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'''PREVIOUS PRACTICE'''


During the two years in PZI my interests revolve around generative art, media specificities and distortion, its inevitability in any digital media.
During the two years in PZI my interests revolve around generative art, media specificities and distortion, its inevitability in any digital media.
    
    
There are a few features common to all my projects:
There are features common to all my projects:


- works are based on code
- works are based on code
Line 10: Line 12:
- works are about specificities of different media, transformed and applied one on another
- works are about specificities of different media, transformed and applied one on another


- set of rules directs process
- set of rules directs the process
 
- situations are created in which error could emerge
 
[[User:SN/Untitled| Untitled, Chain reaction project]]
 
[[User:SN/Sketch_004|Sketch#004, Boundaries of the Archive]]
 
[[User:SN/Documentation Failure | Documentation Failure]]
 
 
'''PROJECT'''


- determined amount of freedom and randomness create situations in which error could emerge
“Technologies are artificial, but — paradox again — artificiality is natural to human beings.” (Ong, Orality and Litracy)


Our relationships with the machines, the way technology is changing and overwriting us always were a theme for the discourse. The speculations on this topic can be found in popular culture, scientific articles, cultural and social studies.


Sketch #004 is a video installation I made for the exhibition in Eye Museum. The piece is an outcome of several consecutive stages of manipulations of silent films from 1920’s which mimics the formalities of the indexing methods within the archive. The formal param- eters of the image source are separated from the narrative to produce sound. Motion vectors and histogram data were isolated from the source to generate an audio track and reassoci- ate it with the footage. My project is a creative point of view on the specificities of the stor- ing and preserving methods and its influence on items that are stored. The categorization processes distort the understanding of the narrative content of the silent film the same way the formal characteristics of the video distort the sound.
Every information technology brings a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. It becomes subject to criticism, as it fights old established traditions and acquires to develop completely new skills. Nicholas Carr in the essay Is Google Making Us Stupid? wrote: “I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going – so far as I can tell – but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.”


As an exercise for the Thematic project, we were asked to create An E-book that concatenates previous records of graduation projects. We were looking at the process as our subject, which seeps into our method. Documentation of documentation of document creates distortion and buries original object and its attributes under the layers of documentation specificities and its media attributes. Being focused on the process of documentation, we decided to pick scanning as a method and general strategy to work with content. Scanning as a process is very fragmented yet systematic with the aim of creating the exact copy of the object. But when you are scanning the scanner has no idea of the whole, the image is that of the fragmented images. We implemented scanning as a conception on different types of documentation objects. To underline disruption while documenting, while we are scanning something, there exists the framework - even it is successful or unsuccessful - just doing it once. I was working on "scanning" documents. This process brings to the surface and exaggerates all kinds of errors caused by machine malfunction and human factors. These errors reveal new aesthetic, produce unforeseen results.  
Tatiana Chernigovskaya is a scientist in the field of neuroscience, psycholinguistics, and theory of mind in one of her lectures said: “We are what we remember”. She points out that memory is not a box with pictures or any other kind of information, not a library or database; our memory is the processes that take place in our brain. These processes are always new. They change who we are, and technology changes them.


Untitled originally was a performance made by Pleun and me during the thematic seminar "Chain reaction." Pleun and I played on the field of combinatory literature and chain reactions. We looked at the way Youtube autoplay and Google method of crawling the internet works and took it as a starting point. My role as an author was to establish the rules for the process, define the amount of freedom and randomness in the code that would create situations in which the error could emerge. This way the error becomes an inevitable part of the work. The result is a list of words with or within a connection among them. The reader and its subjective interpretation create connections between words. The computer pretends to be a human; human pretends to be a computer, and in between, there is a spectator who creates connections and interpretations.
::...
::...


::[[File:day6.png|900px]]
::[[File:day6.png|900px]]


::''Recently I was reading an essay by Boris Groys. I caught myself on reading one paragraph for half an hour. I just couldn't understand what he was writing about. Words, sentences — all was clear, but the meaning was fading away from me.''
::''Recently I was reading an essay by Boris Groys. I caught myself reading one paragraph for half an hour. I just couldn't understand what he was writing about. Words, sentences — all was clear, but the meaning was fading away from me.''




Line 31: Line 44:
::[[File:day5.png|900px]]
::[[File:day5.png|900px]]


::''Often I catch myself on staring at the screen powerless to start to work. Such moments scare me.''
::''Often I catch myself staring at the screen powerless to start to work.''




