Online Research and Concept Journal

Objective

The objective is to give ephemeral site-specific artworks the chance to stay and to allow us to see the evolution of art in public spaces over time.

The objective is to document art that is short-lived, offering a new and resonating way of experiencing ephemeral art.

Synopsis

A web exhibition that presents lost site-specific works of art and allows users to visualize the changing landscape of spaces with and without site-specific art. The web exhibition will document site-specific art which transforms mundane public spaces but is short-lived. The idea is to document art that is short-lived, offering a new and resonating way of experiencing ephemeral art. The documentary will exhibit the sites with and without the artwork to show the difference in culture and atmosphere evoked with and without the presence of art in that space.

Content

Similar to the The Block, where the user switches from day to night mode, the user will be able to switch from artwork to no artwork mode and, like Aysénprofundo, navigate through a panorama or map of the space, almost creating an exploratory experience for the user. The documentary will exhibit the sites with and without the artworks to show the difference in culture and atmosphere evoked with and without the presence of art in that space.

Artwork mode:

Panoramas/maps of exhibition spaces fill the screen.

Where artworks are placed in the space, the user has the option of exploring that artwork further, viewing photos, watching videos, reading synopses of the artwork.

No artwork mode:

Panoramas of exhibition spaces without art fill the screen.

Where there is a significant landmark, users are able to explore the space through photos, videos and soundscapes of the exhibition site without the exhibition there. Each landmark will be accompanied by text demonstrating the context and short history of the site.

There is the possibility of combining the documentary with an app where the user may walk the same tour as the online documentary and explore the artwork on location.

Why document site specific art?

There are many web resources that document site-specific art such as with photos and synopses of artworks. However, this project is unique in that it shows the difference between sites with and without art, emphasising the need for art in contributing to culture. It demonstrates the transformation of a space’s atmosphere and culture with and without artworks in the space. This is a distinctive way of depicting art and addresses the issue of ephemerality. Site-specific artist, Francois Davin states that site-specific art is the only way for contemporary art to reach the public (Kendall 2010). By documenting this, so too will this online documentary be a means of offering public accessibility to art.

This angle is unique in that it offers an exploratory experience of areas where exhibitions are held, similar to if you were really there.

Audience

The audience includes art historians, art critics, students studying site-specific art and anyone interested in site-specific art. The audience includes people who live/work around the site of the artwork and often pass it.

Depending on which exhibitions are documented, the inclusion of other audiences may be altered. For example, if Vivid Sydney were to be documented online, this would interest the general public as it is a playful celebration of light, music and ideas – fun for everyone. Whereas, documenting the Biennale of Sydney would be more likely target those specifically interested in the study of art as it often has more abstract artworks and deeper themes.

User Contribution and Social Media

Hashtags will be used, encouraging users to upload and tag their own content to social media networks, such as photos and videos of artworks/landmarks using the same hashtag as those provided on the website. Users will be able to do a native search of the hashtag within Twitter and Instagram and find content used on this website. They may engage in discussion and comment on threads about each artwork and landmark natively on their network of choice. 

User generated content will live out the idea of giving the ephemeral artworks a chance to stay in the experience/memory of the audience. It will give the documenting of ephemeral art the chance to grow.

The site will have basic social media sharing function. Every page will display icons of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the user to share to as well as hashtags.

User experience

The project will require involvement from the user in the way of choices. As opposed to the sort and search standard, this project will be a creation of spaces which the user enters to uncover content. There will be no fixed beginning, end or hierarchical structure; the user is the only mediator of the experience.

The home page is made up of sections. Similar to Shopify whereby everytime you scroll down, the site will be broken into a different section that seems like a whole new page, each section will be for a different exhibition space where the audience chooses to enter and explore.

