ARTIST STATEMENT

ARTIST STATEMENT

Interdisciplinary Sculpture 4 3345QCA

Contemporary Art Project

Working Title

Knowing

Augmented reality and the erosion of boundaries

Knowing considers the nature of augmented reality and its capacity to erode the limits of beurocratic process, conventions, physicallity, gender, geographic location, culture and language. This nature also allows for an exploration of transending the boundaries of the physical, digital and the spiritual, and focusing on the transendental concerns of the  human experience, transformation and divine guidance.
Beginning in twenty of the worlds leading gallerys (such as; The Louvre, Guggenheim,  Smithsonian and Tate Modern) participants are invited to engage with a mobile web-based application which employs emerging technologies such augmented reality, theta wave oscillation, relative geolocation placement and spacial audio.
  

Aim of the project

The intention of my practice in 2017 is to explore the capacity for New Media to express abstract concepts throught the cross polination of the physical, the digital and the spiritual.  Particular focus has been on browser based Augmented reality and Virtual Reality.
This exploration stems from an interest of where technology sits within the context of the traditional church, abrahamic religion and spirituality. Entering into a discussion regarding the dicotomy of the pricipal values of the church system and the nature of technology. 

The aim of this contemporary art project is to create a work that negates the  limits of beurocratic process, conventions, physicallity, gender, geographic location, culture and language. While creating the opportunity for the participant to be pushed beyond traditional interactions in the gallery environment. This has been achieved by using a modified google map interface, which contains user device translation and allow artworks to be placed and activated depending on their geolocation. 

Knowing is accessed via a geolocation augmented reality mobile phone application. The application is free and available from the website address and enables visitors to view and interact with the work.
The artwork has be realised by installing the artwork within major institutions around the world using geolocation placement. Initially particpants undertake a pilgramage to the geolocation sites, where the augmented reality experiences can be undertaken.

To achieve this use a geolocation AR interface allows users to find the nearest location of the artworks. With a distance to artwork included. While in this mode the user can choose which artwork/experience that they are journeying to. In essence the participant needs to undergo a pilgrimage.

 Once the initial site has been reached the map reveals the AR experience and participant are taken on a realitive gps guided walk. This augmented experience is guided along the path by an avatar,  and as checkpoints are reached, the visualisation shifts through chromatic hue, saturation and contrast dramatically altering the visual experience.. An audio element of osillating theta wave frequencies and spacial audio of glossolalia accompany the work and can be listened to through mobile devices and headphones.As the participant moves within the location of the app, the spacial audio component orientates to the paths origin. The fixed point audio is theta wave osilations; the spacial audio is tongues, as the participant turns their head the audios fixed point in space shifts from left to right. What the participant is hearing is an actual prayer. The theta waves portion is intended to induce deep meditation, which can be unsettling depending on the current frequency of the participants brain waves.   
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Theoretical Framework
What was the motivation for doing the work?

The testimony of personal journey is the core motivation for this work, and my practice. In 2005, I had neurological failure, which resulted in multiple organ failure. I spent several years in and out of hospital, my first marriage failed, my health continued to decline. I remember passing at one point at hospital.  For me, there was nothingness, I knew where I was, and I knew that the life I had led up till that point had led me there. By 2009 my health had declined sufficiently that the doctors stated "theres no easy way to say this... you have three years to live.... You will need to get your affairs sorted out". Then discharged me for the last time. That 'knowing', shifts your perspective and your priorities.
Ive since travelled australia, met the woman of my dreams, have children and an amazing group of people in my life.Ive also since given my life to god. 
I have always believed in god, tho I had never actively participated in a church or ritual. So i was water baptised. When I rose out of the water world with new perception, I could see differently, the sun had a shimmer to its reflection and time was dislocated, i felt an intense disconnection to the now. It is during this time that I also received the baptism of the holy spirit.  It was after this baptism that my life trully changed and can only be described as a rollercoaster. My arts practice instantly changed, my work taking on a deeper critical exploration. There is a yearning in the core of my being to express through the arts, the transendental. This is why I am now engaging with New Media technology.  It gives me the possibility to explore and share an experience, to blur the boundaries of the physical, digital and the spiritual. While actively negating traditional beurocratic process, conventions, physicallity, gender, geographic location, culture and language. And the capacity for new media to create objects and vast spaces that are invisible to the naked eye draws paralleles to faith (definition 'to be sure of things hoped for and certain of things we cannot see' Hebrews 11:1 ).
The more I engage with programming language, applying realworld physics and formula, creating artificial intelligence and spatial calculations the more I realise the truth that "Numbers are as close as we get to the handwriting of God". ( Dr. Hermann Gottlieb 2013)

What is the issue or concern addressed in the work?

