sanehamov

[sanehamov]

Reflection on my work

Because the task for the semester was to experiment and try as many things as possible I wanted to completely put away the art practices I have been doing before. I realized it especially at the start where my popularity experiment was not really going anywhere as well as it was taking too much time. 

I think that from the point I started from I have reached what I have wanted to- the clear out other topics form my work and focus on exploring the differences and reactions to physical and virtual experiences, things, artifacts. At the start I wished to experiment with artificial intelligence and find various ways to use it in art however this approach had proved itself to be more time-consuming, frustrating and has not really brought in much of a result. The on project based around AI was the face recognition project, from which Ghosts is the only finished one. An artwork based on the research as to what kind of a facedeas the software recognize was not properly made.  For a while I worked with how subjects can be represented based on something related to them (food portrait, lunch song) which allowed me to discover different ways as to how to approach this . I have worked with disposable materials for I liked the contrast between something which is forever saved on the internet and the natural, which is always changing (leaves sculptures, leaves messages, childhood memory house) 

After that I have made some works which I definitely do not like (News, Sufflower) and  finished with a series of google street view projects that I like the most, especially Google Street Meet. 

This last one is the project whose ideas I would like to explore further with my upcoming work. With little bits and pieces of the other mentioned works included. 

[sanehamov]

Continuation of my project Dead Instruments

On the criticism session with Branislava, Alexandra Vajd and John it was pointed out that there is no notion as to how would I present the artwork to the audience.

The whole thing was also a sketch of an idea, which means the concept was not reflected in it properly- i did not have the real instruments which meant the idea was sort of hidden in the thing, or completely invisible. I was trying to find out a way to display the songs I have made previously, which could be concepts of theatre performances that I could make in unity 3d. however even I felt that these ideas would come out more comical than serious.  In the end I have decided to input the concept directly to the instrument. I had no idea how to create this in physical instruments, but |I knew I would be able to create a digital one. I was not able to get my hands on Ableton, where it would be much easier but I have some experience with Garageband, where I, hesitantly, used the sampler tool. I have played a note on for example- Errhu, and added the python hiss as an aftertone? decay? however it’s called. I am very unhappy with the result as the sampler is not an ideal tool for what I wanted to make and the final sound sounds very electronic.

[sanehamov]

Computer music

Previously I have conducted an experiment where I was trying to create a song purely out of given ordinary materials. To give it some consistency, the objects also had to have some relationship to them By a random choice I took culinary objects, I have made a song using knives and forks, wanting to add a plate and a cup later. Making live music with non-musical objects had proven itself to be much harder than it seemed and I left the experiments I did not find it fruitful and interesting enough.

However, I was thinking about the experiment later and decided there could be more to these objects than there was in the first experiment. I usually make music purely on the computer so I found it hard to create some-kind of a melody in real life with objects that do not provide any kind of octaves or specific keys. A large part of music nowadays is also created using computer so I thought should not I make a son only based on the physical sounds the computer makes? Mouse clicks, button clicks and so on. I alos realized that doing something similar with a standard instrument would be impossible physical parts of that object are actually used for making musing meanwhile regarding a PC, the sounds are generated or manipulated by electronics.

I have created two 'songs'? 'samples'?

One of them is actually digitally manipulated- I was adding filters to the sounds, manipulating the pitch, the speed , even was thinking of using a sampler? But initially that was exactly what I was trying not to do.

the other one is just recordings of the sounds. The only manipulation I did was to cut the annoying sound noise and hum through an equalizer.

furthermore I was also partially inspired by Koert van Mooersten's fake brands. So I have decided to also create a cover for the computer album and make the song pieces a sort of previews for the people who would be interested in the album.

[sanehamov]

computer music no 2- edited sounds/ failed attempt

[sanehamov]

Computer music no 1

[sanehamov]

google street meet exp 2 using 3d rendered animals

[sanehamov]

google street meet exp no 1

[sanehamov]

street view 4- meet exp

As John has suggested to push some of the works further I have tried to add something extra to a few of them. Since I feel like the Google street view was the most captivating and a sort of 'original' one I was thinking of ways at how the medium could be explored more.

A work I have done recently was a 3d sculpture, however in my research I have found an artist working with these two mediums (J Isolini) and I still wanted to work with a sort of realism in the work so I did not want to just put a 3d animation into the virtual street.

The street view experiments were laso comparing real life experiments to those we can live through virtually. I feel like one of the most impacting feelings when travelling is meeting other people and animals. Street view in a way protects the person from all of these experiences. The people can talk to you, the crowd can be too loud or in rural areas there are animals which sometimes are better to avoid.

I choose meeting an animal as I feel like seeing on in the wild leaves quite a large impression the clip chosen comes from a rural area in Alaska, I did not want to use a forest specifically. I wanted to make meeting an animal impacting as it would be in real life. For that I added more colors into the clip as well as I used a 3d animation of the animal instead of a real one as I wanted to see how it would look like. I also think poeple might expect to see a footage of a real animal, since the google street view is one and positioning a 3d sculpture would surprise the audience more.

I have tried both of the variations however I feel  like the first one does more of an impact, while the second fits into the concept.

[sanehamov]

escapist no 2.

[sanehamov]

the escapist- final ver.

an attempt on a juxtaposition of a cartoonish and a realistic style.

the point of these series is to position a human resembling object into a fantasy setting.

Conclusion-failed. will need to 3d scan a real head and place them in the engine

[sanehamov]

Streetview work no 3- the journal

[sanehamov]

hoaxventure pt 1

[sanehamov]

artist statement ver 2

At this time I am based in Prague where I create multimedia artworks based on the relationships between the physical and the digital. Mainly through the mediums of sculpture, video and 3D modelling programs I am trying to explore various materials and their influence on our perception. 