Each section will open up a panorama of an area and the audience drags the image to see the whole area. Where exhibitions have artworks in more than one contained area, such as, where the Biennale has sculptures placed in all different parts of Cockatoo Island, a map of the whole exhibition site will be used instead of a panorama. The audience will choose artwork or no artwork mode. Content is accessed via clicking on buttons which overlay the panorama/map. Within the mapped sites, hovering over points mark AW (artwork) or LM (Landmark) will display the title of the artwork or landmark and the available content options within a popover. Within panoramas, hovering over artworks will display the same information. The content appears as modals which overlay the panorama/ map and is offered in a variety of forms: image gallery, video, text and soundscape.

This panorama system emulates the activity of going to site-specific art exhibitions: looking in every direction at all the artworks, one of them catching your eye, coming closer to it, walking around to view it from every direction, reading more information. Navigating spontaneously through an exploratory virtual place to obtain content, this open navigation lets the user search artworks at their own pace. 

Once the user is finished in the area, they go back to the home page to choose another exhibition to explore.

The user will be able to post their own photos, videos and music of artworks and landmarks to social media networks and tag the website to enable shared experience of the site. Users may comment on artworks/landmarks on the site.  They may classify their comments as approaching the artwork using the conceptual framework (artist, audience, world, artwork) or through the other frames: cultural, subjective, structural and postmodern. Users can then search for accounts of works of art through these frames. Accounts/comments on artworks can be accessed via a sort and search system. For example, someone may be interested in reading about how others analyse Wang Shugang’s meeting 1, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2011 through a subjective frame.

Interface

How easy will it be to navigate and find content?

Upon first entry into an exhibition area, navigation directions and text explanations of symbols will appear in order to guide the user’s ability to find content. These directions will be helpful for older audiences who may not have much experience navigating virtual spaces. Due to the exploratory nature, interface between audience and content will be intuitive and smooth as they spontaneously navigate the spaces. 

Graphics

One of the most significant features of this project will be visually aesthetic graphics. The graphics that will encompass the documentary’s visual landscape will be attributed to rich photographs of exhibition sites. These photos will capture artworks, landmarks and exhibition sites clearly and powerfully.

Colour

Each section or online exhibition space will use colour in a way that matches the natural colour of the exhibition space in real life. The colours will be rich yet naturalistic. This choice has been made to document the artworks in a way that is most truthful to what they are for the short time they stay as well as to emphasis their beauty.

The website will use a lot of white and grey tones. This neutral/greyscale colour scheme will allow the beauty of the artworks and landmarks to standout rather than the website.

Layout

As stated above, the home page will be made up of sections. Every time the user scrolls down, a different section will fill the page. Each section will be for an overview of a different exhibition space where the audience chooses to enter and explore.

The panorama or map of the site will be shown full screen. The navigation bar will be at the top of the screen. Buttons to access content will overlay the panorama or map. Once clicked, content will appear as modals which overlay the panorama or map.

User contribution sections will also overlay panoramas or maps.

 

Note that this sitemap does not show all the possibilities of artworks/landmarks to be included. It is just an indication of likely inclusions. Each artwork/landmark will link to a social network. I haven’t included it here as the diagram could get too busy.

Artwork mode Sculpture by the Sea Panorama. The shaded panels on either side of the picture will not be seen by the user until they drag left or right to see the rest of the panorama.

Artwork mode Sculpture by the Sea Panorama Popover. Popover appears when user hovers over an artwork/landmark to show availability of content for that artwork/landmark. The shaded panels on either side of the picture will not be seen by the user until they drag left or right to see the rest of the panorama.

Modal overlays panorama. Shaded left and right panel will not be seen by user unless they drag the panorama to see them.

Mapped version of Sculpture by the Sea exhibition area.

No Artwork Mode Sculpture by the Sea Map Popover. Popover appears when user hovers over an AW or LM to show availability of content for that artwork/landmark.

Content appears as modal overlaying map

Platforms

The website will be created in HTML 5.

There is the possibility of combining the documentary with locative media based app where the user may walk the web exhibition, accessing content while on location.

Technical Feasibility

The interface and functionality will be quite simple and technically feasible to create within Hype. Some ideas, such as commenting on artworks within the site may have to be left out for this project to be created within Online Documentary. However, links to social media networks will still allow users to engage in discussion.

