PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
THEME & TECHNOLOGICAL REVIEW
Using the open brief as a platform, the theme or themes we hope to explore for this
assignment are Telepresence and Telematic art. Telepresence can be described as
a computer-generated environment consisting of interactive simulations and
computer graphics in which a human being experiences being present in a remote
location. The advent of personal computers in combination with the popular use of
the worldwide web has made the world smaller in terms of communication and
contact. Social networks like chat-rooms in the early days to modern day networks
built on complex online applications like Facebook and MySpace, give users a
socio-cyber presence of which most individuals are willing participants. Furthermore,
the willingness of participants (web users) to share or rather exhibit personal items
from thoughts to photos to activities online has further enhanced this socio-cyber
presence.
Using a software called Eyesweb, the group hopes to develop an artefact that
features a different time and space by allowing the live processing of web-video
feeds from two remote locations and times into one that seeks to explore the
aforementioned themes.
POST-PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT
This was riddled with a number of unexpected problems and unfortunately as a
result, the final form of the artefact is video based presented on a DVD instead of
the originally proposed live form. The main problem was with the software,
Eyesweb. As with a number of web software technology without corporate backing,
bugging issues are not addressed and Eyesweb is full of bugs. Firstly it does not allow
for video to be sent to IP addresses that are dynamic, i.e. on a wireless network and
only static addresses. As you can imagine this is a major blow to the progress of the
work because the web feeds from remote locations are almost certainly going to be
sent via wireless networks. Another issue is that Eyesweb is PC only, infact in Windows
Vista it is not compatible. What all this meant was that for the concept to be
developed to its full potential and presented as faithful as possible to the original,
recorded would have to be used. With this technological setback in mind, the group
set about strengthening the concept to balance the project. The advantage of
using video is clear as it allows for a flawless final piece but this among the live art
faithful is considered cheating and it further reduces the quality of the theme base.
Staying with the Telematic theme, two locations or spaces, ie Times Square and
Piccadilly Circus were used for the locations, theoretically off course. The different
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times were now day and night with the female subject performing her routine first in
the day and the male second at night. The camera would be set-up at the same
place and angle and so it is safe to say that only one aspect of Telematics was fully
explored time, as it it essentially the same space. Both sequences were scripted
and the actors were given directions as they performed the moves. The brief was
simply a metropolitan couple too busy for each other and have an argument seen
by others in a public space, although the couple believe they are in the privacy of
their own home. In The female performance would be the base the male to act
upon as therefore was a lot easier to implement.
The male performance presented a few challenges like timing, because in one
particular sequence there is actually physical interaction with both actors. The male
was required to flinch as a jacket was thrown which as you can imagine required a
number of practice and actual takes to get right.
NEW ADDITIONS
In addition to this development, the patches were further modified to process the
video instead of the live feed. As a matter of fact only two computers were now
needed. Computer A, as we have named it, would execute the patch that plays
the earlier recorded video of the female performance along with the live feed of
the male performance. Both the video file and feed are processed as explained in
the proposal with the difference of just the addition of a multimedia file reader
module or block as described by Eyesweb. The combined feed form Computer A
will be sent to another computer, B, running a new patch whose sole function was to
receive a file and output this mix as an Microsoft Audio Video Interleaved or .avi file.
Another significant development to the project was music. The choice of song was
intentional and is direct symbolism for the warring couple who we say are based in
New York. It is What do New York Couples Fight About by Morcheeba. Finally, the
video was projected onto a screen in Piccadilly Circus with a busy street scene
added in the background as the video ends.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
With all the problems encountered, the group is overall proud of the final artefact.
There is clear disappointment in the failure to make this a live project as that would
have enhanced the contextual nature of the work. After all, the module is called
Internet & Network Art and although we used technology normally used for
computer networks to create an artefact, the final form would have been of a
superior quality artistic and aesthetically. By deciding to strengthen the concept
after concluding that the limitations were inevitable, there is a clear demonstration
by the group of its commitment to producing a meaningful piece of work. Should a
similar project be undertaken again, a more detailed and flexible contingency
measure would be drawn up.
WORD COUNT: 935
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CRITICAL EVALUTION:
BRAIMA DAMA JAMES
Research Skills - 8
It is my belief that my research skills in not just this module but the entire third year is
off much improvement on my second and most definitely my first year. The entire
module staff were of enormous help in pointing me in the right direct with swift
responses and challenging me to develop my ideas by applying a number of artistic
principles in my work. This not only benefitted myself, but the entire groups research
effort.
Contextual Awareness - 5
This area I believe is where I lack and require development. It is, i assume of my nontraditional
art background as I am a musician and Digital Arts is my minor. Its not an
excuse but a mere reason for my honesty.
Synthesis of research material - 9
This was crucial and felt I effectively created and executed every research
objective I created and in so doing was easily able to interpret my research into a
written and practical form
Critical Analysis of subject - 9
I have no problems in this area and believe my work and contribution to the group
write-ups are testament to this
Creativity, originality and innovation 10
Athough this was group work, it was initially my idea to develop on the theme of
Telematics and as a result belief that my input was central to the development of
the idea.
Application of theory to practice 8
I would say like the critical analysis above, my skill is demonstrated in the write-ups
that I equally contributed to.
Technical Development 9
I was also partly responsible for the development of the patches and setting up of
the cameras
Rationality Realisation - 10
I am a great group member and son of a diplomat!
Organisation Time-planning - 7
Much improved as the module went on.
5
Presentation Documentation
It was my responsibility also to format the group write-ups with heading, covers and
screen grabs and believe i excelled.
Overall I presented the idea to the group who agreed and developed the patch
with another group member, as well as format all documents to be handed in.
