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Evaluation

With mine and Liam’s idea being more concrete to be applied next semester, it is always important to figure out ways that we could improve and generally evaluate on the work we have already created. Throughout the workshop sessions that we have had it has allowed myself to apply media theorists from previous years to perhaps develop a basis of thought and contextualisation. The use of the P.E.S.T analysis was a great speculating point in terms of thinking broadly on contemporary media as a whole, the colloquium we also attended was an eye opener in terms of the use of the gif that I want to also incorporate with my work and the use of disruption. In my opinion I feel that this project would definitely benefit with another voice like Liam to help critic the work that we later on want to produce. To continuously keep improving and moving towards an end goal of showing our work in the form of an exhibition format. The idea for the different ways the images could be presented came from our mass feedback session (mentioned in one of my blogs) that was the driving force which made me stick and continue to delve into the idea of the disruption and the glitch even further.

Attached below is a spark page for the content we hopefully want to include:

Spark Page Imagery

In regards on refelcting and criticising our work, the use of the Makey Makey would arguably take a long time to pull off and master, this is also in regards to the costs and gaining the knowledge to use these interactive circuits. This is why we were thinking of maybe scrapping the idea of the Makey Makey all together. I think if we potentially focus our time and energy on the glitch image and also sound, it could perhaps show a better use of our time rather than trying to compile a mass work load. It could ultimately make the project more palpable to approach it this way. One other improvement that I think could be amended is that I could maybe try and practice different forms of glitch art on even more software other than After Effects and Photoshop. The difference will be important I feel in conveying this sense of disruption by having everything change and not be bound to one specific type of style. I have also discussed this with Liam too in regards to how we can convey sound in the use of the presentation of these images. My final critique of my project is that with the after effects animation I should of maybe perhaps used Liam’s distorted soundscape that he has been working on, to show how our glitch aesthetic would come to getter and to see how well it would work. Overall I am very optimistic going into next semester as myself and Liam have both touched upon different theorists ideas and also the actual creation and practicality the next stage will have in putting our thoughts to practice!

 

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Project Conclusion?

Looking back on all of the blog posts, overall I have decided to keep going along with the use of contextualising the glitch aesthetic with contemporary debates in British politics. Three different styles of  imagery will be used which I have outlined in my blog of a clip. These will includes a moving image reacting to sound, A still image and also a looping gif.

Myself and Liam Hall have been working in conjunction with one another with both of us having similar ideas about the glitch. He has been working more on the idea of the cyborg and soundscape within the glitch aesthetic though. Next semester we want to combine both of our ideas and theories to neatly execute a piece next year which combines the notion of the imagery of the glitch and also the sound. Overall our progression and experimentaion will drive us through next semester of a plan we will decide in January 2019. Collaboration, discussion and precision will be important for the completion of this project whilst evidencing media theorists like Mirzoeff, Baudrillard and many others. This semester to summarise has been ultimately about setting our sites on a media project that taps into our current debates surrounding our media landscape.

I’ve decided with Liam that we want to base our project on the glitch, Brexit and the cyborg, by creating a space where people are overwhelmed with the amount of imagery used and the disruption caused. I feel it is better to start with a lot of content and to cut down rather then to have an insufficient amount. So next semester we plan on finding a space within the university to showcase this entheogenic experience of how the the glitch in sound and imagery can be conveyed to provide this unique experience in an aim to overwhelm the audience with this media experience. By setting up a specific space which will make you realisation the mediation you have been trapped in and to think differently on your perception of politics and the media!

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Speculation and Viability of the Project

As mentioned in my previous blog post, although the theory and development of idea is important, it isn’t too early to think about how I can think of developing the interactive element how potentially feasible it actually is. With the mentioning of the Makey Makey I want to combine this palpable element with Adobe After Effects plugins to actually apply this immersion. The use of plug-ins that are available to be used could go hand in hand with the idea of motion graphics and applying the glitch to gifs and also short 5 to 10 second clips from a variety of tutorials again to try and see what can and can’t work. To help this project develop the structure of what I want to provide for the  project will depend how much of the workload I compile on myself. For example when it actually comes to the making of the project, depending on the space given and presented the Makey Makey may have to be scrapped all together. Again, because the practical stage will be next semester there is also still a level of uncertainty upon how the production stage will take place however I think with this type of project again the versatility and change won’t jeopardise the whole scheme.

