Abby and I performed a piece called ‘Before the Sun Sets’ for this project. I genuinely enjoyed working through this project with her because I got to combine skills I already had, skills I learned solely through this class, and concepts I learned from other classes I had been taking this semester.
The collaboration for this group project was easier than past group projects I was a part of to be honest. This was surprising to me since we had to do all of this through a screen. The thing that worked best for us was that we had opposite strengths. I was good at coming up with ideas, developing a story line, and gathering content, while Abby was good at executing the concept and doing the technical stuff behind the scenes to make it happen. We listened to each other ideas and concerns and instead of rejecting any piece of it, we simply said “yes, and…” which really helped us a develop a final idea.
We went with the first thing that came to mind, stuck with it, developed it, and did not think too much about it. I brought up the idea of a Flaneur, which I had learned in my Metropolitan Studies class. A Flaneur is a white privileged male who has no other purpose, but to take in and wander through the modern city. The thing is, ONLY white privilege men are able to do this since they can blend into the background, afford to have no responsibility, and not be questioned about their existence. Women and people of color are not able to be Flaneur’s because they are not allowed to simply exist as it. Their wandering could be questioned or categorized as criminal (loitering).
This brought me to a feeling I had when I walk outside alone as a women. I thought Abby could relate since we had that in common. We talked more about the experience and then I told her I had an old poem about this very thing. From there, I found content that supported the theme/ feel of the poem and then we went from there by implementing OBS and a Max Patch.
I have never done live visual performance before so it was a new experience for me. It was a challenging thought because as an artist I try to seek perfection, but with this live element, it taught me that anything could happen and you just have to accept it and adjust accordingly. The final performance was not perfect and did not fully display what we planned prior. I definitely would have liked to put in more time with practicing the piece before hand so that the cues could be more crisp and the pacing of the narrative be perfected, but we did the best we could with that our schedules allowed. Also, it would be cool to see the scale of the piece in a different light too. I think seeing this piece performed on a large projection in an intimate place would really make an impact. Overall, the process worked really well and I am happy about how it came out.
The search for a realtime image or video artist was kind of hard to find. I didn’t really find the types of artists I was trying to look for on Google, but that may have been a fault of my own because I didn’t really know how to describe it. I utilized the Instagram hashtag #VJs & I ended up finding a pod of artists and coders based in NYC called VJ Sperm Whale. I will say, this group is not the best out there in terms of VJing and their visuals are pretty low-fi. They are not well known and seem to do a lot of underground, local events, and rather small venues in NYC. This is exactly why I choose them.
So far, the realtime video and image artists I have seen so far has been very abstract. It seemed so beyond me, in these huge venues, and crazy visuals. It’s pretty intimidating. Seeing the other well known VJ artist had me hesitant about this course because I felt like I could never do something like that, but with VJ Sperm Whale, I feel like now I can.
Their visuals are quirky, weird, random, yet familiar, and connect to the vibe of the music being played. Their spaces were relatively small and intimate. Given this, they seemed to be able to project their visuals on all the wall space in the venue, which I thought was cool and something I haven’t seen before. Usually, I have seen that there is just a screen behind the DJ with the visuals and not the whole room. This created a very disorienting environment, which caused for a unique experience. In the link below, you can see that the visuals are being projected onto the audience. I think breaking the stage barrier is really dope. I also like how their visuals really compliment the genre of music being played. You can tell they knew what crowd they were creating for and that’s super important to consider. Overall, I really enjoy seeing their work and how the music guided it. I wonder how VJing can be utilized in other performances…
For my player piano, I wanted to explore a more intentional rhythm. I thought the random number generator was really cool and could serve as a great tool to create sound art. Although, I wanted to create something with a little more restriction in order to make a more familiar sound.
