Reflective Blog 2018-2019

To conclude the last week of official classes in the Computational Arts Research and Theory module I continued developing my multimedia report. After feeling lost within the vast expanse of my project proposal, I have found the tutorial sessions with Helen and Rachel Falconer extremely helpful in identifying relevant resources and sharpening my focus.

One such thread recommended by Helen, was the book Quantum Anthropologies Life at Large by renowned feminist theorist Vicki Kirby. To briefly summarise the text, she challenges deconstructionist ideas of thinkers such as Derrida, Freud and Merleau-Ponty by suggesting that unexplored fields, such as quantum psychics, are ripe for cultural reconstruction. Her materialist analysis of phenomenology, mathematics, language and the binaries between natureculture will certainly help to contextualise my report.

To further develop my theoretical perspective, this week I also watched the BBC television series adaptation of Ways of Seeing by John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. Despite being created back in the 1970s, I found the questions regarding hidden ideology of images to still be extremely relevant in the media saturated society of today.

Further investigating artist researcher Jol Thomson I uncovered more of his audio-visual work inspired by quantum phenomena. Reading e-flux’s article Quantum Real - Art and Particles at the Liverpool Exhibition Research Lab, I noticed familiar names such as Karen Barad, Jol Thomson and John Berger begin to appear. It seems I am beginning to hone research interests and the next step would be identifying a specific quantum element to structure the report around.

It has recently come to my attention that Canning Town’s arebyte Gallery presented an audio-visual installation by Marios Athanasiou entitled Superposition which examines similar areas to my project. The work included a tank filled with green UV liquid which uses sensors to translate ripples into Max MSP/ JavaScript code which creates virtual waves. The parallels between quantum physics and virtual reality are evident here; so hopefully my artefact will also communicate these entanglements. Ultimately the past six months have been rewarding for my practise within the MA and have considerably helped me to find a position within the medium of computational art.   

References • Kirby, V., 2011. Quantum anthropologies : life at large, London: Duke University Press. • Berger, J. & Dibb, M., 1973. Ways of seeing, BBC. • https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/218867/quantum-real-art-and-particles/ • https://www.arebyte.com/superposition • https://www.creativeapplications.net/maxmsp/superposition-cybernetic-system-of-energy-exchange-between-the-physical-and-the-virtual/

Image from The Age of Autonomous Exploration by: Matthew C. Wilson https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/218867/quantum-real-art-and-particles/

So far, I have spoken at length about the theory behind my multimedia report but with this blog post I want to temporarily break from knowledge practises and talk about the artefact’s aesthetic inspirations. Reflecting upon my proposal, I stated that I would “explore enactments of quantum mechanics through the stereoscopic lens of virtual reality.” VR allows for immersive affordances that traditional media simply cannot such as 360-degrees of view and user control.

In discussion with Rachel Falconer, she spoke of how this lack of agency and critical distance from me as director seemed to be a diverging path from my performance practise. This invoked ideas of Death of the Author and other dualities which has really helped to situate myself within this research. But upon Helen’s request I took a break from writing and attended an exhibition for more hands-on inspiration. 

This was a solo exhibition at Gasworks Vauxhall by Libita Clayton entitled Quantum Ghost. The piece consisted of three elements, an immersive sound installation, large scale photograms and live performances. As a critique on the ghosts of colonialism, Clayton traces the memory of her ancestors through photograms of raw materials associated with mining. A tunnel-like structure houses a multi-channel audio installation consisting of field recordings collaged together with artist musicians such as Jol Thomson. I loved the installation’s sonic archive of “subterranean energy” so attended the exhibition’s closing performance but unfortunately it was too busy.

Another visual inspiration for my artefact comes from the film Quantum Fluctuations by Markos Kay which was nominated for the Starts Prize at last year’s Ars Electronica. These virtual experiments with particle systems use computers to simulate the hidden complexity of the quantum world and uncover its scientific beauty.

Returning to theory, in class we looked at critical fabulation and how to work with archives in a speculative way. This reimagining of silenced history made me recall Libita Clayton’s approach for the Quantum Ghost exhibition. To theorize upon our stories of research we looked to the writings of Saidiya Hartman, Daniela Rosner, Jill Bennet and Chris Salter. Salter’s book Alien Agency seemed particularly interesting to me, so may be worth revisiting at some stage. Finally, we ended with a class exercise to help us think speculatively and improve our writing styles.   

References • http://www.publicseminar.org/2018/05/five-theses-on-virtual-reality-and-sociality/ • Barthes, R. (1968). The Death of the Author. 1st ed. University Handout. • https://www.gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/libita-clayton-2019-01-24/ • http://www.jol-t.com/ • https://vimeo.com/166185297 • Salter, Chris, 2015. Alien Agency: Experimental Encounters with Art in the Making, Mit Press.