Below is an example of a clip where the image is actually dictated by sound, this effect perhaps spliced with the idea of the glitch could perhaps cause a nice disruptive aesthetic. As a more finished product I plan to maybe used a more imagery in a single scene to perhaps show an overload of information, of trying to see where to look. The music choice I used for this sample is actually from a generic rap song which was made in 2015 however, I could maybe try and work with Liam who could perhaps provide a distorted version of our national anthem in conjunction with our ideas being slightly similar with him focusing more on the soundscape side of the project and myself working more on the imagery.

With this being the basic reaction style I wanted I spoke to one of my peers on advice and changes that could perhaps be made. Amendments/changes will redirect to another page here.

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Research into the Glitch

Building on from last week, with the feedback session that we had I wanted to look at relevant news stories and also another media theorist developing on Mirzoeff with Baudrillard and his ideas on the hyperreal, and how we can conceive this space of simulation and exploring new media landscapes. Experiencing simulacra and using his concepts to analyse the semiotics of the glitch. Baudrillard’s notion of simulation and how we as individuals are mediated by screens can offer a contradiction between mediation and sabotage within my project, “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”(Baudrillard, 1981). Maybe the use of distortion and adding underlying concepts within my work can show the original clip/image however add there could be a delay to before the glitch, to make the viewer second guess the image. This would then perhaps show an example of the mediation being broken.

I wanted to utilise Facebook as an archive for articles that my peers could perhaps post into the comments, for myself to build upon more of the theoretical aspect of the glitch and to not only just produce imagery but back it up with a lot of context that can relate to each image which is potentially used.  This form of collaboration being optional has really helped with my perspective on some of the glitch theory. With exhibitions tutorials and also contemporary news articles have shaped my development into this theme of the disturbance/disruption. one example that really interested me is the glitch not being used as a driving force for difference and positivity, however using this idea of manipulation as something described by The Guardian being called the ‘deep fake‘. Although my project is slightly different to the information this article presents, the idea it is important during this constant research process considering other avenues that are outside perhaps my comfort zone. The use of the deep fake could actually been shown as an alternative form of fake news, with the idea of a computer generated disturbance and voice manipulation on top of that can really bring together another dimension of disturbance, of not making the glitch so obvious.

Listed below is all the information that has helped develop my idea of the glitch:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/12/deep-fakes-fake-news-truth?CMP=fb_gu&fbclid=IwAR357YFgITX-LlWpmE97zeccbyRxkguVeMieaV2_9VG2sbp9d3kqSNf9sGI

 

 

 

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Project Development

With the progression of my project, I decided this week to actually try and test this glitch effect out on an image of David Cameron, to get a feel for how the aesthetic looks and how I could potentially develop this image and also another array of images regarding British political figures. As my speculative idea for a dystopian Brexit, making different types of images and also potentially really brief videos/gifs will cause also a disturbance in space where this will hopefully be displayed. Attached below is one of the images that I have been working on, again relating back to trial and error to see how I can perhaps take advantage and analyse the components of the image to create my desired effect. My peers and myself also presented our ideas and speculations to present how we want to head into next semester. The feedback I received from the group was generally positive with suggestions of the different avenues it could lead to, so fixating my research on this glitch may let me be able to achieve some nice outputs!

The actual making of the glitch was surprisingly easy and very simplistic to do, the simple manipulation of colour and layers really helps the image look much more advanced and altered than it actually is. I then started to apply this aesthetic in the form of a gif.

Again I wanted to mimic the gif as if it were a still image, however to then perform a subtle burst of how the image changes to show an example of the glitch. With these two examples I believe it will be important to showcase varieties of image formatting, to present this in a space which will hopefully add to the viewers sensation of adding the element  of uncertainty and also paranoia. Adding an element of surprise of the viewer thinking the the gif is a still image can really add some more character to the project as a whole. The splicing between rexit and the glitch has been the for front of my project so far however with the more I experimented with this idea, maybe the concepts from Donna Haraway and the cyborg could perhaps be really important to include. Making a correlation perhaps of how we can view our national MPS as these autonomous robots. One more example of how I envisioned this was show the politician beneath the skin as this robotics sovereign. The ruler of Brexit negotiations being non-human can offer a new dimension in the way we visualise our political space. The use of speculative fabulation coined by Donna Haraway can be perhaps another useful element to incorporate as providing a narrative might enhance the immersion of the imagery and space that I want to produce.

