1W7 – Week Reflection

The week task is continuing for another week after a request of GroupB.Me and other 7 fellow students of the Group A have discussed the work of the group.We have to present the idea of the creation of a virtual installation to the other students of the group.During an online meeting of the 4 members of the group on Sunday 21/10/2006 some plans were discussed.The main idea of the project was more or less finalized during the last session on Tesday 24/10/2006.We agreed on the basis of the project and Gary posted the next morning the project outline:

“En-gage (working title of course)The phone in your hand rings. It’s a number- not a name from your phonebook- but a number from someone or somewhere you don’t know. You answer the phone and they hang up almost instantly. You feel uneasy. Someone has violated your personal sphere; made contact with you; through your device.The thing about mobile phones is that they are personal spaces and as a digital space, they are many things: your memories (photos & videos), your diary (calendar & alarm) your social life and even your ‘little black book’. They are also a space to fill and through connecting ourselves to the world and the people around us, we fill that space as if it were a thirst to quench. Art has been placed in all kinds of places and spaces from Internet galleries to vast salt lake plains that one is left wondering if there are any spaces left to curate?

This exhibition is brought to the viewer through a gallery that is not hard to get to, not very far away and is always open. It’s not a gallery that suffers from crowding and is only hard to find if you leave it somewhere. Not only does the viewer view the works in this gallery, they also own it. It’s theirs if they buy it and they can view it whenever they want. This exhibition uses the digital space of the mobile phone to exhibit works by 8 artists that combine their own practices with ideas of disconnection and connection, whereby each work employs and works with or against the features of mobile phones to which we have all become so familiar. Displayed on a stand in the Rotunda space of the Tate Britain, the works are demonstrated by exhibition staff as in any typical high street mobile phone shop. The experience of the exhibition however does not stop at mere demonstrations.

Available to buy as part of a limited edition, each signed and numbered handset if purchased, is by no means handed over to the buyer easily. In fact the buyer is merely handed a SIM card and a set of instructions. Following these instructions will take the buyer on an adventurous journey away from their everyday environment from remote locations to even more remote locations where they receive the handset within which to put the SIM card.

Not only does the buyer receive the works/gallery/exhibition for which they paid money for, but they also, in partaking in their adventure have distanced themselves from their own personal network if not removed themselves altogether from it temporarily. Tempted by their interest in art and the shiny new toy in which to keep them-selves connected, they ‘disconnect’ themselves and probably get some fresh air at the same time.

Not only can Art move people but it can also unplug them from their ‘network’ and reconnect them to the landscape that will some day be forsaken”.
It was decided at the end of the session that the 8 members of the group share the work evenly.The proposal is consisted of 7 tasks:

Each member of the group is assigned a different task.The project tasks are the following:

1. project description

2.  project status

3. market

4.  timeframe

5.  budget

6.  project personnel

7. Hazards and Safety

So the 8 members of the group can share the work

 

 PD- Jess and Gary

 PS- Chris

 Market- Anthos

 TF- Christos

 Budget- Sean

 PP- Lone

 HS- paul

I am responsible for the market part of this project.I have to investigate the market potential and popularity of the project.I have to investigate the negotiations between the artists and Nokia, Vodafone and the Rotunda space of Tate Britain concerning fees, dates etc. 
Sean expressed some concerns to this idea.I shared similar thoughts concerning the use of mobile Nokia N95 to show art.After some thought i beleive that this project will turn to be a really unique proposal.Mobiles are fashionable devices among the world and artists can “meet” public taking use of this technology.

I have thrown another idea for future presentations.A cyber installation could take place in the internet in the virtual world – game Second Life:http://secondlife.com/. In this 3d world users can have a virtual self living in a a digital 3d world.They can buy 3d land and even rel companies can advertize in this world.Why not show digital artwork in this world.It’s a probability that we can search for future tasks.

Man on Fire

I am passing the road and i am seeing the man on fire.

I am passing him.I know him.I know him better than anyone else.

I am not helping him.I know he will be fine.

I will see him again on the same road wearing his best clothes and a smile on his face.

 

My presentation – Word Psyche

1W6 – Week reflection

The week task was to continue the discussions with the face to face students and submit our presentation for the presentation held on 19th of October.The two previous weeks were very productive.I filmed some shots in the Cyprus scenery.The footage includes two churches the monastery Stavrovouni and two chapels.They are byzantine architectures.

I have edited my footage in adobe premiere.Experimenting with premiere was great!I have learned great things about this tool in two weeks.I have implemented video transitions between the clips, and few effects.The video runs for 3.30 minutes.I wanted to keep a simple look with not so many effects.I wanted to make you feel my piece and let you know what i want to explore.

 The road symbolizes the search for my project.It’s a long road but i am on the road to explore it.