The primary focus of Knowing is to raise questions regarding beurocratic process, conventions, geographic location and physicallity, while additionally exploring the spiritual journey or transformation. 

Augmented reality is a relatively new technology with companies such as facebook, google and apple competing to establish patients. Over the past decades our fascination of a future exploring the frontiers of space has shifted to the frontiers of the Internet and the legal system is rushing to catch up. In 2016 Pokemon Go took the world by storm, but it left in its wake an intriguing question the legal issues of augmented reality and geolocation technologies. Some of the issues raised were, trespassing, liability and virtual space ownership.

Does placing an AR object on a person’s property, without their permission, affect their interest in exclusive possession of property?
Does owning property in “the real world” extend property rights to any geo-locative, intellectual property elements that may be placed on it?
Is placing an AR object on a person’s private property, without their permission, a creation of an attractive nuisance?(Lee 2017)


 Cases claimed that the real property 'owner' is also the owner of the virtual space occupying the property, a claim that is still in contention and who is liable for the trespass, the paticipant or the creator of the work (Ungar 2016).
When engaging with Knowing users will need to consider these issues, which also directly related to a spiritual journey. Wisdom needs to be used. Its probably not wise to walk onto a busy road, or to enter private property uninvited. 

A secondary issue with engaging with technology is in regards to the underlying spiritual conceptual focus. Over 50% of the worlds population, an estimated 3.6 billion people identify as adherents of an Abrahamic religion (Hunter 2017), Yet the use of technology as a vehicle for exploring connection to the divine has yet to be critically explored. This has be a result of the dicotomy of the pricipal values of the church system and the nature of technology. This being that technology is the new tower of babel, the self focus and seclusionistic.
After all the purpose of the church is to worship God (Luke 4:8; John 4:23; Rev. 4:10), study the bible (2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Cor. 4:6), pray (Acts 2:42), love one another (John 13:35; Phil. 1:1-4), help each other (Gal. 6:2), partake of baptism and the Lord's supper (Luke 22:19-20), to learn how to live as godly people (Titus 2:11-12), and to be equipped to evangelize the world (Eph. 4:12; Matt. 28:18-20). The church's very existance requires an active community. 
Trinity (Tristan Griffin, semeter 1, 2017) engaged with Virtual reality as a medium. This technology privileges the first-person point of view , the user’s experience is intensely personal. “VR is very isolationist,You put it on and you forget your surroundings; you forget the people around you.” (Planck 2015)  The fear regarding very nature of the technology is that it may amplify current cultural emphasis on the individual. 
But AR's nature is dichotomous to VR and the position of the 'church' regarding technology. AR has made significant changes to the way that we communicate, create, and share through social media. From snapchat and instagram filters to face swapping and pokemon go. AR pushes users into social situations rather than focusing on the individual (Mediakix 2017).


Studio Methodology

For more information regarding the studio methodology of each aspect of the work click the following links below

The AR butterfly
Artwork front end - MAP
Walk recording software
Location of artwork placement

The process of creating a digital work is, in my experience, vastly different from creating work in other mediums. You need to have a complete vision of what you want to create. How it will look, how it will sound, how it will function. You need to have assets created in advance (tho these can be substituted at a later date). The code you intend on creating does not have a lot of room for play, every detail needs to be mapped out in advance. It either works, or it doesnt. A colon(:) or semicolon (;) could be the deciding factor in success of failure. For artists we are always chasing that image in our mind, to express it as perfectly as we can in the physical realm. And this ability to spacially map out in your mind what you to achieve, aids you in mapping out the structure of your digital artwork. This method of visualisation also draws strong parallels to engaging in prayer, requiring disengaging with your physical environment, and engaging with the unseen.


Research
An understanding of AR technology grew out of semester 1 artwork Trinity which engaged with Virtual reality as a medium. This technology privileges the first-person point of view , the user’s experience is intensely personal.  the use of technology as a vehicle for exploring connection to the divine has yet to be critically explored. This has be a result of the dicotomy of the pricipal values of the church system and the nature of technology. This being that technology is the new tower of babel, the self focus and seclusionistic.
 But AR's nature is dichotomous to VR and the position of the 'church' regarding technology. AR has made significant changes to the way that we communicate, create, and share through social media. From snapchat and instagram filters to face swapping and pokemon go. AR pushes users into social situations rather than focusing on the individual (Mediakix 2017). Instead of creating a seclusionist environment, AR instead suppliments the environment that the user is in and creating new ways in which they can engage with it.