‘Cyborgs were never just about the interdigitations of humans and information machines; cyborgs were from the get-go the materialization of imploded (not hybridized) human beings-information machines-multispecies organisms.’ (Haraway, 2013)

Experimentation into the cyborg has been put into practice and although I’m focusing more on the idea of the glitch and disturbance with Brexit, another member of the group is creating a similar project to mine in regards to the idea of the glitch however his premise is more focused on the idea of sound and how the glitch interconnects with the cyborg. Next semester we were perhaps thinking ultimately on deciding a theme around the glitch to put to practice what we’ve been working on. There has been contact between us two and only thing we are debating is the theme we want to pursue and how we’re going to execute the project however we feel for what we have been speculating it would be worth to try and combine our ideas to see how the outcome could potentially look.

 

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Media Futures, Part 2

With the development of my idea, and discussing with a number of peers I realised there are some developments in their work which strongly relates to mine with this idea of the glitch aesthetic. We discussed the similarities and differences between both of our ideas with our discussion leading to the topic of British politics and brexit and in congestion with the idea of the cyborg. We were thinking of finding out what common denominator we could use to perhaps potentially work together.

Our project development hasn’t been set in stone which is why it will give us a lot of versatility to manoeuvre our ideas to see what we want to do. Going back to the glitch aesthetic, the potential that it has is major due to the fact that the glitch is considered somewhat of a problem with the imagery essentially being disturbed, the glitch’s function is used to show a nice aesthetic effect of the technological issues and how it is represented in our networked society.

Relating back to a blog I created last year, the idea of speculative design and also design thinking in general can help reflect our future. I want to try and base my project on the concept of the rear view mirror, where we as consumers can’t distinguish how basic the present media is, no matter what form and how decedent we see the not so distant past. One advantage that I hope to convey with this type of aesthetic is to highlight and mirror by contrasting the past with the future. To add an element of speculation and to maybe show how manipulation can perhaps give the perspective from the spectacle presented to the viewer.

I also want to look at the idea of circuits and interactivity with trying to incorporate a Makey Makey. Making the project palpable is important to help with the engagement of the project, immersion is a key principle and should help engage the public in our contemporary media society. To highlight debates and key themes that are relevant to visualising the 21st century. As of yet the material/format is undecided whether it will be pressurised or based on a movement, the positioning and location on the project will also be decided what option I choose. The way my project structure needs to work depends on the interlinking of how I want to personalise the infrastructure. Over the course and development of this project will be twisted and always slightly altered going in as a trial and error system.

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Media Futures, What if?

Following on from media landscapes, this week we managed to be apart of a colloquium with the guest lecturer Benedict Seymour to show us a viewing of his film ‘Dead the Ends’ which was essentially drew upon the ideas of late capitalism and this idea of us reproducing media with his essay film.  It reminded of Nicholas Mirzoeff’s concept of visuality and the way the London riots and contemporary space is highlighted by the use and example of sourced footage. “The right to look. The invention of the other.” (Mirzoeff, 2011) In my opinion the essay film was a very dense piece and had a large amount of information to digest however I feel I grasped the general concept of the mediation that was conveyed and how the problems discussed weren’t essentially tackled directly. They were explained in a very poetic banal narration with this idea of the looping gif being used continuously throughout.

Afterwards it did give me somewhat of another scope to think about what type of project I wanted to exhibit and it has also gave me the basis to start thinking critically of how I want to go about my idea. In this weeks session we had the chance to write down our ideas and themes to perhaps connect with one another. We used a digital mind map (attached below) to try and see the implications of how viable it actually is.