Image from Quantum Ghost by: Libita Clayton https://www.gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/libita-clayton-2019-01-24/ 

Image from Quantum Ghost by: Libita Clayton https://www.gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/libita-clayton-2019-01-24/

Thinking beyond the phenomenology of perception, this week we looked towards concepts by Ian Bogost and his book Alien Phenomenology, or What It's Like to Be a Thing. This object-orientated ontology seeks to speculate on the experience of inanimate objects in order to extend theories of agency and action. Drawing upon other knowledge practises, Bogost wishes to break down the binary assemblage of subject and object / humans and things.

But how might we approach this theory of things outside of human experience? Despite our interaction with a tiny corner of the universe, it is evident that humans have a huge effect on issues such as climate change. By questioning what is the phenomenology of things? Bogost argues that there could be things happening that we are not part of but ultimately must be held responsible for. This all serves as a thought exercise to conceptually push ourselves to reconsider the world around us and generate speculative critique.   

We looked at artworks by Katherine Behar and Jane Bennett that question western forms of materiality. Bennett in her book Vibrant matter a political ecology of things, develops the notion of thing-power by imaginatively working within poetic conventions to speculate on the experience of inanimate objects. She questions the subjectivity of things by including human and nonhuman agents such as electrons and electromagnetic fields in a “heterogeneous assemblage.”

This really reminded of Karen Barad who works with the materials of science to speculate on our entanglement with matter. For my research report this week I read through her article Transmaterialities: Trans*/Matter/Realities and Queer Political Imaginings. I have found this to be favourite reading so far, as Barad draws upon electrical energy to ground a seemingly disparate set of topics such as lightning, primordial ooze, frogs, quantum field theory, virtual particles and bioelectricity. Ultimately, this article is about scientifically regenerating this “process of iterative intra-activity” by making an argument for the inseparability of queer/trans agency within nature itself. 

References • Bogost, I., 2012. Alien phenomenology, or, What it's like to be a thing, London: University of Minnesota Press. • Bennett, J., 2010. Vibrant matter : a political ecology of things, Durham: Duke University Press. • Barad, K., 2015. Transmaterialities: Trans*/Matter/Realities and Queer Political Imaginings. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 21(2), pp.387–422.

Image of Raging Planet - Lightning by: Discovery https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/raging-planet/full-episodes/lightning

This week we looked at the affordances of touch and artworks that address these micropractises. As a class exercise my group listed some ways that we touch through devices and interfaces. We then considered these ontologies in relation to work by Sondra Perry, Mona Hatoum and Oreet Ashery to reflect on how touch emerges.

In the site-specific installations of video artist Sondra Perry she explores the troubled histories of black identity in art and media. Her process is made legible through video production technologies, such as chroma key, and how they are incorrectly calibrated for black or brown skin. Through these immersive environments Perry is commenting on matters of labour and agency as well as the “physicality of how video is displayed.”

In Corps Étranger by Mona Hatoum she uses endoscopic footage of her own internal organs as an amplified commentary on touch and intimacy. Despite being literally inside the artist’s own body there is still a sense of clinical distance by making us aware of the material reality of touch itself. This piece reminded me of more contemporary examples such as Jesse Kanda and Arca’s film project Trauma.

Lastly, we looked at Passing Through Metal by Oreet Ashery which is a “poetry performance” that juxtaposes doom metal band Pyramido against forty people knitting. Admittedly my group were not sure how this playful work relates to touch in any way but nonetheless found it intriguing.

In terms of project progression, I read through Karen Barad’s essay On Touching - The Inhuman That Therefore I Am, since it seemed relevant to the topic of this week’s class. It explores the act of touching on a quantum level by debunking the classical physicist notions that touch is merely an “electromagnetic interaction”. The quantum theory of touch is radically more complex or as Barad would say an “infinity of infinities.” On a subatomic level each electron draws energy by self-touching itself but remains alone within the void due to electric repulsion between neighbouring entities. By discussing the human element within this, Barad is reconfiguring matter itself while also deconstructing issues surrounding human identity and accountability.   

References • https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/sondra-perry-typhoon-coming-on • https://fourthree.boilerroom.tv/film/mona-hatoum-corps-etranger-1994 • https://pitchfork.com/news/55109-arca-and-jesse-kanda-go-inside-someones-mouth-in-next-clip-from-ongoing-film-trauma/ • http://oreetashery.net/work/passing-through-metal-2017/ • https://read.dukeupress.edu/differences/article/23/3/206/97723/On-Touching-the-Inhuman-That-Therefore-I-Am • Barad, Karen, 2012. On Touching-The Inhuman That Therefore I Am. Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 23(3), pp.206–223.

