"Flux"

The project I worked on the last 5 weeks of the minor.

Flux

What started as a research on the subject of identity, eventually became more about answering a very personal question: "Who am I (at this very moment)?" but also "What has formed my sense of I?"

Based on interviews I did with people (friends and other people I regularly interact with) and footage of myself, I eventually projected the footage onto a mirror + let the audience listen to the interviews. When seated, the viewer would see their own face in the mirror, with the faces of others layered on top of their own.

exhibited at Breda's central train station

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 excerpt from Flux (full version is around 4 minutes):

The reason I named this project Flux is because the conclusion I came to is that (my) identity is fluid. Quite obvious of course, but when I was younger I had a fixed idea of who I was, who I am, and who I would become.(or who people told I was, am, and should/will be. to be more precise.) But our (sense of) self constantly changes as we move on in life and meet new people, and that's what I wanted to convey to others (and to myself) with this project.
And through this project I finally accepted that as a natural part of life, instead of fighting it, I suppose. So it's been a valuable experience.

 more detailed description of the process:
http://suriyasiero.blogspot.nl/2017/02/flux-minor-project-periode-9-10.html

Week 11 & 12 - 360 Film / VR

So it's been a while since I wrote a blogpost.. mainly because after going to Gent, I've been working on my final project for this minor.
But I thought it might still be a good idea to share my experiences with viewing and creating 360 film.

Week 11 & 12 (14.11.16 - 25.11.16)

Workshop VR by Nienke & Frederik

For our last workshop (time has flown!!!!) I teamed up with Kevin, Edwin and Diana.

So all the previous workshops were about how to engage the audience in different ways. But in VR it's perhaps less about narrative, and more about (creating the illusion of) physically being somewhere.

After a short introduction on the possibilities of 360 Film/VR we were all given a Ricoh and were basically free to mess around, with VR. 

I have to say I was quite sceptical about 360 film at first. I'm not really attracted to recreating/imitating reality, and reproducing its (real) experience in a virtual(artificial) medium. Although I realize there's a lot of potential in this, (creating virtual training grounds for real life situations, transporting someone to another place, creating empathy by literally placing the viewer in someone else's shoes) it still doesn't look or feel right to me.(perhaps that's also because the technology isn't advanced enough yet, and the visuals are always slightly pixelated.. or perhaps I'm just not used to VR itself!)
But what does interest me, is creating an altogether new reality, in VR. Or the reality of the virtual itself?

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For most of my group it was our first time working with a 360 camera. So we just messed around and filmed random stuff.

After getting to know the Ricoh and filming these random tests (which weren't that great), we went to St Joost and experimented there with a few other things;  If the viewer is free to look wherever they want in VR, how can we still guide their gaze?
- With light and movement?:

We also wanted to make the viewer question reality (what is up? what is down? huuuhhhh?), aiming for something Escher-esque:

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As sceptical as I was about VR, it was actually a lot of fun to experiment with the camera and see our results. So we did even more experiments, like filming in a forest/in a lift/etcetera. As we all had our own thing we wanted to try out, we helped each other where needed:

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I personally wanted to create something non-sensical and slightly trippy (inspired by the Vaporwave aesthetic) in VR, so we used the greenscreen at St Joost and experimented with that. I didn't have much time to edit this but it was still a lot of fun, as the 360-film editing process was completely new to me.

A few things I learnt during this workshop:
- Treating the 360 camera as a person, and not a camera, can really make the viewer feel like they're physically there.(e.g. talking to it, looking at it, etcetera)
- Mise en scene in 360. Placing stuff in the setting, that can only be seen if you turn around, can create tension.
-Direct the viewer's gaze with movement, or light.

We also visited IDFA (in Amsterdam) to experience some VR projects. There were a lot of impressive pieces, but they didn't necessarily make me feel "immersed". For example, if the story didn't appeal to me, I lost my engagement pretty quickly.  I also found the film documentaries in VR a bit uncanny. But VR projects like "Notes on Blindness" really appealed to me, mainly because the audio (which told the story of an author going blind) really touched me, and the visuals accompanied the story well, and spoke to my imagination. In this case I did feel immersed. So I still stand by my opinion that the story is more important than the medium for immersion..

In short; I had a lot of fun experimenting with VR, but I don't think it's the ultimate go-to medium for creating immersive stories. It's useful, as it can make someone feel like they're physically there, but it's a lot harder to tell a story. You never have full control over where the audience looks, so it's easy to miss out on information.
Would I try VR again? I think I would as it's certainly got potential, but only if it was necessary for my story.

