Techsuality (part 1)

TECHSUALITY

Techsuality is the name of the upcoming exhibition on May 4th about the nature of sexual interactions via computers. There is a lot that can be read from the piece, the main part being that communicating through a computer is not what it feels to be. The cold reality is that you are sending all your love to a computer displaying text.

The installation has a lot to do with creating atmosphere. Two computers interact sexually using only the OS sounds that come with their software. A PC running Windows XP and a Mac running Snow Leopard OSX transfer sexually named files making normal sounds construed as sexual.

The installation has been through alot of revamps, we isolated on the important part and eliminated the unnecessarily complicated parts. The piece originally involved mannequins and disc drives, and the narrative was longer. However over time we simplified to convey the main point of the piece.

That said, we haven't ended some of our plans to add a little character to the installation. We will have dry ice for a sense of ominous creepiness. We may add a red or blacklight to convey the sexual head shop atmosphere further. We will siphon off our section with walls and a black curtain, the curtain will have each of us rotating dressed as bouncers to check ID's of younger visitors. How much of this make it into the final project depends on whether these things add or take away from the piece in action.

Here is a look at our poster:

K'nex Fun!

Just so nobody gets the wrong idea about my blog from the previous post, I figured switching gears to something more family friendly was appropriate. I thought Another shameless self plug for the animated short I finished: K'nex Fun! It's a cute little short about a couple of K'nex emoticon balls traveling through a rather extravagant course. enjoy!

Cock Projector

A guy named Jaime del Val is projecting something quite unexpected on the buildings of Madrid, his cock. The guy rigged a complex system of projectors, cameras, and lights to project a massive video of his cock live. One is inclined to call bullshit on this piece of performance art, but it is exactly this kind of craziness that makes it an impressive endeavor.

Granted he may not be doing the community a service with this piece, but it does have an edgy, futuristic feel to what he is trying to say. He calls his apparatus used in conjunction with the human form an example of "Pangender Cyborgs." He claims to be protesting various things such as homophobia, surveillance, control, and consumer society. I'm not sure if I'm buying his various protests, but it sure is freaky. I thought this bit of techno-performance art to be relevant to the upcoming exhibition of Techsuality.

Stop Motion Mania 2!

So I stumbled across this little stop motion piece that is just to good not to pimp out across the internet. I imagine that this was a bit of a doozy to shoot, but the best parts of it have to be the character design: simple, yet different. The music is also really fun, feels kinda house mixed with Daft Punk.

Chat Roulette

Chat Roulette has been getting alot of reporting in the mainstream media, but they miss the most important part of what makes this a novel idea. By now everyone knows how the system works, and yes if you fear the sea of floating penises that plague the site then you shouldn't go there. Disclaimer aside, what makes chat roulette unique is what is says about human behavior. Sure it is technically amazing you can jump to any country and talk to someone (if you actually get a response) but that possibility has existed since web cams came standard. Chat roulette only picked up the pace using the idea founded on omegle's chatting with strangers via IM.

We tend to focus on the crazy and wacky and scary crap people do to get attention in front of the camera, but I find it alot less jarring than the normal people leaning against their hand clicking next over and over.

"Nexting"- or clicking next the moment you see someone, judging them in an instant, and deciding to move forward- is a strong example of the dark side of human nature. In real life, while we ignore strangers face to face, we still interact with them long enough to decide whether it is worth knowing the stranger. If we don't like the stranger, the stranger doesn't just disappear.

Nexting feels like an example of the strong disillusionment and disinterest in understanding people; that the internet encourages. Like the 4 chan's random board, nobody knows each other and usually resort to attention getting techniques of questionable morality. (which can be pretty fun, but you will eventually see something that hurts your mind)

4 chan and similar sites was just text, we've all come to understand text on the internet doesn't carry much weight. But put a face to it, and the disillusionment pulls into the human world. You aren't getting denied by a wall of text, it is by a real person you just saw.

The worst part is, your the one who just nexted. Everyone eventually falls into this habit. I think that the idea of instant judgement and instant denial wont translate immediately to the real world, that would be ridiculous. However, this takes the effect to a new level; we have a person to person session where we are jaded and don't see the fellow webcamer as a person. Rather we see them as a source of pleasure or entertainment, and if they don't please us immediately we drop them for someone new. Such a mindset is incredibly dangerous and useless for the concept of stable relationships in real life.