Image of Typhoon Coming On by: Sondra Perry https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/sondra-perry-typhoon-coming-on

Image of Corps Étranger (1994) by: Mona Hatoum https://fourthree.boilerroom.tv/film/mona-hatoum-corps-etranger-1994

Image of Trauma Scene 2 by: Arca and Jesse Kanda https://pitchfork.com/news/55109-arca-and-jesse-kanda-go-inside-someones-mouth-in-next-clip-from-ongoing-film-trauma/

What is the overarching area of research? My research will explore enactments of quantum mechanics through the stereoscopic lens of virtual reality.

What are the key questions or queries you will address?

How are artists using VR to represent quantum phenomena?

How can this give rise to other ontologies in art practice?

Why are you motivated to undertake this project? This project could serve as a theoretical contribution to my final year project.

What theoretical frameworks will you use in your work to guide you? I will use the theoretical framework of Feminist Technoscience to guide, form and structure the project. This would commit to a situated perspective through the quantum entanglement.

What theoretical frameworks will you use in the analysis of your project? I will use Donna Harraway’s Situated Knowledge and Karen Barad’s Agential Realism as a theoretical framework for analysis. My hope is that drawing on these theories will help me to understand this complex field of research.

How will you document your project? I plan on creating some of my own VR representations as practice-based research and potentially interviewing artists already working in this area.

Timeline for project milestones

25/02/19 Proposal submission and begin contacting other artists.

04/03/19 Read Situated Knowledges, Kapsula Possible Worlds and Karen Barad, quantum mechanics, and the paradox of mutual exclusivity.

11/03/19 Read Meeting the universe halfway : Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning.

18/03/19 Refer to my notes from each text and start forming a clear structure to begin the writing process. Attend the closing performance of Libita Clayton's Quantum Ghost on the 23rd March at Gasworks. 

25/03/19 Begin experiments with VR and hopefully I would have conducted some interviews by this point. 

01/04/19 Finalise my VR simulations and reflect on the process with a blog post.

08/04/19 Begin to draw conclusions and analyse the enactments in relation to my theoretical research.

15/04/19 Continue redrafting and perfecting my multimedia report.

06/05/19 Finalise all items including the report and artefacts. 

13/05/19 Submission.

Annotated Bibliography of 3-4 sources Pearl, Zach and LeBlanc, Lindsay and Terziyska, Yoli and England, Sara and Morgan-Feir, Caoimhe and Granados, Francisco-Fernando and Dennis, Katherine and Meadows, Anthony and Campbell, Colin and Martin, William (2015) Kapsula. Possible Worlds.

This magazine peaked my initial interest in this area of research so it will serve as a pivotal starting point.  

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway : Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.

I will be predominately referring to the theory of Agential Realism, so this book will maintain importance throughout my report.

Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” Feminist Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, 1988, pp. 575–599. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3178066.

I believe it’s important to keep an ethnographic viewpoint within areas of science and computation, so Haraway is perfect for figuring these human elements.

Budget (if any) N/A

Reference list of 8-10 sources

Pinch, T. (2011). Karen Barad, quantum mechanics, and the paradox of mutual exclusivity. Social Studies of Science, 41(3), 431-441. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41301940

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway : Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.

Clayton, Libita. Quantum Ghost. 2019 Installation and photograms, Gasworks, London.

Henderson, L. (2013). The fourth dimension and non-Euclidean geometry in modern art (Revised ed.).

TEDx Talks, 2013. Listening to data from the Large Hadron Collider | Lily Asquith |TEDxZurich. [online video] Available at: https://youtu.be/iQiPytKHEwY [Accessed Date 25 February 2019].

Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.” Feminist Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, 1988, pp. 575–599. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3178066.

During reading week, I managed to delve into my first official journal by Karen Barad entitled Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter. In the text she advocates her theory of Agential Realism as an alternative to traditional western forms of “representationalism” within the sciences. How language can only take us so far before we should shift focus to posthumanist performativity and “nonhuman agency.”

Offering space for “diffraction rather than reflection”, Barad expresses “Cartesian doubt” over the Heisenberg uncertainty principle before suggesting that quantum psychics is based more on matters of “indeterminacy” over uncertainty. Barad believes that metaphysical notions of “agential separability” and “intra-actions” could offer a critical resolution to long-standing issues within quantum mechanics such as the measurement problem of wave-functions.

These are all fascinating ideas but admittedly some of them go over my head, so I was intrigued to find practicing artists influenced by the quantum world’s weirdness. Upon Helen’s recommendation, I uncovered the work of Jane Grant an artist/researcher whose work explores the boundaries between scientific investigation and artistic exploration. I found her site-specific artwork “This Excited Surface” to be particularly inspiring as it draws upon Karen Barad’s writing.

The sound-based work consists of a glowing yellow dish (representing Earth’s ionosphere) concealing floor speakers playing back a sonification of the sun’s activity. This interplanetary interplay interweaves cosmological ideas with a profoundly human desire for connection. Figuring human ontology through scientific phenomena is exactly what I want to achieve with this research report. Grant’s work is an excellent example of this and reminds me of Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life which similarly explores the philosophy of human relationships against solar backdrops. To quote Karen Barad in the Posthumanist Performativity journal “We are part of the world in its differential becoming.”

