User:Michaela/DRAFT proposal 18/09/13

Tentative Title

x

Introduction

• key words/ domain of interests:

- public space

- online - offline media

- virtual-physical space

- participatory (including the "users")

- an alternative media

- the observer (the spectator)

- action-reaction

- site specific / situation specific

Brief Description

This year I would like to have clear idea what I will investigate further during the upcoming year.!!! Be honest with yourself and with the others 80% of the work is already done. Aymeric My current field of interests:

• The use of technology to support a wide array of social, economic and political interaction is generating an increasing amount of information about who, what and where we are. The increasing awareness of surveillance ( or the watching from above the, controlled by authorities) amplifies the growing tension. Themes depict form public - private to control - exercise power.
• The social and ethic aspect of how the watchers/ observers are privileged, empowered, gained control over the subject.

key words: surveillance, sousveillance ("to watch from below"), panopticom, close-circuit television (CCTV), public space etc.

comment: the subject is broad and requires vast amount of resources readings drawn from law, computer science, social sciences, literature, art and media studies.

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theme_2.0

• "leaving traces of data" the research will be focus on abstract, rather philosophical and poetic idea of space / virtual - physical - cyberspace-no Space, space we inhabit space we decide to leave.

I find fascinating the abstract theme of erasing an identity/memory social status.// As an act of deleting files from the system but the system remains.

• • the movement/ migration from one place to another.
    • Interesting interconnection between the physical disappearance and the possibility to erase digital traces/ data of online presence.

field of interests: collective consciousness, memory, present, migration, emigration, status, erase identity, erase data, erase memory

Relation to previous practice

Within encouraged thematic projects which often merged to self-directed research and intensive practices I have start developing a set of skills and techniques in process of building my own visual language reflects to the current media landscape, where I am in a process of defining critical position in a broader cultural, technical and social context. I still have to work to complete/ resolve some of the projects I have started. During this first year I touched upon various subjects mostly influenced by the given themes and input. In the first year of Piet Zwart Institute I had the chance to experiment with a wide range of media practices ( from urban interventions “ Urban planting” to interactive installations “ CQ_& Ability test” and hardware manipulation ) which have helped me to extend my artistic and visual vocabulary. What I have learn from that experience is that sometimes a complex, technological approach does not transmit the best the main idea. (possibilities and limitation of the medium). The essence "less is more" is applied.

Space/ Participation/ Audience

Description of previous projects:

• “Urban planting” is situation specific small intervention in public space.
  

I took a plant—a common interior feature and placed it out of its context at the Rotterdam Centraal metro station. I intentionally positioned it in the middle of the sidewalk where it frequently became an object of illumination by numerous fluorescent lights and CCTV cameras. I found myself and my nondescript form of intervention in the spotlight: overexposed, monitored and investigated. Series of photos with the exact time slots document the immediate authority's appearance and response to the intervention.

• “ CQ7” Creative Ability test ( together with Nicole)

This project was developed within the framework of “Creative Industries” thematic seminar. “ CQ7” Creative Ability test is an interactive video installation providing a service which allows the users to test their creativity through a series of questions. The questions and answers depict from various sources. The user physically placing himself/ herself or selecting the chosen answer which eventually gives him/her a final creativity rating.
Ultimately the participants are colored and numerically ranked in individual code not based on their answers but instead randomly generated. However most users see it as a serious assessment and even as an exam of their creativity.

• Both Urban planting and the CQ_7 are project developed in the context of certain themes and inspired by various of texts and personal observations.

The projects took place in public space and they both tried to evolve active participation/ response from the audience.
The physical space and the experience are playing crucial role. This allows the audience to reflect and affect to the final outcome and provides immediate feedback and open possibilities for a dialog.
In my graduation work I would like to engage the viewers with the possibility to take part in the actual work.

Relation to a larger context

reading list NOW:
related to the first topic:
& some are related to the second field of interest:

• Chun Wendy. "Control and Freedom"
• Morozov Evgeny. "Net delusion"
• Luksch, Manu, Pate. Makul. "Faceless project" voiceover
• Faucoult Michael. Other spaces
• reading list on surveillance berkeley

//Meaning practices or ideas that go beyond the scope of your personal work. Write briefly about other projects or theoretical material which share an affinity with your project. For example, if you are researching urban interventions, you might talk about Situationist approaches to psychogeography, urban tactical media and activist strategies of reclaiming the streets. Or, if you want to explore the way data is tracked, you might touch upon the politics of data mining by referencing concerns laid out by the Electronic Frontier or highlight theoretical questions raised by Wendy Chun or others. (Keep in mind that we are *not* expecting well formulated conclusions or persuasive arguments in the proposal phase. At this juncture, it's simply about showing an awareness of a broader context, which you will later build upon as your research progresses.)

Practical steps

research/ practice based I prefer to keep the outcome open ( non-defined ) as I felt caught by the Media studies where the outcome sometimes take prevent towards the research.
The research will lead/ take a form of present. Once the theme and the outline are clarified I will make a series of prototypes and small practical tasks.

find and articulate concrete topic to research (still vague and very fluid )

keep it simple and clear

separate the research topic from the actual practice

practice & exercise action

work on the draft

References

Works connected to the theme I want to explore:

• FACELESS by MANU LUKSCH (2007 AT/UK)
  

"RealTime orients the life of every citizen. Eating, resting, going to work, getting married – every act is tied to RealTime. And every act leaves a trace of data – a footprint in the snow of noise..."
"Faceless" is a CCTV sci-fi fairy-tale narrative or visual essay which serves as a continuous journey of figures moving into public space. The video consists of diverse CCTV footage, where the faces of the protagonists are replaced by large dots and an abstract voiceover is superimposed. The “Faceless” project is a poetic, philosophical and artistic interpretation of the idea of mass surveillance.

• Watch out! project by Maurice Benayoun (2002 FR)
  

wireless internet, video installation
The worldwide panopticom increases global exposure. Is Big Warcher b(r)othering us? Should we be afraid of being seen or should we enjoy the world's transparency as a way of proclaiming everyone's difference?
In Watch! out they are coming to see us from everywhere. Their on-screen scale gives them another meaning. These eyes no longer belong to the pedestrian spectators watching inside a box but instead resemble those of digital gods checking out the world.

• Access
  

“The content of ACCESS calls for awareness of the implications of surveillance, detection, celebrity, and their impact on society.”
In so far the projects I am referring are large scale installations, or a body of works where the active participation of the audience directly affects the work. The viewers are being spotified, recorded, exposed or simple documented and collaged.