Line 38: Line 51:
::[[File:day1.png|900px]]
::[[File:day1.png|900px]]


::''This morning I spent few hours checking my Instagram and Facebook accounts. I wrote few comments and put some likes, read articles and watched some videos. I barely remember which photos I commented and what about were my comments. For half an hour I was scrolling my Instagram feed without any attention to content. Just repetitive movements of my finger on the surface of the screen and the void in my memory. I think articles were about new discoveries as some time ago I subscribed to few science magazines and NG. Now is 8 in the evening and I cannot remember any sufficient detail of what I read this morning. This activity didn't bring me joy or satisfaction, yet my morning starts and evening finishes with checking social networks. It became a reflex: you get up, clean your teeth and check the feed on social networks, the mind is not involved.''  
::''his morning I spent a few hours checking my Instagram and Facebook accounts. I wrote a few comments and put some likes, read articles and watched some videos. I barely remember which photos I commented on and what my comments were about. For half an hour I was scrolling my Instagram feed without any attention to the content. Just repetitive movements of my finger on the surface of the screen and the void in my memory. Now it is 8 in the evening and I cannot remember any sufficient detail of what I read this morning. This activity didn't bring me joy or satisfaction, yet my morning starts and evening finishes with checking social networks. It became a reflex: you get up, brush your teeth and check the feeds on social networks, the mind is not involved.''  




Line 52: Line 65:
::[[File:day4.png|900px]]
::[[File:day4.png|900px]]


::''For 20 min I was turning on and off Hide button on one of the layers in Photoshop. I was working on the web page and tried to figure out the best way to display and structure significant amount of information. I doubt whether this monotone activity helped me to find the solution for my problem, rather avoid doing it.''
::''For 20 min I was turning on and off the Hide button on one of the layers in Photoshop. I was working on a web page and tried to figure out the best way to display and structure a significant amount of information. I doubt whether this monotone activity helped me find the solution to my problem, rather it helped me avoid doing it.''




These notes I take while dealing with the digital world. Smartphone and laptop have become an essential part of my life. I used to think that they help me to expedite my work. Apps with smart interfaces, plugins, and scripts that are used to optimize my workflow. But at some moment this tools stopped to be just tools, I became dependent on them. They transform the way I work, think and feel. They affected my memory and perception, leaving the feeling of void and chaos.''
These notes I took while dealing with the digital world. Smartphone and laptop have become an essential part of my life. I used to think that they helped me to expedite my work; apps with smart interfaces, plugins, and scripts that optimize my workflow. But at some moment these tools stopped to be just tools, I became dependent on them. They transform the way I work, think and feel.''




'''IDEA'''
'''IDEA'''


In my graduation project, I continue to experiment in the field of generative design. I apply methods and practices I used before to reflect on the theme of relations between me and technology. In my intention is to gather data for 100 days, analyze and use in data visualization. I'm researching different practices and tactics to find the best visual expression of the anxiety about losing myself in a digital routine. The main piece of my project will be a video installation based on a diary of my "digital routine." I also want to make a book based on series of images (100 in total) and small notes, that I take every day.
In my graduation project, I continued the experiments with generative design that I began in the first year of my studies. In my intention was to gather and analyze data to reflect
on the theme of the relations between technology and myself, find the best visual expression of the anxiety about losing myself in a digital routine. Taking facts and small things while working on my computer or interacting with my phone, I wanted to reflect on the feeling of being trapped in a digital void.  
 
I started to develop my project being very negative about the impact modern communication technology has on us. Nicholas Carr’s findings only strengthened my assumptions. Nevertheless, now I tend to be less negative.
 
 
'''FILM'''


My final piece is a code based animation that recreates data I collect. I used a script that takes screenshots every 10 seconds. It consistently worked in the background while I was using my computer. Python code created “zips” based on these screenshots where black space stands for the time my computer was switched off. It changes as the new digital landscape changes my perception of time and space.


'''CONTENT'''


I intend to make a '''video''' installation based on data I collect. 24 seconds of video equals one day from the diary (40 minutes in total put on loop). The video is a code based animation that recreates data I collect. I plan to project it on four walls in the room to create the sense of being trapped and surrounded by chaotic information. The animation will have a direction and develop from left to right passing all four walls. Methods for animation such as slit scanning, time displacement, etc., its flow, distortion and other characteristics, dependencies between these characteristics and data specificities represent the field for my research.
'''INSPIRATION AND PROCESS'''


Here are some techniques I consider to implement in data visualization.
One of the subjects of my research was code-based visual systems that I could implement into work with data. Slit scanning technique was one of them.