References • Barad, K., 2003. Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28(3), pp.801–831. • https://continentaldrift.blog/2016/03/31/summary-notes-karan-barad-posthuman-performativity/ • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measurement_problem • http://www.janegrant.org/this-excited-surface • Malick, T. et al., 2011. The tree of life, Fox Searchlight Pictures / River Road Entertainment present.

Image of This Excited Surface by: Jane Grant http://www.janegrant.org/this-excited-surface 

Phenomenology is the “philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.” I had first encountered this term with the writing of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his seminal work the Phenomenology of Perception. I found his account of the body (simultaneously existing as both subject and object) to be fascinating and worth revisiting when analysing ourselves in relation to the world. 

So, this week we looked at postphenomenology which is defined as a “revised form of phenomenology that aims to overcome the limitations of subjectivism.” Within the context of Computational Art Theory, this tool can investigate technology in terms of the relations between human beings and technological artefacts by focusing on the various ways in which technologies help to shape relations between human beings and the world. Like Heidegger’s less romantic view of technology, postphenomenology combines philosophical analysis with empirical investigation which is a useful framework within the field of computing.

Our key philosopher within this area is Don Idhe who came up with four mediating roles within human/world/ technology relations that he believes deserve philosophical attention.

1. Embodiment relations: (human - technology) —> world. 2. Hermeneutic relations: human —> (technology - world). 3. Alterity relations: human —> technology (world). 4. Background relations: human (technology / world).

So far, I have personally found Embodiment and Hermeneutic relations to be most relevant to my creative practice. Virtual reality is interesting to look at through the lens of postphenomenology as embodiment is useful for investigating the human body in relation to technological artefacts. But also, how technology can alienate us by shaping our relations to the world itself. Helen shared a great example of these indirect relationships with Aquaphobia by Jakob Steensen which seeks to reconfigure our relations to technology and nature through embodiment in the VR experience. 

Another great example of Hermeneutic relations she shared was Pierre Huyghe’s installation at the Serpentine gallery earlier this year entitled UUmwelt. This piece analyses brain activity from a fMRI scanner against a deep neural network of images presented with a community of flies and sanded walls as a commentary on the flexibly of human, animal and machine relationships.

Ultimately this has been a fascinating week which has gifted me with many ideas for the research report. Admittedly I have neglected the virtual reality aspect of the project but now feel more inclined to consider the human within this technoscientific loop as ultimately there needs to be someone to experience it. 

References • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy) • Merleau-Ponty, M. & Landes, D.A., 2012. Phenomenology of perception, • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_of_Perception • https://www.yourdictionary.com/postphenomenology • https://vimeo.com/67744883 • https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/philosophy-of-technology/0/steps/26324?fbclid=IwAR1MiQElHcNJ-O7GkoUZJFLDbGX2-YqdnQZYCQhiddxXOJQaVj8gf9Xnw2c • https://vimeo.com/244699310 • https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/pierre-huyghe-uumwelt

Image of AQUAPHOBIA by: Jakob Kudsk Steensen https://vimeo.com/244699310

Last week I mentioned that I had begun my research process by reading an essay from Professor Trevor Pinch (Cornell University) on Karen Barad’s influential book Meeting the universe halfway. To the elaborate, the text predominately serves as a review but has some useful summarizations of her core theories. For example, he describes the notion of Intra-action as “interactions between two entities, not only a human and a non-human.”   Pinch also outlines his interpretation of the three major points of Agential Realism.

1. Grounding language in material discursive practices. 2. Extending the limited notion of apparatus that Niels Bohr (and most quantum physicists) share. 3. Humans themselves are produced by nature.

Barad speaks of how Agential realism thinks beyond our “material world” and could potentially serve as “a new basis for ethics” entirely.  Throughout the text Pinch predominately critiques these broad claims but this has not deterred me from diving deep into her metaphysical exploration of quantum mechanics. Barad’s “human-centred” approach to science seems relevant to this week’s class on the topic of Computational Art and Sensing Practices.   

We explored the concept of environmental sensing and this how can create racialized experiences. Helen showed us some great examples of artists who formed new milieus within the realm of sensing practices. Among these sets of ecology, my personal favorite was the bio-sensing art of Richard Lowenberg and Jim Wiseman. Their incorporation of plants and video synthesizers I found to be very inspiring and it has encouraged me to conduct bio-sensing experiments in my own practice. I was reminded of John Cage’s musical compositions using amplified cacti on his albums Child of Tree (1975) and Branches (1976). Overall this has been a very inspiring week which I believe will help to form my research process and begin to build new worlds through technoscience practises.     

