Final presentation - ASCII History of Moving Images

http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/ascii/film/

INTRODUCTION

 

Name: ASCII - History of Moving Images

Artist: Vuk Cosic

Year: 1998

Display on the UC Berkeley Art Museum
and Pacific Film Archive Net Art online gallery

 

ASCII History of Moving Images is a Net.art project.It is a remade of the scenes of seven well-known classic movies and TV programmes, including Lumiere, Eisenstein, King kong, Star trek, Blow up, Psycho and Deep throat, into moving images by using ASCII characters.

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a character-encoding system with 95 printable characters. In the 1980s, due to the limitations of the graphical capability of computers, people used ASCII characters to represent graphics. In the 1990s, it is popular for using ASCII characters to decorate email messages. And Cosic extended the usage of ASCII to create moving images.

Cosic captured scenes of the original work, and then reformatted each frame into an image with ASCII characters. We can see the figures, objects, lighting and texture in the image are all composed by the green on black characters. And finally the frames run quickly to form a short animation.

FEATURES

The artwork shared the following common features with earlier art movement such as Dada.

1. Emphasis on concept rather than the art object

The real images were recoded into digital language, letters and characters was concerned as form, but not merely as language.

2. Event and audience participation

The artwork is available to everyone who can access to the internet. And it provoke our thought and investigate into the deeper message of the work to draw our own reflection.
Also, we can be inspired generate our own ASCII images by using software, after watching the artwork.

MY OPINION

I think this artwork brings us interesting visual experience. Texts and images are visible at the same time. When we find the image is clear to recognize, we can get the enjoyment from the story development. When we find the image is very abstract, and even don't know what it is, we still have spaces for imagination.

Moreover, I think this work is very thought-provoking. It makes me to have a reflection about the rapid development of technology, a lots of high tech products are surrounding us in our daily life, we may easily have the tendency to only the usefulness of things. Therefore many old method and technology was eliminated and being forgotten. For instance, ASCII was already replaced by other system such as Unicode; the original work of films was labelled as outmoded. If we compare the ASCII images with the digital images nowadays, we may consider the former as old, simple and crude. But the pleasure, enjoyment and reflections that brought by the ASCII images are not less than the latter one.


KEY QUOTES

'' [My] works and experiments with moving ASCII... [are] carefully directed at their full uselessness from the viewpoint of everyday high tech and all its consequences. I try to look into the past and continue the upgrading of marginalized or forgotten technology.''                        - Vuk Cosic

Mark Tribe, New Media Art, Germany: Taschen Benedikt Verlag Gmbh, 2009. p,38.

'' His ASCII films perform the new status of media as digital data. The result is as satisfying poetically as it is conceptually, for what we get is a double image, a recognizable film image and an abstract code together. Both are visible at once.''                                                    - Lev Manovich

Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001,p. 224.

REFERENCES

Mark Tribe, New Media Art, Germany: Taschen Benedikt Verlag Gmbh, 2009.
Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.

Youtube

How many viewers are estimated to have watched the youtube video?
About 4 billion viewers in total.

How would you rate the video?

- Is it of high quality in technical terms? Is it interesting aesthetically eg camera angles, use of light, the narrative and so on?

Yes, the techniques used in the work are high quality and interesting aesthetically, especially the editing skill. The video maker captured different frame to match up the background music. And even tuned the pitch of Brown to composed as a song.

Do you think it deserved the attention that it received from the internet community?

Yes, it deserved to received attention from the internet community. Although the video does not raise any socio-cultural issues or messages, but an interesting speech from a woman who was interviewed on the news. However, the exaggerated and humourous reaction of the woman, and the brilliant copies of work, really brings a lot of joyfulness to audiences. Therefore, I think it deserved to received such great attention.

Do you see videos such as "Bus uncle"and its copies or Chris Crocker "Leave Britney Alone" and its copies as a good addition to creative culture?

Yes, it is a good addition to creative culture. Those copies of work have added new elements into the original work, it makes the work become more interesting. It can also inspire other people to express their new ideas freely.

Is the wide availability of such videos a good thing for society or not?

The wide availability of such videos brings advertages but also disadvertages to the society.

For the positive impact, these kind of video is a good addition to creative culture. People experienced more freedom to express their ideas in such interesting way. And different kinds of social issues can be raised in such way, to gain more public attention.

