#awss2028

Here are some screenshots from my Web Art and Design major project, it focuses on user generated content and its artistic value as well as social reflection. I took the first and last 10 pages of lolbender.tumblr.com posts, a tumblr for internet images and fanart based on 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' (ATLA). I then categorised them into;

Crossover (references to other shows as well as ATLA)

Real World Crossover (cosplay and photos)

Fanart/comics

Memes (demotivational, captions, lolz)

Special (some that didn't fit in the other categories)

Above shows the beginning stages of the visualiser. I used Dan Shiffman's flocking library to control the movement of the images and then created five separate flocks for the categories.

After time the pattern emerges and the images can easily be compared and contrasted whilst at the same time revealing a broader picture of the aesthetic composition within the categories. The mouse repels the images so it can be used to disrupt the images and even separate one by 'herding' it.

Below the visualiser is a brief description of the site and two collapsed 'accordions' containing all the images, one for the first 10 pages and one for the last, with posted videos at the end.

Each accordion has a show all, hide all link that controls all five categories at once. The categories can also be controlled individually, making it easy to compare the memes, for example, from the beginning posts to the ones from the end posts.

The images expand when hovering, allowing the audience to inspect the images closely and read text without disturbing the overall layout of the site.

Technical:

Visualiser - Processing exported to Java applet, using Dan Shiffmen's flocking library http://www.shiffman.net/teaching/nature/steering/

Accordions - Javascript using a library from http://www.dynamicdrive.com/

Styling and mouseover - CSS

I'm using Dan Shiffman's flocking library (here) with processing to display images that have varying relevance to each other. This is a combination of ideas, remix theory and intertextuality, in the hope of revealing insightful information about user generated content, artworks and their influences/originals. I will give each 'piece' an attraction value so that they form flocks of similar works OR similar works will flock towards a specific point.

I started with a previous experiment in which I changed the flocking example to form two distinct flocks:

Then I added images to see how it would look and to get some code developed:

0100101110101101 = K

Online artist collective:

http://www.0100101110101101.org/projects.html

A collective energy can be extremely productive through communication and sharing within a communal environment. Clay Shirky calls this phenomenon a cognitive surplus, using the examples of both lolcats and an open source fundraising site (Ushahidi) to demonstrate the power of a large population getting active with their creating and sharing rather than being passive, previously relying on the media and other consumables rather than user generated content. These communities are not unlike an artist collective, as they are gathering people, using the power of numbers to be constructive (or destructive) in an effort to advance or explore our artistic and cultural understanding. The online collective 0100101110101101 (k) has been constructed as a modern tool of expression for its members, applying traditional art practices to a much more modern environment with extremely original and sometimes provocative results.

Design

There is a clear intention and purpose for the site, reflected by the design and layout, they want you to see what they've done and sometimes what they're doing. This is obviously an effective medium as it can reach such a broad audience but does not hold artistic value in itself, instead the works on display serve to demonstrate their exploration and creations into relatively new areas. The digital works, such as 'Freedom' are designed with a more artistic purpose.

'Freedom' is a work by one of the site's artists, Eva, where she participates in a game of counter-strike with the anti-intention of not killing people even though that's the game's objective. The work was designed to fail, she is killed repeatedly and doesn't score in a gaming context. Instead Eva aims to highlight the violent nature of the game through her proposed real context, trying to convince the game's avatar population that the violence in unnecessary. This intertextuality of digital and real world is continued throughout the site's other work including, 'Colourless, Odourless and Tasteless', which combines a digital racing game with a real engine placed in a room with potentially fatal results, depending on the player's in game progress. 

The broad range of objects and software allow the collective to have an almost omnipotent presence as they're not restricted to digital or physical environments. This is furthered by their collaborative nature as it is not one person orchestrating but instead any of the members are able to contribute and influence works.

There's a man called Jim Denevan who uses a big stick to draw artworks in sand. It reminds me of crop circles but the patterned ones are more similar to computer generated works.

Website: http://www.jimdenevan.com/jim.htm

I played a lot of Portal 2 lately and instead of taking a break in the fresh air, I did some portal inspired sketches using Illustrator.

This is a diagram of an analogue portal system. I was wondering what it would look like if someone arranged two mirrors, one at the blue line and the other at the orange line to somehow trick the viewer. It wouldn't really work but it'd be cool to see a portal installation or horror house. The picture below is an existing mirror but I wonder how real the simulation could look with a more game realistic frame.

Some in game pictures:

The picture below has the blue portal directly opposite the orange one, like an elevator mirror.

After posting Mine4Dead I realised there was a much cooler example of this cross game development. Portal is a highly polished first person shooter (not uncommon) in which the central gaming mechanics are a teleporting based maze/puzzle game (uncommon). This means instead of running around shooting everyone to pass the level, the player has to use additional thought processes and skills. Spacial recognition becomes more important as it isn't just about knowing where your enemy is, you need to figure out a way through the maze using portals shot out of a gun, whilst these enemies attack you. A quick gameplay video would explain this better:

Great game, great concept as agreed by many. Some fans have taken the concept further and applied this idea to low-fi side scrolling games (yes, super marios bros.), just as it had been applied to a first person shooter.

There are also real-life fan videos of the game, similar to FreddieW's real life Call of Duty except this one is stylised as a movie, not a game.

A Game Within A Game

Mine4Dead

Ignore the cheesy euro trance, this is a game recreated within another game by fans of both original games. 'Left4Dead' is a zombie apocalypse first person shooter (FPS) and 'Minecraft' is a low fi sandbox exploration game with huge amounts of resources (in game and out of game). This intertextual combination is great and becoming more common due to the rise of sandbox style gaming and the sharing of creations via videos and forums.

Separate to sandbox games are mods and modding software. Modding a game can be problematic (legal cases, multiplayer gameplay ruined etc.) but if it's done legitimately and creatively the results can be extremely original and popular. Team Fortress is a game that began as a mod and after becoming hugely popular, teamed up with Valve and now has a highly refined sequel sold through Steam. Game developers releasing their source code and/or releasing additional software for the purpose of editing allows fans to create great games and machinima with extremely capable tools and engines. I thinks this extends the original works and in some cases can be as worthy as the original.

Manipulated art: http://www.kunstaufraeumen.ch/ 

Same idea through a modern art medium.

I really enjoyed this TED talk, by Ursus Wehrli, and it's kind of relevant, it at least shows that people aren't afraid of changing existing works of art just as people are now unafraid to change games. He is trying to change traditional perceptions of what it means to create art, joking about how he's turned it into a living. I think these manipulative creative processes are becoming much more developed and respected, I hope to explore ways of visualising the connections between works whilst being able to access the works themselves online.

Sketches: