication)

-     The reason for the Stimulus (mundane phrase being skewed)

-     The reason for the Drawings (representing different forms of communication, a visible process of translation and interpretation)

-     The reason for the Frames (ideas being ‘framed’ i.e. the media, social media platforms act as frames that present news, ideas)

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AS3 - Interference + Glitch

From Moodle - In every communication, the process of transmission distorts the message. Interference, static, mis-hearings, hackings, amplifications and repetition all shape the content of communication and the relationship between the sender and receiver … the always-distorted message can be examined for its own creative potential. We will also discuss the now-famous maxim: the medium is the message.”

Through the medium of Chinese whispers, we explore the miscommunication that occurs between the first and last person of the chain

Chinese Whispers

Interactive installation / Android App

Artistic research on computational creativity, 2016

In this interactive installation, the children’s game “Chinese Whispers”  – in which a message is whispered from one person to another – is played by smartphones using the default speech recognition and speech synthesis software of the device’s operating system.

The often humorous altered last statement in the communication chain is a perfect metaphor for cumulative error caused by feedback. While the human brain lacks in recollection of spoken words and tends to complete or correct flawed information creatively, a similar process takes place in the pattern matching event of the speech analysis software. This work is another attempt to explore computational creativity in an artistic manner.

Input: “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy all for the love of you.”

Output: *”Daisy Bell” is the first song performed by computer speech synthesis (IBM in 1961) as later referenced in Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Phones are tools of communication yet this experiment shows that it could also be a tool for miscommunication

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AS3 - NO HUMANS = NO ARTWORK

Participatory art is an approach to making art which engages the audience in the creative process, letting them become co-authors, editors, and observers of the work. This type of art is incomplete without viewers’ physical interaction.

Our group intends to curate an event where the audience largely impact the end result of the work, allowing them to partake in the creative process as much as the artists themselves. By nature, participatory art is temporal, pedestrian, more accessible.

We explored Collaboration as one of our weekly concepts, and look at the end product of the Chinese whispers format as an unpredictable innovation created by the audience (classmates) and curators of the event (us). 

Moodle Discussion - “In a world that’s increasingly networked and in which consumers and producers are no longer separate, collaborative communities are the foundation of creative production and innovation”

The complex nature of human memory is explored in the format of Chinese whispers. 

We don’t know what to expect. Will people purposely alter the original message or will they remain truthful to it? 

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AS3 - Brainstorming

This pages demonstrates our train of thought of confusion in the brainstorming period and the jumping from different ideas for the curated event

We decided to go with the Chinese whispers format and the importance of active listening and understanding. The weekly concepts associated to this are collaboration, interference + glitch and reflection

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Assessment 3 - Brainstorming

Our group has decided to choose the topic of reflection. We began by looking at different performance arts and forming ideas based upon this.

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Assessment 3

Group: @itssoniyah @katriyang

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Week 10

Blocking the usual path 

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‘UNTOUCHED’

Assessment 2 - Final Work

Artist Statement

A natural landscape is defined as an environment that has existed before being transformed by humans. It is totally unaffected by human activity and interference. The natural landscape is under control by all natural forces and free from any human modifications. So, what do we consider a ‘natural landscape’? Today, everywhere we go, we encounter a certain experience that we regard is the result of ‘nature’. However, what we see or believe is a natural landscape, has been carefully designed and planned to deliver an immediate response from humans. A landscape that is deemed to be ‘natural’ is only a result of a man-made creation. This questions whether anything we see or experience in a particular time and context is ‘natural’ or ‘authentic’ anymore.

'Untouched’ explores the binary between the natural and man-made. It is a two-minute and sixteen-second video depicting multiple screen recordings of me forming and constructing my own landscape designs. I aimed to create my own landscapes based on my own time and experience within the context of the location. Each landscape I begin to create and finish follows a surrealistic theme, which is my vision of the landscape I want to view. The final work demonstrates how the environments we encounter are controlled, creating an ‘idealistic’ image of what a ‘natural’ landscape should look like. This defies the purpose of anything natural as it is already man-made. Taking on a rather satirical approach, I cut, crop and combine all the ‘raw’ and ‘natural’ photos that I have taken and found interesting of landscapes, nature and architecture, immediately turning my landscape into a man-made solution. The process of creating these landscapes and adding effects, filters and adjustments, ultimately depicts how these are deliberate decisions taken into action just like the landscapes we see in the world. Each edit made onto the landscapes is unusual and interruptive, being the result of ‘nature’ being influenced and altered by mankind. This further links to my experience with these landscapes through the background sound of city traffic, chatter, typing and clicking.

In the beginning, I had decided to formulate a binary that questions the world and surroundings. I conducted research on artist Pamela Rosenkranz who reflects complex issues related to human existence and scepticism through a range of mediums; video, sculptures and installations. Her work inspired me to look deeper into ‘anthropology’ and include an element in my final work that displays human behaviour towards certain environments. I also researched René Magritte who is a surrealist painter depicting ordinary objects in uncommon contexts. This encouraged the creation of unusual sceneries in my final work. Toshio Shibata transforms existing landscapes by skewing perspectives and pushing a composition towards abstraction. He is another artist that inspired the surrealist theme of my landscape designs in my final work.

My first experiment consisted of taking photographs of fake, plastic flowers placed in real shrubs and plants. This projected the difference between what is natural and what is man-made is uncertain, which questions the realism of our experiences in a certain time and context. Taking these images, I began to further experiment with ambiguity and surrealism by layering repetitive cut-outs on top of each other to reflect the experience of capturing photos and the multiple takes to achieve an ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ shot. This led to the final experiment, which is a gif of moving cut-outs that bring the concept of natural and man-made constructs further. The clip in the background is the original footage of the plants (natural) and the cut-outs that create an interesting pattern is a result of me adding my own experience using colour filters (man-made).

