Hi June,

I really like your style of putting together materials and presenting them. I think that your Upon Waking and your Mind Over Matter had a lot of similarities.  And you intended it to be that way. I always find your projects to be very strong. I don’t always understand what your full intentions are, but I love watching them. They leave me speechless. I’m always on the edge of my chair when I watch your videos because to me they seem very “staccato,” while also having a sense of fluidity in them. The personification that you created in Upon Waking is recognizable…the pretzel and the apple for instance. Both times that I watched your piece (during work-in-progress and the final presentation) I couldn’t really recognize the “four years at Smith” part of the project. I could see the different images that was separated by the solid colored screens, but I’m thinking that those who know you would be able to understand your messages that was depicted in the artwork: the pretzel being a professor and stuff. I’ve also always liked that you managed to make your movies with windows movie maker instead of trying out final cut pro and other softwares. You were comfortable with useing wmm and it didn’t sound like you had too many tech issues like the rest of us did with final cut (and sound track pro).

Good luck with the rest of your finals June and have a good break.

|Moitri|

Chris is an engineer and an artist. His art is more geared toward functionality than aesthetics, and this took me a little by surprise, because when I hear the word “artist” I think of pretty things. And when I hear the word “engineer” I picture machines and buildings. I couldn’t stay for the entire event, so my perception may be a little skewed here.  When I saw Chris’s designs they didn’t seem very artistic to me in the sense that they weren’t very aesthetically pleasing. At the same time though they were incredibly interesting and  I couldn’t believe that he came up with such a design. He showed us a picture of a machine that had three microphones attached to it. The mics would pick up on any sounds that took place around it. It was designed to pick up the sounds of gunshots during war,  after sensing where the gunshot came from the machine would fire back at the sound-target. This way American soldiers wouldn’t have to risk their lives in the Middle East—instead they could just send a bunch of these machines (called hunter hunter) and not risk their lives. This machine seemed absolutely brilliant. Why wasn’t something like this established before? Why is the U.S. government still sending over people instead of robots?

There was another piece that he created which was equally useful. It was the robot that Clara mentioned that would move around with American soldiers and take part in the present situation.

To me hunter hunter would not  seem like an art piece the first time I saw it. To me it seems purely technology / engineering driven. Maybe Chris has other pieces that fall under my definition of art that I didn’t get a chance to see. But as I am writing now, I’m glad that I had the opportunity to see Chris’s work because now I don’t find it as difficult to associate machines / robots with art anymore. They came from concepts that were based on some idea and the artist found ways of putting it together. Just because it wasn’t a painting or a computer program doesn’t mean that it cannot be called art. If he considers himself an artist then he’s an artist. What are we to do about it.

What also struck me as interesting was how he  incorporates politics in his work. I stay away from the words politics, but his robots all have something to do with politics and how the government works and how it could work better. I liked that I was able to learn a little bit about politics from his presentation that I would not have come across in my daily life. He was talking about these pilot-less planes that were created for surveillance purposes only, but in actuality these planes were capable of targeting down a person and then shooting him/her. Apparently this information was kept a secret for a long time, until these planes were needed and used for it’s full purpose. Chris’s art work seems like a much better way of learning about what goes on in politics than studying it in a classroom. I enjoyed his presentation.

|Moitri|

This past Wednesday night I went to the FLS 282 film screening, which featured six short films made by Lucretia Knapp’s students. Five of the six films were narrative shorts, and the last film was an experimental short.

The Dollar (Josiah Aiken-Drake) – The Dollar is a quirky short film that follows the life of a lone dollar bill that escapes a robber’s hand during a liquor store hold-up. The film was sort of “a day in the life” of the dollar bill, documenting its many travels in and out of the hands of various people (from prostitutes to politicians). The film was visually interesting enough, but after watching the film it is hard to explain what the meaning of it is – mostly because I don’t think there is a lot that could be taken away from it.

Sugar (Lares Feliciano) – This film was very amusing – light and goodhearted. It is about a girl who wakes up to find a confessional love letter at her door only to realize that – after all her guessing and anticipation – it was she who penned and left the note for herself when in a drunken state. The visuals were quite solid in the film, but there were a few times when the audio was out of synch with the video. That part was a bit distracting, but in general the film was quite funny, and I enjoyed watching it.

Thrown (Nikki Knight) – This film has a very unclear narrative. It is about a girl who can’t get over her ex-girlfriend – she makes lots of to-do lists that include items such as, “find out how I lost you,” or “figure out a way to win you back.” The strange thing about the film is that the girl is obviously very upset, but one never knows what she is really and truly upset about. The film ends abruptly and just seemed to be very incomplete both in thought and execution.