References • Pinch, T. (2011). Karen Barad, quantum mechanics, and the paradox of mutual exclusivity. Social Studies of Science, 41(3), 431-441. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41301940 • https://www.datagarden.org/post/richard-lowenberg-interview • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplified_cactus

Image of Jim Wiseman working with Paik/Abe and Sandin Video Processors by: Data Garden https://www.datagarden.org/post/richard-lowenberg-interview

Image of Video feedback produced by Jim Wiseman from: Data Garden https://www.datagarden.org/post/richard-lowenberg-interview 

Image of Bio-Sensing experiment by: Chris Speed

Image of Bio-Sensing experiment by: Chris Speed

Image of Bio-Sensing experiment by: Chris Speed

To begin the week, I uncovered an essay by Trevor Pinch in which he speaks with Karen Barad on topic of quantum mechanics and electronic music. Through discussion they uncovered parallels between these two completely divergent fields which I found to be fascinating and it has planted the seed for another potential research report idea.

We then had a lecture with guest speaker Sarah Wiseman as we looked at the phenomena of emojis and how they are redefining our interpersonal relationships. To begin, she explained how she used grounded theory for her research paper entitled Repurposing emoji for personalised communication: Why 🍕means “I love you” before handing the reigns over for class discussion. As an audience we had some interesting questions to ask before debating if emojis are a new form of language and what ramifications this could have on our society? 

This was all reflected in the week’s reading as we looked at a paper by Ryan Kelly and Leon Watts. In the text they analyse data conducted from interviews to describe how contemporary users have appropriated emojis within certain types of mediated conversation. This was also evident in the article How We Really Use The Peach by Hamdan Azhar in which he revealed shocking statistics of just how many people re purpose the peach emoji for sexual conations online.

I have never really thought this deeply about the culture surrounding emojis as it has become a micropractise to me while texting. But with over 5 billion emoji users every day it’s clear these pictographs have quite a societal influence on our ability to communicate sentiment and intimacy within the virtual world.

References • Pinch, T. (2011). Karen Barad, quantum mechanics, and the paradox of mutual exclusivity. Social Studies of Science, 41(3), 431-441. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41301940   • http://research.gold.ac.uk/22850/ • https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/130966701/emoji_relational_value.pdf • https://blog.emojipedia.org/how-we-really-use-the-peach/

Rachel Falconer was unfortunately unwell so this class was rescheduled to reading week which I could not attend due to prior commitments. The following is based on the week 2 readings only.

Last term I mentioned how “something that personally concerns me is the preservation and commodification of new media art”. The issue of curating computational artworks was the discussion topic this week so naturally I dove straight into its material discourse.

To begin with I read Christiane Paul’s Introduction for ‘New Media in the White Cube and Beyond’ This text I found to be quite fascinating as she explores the “presentation and preservation” along with the challenges of curating digital art. She speaks of how our traditional notions of the ‘art object’ are becoming gradually reconfigured due to an emphasis on process within our information led society. How computational art is predominately based on algorithms; so modern curators and artists should learn to interface with these digital technologies. One of the most interesting sections was when she speaks of how presenting net art in a gallery setting could be considered not the “natural state” to view such work. This reminds me of Taipei Phototime by Lev Manovich in which he visualised real time Instagram images uploaded from Taipei and New York. Should a work like this be shared in a white cube space or online? Which distribution method would speak to the nature of this piece?

The next reading was an E-Flux journal by Boris Groys entitled Curating in the Post-Internet Age which I found to be an equally compelling read. He speaks of how contemporary art galleries are supposed to remove cultural context and exhibit the work in an unbiased zone. However, the reality of the situation is that these spaces are comprised of “hierarchies, curatorial choices, and strategies” so arrive with a wealth of implicit biases. He then elaborates that in the digital era we are also framed by an “amalgamation of technology and ideology”, which I believe to be quite a profoundly insightful observation. But personally, I disagree with his argument that the internet is inherently a “narcissistic medium” since there are plenty of online communities that have more democratic intentions.

This made me start thinking about the multimedia report and how these issues relate to my artistic practice. In the past I have found some institutions to be unwelcoming and highly selective when it comes to computational art. But early examples such as Nam June Paik’s satellite "installation", Good Morning, Mr. Orwell, have shown us that art can transcend the confides of a gallery. Modern online collectives and hacktivist platforms such as Disruption Network Lab give me hope that the revolution will be digitalized. For the research project this has given me an idea to investigate how Blockchain could impact the future of the art industry. Rather poetically, my practice has found more of a fanbase online where you receive instant feedback and constructive criticism from an international audience. That said I still believe art should be a shared experience IRL rather than just on a URL, but it’s important to consider these issues for the medium to progress.

