23 July 2008

22nd July 2008 Sykpe conversation notes with Blast Theory, Matt and Julianne in Brighton, Adrian in Reading and Kate in London


We started the conversation with Adrian describing the equipment available at Reading talking about the Power wall and the CAVE at that point my Skype connection broke so I missed a bit.

Matt The moment you went was when I asked you what your interests are and then you went silent and I was beginning to think that maybe I had upset you!

Kate
Hah Hah ….yeah..ok I got involved working with Adrian through using VRML and made some work using the CAVE and 3d modelling working with a composer and a dancer and also through a public art project where he built some 3d text for me for a memorial wall for the Bartonwall project. I also have been doing quite a lot of work in Second Life and been talking with Adrain about trying to integrate the two sides of my interests in virtual worlds the immersive CAVE and the immersion of a online virtual world. So when we read the proposal Steve had written I could see links between the proposal ideas and my own interests. I got all excited about Jeffery Shaws work Legible City, I thought that would be an interesting interface between the body and the virtual world for a replay of two other artists work, so that was some of the stuff that got me excited about working on the project.

Matt Yeah Jeffery Shaws work was something we discussed in the making of Rider Spoke we were very careful not to stray into the same terrain because the work is so well known and that work it’s a wonderful piece we love it, it’s the obvious reference. From our point of view Yes obviously were are very thrilled and excited that people are interested in Rider Spoke and that there are things there of value and interest.. er.. Kate something that I’m sure your aware of is that it is very important for us that our work it is public facing and that engages directly with the general audience we see the creator project providing an obstacle, an opportunity to do something which is more private and therefore providing more room for experimentation, more playful, engaging with the research goal and as such we don’t have very strong feelings about what might be done, the one essential thing for us is that it is not public facing it would all be private for research purposes, then obviously if later down the track if there’s something that we are all excited about or we think should be shown publicly then we would have that discussion a that stage.

Kate Yes that was one of the questions that keep coming up, the idea of it being replayed.
Who were we replaying it for, was it for the people who had already done it or is it for someone who’d never been there?

Matt Exactly and obviously when we come to engage with the project more directly than we are able to at the moment that would be exactly the kind of question that we would want to examine. Our aspiration is that we will make some kind of interactive archival project within the Creator project that would have ultimately have some kind of public showing but that is quite along way down the track and what we are aware of is this is a research project with research goals. Our first priority is to ensure that we fitting in nicely with what the research agenda is and various researchers who are engaged with the research project and what they are hoping to achieve. But you know Kate, you in particular, you are an artist, and I presume your work is made for the general public, how do you feel about engaging on this project under the understanding that it is not going to be public facing?

Kate
I don’t think its been an issue for me, I got into it in terms of wanting to find out more about developing a link between different virtual worlds, but also I’m interested in the idea of collaboration as well. So I didn’t see it as a way to get publicity, that’s not how I saw it, so for me it’s not a problem. I have to admit when I read the project I thought, oh god that’s a way I’ve never worked before, working on another artists work, on something that’s so established, especially when we were in the workshop at MRL it felt a bit awkward say things and wondering how it would fit in.

Matt I guess were all in the same boat in that respect aren’t we? It’s a fairly unusual, if not an unprecedented set of collaborators, the breadth of disciplines and institutions that all come together to face particular kinds of research questions, the flip side is that by keeping it private it gives us a lot more freedom for us to follow our own interests and passions

Kate And see what happens …

Matt
Exactly we will all learn as we go won’t we……

Kate
I’m working in some other collaborative groups I’m interested in the dynamics of working within them I guess that’s one of the main reasons I enjoy it, I don’t feel that it has to serve my ‘art ego’……

Matt
Yeah

Kate
I’m more curious to explore how to work with all these different strands.

Matt Right

Adrian I think that’s something that applies to the whole creative field certainly its something that the Troubadour Projects have picked up on wanting to measure how we interact with each other.

Julianne
My guess is that the first phase is very much about the research, developing the partnerships and how the partners might work together, I see this project very much investigation some of those research questions that are about replaying, remixing and how do you recreate the experience.

Kate One of the things I’m thinking about having read and now heard the questions was what would happen if you were in a virtual environment and asked similar or the same questions would you get the same about of intimacy, because they are really particular the way that they are said you are kind of led to certain sorts of responses.
First I only read the answers when up in Nottingham it seemed strange the things that people told you, how intimate it was, but when I heard the questions I thought oh maybe I would have told you intimate things too…how would that be in a virtual world.

