Group Presentation

Technologised Bodies

Is it good that relationship between technology and  human becomes too close?

Case 1: Beyond the Pages - by Masaki Fujihata

The work:

- Entity: a table, a chair, a light, a clock and a pen

- Visual images: a book, an apple, a stone, a leaf and door

- Presents a book as interface and simulates the action of turning pages

- Effects via using the book:

a)The lamps light up

b)A very short projection of smiling child within a door appears

Key issues:

- The importance of interactive installation 

- The possibility of future digital networking

- Rethink the nature of the book

- Technology's potential for shaping valuable content with fantasy, concentration, and curiosity.

Case 2: Body-Brush Project - by Professor Horace Ip

The work:

- transforming human body movement to various visual form and space

- infra-red illumination

- 3D space, real-time

- visual images variation depends on motion speed, motion acceleration and body- size change

- inspired by Jackson Pollock's action painting
“When Jackson Pollock spreaded the paint with a thrust, the paint will not just fall along the path of his hand. In the interface, we also take into consideration the force exerts on the “paint” ( quoted from a report of the Body-Brush Project)

Key issues:

- painting in 2-Dimension to 3-Dimension

- draw picture not only by hand, but also by your whole body

- meaning of body movement, relationship between painting and action

- interaction between human body and the environment

- art and  psychotherapy:
- reveal human expressive and perceptual patterns
- encourage people to use their bodies to express  themselves
“With Body Brush, one can produce visual images for expression and communication not possible through traditional means,” Professor Ip said.
(Grace Ho, Art and Technology meet in psychotherapy, January 2005, 30)

Case 3: Constrained City/ the pain of everyday life 

The work:

 - Extension of human perception

 - City-shaped body by following the city code

 - Be able to read and experience the invisibility of electromagnetic waves

“Several art projects have been striving to expand these perceptual limits of technology…which try to introduce the body to ‘digital perception’…” (Christiane Paul, Body and identity, p.173)

- Similar projects: Stahl Stenslie’s Tactile Technologies/ Kazuhiko Hachiya’s Inter Discommunication Machine

- 

 Change of everyday routines by taking alternative ones: 

"a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities...just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.“ (Joseph Hart, 2004) 

 - The experience of human-machine interface not only provide individuals a new way of exploring the city, but also reveals their intension to explore pain:
“Wearer’s admiration for gentle tortures” (Gordon Savicic)

Key issues:

>> A new way of experiencing the urban systems <<

Case 4: Seeing is believeing - by Hachiya Mazuhiko

The work:

Seeing is believing, an installation for a one-man exhibition at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan. consists of three works. "Empty Entity" infrared ray electric light display, "Sheep" eyewear , and "Mega Diary".  

Key Issues:

Without wearing the eyewear you can only see lights flickering on the light board. But in fact , the text of diaries collected through internet are displayed on it. You can't see but there exist lives of people you have never met before. There is another secret in this electric light display --- infrared ray is invisible to the naked eye, but you can read the letters when you get the knack of it. 

This work shows how  techniques enhance human’s  Cognitive and understanding of the world. “Seeing is believing “ seems not  quite right under the support of techniques. It comes a new saying “Something exist, maybe you just can’t see it exactly. 

Case 5: LED eyelash - Soomi Park

The work:

LED Eyelash is a clever product that speaks to many Asian womens desire for bigger eyes. It features an inclination sensor with mercury to turn on and/or off. The sensor can perceive the movements of the pupil in the eyes and eyelids. If someone wears it and moves her head, LED Eyelash will flicker following the movement. 

Key issues:

Her artwork is a piece  of art as well as a design product that can be used in our daily life. Thus it’s a good example of the idea of human living with technology with joy and happiness. What’s more, she also make a good use of technology to reflect the environment and culture in a fresh way that catches peoples eye.  

Group Conclusion

- importance of interaction

- relationship between human and environment

- existence of other sensibilities -

 to feel something that are invisible and we didn’t pay much attention in our daily lives

- reality reflection -
rely on technology to satisfy some desires or new fashion

- close relationship between human and technology

Digital Games- But are they art?