Put Me to Sleep (Deepti Nair) – This film was supposedly a narrative film, but it certainly had some very abstract/experimental moments in it. It follows a young man who is struggling from a rare disease that leaves its affected totally incapable of sleeping. As the film progresses, the main character’s delerium becomes more and more obvious both as a result of his acting and as a result of some interesting editing choices (e.g. time-lapsed scenes, extreme close-ups that had a claustrophic-effect, and frantic pacing). The film was interesting because it slowly revealed itself, but the ending took a very surprising turn that seemed to detract from the seriousness and significance of the young man’s disease.

Continuity Error (Keith Ward) – This film employs a lot of special effects as it follows the dream of a young woman. Her dream is quite confusing, as are most dreams, and the time period/style in which various scenes were filmed/edited would change frequently to account for what were apparently changes in the girl’s dream. While the drastic time period changes were a neat way to explore the girl’s dream, I felt as if that was one of the only propelling forces in the film. The narrative itself left a lot to be desired and ended abruptly without there being any character development.

Object Lesson (Julie Casper Roth) – Object Lesson was the only experimental film in the bunch, and it was visually quite stunning. The film opens with a quotation pertaining to Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism, and features a little boy playing with toy trains, planes, and automobiles. The film often presented two frames side-by-side with the boy in one and real or abstract images that pertained loosely to what the boy was doing in the other. At times the action in one of the frames carried over into the next frame, making it a very beautiful visual piece. I liked this film the best because it explored an important issue mainly through visuals, and it seemed the filmmaker was particularly passionate about and connected to the issue, which many of the other films seemed to lack.

As a more general response to the film screenings, I will say that, in the majority of the films, it seemed that the form was more valued than the content itself. I don’t know if that was intentional on the part of the filmmakers or not, but I know that in trying to tackle different media formats this semester, the form was of primary concern to me because I was just trying to use the medium – let alone make something meaningful in it! Ideally, in my opinion, the content is the most important aspect of the film and should generally be augmented by the technical elements of the film rather than overwhelmed or dominated by them. Certainly the technical aspects are of utmost importance, but I think you have to have a real story or a compelling message at the base of any artistic project in order for it to resonate with audiences. After being in this class, I understand how difficult it is to come up with a meaningful idea and to then execute it…or to begin executing something in hopes of stumbling upon something meaningful, so I have a lot of respect for what the students put together and for their willingness to present it in such a public forum in front of potentially scrutinizing peers.

-Jennifer

Chris’s presentation was very interesting. He presented several of his projects. One of the ones he presented was the Afghan Explorer which we had already mentioned shortly in class. One thing he said about this project was interesting to me because it gave insight on how he works as an artist. He explained that he had had the idea for this for a while already and he told a journalist about it as though it were a real finished project already. Not until this journalist wrote an article about it, did Chris actually start working on making his an idea a reality and creating this ‘robot’. Another interesting thing about this was how he and his colleagues placed the Afghan Explorer in a video game which was meant to teach soldiers how to navigate terrain in Afghanistan. This was also especially interesting since we had just talked about using computer games for art in class. Chris placed his Afghan Explorer into these video games to simulate a true situation which this robot could be a part of. If this robot were really to be used, these learning games for the soldiers (in which the robot had been added) would help the soldiers get used to having the robot around. Chris had also created a few pictures displaying the robot with native Afghan people, suggesting that the robot could interact on friendly terms with the natives. It is sad that this is a world where a it is possible that people would trust a robot more than other fellow people.
Clara

http://sophia.smith.edu/~jyeung/blogevents.html

a friend sent me a link about bonobo primates (they are like dolphins and like sex a lot) and i ended up clicking a few links and arrived here. teledildonics. what the freaking hell.

i was so disturbed and humored i had to share.

– janel

I’ve always been facinated by how digital art had two parts–two layers to it: the visual layer where what is presented is visually stimulating and the information layer where the raw data exists. Usually the information behind an artwork is data or code that the artist manipulates or presents in a variety of ways. For example a website has two layers: the code and the representation of the code. Both of these features essentially have the exact same information, but one is more accessible by everyone. Those who don’t know how to read or interpret html code for instance seem naive to me. Those who don’t understand the raw data for what it is, seem to have been decieved by the artist because the artist represented that raw data as something aesthetically pleasing. Although some or most people would preffer viewing the product instead of the raw data, to me it seems like the meaning of the art work is lost if the raw data isn’t shown as itself. Especially in a piece of art work, I would like to know how the artist came to the visual aspect of the piece from the raw data. If I wasn’t aware of how the artist used the data to create his or her art then I wouldn’t be able to fully understand or feel complete by the piece.

