FINAL DRAFT PROPOSAL

‘6619.52 KM’
Project Draft Proposal, Arantxa Gonlag

‘We live in each others brains, as voices, images, words on screens’ – Sherry Turkle / Life on the screen

‘6619.52 KM’ will be both a book and an installation, which focuses on the complete digital relationship between family members. The core for the project will be a group Whatsapp conversation between my mother, my sister and myself called ‘The Very Weird Abnormals’. The '6619.52' stands for the kilometres crossed between Rotterdam, Bonn and Tenerife where the three family members live separately. I will analyse our Whatsapp conversations looking at the specific words we use, the emoticons, the pictures we share with each other but also the invisible distance and time that is crossed by the mediation. I will fill in the ‘blanks’: the physical reactions to the messages, or the environment that surrounds the pictures sent to each other. Creating an imaginative world around the mediation, whilst looking at how the relationship with my family becomes a more individual relationship with digital characters.

The book will exist of one long folding page that visualizes the distance that is travelled by the mediated communication, (on a certain scale). On one side of this paper will be the entire transcript of the chat, included with analysing notes. On the other side of the paper will be a timeline that displays the distance travelled, and the length of time it would have taken physically, along the paper. On this side the archival footage and experiments that try to create and reflect on the world of mediated communication will also be displayed.
The book will be printed in a small actual book form, but next to that it will be an installation: a larger version of the unfolded book will be spread across an exhibition room, which makes it possible for people to walk through it. This allows for the project to have both still images and projections of films displayed on blank pages, as well as sound of travel connections in the space at certain moments.

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The surface of our telephone screen is the most intimate access point to the bond with my family in different countries. We can’t see the distance that is crossed, the environment of the spaces where the communication comes from, or the immediate facial responses to messages. What happens when all what we have is memories of each other, influenced only by text, and certain fragments of video and/or sound. All the while focusing on presenting ourselves within that mediation.

When communicating only through this application, we are in control of how we communicate. We create our own versions of ourselves by not physically being in each others presence. Distances and time are never physically crossed, only via typed text and images in a limited yet boundless space, where we can choose when and what we want to communicate. We don’t see each other physically, but remember each other from memories mixed with imagination, being fed by each others ‘presence’ as digital individuals. By looking into a reflecting screen when communicating you are looking at yourself constantly. ’Selfies’ and ‘Emoticons’ are ways to express yourself according to your own needs. This constant self representation towards – in this case - family is something that influences the ways the others will see you as a person.

Within this book will be different views upon this space and relationship, by means of different experiments I will eventually choose certain ones that fit the criteria whereas others will be only part of the process. The experiments are therefore the core of the project. I’m aiming for the experiments to last until February/March. Towards the end of November I will start working on the actual book design, because I’m sure I will create different versions as I go along. Then from March on it’s about finalizing everything in the design form and getting the materials together.

CURRENT PROCESS EXPERIMENTS:
1. Mom Documentation (Stopped) – Documenting my mom visiting me from Germany - This was the start for my project proposal. I almost never see my mom, but when we visit each other we still communicate mostly via the telephone. I felt a need to document us being together in the same house, seeing how we communicate.

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2. Old Pictures (Stopped – ready for use) – Old pictures from photo-books where the three characters are present, though distant from each other in the photographs. - These pictures present the last memories of us living together in the same place, which presents the way we remember each other when talking through mediated communication. They are ready for use, except they need better scans if in fact used.

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3. Screen absorption (Stopped) – Playing with the idea of being absorbed into the screen or vice versa. - I've stopped this experiment because I find that 'absorption of the screen' is more of a visual effect play on sitting behind a screen, it is more effective to keep it simple and recognizable, in direct relation to communication via the telephone.

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4. Box of space (Stopped) – Box space that visualize different types of pictures that we send each other – selfies / clouds / etcetera. - The box of a certain space ontent does not become visible on its own. No by only showing pictures that are send within Whatsapp. I have tried different versions with my face within a transparant box to vizualise the 'being in a digital invisible space'. This went on to my face covered in different transparent images of the images send to and received from my mother and my sister via Whatsapp, which works best I think because it is less abstract. I will continue with this, make it visually stronger. It will be merged with the ideas of 'Portraits reflect/frame', which is an idea that evolved from this first idea.

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5. Technical aspects (Continuing) – Technical aspects of the phones to use for different means. - I have a document with all the technical aspect of the three different phones me, my mother and my sister own. These could be good background information for whatever uses. It is used for example in a experiment where I try to encompass the width of different screens by pretending to hold them in front of me, with my hands and with a ruler. But these aspects are also used for the experiment ‘frames’. Frames is about using the technical details of the specific phones that we communicate through and make them as a frame through which we see and read everything. It is interesting that even though we communicate within the same space, the frames and devices through which it is mediated are the same – but always slightly different. I want to build a simple wooden frame for all three different phones so I can use them for whatever comes in the future of the project. Right now they are just paper and are not rigid enough to apply to anything.

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6. 3d versions (Doubting) – Making 3d versions of spaces/people - creating a 3d ‘fake’ world and faces based on the fragments of information within the space of Whatsapp communication - Doubting because I am trying to find out the best application or program I can use to make my own 3d versions, currently I have no easy-to-use programs.

