New Media, Old Media and People
Transcript of New Media, Old Media and People
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New Media Production
New Media, Technology and People
Andrew Brett
11-03-2011
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Contents Guide
p.3 Description Of Artefacts
p.3 Audience
p.5 Giant Teeth
p.7 Signifcance
p.7 Audience
p.8 Giant Teeth
p.10 Comparative Analysis
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DESCRIPTION OF ARTEFACTS
Audience
Audience (Figs.1-4) is an installation consisting of around sixty-four head-size mirror
objects. These were arranged on the lower oor of a large atrium at the London Opera
House. Surrounding the spacious area of the insatllation were glass walls, seats,
large windows and stairways leading to the balconies. This area allowed for plentiful
amounts of public trafc, some who came to the room specically to see the piece and
some making their way to other areas of the exhibition. Many people made use of the
comfortable two and three-person chairs surrounding the room also. These chairs may
have been used as a third person vantage point to view the piece, but to interact and gain
the full experience of the piece; one must do so from the oor in the center of the room.
Each mirror is powered by two servomotors, giving them pan and tilt rotations
from a stationary position on the oor. Each individual mirror can move its head in a
particular way to give it different characteristics of human behavior. Some chat amongst
themselves, some shy away and others condently move to grab your attention. It
is however once a viewer has grabbed the attention of the installation that the real
communication and interaction begins.
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Figs. 1-4 // Chris OShea and rAndom International, Audience, Deloitte Ignite Festival, London
Opera House, 2008.
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Giant Teeth
Giant Teeth (Figs. 5-8) is two and a half meter tall model set of teeth and gums. This was
commissioned by Estonian organization Kliink 32 to promote its Dental Health Month.
The piece was unveiled as a piece of interactive media outside the Solaris shopping
center in the countries capital, Tallinn. This piece was immediately accessible to the many
passing members of the public. Even though the piece is located in a particularly busy
area of the countries capital, with lots of distractions present, its huge size makes it an
item almost guaranteed to attract attention.
On unveiling, the public were encouraged to interact with the piece by means of
grafti and personalization, ultimately to cause damage and deterioration to the piece.
During peak daytime users may be inclined to do their bit and keep on moving, but
at nighttime users have the space and comfort to take their time and interact with the
piece. Consumers were enticed and invited to play the role of bacteria. The piece was
accessible on the pavement for one week after it was installed.
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Figs. 5-8 //Taevas Ogilvy and Kliink 32, Giant Teeth, Solaris Shopping Center, Tallinn, 2008.
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SIGNIFICANCE
Audience
Initially, interest towards this project may rst be developed on spotting the array of
mirrors appearing to interact with each other on the oor. This may provide some
interesting visuals of the surrounding area, depending on the angles of the mirrors in
relation to the persons viewpoint. This may immediately prove signicant with viewers
by raising questions in relation to their subjectivity and perspectives of the world around
them. For others the interactions of the mirrors between themselves may pose a mystery
and cause the viewer to challenge their own limits of understanding with regards to computer
programming, automation or other areas one could suspect as being implicit in the piece.
As the person catches the attention of the piece, each of the sixty-four mirrors will
rotate and pan themselves to that the viewer may see their self in the mirror. The viewer
may experience shock as the piece extends to a theoretical reversal of the object/subject
relationship. This is caused when the piece re-directs the viewers attention back onto
their self, transforming the relationship of who is viewing the art and who is being viewed.
This may strike an intellectual note for those with an interest the in theory of art.
For those with less desire to engage with the piece on an intellectual level the
piece delivers superbly on a supercial level, a topic that for many is of huge interest, that
is the visual representation of their self. For all who engage with the piece in this manner,
a questioning of self-image may occur. As the piece reects the persons image from 64
somewhat unusual vantage points at once, a person is forced to view their self in a way
signicantly different from how they typically engage with their own reection. This may
prove a very signicant experience in a multitude of ways for vast range of personality
types and lead to their encouragement of others to view and engage with the piece.
Another signicant aspect of the piece is the sense of challenge, which may present itself
as persons attempt to hold the attention of the piece. Since users do not know anything
about the criteria necessary for the attention of the piece to be held, this may lead to
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the trying of several different motion patterns and other experimental means. Once this
process is underway it may create a new experience for third persons to the scenario.
