Final Thesis Proposal

Rita S Mendes * September 2008 * SVA * MFA Computer Art

INTRODUCTION

I intend to analyze and expose the behaviors and the ways in which individuals interact focusing on small social groups as an insight to broader questions The context in which these interactions take place today has suffered dramatically and we are now witnessing a shifting period, that includes different generations; with different experiences on the way we relate each other. I am interested in further exploring these differences and in comparing and analyzing how groups exert influences in individuals today. How does technology affect these bonds? How do our primary instincts deal with these new ways of relating? What are the changes on our expressive behavior? These are questions that I pose myself, making me eagerly search for the answers. Though knowing that that are no definitive answers. We, humans, are complex beings. However, it is my intention to digest my research information on my quest to seek for answers - and pass it on as subtle visual metaphors to the viewer/spectator, who will differently associate these fragments of information.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
My thesis project will be a multi-channel installation. Several screens will be displayed in a confined space throughout three (black) walls, as illustrated on the picture - Figure1.

Figure.1 (The characters on the screens are merely illustrative.) The LCD screens will display animations and the reason for their presentation different formats and their positioning - is directly linked to the concept of this project. The animations will depart from watercolor and gouache paintings and will also incorporate appropriated photographic material from the Internet. The process of their development is similar to a painting process. The characters and their relationships are unfolded during the process of making these animations, so either theres no recurrence to a storyboard or the storyboard is mutable. There is no interest in a narrative exposure, but rather in a nonlinear thinking approach and presentation. This non-linearity and fragmented narrative is also a justification for the overall aspect of this installation. The screens are fragments, small pieces that make the viewer tie out the links between the fragmented data that is going on.

The animation is ongoing and not interactive. The viewer will not be responsible for the actions on screen, hes a mere spectator and his sole input is to tie these fragments and make up his own interpretation and/or associations. The technical process of making these animations will start (as I mentioned above) with watercolors paintings. The paintings are afterward digitized and animated in Flash. After Effects will then be used to compose and contextualize the characters in an environments/space. Final Cut will be used to edit the animations and I will recur to a Max/Jitter patch to simulate the synchronization of the multiple channels. Erving Goffmans analogy of the theatrical performance of individuals will also be a reference to the display of the installation. There is a bigger screen on the center of the installation that will serve as a main stage for the ongoing actions. The smaller screens represent either a kind of Greek chorus commenting and reflecting on what is going on in the main stage either influencing the actions on it as different groups and/or teams
1 . So, the smaller screens will represent different inputs from the left side and from the right side, as if joined by different positions on a certain subject.

Figure 2, illustrates better this idea:

Figure 2

So, Group A and Group B have different influences over C - the main stage. I
1 After Erving Goffmans term performance team to refer any set of individuals who co-operate in staging a single routine in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, (New York, Anchor Books, 1959), 79. 2 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, (New York, Anchor Books, 1959), 1 3 Sherry Turkle, Can You Hear Me Now?, www.forbes.com, 05.07.07, http://www.forbes.com/technology/forbes/2007/0507/176.html

HISTORICAL, THEORETICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

Since we are witnessing a communicational shift with the arrival of new technologies, we are changing the ways in which we relate to each other. Erving Goffman has examined the behaviors and The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life back in 1959, however this presentation of the self has suffered some drastic changes since then. Goffman starts his book saying: When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed.2 Nowadays, what does it mean to enter the presence of others? Can it mean besides the actual physical meaning - that were entering a messenger program in our computers, in order to connect to our friends? And if so, isnt Goffmans first premise they commonly seek to acquire information about him taken down? We enter a messenger system without giving away our facial or bodily expressions, no information whatsoever besides our own writing - can be displayed and that kind of information the information that turns us in - is lost. We live in techno-enthusiastic times, and we are most likely to celebrate our gadgets. Certainly the advertising that sells us our devices has us working from beautiful, remote locations that signal our status. We are connected tethered, so important that our physical presence is no longer required. There is much talk of new efficiencies; we can work from anywhere and all the time. But tethered life is complex; it is helpful to measure our thrilling new networks against what they may be doing to us as people.
3

Sherry Turkle is a Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a clinical psychologist. She has been attentive on these shifts and has written several books that concern this subject the alterations on interactions between humans due to technological advancement and further investigating the relationship between human and machine. I am particularly interested in examining the relationships between humans, or what is left of these relationships. I intend to create a bridge between Goffmans theories and authors such as Sherry Turkle; bringing out some of the differences that we now feel in our physical/virtual space - or the places where interaction between individuals takes place nevertheless examining the primitiveness that is left in us.

It is also important to mention the significance and pertinence of the nonlinear approach to this work. I remember that when I first saw Wong Kar Wais Chunking Express (1994) and Fallen Angels (1995), I was mesmerized. I couldnt understand how such a movie could be planned. Only later on I could tell that much of his process comes from the momentum the shooting, the actors - and his own editing sensibility. It is a very intuitive process. I intend to take this approach to my own work as I build these relationships between my characters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bateson, Gregory Steps to an Ecology of Mind, , Chicago Press, 1972 Goffman, Erving, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York, Anchor Books, 1959 Kar Wai, Wong, Wong Kar Wai, Paris, Dis Voir, 1997 McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, MIT Press, 1064 Manovich, Lev, The Language of New Media, MIT Press, 2002 Rush, Michael, Video Art, Thames and Hudson, 2003 Turkle, Sherry, Life on the Screen, Identity in the Age of the Internet, New York, Touchstone, 1997 Turkle, Sherry, Authenticity in the Age of Digital Companions. Interaction Studies, Vol. 8 No. 3, 2007, http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/publications.html Turkle, Sherry, Can You Hear Me Now?, www.forbes.com, 05.07.07, http://www.forbes.com/technology/forbes/2007/0507/176.html

Schedule
September Continue research for thesis paper/project Start using studio space to make the project plans Research monitors and LCD displays start envisioning the right sizes and exact display on space. Start painting October Continue research for thesis paper/project Continue painting Finish Project Plans Further research Grants start sending applications Complete first draft of the Thesis Paper November Continue research for thesis paper/project Continue Painting Start animating Flash - first drafts first simulations overall aspects of dealing with multiple synchronized screens.

 Start working on the open studios presentation Complete final draft of Thesis Paper December Continue animating progress to After Effects Start looking for additional material pertinent to the backgrounds of the animations Start focusing on more detailed technical aspects of the installation Open Studios January Continue animating Start considering the financial viabilities of the project Start working on artist statement

February Continue animations Confirm viability of all necessary material Complete first draft of artist statement March Finish all animations Set the installation

 Complete short artist statement and short biography Start working on thesis documentation tape April Submit all final Thesis documentation