Final Project in Second Life

Above are some screen shots of my avatar. The first is my imaginary avatar; she is a rockstar. The middle is my real face that I created in photoshop. On the right is an avatar that I created using the tools in Second Life. I really enjoyed playing with the clothes and appearances in SL. I am pretty happy with my face, although the sides of the face turned out a little funny. I wish my hair was long, so it would cover it, but oh well. Overall, the final meeting was entertaining. I enjoyed looking at what everyone else had done.

Exhibition Review

I attended The Capacitators at the Holland Project on December 16th. The show feature many projects submitted by UNR students. One piece I found particularly interesting was by Luke Sorensen, called Legends of Broadcast. Viewers could interact with the piece by shining a flashlight on framed head shots of political talk show hosts. Using a live webcam and an algorithm created using software, a light pointed at a specific frame will cue that host to talk. The purpose of the project turns the tables on the relationship between the audience and the talk show host. Another visually stunning project was Pixels by Gabe Herz. In a dark room, 8 illuminated pixelated portraits hung from the ceiling. The photos were really gorgeous and drew a lot of attention. However, I felt that the concept that was explained in the artist's statement was underwhelming and could have delved deeper. Displace, a piece by Denver Rosario, was completely lost on me. I was confused whether it was supposed to be interactive or not. People standing around me at the show seemed equally as puzzled. I read the statement to try to make so sense of it, but I was left thinking, "So what? Why is this interesting?" Either I didn't "get it" or there was nothing to "get". These were just a few examples of the projects that were displayed. I had never been to a show like this before, but I really enjoyed it! I think the viewer interaction was a nice depature from more traditional art shows.

Final Writing Assignment

For my final writing assignment, I chose the artists Tim Devin and Alexis Lloyd. I discovered both of them on Rhizome and was instantly attracted by their use of cartography in their projects. My degree is in Geography, with a focus on cartography, so I thought they would be suitable choices. After exploring them more thoroughly, I chose one project from each artist to discuss and compare.

Tim Devin is an psychogeographer and conceptual artist from Somerville, Massachusett, a small community on the outskirts of Boston. He works at the local library and expresses his concern for community through his art projects. Devin has experimented with public space, crowdsourcing, books, zines, maps, walking tours, and giving things away for free (Devin, “About Me”). His work deals with humanizing public space and combating the negative effects of urban anonymity (Devin, “Call for…”).

Although many of his projects are thought provoking and interesting, one that was particularly fascinating was “the last time i saw…” project that Devin started in 2007 (Visit Webpage). He wanted “to compare how different people relate to the same public space.” He sent out a call for participants in the area of Providence, RI to submit a bittersweet or negative memory of the last time they saw someone who meant something to them, but who they no longer speak to; and the exact location in Providence that these meetings or sightings took place. He received about twenty responses and compiled them into a final product that included a guidebook, a tour, and an interactive map.

The concept behind this project was to create both a forum and a memorial for these experiences, a cathartic space for sharing the feelings of loss that our geography won’t let us forget. He was inspired by his own “the last time i saw” experiences of people whom he had lost touch with. “In talking to other friends about it, I realized that everyone has had a similar experience. Only, no one talks about them. So it was therapeutic for [us] to be able to talk about our experiences” (Irvin). Devin found participants by posting on Facebook, Myspace, Craigslist, and Rhizome. Many of the participants chose to remain anonymous or signed only with a first name or initials. Some of contributions are painful memories, of ex-lovers, estranged family members, and tragedy. Others deal with friends inevitably growing apart, moving on, or moving away. Devin also hoped that this project might “inspire people to get back in touch with people they no longer spoke to.” One woman had written Devin explaining how she began writing a story about the last time she had seen her cousin, but decided to call him instead (Irvin).

 Besides the memories themselves, there is another facet to the project. Devin created an interactive map that pinpoints the exact location that a person was last seen. He hoped “that mapping these stories would make people not involved in the project realize that public space has special meaning for everyone around them” (Devin, “the last…”). A city is never just infrastructure and architecture; it is a repository of memories, and Devin’s project shows just one facet of this complicated relationship between people and their surroundings. The stories are anchored to real places on the map, itself a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional space and the complex reality it attempts to display. A traditional map is a static, geometrically accurate depiction of space, though it need not adhere to those limitations (Irvin). His role as a psychogeographer is revealed in the way he explores the way that the physical features of a city act as emotional cues to the people that interact with them. Below is a screenshot of the interactive website.