Is it reasonable to consider computer games as art?

a) How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?
Adams raises a few aspects to define art, they are its category, history, duration and its expressiveness.
1st - category, there are fine arts, decorative arts, pure arts etc, but Adams believes that there is grey area to classify the categories, for example, shall we define "design" as an art?
2nd - history, Adams thinks art should be representational of its era or century.
3rd - duration, Adams thinks an art should be long lasting, although the work had been created ages before,  we still find it aesthetically interesting.
4th - expressiveness, Adams believes a work of art should be expressive, it can tell artist's thought and message.  Art is a form of expression.
I agree with Adams' definition.
Yes, I think there is grey area in defining art too.  A lot of people may discuss whether design is art or not, because it seems not for art seek, it is for solving problem.  But I think there are still some aesthetic properties in design, for example, composition, colors and shape.
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a good example of durable artwork, although that is a work of 16th century, until now, art critics and artists still find it interesting and amazing.  I think it can demonstrate that a good artwork should be durable.  Besides, I think sometime, art is subjective, artists usually want to express their opinions through their artworks.  I think if the artist can inject his emotion and thought into his works, it is definitely an enrichment and it can be an infectious work.  How the artist presents his/her thought and opinion is an art form as well.

b) According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?
1. Content - videogames should have content or message to express.
2. Innovative - videogames could not be boring, it should be innovative which makes people feel challenging, so the creators should be willing to take risk.
3. Critics - videogames need critics to criticize its aesthetics properties, an artwork should be criticized by art critics.

Ethics of video games

Film in Class: Gamer Revolution
a) According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?
Pros:
Most people will concern about the violence problem caused by the video games, especially some first-person shooting games.  Players are encouraged to choose different kinds of weapons (e.g. a gun or a bomb) and hit or even kill their enemies until they die or destroy their home countries in the games .  There is a real case that a young boy brought a gun to school and shot at eight schoolmates' faces and finally found out that the boy played first-person shooter game for 100 hours.
Although the creator of those shooter game is not to promote violence, for example, Uwe Boll, the creator of Postal, said the humor is the biggest attraction of the game, in fact, those teenage players cannot get it, what they pick up from the game is the violent actions and behaviors.
Besides, it may raise the issue of racial discrimination.  It is because some of the American video games take Islam as the shooting target or enemies, so players have to kill the Islam which may affect people's perception to Islam in real life.

Cons:
Sometimes, aim of the video game is to teach, it can bring knowledge to player.
Also, in the virtual world of the video game, you are like having a second life, it brings different kind of life experience than your real life and can fulfill your imagination, for example, marriage, sex and having supernatural power.

b) According to the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?
According to the film, it suggests that digital games do encourage aggressive values and anti social actions in the real world, digital games can affect players' personalities in the real life.
For example, the first person shooter game, players have to use a weapon to shoot other people until they die, video games use violence as a mean to get promoted, players become a killing machine.  A game called "Postal" get banned in 30 countries as it is too violent.  Through the laboratory experiment, by testing the brain activity, it shows that first person shooter game can produce aggressive impulsion in the players' brain.  Video games like these will suggest aggressive behavior of the players on their lives, it can produce aggressive feeling, aggressive effects and thinking on the players, so they may act aggressively.
Some people think that video games suggest problem of discrimination.  For example, discriminating people from Middle East, because a lot of video games use Middle East people as a bad role in the game, so players have to shoot at Middle East people.
I agree with it, especially teenagers is a great target of video games, and they are not mature enough to behave themselves and classify what they should learn from and what they shouldn't.  Therefore, they will be influenced by video games easily.

c) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?
I think governments should have the right to ban certain games, because it can stop teenagers learning violent or immoral behavior from video games.
However, I know it is hard to implement that, because who is able to define which video games are those "certain" games? How do governments define and classify games that have negative impacts on people?  Besides, to affect one's behavior is a long term issue in which the consequence does't immediately emerge, so how do we justify the impact of that game?