The influence of technology on our lives is apparent and it is still rising bringing both the positive and negative traits. Having so many mediums to display their work the creator gets to depict the object in their own way with traits they have given to the object, which might result to idealisation or degradation. Using both the fake representation and the real material as apparent tools the artist tries to prompt the viewer towards further exploration. The colour palette is subtle, blending in with both the green nature and the grey city. The materials used in physical artworks are ordinary, the digital depictions and sounds imperfect and simple. 

The outcome I am looking for is to make the viewer realize the differences and similarities between material and the opposite as well as to find the given material’s unique characteristics. I am inspired by the rising influence of technology in our lives and the detachment from the physical world. 

[sanehamov]

Google street view as art

An article picked my interest mentioning how google street view can be considered an art nowadays. various photographers have been collecting pictures they have taken from the street view and making an art out of them.

one article i found interesting is by Vice mentioning an artist called Jason Isolini. the particular work concerns the incident which occured on may 18 2018 where a person was killed by an autonomous car. Isolini used to create 360 images for businesses who would then insert the file in the maps. Everyone with a business account can do so. After that Isolini started to pursue his artistic interestis. In this case he inserted a sort of a memorial on the place of the incident. HE claims he wanted to put some history into otherwisely empty mapping system. the objects we see such as a plastic thank you bag and a stock image of a smiley are supposed to create a sense of abandonement- the one you feel when leaving behind a shopping cart on an online website. he was trying to portray what E Herzberg felt when she was crossing the street although in my opinion there is no way of knowing that. another one of his pieces can be found in a certain amazon fullfilment center. in the 360 view we can see hotdogs, a flying stadium , hamburgers... in this work he wanted to point out one of amazon's ideas- to fly over stadiums with drones which would deliver food.

The one work which kept constatnly appearing was Jon Rafman's nine eyes. The title refers to the amount of cameras on the google car. there is a siple question rising up from this activity. Is a screenshot of a documentation of an environment taken by a certain corporation considered a photogrpahy? I do not feel to have the skills to discuss this issue, however I wanted to point it out.

Inspired by the medium I have created two works.

One is a video mosaic of various places i have 'been' to. it is supposed to in a way, imitate a traveller's journal. In the past people used to write extensive reports about the new places they have been to. they were taking notes, included drawings. However now I find I can look up the place beforehand, which directly decreases my sense of alianation and excitement when I arrive. With google street view i can see the streets of a town on the other part of the planet, learnign about the different culture while sitting in my home. all of the experiences I have had can be experienced by the viewer, except for the decision as to where to go. the form of the mosaic and the contrast in between the various videos only highlights the possibilities this medium brings.

The second piece is called 'Hoaxventure'. When I was a child I have been fascinated by various 'real' photos of strange creatures found on the internet. Then I found out photoshop exists. Originally I wanted to create a sort of a comicbook-video story however I feel the story part heavily lacks behind and does not properly fit into the medium. given that i Have made the Hoax part the main focus. I 'went' to Vlkolinec an old village in Slovakia also a part of the UNESCO heritage. There are still many old houses seen in this village, the one thing remotely modern being the cars parked on the streets. into on of the clips I have insterted a photo of a Vila (fairy) a typical creature of slavic mythology  . I originally wanted to do this with multiple places in different parts in the world however I felt like I did not have the proper knowledge of neither the place nor the culture to do so.

https://medium.com/@arvindpdmn/making-art-from-google-maps-20d741282c5b https://www.businessinsider.com/google-street-view-photos-artist-jon-rafman-2016-9#and-heres-pluto-having-a-grand-time-12 jon rafman the nine eyes. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-helps-police-officers-pay-attention-details https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3nedw/this-artist-hacking-google-to-create-surreal-street-view-art

[sanehamov]

google street mosaic sketch no 1

(the one that looks like nam june paik’s work)

[sanehamov]

Language of the other

Not so long ago I have seen an episode of ‘Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman’  in which they were showing a robotics lab. Two robots there were communicating in a made-up language associating various movements and recognizing them in other humanoids. While searching for the episode on the Internet I have found about a ‘scandal?’/attention story? Which happened to facebook back in 2017. Apparently they were developing chatbots, which they let talk between each other. Allegedly they developed their own language and the creators had to shut them down as they did not know what they were contemplating. It is good to mention these experiments happened inside labs and the two bots were supposed to create the most simplest way to talk between each other. The amount of publicity this thing got was a bit suspicious at first to me and the event still seems to me to be a little clickbait-y

However I have found a video with the experiment I was talking about previously. It interested me because these robots are also learning through their hardware eg learning how not to fall down but also are learning to do, imitate and name various movements. The project of this manner requires an exceptional understanding of coding and robotics which I do not possess.

In 2016 Microsoft and Bing created Tay AI- a chatbot which was supposed to simulate ramblings of a teenage girl on twitter.  The mistake they made was the fact the robot was supposed to learn from tweets and conversations. Eventually it became the target of internet trolls and after some time it started to spill out various scandalous tweets dehumanizing jews and feminists, saying hitler was right and attacking various public figures. It was shut down shortly after that. The lesson to be learned from this- always try to avoid internet trolls.

I have decided to create a sort of a chatbot-application. However I got stuck in the middle of the process-having the base finished and not knowing how to push it further. I have spent a large amount of my time just setting the basics of the program and I think I will need to move on to other projects in order to ‘gather more inspiration‘

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35890188

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/29/microsoft-tay-tweets-antisemitic-racism

https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2yT-AL1V8

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/facebooks-artificial-intelligent-robots-shut-down-after-they-started-talking-to-each-other-f5f6966e1931

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40790258

[sanehamov]

guitar ft trees