For the negetative impact, the freedom of creating videos may be abused. When every people can freely captured or re-created the videos of strangers, it may come into conflict with the right of privacy.

Interview video about technologised body

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9oBCIABvIE

New media art

 

1. Dada and New Media art both described as "reactions". What did they react to?

 Dada reacted to "the industrialization of warfare and the mechanical reproduction of texts and images". And new media art reacted to "the information technology revolution and the digitization of cultural forms."

 2. What are some similarities of new media art to Dada, Pop, Video Art?

The similarities of new media art to Dada:
- Emphasize the use of irony and absurdity.
- Using the same strategies, such as photomontage, collage, the readymade, political action and performance to jar complacent audiences.
- Fragmented justa-positions of borrowed images and text in work.

For example, Raoul Hausmann's Elasticum (1920) and Shu Lea Cheang's Brandon (1998-99).

The similarities of new media art to pop art:
- Refer to and engaged wih commerical culture.
- However, thereis a difference. Pop art reproducing pop culture such as images from comic books, advertisements and magazines into art; new media art tend to borrow new media such as games  rather than transform them into forms that fit with their art.

The similarities of new media art to video art:
- The emgerence of accessible artisitic tools for changing the relationship between technology and culture
Video art was contributed by the intoduction of portable video camera, or PortaPak. And New media art was contributed to the introduction of web browser.

 3. When was Net Art first included in a major exhibition: Document X Kassel, Germany ?
From 1994 until 1997.

 4. Is new media art focused in one country. Why or why not?
No, media art is world wide and its nature is international and globalized. Because of the close connection to the Internet, people who can access to the internet can get in touch with the new media art, no matter where they are.

 5. Why were many artists drawn to new media art from other discipline?

It is because of the globalization of cultures and economies, this historical trend brings along with the widespread use of the internet, wireless telelphones and other information and communication technologies. The emergence of these technologies has drawn many artist to new media art form.

Mark Napier,"Shredder",1998.

Here is an image of my blog generated by Shredder. It is a work of art that reinterpret websites by decomposing the code to compose an abstract image. Shredderis typical of much digital art because it is an artwork that places importance on the following five features.

Firstly, the formal instructions. Shredder has rules for people to follow. We have to follow the short instructions that have mentioned on the homepage, and insert the url of a website in order to create an image in Shredder.

Secondly, the emphasis of concept. It emphasize the concept rather than the art object. Shredder do not show the real interface of websites but distorted images and fragments of text. It placed a refined awarenss of colour and line (Tribe and Jana, 2007), all of these elements, including text, images, and code, formed an abstract and chaotic composition, which is differ from the original website.

Thirdly, the participation. As stated by Mark Napier, "The user is an integral part of the design"(Tribe and Jana, 2007). Every audience that are accessible to the internet can participate in this work. All people can enter different links freely and generate different outcome.

Fouthly, an interest in random events and/ or chance. When the audience are entering the website address, they cannot predict how the outcome will be. And be curious to find out the distorted images of different websites. In other words, "The vistors shape the piece, causing it to change and evolve, often in a unpredictable ways." (Tribe and Jana, 2007).

Lastly, borrowing or appropriation. The work has to borrow the interface of the original websites in order to generate a distorted one.

The Ethics of Digital Games

Review on the "Gamer revolution" (CBC documentary, 2007)


1. What are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

Pros:
In terms of individuals, firstly, players can be entertained by the attractive visual world. Secondly, players can release their pressure, for example, they can find a way to let off emotions in shooting games gain. Thirdly, players can gain knowledge, for instance, they can learn how to plan a future life by playing the Sims. Fourthly, players can train their strategic intelligence and reaction ability.

In terms of society, firstly, prosperous game industry can advance the economic development since the annual consumption of video games is enormous, and the related activities such as game competition brings along lots of profit. Secondly, a new kind of career,professional game players, is emerged, being a victorious game player in Korea can gain a rich prize and establish a reputation. Thirdly, video games can be a medium of advertisment and promotion, for example, the US army using video games to attract teenagers to join them.

Cons:
In terms of individuals, firstly, the relationship of family may be badly affected. Secondly, the problem of addiction, teenagers may be plunged into the visual world, and spend most of the time on playing games. Thirdly, the violent massage may affect the mental health of the players.