The first thing I worked on was adding more layers so that more than one sound could play at a time. I decided to add a counter and select object. I wanted this to count how many beats passed and on a certain beat, I wanted it to trigger another sound. This created more layers and sounded more like a normal song. I tried to choose pitches that worked well together. For example, the slider’s pitch under the select 4 object were a part of a chords, so when they were played at the same time, it would sound cohesive. As you can see here, I greatly restricted the pitch choices so that it could repeat a certain sound.
I played around with the speed of the main sound and then the added layers. I found that when they were not in sync, it still sounded somewhat cohesive because of the selected pitches. Although, it gave a delayed feeling like something was missing. This is interesting because it just speaks on how our ears work and what we find comfort in when it comes to music.
My Three Instruments:
Sidewalks on a busy day don’t make much of an impression on the people walking on them. If we turned them into an instrument, then people would take more time to enjoy their commute. The pitch of the sidewalk instrument will be trigger depending the position the person’s steps. If the person is on the right end it would have a lower pitch and if they’re on the left end it would have a higher pitch. The note’s velocity would be based off how much motion is on the sidewalk/ how fast a person is walking using motion detectors. The duration will be based off how many people are on the sidewalk at once which can be recorded by using pressure detecting mats. So let’s say that there are many people walking very fast on the sidewalk. The sound will be loud and last long. This may be annoying to some folks and in order to avoid it, they would need to walk slower and make sure not too many people are on the side walk. This will force them to slowdown, possibly take in and enjoy their surroundings more with calm music, and social distance at the same time.
A trampoline. The position on the trampoline represents the pitch. The velocity depends on how hard you jump and the duration depends on your feet contact with the trampoline. If the trampoline sensor detects the force of your jump to be really higher/hard then the faster the notes. The longer your feet are on the trampoline then the longer your note will play.
Using machine learning, You can map out a face to act as an instrument. When the face frowns, there will be a lower pitch played, when your face smiles, then a higher pitch will be played. The duration can be recorded by how much your head is tilted. The greater the tilt, the longer duration the note will be. Lastly, the velocity of the note can be found with how fast someone blinks. The faster someone blinks, then the notes velocity will increase and vice versa.
The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff really has me scared. It is interesting to me how something so normalized and accessible to many people such as vehicles is being used as a way to collect data and keep track of the masses. I think this approach is very smart, but that does not make it less scary. It makes sense to target an object that so many people have and rely on in order to control and manipulate a population. People use cars to get to work, go to the grocery store, visit their family members, etc. They will never not use cars in the near future. Therefore, having access to data relating to a vehicle is very power. The article mentions that this data is “turning into beacons of revenue that illuminate a new commercial prospect”. A company can sell the the data about a vehicle’s location to see how much traffic occurs around a specific place to see if a shopping mall might benefit there. Or maybe an insurance company can pay for data about their customer’s driving habits. This data opens up a whole new lane for money to be made, which, I feel, always comes with many problems because people take it too far. The writing also mentions that “data can be used for dynamic real-time driver behavior modification triggering punishments,” such as engine lockdowns. This is so scary. My mind automatically jumped to traffic stops by police. I feel like this can almost make unjust traffic stops and police brutality easier. Someone will have control over your vehicle based off their own judgement. Scary.
What stood out to me most in Maciej Ceglowski’s The Internet With a Human Face, was the concept of memory. The reality that a computer’s memory is strictly binary emphasizes the black and whiteness of the Internet. It lacks how important certain information is over others. It can keep information forever or lose it in an instant. There is no in between. The mindset of programmers is to save everything. “Deleting is dangerous,” for them. Even if it the most tedious of information, you never know when this might be useful. Although, I find this mindset very unhealthy. I think we, as humans, were made to forget on purpose. If we kept all our memories and every detail we noticed, we would have no room to imagine.
I found this in my dorm room. I believe it is for the wifi.
