From the youveurism to surveillance!

Abstraction of the reality! Recordings from the Times Square, New York.

Webcam Dialogue: GoogelEarth and Webcams.

Lost Objects. Recording Berlin.

Hey Sze,

Now you get my final transmission.

As you notes on your last post, that we cam back to you initial idea of voyeurism is true. l found it an intressting topic in the work on it.

You got the inspriation from Shortbus: it must be very an instressting work.

l also like the collaboration and l would love to see the exhibition.

So. See you soon.

kathrin

At the beginning we have set the structure for the fresco; a grid made out of 36 A4 pages distributed in 6 rows and 6 columns …

Each page is defined by a letter and a number. The upper left-one is A1, under are B1, C1 - F1. The next column is for A2, B2, C2 - F2.

Gyora started the fresco by sending the images for D1, B3, F3 and D5. Gyora emailed these images to Tintin and to David at the ASEF.
Tintin printed them and hung them on the wall of her studio..

Tintin’s job was to prolong the image B3 sent by Gyora. She made the first extensions of this image on the top (A3) and on the left (B2). She also prolonged D5 and F3 as follows.

Gyora received these images by email and started to work on a continuation for Tintin’s images: B2, A3, D4, E3 and F4.
A couple of days later, the fresco reached the number of 17 images. Still 19 to arrive to completion!

It was decided that the blog would be used to post comments on the different stages of the creation, and that an interactive version would be developed at the end of the print-version. The print-version of Digital Fresco is now almost completed and ready for its first exhibition to be held in Singapore on 13.04.2007. Its total size is 36 x A4 pages.

The Indonesian and the Belgian artists are now starting to work on the interactive version G, and on the interactive version T, which will also be presented in Singapore. As a visitor, you are now invited to make your own version of the fresco. Drag and drop the elements the way you want.

Here is the Digital Fresco as it looked at the exhibition in Singapore.

Hey Kathrin,

So the final transmission is here. I am compiling all the videos, and it’s taking quite a bit of time with my old, ailing PC. I bumped into an interesting quote from the movie, Shortbus (2006, by John Cameron Mitchell): Voyeurism is participation. The quote evokes alot of thoughts about this project and brings back my memory to the first post on this idea of our webcam conversations. I think it fits the concept of our idea of voyeur and participation pretty well, too. Although I’ve come to discover, the course of this project has quite problematic, especially to share videos for the purpose of our “visual dialogue”. Nonetheless, our “conversation” for the last three weeks has been fun!

Lets “talk” again, soon!

Sze

Oh how do I, oh how do I breakout from this nested table? See my code - my original table lies without any cellpadding nor any cellspacing, let alone borders nor any boundaries! Jimmy, do you have the answer? Is it illegal to change the entrybody formatting?

11 Apr 2007 08:32am

This blog is like a nation-state by itself. It censors codes. Was trying to embed an swf, saved the edit, then poofffh, the object codes’ gone. Heheh. Gyora once wrote that he hates the blog as much as the politbureau. Maybe he’s right. Hahah.

But well, we all know that whenever a system is created, a hack mechanism is created in parallel.

Once I wrecked the whole format for the entries of this blog just because the blog automatically erased the object code and thus leaving my table tag unclosed. But that’s not what I want to do (”I’m a reformist”, said Charles, “not a revolutionist”). I simply wanted to embed the swf.

Maybe the hack is … ooh … simply to go by the rules and making the most out of it. But don’t we need change sometimes?

tintin

12 Apr 2007 10:34am

Okay. Just an update. Gyora and I are developing our online content separately. We are doing it from each of our positions (both physical and mental/philosophical).

During the previous process (print/still images) I mentioned that perhaps we should try to discuss about the online output format/structure as well because that would definitely influence our artistic decisions too - even when we were only making the still images. I proposed that we really should know the pixel dimension because that would be the parameters of our output online. I also proposed using the html equivalent of the grid, which is the table. Then the table can just contain anything of any format - text, gif animation, flash interactivity. However since it was decided previously that we would work on the print side first, we didn’t get to discuss more about it.