Preaching aside, this doesn't make chat roulette bad. It simply brings to light the concerning subject of our disillusionment with people. This disconnect with people is growing more due to the internet, shorter attention spans, and instant gratification. We all have fun (mostly), but it does come at a price.

An interesting peek into a survey of the results of Chat Roulette is below.

(HINT: A hot girl goes a long way to getting someone to talk to you!)

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

All Senses but Sight

Well our ideas for this has varied over the previous meetings of our group. We finally settled on a sound cone style manipulation of the subject's hearing. Ultimately we wanted an experience that would upset our perception of balance and where we get it from. That somehow disorientation of seemingly unrelated senses could upset balance just as much as a restriction of sight.

Some of my first ideas varied from weather simulation in the dark to measuring distances using lasers.
Initial Ideas
- Sunglass with lasers that tell you the distance from an object and beep when within a certain distance

- Black Human sized can, simulate weather through holes so you feel it instead of see it.

- Covering eyes in darkness using painted white lab goggles. Then using various speakers at different legnths to fool a person into misreading a space.
: Rehashing- give person headphones, then another person controller. The other person directs the blind person using beeping sounds in the headphones.
Front, forward, left and right all direct the beeping to direct the person around. Different sounds for stop and go.

- How well can we trust sound? / other people?

: Use the same painted lab goggles to blind the person
: Variations of this using different things, vibrating devices attached to body to give direction instead?

: A beeper beep and vibration at 4 angles on the knees, each one indicates the direction one should head. The beeps and vibrations directed by someone else watching the blind person.

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The Official Project Idea
Sound Cone Experience
The Concept: Using a pair of cut sound cones we attach via headphones clip, we limit hearing to behind oneself. The idea is the balance of the person is thrown off considering our orientation is drawn from forward sound. To further disorientate the person, we will attach a sound modulating device to them, which we will have ear buds wire up into their ears. The idea being that their voice sounds different not just on the outside, but the inside of their head as well.

The Materials:
- Plastic Cone
- Headphones band
- Tape/ adhesives
- Earbuds
- Real-time Voice Modulator (like a kid's toy) +headphone jack
- Paint

Focus!

A much delayed Project #1 post. I thought I'd go ahead and explain how our piece turned out. The play piece was performed by the whole team. I prepared a video beforehand of exactly what I was going to do, then mimed it during the piece to ensure no issues like timing or internet loss would interrupt. Probably a good idea considering the flakey internet access in the upstairs studio.

The piece featured two projectors, one fancy new one (thanks Simone!) connected to a computer and one old school style projector for displaying writing. When the presentation began, we both began "writing" a paper. However various things like Instant messages, emails, and links distracted me also one phone call from a teammate hiding in the middle of the audience. The other two teammates had their computers either playing music or messaging sounds. When we came to the finale, the old style projector writer finished writing his paper (which admittedly ended up being short despite claims he was a fast writer.) I buried my frustrated head as my screen faded into the video you see below.

Ultimately the piece went off with only a few flaws. Because i had to switch to another computer, the computer key were more sensitive so miming typing was difficult without hit keys. Also the call had me pause the video in the script for me to talk, however the latest version of Quicktime on his computer showed the video controls when paused (unlike my vers.) which killed the illusion I was actively using the computer. We strayed a little from the script during the phone conversation but it was hardly noticeable.

The results were mixed but good for the most part. The audience and teachers could tell what we were trying to do, and the criticism was fair. Our presentation really lacked an obvious beginning, something to indicate what we were doing. Instead it kind of started in sort of a disorganized nod of heads. As well the performances by he group members were good but confusing, this was intended but it could have also taken away from our objective.

I feel the piece went through pretty well, although the strongest part was probably the focus screen. The rest seemed to be a little bit more filler than really saying something special. But hey, who doesn't love dramatic chipmunk?

VCR DJ's and Morse Coding Walkie Talkies

The second presentation was give on the curious experiment our group had with circuit bending. Our main idea started with cracking open a few VCRs, figuring out how the work, and then mixing together VCR footage via projector and a mixer with a few speakers. We made alot of progress, unscrewing the circuit boards and reactivating broken VCR button controls.

Ultimately we got two of the once broken VCRs to play Home Alone vs. Independence day on projectors. Meanwhile I took a crack at the LG Dare Cellphone, to see if we could make a cellphone beepin lightshow as a backup project. One broken phone, and one broken VCR later we were ready to mix the working 2 VCRs.