[[File:Ec.gif|300px]]  
[[File:Ec.gif|300px]]  


{{youtube|-4yVbPbJTHc}}
{{youtube|-4yVbPbJTHc}}
{{vimeo|154668309}}


{{vimeo|1398634}}
{{vimeo|1398634}}


[[File:blend.png|390px]] [[File:Screen Shot 2016-12-07 at 14.13.51.png|464px]]


Mood references


The '''book''' is an art book of 100 spreads. Each spread represents digital log and consists of an image and short note. Tentative format 20X30cm, thick paper, and visible board. I want to highlight its materiality, opposed to video projection.
{{youtube|uYr_SvIKKuI}}


[[File:page.jpg|600px]]
Michael Snow «The Central Region»


{{vimeo|115693196}}


Right now I'm collecting as much data as I can. I have a script that takes screenshots every 10 seconds. It consistently works in the background while I use my computer. I record videos of myself using my laptop front camera. I also collect data about the amount of time I spend in different applications and sites.
[[File:Barnett_Newman.jpg|600px]]
 
I have few sketches of the script. First one works as follows:
 
Application based on Apple Automator makes screenshots every 10 seconds →
 
Python code creates cuts based on this screenshots →
 
I gather cuts in Photoshop to make a final image.
 
The main subject of my research now is code-based visual systems that I can implement into work with data. I was stuck with certain graphics. So I decided to step back and analyze any changes, patterns, repetitions in data I collect, what they say. Answering this question would help me to find the right way for visualization.
 
 
'''TIMETABLE'''
 
10.01.17 — 20.04.17 — collecting data.
 
01.03.17 — deadline for visualization system I would use for still images and video animation: a script, dependencies, workflow of this system, supplementing sound and its specificities.
 
01.03.17 — 01.06.17 — production stage, testing.
 
01.05.17 — deadline for the book.
 
01.06.17 — deadline for the video for installation.
 
01.06.17 — 01.07.17 — Building an installation and final testing.
 
 
'''Relation to previous practice'''
 
All my previous works the same as my current project I'm working on highlight distortion and state its inevitability in any digital media.  


In my previous works, I was playing with specificities of different medias, transformed and applied one on another. My projects were based on the set of rules that directs process. Sketch #004 is a video installation I made for the exhibition in Eye Museum. The piece is an outcome of several stages of manipulations of silent films which mimics the formalities of the indexing methods within the archive. My project is a creative point of view on the specificities of the storing and preserving methods and its influence on items that are stored. The categorisation processes distort the understanding of the narrative content of the silent film the same way the formal characteristics of the video distort the sound. The sound is built using granular synthesis principles and resonates with black and white video pieces from 1920's.
Barnett Newman works


As an exercise for the Thematic project, we were asked to create An E-book that concatenates previous records of graduation projects. We were looking at the process as our subject, which seeps into our method. Documentation of documentation of document creates distortion and buries original object and its attributes under the layers of documentation specificities and its media attributes. Being focused on the process of documentation, we decided to pick scanning as a method and general strategy to work with content. Scanning as a process is very fragmented yet systematic with the aim of creating the exact copy of the object. But when you are scanning the scanner has no idea of the whole, the image is that of the fragmented images. We implemented scanning as a conception on different types of documentation objects. To underline disruption while documenting, while we are scanning something, there exists the framework - even it is successful or unsuccessful - just doing it once. I was working on "scanning" documents. This process brings to the surface and exaggerates all kinds of errors caused by machine malfunction and human factors. These errors reveal new aesthetic, produce unforeseen results.


Untitled originally was a performance made by Pleun and me during the thematic seminar "Chain reaction." Pleun and I played on the field of combinatory literature and chain reactions. We looked at the way Youtube autoplay and Google method of crawling the internet works and took it as a starting point. My role as an author was to establish the rules for the process, define the amount of freedom and randomness in the code that would create situations in which the error could emerge. This way the error becomes an inevitable part of the work. The result is a list of words with or within a connection among them. The reader and its subjective interpretation create connections between words. The computer pretends to be a human; human pretends to be a computer, and in between, there is a spectator who creates connections and interpretations.  
On the last stages of the project, I had few questions to answer.  


At first, I planned to make a book that would include 40 images and 40 notes that correspond to 40 days I was thinking, contemplating and analyzing my digital routine. I planned to make an voiceover based on my notes for video. These elements would dispose to speculation about the impact the technology has on us. 