When we were finished with the print output and started developing this online, I brought the ideas of the table to realization and sent the table to both Gyora and David. Gyora then tried to send me his fla project proposing that I work from that project as well, but his software version is not compatible with mine, so I couldn’t even open it.

I thought in these few days it would be impossible trying to conform about formats and structure, especially when we have to deal with such things as software incompatibility. I also thought that it would be interesting anyway to see how the online content could be developed differently. So I proposed that we just work on whatever each of us got now.

So at the moment Gyora is developing his and I’m developing mine.

This really brought me to think again about our definitions of software and hardware - they’re really merely our definitions. And in different levels, these definitions work differently as well. Coding, for example, in this realm we’re in now, is highly philosophical, if we regard what we see on our browser as the physical. But then, going back to the previous level, coding is actually a manifestation of our philosophy, so it is actually ‘physical’ as well.

And happy are those who don’t have to see it to believe. Whoever it is that first said this must have been an NT.

(Don’t you think so, Ariel? - in case you’re reading :-))

tintin

PS. Almost forgot. I am actually giving away C1 for the audience to put their graphical comments on it. In Singapore David would be in charge for placing the A4 notebook for the audience to make their own design for the grid. The idea is that in the online version people would be able to submit as well. Then, again the idea is that all these still images will be put together as the frames that makes up a gif animation for C1 afterwards.

This blue image below was not made specifically for this project, but I am displaying it to set up the last post in our dialogue. As we used this project to investigate some ways of visually dream up an advancement in technology, communications and virtual reality, I thought to myself how we get by without technology until it is created. Once a technology provides us with a service, it seems we rely on it. I began to think about how silly this immersive virtual reality could be. How confusing it would be. Myself and Hazel have decided to create a short video piece based around a fictional dialogue between our origami characters-as-avatars. The idea is to write the dialogue from the perspective of someone using a fictional future technology to communicate. As the characters would be used to the technology, nothing is explained as regards to what the technology does - the platform is not discribed. The visuals, while use some imagery created during this project, remain abstract. The soundtrack drifts though abstract digital sounds and avoids recognisable melody. The text becomes difficult to read. The dialogue is surreal, silly, serious and sarcastic, but above all it is cryptic and discribes an experience which has not yet been experienced. Textual information remains cryptic also with a variety of intentional and not so intentional spelling errors. Below this image is the dialgoue from the video. I hope to get the video embedded on this page this week if possible.

Alan

[19:09:31] tweet chirp chirp says: your name sounds quite mathematical, fellow bird comrade

[19:09:58] tweet chirp chirp says: how should I address you?

[19:10:07] πkachu says: nah it is just on the edge of avoiding copyright infringement

[19:10:22] πkachu says: you can call me πkachu

[19:10:31] tweet chirp chirp says: u broke the law I see

[19:11:33] Ï€kachu says: well kind of… these online immersive reality environments have fairly watery copyright liability limitations

[19:11:50] πkachu says: eventually nature will sue you

[19:12:08] πkachu says: for taking her design based on bird

[19:12:43] tweet chirp chirp says: you’re right

[19:13:28] tweet chirp chirp says: and you can say I am not exactly a bird

[19:13:47] tweet chirp chirp says: just that the people who made me want to call me such

[19:13:58] πkachu says: well I’m not exactly a mathematical copyright infringement

[19:14:14] tweet chirp chirp says: then what are u?

