Peanut Butter + Jelly

Here are the performance write ups I did for the semester. Word docs and PDF's are both available.

Posted by ben chao at 04:19 PM | Permalink

Here is an update on my final project and also my thoughts on the class.

Posted by ben chao at 10:21 AM | Permalink

This week for performing technology we were charged with the task of altering an existing interface. I decided to change the way I type on my laptop. Instead of writing characters, I wanted to write bits. I also wanted to add typewriter sound to it. I guess this is an old school byte code typewriter? Anyhow, it is surely a confusing mixture of old tech and high tech.

Here is the program. Written in flash. I still need sound bytes for space and tab.

Posted by ben chao at 02:04 PM | Permalink

For this week I made this animation of a stick figure wandering on my desktop, kind of a "virtual stage" I guess? I wanted to avoid things like Second Life and World of Warcraft because I'm afraid I'll start playing and never do my homework. Props to Catherine for the Flash help!

Posted by ben chao at 09:19 PM | Permalink

So here is my intimacy frustator. A vacuum (which I bought off of craigslist for 10 bucks) is mounted on a helmet. An IR sensor is equipped at the front. When your head approaches something it turns on.

The hardest part of making this was getting Arduino to control 120VAC. Radioshack sells 5V to 24VDC and 9VDC to 120VAC relays. You daisy chain the two, get your Arduino running off a 9V battery, use digital out to go from 5V to 9V then from 9V to 120VAC, and wh000t! Runs like a well oiled machine.

Here you can see it in action. Poor Ai-Chen!!

Posted by ben chao at 04:12 PM | Permalink

My initial thought was to create something that you can see, you can get close to, but you can't touch. It eventually evolved into the concept of intimacy. Basically it is a helmet with a vacuum glued on top of it. When you get close to someone (preferably face to face), it turns on.

Tom Igoe saw me making this in the shop today. He said just by wearing that helmet would frustrate any close encounter.

Posted by ben chao at 04:27 PM | Permalink

So I went to the park and played the audio. Here is a video of what happened. Because the speakers weren't as loud as I wanted, I looked like some dude that forgot to turn off his laptop while watching Saving Private Ryan. Some people just looked at me weirdly. Most people didn't even notice the sound. Disappointment!

I think if I ever do this again I'd stash fire crackers in my backpack and set them off. Or build some small green figures fighting against red figures on my backpack, as if army men are having a war in there. If i had a million bucks I'd put surround sound speakers in the entire park.

I'm can't say I have a single motive for doing this - the reason is complex and unclear even to me. I think part of it is my obsession with the military and war history when I was growing up. I have always been interested in what drives people to fight, to kill, and in some cases, to murder. Also, I think a lot of people take the peace we enjoy in our well protected space for granted. I wanted to create this mismatch in sensation where you hear war, but see peace.

Doing this exercise had a more impact on myself than the audience. Since I was the closest one to the audio, I could always hear it clear and loud. This created the weird mismatch in senses I was looking for. A couple of things were going through my head as I was experiencing this. First of all, I felt like was part of some virtual world, where only I can hear the audio. It was like I had played Medal of Honor all day and had just stepped out to attend class, but the sound from the game was still ringing in my head. Secondly, because I had this intense audio on, I had the urge to go work out, run, practice martial arts - do whatever it took to make me stronger - so that if war really broke out in my backyard I'd have some ability to defend the peaceful scene I was looking at.

One of the stranger things I've done this year, but I think it was rather enlightening in some way (for myself).

Posted by ben chao at 12:37 AM | Permalink

I made this audio clip from various scenes from Band of Brothers (gun fights, tank ambush, being bombed). I want to play this sound clip in a few places to see how the crowd reacts.

- during the morning in Union Square/Washington Square Park when it is quiet
- weekend at the park when everybody is relaxing
- in the subway

Hopefully I can get my hands on a boombox or some kick ass speakers so I can play this VERY VERY LOUD (and not from my laptop).

Posted by ben chao at 03:35 AM | Permalink

This week for performing tech I build these gloves outfitted with an accelerometer and flex sensors. The idea is to do puppeteering with your hands. The flex sensor lets me know the degree a finger is curled up, and the accelerometer tells me the orientation of the hand.

I got interested in doing this because of how people use their hands to mimic a person. People naturally use their middle and index fingers as legs of a "mini" person. I wanted to use this natural association as a controller for a figure on a screen and/or a toy.

Phase 2 work - During class Piama mentioned that I can add in common hand gestures, such as Rock On, Devil, Victory into it, and the figure you're controlling will perform actions related to the gesture. I think adding that will really allow the audience to associate the controller's hand actions to the movement of the puppets. Great idea!!! w00t!

Posted by ben chao at 08:58 PM | Permalink

I'm creating a narrative with nothing but circles. The general concept is two sides having war, and you can see their "weapons" evolving. The applet is here.