Week 9 & 10 - Hoax design

Week 9 & 10 ( 31.10.'16 - 11.11.'16)

After our Autumn break we rounded up our research for Sarah's little assignment (researching how immersed an audience becomes (on a scale of looking at, being there and being it) when we give them an active, and a passive role, for every medium. In my case the medium was poetry; some interesting results came from this.)
And we also finished Marcel and Wander's assignment where we had to try to invoke the feeling of submission in someone.

But after going to the Playgrounds festival (2.11) I felt rejuvenated and inspired again to tackle Marcel and Sarah's workshop; Hoax Design.

;

"How can you temporarily disrupt a functioning social, political or cultural system to create critical debate by designing a believable and (hoax) story ?"(like creating a glitch in reality! a temporary disruption.)

 

This workshop was basically about strategic & transmedia storytelling. Figuring out a strategy; connecting different mediums and platforms to spread a believable hoax/story that would engage people and spark a debate.

For this assignment I decided to team up with Quintus, Tijmen and Kevin as I thought that designing a big hoax (like the examples that were shown to us by Marcel & Sarah) on my own would be too big of a task, for a two-week workshop. 

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After brainstorming for a few days, thinking of subjects we wanted to spark a debate about, we decided to settle on "designer babies" (Babies that are the result of genetic screening or genetic modification -> to create desired traits in a child..) But later on we also incorporated "harvest babies/saviour siblings" (a child who is born to provide an organ or cell transplant to a sibling that is affected with a fatal disease) into our story.
So eventually we came up with this story; a Korean couple chose to create a genetically engineered saviour sibling, that would be brought to full term so its heart could be transplanted into their sick child, because he is in desperate need of a heart transplant. That would mean the designer baby would have to die though, so their firstborn child could continue to live.

But we didn't want to take a standpoint and present this story in a bad light. We thought it would be best to present it neutrally, so readers could form their own opinion. We created this story to introduce people to the concept of designer babies/saviour siblings/genetic modification and the technology behind it, and to let people know that these technologies soon won't be science fiction anymore, thanks to rapid developments in science.
So we wanted our hoax to spark the debate before the use of these technologies become more and more mainstream, so we can discuss how to use these technologies responsibly and ethically.

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After making up our story, we worked out our strategy;
To offer the neutral standpoint in this story (so people could form their own opinion), we created our first character; the Dutch medical student and researcher "Michael Leemans", who went to Korea and spoke to this couple. Michael documented the Korean couple's case in a blogpost:

https://michaelleemansblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/savior-siblings-taken-to-a-next-level-the-story-of-chae-won-and-jeong-ho/

We also made up the company "Demetra"; a Korean research institute, specialising in genetics. Their vision is to create a better world without a shortage of organ donors, because Demetra grows the organs themselves. But there is a dark twist to it, because they basically create babies whose organs are harvested. So our Korean couple went to this company, Demetra, to create their own baby that would be the perfect tissue match for their sick child, so he could get a new heart.

Demetra's infomercial:

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Conclusions

So after all our little bits of information (the blog, and the infomercial) were made, we started spreading them onto Christian forums, Science forums, and Reddit, to get reactions from opposing camps. Some people actually did give the reaction we were hoping for; namely that what Demetra does is murder and such. But because we made all the Demetra accounts/infomercial and Michael's blog like a few days before we started spreading them onto forums, some people literally called bullshit on us. They looked for Demetra via Google, but with no results. But even though people didn't believe our story anymore, we were still happy that they tried to delve deeper into our story, and look for more information. If we had more time during this workshop we would've made a website for Demetra and all that, and maybe share the information via accounts that actually have followers, because all the sockpuppet accounts we made had 0 followers/0 posts obviously... which is quite fishy. There's so many more steps we could've/would've taken if we were given more time. But it's also our own fault because we spent too much time doing research on the science/procedures behind designer babies/saviour siblings (and even then we had to invent technologies that don't actually exist, to support our story). Therefore we had less time to decide our strategy and make it a longlasting, believable hoax.

Nonetheless, this workshop was still a lot of fun. I found spreading pieces of a story via multiple platforms very interesting, as it's something I'd never done before. It sort of felt like creating a puzzle with many little pieces, left in different places, and letting the audience discover them and try to solve it. I definitely see the potential of transmedia storytelling. Normal stories are told via one medium, where all the information is usually given at once, but because of that your story is easier to forget as it's less engaging. So transmedia storytelling can be/is the opposite.

What is probably important for a good hoax:

- Be a good liar, by doing your research
- Anticipate the reactions of your audience
- Come up with a good strategy

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Week 7 (& 8) - The research begins...