Matt Yes a lot of the focus of Rider Spoke and our work generally is how you establish a context in which people will participate in a meaningful way and I think the idea of being alone on a bicycle at night, almost certainly off the beaten track, quite possibly slightly lost, those things are all critical in terms of what we present and say and I think it would be very interesting to look at that in virtual space. I’m sure it would be very different. Peoples own safety is a very major issue, how to design spaces and peoples own awareness of their safety or lack of it, will determine what they are saying and how they behave.

Julianne
Ok, do you think that’s ok, I think Matts nodding his head, do you have any more questions?

Kate Erm… well…. I suppose…as long as its kept within the research group….we can follow where we think we should go……is that right?

Matt Yes I think that’s what I would suggest……yes obviously we are very happy to continue the discussion, but on the other hand I’m very mindful of not wanting to kind of limit you, you both have your own practice, you come from different fields and you’ve both got your own trajectories and styles of working, it feels to me that would provide you the scope to be able to be very free about it. Clearly if you have questions or things you want to discuss I’d be very happy to do that.

Kate Brilliant ok

Matt And hopefully well get to meet each other

Kate Yes I wondered if it maybe part of the research project should be that I never get to meet you at all!

Matt I’m not going to make the next workshop either it’s two days before the start of the Royal Opera House project

Kate Oh yes I heard

Matt
So you may joke about it now!

Kate Hah Hah I know….. but it may be the reality!

Meeting with Gabriella in Reading Monday 21st July

Meet with Gabriella when she visited Reading to look at the CAVE and Powerwall. Discussed what I should ask in the meeting with Blast Theory, Gabriella focused on some really helpful points and questions.
Where do we stand in the project?
What have we got to offer:
Second Life
Power Wall
CAVE

How loyal should the achive be to the original?
What data should be in it?
In terms of the title of project REPLAY what are we replaying?
Is it for the people who have already done Rider Spoke?
Or for a audeince new to the event?
What is the original?

Oberservations the questions prompt the participants in the way they answer.
From discussing the images in Second Life Orientation and Disorientation seemed a good direction to go.
Gabriella told me the idea for the word 'Gift also meaning Poisen in German, she was talking about the need to be able to leave a message not only listen to the messages left by others was important for your sanity! and also created the exchange in the participation. Please clarify if I remember this incorrectly!

21 July 2008

Sketches from Second Life

Some very initial ideas:Second Life could be an interesting place to set up a replay event of Rider Spoke. If we bought an island we could build a city/environment and invite participants to cycle finding audio embedded in objects. The island could be set to only allow participants with an invitation. Its possible to control the light so it could always be dusk. I built a version that was like the box of a cave thinking about the data produced by the finger printing as a journey shape we could follow. Would like to have an immersive version of SL in the CAVE. It would be great if the journey could work in SL on a power wall and in a CAVE.

Thinking of how to show different versions of the data, thinking of the diagrams lief showed us of the fingerprinting positions. Also of the surfaces of the road potholes the city as skin, and the glow of street lights. Underpass and google maps sometimes otherworldly, changes of focus. Cluster points would act as places where the audio would be triggered and a question is answered.






Notes from Phone conversation with Gabriella

What happens if?
Trace, Autobiography
This was the place someting almost happened but didn't happen.
Interweaving of realities
from the review
"Althougth I was travelling and following the consoles directions as well as paying attention to the traffic there seemed no purpose to my travel.
Actual places my own memories distant voices of absent others became interwined."
Binary choices
Pause Move
Speak Listen
Past Present
Actual Digital
Geographical Fictional
City as skin
"Place of imprints Tatoos and Scars realised by recording or replaying the memories of our past whilst rapidly moving into an uncertain future."
THE MORE YOU ANSWER THE MORE YOU CAN HEAR
Takes place dusk or darkness
Is it possible to mirror what happened. What can an immersive digital environment provide?
Different focus points and additional information creates other dimensions to event performance the possibility of the participant taking away some kind of momento?
From micro to macro. From bumps in road to visuals of the finger print data?
Important to Blast Theory Trust-Surrender, Promise or commit
Respond to a voice, Follow Experience

Gabriella summed up discussion in an email to Steve

Hi Steve

Just had a long chat with Kate and wanted to run by you where we are at thisstage.We'll be using CAVE and attempt to create a street possibly looking like theBarbican tunnel and surroundings. The street will have basic textural detail(gutters, etc). Participants will be on a bike at dusk. Changing qualities oflight will guide them through the streets and coincide with recordings.Participants will also record their own memories and be given a mementoconsisting of someone else's recording when leaving.Kate is going to discuss this with Matt next week but in the meantime it'll bereally good to have your feedback.The idea of using mementos in CAVE was successfully explored by MauriceBenayoun in World Skin http://www.benayoun.com/projet.php?id=16The idea to use a city at dusk to discover traces of something that happened inthe past was successfully explored by Forced Entertainment inhttp://www.forcedentertainment.com/?lid=370We look forward to hearing what you think -best

20 July 2008

Liveness and Replay Questions and thoughts from Creator workshop?