While continuing on the exercise we did in class, I found a wifi box in my dorm room and I also found a lot of satellites and other wifi boxes around the city. A lot of the pictures I took were super blurry and very far away that it was impossible to make out the exact object I was trying to capture. Although, doing this exercise made me realize how normalized these technologies are for me. I don’t think twice when I pass by wifi boxes or satellites. I also realized that I do not know how any of these machines work. I know their function, but I do not know how they are made and how exactly they carry out their functions. I wonder if technology would ever be incorporated into the basic high school curriculum. As we advance further with technology, it only makes sense to start having a basic foundational education around it. This experience does change my idea of what it means to be “online.” It makes me feel like being “online” is no longer a choice, especially in the city. I feel like the city runs on being “online” and by living in it, you are automatically associated. Although you might not intentionally be “online” like actively on Facebook, you may walk into a retail store whose entrance keeps track of you as a customer and records that you were there. I think being online is more than a personal one on one experience that may be used as entertain for the self. It is now even a way to document existence and record data about people that might not even know about it.
Sooooo, we just out here selling names for $50 million dollars!? This blows my mind. The possession over two letters ‘tv’ has so much power. Tuvalu’s internet domain suffix ‘.tv’ was signed over to Jason Chapnik for $50 million dollars because he wanted that domain for his own company. First of all, I did not know a negotiation between a nation’s official assigned domain was possible. This assigned area of control that Tuvalu was given on the Internet seemed to be something solidified, yet Mr. Chapnik just comes along and asks for the name rights. Chapnik had to very much want this name. This put in perspective to me how important domain names are in the success of a company. It gives it credibility in way the more simple and customized it is. All the ‘good’ sensible names seemed to be taken because so many people use the Internet and if you are just another person using it with no status, access, or recognition then you will have a more complex and random name. The more simple it is, the more memorizable it is, and more people will be able to access it easier. Everyone likes easy.
Tyler Mitchell has been trying to get a new domain that just is his name. Yet, another Tyler Mitchell has that domain already. He has emailed him about getting the rights to that domain, but the original owner refuses. As Tyler Mitchell grows in popularity, it only makes sense for him to make sure his brand is credible and as professional as it can be. It makes sense as to why ownership of these names can be useful to a brand or company.
As for this Algorithmic Citizenship… THIS SEEMS SO NECESSARY RIGHT NOW. I am currently taking a class about migration that focuses between the U.S./Mexico border. We often discuss the economic, social, and political status of these migrants when they come to the United States. It is very interesting and very faulty in which the way the U.S. portrays and views these migrants. These migrants are often treated poorly and are invisile in the eyes of the U.S. They are seen as unworthy of basic human rights just because they were not born on U.S. soil. Even migrants that have lived here majority of their life can potentially be deported because they are undocumented.
My understanding of this Algorithmic Citizenship project, which I’m not sure I completely understand and would like to dissect more in class, would help undocumented migrants that have lived in the U.S. majority of their lives gain rights to remain in the U.S.. It will show how they are just like everyone else. This can be evidence that they are culturally aware, share similar “American interests,” and how they are apart of the U.S.’s social capital based off the data from their Internet use. I also like the idea of subcitizenships. To say someone is or is not a citizen of a particular place is very black and white, but it’s more complex than that. People come from many places and communities. I think this concept emphasizes the grey area of humaity that makes everyone unique and worthy.
John Perry Barlow’s A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace was definitely interesting to read. It definitely introduced me to new perspectives and ideas that I am still trying to digest. I think I agree with his stance on how the government should not interfere with the Internet. The U.S. government was based off of colonization, white supremacy, and a lot of other bad things, which is still at our governments foundation today. I am hopeful that the system will change one day and reflect a more open and accepting nation, but it seems to still be tainted for the near future. Therefore, I think Cyberspace and real life should be handled separately. Cyberspace is a chance to reconstruct a world that is better. I really liked his quote that reads “We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.” I agree with this quote. The internet allows everyone to have an opinion, but only if they have access to the Internet. Some people do not have access to it and that can undermine some voices.
