Martin (XPUB)-project proposal

What do you want to make?

I want to suggest a physical experience of the Web by creating an IRL exhibition space conceived as a Web interface.

How do you plan to make it?

On one hand, I will continue my research about the exhibition spaces and interfaces through art history and theory and understand they relate to each others. Both physical exhibition spaces and interface are spaces in which our actions and behaviour are sort of predefined, either by curators or by programmers, however there are also major differences between both of them. On the other hand, I will work a lot Arduinos and sensors, as wekk as conceiving the physical elements of the exhibition space such as the walls, rails, etc. My prototyping strategy could be to increase the scale of my woprk over time or to directly work at human scale. Meanwhile, both for theorical and production parts, I will ask help from teachers, curators, technicians, and a few friends in order to evolve on all aspects of this graduation project.

What is your timetable?

• 1st semester: starting from the very first hackpack that was made, buy, assemble and programm a Arduino with a ESP8266 module and a ultrasonic Sensor (HC-SR04), test it out with various things such as a bulb lamp, a speaker, a motor, or a beamer, and just see what happens. Meanwhile get started with conceiving and making a reduced scale model of the exhibition space I talked about. I with to introduce my ideas to both wood and metal workshop managers by showing this small scale prototype, and listen to their remarks and advice to move forward. The true purpose of this project should be clear before the end of this semester.

• 2nd semester: Start conception of this space at human scale by finding a space where I could work in for the rest of the year until the graduation. Ask, apply and find a definitive space to make this installation happen, eother in or outside of the school.

Why do you want to make it?

Use concepts from the Web in order to facilitate our understanding of the exhibition spaces, and consider their influence in the nature our experience. In that sense, conceiving the exhibition space as a Web interface, and the spectator as a user is also about puting together two worlds that are too often clearly separeted as two distinct entities(IRL vs Online). This is about experiencing their ambiguities. (see: Reversing the desktop metaphor) More generally, it is overall about reflecting on media themselfs, and try to deal with the medium paradox ( see: Mediatizing the media). This paradox make me want to give spectators more occasions to focus on what is containing, surrounding, holding or hosting what is supposed to be contemplated.

Who can help you?

• About the project itself:

1. Reinaart Van Hoe apparently worked on a very similar project a while ago, I need to talk to him.
2. Stephane Pichard, old tutor, we worked together several years on conceptualizing installations and exhibitions spaces
3. Arduino Group (Lousia and other people interested into sharing knowledge and experiments about Arduino)
4. Dennis de Bel who introduced me to Arduino and willing to answer to my questions and Aymeic who is apparently a Arduino Wizard

• About creating the physical elements:

1. Wood station (for movable walls)
2. Metal station (for rails)
3. Interaction station (for arduino/rasperyPi assistance)

• About Theory/Writting:

1. Yael: friend and philosopher, curating exhibition and writting about the challenges of the exhibition space
2. Emmanuel Cyriaque: my ex-teacher and tutor, curating exhibition
3. Rosa Zangenberg: ex-student in history art and media at Leiden Universtity.

Relation to previous practice

During the first part of my studies, my interest has been gradually driven by references, questions and practices that directly concerned the tools, formats and langages I was dealing with as a student. I believe that the better is a medium at "mediating", the more invisible, misunderstood and misconsidered it gets. This interesting paradox puts me in the position to focus on what is containing, supporting or hosting the subject that is supposed to be experienced. That is how I started to hijack some media and wished to transform them as the subjects of my works, in what could be eventually called 'meta-works'. During my last graduation, I started reflecting on the status of networked writing and reading by programming my thesis in the form of Web to Print website, subsequently translated in physical world as a printed book, a set of flags, and a series of installations. Finally and until now, I am getting gradually interested by the differences and ambiguities between physical exhibition spaces and web interfaces. Either curated or programmed, both are meant to influence our user/spectator behaviour in space and orientate our way to consume contents. However, while the exhibition space is quiet rigid and institutionalised, the web is more variable and unpredicatble.

After making a scenography willing to translate in a physical space; the texts, images from my previous online thesis under some sort of ‘physical interface’, I wish this time to consider the physical space as an elastic space, similar to a Web window, that could be resized by the spectator, affecting the display of the content and sort of diffracting the range of technological contexts and perspective in which are all experiencing as Web users.

Relation to a larger context

More broadly, I wish to question the modern conception of the physical exhibition space as an institutionalized, presivable and unalterable device. In that sense, I feel my project connect to the practice of institutional critique exposed by Hal Foster in After the White Cube; where she compares the museum as a mausoleum, the white cube with a form of art consumerism or entertainment of art.

References

• Stéphanie Moser, 2010. THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS: MUSEUM - Displays and the Creation of Knowledge. 1st ed. Southampton, England

• Alexander R. Galloway - The Interface Effect 1st ed. Malden, USA: Polity Press.

• Jonas Lund, 2012. What you see is what you get

• Shilpa Gupta, 2009 - 2010. Speaking Wall

• Frederick Kiesler, 1925, City of space