-----And then it falls apart------
Unfortunately, due to the lack of covering to protect the fragile VCRs they were damaged in transit. The cell phone deconstruction didn't bring satisfying results, but luckily we had Jake's Walkie Talkies to resort to. (after contemplating making the radios into a tornado or a toilet bowl, which we decided was lame) Jake had the idea to incorporate morse code into the walkie talkies, essentially using a dead language of communication with the modern technology of radio frequencies. We cracked open one of the walkie talkies and managed to alter the circuits so that the beeping sounds could simulate morse code across the same frequency as the other walkie talkie.
It was a success! We pulled together a presentation and translated a o so subtle message about communication and technology into morse code.

Portal

Hey All, So a little plug of the video project I pulled together for TS animation class. Suffice to say this was alot more than trying to complete an assignment. Now hopefully the portal people at Valve won't get pissy 'bout it. It is just a tribute animation. Enjoy. :3

Stop Motion Mania!

So, having finished the stop motion project for New Media I found another interesting example of stop motion I though I'd throw out there. Incredibly unique concept, the probably took a loong as time itself!

T- Shirt Wars

The 555 Kubik facade Projection

I stumbled upon this incredible projection piece on a building in Hamburg, Germany. Using projection and screens, the entire building seem to come alive with the illusion of 3D movement. Perhaps the biggest selling point for the believability is the sound.

Apparently the team was aiming to simulate what a building "dreaming" would look like. I guess buildings aspire to be some sort of dynamic shape-shifting Frank Loyd Wright style building.

Incredibly eye catching and unique, this reminds me of the spectacle and scale of that light show in the SIPTU Building in Dublin Ireland.

The SIPTU Building Dublin, Ireland

Ideas, idea, ideas

Today in Cyber Studio we threw a bunch of ideas at the wall, some feasible, some not so much. We have a few ideas about themes but not sure how to embody them, while others we knew the installation but not the meaning. Here's the quick list of ideas we've (2 art student, 1 Industrial Design, and 1 Computer Science) pulled together.

Possible Ideas for Project #1

Obsession with the Phone/ Computer Communication

- 3D Piece about an Iphone and Blackberry (or other phone) falling in love through texting.

- Various phones in either relationships, or hooking up.

- The texting is read aloud by the voice of the phone carrier

- Commentary on all communication through devices, we pay them more love than people we know

Live Action Video piece about the "difference" humanitarian effort through social networks, online petitions, and twitter

- People think they are making a difference by clicking buttons

- People really make a difference when they rally (reference the gay march for rights in DC, the Tea Baggers, and the actual protests in Iran)

Examples of Useless Online Organizations

Twitter- Iran Protest= Green Square

Facebook- Breast Cancer, Hokie United?,

Online Petitions- Health care, social issues

Question of awareness?

Possible ideas

- Party idea, panning between people actually interacting and people talking into phones or texting in computers

-Take people isolated from their rooms/ houses and put them together and exaggerate the issue of direct communication (technology has made things extremely impersonal, creating social phobias)

- various electronic implying gender and sexual interactions?

- Devices constricted by their own projection/ implied symbolism of our slave to over abundance of information

- 5 people in a circle interaction solely through computer/ or holding up screens for projectors of what they are saying.

- 2-3 peoples stand behind white walls with projections of what they type being shot onto their walls. You cant see what you typed but you can see what others are saying. You can see the eyehole in the wall of what others have said.

- Commentary on the anonymity of others

- Two people (strangers) and one team member

:Two people are legit, probably tell the truth about themselves

:One must lie

- Chatroom anonymity- When the chatting in a room you only get one persons messages?

There were a few more and a few Illustrations. Hopefully we can settle and focus on an idea and get the equipment together Thursday.
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(Street Installation, Mark Jenkins)

The New Blog

Pog's Blog

This blog is focused on project I conceive and create in my CyberStudio Class here at Virginia Tech. There will also be posts of various interesting projects I find as well as updates on various other large projects. Most posts are to come but this is just to mark the beginning.

The name is Chris Russell, however online I am know simply as Pog. My art can be found at other various site such as deviant art, live journal, as well as my own website all to be posted soon to this page.

This is the Minimalist style Glowing Sofa by
Mario Bellini
I'd love to have this piece in my house, the light would never be on!