newmedia-janesun

[newmedia-janesun]

Ethnography Travelogue: Hip Hop Dance Community + Social Media

this post was originally created for my New Media Research Studio class, taken in Spring 2016 under the guidance of Professor Carlin Wing.

ENVIRONMENT/GROUP OF INTEREST:

Dancers in the New York hip hop community. The boundaries are not clearly defined, but we consider it to be people who attend regular classes/workshops in the New York metropolitan area, and/or members of various dance teams that exist throughout the 5 boroughs. After polling 19 members of dance community, I understand that the distinction between the “community” and the “industry” is much more fluid than I previously believed it to be; people are coming and going between the two categories very often. I took an emic approach to surveying the “Community” of dancers since I am currently on two different competing teams in New York. Participants in the Community are training without desire to monetize their dancing & often part of a competitive or exhibition dance team with other “Community” dancers. Industry dancers are those who seek to monetize their dancing through paid gigs, and they tend to train under a different subset of choreographers and instructors (for example, a majority of hip-hop teachers at Broadway Dance Center would be considered “industry” teachers due to their connections & influence in the New York dance scene. As a participant in the “Community,” I found it impossible to prevent my own experiences from coloring my opinions and research.

QUESTIONS:

How do we define the hip hop dance community: how my definition changed after reading others’ responses

Sharing information on classes & opportunities on Facebook (in particular)

Sharing choreography & competitions on YouTube

METHOD: 1. Observing behaviors & interactions on NYC Dance CommUNITY & NYC Dance Family Facebook groups (link here and here)

2. Survey posted to both groups (19 responses received), questions found here

Why am I asking these questions? Dancers engage with new media platforms in a pretty unique way—the production and dissemination of new art (choreography, freestyle, etc.) has been expedited and empowered by the sharing of online video. The way that dance companies & teams use Facebook to announce auditions or organize their team meetings is similar to other student groups or interest groups, but the hip-hop dance community occupies a unique space in its ability to transcend geography. I’m curious to reflect upon my own place in the dance community by asking others questions that I am seldom thinking about during my own time within the community.

BACKGROUND + HISTORY:

New media influences the dance community by growing exposure and allowing viewers and participants to share their work. Since the birth of YouTube, dancers have been posting their choreography and freestyles to YouTube or other video-sharing platforms, allowing for widespread dissemination without regard to geographic limitations. From my personal experience, YouTube kicked off my hip hop dance career because I watched Ellen Kim and Kyle Hanagami's choreography videos in early 2007. These videos were super cutting-edge in the day, even though they weren't professionally filmed and they were certainly not the level of production that we are accustomed to seeing today. The evolution of the hip-hop new media scene has been most drastic in the last five years. We can see the changes in media coverage from competitions in 2010 like Vibe and Body Rock, to the full-fledged production companies covering these same competitions today. The shift towards professionally-edited and produced videos has caused some conflict within the dance community; some people say that it causes the class environment to become more of a show-off contest than a learning experience because of the constant presence of the camera. In particular classes at Millenium Dance Complex in Los Angeles are covered by a variety of videographers and the backlash has been swift on Facebook. Prominent dancers such as Antoine Troupe or Brian Friedman have spoken their opinions on the current dance class environment in LA; most people agree that taking 10-15 minutes at the end of class to record a video is not detrimental, but it is very biased in favor of those already successful in the industry, because those are the people who will be featured front and center in a famous choreographer’s class video.