Monday 10-10-16 

This week started with a seminar by Sarah: 
What happens when we turn a scenario into a set of instructions? 
She showed us a few examples, like "The girl chewing gum" (1976) by John Smith.
A TV Programme called "Thank god you're here".
A YouTuber who is searching for the "end" of the Minecraft world. (it's really fun to see people creating their own stories in these type of open world games.)
And a participatory performance by Studio Moniker; People were divided into groups and each group had to follow a different set of instructions, which resulted in some sort of choreography. Some in our class saw a narrative in this but I couldn't really find one, I was more focused on what kind of instructions they were given. Nonetheless the idea did spark my interest. Because people see narratives in things that actually don't have a narrative.

After Sarah's presentation we all formed groups based on mediums we wanted to work with. The mediums we could choose from were literature, theatre, games, conditional design, film&animation. We were going to research how immersed the audience becomes  (on a scale of looking at, being there and being it) when we give them an active, and a passive role, for every medium. The only conditions were that the story we use is based on a riddle, and has a dramatic structure, so we could effectively compare our results.

I decided to go with the Literature group. Because when I read, the words paint a picture in my head. And what's so beautiful is that I have all the freedom to imagine and visualize the story in whatever way I please. Like when a book describes a house, I always picture my own house and I can see myself being there, which makes me feel like I'm in the story. (But of course, that also depends on how good the story is.) But it is quite amazing that words can be so immersive, because they stimulate our imagination. Anyway, I formed a group with Rianne, Lois and Beatriz because we all wanted to use poetry, as it has the capacity to evoke images and convey feelings in a quicker way than a full story.

So we would test and evaluate how immersed our audience is when we let them read a poem on their own, or when we read it out loud to them (for example).
Actually, we haven't decided yet on what the "active" and "passive" role will entail.. To be continued....


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Tuesday 11-10-16

Today we had a really interesting lecture by artist Inge Riebeek, which Paul arranged for us.

She talked about some of the projects she and her husband have worked/are working on, but the one that really stood out was "The Essential"; A collection of videoportraits.
For this project, she asked people from all over the world what the most important/valuable thing in their lives is, and the reason why. Basically asking them about "the essence"of their lives. This could be lifechanging experiences, for example.
It was quite amazing...  I couldn't, or didn't, want to look away because the people in the videoportraits gave such personal answers, and they looked directly into the camera while doing so. I was really touched by this, some stories were incredibly raw but they were brave enough to share this, and I really admire it when people are honest and real, and show vulnerability. Personal stories with which I can empathize will always be immersive to me. Simply because it strikes a chord with me.
What also inspires me is the fact that the medium is really simple, it's just film. Something we are all familiar with... But the stories that were told were incredibly touching, so I forgot that I was looking at film, I did feel like they were actually talking to me at some point. Once the film was over, it was strange to "wake up", and return to the classroom.

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Friday 14-10-16 

Today we did another sense experiment with Marcel & Wander. The main question was "How do we induce emotions through sensorial input and experiences?" We have physical responses to emotions. Can we use the physical response as designers, and enhance it to recreate these emotions? There are multiple ways to affect someone's state of mind; like changing someone's body posture, changing their facial expressions, using touch to communicate, tensing muscles, changing the rhythm of breathing....just to recreate internal emotions. Super interesting stuff!
We were shown one example; the artist Susanne Hertrich -> "Prostheses for instincts". This project sort of augments our natural "instincts", like giving the body goosebumps, which in turn creates an uneasy feeling.

So then we all divided into groups, and each group got an emotion to work with.

My group (Rianne, Tijmen and I) got "SUBMISSION"...So what could we do to the body to evoke the feeling of submission? It was quite hard because submission is not really an emotion but more a state of mind. A mix between admiration and terror. Trust and fear. Acceptance and apprehension. 

Submission is accepting that someone/something has control over you. If you fight against this someone/something, you are not submissive. Only once you give up the fight, give up your control, and accept the situation you're in, do you become submissive.

So we tried to recreate this state of mind.

At first we did this by tying people up and blindfolding them. Turning them into human puppets, whose bodies we could control. (it was more or less like bondage..) We also tried evoking fear with a little drill, which made a really annoying sound, and we sort of threatened to touch their skin with it.

But we noticed that people automatically became sort of submissive, when they agreed to take part in our experiment. People were willing to "give up" their control for the sake of our experiment. So there was no struggle to begin with, not even while we tied them up.
So, then we stuck tape to people's faces which they would hopefully try to get off, but because they are bound they would not be able to do so,  so they would have to give up and submit to their situation. But this wasn't really effective either.
So for our homework we would have to look for more ways to evoke the feeling of submission, and then think of suitable contexts/stories for this emotion..


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Research

Wednesday 12-10-16

Today we started working on our own design model which we can use as a step-by-step plan during the final project of this minor.