References • http://atc.berkeley.edu/201/readings/Christiane_Paul_Reading.pdf • http://manovich.net/index.php/exhibitions/taipei-phototime • https://www.e-flux.com/journal/94/219462/curating-in-the-post-internet-age/ • https://www.isthisitisthisit.com/ • https://news.feltzine.us/ • https://www.furtherfield.org/disruption-network-lab-art-as-investigating-misconduct-wrongdoing/

Image from Taipei Phototi by: Lev Manovich http://manovich.net/index.php/exhibitions/taipei-phototime

Our group chose Google Search as our authoritative process since there are many technical, discursive and social aspects to discuss. Most of the population use this web engine every single day so of course there is a vast history of institutional infrastructure to critique. It recently come to public attention, but secretly we always knew, that Google has joined other tech conglomerates in being accused of privacy invasion on its customers.

So, to rework this violation I propose a disobedient electronic called Troll Cam which seeks to reconfigure some of the politics of this matter, provide online anonymity and have some fun all at the same time. This playful process would be disobedient to Google as it would map a troll faced barrier onto your webcam and shield you from their invasive marketing tactics. An early prototype would include a 3D printed filter (concealing a Raspberry PI) that attaches to your laptop webcam and utilises face tracking software with computer vision to obscure your identity.  

If successful, perhaps an update could also include an audio extension for Google Chrome that hacks into your on-board microphone, uses PHP encryption to protect your conversations and plays back a loop of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up for the spies back at Google headquarters. The Troll Cam project draws much inspiration from the misinformation tools of Neil MacAloney such as his Phantom Kitty device.  

References

Da Costa, B., Philip, K., & Dumit, J. (2008). Tactical biopolitics : Art, activism, and technoscience. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Hertz, G. 2018, Disobedient Electronics Protest, zine, no. 1, Canada.

https://www.androidheadlines.com/2019/01/amazon-facebook-ring-privacy-debacle-no-535.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

https://www.phantomkitty.com/ 

As a continuation from last week, we revisited digital witnessing by reflecting on the exercises and artworks in relation to the text Digital Narratives and Witnessing: The Ethics of Engaging with Places at a Distance by Nishat Awan. We posed questions such as how does each artwork figure witnessing at a distance? How do we understand these topologies? How does computation play a role in this? For the homework I chose to analyse the works Clouds Over Sidra by Gabo Arora and Chris Milk along with the Dronestagram project by James Bridle. Firstly, I found Clouds Over Sidra to be quite problematic as it seemed cynical to create a voyeuristic short film (sponsored by Samsung) that serves the sole purpose of being watched by old white businessmen at the United Nations. I feel it figures distance in terms of the stereoscopic lens you gaze through and that virtual reality is a mere gimmick here essential to the selling point of this piece. Like last week’s second exercise I feel that the added technology obscures and limits any sense of nearness I would have had. Rather ironically, I found Dronestagram to be more emotionally engaging without the need of cheap immersive strategies. Perhaps because it figures witnessing at a literal distance from the bombsites, however I feel closer to this artwork somehow because it sees the bigger picture. Computation is also essential to this project, but I feel the drone technology serves a much larger ethnographic purpose than its initial affordances as a mere tool. The rest of this week was spent hastily preparing everything for our group presentation and artefact assignment. References • Nishat Awan (2016) Digital Narratives and Witnessing: The Ethics of Engaging with Places at a Distance, GeoHumanities, 2:2, 311-330, DOI: 10.1080/2373566X.2016.1234940 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUosdCQsMkM • https://www.dailydot.com/society/dronestagram-instagram-drone-strike-target-towns/

Image of delegates watching a virtual reality film at the World Economic Forum 2016 from: Digital Narratives and Witnessing: The Ethics of Engaging with Places at a Distance by Nishat Awan

This week we did things a little differently as the class was based around two exercises Helen encouraged us to partake in. The first was entitled ‘At the Border of Self’ in which me and a classmate closed our eyes, placed our fingertips against each other and then a minute later opened them to mutually stare. Some of the thoughts and sensations I jotted down afterwards included feeling some kind of ‘energy at my fingertips’ and ‘spooky action at a close distance’ which seemed linked to my extracurricular reading of quantum theory. The second was entitled ‘Contact Zone at a Distance’ and this time my neighbor watched me through his mobile phone camera. In contrast, this time felt more sinister as it was ‘obstructed by this device between us’ so felt like the ‘the polar opposite of the first exercise.’ On reflection I believe my negative reaction was due to the recent breakdown of my laptop and subsequent apprehension with technology. In terms of the group presentation and artifact this week a friend recommended that I explore the work of Dunne & Raby and their masterful attention to detail when it comes to speculative product design. I found their ability to create incredibly fleshed out universes very inspiring and I hope that carries over to our group project. 

References • The Quantum World: The disturbing theory at the heart of reality (2017). John Murray Learning. • http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects/666/0

In theory class this week we began to explore the school of thought known as material semiotics. This thinking practice is grounded in empirical case-studies and can be a useful toolkit for untangling the web of relations. Methodological approaches such as Actor Network Theory can be used to trace the ‘knots and tangles’ of research as Donna Haraway would say. We applied a method from Helen’s presentation to develop our speculative science fiction utopia. 

