This page is for the semester project of the Orange Knights group. The group consists of
Esther Brakl, Amanda Egebo, Ulrik Sarp Hansen and Marion Vick.
Our semester assignment
For the assignment you are to develop a project for a place influenced by spots. The project should aim to heighten a feeling of publicness based on the idea of work.
On this page you can read about the concept, ideas and theoretical thoughts about our project, how it turned out, and some thoughts about what to change if we tried to recreate it.
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Table of Contents
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Project
Project description
The project aim at creating a window between the cafe's Ris Ras and LYNfabrikken in Aarhus on March 26th and 27th from 1 to 5 pm. To do this, we will use flat-screens, web-cams and laptop computers. Both cafe's have free internet and therefore attracts a certain clientel who wants to be able to work with different mobile interface units such as laptops, PDA displays etc- and by that bring their personal work into the public sphere.
In written documentation we want to examine how to create a real-time visualized window, to enhance the mechanisms and social rules that are ready present. These rules change due to the medias/mobile interfaces that are used by the visitors. By this we are emphasizing the already ongoing acoustic and textual communication between the visitors and the outside world.
We are carrying out the project by live-streaming what goes on at the two cafe's using web-cameras. These are connected with two 24 inches flat screens, and two lap tops are facilitating the connection, using skype or some other program that might have a better connection. Lets just see about that when we carry it out ;-)
Theoretical considerations
Goffmann "unfocused interaction": Goffmann asks whether its legitimate to use these involvements shields, because when intruded by a "visitor", both parts will feel intruded and embarrassed. "The discovered person does not quite have the right, apparently, to have been undressed interactionally, and the intruder does not quite have the right to have caught the other in his impropriety"(page 40)
….And that is perhaps why secretly looking at other people is a exhilarating and interesting thing to do. Not being caught is perhaps the hardest, but also most exiting part ;-)
As means of communication, surveilling other people on widescreens is a somewhat "silent" communication- and in our case a free and extravagant way of looking at other people, without them being able to respond. The webcameras record without sound, so the only way to communicate would be in gestures. You are not able to see yourself, but you are aware that others can see you and perhaps comment on your appearance without you being able to hear it. As Goffmann puts it, the bodily appearance in this situation is somehow limited, and the individual will perhaps try to accommodate their personal act to the situation. As people are attending the public sphere, they bring along all sorts of involvement shields- such as their laptops. Some might pretend not to notice the cameras- or some might even feel awkward and move on- when suddenly they can no longer work in public- in private…
Project expectations
During our process of creating the project, it turned out more and more to question the whole idea of surveillance. Living in a society where "Bigbrother" is watching you whenever you walk out your door- people normally don't question whether its right or wrong- or if surveillance should be just normally accepted as an invisible part of the modern society. But if you enter a café with non-hidden cameras plus a wide-screen live-streaming, people might try either too avoid the camera eye or perhaps even leave the café in order to be left "in peace". To avoid any legal problems, we are putting out small flyer's in the cafés- notifying people that they are being filmed.
By choice of location, especially with Lynfabrikken being a creative and innovative hotspot in Aarhus, we hope to reach a curious crowd of café visitors- people who might ask about the project- or in some way react upon the cameras being there. We don't expect people to interact much with the cameras, or even locate themselves in the room in order to interact with it. Neither do we hope that people try to avoid it or feel awkward as Goffmann might suggest.
Hemments taxonomy
As a class assignment, we were asked to place our project in one of Hemments nine categories. Then we were asked to make our project fit into one of the other categories. The category that related most to our project is Geo-annotation: Located Media, and the category we are forcing on our project as a thought experiment is Mapping: Social, Semantic.
Geo-annotation: Located Media
In the following quote, Hemment describes Located Media as
(…) a means of documentation and of augmenting the environment with additional information that elaborates or explains something already present. It is another means of delivering information, a new way of experiencing otherwise conventional media content in the environment1.
As seen in our project description, this is what we are trying to do. People work and communicate wirelessly with text and audio, but rarely with two-way visual communication. We are emphasizing and visualizing the already existing conventions of communication in the public sphere.
Mapping: Social, Semantic
Our project already meets some of the social and semantic aspects mentioned in the Hemment text.
Such maps can be combined with (…) social software so that users are “able to find things—events/pictures/ anything—‘near’ to them, where ‘near’ can mean close in geographical location, in ‘person space,’ or in ‘interest space’”2
We will be using social software like Messenger or Skype to connect the people and places, and make them 'near' each other.
If we were to alter parameters in our project, we could add some kind of social software aspect, such as a blog, Facebook group or MySpace site where the public could interact and comment on the project. If comments from one of these were presented combined with the visual stream on the screen, people on-site would be able to follow the updates and comments.
Even though it gave interesting ideas for the project to do the Hemment-assignment, we chose not to make any changes based on it.
Feedback from Lone and Johanne
Lone and Johanne visits LYNfabrikken during the project.
Brilliant – and ambitious – concept. The idea of two-fold surveillance is great. A good addition to artists working with ‘sousveillance’ (surveillance from below – google if you’d like to find out more). Also, it might be interesting to compare your project to Cardiff/Miller’s work I’m a Voyeur Baby, at Karriere Bar in Copenhagen. Here, the conversations from one specific table in the café are streamed on the bar’s website. So if people choose to sit here, they choose to be surveilled by the public.