Feasibility

This project is very feasible in that there are plenty of resources for content.

Over the past five years, I have been to numerous exhibitions of Sculpture by the Sea, the Biennale of Sydney and Vivid. In terms of feasibility, I will be able to dig through my own archival footage to use as content for this project.

The websites of these exhibitions have a wealth of images available, allowing for the use of archival footage.

Sculpture by the Sea Gallery

Biennale of Sydney Gallery

Vivid Sydney

Examples of opportunities to capture content include graffiti walls and the upcoming Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi.

For the no artwork mode, there is opportunity to capture visual content of sites virtually at any time as long as there is no exhibition on.

Textual content can be found online or in books.

Audience, Interface and Technical Feasibility

An interesting quote from Francois Davin, site specific artist.

Davin states that he believed site-specific art was the only way for contemporary art to reach the public…Not only does Davin’s work make art more accessible to the general public, but he also uses members of the community to help him create some of his works. (Kendall 2010).

While my concept does not use community members to make artworks, as stated in my last post, it will invite the community to document artworks and engage in discussion.

Davin’s artwork Blue on the Stairs is appreciated by the general public as it is easily understood. He painted where water would flow, should it run down the stairs and form a puddle around the drain – something that everyone can relate to.

Photo taken from Kendall 2010.
http://sitespecific364.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/francois-davin-site-specific-art-for.html

This is something interesting to think about in terms of content and target audience. While documenting this type of artwork would appeal to both the general public and those with a specific interest in art, other more abstract pieces may alienate the ‘general public’ audience.

Henry Moore’s semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures of reclining figures, which although aren’t necessarily site specific, but are still public works of art, may not appeal to the general public, but would apple to those studying sculpture and public art.

Photo taken from Art Gallery of NSW, http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/6.1981/

Notes on Interface

After thinking about interface since my pitch last week, although it would be ideal to have an interface similar to that of The Block, it is not technically feasible within this subject. Something more like Aysénprofundo, using a panorama to navigate would be more feasible rather than a google map type of experience. Or even more feasible would be to tag artworks on a map, such as on the map that is given out to guide the audience’s walk along Sculpture by the Sea. This however, would sacrifice creative concepts of immersion and exploration of a site.

Sculpture by the Sea Bondi SiteMap

It probably will not be feasible to have users upload their own content either. What would host their content? Perhaps hashtags could be used to have a common link to the website and content uploaded to social media networks? This would also allow discussion within networks

Interface, Audience and Other Documents of Site Specific Art

Notes on Interface

The choice of platform will be influenced by Aysén Profundo and The Block. This will include: Panorama’s of the exhibition site or a way of navigating the site almost like google maps. The user clicks on modals to see further images/video/soundscape of one of the sculptures/artworks and to read synopsis.

User will be able to post their own photos, videos and music of artworks and comment on artworks using the conceptual frame work (artist, audience, world) or through the other frames: cultural, subjective, structural and postmodern. Users can then search for accounts of works of art through these frames.

Notes on Audience

The audience includes art historians, art critics, students studying site-specific art and anyone interested in site-specific art. The audience includes people who live/work around the site of the artwork and often pass it.

Research into Sites with Similar Concepts

The Vivid Gallery encourages audiences to upload their own photos of Vivid to the site, share photos and comment on other photos. This is similar to the sharing of content that I want to emulate in my project – involving the audience in an interactive and engaged way.

While it celebrates the light art, it does not, however show the difference with and without the art in that space.

Other site specific exhibitions have uploaded photographer’s images of artworks, but have not involved audiences in a participatory way.

Graffiti Archeology is extremely interesting as it allows users to click through photos taken of the graffiti walls taken over time. This allows users to see the change in the artwork upon the wall at intervals and spanning over years. This aligns with my concept of the evolution of spaces with and without art.

Most sites that do document ephemeral art, however, do not allow the user to see the change of sites with and with out artwork in the space and do not involve the audience in a participatory or immersive way.

