Category: DIGITAL ARTS AND NEW MEDIA

Project Title: “No title yet” 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Team Members: David and Ninj 

1). What is the piece (article, poem, story) for the narrative voice-over?  Or who are you going to interview? – We will narrate our own story in Korean or Spanish, as we’ve already built our storyline. 

       2). What’s the story about?  – The story is about how the two main characters live in the same timeline but keep barely missing each other by one step, and end up meeting each other to show everything has its timing. Though the characters had the chance to bump into each other, they never do, because they were destined to meet each other at the end as perfect timing. 

3). Which part of the story are you going to focus on? – Our main focus will be the ending of the story where two characters finally meet each other and how the split screens turn into one frame and one scene. 

4). What kind of style/aesthetics are you going to pursue? – We will be using the split-screening technique, while also colour-grading each scenes differently to express that the time is passing. 

1. Execution Plan: 

1). What equipment are you going to use when shooting the movie? – We will be using both a DSLR camera and phone camera as well as a microphone (tascam), stabilizer and tripod. 

2). Which locations will it be shot at? When is it? Daytime/night/unknown? Why? – Daytime at school, metro, office –  to show the time is passing. For example from high schoolers to office workers. 

3). What are some challenges you might encounter and how will you prepare? – We think our main challenge will be the editing part as we will be using split screens. Therefore, we went through a lot of short films and videos that use the split-screening technique as well as tutorial videos. 

4). How will you collaborate? How will you divide work? – We will mostly work together on editing. I  don’t think dividing our work will be beneficial for our project as we need our opinion and help from each other on every step of the process.

Storyboard draft:

Moon The Canvas

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oQF6GLW8MUvyBTCFHe66XB2jfSzWuTws1UWiZWpJJpA/edit?usp=sharing

Will AI replace us?

I personally enjoy watching the black mirror series as it consists of individual episodes that do not connect with one another and are mainly based on about near-future sci-fi technology series. I’ve also watched episode 1 of season 2 which is “Be Right Back” before. My second viewing revealed many details I had missed when I first watched it as I was in middle school and had no idea what digital arts were at the time.

Episode analysis:

The episode starts off with the couple having a normal daily lifestyle until Ash gets killed in a car crash and Martha’s life started to feel empty and full of grief. However, Martha’s friend introduced her to a new technology that takes the deceased person’s information and mimics the person to act as if it were them. The technology gets the person’s data from their emails, chats and information they’ve posted and shared online and you can see from the beginning of the film that Ash used to post and share his life on his social media a lot. With the help of technology, Martha was able to connect with her gone boyfriend via messages and phone calls. As the messages and phone calls progress, they turn into an android-like robot with human-like movements and capabilities. What’s more fascinating is that it even has skin texture, such as facial wrinkles, lines and fingerprints just the same as Ash’s. Martha was happy with the robot at first, but the more she spends time with the AI, the more she understood it can never replace the real one. At the end of the film, she still didn’t make a bold decision to get rid of it even though she knew it would never be enough for her.

My assumption:

“Be Right Back” shows how technology can implace a human being, but it also shows the dark side of modern society and has a message that it can never mimic emotions, feelings and has no memories like us, real human. When it comes to artificial intelligence replacing us and our jobs, it can take over jobs such as customer service, accountancy, and receptionists, but it can’t replace the art industry. It is impossible for a robot to replace the role of a creative professional since it cannot feel and understand the creative process. of making an art piece. According to Dictionary.com, art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”. Therefore, AI will never be able to fill in the duty of artists. 

Do we all get the same information?

“Woldeu Waidu” (World Wide) by Yehwan Song was made of a real-time rendered website, projector, toy train tracks, computer mice, and a computer program. The purpose behind the artwork having the same image/video (of a flower) appearing on flat panels but having slight variations in the speed of each projection, background colors, image sizes, and quality is to point out the idea that we’re all receiving the same information and news,  just through a different way. The installation shows that everyone gets different results depending on the individual browsing environment.

As with all the digital technology, mediums, and formats intertwined with each other, creating a new art-piece that shows the connections between art and technology, I think this installation has importance in the history of digital arts. Because the idea to use toy train tracks and a mouse moving in a circle, to show that we are stuck in the never-ending loop of browsing through the internet was what made me think was a fresh idea to make us reflect on ourselves

Chapter two: “Collect, Analyse, Imagine, Teach” from Data Feminism, mainly discusses breaking down data can be a powerful strategy against oppression and biased information. The chapter contains three big ideas:

1. Data science creates biases such as racism and sexism when it’s in the hand of dominant groups:

The authors focus on data justice as they argue dominant corporates use data about social groups to make assumptions and decisions about individuals. More specifically, they use data science to gain personal information by tracking individuals and groups in order to limit their future potential. For example the “Redlining Map”, only secures the power of the makers (the white men in Detroit), and rather than securing the neighbor, it was a way of protecting their wealth as the information was only available to the white people only. 