The thought of “Our identities have no bodies” on the Internet is mind blowing to me. Even if we post a picture of ourselves, that picture is still not authentic, it is an artificial version of ourselves. Therefore, I think the Internet can somehow shine light onto our minds more than our appearance, which can totally change our society. You can engage in conversation with someone without seeing how they look. This will focus your attention to their controlled thoughts and mindset rather than their uncontrollable features that might be a catalyst for prejudice.
I do think some of Barlow’s claims still exist today, such as Cyberspace growing due to the people’s collective actions. Although, a lot of this stuff might be hard to exist in today’s world. Censorship still happens which prevents the Internet from being a place that Barlow ideally describes. I also feel like the Government does control the Internet and I don’t see how the Internet can separate from it. There is so much to sort through on the Internet and I wonder how the Internet can be controlled by us, the people, in a way that follows Barlow’s claims.
The work that I responded to for my project was Infinite Essence by Mikael Owunna. The concept of this piece of work was to recast the black body as eternal. It challenges the common narrative of black bodies usually being represented by death. The artist highlighted the beauty of the soul and a deeper cosmic connection.
Owunna hand painted his models with fluorescent paint all over and then took photographs using a standard flash with an ultraviolet bandpass filter so that the only thing that could pass was ultraviolet light. This lit up the flourscent paint and created a galaxy like effect on the models. The models took elegant poses. The final project reimagined a future, highlighted hope and positiviy, told a new story, and gave us more than a regular eye can see. You can find more of the project here: https://www.mikaelowunna.com/infinite-essence
When starting my own project, I spent a lot of time looking at Owunna’s work and reading his documentation. I took notes on his process. I listed over arching concepts and initial emotions that the work made me feel. I noticed the tools/materials he used. I listed things that I thought were absent. After meditating on my notes, I gathered the most intriguing bits that I wanted to explore for my own.
I really loved the idea of emphasizing the “beauty of the soul.” The soul is within and can not be seen at first glance. I wondered what the world would be like if everyone’s soul was the first thing people saw. If people’s souls were tangible, what would that look like?
I liked the feeling of other worldliness. You do not see galaxy looking people just walking around, but Owunna’s work made that a reality. I like the idea of making “impossible” things possible. It was very empowering.
I liked how it was a photography piece, yet initially not recognizable as a tradition photograph, and how the body paint, which seems like a very overlooked medium, was used to create this dramatic effect on the models.
Although, I think photography often can be very flat and forgettable. I don’t tend to stare at photos for very long and I think social media has influenced that. I think the liveliness of this project was missing because it was very still and initially only held my attention for a little bit. I think the concept is so powerful, but the stillness of the photos limit it.
After starring at all these components, jumping around in my mind, and being super indecisive, I decided to just jump into it. I went with my initial vision, acted , and tweaked it along the way.
For my project, I wanted to create photo portraits of people that emphasized the beauty of their soul in an active way. I wanted these portraits to give the viewer a sense of the aspects they don’t see when initially meeting a person. I wanted these portraits to be personal and offer a new perspective to what a portrait can do and look like.
Process:
I used photography to mainly execute this project. I have barely ever used a professional camera before. So, a lot of research was done prior to me taking the pictures of my subjects. I actually was blessed enough to have my friend, Niko, who takes and edit pictures, help me out. After YouTubing about photography for beginners, Niko gave me a further hands on explaination to what apature, ISO, and shutter speed was. Thank you Niko! This is a video I used to help me understand some of the camera basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyXiWF3mI2s
This is a test photo of Niko that I edited for practice.
After getting some camera practice, I moved on to gathering subjects. I initially had three people that were down to be apart of this, but the process for one took me way longer than expected. I decided to focus on my friend Nick’s portrait because the concept I had for his excited me the most.