See:

http://www.trudientwistle.com/waters_edge.htm

http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/

No Artwork Mode – Content

I feel that it is important to show what one can learn from a site with nothing there to distract them i.e. no artwork.

For example, if there were no Biennale at Cockatoo Island, no artworks for people to look at, one might read into the history of the Prison Precinct or the Industrial Precinct or the Convict Times.

Many people are attracted to the Custom House every year to see it lit up in lights at the Vivid Festival. However, not many of the general public would go there on any other occasion. In fact not many people even know what it is – that it is a heritage site offering a dynamic cultural destination. To many people, it is just a building.

My project will attempt to show how significant exhibitions such as Vivid are in attracting people to these places and then attempt to get people to look into what these places are without the artwork there.

Feasibility

I often attend site specific exhibitions including Sculpture by the Sea, the Biennale of Sydney and Vivid. Of the past 5 years, I have been to numerous seasons of each of these exhibitions.

In terms of feasibility, I will be able to dig through my own archival footage to use as content for this project. Some examples of what I have are:

I will also be able to source photos of artworks on the website’s galleries. Sculpture by the Sea’s collection of images even dates back to 1997!

Sculpture by the Sea Gallery

Biennale of Sydney Gallery

Vivid Sydney

Note about sound: The sound of these sites are very different when there are exhibitions on and when they are not. For example, Vivid Sydney has music accompanying almost every light show. The massive crowds that are attracted offer so much noise that you can hardly hear what the person next to you is saying. When this exhibition is not on, people can here people and other things that are around them more easily, such as, buskers from afar. Similarly, Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea has very distinct sounds such as, the ocean, the sound of tour guides and the clicking of cameras.

Next I am going to look more deeply into what other sites may have documented art in a similar way. This will help me distinguish my concept from others.

Juggling Two Ideas

I have two ideas now.

1. Ephemeral Site Specific Art

2. Improvisational Theatre

Ephemeral Site Specific Art

The online documentary would capture art which transforms mundane public spaces but only stays for a short while. The site would offer photos and videos of public spaces with and without the artwork there, almost creating an exploratory experience for the user. Photos and videos would be accompanied by the soundscapes of the places with and without the artworks there. Examples of  opportunities to capture this include graffiti walls and the upcoming Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi. Existing photos of the last Biennale of Sydney and Vivid Festival could be used too.  Each artwork will be accompanied by a synopsis offering more detailed information. The user is welcome to post their own photos and videos of ephemeral site specific art. The objective is to give these works the chance to stay and to allow us to see the evolution of art in public spaces over time.

Improvisational Theatre

Improvisational Theatre is something that many people are interested in with famous shows such as ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ and ‘Thank God You’re Here’. There are quite a few online resources to help with training and promotion in improvisation, however, they are very one sided and do not lend much interactivity and growth for an online impro community. This online documentary would offer educational tools for training and a way of documenting skits/Theatresports games in an interactive way. Some things that the user would be able to do is get a random stimulus for a Theatresports game appear on the screen. The group would have to film the skit within 20 seconds of receiving the stimulus. The video gets posted on the website and pushed to Facebook, whereby, the community is encouraged to rate the skit’s technique, narrative and entertainment value. The most highly rated video gets featured on the home page. Documenting the improvised games brings questions of how long things are taken to be produced versus how long they are available to see. Since this idea relies very much on user generated content and is what Megan calls ‘More of a platform’, it may not be feasible or suitable for the purpose of online documentary within this class.

For the purposes of this assessment and to stay within the Online Documentary field, I am going to explore the Ephemeral Site Specific Art idea more.

Inspiration

I am thinking of exploring ideas of ephemeral art, such as, site specific art or street theatre.

My inspiration came about while choosing which online documentaries to analyse in assessment one, including:

Graffiti Archeology

The Gallery of Lost Art

Graffiti Archeology allows visitors to visualise the changing landscape of graffiti art.

The Gallery of Lost Art is a web exhibition that presents the remains of lost major modern and post-modern works of art.

The idea is to document art that is short-lived, offering a new and resonating way of experiencing ephemeral art.