Nienke first showed us her own strategy, a "design check", that she uses for Hackastory, which is mainly used for interactive projects.
 The design check consists of 4 parts. Feel, action, story, shape. The focus lies on "Feel", what are the users supposed to feel? The action, story and shape are the building blocks that support and add to the feeling that the project has to convey.
Feel: What do you want your users to FEEL?
Action: what do you want your users to DO?
Story: which POINT OF VIEW do you want your users to have?
Shape: Which MEDIUM do you want your users to use?

So we had to fill this design check in with a project we made before.
I used the project I made during the first workshop. My main problem with the design check is that I feel like it would actually inhibit my creative process, but I do think it is a good tool to reflect on your project, once it's finished. Maybe if feel, action, story and shape weren't in seperate boxes, and the questions were formulated differently, it wouldn't feel like a closed checklist?

So here is my "design model", which is more or less how I usually work during my process. It probably looks like a mess, but I get it.

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Then we had a research tutoring session with Nienke and Quirijn.

The initial questions I took with me to this session were:
- How do I create an immersive story/experience with the least amount of tools possible? Or the least amount of information?
- Can I create an immersive experience that lets the audience create their own narrative? leaves room open for interpretation? What kind of stories will emerge from this?
- How can I use my audience's imagination for an immersive project?
- How do I stimulate the audience's imagination?

“The storytelling mind is allergic to uncertainty, randomness, and coincidence. It is addicted to meaning. If the storytelling mind cannot find meaningful patterns in the world, it will try to impose them. In short, the storytelling mind is a factory that churns out true stories when it can, but will manufacture lies when it can’t.” ― Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human
While I don't entirely agree that we are "allergic" to uncertainty, randomness, and coincidence, I do know that we indeed try to impose meaning on almost everything, even the most abstract, nonsensical things, all thanks to the power of our imagination. And I find that really interesting. Can I do something with this fact?

So to me, one of the things that makes a project/story immersive, is when I get to use my own imagination, when some things are left to my imagination, when I can fill in the gaps... because it makes me stop and think. It makes me question things.  It simply engages me, mentally.

But.. my questions seem a bit vague to me at the moment. I have to do more research on the human imagination, so I can actually formulate better questions.


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Week 8 (17-10 / 21-10)

Week 8 wasn't that eventful, only a continuation of Sarah, Marcel and Wander's assignment, and our research for the final project.

Week 4 - Lectures & Workshops

Monday, 19-9-16

This week started with a lecture by Sarah about Situated Scenarios. Planning vs being in the moment.
The main question was; how can we design a scenario, we cannot control?  For example, if you make an animation, it is all planned beforehand; you make concept art, create a storyboard, and then you animate. But what if you create a story that can only take place in the moment? Like an immersive theatre experience, or a subtlemob? How do you plan that?

How do you design for an immersive story, that is happening in the moment itself? 
What parts do we control, and what do we let go?
Do we need new models for this kind of storytelling?

Sarah also talked about the traditional ways of writing scenarios, and how these ways might actually block us during our creative thinking. (like writing a script, creating a flow chart, storyboard or a mindmap)
 The way you write your scenario affects the outcome of your project. How can we visualize an idea, before we start overthinking it, and completely plan it out? What if you let the moment/actors/users/decide the outcome of your project/story?

The tools/mediums we use influence our work and its meaning. "The medium is the message." - Marshall McLuhan
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Situated design:- "planning in a design context doesn't just have to be a set of rules you follow, but more like a set of instructions to be adapted to the situation that presents itself."
- something that can deal with the situation at hand
- can we learn from traditional/alternative models? (Traditional models being a script & storyboard, flowchart or mindmap)

alternative models:

Conditional Design (manifest by Studio Moniker)
- creating design conditions based on a set of rules
- relies on input from the user
- Process is the product!!

Improv theater:
- happenings.
- Invisible theater:"Invisible theatre is a form of theatrical performance that is enacted in a place where people would not normally expect to see one (for example in the street or in a shopping centre) and often with the performers attempting to disguise the fact that it is a performance from those who observe and who may choose to participate in it, thus leading spectators to view it as a real, unstaged event." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_theater
(This really speaks to me. Seems like a great way to do social experiments...)
 - Flash- or subtlemobs

And Alternate Reality Games.
 
So, there are many different models/formats we can borrow from(and transcend) to design stories/projects. 

And then we played some games (like Weerwolven, DiXit, Storycubes, etcetera) that had immersive storytelling qualities. Trying to understand why and how it immerses you. If immersion is done well, critical thinking tends to shut off.

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After Sarah's lecture we had a workshop with Nienke and Quirijn. We all came up with research questions for this minor, based on these given subjects: Statement/Vision, Immersion, Technology/Medium, Story, and Methodology.
And we mapped out how we normally do research for projects. What's always important to me during my process is that I ask questions, experiment, reflect, and then ask more questions. Action and reaction.


