Following on from my last posts I have been looking into the way items are desensitized by technology, in particular computers and the internet. We have been almost conditioned to the idea that speed and ease of use is always the best way to go. This may sound weird but it may not always be the best way for the consumer. The
can send texts with shopping lists etc as online shopping
Since I have been looking at tangible objects and how they are desitised by the internet. An idea would be to create a online shop or price comparision type website, but it also gives the user the option to enter the products they want to buy via swiping the barcode from the product over their webcam. Once the barcode has been collected it can then be used to search the web for the cheapest price on that specific product. The user gets displayed all the results on that specific product, then they can select the shop which they would like to buy it from. They can do this with a number of items and create a shopping basket full of the items they wish to buy. They could also be an option to search for promotional codes for the specific sites.
The context behind this idea being that users will feel a much more real connection with items as they are actually attempting to purchase. This trys to bridge the gap that the internet poses, i.e. the internet desensitizing us from the objects that we are purchasing.
This sort of project is going to work best for shopping for groceries as very often you just wish to make the same shop as before so you already have the product to swipe through the barcode reader.
After meeting Shaun Murray this morning and discussing my ideas for my Final Project. It helped to clear some things up for me. It has helped me firm up my ideas about sensitivity and symbolism. It intrigued me the way that certain objects can desensitize us from material that we use to read them. For example when we use a computer how does the information that we read get desensitized through the medium that we use, i.e. the computer screen. Tangible objects have a much greater meaning to us than electronic objects.
If you take for example shopping for groceries online at say Tescos.com it is much easier to easily stack up quite a shopping bill, where as if you went to a shop and bought the groceries you tend to not spend so much money. The reason for this is that when people walk around Tescos the objects (groceries) which they choose they can actually touch and feel items, this gives the items a more real value. The internet really desensitizes the price and and other values of the products.
This thought process can be carried on to any brands that we see about the world. It doesn’t need to be just through computers that we are desensitized to objects either. For example if you look at mobile phones, photographs, video and tv.
APPLE desensitised music, the idea that they used music to sell their products, making music almost not the important thing anymore but that you must have their product
look into creating a utopia society where everyone is happy with everything
dreams similar to internet, you can do things to have happy dreams, ie think bad thoughts before you go bed or eat cheese. This is like firewalls and popup blockers on the net, they are in place but you still can’t control what will happen
I have been thinking a lot about the idea that 1 image is worth 100 words and 1 symbol is worth 1000 words. You could create a forum which is based on replacing words and even phrases which symbols. Then this could be implemented into the real world with type of overlay, maybe something similar to John Carpenters film ‘They Live’ where it is in the form of a pair of glasses. So the idea of replacing real life text with symbols, this functionality could also be added to mobile phones through mobile processing.The idea of trying to desensitize objects through symbolism, so that people don’t feel affended by phrases and things they see or hear when they are browsing the internet or around the town.
Following on from my ideas in my last posts about yourself being part of the images similar to Les Meninas I have created a number of Panoramic Cages. These attempt to model the view a person has as they are moving down the lane whilst trying to give the effect that you as the photographer are in the middle of the piece, almost as if they are looking past you. Its an attempt to bridge a connection between me (the photography in this case) and the person walking along Pin Lane in the photo, allowing the creator to be part of the model itself. The coloured areas represent the persons view from their position whilst the black/white blurred areas represent areas they can’t.
Man Walking Down Pin Lane
Man Walking Down Pin Lane (Blurred Effect)
Young Boy Walking Down Pin Lane
I have also created another Panoramic Cage which trys to represent the view you get from one window. It shows which other windows you can see from that position and also which parts of Pin Lane you can see from that window. This allows you to see just how someone could view the street and infact the world if all they had was the view from that one window. Again the blurred part of the image represents areas which can’t be seen whilst the coloured sections are ones which can.
To implement these ideas into a final project I was thinking about the idea of creating a website where people log in and download a narrative of their choice. People can then go to Pin Lane and act out their narrative. A webcam will be set up at Pin Lane in one of the windows to capture this on camera. Then after a weeks worth of data has been collected I sift through the data and create short film clip. This will then get posted back up on the website for people to view.
The idea being that the narrative the user is given may only be very small, for example walking along the lane in a specific manner, but by adding that together with other actions that have taken place in the lane in that week it will be possible to create a larger narrative and a small story.
One way of choosing the narratives in the first place would be to hide a narrative behind windows in Pin Lane. So when the user logged onto the site they would see an image of lane, from here they would select a window which would then give them their narrative/character. This would give meaning to each window as in their mind each window would represent a specific narrative even though it’s completely conceptual.
The D-Tower art piece is a project which has many similarities to the project I am wanting to create in terms of the way data is collected. The D-Tower changes colour depending on peoples moods and feelings. These attributes are collected via website and questionnaires. This type of data collection fits in well with my ideas for my project at the moment.
As I am interested in attaching narratives to the street and the windiws overlooking the street, the only way to collect data on this would be to set up a website where people could login and post their stories, or by asking people who live in the area to fill out questionnaires.
During last weeks lecture for the Production Of Space module we were shown an installation called ‘Hand From Above’. The idea of this installation was to see how people react to being followed and touched by a virtual hand which is only viewable on a screen. The idea that it isn’t actually touching you but, if you know something is touching you even if it’s virtually it’s still uncomfortable.
Another installation which exploits this is the ‘Open Access’ project. People walk through this floorspace and you can choose a person and add a light source to follow them around. I like the idea that you don’t know why they have chosen you to follow, just like you don’t know why people watch you from their windows.
Below I have created a quick overlay to show the rough view which you get from each window on Pin Lane. The cones represent the area which you can see of Pin Lane from that particular window. It looks at the idea that if your only contact with the world is the view which you get from your window, what would your impressions of the world be?
Using Pin Lane how could you represent a accurate depiction of the current state of the world?
After my last meeting for my Production Of Space module I was pointed in the direction of Les Meninas. It is a very famous painting in which he paints himself into the picture. The painting questions the link between reality and illusion and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the painting characters who are portrayed. In the painting he has painted himself looking almost past the painting at looking at you, the viewer. Almost as if you are in fact the king and queen.
This painting gives the impression that you aren’t just viewing something from afar, but in fact you are part of the painting and interacting with something which is a static object. This brought me to think of the windows around Pin Lane aren’t just static objects, but the idea that you can interact with them. Anyone looking out of one of the windows at the same time you are looking up at them will instantly feel some sort of connection with you, even if it’s only for the fact that you have both seen each other. Also if you see someone in another window looking back at you, this connects the two of you. From then on you relate that person to that window, and you build up your own stories about these people, even if it’s only on a subconscious level