What is going on here? The codification of a futuristic life choreographs life. Which are the agents implied? The human, the code. Where? Spatiality A small Solarpunk community. When? Speculative future. Your entanglement with the scene Entangled with code. Can a pattern be identified here? To what extent is this damage structural, or singular? Daily routine as a pattern.

Our theoretical perspective was lacking at this point so, based upon Helen’s feedback, I decided to explore the book Ubiquitous Computing, Complexity and Culture. Though an interesting overall read I found two main quotes stood out as particularly relevant. Firstly, Irene Mavrommati’s explanation of Actor Network Theory as ‘looking at explicit strategies for relating different elements together in a network so that they form an apparently coherent whole.’ This was interesting to me as we were also marrying topics such as speculative fiction, aesthetics and determinism to uncover some larger elusive truth. Secondly was Donald Knuth’s idea of ‘Beauty in code’, as programming was to be both our text and subtext. For further reading I also skimmed through The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism by Steven Shaviro to investigate this school of thought. However, the only philosophy that seemed relevant was Graham Harman’s Object Orientated Ontology due to its vague computational connection, but this was quickly debunked for me after watching a lecture with him and Slavoj Zizek on the topic. But to make up for this minor setback, I dove into the Solarpunk genre and what struck me was its positive view on technology compared to my other reading such as Heidegger. So, over the weekend I was visually inspired enough to render some images using Cinema 4D for our artifact and presentation. References • Ekman, U. (2016). Ubiquitous computing, complexity and culture. • Shaviro, S. (2014). The universe of things : On speculative realism (Posthumanities ; 30). • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GHiV4tuRt8 • https://medium.com/solarpunks/solarpunk-a-reference-guide-8bcf18871965 • Heidegger, M. (1977) The Question Concerning Technology. Germany: Garland Publishing.

Image of V i t a m i n D++ by: Chris Speed http://doc.gold.ac.uk/compartsblog/index.php/work/v-i-t-a-m-i-n-d/ 

Image of V i t a m i n D++ by: Chris Speed http://doc.gold.ac.uk/compartsblog/index.php/work/v-i-t-a-m-i-n-d/

Image of V i t a m i n D++ by: Chris Speed http://doc.gold.ac.uk/compartsblog/index.php/work/v-i-t-a-m-i-n-d/

Our third group meeting was perhaps the most pivotal yet since we had to progress from the ideas stage of the assignment into developing a proposal for our core research area and artefact. In this session we spent five hours discussing our project and finally collated our interests into a central hypothesis. This session was quite the journey as we moved away from Internet Art and began to discuss topics as varied as Futurism, Utopia, Dystopia, Semiotics, Quantum Computing, Cloud Computing, Ubiquitous Computing, Codification, Sonification and Speculative Science-Fiction.

To summarise, our project seeks to “Codify a daily routine in a futuristic and technologically advanced world, sonify and visualise this algorithm and analyse our speculative work in relation to real life.” For this assignment we are hoping to utilise philosophical theories such as Ontology and Determinism to comment on areas of Human-based computation as well as the codification of our daily lives. In this assignment, code will serve as both our medium and message as we will use the language of computer science to break daily routines down into (hopefully) compliable sketches.

However, this is predominately a fun exercise to create a speculative futuristic world for our protagonist to inhabit. Far from the more typical dystopian cyberpunk cities we are accustomed to, we want to instead place our protagonist within a more utopian solarpunk future. I am personally excited by this assignment now as we have a clear objective to aim towards however our concept is still abstract enough to allow for creative experimentation. 

References • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-based_computation 

For self-directed study in reading week, my new group met up twice to discuss our ideas for the presentation and artifact. In the first meeting we introduced ourselves, discussed our personal artistic interests and initial thoughts for this assignment. To begin with it seemed we were going to investigate practical techniques of live audio-visual performance and interview artists to gather primary research on their creative process. However, some of us were not keen on this since it could have potentially become too focused on a practical workflow and negate the more important theoretical research essential to passing this module. So as a spur of the moment idea, I came up with an absurd anthropological study researching internet culture I like to call ‘meme sonification.’  

To fully understand the concept of meme sonification first we must look to the definition of the word meme and its origin as a neologism coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. In the context of genetics, he defined it as ‘a replicator that faithfully copied itself’ but the idea of something spreading by imitation can be also applied to funny pictures that go viral on the internet. We would have explored theories behind ‘memes’ and perhaps even look into why archetypes such as Pepe the Frog have been adopted as a hate symbol by the alt-right movement. With the presentation covered, our artifact would have been the result of sonifying the data from these images into sound or creating mutated meme hybrids using machine learning techniques such as style transfer. Ultimately, we agreed that this concept was too ambitious and absurd, but I hope to potentially develop it myself. 