It was also nice to see how others do research. I saw some elements that I could definitely incorporate into my process.


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Wednesday, 21-9-16

Today we had a lecture by Nienke on Worldbuilding; it basically means you create and develop the world, before you create the story. First you think about the culture, inhabitants, economy, politics, rules, etcetera of the world you want your story to take place in. That way, while you're creating your story, you have all these rules to keep in mind, and so the story will fit perfectly into the logic of this world.
I've never really tried worldbuilding before, so this was all new to me! But it makes sense.


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Friday, 23-9-16

This day was really, really interesting. Marcel and Wander first talked about their backgrounds, and projects they had worked on. And then they talked about sense of smell, and what you can do with it. For example, with smell we can change our perception of an environment, control crowds, trigger memories, manipulate emotions, etcetera.

It's just really fascinating how we can manipulate our brains, by playing with our senses.
So what really sparked my interest was when they started talking about "Synaptic Theatre" -> "developing new authentic & meaningful story experiences by manipulating/stimulating the limbic & neural system."
Basically, using the brain as a medium! This sounds really, really fascinating!! and it's something I would actually love to try out too!
There was also a demonstration of the "Emotiv" headgear, which can "read" your emotions.

Afterwards, we all had to smell 16 scents that were on a table. Some smells were extremely disgusting (like the scent of a sewer) and others were vaguely pleasant (like the smell of soap) But we had to pick the one scent that triggered the most memories. The scent I chose was called "explosion", and yes it smelled like explosion, but it also reminded me of the scent of smoked fish. I remember as a young child being in the woods, and eating smoked salmon, during a holiday.

So then I teamed up with other people who also chose "explosion". (Tijmen, Mattyn and Bert)
We all discussed what memories this scent triggered, and then we developed a story we could tell, using this scent.
We decided to simulate the experience of a campfire, that gets out of control and leads to a forest fire, which is later extinguished (by rain).
Because our audience was blindfolded we had to focus on other senses to convey our story now. So we used touch, sound, and smell (obviously).
Our experience went like this:
- audience is blindfolded, we lead them to their seats.
- they place their hands on a sauna belt, which slowly heats up.
- they hear the sound of a forest, but later you hear the sounds of a forest fire.
- we spread the "explosion" smell with a fan to blow it into the audience's face.
- while the fire sounds get more and more intense we flash lights infront of their eyes to simulate the flickering of fire.
- and then, all of a sudden, we turn the forest fire sounds off, immediately take their hands off the belt and spray water on them. "The fire is extinguished."

Feedback we got was that the way the audience "enters" the experience/story should also be properly directed. Because we hadn't planned beforehand how we would lead them to their seats, it took way too long and it was quite chaotic.

Anyway, telling a story like this was really really fun, and I would like to try it more often!


Afterwards, we had to write another story. We were only allowed to use audio(recorded voice), and the listener was blindfolded.  We were going to test if cooling and heating the body, according to the heatmaps below, affects the experience, immersion, and the emotions felt while listening to the story.
So for example, if we wanted our listener to feel angry during the story, we would apply heat to the upper body and fists.

First the listener listened to the story without us applying heat or cold. Then they listened for a second time while we applied heat & cold, to see how different the experiences would be.

I also listened to another group's story and I did indeed notice that the temperature changes affected my mood and how I felt during the story.



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All in all, a very interesting week! I discovered a lot of things that I can try out again in the future.

Week 3 - Story Spaces - Connection found.

" Everything is a medium."

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Monday 12-9

So it was time to test out my little prototype.
I let people sit down, and told them to look into the binoculars, to stare into each other's eyes (for around 10 minutes, or as long as they could last. :) ) Hoping they would start to feel a mental connection at some point.... I also let them listen to random white noise, so they wouldn't be distracted by other sounds around them. 

But this prototype really didn't produce the effect I was looking for. It didn't create that deep kind of connection which I wanted people to experience and feel.
The feedback I got from Frederik is mainly that you are expecting something to happen, but nothing actually happens, and that's frustrating.

Maybe because my prototype lacked context. It wasn't clear what these binoculars were supposed to do, or what the experience was supposed to do. What the "story" was. And the fact that the audio only consisted of noise didn't give a clue either.
Then, I decided to just tell people what is supposed to happen (namely that their brain activity would synchronize after a while, and they would go into a sort of trance if they stared long enough. http://www.iflscience.com/brain/you-can-alter-your-mind-staring-someones-eyes-10-minutes/page-2/ , ).... But I shouldn't have to explain beforehand. Good immersive design should be self explanatory. I shouldn't have to tell people what is supposed to happen. They have to experience it for themselves.