Facebook also allows a lot of varying opinions to be shared far and wide—there has been an age-old debate about "old school" vs. "new school" hip hop. Hip hop history begins in the 70s and 80s, with gangs wanting to make peace with each other, they invented these new dance forms like breaking, popping, and locking. They used these dance forms to settle conflict peacefully, and soon spawned hip-hop culture with a variety of disciplines like DJing, MCing and graffiti. Nowadays, hip hop dance choreography has been co-opted, or some may say appropriated, by the popular & dominant culture, without respect to the origins of the art form. Some of the forums (unfortunately, I couldn’t find a screenshot of this post) will have civilized discussion on how they can respect the origins of hip hop while still moving forward with the art form, whether through better teaching & training of fundamentals or respecting the predecessors who created foundational styles of breaking, popping, locking, etc. There will always be firm advocates for the traditions disliking those on the forefront, but from my personal experience I understand that I may never be able to truly understand the origins and necessity of hip hop, but I can certainly educate and appreciate the historical importance of hip hop and let that carry my art forward. New media (the internet, Facebook, Youtube) allows us to educate ourselves swiftly and easily, so I hope that the two worlds can be bridged.

SURVEY + ANALYSIS:

All my survey participants were members on one or more competitive teams in the community; some were directors of teams like Neighbors Dance Team or Synchronic Dance Team, others were members on multiple teams, but this was the common thread.

They all defined the NYC dance community as a supportive and inclusive place, especially in comparison to other dance forms (ballet is the one most often scrutinized & stereotyped as a highly competitive, breakneck place). One participant argued that there wasn’t really a demarcation between the hip hop community and other dance communities in New York—to quote from this person: “I like our community because it's a strange fusion of hip-hop, contemporary, ballet, modern, street jazz, and foundational styles. I like it because it doesn't TRY to put a name on the style of dance we do. It's more celebratory in the joy of movement, and sharing it with friends/teams. Everyone dances so differently, but we still come together to appreciate each other in a semi-structured workshop/competition/exhibition circuit.” Many people mentioned that the hip-hop dance community’s history was more recent and young; ballet & contemporary companies have much longer traditions and legacies that caused them to become establishments while this community is still developing its identity and its own traditions. There was also a common thread of community inclusion because there is no clear hierarchy of organization in the community; there are some teams that have placed more often at competitions than others, but these teams were subject to change every season and so there are no established “best companies” like there are with ballet or modern (American Ballet Theater, NYC Ballet, etc.). There’s a sense of open communication, especially via Facebook; this presents its own set of implications which I will address later.

Another common thread was competitions – the friendly nature of competitions that take place a few times per year for teams to showcase their hard work. There is a lot of emphasis on the group aspect of the community, whether it is promoting their class or bonding with other teams in the community; there are opportunities for community dancers to enter the industry by connecting with choreographers who work with both groups. The industry is very technique and “look” based—there is a certain body type and movement style expected by those in the industry, and it creates great pressures on the dancers who are trying to monetize their dancing, so the community is a place for many to be free of those pressures and explore their own movement styles.

The “glue” of the community was dance competitions and workshops, open classes for people of all levels to mingle with other members of the community and take classes from choreographers from a variety of teams. I take this information with a grain of salt because all respondents of my survey were active members of a dance team, making them already connected within the community because they have a “home base” from which they can explore. I think, from my own understanding, that it is very difficult to first enter the community without a little assistance from teammates, but once you’ve entered the community the connections and friendships are easily and quickly forged. These opportunities for networking allow everyone to familiarize with each other and everyone said that they felt they could make friends easily within the community because there was less “cliqueyness” than in the industry or other dance spaces.

Social Media + Dancers:

19/19 people on the survey indicated that they engaged with the community at classes, workshops, and competitions. 14/19 people said that they engaged with the community online via Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter. Facebook is the primary means of sharing—most people will share videos of their friends and fellow teammates or their team’s competition video. CAPTURING VIDEO IS IMPERATIVE TO THE COMMUNITY NOW—it has been since the advent of YouTube. There is a whole business being built around video recording and production for dancers in the community (see Community Artistry for some of the best work). Some people indicated that they were unsatisfied with video projects that had been overhyped or choreographers that were placed on a pedestal because they produced a couple “unique” works but their choreography was inconsistent. There are new trends that have spread quickly from coast to coast via YouTube (an example would be a choreographer by the name of Franklin Yu on ACA Hip Hop in Los Angeles, CA).

