#briefdevelopment

Our Manifesto

25/8/17

In our modern age, the changing dynamic of technology as a means for communication, has meant we are now connected, yet equally disconnected from each other on an interpersonal level. Through exploration, we hope to understand how the introduction of technology and its social mediums has impacted the quality, context, intention and language of human interactions through digital platforms. Human interactions in how we communicate, the attention we give to others, and how we allow ourselves to be seen through social media.

“If you think about it, our attention is the only thing we truly own in our lives . . . Unfortunately, with today’s technology, our attention is being pulled in more directions than ever before, which makes this optioning of our own attention more difficult — and more important — than ever before.” [1]

This being an extremely prevalent issue in society yet also relatable to us on a personal level, we aim to highlight this movement by engaging audiences through an interactive novelty experience. We envision achieving this by integrating different disciplines and practices. Marrying digital and physical mediums could take the form of:

A tangible or performative installation. Implementing physical computing with the use of Arduino, mechatronics and resources available from the 3D labs.

Interactive projection, incorporating practices such as motion capture, distortion of projections, developing on our programming skills.

By making it live and interactive, as opposed to a static display, we are promoting active feedback. Inverting the role of the audience from observer to participator. This takes on the principle stated in the Chinese proverb, “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand”.

While we see this as an opportunity to explore and learn about a range of platforms to use, a transdisciplinary approach allows us to draw on the strengths of the individual mediums, adding versatility to the overall scope of the final project. This reflects the nature of communication and conversation, which is expressed through multiple ways. Therefore, we believe an effective commentary cannot be presented through a singular medium.

“The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”  [2]

Our primary intention was for our project to prompt conversations beyond the Studio. And what more suitable and relevant topic to discuss than conversations itself? Conversations, and on a broader level, interpersonal interactions and relationships, is something I personally feel passionate about. Even as Millennial, a digital ‘native’, I have witnessed the dramatic progression of technology and its increasing convergence with our day-to-day life and interactions. [3] This has been something that I have embraced because of its ease, yet also resented because of how it’s affecting how we communicate, and essentially connect with others. As relational beings, the quality and state of our communication has massive agency over our wellbeing, identity, value as individuals and members of a wider community.

“Communication is the collaborative process of using messages to create and participate in social reality… social realities emerge through social interaction. Therefore, communication enables us to actualize possibility and achieve change and growth, both for ourselves and for communities.” [3]

Reasons for Group Formation:

For this project, I really wanted to work with some new people, partially for networking purposes, but primarily to learn how to collaborate with different types of people.

I decided to form a group with Alex, Samy, Daniel and Sheena because of our complementing ideas on movement, as well as the type of outcome we wanted to create. Furthermore, having heard from other people and seeing for myself in person, I knew that each member had a good work ethic as well as a range of different skill sets and knowledge for group diversity.

Individual Contribution:

During the formation of the brief, I actively contributed in group discussions fluidly adjusting between facilitator, contributor and active listener where appropriate. I also conducted outside research to strengthen our brief and worked on the design of our visual manifesto.

In the next 8 weeks, I can bring to the table related outside experiences and expertise. For example, in terms of theatre, my understanding of verbal and nonverbal forms of communication, subtext and relationships from what I’ve learnt as an actor. As well as applying principles from Epic Theatre regarding the activation of engagement and critical thinking within the audience as participator rather than observer.  

Furthermore, applying and developing what I learnt last semester in programming for the digital component. And drawing upon my experience in hard technologies and art and design for the physical component and final presentation.

References:

[1] Manson, M. (April 2017), Smartphones are the New Cigarettes, Retrieved from https://markmanson.net/Smartphones

[2] Mcluhan, M. (1964), Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf

[3] Edwards, A., Edwards, C., Wahl, S.T., Myers, S.A. (2013) The Communication Age: Connecting and Engaging, California, United States of America: Sage Publications.

Index of Relevant Blogs:

Group Formation: Once Called BoyWonder

Day 1: Developing the Brief

Day 2: Team Barcelona FTW!

Day 3: Productive Conversations

Day 4: The Thesaurus is our Friend

24/8/17

We are steadily working towards our brief as a team! Building on our work from yesterday, we picked apart, clarified and deepened our ‘What’ statement to create our opening paragraph that identifies the problem we are addressing. And we extended on our ‘Why’ and ‘How’ to clarify our goals for our project and how we intend to reach those goals. We haven’t quite finished the brief yet, but we will be meeting tomorrow to finalise our ideas and statements.

We want to structure our brief like a manifesto, a declaration of our ideas and how we’d like to address them. Though not exactly conventional, we used Josh Baxter’s proposal as an exemplar for how to go about our own proposal.  

Workflow and Group Dynamic:

Taking on what we learnt from Ricardo’s exercise highlighting the importance, benefits and constraints of, different wording and phrasing in briefs, we were very intentional about finding the best way to communicate what we wanted to get across. This involved a lot of verbal discussions, consulting of the thesaurus, writing and rewriting of our statements before typing up the chosen phrasing up on our shared document.

It was sometimes challenging to compete with the ambient noise of the classroom, which I found made hearing my group members bit difficult. Another challenge was becoming distracted, especially by passer-bys who wanted to chat and see how we were going. It got to the point where we had to be quite firm saying, we can talk later after studio because we’ve got to work! So that just really touches on the need for distinguishing time set aside for work, and for socialising.

Despite that, I think we worked really well together during these discussions as we all contributed, listened and built upon each other’s ideas, the final paragraph being a combination of all our voices.  

Plan of Action:

Once Called BoyWonder

17/8/17

I have joined forces with Alex, Daniel, Samy and Sheena for our group project. Today, during class we worked on the excel sheet James made and began creating and defining our concept statement and area we’d like to explore. This is what we came up with so far:

Conceptual Statement: Aim to create an audio-visual interactive experience that exploits the senses and extension of body and mind to re-contextualise what it means to move.

Why? Why? Why?

Why do we want it to be an interactive experience?

To make the audience active participants as opposed to passive observers. This’ll increase engagement and encourage thought beyond the experience.

Why do we want to exploit the senses, body and mind?

Perception is integral to movement, thus if we can change and manipulate the way we perceive our surroundings and body, we can encourage reconsideration of what it means to move.

Why is it important to re-contextualise what it means to move?

Movement is fundamental to our existence and how we experience the world, but it is often taken for granted. If we can make people rethink about movement, we could suggest a new way of living and address problems outside of movement.

Comments on Group Dynamic:

I am happy with our group members so far because from what I’ve heard from others and what they’ve shown so far, I know they all have a good work ethic. Furthermore, our ideas complement each other and we’re on a similar wave length. Having not worked with 3 of the members, I know one of the upcoming challenges will be accustoming myself to working alongside their approach and personality. As well as being confident enough to share my ideas and speak my mind.

I don’t think diversity is too much of a problem with our group, as we all come from different areas of interests and backgrounds. The size of our group might pose challenges in discussions and decision making, but we will need to make the best use of our group size to increases creative workflow and efficiency.

Plan of Action: