The Social Network.

The Social Network is a film about the founding of the social networking site Facebook and the resulting lawsuits. I thought by doing a project based upon social networking sites that it would be a crime not to watch the film. Alot of the film is based upon the friendship of the creators and this was in fact no use to me however it did explain how and why Facebook was created.

It began with a site called Coursematch, this was a website that helped you find what courses your friends were taking via the Kirkland (dorm) Facebook. One night Mark Zuckerberg decided to hack into this site and create Facemash a site that let you compare the girls who attended this college and rate whether they were hot or not. He then created an mp3 app that recognised your taste in music. He was then invited to listen to a concept called the Harvard connection, where you could create your own page, interests, bio, friends, pics, people can go online and request to be your friend, different from myspace because of Harvard.edu, the difference is exclusivity.

Zuckerberg then created  The Facebook. Where people could check out their friends, to browse around. Taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online. It would be exclusive, you would have to know the people on the site to get past your own page. ‘People provide their own picture, their own information and people had the ability to invite or not invite their friends to join. See in a world where social structure was everything, that was the thing.’
-Its clean its simple.
- ‘Relationship status…this is what drives life at college, ‘Are you having sex or aren’t you? Its why people take certain classes and sit where they sit and do what they do. And at its centre, you know, that’s what The Facebook is gonna be about. People are gonna log on because after all the cake and watermelon, there’s a chance they’re actually gonna’ ‘-gonna get laid’ -’…meet a girl. Yes’

The film was interesting as it highlighted the core reasons we find facebook so interesting. It also highlight just how much we want to know about other peoples lives and how invested we are in this information. It also highlighted how we use facebook to portray ourselves.

I'm not sure just how much I can take away from this film as I don't want to end up creating work solely based upon facebook but never the less its always helpful to expand the field of research away from artists.

'The internets not written in pencil Mark its written in ink.'

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Jenny Holzer and Martin Firrell

You Are My Own 1996

Jenny Holzer is known mostly for her large scale projections, focusing her work on the use of words in public spaces. She often wrote her own text but then started to use other peoples, before using secret US army documents exposing American soldiers human rights violations. Her work often speak of violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power, war and death. Bringing light to something which is hidden, yet remaining silent.

I love her sense of fearlessness. And her ability to exposing horrid information in such a beautiful way. The scale of her work adds impact to the harrowing words that are shown making the piece more and more powerful. It is the simplicity of the plain white text against the beautiful buildings that she chooses. And when she is not exposing information it is her choice of text which speaks for itself. She picks sentences which hundreds of people can take something from. I also appreciate her use of public spaces, taking art outside of the gallery and giving it to the everyday person. Her use of space questions just who should art be for much like her questioning of what information should be kept from the public.

I would like to create work using Holzer's projection style, however im afraid that my initail thoughts of using Wikileaks information would just be too simular to her own work.

Martin Firrell's work is also very simular to Holzers as they both use public spaces, text and the use of projections to create public debate. Firrell focuses on the power of ideas and tries to create a positive social change. I get the sense that Firrell is much more passionate about why he is creating his work and the statements that he reveals. Which makes me question my own level of passion towards certain ideas. I want to find a avenue which I am also as passionate about as I can see the difference it makes to a persons work. He also makes me question what reaction do I want to prevoke within society? Do I want to make people think? How will the text that I reveal make people feel? Do I want it to create a positive feeling or a negative?

Advertising reality.

I created these adverisments quickly after deciding I wanted to work with images, revealing the true nature of facebook. I started by taking images which wouldnt normaly be used for an advertisment but are very common sights to the daily users of facebook.

Missing Person.

missing [ˈmɪsɪŋ]
adj

1. not present; absent or lost

2. not able to be traced and not known to be dead nine men were missing after the attack

go missing to become lost or disappear

Missing person boards are used mostly in times of emergency, when a large disaster has taken place. At these times technology is venerable and can fail, leaving the disaster stricken area venerable itself. During these times the most efficient way of communicating is face to face. However when looking for a loved one it is not possible to speak to every person face to face, therefore missing person boards are a way to post and display information. I found this interesting as its a more unusual way of posting information, thinking about it now its much like a notice board I guess which is now ofter overlooked as technology has taken over.

It was actually during a tutorial with Steve when this method was brought to my attention however it was quickly dismissed as I couldn't see just how I could make it link. A week or so later I decided to think about the method in more detail as I find appearance wise these boards are bold and noticeable. After thinking about it for awhile I started to think about Twitter. Twitter - A place to share information or views. These tweets are ofter throw away thoughts that are posted and forgotten about, an instant outlet, often random in nature. So I started thinking about rather than a Missing Persons board I could play on the idea with a Missing Thoughts board.

As a regular twitter user I could create a piece where rather than tweeting I could write my thoughts on paper and use a notice board in a public place to post these. I also like the idea of then putting these back into the virtual world by posting a twitpic of the note. I could also invite people to use this posting their own thoughts and a twitter account set up for this piece would then be used to post the thoughts online.

With time constrants im not sure if I will manage to carry out this piece but atleast the idea is there.

Thinspiration.

The Internet is often looked at to be a great tool, something which makes our lives a little easier and somewhat better because we have a world of information at our finger tips. But what we sometimes overlook is what some of that information actually is. Within our daily lives we may come across groups of people that hold views we feel are wrong. Extremes such as people who have no tolerance of homosexuality and people who support the acts of terrorism; or the more common sexist work colleagues or the classroom bully. Either way within England the majority of the country holds similar views, and within our society these extremists and bullies may find it hard to express their thoughts and spread their views. However anyone can find a way to say what they like on the Internet. As a regular teenage social network site user I was surprised at what I found on some teenagers Tumblr blogs. One thing that holds a strong presence on this site is 'Thinspiration' and 'Pro-ana' blogs.
Pro-ana is the promotion of anorexia and Pro-mia is the promotion of bulimia (this holds less of a presence). Ana and Mia are sometimes thought of as a girl, these 'girls' are the viewers role models and friends, offering them advice. 'Thinspiration' sites often show photos of thin women, these are seen as inspiration and the driving force to help the viewer loose weight. There is also reverse thinspiration which shows fatty foods or obese women, these are there to disgust the viewer and therefore inspire them. These sites also give tips and quotes. I found it shocking just how easy these sites are to find and the content that they hold :

1. Keep your hair in good condition so no one will suspect anything.
2. Say you are going to eat at a friend's house and instead go for a walk. You will be burning calories instead of taking them in.
3. If you start to feel hungry do sit-ups or punch yourself in the stomach. You will not feel hungry anymore.
4. Make yourself a snack, but instead of eating it throw it away. Leave the dirty dishes where your parents can find them. They will think you ate.
5. Take anti-heartburn pills if you're really hungry. They neutralize the acid that builds and makes you hungry.

My idea was to display these unhealthy messages within public areas. Simply taking a canvas and painting the sentence on, then finding a busy public area where I can quickly leave it. This was to draw attention to the shocking message. Or perhaps taking a Thinspiration photograph and applying the message. Surely if these images and messages were brought to the publics attention they would react, possibly removing the item; yet a lot of us know that these sites exist and we do nothing to remove them.
However after talking to my tutor I raised the issue that it could be seen as promoting thinspiration as the message would not be clear, he agreed and said that because the subject matter was so strong it could take away from the work itself.

Pulley System.

I realised that when I first wanted to create an interactive piece I was hoping to create some form of event, much like the work of Alexandre Bettler, but his work was just too present in my mind and I couldn't seem to knock down the metaphorical wall that was currently plastered in his work. So after devising my cup phone piece I wanted to follow through on the same path, creating simple interactive pieces.

Having already dealt with the spoken word I wanted to explore the written word. I had thought about letters and letterboxes before but I wanted something a little more unusual and playful. During a conversation with Steve we began to think of how prisoners used to try and communicate when locked up. This stumped me. I googled and googled but all I could find was things relating to the use of the prison telephone. I knew this wasn't what I wanted and I started to think about how they may have communicated in the past, perhaps holes in the walls just big enough to pass a message through, or maybe some form of knocking code. Steve later told me about a film he had seen where a man tied a note to a piece of string, carefully swung it out of his barred up windows to the next inmate.

I wasn't convinced that I wanted to use the swinging motion but I liked the idea of attaching messages to string, I thought why not create a pulley. Almost like a washing line you see hanging between the houses, a line that can be pulled in and out.

Rather than doing the pulley in between houses I thought to start it could go from my space in the studio to another students. I started thinking small going along the wall from my space to Vicky's (two spaces away from me). But once I started to talk about it with Steve I realised it should go further and ideally that I would like it to go across the room. The plan was that once the pulley was up we could begin to send messages to and from, therefore the other end would need to go to someone I naturally talk to a lot. And who would be more perfect than my best friend Tash. However there was a problem, we work in two different studios, with a wall separating us. This means that whenever I want to talk to her I either have to walk into the next room, which is annoying, or send her a text, which is sometimes pretty pointless since as we barely check our phones. If I could somehow find a way to connect a pulley travelling from my space to Tasha's we would actually find it rather useful! Steve was excited by this idea and since as there was plans for this separating wall to be knocked down next year he saw no reason to why I couldn't cut a hole through. This was now the plan.

Firstly Steve helped me to find the components to make a pulley. The first was easily found and was this device :

We wasn't too sure where this came from or what it was but it seemed perfect and came with a handle and moving wheel. The second pulley was harder to find, but we eventually found two of these :

These turned out to be parts used for bending pipes. These didn't move as they weren't a form of wheel but they would still work as they only had to hold the string. The person who's side this component was on would simply have to move the string by pulling the opposite string in the opposite way they wanted the message bearing string to move. Steve then helped me to assemble the pulley as this could have been slightly dangerous as we weren't quite sure how to fix them. We decide the best way would be to connect the pieces to a pieces of wood, making them the same height, we did this using hinges and large screws. Holding the pieces secure in a position which was safely away from the drill. Once both of the pulleys were connected we then attached these to a large plank of wood, this was need for installing the pulley. Once the pulley was made we quickly tested it.

Once the pulley was made we used a saw to cute a hole through the wall, large enough for the wood to fit through and in line with Tasha's wall. I then cut the plank of wood in half and attached one to my wall and one to Tasha's. With mine being close to the hole I decided that the heaviest pulley should go on my side, this way the wooden plank could rest on the inside of the wall, helping to keep it straight. To attach the pulleys I screwed pieces of wood into the walls, this helped the pulleys to stay in line. The plank of wood was then screwed onto this wood and the string was connected.  The pulley was ready and I went through to my space to clean up where I was quickly greeted with this message from the other class.

When things become real.

Today I was planning on creating the wall of photographs I have previously talked about. I still liked this idea, although the sheer scale of the thousands of photographs was holding me back. I sometimes wonder whether these more time consuming experiments are worth it, I understand that its the journey that you learn from; but from previous journeys I've learnt I hate it when I waste my time. Whilst looking for a subject person to use Gary, my tutor, came over and asked me what I was doing. I explained and was a little surprised by his response, he seemed to question the concept, which I found strange as the concept was thought of during a previous conversation of ours. Perhaps it was one of those ideas that sounds great at the time, hyped up in a long creative conversation, but then seems to loose meaning as the days go by.
Gary told me to think about the context and where I would be displaying the photos. He also questioned whether I was trying to expose someone, and I guess I am. My take on this concept is to confront someone with an aspect of their own life (published photographs), making them question just why we feel the need to show so much to the world and whether it is safe. However when bringing this into the real world, it seems to become a little more, sinister. People seem to feel protected on the Internet, yes you can choose to set your facebook profile to friends only, meaning only people you approve can see. Yet many people don't and still feel protected. I personally think that this may be because you cant physically see just who is viewing your profile, therefore you don't think about. However if I was to physically display these images in a real life in environment it suddenly becomes real. The subject will be able to see just who is looking at the images and this may shock the individual. I didn't want to make any one feel uneasy, maybe that's wrong of me, maybe I should dismiss my feelings for my art and take the risk, but in my eyes if I make anyone feel like a victim its not a risk worth taking. Some may disagree by saying they're allowing me to take that step since as they allow me to view their facebook; but I believe your art should be an expression of who you are, and I'm just not that person.
And then I think perhaps I'm just over thinking it all and no one would actually be that bothered. At the end of the day that's a challenge that art gives you, trying to find the balance of the thought process.
Now feeling unsure of this idea Gary tried to help me think of alternatives. These included becoming friends with someone on the basis that will not become real friends with them, taking their photographs and displaying them in their hometown. However I again don't think I would feel comfortable doing this. Another options is to expose myself. I am a person who keeps a certain distance between people. For example I am close to my parents and they do know my close friends, yet I find myself like many teenagers keeping them for the most part separate. I think I am one of those people that if my parents ever joined facebook I would reject that friends request without a thought. So maybe I am the perfect person to expose. I could take all of the photo frames in the house and replace them with facebook photos they will not have seen. Or I could cover a wall inside of my house. One idea that I did love was to cover the front of my house, making the piece public. With each brick covered with a tagged/untagged photograph, showing something which is somewhat hidden from my immediate surroundings.

Layered photographs on wall

Feeling detached...