Some people were dissatisfied by videos made purely for likes or “hits,” placing too much emphasis on views with no regard to the quality of the dancing itself. From one participant: “A big negative these platforms have is that it makes the experience of dance seem very "bite-sized" people think that you just have to make cool moves and put them on Youtube to become famous, and forget that dance is about dancING and training your mind and body to be better.”

Others were dissatisfied by the necessity and expectation to be constantly available to members of their team, to be “constantly on” because their directors sent important information via Facebook almost daily.

Most people were glad that Facebook was a place for events like classes, workshops, and jam sessions to be shared widely with a larger audience. However, one important backlash in the NYC Dance Family Facebook page (see screenshot): There were too many people using the Facebook page just to plug their own classes without supporting others’ classes or participating in the dialogue of the community, and Hendrick Ramos (one notable member of the New York/New Jersey dance community and an admin of the page) created a post asking people how they could create more of “family vibe” within the page.

I often question the use of the word “family”—almost every team describes themselves as a family, with the long-standing team members being called “parents” or “grandparents” and the new members the “babies.” As a participant of this community, I would like to believe that the family aspect is indeed true—teammates are often closely bonded, each others’ best friends, and we fight and give each other honest feedback as well as support and love just like a family would. However, sometimes I feel this label is forced upon members of the community, when those who don’t wish to devote their entire social lives to a team, they will be left out of the “family” aspect and they feel a greater disconnect with their teammates simply because they prioritize other aspects of their life over the team. I’ve seen this phenomenon quite often during my directorship of Synchronic Dance Team, but I also received responses describing this disconnect from participants in the survey.

AFTERTHOUGHTS:

I wish I had more time to conduct thorough interviews with people who had been in this community for several years. I also wish I had asked more specific and thorough questions in my survey (in particular about the future of new media and dancers, as well as the way YouTube/Facebook has reshaped the competition scene). I really would have liked to redo the survey.

I’m glad I focused on the geography of New York’s community alone—the reach of new media is far too vast to do a successful coverage and ethnography of communities around the US (in particular in my home state of California + here in NY/NJ).

The forefront of new media & dance, I believe, is in immersive capture. Hip hop competitions are a wildly magical environment, full of energy and screams and enthusiasm, and I think it'd be incredible to see how immersive technologies like 360 video and virtual reality can capture the magic of that environment and bring the viewer right into the room. The media/production companies that currently exist (Vibrancy, Community Artistry, GN, etc.) are definitely raising the bar for video production and event coverage, often releasing competition videos in brilliant 4k and with a turnaround time of less than 48 hours. I think they're doing an amazing job of bringing the joy of dancing to the general public, allowing hip hop to reach audiences internationally, and I would like to see new media being utilized even more by hip hop dancers to further their craft and career. (I should mention that I didn’t ask any questions about the future of new media in the dance community; I wish that I had).

I can see the rift growing between those who dislike new media’s influence on the next generation of dancers, who might think that the quick path to success is a viral YouTube video with novel moves and no foundation, and those younger dancers who don’t train in the traditional studio setting in foundational styles like breaking, popping, locking, etc. How can we use new media to bridge this gap? There’s a way for the foundations to persist in the new generation of dancers, and a way to appreciate the deep and complex history of hip hop rather than appropriate it for commercialization.

Overall, I'm proud to be part of this community that brings so much joy to us all through dance. I enjoyed deeply exploring the implications and effects of social media on an environment that I interact with daily, as well as questioning my relationships and preconceived notions of the dance community that I previously had.

[newmedia-janesun]

Virtual Reality History & Interview with Ken Perlin, founder of the NYU Future Reality Lab

this post was originally created for my New Media Research Studio course taken Spring 2016 under the guidance of Professor Carlin Wing.