My initial idea at the moment (although it is subject to change) is to create an interactive piece in which pressure pads are used to show a glitch aesthetic of British politicians called, ‘The Entheogenic Brexit’. The way it would work is essentially there would be thin sheets of fabric with a projection of an image of a British politician/public figure as it is shown and not modified however, when the participant pushes down on the pressure pad the original image is then changed to the modified glitch aesthetic and also to represent them as a divine. With the entheogenic effect this idea of a higher I thought was interesting to touch upon as at the moment we are facing a hard Brexit, and it would be interesting to see the responses from audiences on the difference. My objective is to try and garner a reaction of potential confusion and maybe see if they can also perhaps intemperate any other meaning behind the piece

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Media Landscapes

For this session we had a lengthy discussion on the futuristic implications of media and were asked to potentially predict any social, technical, political and economical, which we then devised into PEST format for short (which is essentially the themes I just mentioned however abbreviated). The way we decided to structure and format our collective group ideas was to split up into separate groups to create branching off discussions and to see how may ideas we could generate. I really thought working in small groups provided a positive reaction in regards the amount of thoughts which we brainstormed and provided somewhat of a timeline on a whiteboard to try and give an idea of the spectrum and estimate how long our predictions would roughly take. The image attached below shows the list of ideas that some of us in the group had (not all of the ideas from the class were placed on the board however there was a group led discussion in regards to their ideas and also futuristic possibilities) and we structured ideas in sort of a timeline format ranging from 5 years, 10 years and 20 years.

In my group we decided to tackle each theme one at a time and to see what we can potentially come up with, throughout all of the ideas we managed to come up with I want to mention a few important conclusions that we thought were the most important and relevant (even the question given to us wasn’t based on being right or wrong but we wanted to try and go for a some amount of realism):

Political- our main outcome from what we discussed which could potentially happen in 20 years was something we called a “United Korea” where the borders between North and South finally come with peace. We thought this would be realistic only with a large time scale as it could take an extremely long time to be developed. Some major indicators I found for proposing this is because of the meetings Kim Jong un has had with President Trump and also the South Korean leader, with a viral clip of Kim Jong Un stepping inside the Korean border and shaking hands with the South Korean Leader and also there have been talks of Kim Jong Un being increasingly more open and inviting celebrities and public figures to North Korea, like the pop for example.

E conomical- With our idea of what we thought what future economical implications could occur in the near future and we decided on Cryptocurrency. We predicted that in the next 10-15 years there will be a dominance in the way of that another type of digital currency is used nationally or maybe perhaps a a universal worldwide currency that will be equal in all other technologically advanced countries. This idea came about with the idea of trading and Bitcoin being popular in past news articles. We also thought that physical currency wouldn’t be eliminated however some sort of social currency system is used and can be generated to purchase everyday items however with a convergence of this “social currency”.

S ocial- In regards to the social aspect we found for a short-
term advancement     that virtual reality devices become more common around households and in general in regards to the manufacturing and also distribution. It made me think of this idea of hyper reality and how our world can be manipulated whilst simultaneously be simulated. We thought in the next 5 years this would dominate the console market and be even popular with its for, of unique escapism that it can offer to players/users.

T echnological- for the final theme of the technological we thought of the advancement of robotics and also artificial intelligence and also if they actually gained citizenship as an individual with independent thought. This prediction was our most ludicrous however we thought that perhaps a long way in the future (20 years plus) with the advancement in all technologies we may be something to think about even though that it may not seem palpable it is always worth to consider how fast AI is being developed and what extent it will end and peak.

It is also important to start thinking about potential projects that I could start to perhaps identify and work on. Attached below is a padlet of an array of ideas I could start to work on:

https://padlet.com/crickmorej30/ytq12e1r8e2q

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Art as a Weapon

With our first semester task we were challenged to create a photomontage piece inspired by the dadaist movement (1915). Dadaism is essentially an artistic idea of imagery produced to provide/represent a meaning and in this case it means to be political.  From looking at the work of Hannah Höch with her montage work of cutting and pasting physical images to create art, in todays contemporary media culture there is a vast amount of topics and versatility to experiment with either physical/digital images.

With my work attached below I decided to use Donald Trump as the basis for my piece, to create a somewhat comical image of Trump merged with Hulk Hogan with him being against an opposition ranging from a variety of individuals, to his conflicts addressed on social media and also his issue with CNN and fake news.  The reason why I wanted to merge Donald Trump with Hulk Hogan is because Hogan’s persona was literally being the embodiment of patriotism with him being this all American good guy. So the representation I wanted to try and provide for the viewer is that trump see’s himself as the ultimate patriot. Within contemporary culture and photomontage I found it crucial to include the president for this particular task and to reference the controversy he has been apart of dating back to a number of years.