'''Relation to a larger context'''
[[File:P 1.jpg|600px]]


Our relationships with the machines, the way technology is changing and overwriting us always were a theme for the discourse. The speculations on this topic can be found in popular culture, scientific articles, cultural and social studies.
[[File:P 2.jpg|600px]]


Nicholas Carr in his essay "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" wrote: "I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn't going – so far as I can tell – but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I used to think." Carr states that every information technology brings a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. The Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from any available source. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.
The other direction ( that I actually chose) would be to exclude all the narrative from the piece and concentrate on the emotions I want to raise. Those are uncertainty, obscurity and melancholy. The animation would create the digital abstract landscape that would carry away in the new environment and evokes contemplation and meditation.


Tatiana Chernigovskaya scientist in the field of neuroscience, psycholinguistics, and theory of mind in one of her lectures said: "We are what we remember." Our memory is not a box with pictures or any other kind of information, not a library or database; our memory is the processes that take place in our brain. These processes are always new. They change who we are, and technology changes them.
I was playing around the levels of abstraction, velocity, and sound trying to be as minimal as possible in order to not wake the viewer from the meditation state.




Line 136: Line 125:


Nicholas Carr "The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember."
Nicholas Carr "The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember."
Sherry Turkle "Alone Together, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit."


Katherine Hayles "How We Became Posthuman."
Katherine Hayles "How We Became Posthuman."
Line 148: Line 135:


Rosa Menkman "The Glitch Momentum."
Rosa Menkman "The Glitch Momentum."
Casey Reas "Form + Code"


Golan Levin "An Informal Catalogue of Slit-Scan Video Artworks and Research."
Golan Levin "An Informal Catalogue of Slit-Scan Video Artworks and Research."
Line 163: Line 148:
David Hopkins "After Modern Art."
David Hopkins "After Modern Art."
</div>
</div>
'''UPDATE 03_04_2017'''
MOOD
I've started this project being quite pessimistic. I planned to express anxiety about losing myself in a digital routine, feeling of being trapped in the digital void. Nevertheless, now I tend to be less negative. The feelings I want to express are uncertainty, melancholy, romanization of the “good old non-digital times.” I would like to create a digital abstract landscape that would carry away in the environment it creates, stimulate contemplation, dispose to meditation. My personal notes would play the role of triggers. I'm concentrating on the experience and feelings rather than on certain applications or networks.
Mood reference:
{{vimeo|115693196}}
[[File:Barnett_Newman.jpg|600px]]
BOOK
I reduced the number of pages in the book. For now, I ended up on 40 spreads (40 images and 40 notes). For 40 days I was thinking, contemplating and analyzing my digital routine, the changes that took place over the last years, my reaction to them. I gathered my thoughts and put them in the book.
''The motif of the 40th Day has a symbolic meaning in many cultures.''
''Moses spent forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai and returned with God's atonement.''
''Besides, 40th Day has major significance in traditions of Eastern Orthodox. It is believed that the soul of the departed remains wandering on Earth during the 40-day period. On 40th day the soul completes the journey finally leaving this world.''
[[File:P 1.jpg|600px]] [[File:P 2.jpg|600px]]
[[File:P 3.jpg|600px]] [[File:P 4.jpg|600px]]
VIDEO
Decisions to make:
1. Level of abstraction;
{{vimeo|211240645}}
{{vimeo|211303006}}
{{vimeo|211303025}}
2. Velocity;
3. Sound.
Background: Ambient/noise sound built on graphics.
Main sound: Overlapping voice narratives based on my notes.
Sound "travels" together with the image.
[https://soundcloud.com/spiraalaurel/00-dirt/ Spiraal Aurel]
[https://soundcloud.com/mechanical-forest-sound/allison-cameron-with-heraclitus-akimbo-pass-around-the-happy-apple-mfs-remix/ Mechanical Forest Sound]

Latest revision as of 23:21, 18 June 2018


PREVIOUS PRACTICE

During the two years in PZI my interests revolve around generative art, media specificities and distortion, its inevitability in any digital media.

There are features common to all my projects:

- works are based on code

- works are about specificities of different media, transformed and applied one on another

- set of rules directs the process

- situations are created in which error could emerge

Untitled, Chain reaction project

Sketch#004, Boundaries of the Archive

Documentation Failure


PROJECT

“Technologies are artificial, but — paradox again — artificiality is natural to human beings.” (Ong, Orality and Litracy)

Our relationships with the machines, the way technology is changing and overwriting us always were a theme for the discourse. The speculations on this topic can be found in popular culture, scientific articles, cultural and social studies.

