I didn’t have anything specific in mind to talk about with Sarah during our 1-1 today, but but I wanted to keep the appointment to hold myself accountable.

• One thing that we discussed is that I have been struggling with the dream review assignment. I think part of this struggle is that I am very hard on myself, and imaging a dream review about something that doesn’t exist yet is so hard. A couple of suggestions Sarah had about this:
  • Follow Kat’s lead, and borrow an existing artist statement as a template – slowly changing the words to be more reflective of myself and my own work. I really like this idea, and the slight shift in perspective of looking at an artist statement as opposed to a review is helpful. I think that the review part specifically has been challenging because I’m not sure I care for my work to be “reviewed”. I mean I do want my work to be impactful, and seen by others, but the idea of it being reviewed like high art, or a movie or book feels too scary. I don’t separate myself from my work very easily, and being reviewed for something I create feels like review for myself as a human. There is a lot to unpack there lol, but suffice it to say, I think that this shift in perspective for me was helpful.
  • Think about how my work affected a certain group of people. What do I hope for my work to do? How do people talk about Casey Reas and/or Surya Mattu’s work that feels like it resonates with me?
• Some thoughts that came up while we were talking:
  • my first motivation in this work is to understand – do I want to build an educational tool? Or am I focusing on elementary-level stuff because that feels more tactile and approachable. When in education do we start to move from concrete/tactile things into abstractions? The moment this happens is probably when I started to struggle more in school tbh.
  • Maybe look at children’s book reviews instead of art reviews for the dream review assignment?
  • goal: find a context where I want my work to live
  • academic use of arts
    • find examples or natural phenomenon that is illustration through art
    • art as a form of research
    • describing the academic space from an outside/3rd part
    • this space is really interesting to me, but I am not fully understanding what it means yet
  • the project doesn’t have to be one thing, the whole presentation could be the thesis work
    • can treat each piece as a mini-project
    • and then for the final thesis – how does it all tell a story?
    • this would allow me to make a whole bunch of cool stuff
  • counter to radio
  • are there are critiques about radio
    • would be cool to think about both back in the day when it was first discovered and use and also current
  • exercise idea: one-a-day or 5 in one day just create some stuff around the idea what if radio waves didn’t exist. Sketch out what this world may look like.
    • I started thinking about the book Station Eleven – like how at the end they start to see some electric lights, like thought civilization was gone, it started to come back
    • just thinking about this now, but wouldn’t it be cool to create a Survive the [Zombie] Apocalypse kit that includes how to make your own radio, etc
    • why do I continue to come back to zombies? 😂🧟‍♀️
  • investigation a future world
  • what has is the future of radio in this world?
  • I have been focusing my research and thought on mechanics of radio waves, but what other buckets could I be considering?
    • uses
    • infra
    • who maintains it?
    • who governs it?
    • people/community
      • pirate radio
  • I think that focusing on the mechanics is where I sometimes get stuck in my research vs creating. This happened with my sunscreen project too. And maybe that isn’t a bad thing, but I also think its a great suggestion to try to think more broadly some too. But I just really want to understand how it works.
    • maybe realizing that this is my process is okay, and good, and i should trust it a bit
      • there is a phase of deep dive without knowing what the form is, then i figure out the form
    • I think these were Sarah’s word, but I have written down: I want to understand the fundamental aspects of the material world
    • can I translate this to a more general public
      • honestly this resonated a lot with me – this is what i have been doing with my software work as well. like when i write and give talks in that worlds, it’s about taking something complex and breaking it down into a way that is more easily digestible for a more general audience. I think I do this because it’s how my brain works, but when I’m able to capture that and organize that, it becomes something that’s helpful to others too. That’s kind of cool to recognize, and maybe I recognized that with software work, but I am now seeing that it’s a larger pattern in my life. And that’s kind of cool
      • Also, as I’m reflecting on this, I am remembering a Christmas where my dad and I were talking about Charles Babbage’s calculating machine, because I was reading The Difference Engine by Doron Swade at the time. And my mom was so over the conversation. Partly because it’s a complex, confusing topic that she’s just not really interested in. Also the fact that my dad and I were having cocktails, and the explanation was kind of Drunk History-like may have been part of it. 😂 But I remember being so engaged and excited, and so badly wanted to explain it to her, because that was helping me understand it better.
  • We looked at my sunscreen project from the fall semester. And I kind of hate this project now, because it feels like a slide show. But Sarah said to her it felt more like an elaborate NYT piece, like investigative journalist pice. I like that perspective. I’m not sure if that’s the form I’d like this project to take, but maybe that can be one component of it?
    • a couple other things I had considered during my sunscreen project were to create a performance of constantly putting more and more sunscreen on – Sarah suggested that making giving that a try if it still feels interesting may be helpful to just get a sense of how performance feels.
      • Also as I was chatting a bit about my project with my dad last night, I realize that there certainly are overlapping ideas – my research with both radio waves and sunscreen started with waves on a spectrum. 🤔
      • So this physical expression/embodiment of a mechanical idea feels like a cool thing to try
      • Sarah told me about Three Transitions by Peter Campus, mostly the 2nd transition feels like good inspiration for my sunscreen project.
      • Sarah also told me Vanishing by Gerald Clarke Jr, where he seems to employ a similar technique of covering himself in green paint, and then using a green screen he disappears.
    • When deciding to try to make the thing, Sarah suggested I think about: what would it take to do it? Why would I do it? Why wouldn’t I? Taking the risk is ok. Start making.`
• Assignments:
  • read the proposal guidelines
  • bring a few interesting facts from my research for the next time we meet – this will help bring her (and my future audience) in, and maybe help me articulate my why a bit better

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPlqrWGU=/?share_link_id=390957592

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPnHzgHY=/?share_link_id=466978575290

Second 1-1 with Sarah today. We talked about my proposal, updated ideas/aspects I want to incorporate in my thesis, and a little sketch I made. Sarah offered a ton of great theoretical materials, technical resources, and relevant art references. 