Critical Reflections

Audio Exercise

My sound piece follows the journey of a student catching a train to university. The audience can hear various sounds that make up the place while listening to a voice over of the student’s thoughts while she is catching the train.

The sound piece allowed me to realise the importance of sound to evoke feeling and a sense of place. The sound piece helped me with a foundational creative media approach to projects. While creating the sound piece I learnt how depicting a sense of place using a point of view makes it so much more interesting than merely just depicting the sounds one hears in a place. I also came to understand how the layering of sounds can be used to build narrative structure and tension while panning may be used to show placement of objects and people.

While making this project I came across some conceptual challenges. I found it hard to make the place sound interesting, at first I depicted it in its most basic sense; the literal sounds that make up a place. This was uninteresting. I overcame this by using a point of view to tell the story. I also found it challenging to make the train journey clear, that is, moving from the station, to the train and to the destination station. Since I catch the train all the time, I know exactly how a journey sounds like, so it was hard to be selective and cut out irrelevant sounds that are unclear to others. I had to be selective of which sounds that best evoke the concept. Getting feedback from others helped me decide that using a voice over of a character’s thoughts as they catch a train, as a point of view was the best possible way to tell an interesting journey in place. Using this place and point of view allowed me to connect with this piece through a personal approach, I used myself as a character and responded to the semester theme using real experiences of place.

While creating the sound piece I came across practical challenges. I found it hard to record clear sounds as there is so much noise at a train station and on a train. The microphone always picked up announcements as well as atmos or people talking over it. I needed these sounds separate for a clear depiction of the place. I recorded the voice over on my iPhone, some of these sounds were distorted as I spoke too loud into the microphone and were different to my other recordings. I overcame these problems by using atmos all the way through my sound piece. Another practical challenge that arose was being organised and writing down what each sound is so that when it came to listening back, I wouldn’t have to listen to all of them. I didn’t do this, so it was time-consuming listening back and this made it harder to be selective. I learnt from this, and in the moving image exercise, I categorised each shot for ease of selection.

Sound Piece

Locative exercise

(Grouped with Grace Pollock and Liam Williams)

The locative exercise places the participant in the persona of a soldier who is on a mission to save civilians from an apocalyptic war in Sydney’s Chinatown.

Liam came up with the idea of a post-war/apocalyptic locative piece. I found it hard to get my head around this idea as I don’t have much knowledge of war or the action genre. I was unaware of how to approach the task, so, I researched pictures and sounds of war so that I could put the story into a creative medium.

Grace and I took a walk around the city, choosing points of interest. I took photos of each one and we later wrote a storyboard for each point of interest. I don’t own the full Photoshop, this made it harder to follow photo editing tutorials since I didn’t have all the features. I was able to make the photos look olden day, using noise and fog, however, I couldn’t finish the tutorials by adding things like explosions or air raids. Liam helped with this while Grace edited sound.

For the locative assessment, I nominated to do the photo taking and photo editing. This role enabled me to build technical knowledge in using an SLR camera, photo editing and Photoshop. This project allowed me to realise how the use of augmented reality such as, BuildAR, can be used as a medium to tell a story, developing and broadening my creative media approach. I liked how the audience’s participation is essential to make the story exist. Picture and sound were used to creatively allow the audience to imagine they were in a story. The pictures allow the audience to see what is happening while the sound gives the participant instructions, putting them in the persona of a soldier on a mission.

Sample Sound from Locative Exercise

Moving Image Exercise

(Grouped with Shayne Wilson, Liam Williams and Masahiro Rekisha)

My group’s emotions were surprise, amazement and astonishment.

Since I have done drama since I was little, and have experience in playbuilding, I found it easy to think of an idea for how place can evoke these emotions, as well as write the script and cast. I focused a lot on pre-production. At first, I wrote a script set in Luna Park, where a boy takes his girlfriend on a date. In the beginning she doubts that it will be a good day while the boy is really excited. The piece would have a montage of shots where the girlfriend would slowly become more and more excited while the boyfriend becomes astonished at how exhausted he is becoming. The group really liked this idea and wrote a story board of shots that would evoke the place as a metaphor for surprise. However, when Shayne went to get the approval form signed, Luna Park wanted a $1000 fee.