Technologised Bodies-PING BODY

The work I find the most interesting is the PING BODY done by Stelarc.

Stelarc is a Greek-Australian performance artist whose works always related to modern technology, robotic invention and human bodies.  He investigates the capabilities of human body.  " The human body is obsolete" is one of his famous statements.

PING BODY was made in 1996.  It is about adding a third hand on a person and the third hand is stimulated by muscle and the virtual nerve by using the internet.  Stelarc invented a muscle stimlatation system.  A set of muscle stimulating electrodes were put on different parts of a human body, so the third hand was connected with muscle on the real body.  By these electodes, the muscles, for example, on legs ca remote and control the movement of the third hand.

This project is kind of exploring an external and virtual nervous system in a body body.  The third hand can do wrist rotation, thumb rotation, individual finger flexion with each finger splitting open and it is made by the materials like stainless steel, aluminium and acrylic.

I think it raises an issue that the technology seems going to overwhelm the actual and physical world.  Stelarc reveals that the robotic third hand can almost do what a real hand can do, it can be attached to a physical body and can be controlled by the innovated virtual nervous system, it implies that technology starts involving in our natural and physical body which may make people become reliable on technology.  Technology is going to dominate our world and our bodies become the passive agent.  Another thing I find interesting about PING BODY is it integrating the physical body and the Interent.  Because "the stimulation was triggered by Internet traffic itself-the flow of data. 'Ping' commands were randomly sent to Internet domains.  The ping values would be directed to muscles of the body through an interface." (Christiane Paul, "Body and Identity" in Digital art, 167)  I think it is true that nowadays, we seems really cannot live without internet.  If one day my computer cannot connect to Interent, I really feel unsecured. 

Mouchette - What does she show?

I think the website of Mouchette really arouses our sensation by not just visually, but also the sound.

She uses a lot of close up of her different parts of face, such as her eyes and lips.  Also, she shows some close up of some sensitive poses and facial expressions, like sucking her finger into the mouth and showing her tongue which make feel disgusting.
And the objects she picks also arouse our sensation, for example she always shows close up of some liquid-like stuff.  There are some flies and ants moving around on the screen which really make me feel itchy and arouse my antipathy.
Colours she uses are those contrasting and shape colours, such as black and red, pink and red which can draw our attention and stimulate our sensation.

Whenever I go the main page of mouchette, there will be several sounds, one is a girl saying "Bonjour", one is a crying sound and one is a breathing sound.  Be honest, some of these sounds are quite controversial in terms of arousing sexual sensation.  So does the website want to raise the issue of child sexuality as the website is built by so called "a 13 year old girl" ?  Or is Mouchette really 13 years old only?


Apart from the appearance of the website, the content of the website is quite unreasonable.  The website is linked to different kind of pages which are totally not related to the title, for example, after I clicked her name, Mouchette, it led to another page with "members" and "non members", then I clicked "non members", another website, innergirl.com, popped up which is totally unrelated. So it is very difficult to understand the structure of Mouchette.com.  "The site's content has a deceptively innocent quality." (Mouchette.org.In Tribe and Jana, 66-67)


It is very interesting that the reading links Mouchette to works of Cindy Sherman.  Sherman dressed up and posed as movie characters or other famous figures in photography.  Both of them raise the question of the nature of identity.  Is what is performed in front of you the real identity of that person?  That is a big question to the technology and the internet!

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #14

Who are you - classmate identity interview

One of my classmates has at least five online identities which includes email account, facebook account, account on interent forum, MSN and youtube.  What interests me is that she has an account on youtube, becasue I saw people who have youtube account would share their video choices on youtube or upload their video works, they seem having their own channel.  But this classmate would rather use this youtube account as one of her online chatting tools, she chat with friends on youtube by using that account.

She said she becomes braver in the online world than in the reality.  As the online identity doesn't really show her private information which she won't as well, so she feel free to express her opinions on the online world, that is also why she finds online identity beneficial too, there is freedom for her to talk what she won't or does't want to talk in her real life.  She doesn't find any risk about the online identity as long as she won't show her real person up and show her private informate on the internet.