The application of AR technology enables an exploration into the transendental, going from simply discussing what cannot be seen and allowing the visualisation. Bridging the gap between the physical, digital and spiritual. Admittedly Knowing is an initial offering into a potential for future research. 

The supplimentation of geolocation, relative location and auto traslation allows the artwork to be placed anywhere in the world, in this case in major galleries. This shifts the curatorial process away from the gallery and instead empowering the artist. Tho this does raise issues of virtual space ownership, which inturn breaks down the limitations of physicallity. Simply by having Knowing accessible from multiple locations simultaniously erodes the boundaires of geographic location, which often limits the viewablility of traditional art mediums and auto translation allows the same work to be viewed at all locations without modification or reinstallation eroding the boundary of language. The final boundary of culture is eroded with the simple application of the flying butterfly and visual filter shifts, the symbolism of the butterfly is diverse as is shifting 'perspective', the abstracted concept explored is subverted to allow the viewer to read depending on their cultural background.  


The research for project focused primarily on artists who engage with the internet as a medium. 
Eva and Franco Mattes explore the interplay between the global and the local, identity and ethical issues that arise through their works No fun  and their second life performance Reenactments:Impoderabilia. Through the nature of the internet as a medium "the beholder becomes an artist and the artist becomes a beholder: a powerless witness of what happens to his work" (Baumgartel 1999). For the Mattes these concepts of interactivity suggest that the virtual space is comparable to the localised space and visa versa as one decided what space to view and when. 
Deborah Kelly's work tank man tango: a tiananmen memorial (2009) mirrored the conceptual outcome of the Mattes's work. It was not simply art, an exhibit, but an interactive work that people all over the world learned to make their own, to share and perform collectively as protest, or as vigil, from instructions on youtube in english.
While Stelarc explores this interplay with issues of bodily boundaries, the obsolence of the body and the resulting identity issues. In fractal flesh the body is no longer bound and limited by its skin and nor is it limited to the local space that it occupies. The body, currently know as Stelarc ,due to the nature of prosthetic, muscle-stimulation and internet connectivity has been converted into an avatar for the multitude of manipulators (Stelarc 2012). 
Lastly Marina Abramovic's The Lovers performances is not only a symbol reflecting their time together but also the beginning of two new and different paths that they will follow separately and that find their analogy in the hike as a tabula rasa, an inner catharsis for new experiences. Which is a key parallel for the underlying concept of the 'walk' withing Knowing.

Conclusion
Two versions of this project have been developed, one for critique which has modified GPS coords to allow for testing in the university environment, the second for international distribution.
The final work was inline with the original set out outcomes. Knowing successfully navigates the limits of beurocratic process, conventions, physicallity, gender, geographic location, culture and language.
The scope of this project development far exceeded original estimation but many of the technical hurdles were overcome in a timely fashion. The intention during critique is to take the opportunity to test the software and resolve any unforseen issues before the graduation exhibition.
There are issues in this project regarding compatibility with apple mobile products as they have limited support for WebGL and rear camera access for browser based applications. 


Reference list

Baraibar, Aitor. 1999. “Stelarc's post-evolutionary performance art: Exposing collisions between the body and technology” Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory 11(1): 157-168. doi: 10.1080/074077099 08571320.

Hunter, Preston 2017.  "Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents". Adherents.com. Accessed  31 May 2017 url: https://www/Adherents.com

Poteet, Rev Mike 2016. "Christians and Virtual reality" UMC.org. Accessed  31 May 2017 URL: http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/blogs-commentaries/post/christians-and-virtual-reality

Plank, Mark 2015. "Oculus' next big move is to make VR a social experience" Engaget . Accessed 31 May 2017. URL:https://www.engadget.com/2015/05/25/oculus-social-experience/

Fampeople 2012. "Mark Rothko : biography" fampeople.com. Accessed 27 May 2017. URL:http://www.fampeople.com/cat-mark-rothko_5

 Miller, David Ian 2008. "LSD Helped Forge Alex Grey's Spiritual, Artistic and Love Lives". San Francisco Chronicle "Finding My Religion" series.

Ungar, Daniel 2016 "Pokemon GO went, but not its legal implications". Accessed September 25 URL:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pokemon-go-went-its-legal-implications-daniel-ungar

Lee, Keith 2017 "Is PokemonGo Illegal?" Accessed 25 september 2017 URL:http://associatesmind.com/2016/07/11/is-pokemongo-illegal/

Stelarc. 2012. "Fractal Flesh  — Alternate Anatomical Architectures Interview with Stelarc”. By Marco Donnarumma. Econtact , 15 September. http://econtact.ca/14_2/donnarumma_stelarc.html.