Other reactions I got, is that looking this closely into someone's eyes (through binoculars), actually makes you forget you're sitting in front of a person, because the rest of the face can't be seen. And you can't see the other person's body language either, so you don't know what the other is feeling/thinking. So it's actually less confrontational. And I noticed that too actually, because after testing my prototype with someone, I actually found talking about the experience, more confrontational than the experience itself. Looking into someone's eyes, sitting opposite of them and talking about what we had just experienced, created more of a connection between us, than my prototype did. Even though we were physically closer while testing the prototype.

My conclusion was that talking, sharing (thoughts, feelings) with another, is essential to feel connected to someone. Eye contact comes perhaps second. Kind of obvious, now that I think about it...

At the end of the day Frederik left us with these words:
- There should be a defined endpoint (I didn't have that yet)

- What is the goal I want to achieve? Communicate this.
- Direct the experience/story
- The faster you dare to sketch/prototype, the more you liberate yourself.

So after today I knew that I should somehow incorporate -talking- into my project, because eye contact simply wasn't enough. But how would I incorporate this?! .. What should I let people talk about?

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Tuesday 13-9

I told Marcel about the fact that my prototype actually didn't work, it was talking about the experience, that created more of a connection. So I felt lost, I didn't really know what to do anymore.

But he helped figure me out, and reminded me, of what exactly it was that I was hoping to achieve, with this project. What kind of feeling in the audience I was trying to elicit. Namely; the deepest kind of connection between two people; empathy; relating to; sharing; seeing (parts of) yourself in someone else. 

So in order to make people feel connected they had to share secrets, or personal stuff with each other. But how? Marcel came with the suggestion that maybe I should act as a character, who has a backstory and everything. I ask the audience personal questions, and hopefully they ask me things back in return, and through this ongoing conversation a connection will start to emerge.

While I found this idea really interesting and fun,  I later thought to myself that this wasn't right... I didn't want to come up with some story and act, because then the connection wouldn't be pure. It would be fabricated.

So now I felt stuck again.

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Wednesday 14-9

Still looking for a solution. Talking, talking, how will I incorporate this?!

I looked up some methods to create a mental connection. But then I thought to myself; I usually connect when I have a deep conversation with someone and really get to know them. A good, deep discussion can touch you, just like a good story or an artwork can. Talking with someone can be extremely immersive, if you connect. But making people talk to each other, just for my project, is kind of weird.

So then I had a new idea; I would ask people personal questions, and record their answers. Then I would look for similar answers in those recordings, pair those answers together, put them in 1 audiofile, and then let those people listen to each other's answers. As if they were talking to each other, or reading each other's minds.
And hopefully they will recognize parts of themselves in the other person, this way.

 The questions I decided to ask:
- What are your dreams?
- What have you been afraid of ever since you were a child?
- Do you feel lonely? Have you ever felt lonely? And how would you define loneliness?
- When do you feel like you have a connection with someone?

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Thursday 15-9

Nienke gave us a lecture on the medium film, and its development. And now that new mediums are starting to emerge, the way we tell stories has to change.

Some projects she showed us, that I found inspiring:
The Johnny Cash project

Fans could each draw 1 frame of the videoclip. It raises an interesting question: What if I extend my authorship to my audience?

Another work I really, really loved is a music video that Vincent Morrisset worked on. For Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains)
You have to dance in front of your webcam, if you want the music video to play. A dance activated video!! Really fun concept. 

And last but not least, Vincent Morisset's "Bla Bla" . an interactive film for computer.

Something that was also mentioned is that we need to think about how we want to bring our work out into the world. In what context, to whom, etcetera.
We as (art) students only learn the 3 stages of making work: development, production & post production. But we should also think about the steps that come after that, namely:
building a community/fanbase  // engagement design  // story world expansion // distribution /marketing // funding // collaboration // presentation (at festivals for example) // etcetera.

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So, after the lecture I interviewed some classmates, and I also answered the questions myself.

Later that evening I edited the audio. And now I just had to wait for tomorrow, to see if my newest idea would create that deep connection between people.

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Friday 16-9

Presentation day.

So it was time to test my idea.
No more binoculars.. People only had to look into each other's eyes and listen to each other's answers.

Two of my human guinea pigs, Annemaaike & Quintus, listening to each other's answers:

Because I also answerd my questions, I also paired myself up with a few people. And it felt really intimate, and confrontational. Hearing my own answers to such personal questions, and knowing that the other can hear them too.. it was kind of scary. But I also heard their answers, so it was also like I was inside their head. And because I had to look into the other's eyes the entire time, I felt very vulnerable too.. But, because we had similar answers, I recognized parts of myself in the other, so I did feel that connection that I was hoping to find. I also noticed that our blinking sometimes synchronized, and that's really creepy, but also really cool.