We also talked about things in my proposal that needed clarification and elaboration. Feeling good about completing the final(for now) version. 

Links:

Hayles_N_Katherine_How_We_Became_Posthuman_Virtual_Bodies_in_Cybernetics_Literature_and_Informatics.pdf (monoskop.org)

Immortal Plastics / Necrocracy :: IDEAS CITY (newmuseum.org)

Works – Studio Drift

WORK_Ziyang Wu

Skawennati

https://matt-romein.com/info

I had my third one on one meeting with Sarah today! It went really well!I began by going over my powerpoint and proposal and then began talking about prototyping, as well as audience! 🙂

Sarah shared a lot of wonderful brainstorming ideas along with images of other artists, and posed questions and suggestions for me to think about which is great!

Excited and ready to create!

Until next time! 🙂

https://www.notion.so/c28b335fef5b45018541f372768ff0e1?v=8ee6d3d4e08e47edbf9ba1bda501c3c4&pvs=4

Things I want | Things I don’t want | Things I’m okay with: 

My goal is to bring more awareness on what salsa really is about, by highlighting an artist who was a political activist and who fought really hard to also bring his music to the mainstream world. I do not want it to entail just a story without any interaction, and just for pure entertainment. I am okay with not everyone completely understanding it.

Things my thesis does for the world | Things my thesis does for me | Things my thesis does for [x audience/community] 

I hope my thesis will bring into the world more awareness to what salsa is, and allow for more seriousness to be taken around it as an art. It allows me to explore this art and activity that I have completely fulfilled my life with since I was a child. My thesis might also allow for my community to feel seen, as long as my activity is respectful and accurate.

A list of goals and what they look like totally fulfilled, somewhat fulfilled, and not fulfilled at all. For example: 

• Goal: to create more awareness and seriousness into what salsa is 
• totally fulfilled: my project is able to inspire people to get into salsa, and my community recognizes it as a serious and accurate story 

• somewhat fulfilled: some people are inspired, no one really gets into salsa though 

• not fulfilled at all : No one is inspired and understands the point of the story, they just see it as a random homage to a salsa artist but that’s it.

I met with Sarah today at noon, again, very helpful! I told her what stage I’m currently on, what my plan is regarding next steps and where I’m a bit stuck on. We also went through my starter bibliography and my proposal draft – Sarah left constructive comments on my doc. The key words are: BE SPECIFIC! Particularly with audience, physical context, specific use, the content of the work, the form of the work, problem to address, and hoped for outcome. I should try asking myself: what kind of elders? (eg. age group, ability) focused on health and safety instead of joy? perhaps a connected device to sort of track their health conditions?

Sarah suggested me to talk with some peers and to swap proposal for feedback, since their thesis are similar to mine, in some way. We could be inspired by each other! Because I’m not so knowledgable of AR/VR but Sarah is, she shared with me that VR is great as 1. a creative tool (ex. 3D modeling) 2. training simulators & educational (maybe training simulators for elderly?) Currently, my research area is quite broad with different segments of information, therefore, there can be many different approaches to my central question, so as the ultimate form. Sarah thought of a more user-research focused approach: gaining expertise by taking these emerging technologies to elderly (existing apps – AR, VR, Game), gather their perspectives, and modify/improve on one of the apps. I will definitely think through it.

A VERY engaging zoom meeting (most stressful, intense, interesting one I’ve ever been on) because of the level of attention and accountability asked of each of us. Very effective model, each person being put on the spot with no notice. Shockingly effective.

I met with Sarah earlier in the day (I had somehow deleted the group meeting notification or didn’t put it in when I was in Berlin last month) so having two meetings in one day didn’t leave much processing time on ideas, so some of this is post 1-1 processing.

I see a potential path of a series of related or sequential questions:

• What is specific to the EEG that is special, using it as a tool, using brainwaves as a medium? What can an EEG do that a that an EKG or EMG or motion sensor can’t do in terms of making art? What are the affordances specific to this device and this organ (the brain) for making art?
• When using the EEG, what is controllable by the user? Can experienced users control more features, or is everything accessible to a new user? What is not controllable, and is that data useful? Can emergent or subconscious activity be revealed with an EEG, and to what use? If it’s not controllable, what is the user experience of that? Would that be any different than a randomized generator choosing values?
  • Think of Penijean Gracefire’s description of what the brain does:
    • Is there a pattern?
    • Does it have to do with me?
    • Can I control it?
• What aesthetics are the most effective at giving the user a sense of control, or producing the most phenomenal biofeedback experiences?
• How would I describe the phenomenon I’ve experienced with EEG biofeedback?
  • Comments from Bryce Willem on this:
    • “‘Shifts in Awareness’ and going on to define this as a category of phenomena could good route into this territory. The tricky bit is that phenomena is a broad terms that can encompass anything that can be perceived in consciousness. This includes changing content – like colors in the world, musical relationships, but also moods and mental states that you become aware of. From how I’ve understood these experiences you’ve described and from the list you just gave, it’s more about changes in the state or quality of conscious awareness. A patterns between all these is that you are aware of them as states, whereas default consciousness is not typically aware of its state or quality, but rather just focused on an object with one’s attention. This is a change in the bandwidth of attention to both perceive the content change but also perceive the change in conscious awareness itself.”
• Can I replicate these experiences in myself? Can I replicate this experience for others? What conditions produce X results?