Is it documenting an experience?
Creating a new experience?
Reframe Reuse
Sensory experience
Sound is the bases of the archive.
How do you create a valuable archive
Use new tools to document
How does the context work
What is the prototyp interface?
Cyclists city secrets
Follow someone and describe them
The voice in your ear says think of a party where it all got a bit out of control
Wifi finger prints
A graph built into a mesh
Visualising the map of interaction
People really opened up
Sometimes they took on the role of a journalist
Conversation-Collaboration
Forms of collaborative text
Reuse of the archive
How do others approach the data
City Wide Experiences
Don't try to illustrate the real
Layered, Maps, Sounds, Darkness
What is the level of engagement needed for the participant coming fresh to the work.

Riders Have Spoken: an artist-led practical exploration of recording and replaying live, distributed and interactive experiences

Team: Steve Benford, Alan Chamberlain, Duncan Rowland (Nottingham); Gabriella Giannachi (Exeter), Matt Adams, Julianne Pierce (Blast Theory), Jonathan Foster (Sheffield), Adrian Haffegee, Kate Allen (Reading)

The relationship between liveness and recording is critical to many creative industries including performance, music, live art, theatre, new media, photography and animation. Live experiences are often recorded, recordings are embedded into live experiences, and there are well established techniques and technologies for doing this. However, the move towards more distributed, mobile, mixed reality, intermedial, interactive, and social experiences challenges the nature of recording and replaying due to:
the highly dispersed nature of participants, being distributed across a mixture of real and virtual spaces
the integration of multiple media with physical places, artefacts and actors
the involvement of the public as active participants who contribute to the content of the experience
the interleaving of different modes of time so that recordings are replayed as part of the live experience
Recording these new experiences in a way that captures their ‘live’ character is extremely difficult. The most common approach is to produce a video documentary. However, such documentaries typically focus on just one or two participants and present a linear and often much shortened account of their experience. We need new ways of recording and replaying complex, non-linear, multi-participant experiences.
The proposed project
We will explore the challenges involved in recording and replaying distributed interactive experiences so as to enable new creative practices and also better support interdisciplinary research. We will address the following questions:
what are the potential creative uses of record and replay and what requirements do they raise?
what are the potential research uses of record and replay and what requirements do they raise?
what technical challenges arise from new forms of record and replay and how might we address them?
what artistic, business and social (e.g., legal and ethical) challenges must be met in this area?
Technical issues include: how do we capture media from mobile and distributed participants? how do we upload and share this? how can we generate appropriate metadata so that multiple recordings can be searched, accessed and inter-related? how can different forms of recording be synchronised, composited and replayed? what new temporal models and mechanisms are required to enable us to flexibly mix recorded and live events within ongoing experiences? and how can ‘intelligent’ documentations and archives be created that can themselves grow and change according to their usage? In turn, artistic, business and social questions include: how can we understand and manage issues of consent, privacy and rights? what new business models will arise from the future uptake of record and replay techniques? And how can different researchers collaborate around common data?
We believe that it is best to explore these issues through a practice-led approach in which an interdisciplinary group of practitioners and researchers undertakes a series of workshops and prototyping activities. We will take an existing artistic project and explore how it might be archived, studied and extended through the use of record and replay. We are therefore an example of an ‘artist-led, reflective’ practice project within the overall Creator framework.Our example work is Rider Spoke from Blast Theory, a mobile interactive performance work for cyclists. Participants explore a city on cycles and engage in a game of hide and seek in which they record and hide personal stories at chosen locations and then find and listen to others’ stories in turn. Rider Spoke has already been performed three times – at the Barbican in London in 2007 and subsequently in Athens and Brighton in 2008. More than 700 participants have taken part in these performances and all of their audio files and associated interactions have been captured. There is also a set of video recordings of participants taking part and an initial project documentary video. Thus, Rider Spoke provides a relatively rich set of existing materials with which we can immediately begin to explore replay and archiving issues in a practical way. However, further performances of Rider Spoke are likely to take place in Autumn 2008, raising the possibility of trying out new forms of recording in practice too.