It was so beautiful to see other people "synchronizing" too. Really strange, but also really fascinating.  I was really amazed that this little experiment turned out so well. 

What I would do differently next time; create a much more intimate, comfortable setting. Because now bystanders could watch, but that was not my intention. This was really supposed to be a 1 on 1 experience.
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So how did I find this 2-week workshop? Well amazingly, because of the short amount of time we had, I dared to take steps faster, because I had less time to doubt myself.
And in the end I managed to achieve my goal. I'm very, very happy that I was able to touch others with my last experiment. And I was also really touched by everyone's answers, I recognized myself in a lot of people, and it reminded me that connecting with other people really isn't that hard, as long as you dare to open up.

I'm also happy that I managed to immerse people just with audio and prolonged eye contact. I want to continue creating immersive experiences with the least amount of tools as possible. 
I also want to play more with human psychology, get inside people's heads, and engage the deepest parts of our psyche. How, I have not decided or figured out yet.
I also didn't really create a story for this project, I merely generated an experience. Or perhaps the people's answers created the story. However, I actually like working like this, and want to do this more often, that way the audience can take what they want from the experience and create their own story.

Week 2 - Story Spaces kickoff

Monday 5-9-16
We kicked off the second week with an intense brainstorming session, for our personal story development. We had a few minutes to answer every question, and some of the questions were extremely personal, so I felt really confused and tired after answering them.

Some of the questions were:
- What are you perceiving? (Smell, touch, etcetera)
- What are you thinking?
- What are you feeling? (emotions)
- Think about your intimate circles, who do you see, what are they doing.
- Describe the conflicts within each of these intimate circles.
-Analyse/dissect the dynamics within these conflicts and map them.
-Take the story -> conceptualise ideas how you can tell the story with the audience in a "micro space" This can be anything, a performance, installation, on a screen, etcetera. It was for us to decide.

-Take the story, think of ideas how you can tell the story as:

• a physical experience
• collective media experience
• interactive experience
  
  
  I'm not going to talk about my answers in detail, but in the end, the essence of all that I wrote down is that I have a hard time connecting with people, on an emotional/mental level, because of (mental) walls that I have built up around me. I automatically shut down when someone/I gets too close. But when I do connect with someone, it is the most overwhelming, rewarding, sublime, and rare feeling I can experience. And to me that's very beautiful, but also extremely scary. Because most of the time we all have this mask we put on everyday, for society. So, really opening up to someone leaves you feeling vulnerable. The mask is dropped, the walls collapse and someone sees who you really are. Really scary stuff.
 

Then I felt stuck the entire day because I really didn't want to make my story so personal, and cheesy. But my mind was apparently really fixated on this idea because I couldn't think of anything else for tomorrow, so I just decided to go ahead with this idea. And being afraid of making my stories too personal, in fear of being judged, was a dragon of mine, so this would be a good chance to slay it. 
But it felt really unnatural.
At St. Joost, we normally have a few weeks to develop our concept/story, and to do research, and now we had to be ready in a few days??! That was really rough and left me with quite a headache... but it also felt good to be challenged like this.
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Tuesday 6-9-16

So I have to create an immersive story, in a micro-space.
My brain was so fried after the first day, I just didn't know what kind of story I wanted to tell anymore. But then I thought back to a quote I once read, and I can identify with:
“....it's the ability to elicit or facilitate these sensations and emotions that drive my work. We take a lot of our daily lives and experiences for granted, letting internal thoughts and concerns stop us from fully engaging with experiences as they happen. If my installations can undo our autopilot and create an experience to engage with, then that's one of my major motivations.”- Elisa Artesero (artist)

That's exactly what I want to do too as a storyteller.
So then I thought to myself, what kind of experience makes me feel engaged with the moment, undoes my autopilot? It's feeling connected to someone. So, back to my first idea after all.

I want my audience to experience that sublime feeling(beautiful but really overwhelming at the same time) I get when I feel connected to someone.. It's a spark that can suddenly happen, like during a deep conversation for example. Connecting with someone is hard though... It requires you to be vulnerable. And that's scary, painful but rewarding too.

So I won't really be telling a story, as a traditional 3 act. I want to generate an experience, that leaves an internal transformation in my audience.
But how am I going to give the audience such an experience??!

So I talked to some people about this, and their feedback helped me: 

Basically I was left with these questions:
How do I create a setting/context where people will start to feel connected to each other??
How do I create a sublime experience for the audience to engage with?? To get them out of their autopilots?

Those were difficult questions. So I looked for inspiration. I mainly looked for artworks/installations that give me that sublime feeling. and I sketched some ideas:

but I just didn't think these ideas would create the connection that I was looking for. I didn't want people to be focused on the space they're in, I wanted them to be focused on each other.