2. Not enough proof can cause a deficit narrative:

In the middle of the chapter, the authors talk about how using data as evidence or poof can cause an endless loop as it can be observed as not big enough or not trustworthy enough. For instance, when the media reports Black maternal mortality, they portray them as victims and fail to show how they work hard on the issues. Therefore, when collecting counter data as a piece of evidence it is important to be aware of how the subjects will be portrayed as. 

3. Equity rather than equality, and co-liberation:

The chapter ends with how we should work forward in a society where everyone gets treated equitably, not equally, and it requires commitment and belief in co-liberation as we can design the flawed system rather than settling with injustice and we should teach our younger generations about data feminism by creating a learning experience that actually has relevance to its learners.

–

There are some biased and untrue data-based facts about Mongolians on the internet. We are often stereotyped as people who have the best eyesight because we live in the countryside where we have to keep an eye on our horses and sheep, ride horses instead of cars, people are fluent in Russian and Chinese, and we live in the traditional yurt. In fact, because the datas are not updated for a long time and there aren’t many reliable sources that actually contain true information about us, all these assumptions, so-called “facts” are still being preserved and believed by many others because there are not many reliable sources that actually have the true information about us. 

Sound Patterns by Pauline Oliveros

-The graphic score I’ve created consists of a lot of different strokes, shapes, and colors. I used a digital art tool called “Brush Ninja” to make it into a gif as well as to draw all the sound patterns.    Because each noises create new sounds when they’re combined with each other it was hard for me to only use one notes to describes one tone and pitch. Therefore I made the star and the circle as the main symbol for the “popping” noise. By using the animating tool, I’ve also made the illusion of each notes moving in their own unique way that represents its sound, such as getting squished or stretched as well as getting bigger and smaller. 

Title: The Giant Art Brush

This interactive art piece is inspired by an electric toothbrush which has the function of making rapid bristle motions, rotating, and creating vibrations with its button. 

By using these functions, I’ve made this sketch of how the giant art brush will create a drawing on a blank surface. The brush will have several different heads that are changeable depending on what size and color the creator wants to use to draw the doodle. To make the brush move back and forth easily and smoothly I’ve added 4 small wheels. It will also have a function that allows the users to type what kind of image they want to create. For example, in this sketch, I’ve added the word “flower” in order to draw a flower.

The reason behind this installation is quite simple, I’ve always wanted to draw and color the drawing perfectly, without going over the lines when I was a kid, and I thought it would be interesting to have this giant brush to paint and color by itself for me and the audiences. Thus, from small problems to global issues, we’ve been stressed and overwhelmed enough from all the bad news. In fact, I wanted to make people forget about all those issues we are facing and instead focus on the process of drawing and painting such simple subjects at least for few minutes. 

“Screen Crash”

This piece of sculpture was influenced by a broken phone screen. According to Google, people break 2 screens per second, which means 5761 screens get cracked every hour.

By using glass, I first cracked it into small pieces and then put them together to make it look like it is cracked. I chose a reflecting mirror material to create an idea of how we look like we’re looking at others’ life but in real life, it’s just us staring into our reflections. 

Brain inside a box

– Nostalgia is a complex, multifaceted emotion and I tried to show it with my short video art project and then I’ve made a sculpture of a brain inside a box to connect the video art which contained the message of a precious and nostalgic memory and I wanted to show that although the memories we have, seem like we’re screening them with a huge projector, but the truth is it is all inside our brain. The black box containing the brain can be seen as us, a human body, but also a cage holding our memory and emotions.

The documentary to me, rather felt like a sci-fi film because of the way it was edited, but it deep dives into the reality of China has started to depend more on technology and how live-streaming has become a popular career path for the younger generation. By first watching it, it made me wonder who on earth would spend so much money online to gift a gift to those streamers who they do not even know personally, but later, it somehow made me think that it was one of the acts the “riches” would do to impress people, and also a way of connecting with the society. 

And though a lot of people, especially young people, want to become successful streamer who earns huge amounts of money “easily” in the shortest time yet the documentary touches on the side that is not shown well such as how the young woman streamer, Shen Ma has to go through sexually harassing comments and hates that she faces on a daily basis. It also displays how competitive it is to achieve fame and to keep the audiences who send money and gifts. To me, the idea of communicating with people through online platforms gives certain people the courage to say whatever they want no matter if it hurts others feeling or not, and because they can be anonymous people become harsh with their words.

Speaking of online platforms, with the invention of the internet, it has become easier to connect with people around the world. And as I mentioned before, letting people share their thoughts about someone anonymously, lets people say things without any filters. One example of this is a platform called Ask.fm. This platform lets people ask whatever they want to ask from someone they follow on the site and they can ask the question anoymously if they want to. Despite the fact that this helps people to ask questions thatrthey have wanted to ask from someone, it also creates toxic situation as some people use it in a not positive way such as insulting and bully way. Overall, while watching this documentary, it gave me an understanding of that there is always two sides in every scene. Meaning, while internet has its advantage, it also has its disadvantages coming with it.