Online Empathy

Online Empathy Remix from Thomas Zukowski on Vimeo.

In this video I juxtapose video/images indicative of the contemporary online cabinet of curiosities in which silly dances, drunk people, and celebrity rants fill our virtual shelves. And in continuation of my interest in the affects of such online technologies on human behavior, I again ask if this archival of memories on this scale through this technology makes us more empathetic or narcissistic.
As a result a juxtapose the visual zeitgeist with a lecture that discusses theories of an empathetic civilizations. In retrospect of the video where, "are we really an empathetic civilization?"

The Computer is Creative

Sometimes things considered erroneous or 'rubbish' actually produce the most amazing things. Like urban 'junk space' and its inspiration of skateboarding and parkour.

This image is of a computer glitch that happened while reading a pdf on my computer.

Obsessive-Compulsive

Obsessive-Compulsive from Thomas Zukowski on Vimeo.

A continuation of Me, Myself & I.

An experimental collage using Max/Msp/Jitter

Me, Myself & I (password: facs1939)

Assignment 2: Lab 4 Group 4 from FACS 1939 on Vimeo.

The multimedia performance piece of Me, Myself & I, stems from the overarching question of “why do we do what we do?” The piece is a collaborative attempt in exploring the human obsession with memory and the archival of memories. Hence, in attempt to answer the central conundrum of why humans are so obsessed with the archival of memory, the performance positions this question in the context of contemporary web culture, where millions upon millions have become active archivists, storing private memories in public spaces like video recordings on YouTube, photographs on Facebook, as well as diary entries on Twitter. In reference to these digital technologies, Me, Myself & I’s digital zeitgeist asks more directly whether these archival technologies make us more empathetic or increasingly narcissistic? All in aims to answer humanity’s true motivations for the persistent archival of memory throughout human history.

Me, Myself & I acts as a kind of cultural critique, passively suggesting an answer through a kind of montage of digital-social-zeitgeist-montage, highlighting the irony in the banality of the narcissistic cultural behavior. The extraction of the predominant ‘web user content’ points to the fundamental dreams and desires that underly the basis of much of humankind’s history. As a result, Me, Myself & I suggests that humanity’s compulsive-obsessive drive to archive its memories is not a contemporary phenomenon. It is not a result of technologies bending and manipulating humans to their will. It is a result of a simple desire that I believe existed embedded in the human race from the times of our ancestors, to the times of Caesar and Napoleon, and all the way to the present day. It is a dream not exclusive to those in positions of power. It is a dream shared by all classes and all races. It is a dream shared by both you and I.

“What I dream of is what all humans dream of, the dream of eternal life promised to us by our Gods. I want to live on like our memories of the Great Romans. I want my footprint to be immune to the high-tides of the sea. I dream of being relevant.’

Media Performance: Me, Myself & I

Assignment 2: Lab 4 Group 4 from FACS 1939 on Vimeo.

OH, THE SPECTACLE

Experimental Interactive web design

David Hoffos: Scenes from the House Dream @ MOCCA, Toronto

Scenes from the House by David Hoffos is a dose of nostalgia, bringing me back to my childhood, reminding me of a time when my classmates stood in awe with our imaginations in overdrive while looking into historical dioramas and miniature models on school field trips. David Hoffos creates a magical experience, transporting the audience to another place. What is truly going on throughout this installation is hard to define, but it’s ambiguity is what I feel makes it so interesting and engaging.