Individual research topic

My topic: Technologised bodies


a) Key quotes
A "marriage of art and technology" is how Professor Horace Ip describes Body-Brush, a new tool that transforms body movements into real-time three-dimensional (3D) paintings.
(http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/puo/CityUMember/Story/Story.aspx?id=20040901213242, 1 
December, 2002)


"Stelarc's work operates on the threshold between embodiment and disembodiment, a central aspect of discussions about the changes that digital technologies have brought about for our sense of self."
(Christian Paul, "Body and Identity" in Digital art, 167)


"The question of technology is not about technology itself but about modern humanity's way of being.  The technology is fundamental to modern 'culture' ..."
(Joanna Zylinska, Cyborg Experiments: The Extensions of the Body in the Meida Age, 18)


b) Key links
http://imhungkeung.blogspot.com/
http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2010/11/11/a-brief-reflection-on-donna-haraway/


c) Key books and articles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3143608.stm
It really reveals that different aspects of art can cooperate at the same time to produce an artwork by using technology


Cyborg Experiments: The Extensions of the Body in the Media Age (edited by Joanna Zylinska, published by Continuum London, 2002)

It echoes with the example used in class, Stelarc.  The book comes deep into his works and the message behind his works, also another artist's works, Orlan.  It discusses the issues of Virtual & Real and the ethics of future.  And it includes an interesting information is an interview with Stelarc.

d) Case Study

Body-Brush Project

•Who is the artist/maker of the artwork/website/game?
1. Professor Horace Ip, Chair Professor of Computer Science and Head of CityU's Department of Computer Science
2. Mr Young Hay, Hong Kong Artist
3. Mr Alex Tang, Research student


•What is its name?
Body-Brush Project

•When was it produced/released?
Year 2001

•Describe it in detail
It is an analysis system that transforming human body movement to various visual form and space by using infra-red illumination.  Infra-red illumination can identify the silhouette image and  capture the human body motion data in the 3D space, so the body can move in a vast space.  Also, infra-red illumination won't limit the dancer to wear specific clothes, so it won't affect the dancer's movement and let him to move freely.  The data will be then delivered to computer and computer will turn the data of the movement to visual images.

The visualisation is in real-time, visual form varies according to body position, motion speed, motion acceleration and body- size change.  How you perform your action will be immediately shown in the interface in terms of visual forms.  For example, if there is acceleration, the 3D path of the brushstroke will be exaggerated accordingly.  

This work is actually inspired by Jackson Pollock's action painting including the human energy and action into the painting.

Jackson Pollock's action painting

•For you, what is interesting/unusual/thought-provoking/aesthetically pleasing/puzzling about this artwork/website/game? [you may choose your own adjectives! These are just some suggestions]. Explain in detail.
I think this work brings a new meaning to painting.  In the past, we were used to do painting and drawing on a flat paper or canvas which are all in 2-Dimension.  Since Professor Ip and his team invented this system, painting can be done in 3-Dimension.  Body movement can create images.  Doing painting is no longer done by hands only, but the whole body can be now involved, including feet.

Apart from what we see, what we feel is another important factor I think.  Since you need to move your body to generate brush strokes, it create an interaction between human and the environment.  Especially no more boundary, such as clothing, you can move completely freely.  During the movement, you can feel the surrounding.  Somehow, from what movement you perform, we can see what the environment brings to you, and what movement you perform can be seen from the visual images generated in the interface, so, I think, it builds a connection between the environment and the visual images.

Since variation of the brush strokes depends on the body movement, such as acceleration and force, so it also builds a relationship between the painting and the action, so as Jackson Pollock's action painting.  It is interesting to see how a movement in a 3D space can be transformed into a 2D image.

Besides, this work has a function of therapy.  It could be a tool for therapist to communicate with phabia patient, physically and emotionally abused patient.  As they don't talk much, they don't want recall some terrible memory, so therapist may use this system to interpret their movement in order to guess what they think in their minds.  I think this technology extends human's communication method.  We now can communicate not only by verbal speaking, but also your body movement.