During tutorials I sit with a tutor and discuss my work, the tutors then ask questions, offer opinions and advice, and it is during these conversations that most ideas come together or develop. Although as students we sometimes feel that there is a fine line between developing ideas and working with a tutor and them giving you the idea. However this line can blur. This happened when during a tutorial Steve showed me a piece of paper with a few ideas he had jotted down. All of these ideas were great, and we discussed them, but I felt uneasy running with the ideas as I felt like I had no involvement in how they came about. Its one thing to come up with ideas together and another to be given them. After expressing my concerns to Steve he explained how it was no different, he said that he couldn't have thought of these ideas without having spoke to me, seen my research, listened to my ideas or having seen my previous work, therefore I was involved throughout. To begin I didn't understand and felt guilty for rejecting the ideas, after all he had took the time to do this for me. With time I understood, it was no different to our face to face tutorials, but I guess its just the way that the ideas come about. See as I was presented with a piece of paper, covered in sketches and notes I felt so detached, whereas during a conversation the two people bounce off each other, the ideas feel as if they come much more naturally and you get a sense of personal involvement and ownership.

I decided that I would use the ideas if I could take them and adapt them. See the tutors give everyone ideas, but its our job take them and make them personal, change them to fit not their vision but our own, after all the ideas are driven from our previous vision that we have shown in our journals. However I was struggling to adapt these ideas. They were all so clean and simple, which I like my work to be, I like to have an idea and strip it back, making it less complicated. To add anything to these ideas would just lessen them and since as I didn't want to run with them as they are I decided to leave them for now.

Explanation of sketches :

Image 1 : (Paper cup phone) Highlighting that the distance is a main focus of the paper cup phone. Distance is a barrier and this leads the idea of a screen becoming a barrier. (Sketch of people at computers) This piece highlights how we use the Internet to speak, teenagers will often sit staring a screen for an entire night speaking to someone who could live a mere minute walk away; and adults may send emails to a person within the same room as them rather than waiting to speak face to face. For this piece two computers would be set up on a program which will allow you to type sentences, much like I am doing now, however no Internet is needed. These two screens will be placed next to each other but put facing the opposite way. Screen A's keyboard will then be placed in front of screen B, screen B's keyboard will then be placed in front of screen A. Person A will then stand in front of screen A and keyboard B, what they then type will appear on screen B, where person B will be standing typing back on keyboard A.



Image 2 : Two dark phone boothes for annominous texting. The only light source would be the phone, drawing people in. The only numbers within the phone would be the number of the phone in the next booth. The boothes would be stood next to each other creating a divide but losing the distance of the normal text conversation.

Letters and a letter box. Once again letters are normal sent because of the distance between two people. By closing in this distance the reply time will be faster creating a live chat, much like facebook chat but in a physical sense. I would be interested to see the messages sent between the divide as when I sat down to write Jade a letter I found myself writing alot more that I would normaly on a social networking site. I also found that I rambled on as I couldnt remove the text once it had been written.

Two tents in different locations within college, within each tent would once again be a mobile phone with each others numbers in. This time we would have created a distance, how would the messages change from the idea of having the phones next to each other? Also voice mails could be left to each phone, with each user carrying on from the other users previous conversation.

A cup and string.

Idea : stretching the cups out in between two boards, crossing string paths, challenge set for viewers to find a pair and label on each side.

Since my initial statement my project has rapidly changed. Rather than exploring and transferring text from the Internet I am now transferring and exploring the pure foundations of the Internet, that being communication. I realise that this is very different, but it is naive to think your work wont change from your initial statement, after all it isn't a set brief, it is a starting point, an expression of your first ideas and views. I feel that if I had carried on along the lines of what was said in my statement that my project would lack energy, inspiration, diversity, challenges and pure artistic expression; the project would have turned stale.

After finding Alexandre Bettlers work I knew that I wanted to create something interactive. Focusing not on how statements or blocks of information can change when taken from the Internet but rather how our interaction can change. I wanted to create a piece that asked to be used, and that could be used by multiple people at any given time.

I decided to go and speak to my friend Tash about how my project had changed, whilst talking we decided to try and think of uncommon ways to communicate which I hadn't explored previously. I wanted something fun and light hearted. Something people would immediately want to interact with. And whats less intimidating than the childhood toy of a cup/can and a piece of string. Yes my new idea is a simple cup phone.