[19:14:47] πkachu says: well i think I’m a human user within a simulated environment

[19:14:53] πkachu says: but you cant be to sure

[19:15:08] πkachu says: i would also like to sell you viagra

[19:16:57] πkachu says: now i am addicted to this simulation

[19:17:04] πkachu says: and it doesnt even look real

[19:17:08] tweet chirp chirp says: me too

[19:17:20] tweet chirp chirp says: i am addicted to living in this space

[19:18:10] πkachu says: yet its still too slow

[19:18:42] tweet chirp chirp says: its not very limiting , they are improving our living arrangement every day

[19:19:43] πkachu says: well to me you are composed of large pixels and polygons

[19:19:52] πkachu says: thats no improvement on reality

[19:20:16] tweet chirp chirp says: but i am happy with this reality

[19:20:23] tweet chirp chirp says: kind of muddy

[19:20:43] tweet chirp chirp says: you don’t suppose the human world is any better than that?

[19:21:04] πkachu says: well most of the population use this

[19:21:10] πkachu says: THIS IS THE HUMAN WORLD

[19:22:01] tweet chirp chirp says: so dont you think that makes us the thinkers of the human world

[19:22:20] tweet chirp chirp says: since we are pondering over such complex reality issues for them

[19:23:12] Ï€kachu says: i guess i’m just a little let down, 16000 GB of ram and they still make me type with my fingers!

[19:23:32] tweet chirp chirp says: you’re lucky that u have fingers

[19:23:42] tweet chirp chirp says: i only have flapping wings

[19:23:49] πkachu says: feathers, fingers its all the same

[19:24:10] tweet chirp chirp says: oh and don’t forget

[19:24:19] tweet chirp chirp says: once we start fighting

[19:24:40] tweet chirp chirp says: our boat will capsize and we get drenched by the water here

[19:25:01] πkachu says: well that might fix my avatar problem

[19:25:10] πkachu says: since i am composted of paper,

[19:25:13] tweet chirp chirp says: and thats the end of our existence

[19:25:24] πkachu says: if i get wet I can resculpt

[19:25:46] πkachu says: and hope fully wash the print of this silly asian girl off my suit

[19:26:24] tweet chirp chirp says: arent you suppose to be a bit more politically correct here

[19:31:00] tweet chirp chirp says: see my suitcase tucked under my wings?

[19:31:07] πkachu says: yeah

[19:31:10] πkachu says: whats in it?

[19:31:52] tweet chirp chirp says: thats my bag of encoded / embedded messages retrieved from my owner’s records

[19:32:06] tweet chirp chirp says: she thought she deleted them

[19:32:11] πkachu says: can i look inside?

[19:32:19] tweet chirp chirp says: no problem

[19:32:58] tweet chirp chirp says: most of them fell in the water

[19:33:30] πkachu says: well this water is a lot smaller than it actually looks

[19:33:59] tweet chirp chirp says: what i have in the suitcase is much larger than this silly water your programmer made

[19:35:23] tweet chirp chirp says: not muddy water

[19:35:34] πkachu says: look closer

[19:35:40] πkachu says: what is making it muddy?

[19:35:56] tweet chirp chirp says: our imagxes

[19:36:02] Ï€kachu says: oh yes…

[19:36:05] tweet chirp chirp says: ohd daaear

[19:36:10] πkachu says: i see they have encrypted it

[19:36:36] πkachu says: i thinkd i m gettiglng a glitchh her ee

[19:37:17] tweet chirp chirp says: thewye puttwing usq ougt of myw existwwenxe

[19:37:47] πkachu says: im not sure where it is going now

[19:38:28] πkachu says: i thinkd i m gettiglng a glitchh her eeee reh hhctilg

[19:39:00] πkachu says: and they still havent found a substitute for emoticons

[19:39:05] tweet chirp chirp says: wawwet iss happeqinggn?q

[19:39:21] πkachu says: I think you will find you are discombobulating

[19:39:45] tweet chirp chirp says: youe arew alrighta alreadyd

[19:39:47] tweet chirp chirp says: ??