AMIT-PAL HUNDAL
Research Skills
Research was important, as without it we wouldnt be able to progress with our work.
The main piece of research I did was to find out what was needed in the patches for
Eyesweb. Before that I researched different aspects of transmitting web cam
footage. I main piece I found was from Living TVs Most Haunted series. They would
transmit live web-cam footage of what was going on. Overall I felt like I did
contribute to quite a bit of the research but not enough. 6/10
Contextual Awareness
Contextual Awareness was very important, as Eyesweb was an influential piece in
our work. We planned a few things and that was when we found out that we had
Eyesweb to work with. Developing different patches and trying to work round any
difficulties we came across was at times frustrating but I feel like that if given the
chance to play around with Eyesweb further then we could of done something a lot
more different. 9/10
Synthesis of research material
The bringing together of research material was something I was not part of very
much. I did involve myself init however I would update the blog with our progress.
4/10
Critical Analysis of subject
I feel that the subject was very effective. We worked hard on it and when we saw
the final piece I felt a piece of satisfaction, as it looked great and worked well. Also
as I had put a lot of effort into the making of the artefact I feel that it worked
extremely well. 8/10
Creativity, originality and innovation
Creating the final artefact was no easy task. In the end I believe that we have an
original and creative artefact. It is also innovative as there is not much of this sort of
thing out there. Few people have experimented with Eyesweb but our idea of
incorporating it into a social network is really innovative as nothing like that exists.
Our artefact idea changed many times as we worked with Eyesweb. We found out
different things we could do and worked these new discoveries into the artefact.
6/10
6
Application of theory to practice
Our first idea was to make a feature for online social networks by using video to
have people in other peoples rooms. This idea soon proved to be unreasonable as
it proved to be difficult to make a site to integrate live video and mix it with another
piece of live footage. Keeping to the idea of people in other locations with other
people we started to use Eyesweb and finally was able to make our artefact of two
people in different locations in one place. 7/10
Technical Development
Technical development was important, as we needed to be familiar with Eyesweb. I
had looked into it and developed the patches, which were being used. Another
form of technical development was trying to get Eyesweb to work with our laptops.
Eyesweb would work but the main problem with using our laptops was that they
didnt have a stable network connection. We discovered that we needed a stable
network in order to send video over the network. This meant we were unable to use
our laptops. 10/10
Rationality & Realisation
We always kept in mind what we were able to and what we were not able to do.
We kept this rationality. I would keep focusing on seeing what was always possible. I
never lost focus on what we tried to do and aimed to take the idea as far as
possible. 7/10
Organisation & Time-planning
Organisation was important, as we had set times when we would meet and we
would need to get as much as possible done in the few hours we had. When doing
the work we never planned what we would do exactly we would work on it till we
were done for the day. 9/10
Presentation & Documentation
Presentation was something I enjoyed preparing. Throughout the period of time,
which we were trying to develop our artefact, we filmed parts of what we were
doing. So for the presentation I used this footage and compiled it with fresh footage
describing directly what we were doing and how we did it to make a video
presentation. This also counted as documenting our work as whenever we felt we
made progress on what we did we would film it and blog the actual video. 10/10
MICHELLE ANDREWS
The concepts idea I my at the beginning of this project it was as group coming up
with an idea which involve internet and network , was quit hard until we gathered
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are own ideas together to come up with a project we could learned form and
succeed in doing, or if it couldnt be crate explained who to go about make it.
During the past year digital technology has rinsing, and there new internet
technology which allows people to interactive with other. Part my role in this group
was to complete research on, eyes web, blue screen, social network sits. I also
research what is the most visited used social network site, the result was, facebook,
myspace and ether you tube.
From that research e we thought that it would be best if we create social network,
which allows people to share personal space via social network site.
What my job role was
My role during the making of this project, was most on the design part, during the first
couple of works I was reaching experimental video which explodes Telemetric art
and Telepresence. There was one main music director which I researching Michel,
Gondry were the music is looks like they are share the same space. As we are
working in a big group we divided the work load, I would basically work on:
Michelle
Developing the blog
Filming possible local
Taking picture s and place them on the blog
I also filmed most of the making of when we are work on eyes web
Filmed when people are presented the concept idea
Performed in the practices video of use trying to create two feed in one
space.
C0-write the script with Christiana
Co written the concept analysis development of concept idea
Helped development the idea with the group and organising meeting time
Fig 1
EG I could be in my bed room and Christiania could be in her room but with eyes
web we could interactive with each other, by not actual being in the same space.
8
The basic idea for this project idea was t to convert two or maybe three different
time in space in to one to create a social network , were people interactive with
every socials with each other but not they are not actual being in the same space
Eyesweb software
what Eyewebs can actual do, we discovered that we could delete a background
of one of our live feeds and places it with another feed , at first it was my idea that
could use the blue or green screen to great the effect that we could projects two
how are in differemets in to one feed which would present two people sharing one
space.
But me was then informed that there is a much better, easy, and would not have to
end up edited if we could just use Eyeswebs for this project.
The plan was to have to live feeds blending in to one, so one would capture the
background and the other t would film the scene.
I have learned a lot from this project, how to create live feeds in eyes webs thought
creating the patches. I have also learned that you could export video out of
Eyesweb as AVI file and imports AVI a video as well.
1. Research Skills : 8
2. Contextual Awareness :8
3. Synthesis of research material:7
4. Critical Analysis of subject :8
5. Creativity, originality and innovation: 6
6. Application of theory to practice :7
9
7. Technical Development :8
8. Rationality & Realisation :7
9. Organisation & Time-planning :8
10. Presentation & Documentation :10
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