SPOILER ALERT
Like ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ Hoffos similarly throws the viewer through black curtains and immerses the viewer in complete darkness as they enter the installation, and arguably a different world. Suddenly, the viewer is cut off from the reality of Queen Street, and instead, with a heightened aural sensory, the ambiguous modulating sounds pull the viewer into what seems to be a dream. Once eye sight adjusts and pupils dilate, this sense of a dreamscape is heightened by ambivalent feelings towards the human ‘phantoms’ that loom in the corners of the space. Like facing the ‘unseen-monster’ in a dream, the realism of the projected ‘cofee-drinking phantom’ created a large degree of anxiety as my imagination soared. My heart raced wondering whether this phantom will pop out of the corner like something out of a haunted house. In addition to the ‘phantom’ illusions, the crown and jewel of the installation are to Hoffos’ 3D dioramas, which for me shape a sense of a particular place and time. Viewing these dioramas I felt God-like. A voyeur spying on the everyday life of a futuristic 1950’s suburbia. This ambiguity of an underlying narrative is what I feel makes this exhibit so successful as there is room for the viewer to get lost in their imagination as I did, subconsciously exploring scenarios.
But what I find just as exciting, if not more, was the methodology that Hoffos reveals by first including the viewer in an interactive diorama and then through a peep-hole into the heart of the exhibit where Hoffos complex and yet primitive use of technology becomes evident. Even though the technique is revealed, it isn’t entirely, allowing the viewer to once again let their imagination attempt to grasp a hold of something concrete in a space that is anything but.
Hoffos’ experimentation with alternative forms of interactive media in conjunction with the realm of fiction and dreams achieves something that is absent in glorified ‘cinema’ such as James Cameron’s 2009 “Avatar” and Christopher Nolan’s 2010 “Inception.” By no means am I attempting to undermine the potential of film as a medium, but rather what I am alluding to the success of Hoffos in captivating an audience through 3D without the big budget and fancy technology. Hoffos’ archaic technological experimentation in Scenes from the House Dream, 2010 highlights the potential for interactive media in creating a truly magical experience as it situates the viewer within the narrative creating a truly unique experience.

My experience included:
-feeling of God
-critical look at suburbia
-seeing the poetic tragedy in suburbia
-seeing the beauty in suburbia
-connection to Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” (music)
-ambivalence towards suburbia
-sense of isolation

Why do we love sports?

Why the hell do so many of us bother watching men kick a ball around or carry a funny shaped ball to another side of a large patch of grass? I mean it makes no rational sense at face value. It really sounds and looks quite childish. None-the-less, I for some reason am continually drawn to sports and will continue to take part in the spectacle for the rest of my life.

A while back a professor had mentioned sports in a conversation about capitalism. He pointed out that a reason billions of people flock to the television to catch a sporting event is in part because it is arguably the one thing that can not be sold and packaged in the midst of the current capitalist society. I mean sure God knows we try with all the sports team paraphernalia, and some may argue that it indeed allows for sports to be packaged and sold like everything else, but that isn't the main reason we're captivated by sports. That's just a peripheral of the spectacle.

My prof argued that the captivating moment in sports, like a tennis match or football game, is the fact that it has no predetermined outcome. It cannot be 'consumed' before or after the actual event. For example, people don't rush to the nearest blockbuster to pick up a copy of a football game that just happened in the same way many may rush to grab a copy of a new released movie and watch it over and over. In sports, once the game happens it looses its value. What draws us to sports is the fact that it immerses its audience and participants in the moment of 'now.' The LIVE aspect of sports is something that eludes capitalism.

These ideas lead me to believe that the reason sports captivates the world is because it allows our true human nature to surface. It sheds light on our primordial and ancestral act of surviving. An act which is rooted in the 'now' moment.

We are watching something that has not yet been determined. It shares a relationship with life, as sports too allows us to hope, fight, and cheer.

It allows us to step away temporarily from the capitalist system, a system the believes every aspect of life can be packaged and sold.

If you are one of the 10 in the world that don't like sports, and thinks its stupid or childish... well at least appreciate it for what it is, a cultural phenomenon that can not be packaged or sold like a movie, video game, or mobile phone.

Detroit Lives

Nothing makes me more excited than when things are happening. When out of death and decay comes life. That is exactly what seems to be going on in Detroit. What I love about this film is that it gives hope. One of the memorable lines in the movie is where a fella says that in an established city like New York City its hard to have a say, but in Detroit, people like 'starving artists' can really treat the city like a blank canvas and make it a more human place to live versus the post-industrial freeways that have divided and conquered the land.

for all parts visit http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit

The Empathic Civilisation