 So I did a bit of research on how to get people to really connect.

And well, it seems that eye contact, prolonged eye contact, helps people to synchronize brain activity, and therefore form a bond.

Here are some quotes that inspired me:
"So many of us have fears and insecurities that we would like to keep hidden from other people, and there’s something about eye contact that can feel like we’re totally exposed. Naked, even.”
"For many people, prolonged eye contact at any time can feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. But allowing it, rather than avoiding it, can also be very bonding.”" - http://jejoue.com/blog/the-eyes-have-it.html

"Prolonged eye contact synchronizes brain activity between two people, according to a new study at the National Institute of Physiological Science (NIPS). This synchronicity is crucial in establishing and facilitating our face-to-face social interactions."
"The findings indicate that mutual eye contact might be a crucial component for human face-to-face social interactions, given its potential to bind two individuals into a singular connected system. The researchers would like to conduct further investigation to truly understand what is at work behind interpersonal communications.
“Based on the enhancement of behavioral and neural synchronization during mutual gaze, we now know that shared attention is hard to establish without eye contact,” said Norihiro Sadato, senior author of the study." - http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/12/19/eye-contact-synchronizes-brain-activity-between-two-people/96480.html


Based on all those articles I read, I wondered what would happen if people could only see each other's eyes. How intimate and overwhelming would that be? Would people start to feel connected quicker, as they can't be distracted by other things around them? So I quickly sketched this idea of a "looking tunnel":

Literally creating tunnel vision.

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Wednesday 7-9-16

I was quite nervous when I thought of making an object. I'm someone who loves drawing, and I'm terrible at making 3D objects. But, this was another challenge I decided to face.

So I made a (really shabby) prototype, based on my ideas and feedback from others.

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Thursday 8-9-16

We had a very interesting talk about science fiction today.

Science fiction: How can sci-fi stretch our imagination on what's possible in the future?
 Science fiction is a way
- to study society
- to reflect on our world views, then and now
- to make our own future scenario 

The 3 themes we talked about were:

• Utopia & dystopia
• Reality or simulation?
• The next body; trans- and posthumanism.

I was super happy when we started talking about the last theme because it's something I'm really passionate about. My last project at St Joost was also about trans- and posthumanism and the future of our evolution. Transhumanism is already present in our society. We're already altering our bodies through, for example, plastic surgery, but also by implementing technology into our bodies, like pacemakers, bionic bodyparts, etcetera. And this will only go further. Our evolution is now literally in our own hands. Am I a transhumanist myself? Would I alter my body or upload my mind? To be honest, I would alter my body. I'm also really curious about mind uploading but I wouldn't be the first one to try this out, let's see how others find it first... But in the end,  if mind uploading really is made possible and more and more people start doing it, it will be hard not to give in to the peer pressure. People who don't upload their minds could become social outcasts. Mind uploading will be the end of us as humans, and the beginning of the posthuman.

Some interesting films that were mentioned were:
- Videodrome, by David Cronenberg
(interesting quote: "There is nothing real outside our perception of reality. If you can control your senses, you can control your "reality")
- They live, by John Carpenter
- Uncanny Valley (2015) by Federico Heller. (it basically shows how VR will destroy us. People becoming addicted to virtual reality, because it has more and better things to offer than our reality)

Science fiction raises so many interesting questions, so I felt really inspired after this talk. :)
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Anyway, after that I tried out the prototype I made yesterday, with some classmates.

After hearing about their experience and receiving feedback, I adapted the design. So instead of a box, some type of transparent binoculars seemed like a better idea. Because the box is too dark inside. I also have to make the experience even more intimate, because the box still creates a safe distance apparently. 

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Friday 9-9-16:
So I made a new prototype:

When looking through the binoculars I can still see to my sides though , so I need to create something like horseblinkers to really create that tunnel vision. It also has to be put on a sort of pole/tripod, that is adjustible in height, so people won't get distracted by holding the binoculars all the time.
And the installation should be in a light, serene, empty room, free from distractions.


After testing out my newest prototype, I think this would be the most ideal to make: 

 

 I just hope I can create that setting where people will feel vulnerable and uncomfortably intimate at first, but leave them feeling like they developed a bond, in the end.

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In short: this week really tired me out, because all of a sudden my working process had to be done in a few days instead of a few weeks. But it also felt good to work this hard, like an exercise for the brain to work quicker. 

Another thing that was important to me was what Frederik and Marcel said about seeing the potential of your ideas. At first, ideas may seem stupid or not worth it, but if you just go along with it, the idea can grow and bloom. You never know what it can turn into.