 Overall, this was a well thought-out and executed project that encouraged participation, both in the form of submitting memories and interacting with the map online. The number of submissions was a little disappointing, but sufficient. Devin plans to continue adding to the project and submissions are currently being accepted. Devin explains he chose to use Providence instead of his current city, Boston, because he believed he would be able to map a larger percentage of the Providence because it is smaller. Although this is logical, a bigger city, like Boston, could have brought in many more submissions and greater diversity. It would be interesting to see this done in many different cities. “The last time i saw…” is a unique crowdsourcing project that has an important message. It goes beyond the superficial and attempts to comment on the relationships we have with others and with our environment.

Alexis Lloyd is a Creative Technologist in the Research and Development Lab at The New York Times. There, she investigates technology trends and prototypes future interfaces for content delivery. Since receiving her MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons The New School for Design, she has created award-winning projects for top brands and has had her work shown in galleries all over the world. She is also currently teaching at Parsons (Lloyd).

While completing her thesis at Parsons, she developed a project called My Washington Square. She describes it as “an experience-mapping project exploring contemporary and historical stories situated in New York’s Washington Square Park.” Personal stories are submitted by online visitors, while historical information is provided by the artist, herself. The purpose was to explore the ways in which physical spaces contain many layers of experience and memory (“My Washington Square”).

The My Washington Square Project is ongoing. You can visit the website here. Visitors of the website are encouraged to explore the stories by clicking panning to different areas of the park and clicking on the dots. When you submit your story, you drag a marker to the part of the park you want, describe what happened, when it happened, and you can even add a photo.

The project has received different levels of participation, from full detailed paragraphs to just a couple words. The only stories that had pictures were those posted by the artist herself. Although there are close to fifty submissions, I would have expected higher participation from a project that has been running for over five years. Perhaps she did not promote it enough; I wasn’t able to find much press on it. It’s a shame really, because the project is well executed and visually stunning. Looking at her portfolio, it seems she may be neglecting this early project and paying more attention to newer ones.

Many comparisons can be drawn between these particular projects by Tim Devin and Alexis Lloyd:

·      Both projects involved crowdsourcing and used volunteer submissions to create their final product. The only difference was that Devin asked participants to e-mail their story directly to him, putting him in sort of a curatorial position, whereas Lloyd allowed participants to post directly to the site, without filtering any submissions.

·      The concepts behind both Devin’s and Lloyd’s project were very similar in that they wanted to explore and express the relationships between people and their environment. Experiences and memories dictate how we see the world around us. Different geographical locations can trigger feelings or memories and every person has a different perception of their environment. By carrying out these projects, both artist learned something new about their own community.

·      The final product of both My Washington Square and “the last time i saw…” is an interactive map, accessible on the web. Both maps allow you to read submissions by participants, however, only Lloyd’s allows you to actually submit one. Devin’s map certainly has more interesting submissions, but most of them are sobering and tragic. Most of the MWS submissions are positive, but superficial.

·      Both projects are aimed to preserve memories in a way that can be experienced in a geographical context by others. These projects are like time capsules where memories from the past can be saved for the future.

Tim Devin and Alexis Lloyd are two dynamic artist who have/are currently creating projects that are very similar in concept and nature. Their desire to understand people drive them to create projects that visualize society’s thoughts and emotions. I e-mailed both artist, asking them, ”what makes this art?” Unfortunately, I did not receive a response from either. In my own opinion, this is art because it is the use of skill and imagination in the creation of an aesthetic presentation that can be shared with others.

Works Cited

Devin, Tim. "Call for Participants: "The Last Time I Saw..."" Rhizome | Home.

            Rhizome, 22 Jan. 2007. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

            <http://rhizome.org/announce/opportunities/46270/view/>.

Devin, Tim. ""The Last Time I Saw..."" "the Last Time I Saw..." Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

            <http://timdevin.com/providence2.html>.

Irvin, Margo. "THE CARTOGRAPHY OF MEMORY: MAPPING PERSONAL HISTORY ON

            THE STREETS OF PROVIDENCE | The College Hill Independent." The College

            Hill Independent. 28 Feb. 2008. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.

            <http://students.brown.edu/College_Hill_Independent/?p=43>.

Lloyd, Alexis. "My Washington Square." Parsons The New School for Design. Web. 16

            Dec. 2011. <http://a.parsons.edu/~lloya465/wsp/>.

"My Washington Square." Rhizome. Web. 16 Dec. 2011.

            <http://rhizome.org/artbase/artwork/42340/>.