[19:40:13] πkachu says: nah ewhe shoujld p;reharhp7 reb bboot

[19:40:48] tweet chirp chirp says: i alwweeyss woeierry abosurt thesefr

[19:42:05] πkachu says: weelllleeee if weee dod at i t means weeee lose coooontact3333

[19:42:41] πkachu says: whyyy reliee£ on t3chn010$y

[19:43:38] πkachu says: you still onb oat by urs elv

[19:44:00] πkachu says: despit3 my c0nt4ct

[19:44:56] tweet chirp chirp says: wo;Uyiuw weill findew mee

[19:45:04] πkachu says: i wont

[19:45:59] πkachu says: because i am not actually mathematical copyright infringement

Not yet. But close. My mind’s wrung out.

tintin

This is for Zeno:

This is for Edo:

And of course my parents:

And, because he said he likes this, for Gyora:

Oyasumi, Kiri-chan (in case you’re watching).

There is something about where water meets land. The shore is a common place for playing kites. It is where I dreamt of meeting the dead. It is where the deceased are picked up by Archeron to get to Hades. It is where we think our country ends when it really ends somewhere else.

Going to sleep now.

tintin

The last couple of days Gyora and I have been working on this like Kasparov trying to beat Deep Blue. I mean both Gyora and I are Kasparov, while Deep Blue represents the deadline.

I started to think that it might be not realistic to drag this project into a video-based project within Deep Blue … - I mean the time constraint now. I think we should really think of a development of the concept to accomodate (very specifically) video on the web.

It might take form in an ever-evolving, neverending, self-growing project that starts with just one box at A1 and using the Hitchcock/Three Investigators ghost-to-ghost method to spread around. And I think we should look into just working with pixels, with gif animation. Realistically, that’s what is available to most of the world anyway (it would be a sheer luxury if I would have been able to watch youtube from all my past residences in Jakarta, for example - and Jakarta is a capital city!). I used to kvetch everytime I would go to a site that depends heavily on flash, as well. The world is not equal, that is a reality … but internet was invented already and it does have a potential, so we should find a standard within it that could reach as many people as possible.

Anyway - I thought one person could start with a videoclip (pixel gif animation, maybe not looped so it stops with a still like what we see here in this project) at A1, and spread the link to 3 other people (A2 to its right, below to B1, and B2 to its bottom right). Then A2, B1, and B2 would spatially and temporally (by paying attention to each frame of the gif animation) continue the A1 videoclip, before spreading the link around again.

A1 also could be in the middle of the composition, which means that s/he would ghost-to-ghost to 8 people (making up the grid around A1’s grid - above, above left and right, left and right, bottom, bottom left and right).

The result is an ever-moving composition that is ever-forming itself over and over again. And we will never know what is the story in the end, but it would definitely be something that has a lot of meaning for humanity in general.

Maybe this could also start to be done within a timeframe, maybe during a festival like OK.Video, and be left open for continuation, forever (or as long as the internet exists).

tintin

PS. On the software side, I became very emotional and confused when I heard this sentence again a few days ago “Language is very important, it is central to any culture.”

Yes, it is important for your identity or culture whatever, but it is also what people use to discriminate one group from the other. The question is, are you sure you really want to discriminate yourself from the other? I have been forced through social and legal discrimination and oh please I don’t want to be in there ever again, it’s the worst feeling in this world!

Having no rooted culture whatsoever, having tried to find it and having come to the same conclusion over and over again that as a human floating might be anyway better than being rooted, I’m very much intrigued by people who are eager to “go back” to their “roots”. _What_ is your root, when you have been floating for generations? Where is that point of culture that is frozen that you would like to “go back” to? What sense does it make to “go back” to that point in time you have never been in?

I want to someday dive into their minds and experience the way their body moves. It must be so so different than dancing inside myself.

Well - I guess I’m just a -F-C person. The forming of me was outside of my control - it was done over generations and I am a product of that. My part to it is just enjoying being myself as I am now and try to put meaning in my life as it is now.

Here you go:

If they would know that we are watching them
or are we used to be observed?

You think something will happen, because we are watching at it?
Surveillance became part of our everyday life.