Many of the examples in the reading tells us how the artist used raw data to represent their artwork.  In Apartment the user types in words and a bluprint is created according to what the word means. The symantics of the word plays an important role in this piece. For instance I typed in bed and a bedroom was created with the word bed in the center of it. The meaning of the word bed is closely related to the word bedroom. Then I typed in food and a kitchen was created. Then I typed in the word concept, it didn’t seem to fit anywhere and so the word was faded and floated around the apartment withouth a place of its own. So this piece told me how the artist used the raw data and manipulated it to present his artwork. In Valence, however, there isn’t just one particular image that results from one word. The words interact with each other, but not in an obvious way that everyone would recognize. And so this is an example that manipulates the raw data differently.

On a different note, the reading says, “…databases have become an essential form of cultural organization and memory.” I find this statement to be very true. Take cell phones for example, when was the last time we memorized someone’s 10 digit phone number. We rely so much on databases that we don’t have to rack our brains anymore for memory storage–we can simply have something else memorize for us. In the same way databases that contain information about cities or buildings or libraries are important to have. They not only hold information for us, but also allow us to represent them in a variety of ways which allow us to access the data stored in a more convenient way.
|Moitri|

I thought the FloodNet protest project was very interesting. Blockig sites by simply overwhelming the server is a very smart idea. And especially when it comes to sites that have to do with the government for instance, I am sure it does get attention. The last sentence about this interested me perticularly. This virtual sit-in was described as the virtual equal to the physical blocking of entrances. Though I see the parrallels, my immediate response was that there was no way that such a virtual sit-in could compare to actual people protesting in front of a building. Then again, I realized, that in todays world, the internet is considered so important that officials may actual see the virtual sit-in as more bothering, and the ‘attacked’ must actually do something about it. I do think though, that the press would report more on an actual human sit-in and therefore, that would get more attention among other people.
clara

Last class, we were talking about what technology has enabled us to do that was not available before.  The Paul reading got me thinking about how the reason why some of the pieces that were portrayed in the reading is successful is the realism—if Kenneith Feingold’s creepy heads didn’t look real, for instance, the desired effect would not be achieved.  Essentially, technology allows us to enhance communication.  Not only are stories told by word-of-mouth, but sometimes it is the unsaid that is the most powerful—we can now really show instead of tell.

I was very disturbed by the guy who injected the microchip into himself.  Coupled with the Stelarc performances, this piece made me realize that these pieces are disturbing because of two of my fears: 1. Mechanical failure and 2. Human use of technology as a form of control.  If Stelarc’s mechanical extensions, for instance, the artist’s body could be easily hurt because he is surrounded by/attached to these machines.  Along the same lines, if we all had microchips implanted in us to track our location, who could have access to the information and moreover, what could they potentially do with the information?

june

I enjoyed this selection from the Paul book, except for the Eduardo Kac ‘Time Capsule’ piece that made me convulse in my seat everytime I flipped by it.

The part of the selection that struck me the most was how poetic so many of these A.I. structures actually are. As a person naturally appreciative of words and all things poetic and majestic, I really appreciate that a highly computerized world not only can match the “traditional” world in poetry and beauty but even arrive at even more poetic and meaningful points of entry.

So many pieces excited me. “Impermanence Agent” offers a way of reflecting on your website visits, and through that, reflect upon yourself. The way it’s presented is even in a poetic form, taking a narrative and altering it accordingly to personalize it. It’s a really different way of thinking about yourself and your tendancies, and what, if anything, it all means. I wonder if I downloaded the browser on my own computer if I would experiment by purposely going to certain sites to try to manipulate the story created by the mini browser window. Would my urge to craft a story win, or would I accept whatever story was presented as a poetic form in itself? I should go find out.

The “Telegarden” and “Teleporting an Unknown State” projects were both very beautiful concepts. The results were even more exciting. “Curators initially had some doubts whether a shared responsibility of online visitors would be able to ensure the seedling’s survival, but the Internet (community) turned out to be a strong enough life-support system.” Yay! That is uplifting. If we can all work together to nurture a seed to growth, perhaps we can all work together to achieve similar results, such as battling global warming . . . or, maybe not.

“Apartment” by Wattenberg and Walczak was my favorite project described in the selection. I just spent about 30 minutes using it online. The computer connects your written word with different forms of spatial configuration. At first you may wonder hey, what the hell is going on computer, but as you keep going, it starts to make sense, and you feel as if you and your computer are in sync. I’ve never approached, let alone even thought about language in this kind of spatially oriented way before and I’m incredibly excited that through A.I. all these new potentialities exist.

– janel