7. Reflection with no face (Continuing) – Reflections in reflecting devices without seeing what causes the reflection. - This experiment was actually an error. I wanted to play with reflections, as it related back to seeing yourself in your phone when communicating with someone. Then this turned into reflection-with-no-source. On the ground I put down a piece of reflecting paper and moved around it, in this video you see only the reflecting movement and not the actual source of that reflection. It is more of an abstract play on the reflection aspect. It can be visually strong if placed in the right context perhaps.

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8. Portraits reflect/frame (Continuing) – Portraits of the characters in their own environment, behind a glass or frame as if looking through a mediation. – I’m currently trying different versions of this idea, mainly with myself as the character. I want to use my mother and sister in their own environments, photographed through Skype, in that way the mediation becomes stronger. I see them through a screen and the frame that they are holding symbolizes another screen for them.

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9. Associations (Continuing) – Associations to virtual environments found in multiple different texts. These associations are photographed in the environment of the characters and used in different other mediums to present the ‘feeling’ of the virtual world. – I’m making general pictures of moments that I experience as an association with the mediation of communication, or of other specific keywords that relate back to digital specifications.

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10. Imaginary Travel (Continuing) – Making pictures from my house to the border that goes to either my mom or sister (Based on factual travel itinerary). From there on I switch to Google Maps to walk the whole road to their environment. – This works well to visualize the environment of where my family lives without knowing exactly, I will experiment with this further to see how I can make the visual effect immediately clear.

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11. Photos/sound Telephone (Continuing – selecting constantly) – Saving pictures that are send through our group chat to each other. Some of these pictures are broken digitally and not visible anymore. – These can serve an important role in the project, depending on the way they are presented. I’m printing a few on see through paper to visualize the effect. Next to that, there are short fragments of sound we occasionally send each other, I want to put these sound files together in one file, as soon as I find out how to apply the specific file. (aac) It could serve as a backgroud sound for the installation.

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12. Physical Whatsapp script (Started) – Speaking the Whatsapp script to each others face. – I wanted to start with this when I was visiting my sister in Tenerife. She was not really looking forward to participating with the idea, neither did my mother. This brought me to another idea: me speaking my part of the script to the camera screen AND/OR a mirror (to work with the idea of seeing yourself in the screen reflection). On the moment my mother or sisters texts is supposed to be said, the video cuts to a black screen and shows the text being typed.

13. Sound of connections (Started) – Making sound files of the road from my house to either my mom or sister (Based on travel initiatory). – Started with this when going on holiday to my sister beginning of November. The most important sound file – the airplane ride – was unfortunately not saved, I am currently looking at a way to redo it or fake it. Whilst I was in Tenerife I made a few sound files of riding there randomly, these might be relevant, I still have to look at them.

14. Visualize rest of pictures (Starting) – Take the pictures that are send via Whatsapp to each other, and try to draw the environment behind it on extra paper .

15. Whatsapp script analyzed (Starting) – Analise the Whatsapp group chat script – as far as it goes now -, by writing on the paper script; giving notes about what is meant and what the physical expression would appear to be.

“..humans have moved so deeply into their own individuality that they no longer experience the reality of other humans..” - The Dangers of Individualism and the Human Relationship to Technology in Philip K. Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' by Christopher A. Sims

This project goes back to invisible digital spaces, that have a great importance at this time. My graduation project explored the infrastructure that is used by our digital data. This resulted in the photographed documentation book ‘Data Diary’. Exploring the digital world first from the surface, I have developed an interest in the underlying depth of that world, how we relate and interact with digital objects and the invisible world underneath. Where I was interested in a superficial documentation of the digital world before, now I’m circulating the notion of how we see ourselves in relation to our digital components. During the first year at Piet Zwart I made the project ‘The Places in Between’. This project explores the depth of layers that is involved in viewing our digital data. By peeling of layers within a book, you discover all the digital information regarding one day in her life.
Here, I also used my own experience as the background situation: My projects are always about me as an example or as a particular character. The pieces are not really about the content as such, but about the fact that the content is there. Right now there are many projects circulating the notion of a Digital World. Most of these are entirely focused on surveillance, tracking, online privacy etc. But also a lot of these projects are just flat-out facts, and digital. My previous graduation project for example ‘Data Diary’ seems to be one of the many. But where my projects become different, is on the personal note and the tangibility. I apply everything to my personal connections, whilst creating a physical object out of a digital source.
By focusing on the relationship of people with their personal computers, Sherry Turkle has been the first and a prominent writer I enjoyed reading, along with very general books that explain the digital world like they find it, Digital Material - Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology by multiple writers and Networks Without a Cause by Geert Lovink are two examples. With my new project the research field has become smaller, where the relationship between people through their digital spaces, 'the mediated communication', is the main thread. Currently I’m reading Sherry Turkles Together and Alone, and Techniques of the Observer by Jonathan Crary along with a different scholar essays like Representing Transcendence: The Semiosis of Real Presence by Massimo Leone and Richard J. Parmentier and Mediated Memories in the Digital Age by José van Dijck to enhance my knowledge in this subject matter. By making the subject smaller in this way, it will help me better define what experiments will make the cut to the actual book/installation in the end.

"..Virtual environments are valuable as places where we can acknowledge our inner diversity. But we still want an authentic experience of self.." - Sherry Turkle / Life on the Screen