Taking on the binary of natural/man-made, I question and challenge the difference between these and carefully analyse what is true to the eye. In the end, the project has come out better than expected, adding a humorous aspect as I am designing my own landscape. The surrealistic landscapes I create in my final work are far from the ‘idealistic’ sceneries we seek. Thus, my final work is simply interrogating the binary of the natural/man-made and offering a new perspective into the very environments we live and breathe in.

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Assessment 2 - Experiment 3

In this experiment, I attempt to create moving cut-outs that bring the concept of natural and man-made constructs. I wanted to play with moving images and their impact on the viewer. The clip in the background is the real footage of the plants (natural) and the cut-outs are the result of me adding my own experience onto the clip using multiple colour filters (man-made). 

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Assessment 2 - Experiment 2

Following on from experiment 1, I played around with the same pictures using the crop and pen tool. The aim was to create something ambiguous and surreal. This experiment is incorporating my experience of taking these pictures in that certain time. Each image has repetitive cut-outs that place on top of each other to reflect the capturing and multiple takes to achieve the ‘natural’ photo. I also aimed to depict the idea of a ‘man-made’ construct as the result of these images was created by me.

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Assessment 2 - Experiment 1

To question the idea of ‘natural’ and ‘man-made’ structures, I found fake, plastic flowers around my house and placed them in real plants and shrubs. In this experiment, the difference between what is natural and what is man-made is uncertain. I wanted to explore what we consider as ‘natural’, as it is all man-made. Each environment we encounter has been planned out and constructed to deliver a certain experience. This questions whether anything we experience is ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ at that point in time.

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Artist Research - Toshio Shibata

1) Concrete Abstractions, 2015

2) Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, 2008

3) Kawa Village, Tosa County, Kochi Prefecture, 2007

Toshio Shibata works with images that mix landscape painting with documentary realism, moving beyond just the physical description. His photographs show the extent to which humans have shaped the world. He aims to deliver creative as well as destructive elements into his photographs, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions on the impact of humanity on the world. He transforms existing landscapes by flattening perspective, emphasising geometric lines and/or panels of colour to push a composition towards abstraction.

References: 

Lens Culture, ‘The Constructed Landscape as Art’, viewed on 12 September 2018,  https://www.lensculture.com/articles/toshio-shibata-the-constructed-landscape-as-art

Lens Culture, ‘About Toshio Shibata’, viewed on 12 September, https://www.lensculture.com/toshio-shibata

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Artist Research - René Magritte

The Son of Man, 1964

René Magritte is a prominent surrealist painter, who is well known for creating thought-provoking images that often depict ordinary objects in an unusual context. His work challenges the viewer on preconditioned perceptions of reality, which has had a further influence on pop, minimalist and conceptual art.

The Son of Man,1964, is a painting of a man dressed in a dark suit wearing a red tie and a dark bowler hat. In front of the subject’s face, there is a striking green apple, blocking his features as well as his view. This work explores feelings of human curiosity, where one seeks to see what is beyond the visible. It speaks of human conflict of wanting to hide one’s true face from the eyes of others, the idea of not seeing the whole picture, leaving a sense of mystery.

References:

Wikipedia, ‘Rene Magritte 1898-1967’, Tate, viewed on 12 September 2018, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rene-magritte-1553

Art Pieces, ‘The Surrealist Work of Magritte: The Son of Man’, viewed on 12 September 2018, http://www.artpieces.net/son-of-man.html

All That’s Interesting, ‘Surrealism Art: Seven Famous Surrealist Artists and Their Most Iconic Paintings’, 1 February 2018, viewed on 12 September 2018, https://allthatsinteresting.com/surrealism-art-iconic-surrealist-paintings

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Artist Research - Pamela Rosenkranz 

Stay True from the series Firm Being, 2009

Pamela Rosenkranz is an artist who deals with complex issues related to human existence and scepticism. She works with the deception of light and liquid to capture her conceptual ideologies, often projected through a range of mediums, including video, abstract sculptures and installations.

Stay True, from the series Firm Being, 2009, depicts a branded plastic water bottle filled with flesh-toned silicon pigment and acrylic paint. This “product” contains chemical compounds both actual and fictitious that question the ‘naturalness’ of these seemingly unnatural materials that were all produced by a human. This work expertly mocks water company advertisements like Fiji’s: ‘Untouched by Man. Until you drink it’. These branded bottles also reflect figures with no personality, an empty whole, human beings as branded containers.

References:

Q. Latimer, ‘Water bottles, pills and emergency blankets’, Frieze, 27April 2011, viewed on 12 September 2018, https://frieze.com/article/pamela-rosenkranz

Artuner, ‘Pamela Rosenkranz’, Artuner, 2018, viewed on 12 September 2018, http://www.artuner.com/artists/pamela-rosenkranz/

J. Stromberg, ‘What is the Anthropocene and are we in it?’, January 2013, viewed on 12 September 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/?no-ist

M. Anderson, (2015), Flash Art, Keep Your Splendid Silent Sun, 302: 84-91 https://miguelabreugallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/PRosenkranz_SelectedPress_opt.pdf

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Brainstorming

After sketching three ideas, the binary of natural/man-made was quite interesting to me. It questions whether anything is ‘natural’ anymore in terms of landscapes. 

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Week 8 - Value

We personalised our ordinary everyday objects with the iconic Gucci red and green colours to draw connections between the temporality of materiality and the permanence of the luxurious branding it stands for.

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Week 6: - Context and time

We started by having a conversation about what is the ‘now’ and the physical representations of it. We discussed analogue and digital technology and how simple gestures of asking ‘What the time is’ directed us to make this video.