Now it had been awhile since I had made/used one of these so I asked Steve if he thought the women who worked at the cafe would be willing to give me a few cups to use, he decided to write a message asking them to help. Once I had the cups I found some string and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with my new communication method! I found people asking if it really worked and asking to try it, surely this was a positive reaction!

The next day I made a trip to Morrisons and bought around 48 polystyrene cups. I then spent the morning making small holes in each cup and passing around two meters of string through two cups to make a simple phone. I know traditionally some people think that tin cans should be used, but being on a students budget, worrying about people cutting themselves on any sharp edges and for appearance wise I decided that cups may be better.  

This way they may be forced to communicate to someone they may not know. When on sites such as facebook we have control of who we socialise with, we can ignore a comment, decline a friends request, close a conversation or secretly look at an individuals profile. I wanted to take this level of control away from the viewer. I am interested to see how how the public will react when the control is taken away, will they feel liberated and have fun talking to people they may not normally chose to, or will they feel intimidated. I personally hope the it will have a positive effect, but either way I find it interesting.

I began to try and find a way that I could display my cups. To begin I liked the idea of suspending them mid air at mouth and ear height. I could then create a circle of floating cups, by putting multiple cups next to one another this would encourage multiple people to use them and hopefully this would allow two strangers to get caught talking to each other. I began to test this method out in the studio, I suspended them by threading see through thread through the top of the cup, this thread was then taped to the ceiling, I then did the same to the bottom attaching this to the floor to create the tension needed. However this process took a long time since as all of the elements where quite delicate. If I was to display this in the exhibition they would need to be alot more secure since as people would be moving around them constantly. As I was suspending my cups an ex student who was currently studying her masters came to speak to me, she spoke to me about how I needed to make sure the suspension of the cups didn't take attention away from the piece, we both agreed that the idea of mic stands holding the cups would be nice touch as this would encourage people to pick them up and use them, however we wondered just how hard they would be to get. After she had left I spoke to my tutors about how I could display the cups. I liked the idea of the string being made a focal point by using something to separate the cups and the string, by putting the string through two walls it would create a strong look, the boards would also help to keep the tension. By crossing over the cups I could also entice people to use them by setting them the task of finding a pair that were connected. Whilst talking to my tutors they liked the idea of the tension being created by these two boards and wondered that if the string was tight enough would it actually manage to keep the boards upright unaided? This would then create an interactive sculpture.

After thinking this through I like this idea and I think I will use it for a finale piece, however I will only make it once as I would like it to be sight pacific. However I worry whether it will be safe to have the string holding the boards weight when it is meant to be used by people. But I will cross this bridge when I come to it. 

Web of communication. (Still to be filmed)

This piece was inspired by Alexandre Bettler. To get the ball rolling I decided I needed to think of a simple idea that could be done within college using the aspects of the conceptual design process Bettler uses in his own work. I started by looking into his works and trying to figure out the main aspects, these were : Communication - I need to create a space that evokes. Reward/Reason - The public will need to be given some form of reward or reason to participate. Activity - Just what activity could create a reason to communicate.

I'm not sure how but string came to mind. The idea was to create a 'web of communication'.

Take the end of the string.
- Pass this card and the ball of string to a friend.
- Do not be afraid to pass the string outside of your immediate friendship group, as long as you pass to a person you know.
- You can receive the string more than once as long as it has not been passed by the same person.
This string can be held or placed on the floor.
When passing the string or stepping please move carefully.

The aim is to create the largest string web of friendship and communication that can be made in one place.

This process is still to be filmed.

I want to see just how big the web can get. In a perfect world I'd love to get the whole college together to see everybody connected. However this may be a bit too ambitious! I also attempted to include the length of the string into the concept. Trying to measure the outside perimeter of the college in string, I would then see just how quickly this string can be used up by and just how many students that took. However after finding the biggest roll of string I could I got half way around the college, dodging cars, climbing the hill and winding it around the football courts, when I realised the roll of string just wouldn't make it the whole way around.

This idea then sparked a conversation with Gary and Jade about how everyone's perimeter of communication grows as we grow older. Taking our childhood for example. To begin your allowed out into neighbours back gardens until tea time. Next you was allowed back out after tea time, until your parents shouted you in. Then you was allowed into the street outside your house. You was then allowed into the streets/closes next to yours, up to the big road. Until one day your allowed to cross the big road!
With each time your area was widened your opportunity for communication was also widened. It was interesting to see how different generations can still relate to this same childhood routine.
It also made me realise that this project based on communication seems to spark the largest personal conversations, in this case I feel like the journey is really where the importance lies.