This dilemma proved the importance of organisational skills. I frantically tried to find a new place to film that weekend and it was decided that ‘Amazement’, a place with mazes in it, would be the location. With the same ‘date’ idea, the piece would follow a girl who is searching for her boyfriend in a maze, she gets surprised when she finds him, and then astonished when he mystically disappears, as though the place is playing tricks on her. Upon deciding on this place, we had to develop skills in making changes and quick decisions to suit obstacles. We had to quickly select film techniques and shots that would best evoke the concept.

The film was shot using the HDMV at Amazement and was edited using Final Cut Pro. Initially, it was found hard to use the camera, however, this was resolved through checking little things like the battery and the mode the camera was in. Manipulation of editing was used to evoke surprise, with many jump cuts and cross fades to allude to a mystical, magical atmosphere. One challenge that we came across was colour balance, since we filmed all in one day, the colour and lighting in the morning shots were quite different to the afternoon. This really impacted the flow of the piece as the shots were not filmed in order. We overcame this by changing the colour balance and contrast so that it was the same throughout the whole piece.

I am happy with the moving image exercise, the piece portrayed surprise really well and generated a magical atmosphere that intrigued the audience, building the expectation that is needed for something to be surprising.

Evaluation

Overall, I feel that I have really developed in my creative media approach as well as technical skills. I understand the importance of being organised and categorising media for ease of selection. I have been able to broaden my media awareness outside traditional mediums such as film and sound to such mediums using augmented reality. It was interesting to use an approach where the work does not exist without the audience’s participation. I am able to think more creatively in how a concept could be alluded to, such as, by using a point of view or a range of shot types as a metaphor for deeper meaning. I especially enjoyed the moving image exercise as I was able work on both pre-production, production and post-production, developing a range of skills and experience.

Peer Reflection

Individual

(Chester Buchanan – Audio Exercise)

Chester’s audio piece was so entertaining. The piece explores a child’s imagination as he has a bath, according to his perception of objects and sounds that surround him. It takes the audience to an imaginative tropical forest and ocean where the child eats up monsters before shifting back to the reality of a bath. The use of a metaphorical sense of place as well as literal was so interesting to listen to, a very creative approach. The use of panning and volume allows the audience to imagine the proximity of the place while the use of layering shows the difference of the literal and the imaginative sense of place. This was such an interesting piece, I actually felt like I was in a forest, Chester captured the child’s innocence and wild imagination really well. So good!

Group

(Daniel Lavercombe, Chester Buchanan, Madeleine Lamond, Ellen Dedes- Vallas – Moving Image assessment)

This group project, based on anger and irritation really intrigued me. I really liked the metaphorical approach to place, where the various sounds and objects appearing in the room connote everything that is irritating the character in a real place, the bus stop. This is such a creative approach to the semester theme. The use of abrupt jump cuts contributed to the increasing tension that comes with a rise in anger, and this was felt in the audience as well as in the film. The layering and cross fading of several shots alluded to the confusion felt in a place or in a person’s mind when a number of things are irritating. The editing complemented the emotion so well. The final shot, at the bus stop provides clarification of the place which the work focuses on, a witty way of concluding the piece and evaluating place both inside the character’s mind and literally at the bus stop. I really enjoyed this project, it was so clever and interesting! Well done!

Locative Media Exercise

First Impressions: UTS

Upon arriving at UTS on my first day, I was daunted by how massive the tower building is. I felt that I was insignificant compared to its powerful size.

I felt that it was a huge maze with so many little places to get lost in and to explore. This was scary as well as exciting.

I was so overwhelmed by how much information was being fed to me. What especially stood out was the colourful collaged walls of advertisement posters for groups, social events and petitions.

Although I feel that the UTS building itself is ugly through its brown colour and pebbled texture, I was so impressed by UTS’ embracement of creativity and artistic value through installations and artworks.