Any third person may feel neglected by the mirrors and may in turn begin to compete with
the others for the attention of the piece, or to see who can hold attention for the longest
time. The elements of challenge and competition, along with emotional states the piece
can elicit, make the piece even more engaging more memorable post-experience.
Giant Teeth
The immense scale and in your face location of Giant Teeth make it very unusual
and highly visible, because of this the piece warrants immediate attention. The vast
amplication of these model teeth may immediately draw attention to the intended
emphasis on the importance of oral hygiene. I estimate that during the initial stages at
least it is perceived as being fun and inviting for all members of the public. The image
of a healthy set of teeth and gums may perhaps inspire viewers to smile themselves,
ultimately raising awareness to their own oral hygiene.
As the days pass by re-occurring passers by can witness the stages of
degradation, which can take place seemingly automatically when oral hygiene ignored.
Towards the end of the week however, the piece may have proven to become an
eyesore for passers by. This gives whole new levels of signicance to the piece and in an
alternative manner, re-enforces the signicance of oral hygiene. The development of the
narrative may prove signicant in drawing viewers back again to see how the story further
develops and ends.
At all stages the piece has surely formed a signicant talking point between
passers by. This can perhaps even create a common ground between strangers who
now have an interest in sharing narratives, either physically with the piece or sharing
with each other narratives of their own teeth or even teeth of others. Each mark or action
depicted on the Giant Teeth may in turn inspire further narratives from the members of
the public.
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The chance to interact directly and even to damage or vandalize a piece of corporate
property may strike levels of excitement and creativity within individuals. This may
generate interest in others who like to see immediate results, adding signicance to the
project as it develops a collaborative element or adds to a sense of community among
the public. This may prove signicant for example those with an interest in street art
or those who generally detest the one-way bombardment communication typical of
corporations. The experience of interaction may create for some a link between fun and
oral hygiene.
The overall impact of the piece may see the public post-experience, go on to
spread the word about the piece and how striking it is. In this case, this may inspire
others to go to the Solaris Shopping Center and witness the piece for themselves. The
ultimate ends of this project is that it will raise interest in narratives relating oral hygiene
and perhaps generating interest in Kliink 32 which is located inside the center.
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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
The two artifacts here are vastly different in terms of the technology employed. The Giant
Teeth has been created with technologies, which may have been available as far back
as primitive times. I refer here to means of sculpting substrate and the application of
color by brush. For the creators of the piece this may have proven very cost effective in
relation other interactive projects such as Audience. The linear nature of the narrative,
and permanence of the marks on the piece means it may not be re-used to deliver the
same message after its initial run. However, the permanence for both the creator and the
public ensures that a more concrete message is delivered, which ties in nicely with the
importance of our single set of teeth and our one chance to interact with them.
Conversely Audience relies hugely on contemporary technology. This technology
consists of two servo motors[1], which allow the mirrors pan and tilt rotations. The piece
implies a lot of carefully scripted programming developed with Open Frameworks and
OpenCV, to give each mirror the appearance of different behaviors. These software
programs can be reprogrammed and adapted for other scenarios and ultimately the
delivery of new messages using the same piece of technology. The Audience piece can
and has been adapted to different situations by its creators.
In the application described here, an overhead camera is used for live image
analysis and individuals are tracked using optical ow. The optical ow is made possible
via a camera, which is hidden from the viewer. The hidden optical ow system can create
a sense of wonder in the viewer as to how the project is operating. The motors form the
simplest part of the technical details as the hinged movements can be easily interpreted
and understood by most users, but these are essential for the functioning of the piece.
The scripted program may be the most complex detail. It is this technology,
which allows for the creation of a piece, which not only appears to interact with
itself, but actually interacts with human participants. This is simply not possible with
the technologies used in the creation of Giant Teeth, which relies solely on external
interaction for its development and effective communication. The technology utilized in
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Giant Teeth also creates a sense of permanence with regards to the interactions of the
users, which cannot be undone or reset. The technology used for Audience determines
that any prior interactions should not affect any present experiences of the piece,
therefore the point in time which one engages with the piece is far less signicant than it
is in the case of a persons experience of Giant Teeth.
*****
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