In Project 3, we were asked to
create a digital artwork of our choice and to identify a central element for
the project that relates to what we have learned this year. The central element
in my final digital work is the effect of emerging new media technologies on
our identities; our sense of privacy and our sense of reception of not only our
selves but of other people. I created a web-based surveillance site to survey
myself and document my everyday actions. The project was in a sense, a mirror
of Facebook, with a little more emphasis on the ways that the technology could
be used for more sinister behavior than contacting old high school friends.
After all, you are not just using a software and communication, you are
actually writing your own story and logging hours of an identity for others to
view. This project was largely inspired by Hasan Elahi, a digital artist and
professor who created a similar website after being put on the terrorist watch
list. After spending many hours proving to INS in Detroit airport that he was
not aligned with al Qaeda, and that he was an American citizen, he was asked to
occasionally check in with the CIA to continue to prove the validity of his
story. The nature of this interaction with our government probed him to “survey
himself” and send the CIA information. In his opinion, he was giving in to the
control and therefore would no longer be bothered by their immediate presence.
This project was also largely inspired by an article we read by Peter Osborne
called “Distracted Reception: Time, Art and Technology” which discussed how a
change in our mode of thinking is occurring through this emerging virtual
network. What I understood from the articles is that we are so surrounded by
media that we can no longer be linear in focus. We no longer continue on one
vein of consciousness but rather hundreds of capillaries of consciousness and
we have less force in any direction as a result.
When
undertaking the surveillance project, there were some obstacles as far as
documentation was concerned. One issue that arose was, if I missed a piece of
information over the course of a day, it was no longer an accurate
documentation of myself, something I was trying to avoid. I also ran into the
problem that if a person was not interested in being in my project, I was not
allowed to include them in my documentation.
The other issue that was beginning to affect the documentation process
was the ratio of action to documenting that action. I sometimes caught my self
in a loop where I writing that I was writing, I was documenting my
documentation instead of reality. This also became a problem when I would
remain somewhere on campus instead of moving when I wanted to move, strictly on
the basis of the obligation to document that action. This was another obstacle
when trying to communicate my meaning. Technically speaking, there were
formatting concerns, especially when it came to making the site browse-able and
user friendly. Using some of the pages that link to my site required the person
to have passwords and login, which adds another interesting layer to the
concept of surveillance, while at the same time further augmenting the
reception of the piece toward something less objective. A final concern I had
was the obstacle of process/materials, I was unsure about my documentation
methods and how to record my actions through video, still photography, writing,
or gps, and the extra time spent finalizing my documentation method affected
the timespan of the actual surveillance.
Over
the course of the project, my work habits were always in-flux. I had a lot of
initial enthusiasm for the project when the idea was first conceived and I had
a lot of fun examining the different ways that surveillance can occur. I also
had some success by adding both the elements of time-lapse photography and a
gps trail that drew on a map as I walked to Hasan Elahi’s concept of photo
surveillance. I think that I successfully engaged the issue in my own creative
style and I experimented with new processes in digital media. On the other
hand, I did not fully accomplish my goal of documenting a span of time in my
life. The project only surveys my actions for 24 hours, whereas I planned to
record 2 weeks. I also feel that I was unsuccessful in creating my own website.
I initially planned to create a site that was entirely new rather than use a
blogger template but technical obstacles and a time frame prevented this. My largest mistake was that I did not begin
to document earlier. This would have freed up a lot of time to organize the
data on a site and make it user friendly.
In
light of the concepts that I was discussing in my work, I don’t think I can say
that it is possible to step back from a new media project in today’s world. I
watched the project evolve over the course of several weeks and my mind would
never be able to receive the project without the understanding that I have now.
All of that aside, I see the project as a great idea, not as a great finished
product. I am satisfied to have a project that still has room to continuing
expanding and hybridizing with new technologies as they emerge and the
discussion of surveillance, privacy and identity develops further. As far as
the website goes, it successful addresses the formal element of space by
manipulating a virtual space that has access to a real one. By using plain,
monotone colors in a template that was very simplistic, I think I successfully
projected the idea of a “big brother” surveillance site. However, I am not sure
if any message is communicated, specifically. I would hope that a viewer might
make the connection between what I have done and what everyone is doing on a
daily basis with the internet, however I am not sure that the message is
inherently obvious in the piece.
Overall I think that the piece is
conceptually strong, yet lacks the ability to create the right reception to the
viewer. I think that the project deserves a “b” based on what was accomplished
and the ideas that were addressed.