I sat down with Nick and asked him a few questions about himself. I created questions that I thought would help me most in creating their portraits. I wanted this process with my subject to be engaging, conversation like, and an exchange of energy between the two of us so that I could do the best I can at representing them.
The questions I asked and Nick’s answers:
What is a color that describes you?
Definitely grey-blue. I wear that color a lot.
If you had a theme song, what song would it be?
Ou! Simon Says by Pharoahe Monch. That’s a song for a badass.
What are your most important values?
Always take risks, spread and receive love constantly, live in the moment, and cherish friends and family.
What are three adjectives to describe you?
Loving, caring, clever
What is the type of person you want to be known as?
Someone who is approachable and respected creatively for my music.
After gathering this information, I thought about the best way to execute it. At first, I thought it would be super cool to incorporate the body paint idea, but none of my subjects seemed too thrilled about it. Instead, I decided to paint on the body… through digital software.
The plan was to take the photo, edit them to my liking, and draw on the body in a way that displays the beauty of the soul given the information I gathered. I knew I wanted to do something relating to Nick’s big heart, his caring side, how giving and recieving love revolves around him as a being, and his love for music.
I did not know exactly how this would look yet while I was taking Nick’s pictures, so I had him pose in different dramatic ways to see what would work best later on. Here are some examples:
Nick!
Buuuuut, the image I decided on was:
This was the final edited photo of Nick that I used.
Next, I used an app on my iPad called Sketches Pro. I wanted to show how important love was to Nick and its constant role in his life. Therefore, the sketch I ended up with was:
I returned to what I though was absent in Infinite Essence, which was motion. I thought about how I can incorporate Nick’s love for music and incorporate motion into this piece, and bam! I thought this was my opportunity to finally experiment with animation. I had a short animation lesson in Communications Lab and always wanted to master it, but never continued after the intro in class. This was my time to return to it and try it out for myself.
I decided to the animation frame by frame and sequence using iMovie later. These are some of the frames I used for the final:
I definitely wanted to incorporate the song Nick wanted as his theme song for the audio. I found the instrumental version on Youtube, converted the video to an mp3, transferred it into GarageBand and edited the sound slighted to get a more dramatic base and overall sound.
I dropped all the frames and audio into iMovie and edited the timing duration and sequence of the frames to give this portrait more character and essence. This was the final step of my project. Here is the final outcome:
Out of all the art we were given to look over, Infinite Essence by Mikael Owunna stood out to me the most. This project focused on recasting black bodies as eternal. This project is saying that there can be and is a possibility for the black body to exist other than with death and suffering. The black body can be powerful. It can be what everything comes from. It can be godly. It can be forever. It can be allowed to exist and just be.
I really love this piece because of many different reasons. First being, presentation. I think the clarity of the concept has a lot to do with how it was presented on the artist’s website. There were very small, but powerful sentences between the images. I would be first introduced by the amazing image and then, BAM! approached by what the image was about. The word choice and summary of the project was very straight forward and went hand and hand with all the images. I especially like the question posed : “What if the only images you saw of people who looked like you were dead and dying bodies? How would that affect the way you move through the world, how would that enter (and hamper) your body”? This gave me more background to the artist’s inspiration for creating this project. It was a chilling question that added so much more to the impact of the pieces.
I also love the aesthetic cohesiveness. You could tell all the images were from the same project. The same process was used for every image, yet all the images have their own aura and effect. I also like the different poses that the models took. Since the background was pitch black, it made me question what were these bodies responding to and why? I like this mysterious aspect.
Mainly, I love this project because of the concept. The concept went against what people normally expect black bodies to look like. It said fuck that. It reimagined a better future and I love projects like that. It brings a new idea and new content. A new story.
Although, I think one thing that could make it stronger is if there were multiple models in one image. All of these images were of individual black bodies, but how might these eternal black bodies look when interacting with each other? I think this could take it a step further and bring a community aspect to it. How can black bodies be eternal together?
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