Week 8 SM1701. Contemporary and New Media Art Professor: David - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Immersion & Paranoia, Surveillance & Transcendence Week 8 SM1701. Contemporary and New Media Art Professor: David (Jhave) Johnston david.jhave.johnston --at-- cityu.edu.hk WEBSITE: http://sweb.cityu.edu.hk/sm1701/2012_FALL/Jhave/

NEXT WEEK: Your blog presentations. Simply show us your blog. Find one or two ideas on your blog that you find interesting. Relate this to the lectures, course work and general theme of contemporary and new media art. Try to express yourself clearly. Be organized. Know what you are going to show. Each presentation must be a maximum of 1min30sec . Repeated note: if I am still not following your tumblr account you must send me an email with your name, student #, & blog url. Thanks.

SUGGESTION: Begin thinking about final project. Final projects take time. Each final project involves a group presentation/performance/installation/website/video/animation. The project can be either imagined (a proposed art-work) or it can be conceptual or it can be actually implemented. Every project will be graded on  originality  complexity  design  concept  implementation  documentation  presentation Everyone must document how they have individually contributed.

TECHNICAL NOTES (for final project): Begin SIMPLE. Begin EARLY. It will take more time than you imagine. Step 1:  discuss & brainstorm  make doodles and lists of ideas on paper  consider feasibility (tech & time) of each idea  consider power (impact & elegance) of each idea  consider fusing two best ideas  or get rid of everything but the most essential idea Step 2:  make a TODO list of all the steps (equipment, software)  assign members tasks from the TODO list  make some tests in software  document every step with photos and notes on your blog  consult with me early if you have any questions  repeat: documentation is crucial  final step: how will it be presented, why/wht njoy.

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SURVEILLANCE EXERCISE #1 AUTO- Everyone watch everyone else. Record what you see. Do not use any names. No identifying words, but write down what you see. Post this info to your blog. MATIC Example: “Two rows in front of me a girl scratches her WRITING nose. The teacher waves his arm. Someone comes in late. The slide shows a TV with a line on it. I hear a burp. Behind me, a boy uses his laptop. In the front row, someone is sleeping. The artist under discussion is named: Vasulka. Two people are talking, looking at a cellphone.” This will count as a week’s work if the post is detailed and corresponds to events that actually occurred in class during the lecture. IF YOU WANT FULL MARKS, WRITE FOR 2/3 OF THE CLASS.

SURVEILLANCE EXERCISE #2  EVERYONE IS FREE TO MOVE  NO ONE IS FREE TO TALK LAWS  EVERYONE IS FREE TO RECORD VIDEO  NO IS FREE TO LEAVE THIS SPACE  DISPLAY YOUR VIDEOS WITH ARMS STRAIGHT OUT  DISPLAY YOUR VIDEOS CRADLED DUTIES  WATCH OTHER VIDEOS  RESPECT THE SPACE OF OTHERS  DO ONLY WHAT IS NECESSARY  LISTEN TO THE LECTURE AS YOU WORK ART  BE INTUITIVE  CONSIDER CONCEPTUAL ISSUES

SURVEILLANCE EXERCISE #2  EVERYONE IS FREE TO MOVE (quietly)  NO ONE IS FREE TO TALK (except me or whn in discussion) LAWS  EVERYONE IS FREE TO RECORD VIDEO (except me & of me)  NO IS FREE TO LEAVE THIS SPACE (except for washroom)  DISPLAY YOUR VIDEOS WITH ARMS STRAIGHT OUT  DISPLAY YOUR VIDEOS CRADLED DUTIES  WATCH OTHER VIDEOS (as you wish)  RESPECT THE SPACE OF OTHERS (mandatory)  DO ONLY WHAT IS NECESSARY  LISTEN TO THE LECTURE AS YOU WORK ART  BE INTUITIVE  CONSIDER CONCEPTUAL ISSUES

Les Levine Slipcover (1966) -- first time that viewers are shown images of themselves on monitors…. http://cathiesummerhayes.wetpaint.com/page/Surveillance+Art

Lucas Samaras Mirror Room (1966)

Bruce Nauman Video Corridor (1968) -- viewers approach thru a narrow corridor, two monitors, both show images of themselves.

James Turrel Roden Crater (1970 - ) a big camera obscura?