I thought about this one day when I played tennis in the morning, and ping pong in the afternoon. I thought it was interesting how those two sports were so similar in rules, yet the tools were so different. I began thinking about a court that was half ping pong and half tennis, and this narrative was born.

Posted by ben chao at 03:29 AM | Permalink

It took me a while to decide what to do for this. Things I considered include - recording me showering, brushing teeth, turning off the alarm, etc etc. In the end, I decided to record myself making eggs. This is something I do on most mornings for breakfast. Maybe through this I'll learn to cook more than just scrambled and over-easy?

I've recorded audio of about three days of eggs making so far. I listened to them this morning and didn't find them too satisfying, since it was hard to see what kind of eggs I was making. I don't have a camcorder and my digital camera can only record 30 sec clips. Maybe I'll figure something else....

Posted by ben chao at 05:24 PM | Permalink

Heres is my performance map. Scanner was not working so I had to take a picture of it.

Times I heard about performance this week
Tuesday
@ Capoeira practice - Mucuiu tells me about demo we are doing Friday and Saturday
Wednesday
Talking about Justice playing in Oct 6 in Los Angeles
Friend tells me how he wants to go see Shakespeare in Central Park
Thursday
Talking about going to Broadway show when friend visits
Friday
Talking to Ruth about her summer job with Mark Coniglio
Performing demo for capoeira at Sushi Samba on 7th Ave
Saturday
Performing demo for at Brasilia Grill at Newark
Christian Bovine tells me how the Huskies are doing vs Boise State (football)
Sunday
Friend talked about fireworks at Hoboken
Talking tennis with friend - Federer vs Djokovic.

Posted by ben chao at 01:16 PM | Permalink

Yoko Ono sits in the stage, not moving at all and not showing much emotions. An audience member comes up on stage, picks up a pair of scissors that is left by her side, and cuts a piece of her clothing off. The audience then leaves, usually taking the piece of clothing with him or her, while another member comes up and repeats the process. One of the audiences tries to cut her bra off, and is berated by the audience for doing so.

The first time I watched this I didn’t have audio (because my speakers at home were busted) and I didn’t understand why other actors were cutting Yoko Ono’s clothing. After watching it again with audio I was able to understand it much better.

I think the key thing in this piece is that the audience does the cutting, and not someone part of the performance. I assume the audiences were given instructions to only cut her clothing, but that was the only restriction. This is important because the cuts are spontaneous, and everybody is acting out of their own accord. If they were part of the act then the meaning would be completely different.

This piece is about trust and social responsibility. Each audience is given the power of destroying Yoko’s clothing, and they can use (or abuse) that power any way they see fit. When they stepped on stage, they became the center of the performance. Yoko was transforming her show into the audience's show. Most of the members were modest and only exposed a small piece of her body at time, but the young man in white dress shirt clearly abused his power and responsibility. The crowd reaction was the key in this part – the hissing and disapproval they displayed. The man had the power – the stage was his unless someone threw him off, and Yoko, though clearly frustrated, seemed to be trying her best not to interfere - but he stopped because of the crowd reaction. Because it was his stage, his performance, his own free will, he was responsible for his what he did, and the public let him have it for it.

I think this performance wouldn’t be as powerful as it is without the young man who got called “cornball”. If everybody had acted modestly, then it would have a completely different meaning. Because Yoko was not going to interfere, she had to rely on the audience to decide what was appropriate and what was not. It reminds me of the broken window theory – that if something is damaged or not well taken care of, someone will take advantage of the situation and completely vandalize it. It also got me thinking of the Stanford Prison Experiment, as they both deal with the issue of power and responsibility.

As it is, the piece is very thought provoking. I don't think Yoko knew what to expect when she did this, and there is lies the beauty of it. She had to completely trust the audience to make it for her. I would be interested in knowing what kind of instructions the audience were given in the beginning, and seeing what they would have done if they were free to do whatever they could.

Posted by ben chao at 11:33 AM | Permalink

What is performance? For me, performance is about giving value and/or meaning to something temporal. I think this definition encompass the traditional performing arts such as dance, theater, and music, but it also include some of the new art forms such as DJ’ing or tuning some software to manipulate sound or visuals. The important thing is that it has to be temporal, and if you miss it, you might never see it again. Maybe my definition is too simple…..

My interest in this class is rooted in this definition as well. I myself am not much of a performer, and when I have done performances, I get scared shitless. My primary interest is finding ways to transform people’s simple gestures and actions to something meaningful and playful. I am very interested in ways to engage the audience, the make the viewers a part of the show. Hopefully the things I work on will be meaningful as well, because that’s what I believe distinguishes good performances from bad ones.

Am I in the right class?

Posted by ben chao at 09:30 AM | Permalink