A small correction re. the Goffman text. What Goffman asks is not whether it is legitimate to use involvement shields, but whether it is felt to be legitimate (or almost required even) to employ them. (and to not employ them).
Documentation
Carrying out the Project
The visual effect
Regarding thought's on space and the role it played in the difference between Ris Ras and LYNfabrikken, it was obvious that because Ris Ras physically was less spacious, the visitors also had less room to “play on” , and"play out" their visual, social interactions. It was also difficult for the visitors to hide or create involvement barriers or move away from the camera. They were forced to sit very close to the web-cam, which visually created a more intimate sphere, compared too LYNfabrikkens point of view. At LYNfabrikken the screen was placed in an area where there is a lot of design and craft ware which was a part of the interior exibition- and perhaps (it seemed as) the screen blended in with the rest of the interior, as if it was a product for sale. At Ris Ras the furniture is old and vintage-like and so placing an over-sized laptop with live recording seems more distinct than at LYNfabrikken.
Testing the equipment. Ulrik and Marion at Ris Ras, Amanda and Esther at LYNfabrikken.
We were developing the project alongside carrying-it-out and so we made a small “web-cam sign" on the computer, and the second day we experimented with the media by letting a small window at the left corner on the screen stay open so that people also could see themselves as they looked into the camera to interact or observe.
Day 1
The bartender at Ris Ras trying to communicate with people at LYNfabrikken.
The first day turned out to be the most active one. We were blessed with a curious and helpful bartender at Ris Ras, who did a lot of waving and acting in front of the camera without us intervening. During the day we got a lot of different reaction spanning from absolute ignorance to creative dancing, homemade sign-language and a catwalk in front of the camera. Some of the people at Lynfabrikken were actually discussing whether it was Drudenfuss or Ris Ras that was being shown on the screen, and some were just whispering to each other and didn't want to interfere with the camera. At Ris Ras, two guys saw one of their friends on the other side, and called him looking into the screen while talking.
A guy at LYNfabrikken, that noticed the bartender at Ris Ras and wanted to make a reply by dancing in front of the screen.
A guy at Ris Ras, a regular customer at the place, wanted to move the laptop so that he could have his coffee at his favorite spot. Even though the table on the other side of him was totally free, he seemed a bit displeased and so he just moved the laptop away. People around him was talking about the project, but he continued to ignore it completely.
Day 2
A guy that didn't mind, or maybe even liked, sitting in front of the camera.
This was a reasonably quiet day- although there where some smaller actions. A guy at LYNfabrikken was already sitting at the table where we rigged up the gear and put up the camera- and so he didn´t mind at all being filmed- in fact it seemed like he enjoyed it a bit. An elder man at Lynfabrikken took up the task of informing everybody that they were being filmed, also calling his friend from Berlin to show him what was going on at Lynfabrikken using his own web-cam on his computer. He was acting against how we at first wanted the project carried out, as being a merely anonymous project- but instead he added another layer this being his reaction to the project.
A guy telling a friend in New York about our project. He is trying to film and stream our project to New York with his own webcam.
Quotes from spectators
"So we can be two places at the same time?"
"Er det en optagelse…?"
"Det er sgu da ikke Drudenfuss det der, det er fucking Ris Ras"
"Du kan prøve at vinke til LynFabrikken."
"Er det rigtigt? Ej det tør jeg ikke."
"Ej, må man ryge derinde?"
"Så kan de se at vi står og ser åndssvage ud, he he."
"Meget interaktivt"
Project experiences- a critical perspective
A minor problem during the project, was that several costumers weren´t aware that they were being filmed- some even though they placed themselves right in front of the wide-screen. That made it difficult for us to sense whether they just didn’t care about being filmed, or if they actually didn’t know. At first we wanted to be anonymous, but during the day enacting with the screen created much more effect and reaction from the other visitors. Perhaps enlarging the camera effect by using real surveillance cameras, or creating more awareness about the project in total- would help to avoid the unawareness of being filmed.
The setting at Ris Ras created a problem about backlight into the camera. It was difficult to see face expressions and details when you were sitting at LYNfabrikken, and therefore difficult to recognize anyone it that would be the case. For next time, we should consider the location of the webcam so as to avoid this problem.
Thoughts for another iteration
If we were to carry the project any further, we would implement the project in several café's or public places, instead of just two. Perhaps adding invisible theatre or some other kind of live performance in front of the cameras might inspire people to interact more with the camera and the project. Adding sound to the live-streaming might create a more authentic version.
A theoretical addition to the project could be using the theories of Sassen and Marling, from class 10, where we talked about urban planning. Considering the urban planning of Aarhus, we could try and experiment with the already present conventions and expectations of certain urban spaces. Would it be possible to try and chance the public opinion on how public or non-public a place should be? How far can you take it before people get uncomfortable or offended. Interesting places to carry it out would be the public library where normally a “Silence” code is being carried out. Taking the surveillance and adding sound, would definitely disturb the codex of behavior in this particularly place.
Extending the project would also add some more human examples to our study of human behavior. As for now we have too little “evidence” collected to reflect thoroughly and scientifically about how people react to the project or even make general assumptions or theories about the outcome.
Wikipage links
Meeting notes - Notes from our meetings during the process of making the project.
Messenger communication during the project - The messenger conversations we had in the course of the project.
