suddenly noticing surveillance

after today's class i found myself oddly noticing surveillance cameras, so yes Christopher, i too noticed them after class. i really thought that online game called are you watching me? was so ridiculous, why would anyone play that game. maybe online is fun, but man that would be a work out if your the live player lol.

also i searched my house on google maps and my car is out the front, i dont know if im ok with that. house is fine but rego details... that's a little creepy.

enjoyed class however


talin

Surveillance and Identity in A Scanner Darkly

Talking about surveillance today reminded me of a film I really like called A Scanner Darkly.It was made around about the same time as Sin City and plays with similar animation and manipulation of footage. In a lot of ways I think it’s because they chose to approach the story using this medium that it’s a successful film. Some scenes just wouldn’t be anywhere near as interesting if not for the stylised way it was approached.

Without giving too much away, the film is set in a futuristic world where surveillance plays a key role in society. Among other things the film also brings up notions about how surveillance can affect our perception of identity. 

Oh, and be honest now, how many of you where looking around for surveillance cameras as you left uni today…I know I was. Anyone find any?

Christopher.

This week's discussion is focused on surveillance and it got me thinking of the current trend of citizen journalism in Singapore, where individuals of the community reports on incidents that occurred in their presence. View: Singapore Seen and Youtube: Usual Singapore MRT Scene

The development of this new form of surveillance, has been rather interesting and somewhat disturbing, in a somewhat conservative Asian country like Singapore has, at least for my friends and I, made us feel the need to mind our p's and q's, creating in us the fear of possible public humiliation. This style of journalism was made possible as camera phones are more accessible than in the past.

Personally, this trend worries me more than state surveillance, as we could still possibly argue that the state only has power to use those videos for those specified in the relevant legislation. However, with citizen journalism, where can we draw the line and say that is getting out of control. "Privacy" is now a word with meanings that are rather limited in application.

Advertising and performance in a mediatised culture

Consumers in our mediatised culture are saturated with so much information and advertising that companies are increasingly looking outside the box to find a way of getting their product noticed. The performance of their product is no longer noticed in traditional formats. This YouTube scandal I saw on the Gruen Transfer is another example of how far companies are going to try and get noticed in a culture overloaded with information. Though this company hasn't gone about it in the right way I still found it an interesting scandal.
Man in the Jacket:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruentransfer/stories/s2525739.htm

http://www.blockh.net/#media
Another interesting performance.
Basically a well known game made to relate to real world events

You tube performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWf_sy87qNI&feature=PlayList&p=C071628ECCAEAAAE&index=0&playnext=1
A cool performance/dance with interactive media. Uses a program called Max/Msp/Jitter.

I discussed about this in the group discussion last week about how advertising is making its way into theatre productions in Singapore.

Thought that I should share the news article regarding issue with the rest of you.

ChannelNewsAsia - Friends, Romans and Sponsors

I worked with one of the production companies mentioned in the article and was initially rather taken aback by the amount of items the company was sponsored from Braun Buffel, in exchange for product placements in the play, What the Butler Saw, which ran for approximately 2 weeks.

I am not quite sure whether this is happening in Australian theatres, maybe someone could enlighten on this point?

-- Clara

I came across these two videos a few weeks ago, perhaps you are already familiar with them; having just come into the course I’m not entirely sure what you have covered, but in case you haven’t I suggest that both videos are well worth watching. 

The first video; A Vision of Students Today, deals with modern students/ learning environments and the way they are influenced by a mediatised culture. 

The second; An anthropological introduction to YouTube, is a 55 min detailed presentation dealing with youtube as v global community; how it has evolved, and what it means to us today. 

I think there is a lot of information in this presentation that draws parallels to topics we covered today, like the notion Slavov Zizek expresses about virtual realities “Virtual Reality is experienced as reality without being one” (top left hand box, p2, of the hand out.) And there are plenty of examples of how the accessibility of YouTube creates a platform for performance.

Anyway, I thought it was really interesting and I hope you find it useful.

Correction - Causey quote essay question 5

See p167 of Causey, p94 of the reader for the correct quote reference.

Web links from weeks 1 + 2

i) Charlotte Moorman TV Bra for Living Sculpture
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1949726680377142300&ei=IjG2SaSTNorOwgOijtWVAQ&q=charlotte+moorman
ii) Hiroaki Umeda While Going to a Condition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MhwGL1mTyc

iii) Merce Cunningham Biped (1999)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1f3xr_merce-cunningham-biped_creation

iv) Paul Kaiser Ghostcatching (1999)
http://www.openendedgroup.com/index.php/artworks/ghostcatching/
http://www.cooper.edu/art/ghostcatching/

v) John Cage 4’33’’ (1952) http://www.ubu.com/film/cage_433.htmlVariations V (1965) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLOWy3ys8Ag

vi) Nam June Paik Zen For Film (1962/4)
http://www.ubu.com/film/paik_zen.html
vii) Laurie Anderson O Superman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8LquNy3fd8

'guerilla artist' banksy

Banksy replaced Hilton's CD with his own remixes and given them titles such as Why am I Famous?, What Have I Done? and What Am I For? He has also changed pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head. A spokeswoman for Banksy said he had doctored 500 copies of her debut album Paris in 48 record shops across the UK. She told the BBC News website: "He switched the CDs in store, so he took the old ones out and put his version in."

i thought this was a pretty interesting reaction to pop-culture and mediatised culture. is it a product of performance art? or is it art at all?

Essay Questions 2009

Due Week 10: Wednesday 20 May at office 9am (40%)
2500-3000 words

Choose one question from the following six questions:

1. In postdramatic form, ‘the quoted motifs, gags or names are not placed inside the frame of a coherent narrative dramaturgy, but rather serve as musical phrases in a rhythm, as elements of a scenic image collage.’ (Lehmann in reader, p168)

Discuss how two contemporary performances studied in this course engage new media technologies to inscribe the poetics of postdramatic form.


2. ‘Counter-surveillance… becomes not only about reversing the gaze but about opening a space for all sorts of reversal in relation to how the gaze and its imagery may be experienced.’ (McGrath in reader, p201)

What kinds of spaces are generated by the practices and performances of counter-surveillance artists? Account for the ways that two performances covered in this course shift the gaze of surveillance.


3. ‘“The cyborged body enters a symbiotic/parasitic relationship with information” (Stelarc 2002a). Again the body [becomes] the interface between inside and outside, between an aesthetic of appearance and one of disappearance…’
(Giannachi 2004 in reader, p60)

Is the cyborg performer symbiotic or parasitic in relation to information? How do they enact appearance and disappearance in play with such information? Discuss with relation to two examples covered in the course.


4. ‘Electronic civil disobedience performs, artistically, politically and economically, informatically, from within the world of information, acting principally at the level of the sign, performing through the modification of the meta-brand’. (Giannachi 2007 in reader, p33)

Discuss how two performances in the course have dealt with the possibility of cyber resistance or disobedience. How did they operate within, or without of, electronic space?


5. ‘The more interesting works of contemporary performance that are concerned with the problems of digital culture are in fact not disturbed by the illusions and aesthetics of the virtual, but are dealing with the material and biopolitics of embeddedness.’ (Causey in reader, p167)

Do you agree? Discuss the aesthetics of the virtual and the politics of embeddedness in relation to two performances covered in this course.


6. Devise your own question in consultation with me. The wording for this must be agreed by no later than week five.

Check this out from SMH today: 'Programmer replaces missing finger with thumb drive'