Moving on, we decided to keep the aspects that worked from these initial concepts but progress to something more theoretically ripe. In the second meeting, we began to focus exclusively on current internet culture by reading up on the various iterations of ‘net art’ and what the next big thing could be for post internet aesthetics. For context, I looked to past examples of net art by some of my favorite artists such as JODI.org as well as Eva and Franco Mattes. An interesting topic raised was the idea of ‘internet tourism’ which would have served as a thematic grounding for our navigation through the online space.

We would then look to more contemporary examples of crossover collaborations with musicians using internet aesthetics. For this, I suggested we include music videos of Holly Herndon and Oneohtrix Point Never which utilize this visual rhetoric. Interestingly, Daniel Lopatin began his career making vaporwave which is a microgenre of electronic music synonymous with meme culture. It heavily relies on nostalgia which I suppose is symptomatic of contemporary society in general, this became a thread that lead me to the writing of the late Mark Fisher and Hauntology. He popularized this concept from Derrida but redefined as a critique of modernity and to describe art preoccupied with "nostalgia for lost futures.” To keep track of the many threads we were untying, Harry made a useful Padlet so we could map our progress through the assignment thus far.  

References • Dawkins, R. (2016). The selfish gene (40th anniversary ed.). • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHujh3yA3BE • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmlJveN9IkI • Fisher, M. (2014). Ghosts of my life: Writings on depression, hauntology and lost futures. • https://padlet.com/hmorl/etq8c7ih6kxt

Image from Donald Trump's Twitter account https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pepe-the-frog-cartoonist-sues-infowars-over-poster-sales-1.3832224

Image from Chorus by: Holly Herndon and Akihiko Taniguchi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHujh3yA3BE

In my BA Film and Moving Image course I researched artificial intelligence for my final major project and came to the conclusion that, due to movies such as The Terminator, it is much easier to imagine a future dystopia than a utopia. In the year 2045 futurist author Ray Kurzweil predicts that, due to a combination of accelerating returns and Moore's Law, AI will reach the "Singularity" in which it will surpass human intelligence. In much of science fiction literature this event usually results in dystopian ramifications. For instance take Hugo De Grais’s speculative text The Artilect War in which he speaks of how the appearance of a Godlike Machine would inevitably lead to a third world war between those in favor of building super intelligent AI (Cosmists) and those opposed (Terrans). The outcome of which would result in a death toll of a billion humans, De Grais describes this as a 'gigadeath.'

This research was in service of my final film on the course which used non-narrative techniques to tell the story of a female AI who is 'awoken' as she is reincarnated into a human form. My predominate influence for the piece was the Tibetan Book of the Dead however another key text I found inspiring at the time was Donna Haraway's A Cyborg Manifesto. Similarly to Kurzweil she has a somewhat utopian view of human/technological interaction and sees machines as aspects of our embodiment, which complemented my attempts at a more positive outlook on the topic of AI. In hindsight, I feel her affirmations on the connection between human, machines and nature had influenced the subtext of my subconscious meditation.

However, Harrway pragmatically argues for "situated knowledge" in which we create responsible relationships with machines and evaluate what implications this will have on our cultural world-view. In her essay, the metaphorical "cyborg" represents an empowering figure, an alternative to Western, patriarchal views and it's many dualisms. Feminist Technoscience is a field of ethnographic study that applies feminist analysis to scientific practice and stresses importance on social knowledge over gender politics. It aims to explore the relations of feminism to science and what each can learn from each other. A recurring topic is the duality of human nature, such as the ambiguous boundaries between Natureculture, Genderscience and the Animal-human-machine.

Another major scholar within this branch of scientific study is Lucy Suchman. In her book Human-Machine Reconfigurations she investigates how human agency and technological artifacts are becoming slowly intertwined.

Some of Suchman's key points include

- How modern technology predominately rests on an old-fashioned/male dominated viewpoint. - However, she offers initiatives to help benefit humankind's sociological/ethnographic outlook on our relationships to these machines.   - How artworks such as the Stelarc head show how the human body is becoming reconfigured by the techno scientific.

Drawing on Lucy Suchman, if we spent time "figuring" the human in relation to super intelligent AI or looked at the creation of De Grais's Artilects from Harraway's 'situated knowledge' perspective; then perhaps humanity would not tear itself apart and hopefully we would be one step closer to finally realising what a utopia could be.

References • https://vimeo.com/169515487 • De Garis, H. (2012). The Artilect War. Issues, 98, 13-19. • Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991) • Suchman, L. (2007). Human-machine reconfigurations : Plans and situated actions (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Image of B.A.R.D.O by: Chris Speed https://vimeo.com/169515487

Image from Si Story Telling for Earthly Survival, 2016, film still by: Fabrizio Terranova, Donna Haraway http://www.hek.ch/en/program/events-en/event/donna-haraway-story-telling-for-earthly-survival.html