Suspended Animation: A little cross-over but helpful nonetheless.

1.4.09

A little cross-over but helpful nonetheless.

I have decided to work on a couple of little experimental video and photo works this semester, hopefully to be completed before handing in my essay. I see these as a chance to playfully explore some of the ideas I have been thinking about. I think they will help to gain a visual insight into what it is I might work towards next semester too. The ideas stem from wanting to visually explore what depersonalisation and assimilation into one's virtual world might be translated into as an artwork.

Photo Portraits

I want to project Facebook (the profile and the gridview of my 'friends') and Second Life onto myself, live, as I am engaging in these networks. The projector will be directly connected to my laptop and then directed back at me. Hopefully I'll set up a wee studio/set so that it will look nice as a projection. Ill take some still photos initially to get an idea of some of the possibilities. I'll need someone to assist in the photo taking no doubt. I want to print some from the large format printer-hopefully close to life size. I will project the full figure of my second life avatars onto myself as a kind of double self-portraiture. At least one of my avatars will be male and perhaps they will eventually take on many different forms. A am really interested in attempting to transcend all kinds of barriers through online social networking and gender barriers are an interesting starting point. Especially in terms of self-portraiture and identity. IDENTITY. Who would have thought! But yeah, cool.

Video Portraits.

I see these as a direct extension of the photo works above. When I was first thinking of the ideas, I saw them as videos but I think it is important to work them through as photos as well. I will use the same set up for the video works...begin by projecting live the computer feed, back onto myself. And then video. Again, it seems I shall need an assistant :)

These works should have a nice contrasting quality about them as I sit stationary while the 3D figure representing me is active in the virtual world. I see this also as an exploration of the 'depersonalisation by assimilation into space' that Merrin discussed. As I engage in the network, I become lost, a part of the background, transformed into an insect indistinguishable from its surroundings. The promotional self takes over while the physical self remains plugged in and very much immersed in technology.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Introduction

Occupying virtual space inevitably requires an adjusting and reforming of the structures of space, movement and time. Virtual worlds can allow a user to transcend barriers and borders that are less flexible outside of the virtual realm. Whether the barriers are political, physical or psychological, the attraction for the user of Second Life lies in the opportunities that these kinds of transcendence offer.

My works hinge on the notion of self-portraiture, as I am essentially dealing with the online incarnations of myself. I am particularly interested in considering the word avatar as a vehicle, synonymous with the notion of multiple selves; performative, promotional, fantasy, representational.

My works are representative of the kind of disconnection experienced when the user is no longer directly controlling their avatar and the programme creates a new kind of pseudo-autonomy for the simulated, extended self. Slowly and delicately, looping and repeating, suspended and animated, they never progress nor regress; the state of suspended animation.

Project Overview

During the first semester my work focuses around my exploration of virtual space. I am interested in what it means to embody virtual spaces and how these kind of spaces have come to shape our lives. This blog will document my explorations of Second Life and other social networks, my research, ideas and artworks that begin to deal with these concepts. My understandings and ideas about the writing of William Merrin and N.Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway and Anthony Vidler among the work of artists such as AES+F, Micha Cardenas, Pipilotti Rist and many more will appear here.

While researching I have engaged in many different forms of networking and some of the work I complete will also be displayed on a Facebook group page I have created, O.S.N.A.A -Online Social Networking Addicts Anonymous.

Second semester I am working toward my completion of my project for SITE in Nov. I'll continue to update the blog with thoughts, ideas, pictures, video, frustrations....

Essentially I'm now beginning my final installation project. This will incorporate several video and object works that come together as a body of work for assessment. I'm thinking of a working title of 'Suspended Animation: Between Myself and an Other' (OR Another)....Still an exploration of my online self, understanding online experience as conflicted, uncanny, uneasy, indescribable, affective, communicative, surreal.