I had some troubles with the compression of the movie.I wanted to change the size and not lose the  quality.Ofcourse the width and height of the movie must be decreased in order to keep the size small.Although i have used video compression software my movie is 22MB.

I hope the students in Camberwell were able to watch my piece.I have uploaded my video with the use of ftp software on the server  http://forum2006.madigitalarts.co.uk.
The fellow students were very helpfull during the chat session.I tried to be helpfull for the group discussion in my way.

I am looking forward for the new chat session.I will try to upload my piece on the blog soon!

1st presentation at Camberwell – A statement

 This is a post in the MA common room regarding my piece for the presentation tomorrow(19/10/2006).I have chosen the word Psyche.

“Dear friends,

I have chosen the word psyche.

According to Greek Mythology Psyche was the most amazingly beautiful mortar ever.Goddess Aphrodite was jealous of the beautiful Psyche.She asked her son, love God Eros to use his golden arrows to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest man on earth. Eros agreed but then fell in love with Psyche on his own, or by accidentally pricking himself with a golden arrow.

At the end of the myth Zeus orders Aphrodite to leave poor Psyche alone, fetches Psyche and gives her ambrosia who then becomes immortal. Zeus says to Psyche:” From now on, you are never to leave Eros’ side.”

Love and soul can live forever!

The essence of Christianity is Love.If our soul is beautiful like mythical Psyche and have love inside of us then we might deserve to be Gods!Psyche inside of us can be immortal!

In christianity the church symbolizes the house of God.My goal is to build one in a digital environment and the same one in the real environment around us.The digital environment of this design can be the design for the structure of my psyche – soul.I will show you this design in process!”

1W5 – Week Reflection

The week task was to discuss various presentation ideas for the face to face students of MADA course at Camberwell College.The presentation will take place on the 19th of October.The idea of using Google earth to show each student location on the globe  was decided among the group.The contribution of the group was great.My contribution on the decisions was not leading but i liked the idea of the google earth tour used for the presentation.I proposed the idea of sending an email of powerpoint file to each student so that everyone could add their presentations including video, audio and pictures.

Three members of our group:Chris, Susan and i- Chrysanthos met online with the face to face students and we discussed our ideas.Andrew and the face to face students decided to include some nice ideas for the presentation.We had to propose a word that describes our work.I choosed the word psyche.The Psyche is the Greek concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul self and mind.My work and my proposal is relevant to matters of the soul.

On the 19th of October the face to face students will choose the words we have proposed, one by one and then they will follow the link to each student presentation.After each presentation the audience will move to the next word/location/presentation.

I will probably use powerpoint presenting images and video for my presentation.The presentation theme will be relevant to my work and “time” as suggested by the group.One problem i faced was the failure to work with google earth.My computer had to restart after some time google earth was loaded.At least i was able to take a snapshot of my location on the globe.

Now i have to work on some video shots to present on 19th of October.

See you soon

Where i want to build it?

o

You can see through these digital pictures where i want to construct it.It’s the park near my house.

My house from above – my 1st map

This is the image with my house from above.The program Google earth was used to take a screenshot.Near my house is a park where i want to build a small chapel.This chapel will be the real construction of a 3d designed architecture.I will build a chapel in the 3d environment of a digital world and i will build the real one in the real environment of my neighbourhood.

1W4 -Week Reflection

 Defining Digital Art

Well, the definition of Digital Art was under our microscope this week.The site that defines digital art in a way that fits to my ideas about the matter  is the site of Austin Museum Of Digital Art (AMODA) :http://www.amoda.org/about/digitalart.php.I submitted my thoughts on the communication board for the matter.I beleive that i will have a deaper understanding or feeling what really is digital art for me as time pass and my progect goes on.

There are also many other theoretical explanations but i think there is plenty of time to discover what really is digital art for each one of us.Everyone is different so each one will create different digital art.I wouldn’t like to be categorized in a special digital art categorization since i would like to explore many areas of digital art.I think artists need to have an open space to explore.So at the moment i wouldn’t like to categorize digital artists or be categorized.

Presentation to the face to face students at Camberwell

The idea to use screenshots of google earth pictures that show our location on the planet was agreed by the group.We are going to create a video that will give our digital spots on the planet and show our connection on the globe.I am thinking of submitting a video presentation or a power presentastion with still images or both.I beleive that we should give the feeling to the viewers of the presentation where we are on the globe and what we want to do.

First Tutorial with Jonathan

I had my first tutorial with Jonathan on Tuesday.I had the opportunity to explain my  expectations regarding my project. I will post some images so everything will be easier to understand.I agreed with Jonathan that my reasearch on the fields i propose would be difficult.I propose many areas of study but ultimately my project will be consisted of everyone.The connection might not be obvious this time but it will be clearer soon.Jonathan liked my ideas and encouraged me to go on!