DRAFT proposal 18/09/13

Tentative Title

x

Introduction

• key words/ domain of interests:

- erase traces //

- 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

The etymology of the word erase: c.1600, from Latin erasus, past participle of eradere "scrape out, scrape off, shave," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + radere "to scrape" (see raze). Of magnetic tape, from 1945.
Related: Erased; erasing.

• remove all traces of; destroy or obliterate:
  
• remove recorded material from (a magnetic tape or medium); delete (data) from a computer’s memory
  

"Erase traces" is phrase used by Bertholt Brecht (Lesebuch fur Stadtebewohner) [Reader for City-Dwellers] and commnented by Walter Benjamin in “Experience and Poverty”.
(still vague) In the next upcoming months I will investigate and unfold the theme about “Erase traces” in rather philosophical, poetic and metaphoric sense. The artistic intentions and utopian notion of act of erasing.
Therefore in the research - thesis I will focus on artistic practices and methods of rather metaphorical and poetical treatment/ language on the subject of traces, depicted from my interest tracking, collecting and preserving “traces of data” that accumulate, appear, disappear or remain present in networked societies. Interesting interconnection between the physical disappearance and the impossibility (utopian notion)to erase digital traces, or traces of data of online presence.

Previous descriptions:
My main motivation is driven by the question about privacy and depicting growing ambiguity/ anxiety towards the rules and regulations in the public domain.( the physical real word and the most ambiguous or present – the virtual) I am interested in the theme about surveillance ( or the order of people being watched by authorities or people observing people. 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( a collection of traces). The increasing awareness of surveillance ( or the watching from above the, controlled by authorities) amplifies the growing tension of constant systems of observation, monitoring and recording. Themes depict form public - private to control - exercise power. Interesting social and ethic aspect is how the watchers/ or the observers are privileged, empowered, gained control over the object.

• Project_1

Description:
Urban_poetry on traces is a text - poetry alike html page and printed stickers. The text is constructed and inspired by "The faceless project voiceOver". I extracted ten sentences where the word trace/ traces is repeated. Thus I recombined them in a text and images, which serves as a visual poem. The language of the whole text assembles a play, with a loose narrative. The dominance of the abstract rather philosophical interpretation of 'traces of data', 'New Machine', 'Current time' and 'Perfect present' draw metaphor of dense theme about surveillance.
I designed stickers and web page where I placed the text and the visuals. I will place the stickers in various of places around the city. On the stickers there is the url of the page with the following line saying:"city_poetry: reveal the full txt on:"url"_of the project"
I will find other texts/ poetry on traces_/ data_traces and by remixing, recombining I will extend my dictionary.
I would like to expand the project and to enable people to write/ edit and remix the text source.
references&inspirations: Oulipo & Faceless Voice over, "Erase traces!" by Bertholt Brecht.

• project_2

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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 & References

reading list NOW:

[[ http://www.virginia.edu/humanities/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Walter-Benjamin-Experience-and-Poverty.pdf%7C Walter-Benjamin-Experience-and-Poverty.pdf]]

• Luksch, Manu, Pate. Makul. "Faceless project" Voiceover

• Foucault Michel. Other spaces

"In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not, a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see myself there where I am absent: From the standpoint of the mirror I discover my absence from the place where I am since I see myself over there. Starting from this gaze that is, as it were, directed toward me, from the ground of this virtual space that is on the other side of the glass, I come back toward myself; I begin again to direct my eyes toward myself and to reconstitute myself there where I am."

• Foucault Michel. Discipline and punish

Discipline means obedient. Obedient is achieved by hierarchical observation, normalization, judgement and nevertheless the examination. The architecture mode of address in disciplinary society by Michel F. is an architecture of visibility, allowing seeing from those who gain control. By questioning the structure of the hospital and the school F. introduces the idea that they are both maintained as a model or apparatus for continuous observation, which directly links them to the prison. The window in the school has a metaphor for a piston.

Artistic practices:
an interview with Jill Magid

"The city is permanent, the civilian ephemeral. In a positive sense, this technology offers me a way to place myself, to become visible (and potentially permanent) within the city, through a medium bigger than myself. It is thus a creative field in which I choose to play. ”...The (love) story grew from out from the relationship that the controllers and I formed through the camera, especially with one of them."
*The Staged Realism of Michael Haneke's Cache"
CCTV's narration at the opening and closing scene of the movie "Cache" by Michael Haneke and the role of the viewer/ observer.
"Cache forces us to think what we are allowed outside and what we insist remains outside" (Elza and Sillars 2007a, p.215)
"a short on-screen narrative and the viewer's act of watching. As a result of which the viewer plays a role of a guilty subject and co-investigator revealing the drama.
The opening scene of the film is constructed form surveillance footage or the chosen the “medium” (CCTV), in which depth of focus and the length of shots are carried to the extreme. "Caché"’s beginning and end also invite the viewer to deal with its pieces of footage as if they were CCTV recordings and to scrutinize them for traces of evidence in the “Caché file. The whole film is constructed out of stillness almost freeze frame and long takes, which are common characteristic of Haneke's style. The time of anticipation that something is going to happen but actually nothing happens refers back to the absurduism in theater or "Waiting for Godot". The director's intention to place position of the viewer as a critical encounter of the actor, so the viewer become an active participant of the seeing process instead of only watching.
"As a result the camera's gaze is anthropomorphized making us think about the person behind the camera."

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.