Every information technology brings a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. It becomes subject to criticism, as it fights old established traditions and acquires to develop completely new skills. Nicholas Carr in the essay Is Google Making Us Stupid? wrote: “I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going – so far as I can tell – but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.”

Tatiana Chernigovskaya is a scientist in the field of neuroscience, psycholinguistics, and theory of mind in one of her lectures said: “We are what we remember”. She points out that memory is not a box with pictures or any other kind of information, not a library or database; our memory is the processes that take place in our brain. These processes are always new. They change who we are, and technology changes them.

...
Day6.png
Recently I was reading an essay by Boris Groys. I caught myself reading one paragraph for half an hour. I just couldn't understand what he was writing about. Words, sentences — all was clear, but the meaning was fading away from me.


....
Day5.png
Often I catch myself staring at the screen powerless to start to work.


...
Day1.png
his morning I spent a few hours checking my Instagram and Facebook accounts. I wrote a few comments and put some likes, read articles and watched some videos. I barely remember which photos I commented on and what my comments were about. For half an hour I was scrolling my Instagram feed without any attention to the content. Just repetitive movements of my finger on the surface of the screen and the void in my memory. Now it is 8 in the evening and I cannot remember any sufficient detail of what I read this morning. This activity didn't bring me joy or satisfaction, yet my morning starts and evening finishes with checking social networks. It became a reflex: you get up, brush your teeth and check the feeds on social networks, the mind is not involved.


....
Day3.png
Today I printed out an entire ebook. I cannot concentrate while reading long texts on my Ipad. Reading from the screen takes too much time.


...
Day4.png
For 20 min I was turning on and off the Hide button on one of the layers in Photoshop. I was working on a web page and tried to figure out the best way to display and structure a significant amount of information. I doubt whether this monotone activity helped me find the solution to my problem, rather it helped me avoid doing it.


These notes I took while dealing with the digital world. Smartphone and laptop have become an essential part of my life. I used to think that they helped me to expedite my work; apps with smart interfaces, plugins, and scripts that optimize my workflow. But at some moment these tools stopped to be just tools, I became dependent on them. They transform the way I work, think and feel.


IDEA

In my graduation project, I continued the experiments with generative design that I began in the first year of my studies. In my intention was to gather and analyze data to reflect on the theme of the relations between technology and myself, find the best visual expression of the anxiety about losing myself in a digital routine. Taking facts and small things while working on my computer or interacting with my phone, I wanted to reflect on the feeling of being trapped in a digital void.

I started to develop my project being very negative about the impact modern communication technology has on us. Nicholas Carr’s findings only strengthened my assumptions. Nevertheless, now I tend to be less negative.


FILM

My final piece is a code based animation that recreates data I collect. I used a script that takes screenshots every 10 seconds. It consistently worked in the background while I was using my computer. Python code created “zips” based on these screenshots where black space stands for the time my computer was switched off. It changes as the new digital landscape changes my perception of time and space.


INSPIRATION AND PROCESS

One of the subjects of my research was code-based visual systems that I could implement into work with data. Slit scanning technique was one of them.

Ec.gif

http://vimeo.com/1398634


Mood references

Michael Snow «The Central Region»

http://vimeo.com/115693196

Barnett Newman.jpg

Barnett Newman works


On the last stages of the project, I had few questions to answer.

At first, I planned to make a book that would include 40 images and 40 notes that correspond to 40 days I was thinking, contemplating and analyzing my digital routine. I planned to make an voiceover based on my notes for video. These elements would dispose to speculation about the impact the technology has on us.

P 1.jpg

P 2.jpg


The other direction ( that I actually chose) would be to exclude all the narrative from the piece and concentrate on the emotions I want to raise. Those are uncertainty, obscurity and melancholy. The animation would create the digital abstract landscape that would carry away in the new environment and evokes contemplation and meditation.

I was playing around the levels of abstraction, velocity, and sound trying to be as minimal as possible in order to not wake the viewer from the meditation state.


References

Nicholas Carr "The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember."

Katherine Hayles "How We Became Posthuman."

Charlie Gere "Digital Culture."

Michael Foucault "Technologies of the Self."

Timothy Barker "Aesthetics of the Error."

Rosa Menkman "The Glitch Momentum."

Golan Levin "An Informal Catalogue of Slit-Scan Video Artworks and Research."

Jos de Mul "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Recombination."

Lev Malovich "Post-media Aesthetics."

Lev Malovich "The Language of New Media."

Mark Hansen "The new Philosophy of New Media."

David Hopkins "After Modern Art."

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