1973 ambient music

Dan Graham Opposing Mirrors and Video Monitors on Time Delay (1974/1993)

Robert Irwin Black Line Volume (1975)

“A mirrored sphere, positioned in the middle of a crossbar reflects the image of surrounding space. Two video cameras, attached to each end of the crossbar are looking in at the mirrored surface. The crossbar — now an assembly of mirrored sphere and two cameras — slowly rotates on the turntable with cameras orbiting the sphere. Since each camera sees half of the reflected space, the whole Steina Vasulka space becomes observable. ” All Vision (1976)

Walter De Maria “400 polished stainless steel poles installed in a The Lightning Fields grid array measuring one mile by one kilometer .” (1977) http://www.diacenter.org/sites/main/lightningfield

Nan Goldin Skinhead with Child (1978)

Robert Adrian Video Tape (1979) "This tape records a person (Robert Adrian) in a white cap as he passes by all the surveillance cameras in the (then new) Karlsplatz U-bahn station in Vienna. The tape is an unedited single take of the surveillance monitors by Karl Kowanz who was located in the control room with the attendant. The attendant switched the monitors so that the cameraman could follow the walker through the station system .“ http://alien.mur.at/rax/

Robert Adrian Live TV (1981)

Sophie Calle The Shadow (Detective) (1981) -- artist “asked her mother to hire a detective agency to follow her, report on her activities and, in the artist’s words, ‘to provide photographic evidence of my existence’…” (Rush, New Media in Art, p.133)

Robert Adrian Video Installation (1984)

Dieter Froese Not a Model for Big Brother’s Spy Cycle (1987) -- a gun hanging in the gallery was superimposed over people’s backs….

David Rokeby & Paul Garrin Border Patrol (1995) Commissioned for the Kwangju Biennale awarded a Prix Ars Electronica award of Distinction in Interactive Art (1997)

“The piece was made up of a wall, topped with razor-wire, with multiple embedded screens in its face. Four robotic cameras were mounted on the wall, each with a secondary tracking camera. My software located heads within the images of the tracking cameras and directed the robotic cameras to follow heads as precisely as possible. The robotic cameras were very fast, and had very long imposing lenses on them. Spookily, as the camera followed you , you were always looking directly down the "barrel" of the lens. The images from the robotic cameras were displayed on the embedded screens, and once David Rokeby & Paul Garrin the system had locked onto a head, crosshairs Border Patrol would form and the sound of sub-machine gun (1995) fire would rip out of the hefty subwoofers Commissioned for the Kwangju Biennale awarded a Prix Ars Electronica award of Distinction behind the wall .” in Interactive Art (1997) http://www.davidrokeby.com/border_patrol.html

We refined the system in a studio space in the East Village in Manhattan. I remember that the first time we got the tracking to work, we were both astonished and shocked by the visceral sense of evil we both felt. We were surprised at later shows to see that people often giggled and checked their hair in the screens as the cross-hairs formed over their heads. We found the system scarier than any later viewer. http://www.davidrokeby.com/border_patrol.html David Rokeby & Paul Garrin Border Patrol (1995) Commissioned for the Kwangju Biennale awarded a Prix Ars Electronica award of Distinction in Interactive Art (1997)

Jill Magid Surveillance Shoe (2000) Shoe: High heals, IR surveillance camera, battery pack, wireless transmitter in shoe sole. “The Surveillance Shoe is a hybridization of surveillance hardware and a pair of high- heeled shoes. A CCD surveillance camera with infrared technology is built into the shoe's design. Due to the fixed position of the camera to the shoe, that leg remains bound within the frame. While this leg appears stable like architecture, the actual architecture becomes mobile. ”

Jill Magid System Azure | Rhinestoning Headquarters ( 2003-ongoing) “Rhinestone encrusted surveillance cameras, posters, public and gallery installations. After inventing her company System Azure Security Ornamentation, Jill Magid hand-glued rhinestones to security cameras at the Amsterdam Headquarters of Police using permanent adhesive. Although the ornamenting policy was reversed, the cameras remain in place. ”

Jill Magid Evidence Locker (2004) “ In 2004, Jill spent 31 days in Liverpool, during which time she developed a close relationship with Citywatch (Merseyside Police and Liverpool City Council), whose function is citywide video surveillance- the largest system of its kind in England. The videos in her Evidence Locker were staged and edited by the artist and filmed by the police using the public surveillance cameras in the city centre. ”