2. Is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

The film have mentioned several examples on this. A scientific research has showed that violent video games will arouse aggressive values and violent ideas. Also, there are news that teenagers deliberately killed someone in the real world, and considered as being affected by the violent video games.

In my opinion, if game players devoted too much time on playing digital games that contain excessive violent and bloodly scenes, they may find it difficult to distinguish the reality and the visual world, and therefore increase their chance of behaving aggressive and anti-social actions.

3. Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?

I think governments should not have the right to ban certain games, because it would restrict the freedom of creating video games. But I think an age restriction or a labeling scheme is a better way to protect children and teenagers to stay away from excessive violent messages, in order to have a healthly mental development.

Digital games - Are they art?

Group Discussion.

What are some key features of the kinds of things we call "art"?

We believe that art is a way to express ourselves, both reality or imagination. It wants to create emotions and feelings to the viewer. Art lasts for a long time, but nowadays it changes faster than before. Art has changed its purposes. First it was used to represent, to pass cultural values and moral purposes and now as a way to express.

How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?

Adam thinks that art should have content and have ideas to express. Art needs to be aesthetic, not only be beautiful but able to appeal to people. Art doesn’t need a formula to be created. Art is not about being useful; it’s about expressing and creating feelings to the viewers. Art should not driven by commercial consideration, it doesn't need to be saleable. The entire group agrees with Adam’s definition.  

Can Videogames be classified as art?  What do we think?

Adam believes that videogames can turn to be a form art. Half of the group believes that videogames cannot be art because nowadays they are focused to create money (Commercial purpose) and it would be too hard to change that fact. Also gamers don’t pay attention to the aesthetic value, they only want to be entertain.  

The other half agrees that it can be art because some features like audio and visuals can express something that can be considered as something aesthetic. The second point is that we believe that videogames share ideas and has content.

Comment on Mary Flanagan [domestic],2003.

[domestic] is a work done by Mary Flanagan in 2003. It is a modification a popular first-person shooter video game, Unreal Tournament 2003, by using software engine. It has given totally new meanings and artisitic values to the original one. Unreal Tornament is produced for commerical purpose, players fight off repeated enemy attacks and thus acquire feelings of excitement and satisfaction, it is a common and typical mode of many popular games. Nevertheless, [domestic] does not contain any shooting element, but create a home-like environment for players to explore artist's childhood memories. For my point of view, I would consider [domestic] as an work of art in regard to aesthetic, emotion and content.

Firstly, it contains aesthetic values. There are plentiful visual materials in the work, including photographs, fragments of images with different texture and text. These visual materials composed  a three-dimensional home-like environment for "players" to experience. For instance, using images of wood to cover the walls, and placing the images of flames on the ground, these eye-catching pictures  create an impression to "players" which is the room is burning. From the richness and meaning of the visual materials, we can see the aesthetic value contained in the work.

Secondly, it express and provoke emotions. Flanagan created this work with her traumatic childhood memory, a house fire that happened at the age of seven. When passing through the enormous game space, and seeing the fragments of photograph from her family albums, "players" explored her childhood memories and feelings, such as sadness, fear and panic. As pointed out by Ernest W. Adams, art should make us feel something. The work really create feelings to players.

Thirdly, it has content. As mentioned before, this work is based on an tragic event that happened in artist's childhood. Artist use a virtual installation as a way for telling story. For example, the artist using text and pictures to describe the position of a couch. Players can really experience feelings in the house fire.

Pictures quoted from: http://www.maryflanagan.com/domestic

Ref.: Mark Tribe/ Reena Jana, New Media Art.p.44

Charlie talk about Eric Siu today

Here is a short video about our opinions about 'Touchy'.

Interviewer: Venus Li

Interviewee: Adrian Stapfer, Charlie Ma, Sara Chan and Preslava Tsvetanova

Camera operator: Elbe Leung

 

To summarize, we think touchy is an interesting and meaningful new media which encourage the interaction between people. It is different from the conventional artwork, as audience we are not just looking at it but participate in it. We touch the light bulb and the artist's hand in order to switch on the camera. Through this process, we have eye contact and physical touch with each other. Touchy acted as a medium to link up people together, and break down the neglience between people in the unresponsive modern society.