"Imagine 10 years ago trying to envision the way we use cellphones today. It’s impossible. That’s the promise VR has today. VR at its best shouldn’t replace real life, just modify it, giving us access to so much just out of reach physically, economically. If you can dream it, VR can make it." (Drummond et al.)

Such is the optimistic viewpoint of The Verge on the effect of virtual reality on our daily lives. Virtual reality is defined as the immersive, artificial environment that is created with software, experienced through sensory stimuli, primarily sight and sound, and allows users to determine outcomes using interaction (source: Merriam-Webster Online). We most commonly think of helmet-like headsets, popularized by Oculus Rift (left) and Sony's Playstation VR (formerly known as Morpheus) (right)

But VR technology has been decades in the making, with a long and storied history that has allowed us to experience the innovations being created and consumed today.

A Brief Timeline of the History of VR:

Late 1950s to early 1960s: Douglas Engelbart, US Naval radar technician, posits that computers can be used for digital display. As computers merged with graphics technology and the fears of nuclear attack mounted, many different sources worked on bridging the gap between computation and visual representation. Tom Furness works on the VR technology within the U.S. air force, later to become flight simulators. Radar defense system, data modeling, etc.

1962: Ivan Sutherland invented the “light pen” & Sketchpad software, creating a marketable software for computer graphics. This leads to the possibility of coding immersive visual environments.

1968: Sutherland creates a very basic “head-mounted display” (video below), famously known as "The Sword of Damocles;" the same year, Engelbart releases the first pointing device, or a mouse as we now call it at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in his presentation, known as "The Mother of All Demos." [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwZXGprxag&w=420&h=315]

1970s: Flight simulators become common practice in the U.S. military; Evans & Sutherland establish themselves at University of Utah to research computer graphics, animation & interactivity. The release of Star Wars IV: A New Hope in 1977 causes people to start noticing the potential of computer-generated graphics. The NASA Ames "Dataglove"

1980s: NASA Ames research group, under Scott Fisher, creates the dataglove, able to track motion of your fingers in a glove and link it to a music synthesizer. Nintendo becomes the biggest buyer of the dataglove technology to create Powerglove, which allowed interactive video gameplay.

1985: Jaron Lanier founds VPL Research, Inc. – one of the first pioneers for a native visual-programming language and commercial sales of VR goggles & gloves. Lanier is credited for popularizing the term “virtual reality.” Eventually, his company goes on to collaborate with NASA's Ames group, linking VPL's head-mounted goggles with the technology of the dataglove.

Limitations of the 1980s: Computer hardware at the time, simply did not have enough processing power necessary to create high-quality graphics at any speed. Since we’ve now entered an era where processing power has virtually zero limits, VR has taken off in the 21st century.

1990s: 1991-93: Virtuality Group created a line of VR-equipped arcade game machines with stereoscopic 3D visuals; head-mounted display visor had two displays (capable of 276×372 resolution) Cost of deployment is prohibitively high for regular consumers to adopt VR technology (not the case anymore!) causing the bubble to burst in the late 90’s to early 2000s. Most famously, Nintendo's epic flop attempt in 1995 at commercializing virtual-reality gameplay using a console called "Virtual Boy," convinced video game companies that virtual reality was a dead end. Boy, were they wrong...

2007-present: A critical turning point was the introduction of the smartphone; with the rollout of the first iPhone in 2007, VR suddenly had a new display medium that people used on the daily. This allowed for rapid prototyping of head-mounted displays such as Samsung's GearVR (developed in conjunction with Oculus) and easy consumer testing, since everyone already knew the operating systems of smartphones. At the moment, multiple companies are specializing in immersive virtual-reality-gaming experiences, with the frontrunners being Sony and Oculus (mentioned/pictured at top) and HTC's Valve Vive system (pictured below). These companies also make joysticks with motion-sensing technology to allow the user to use their limbs in the immersive environment--in the future, I suspect that they will use technologies like the Xbox Kinect or Playstation Move to allow user autonomy while still tracking motion. The largest hurdle is still the sheer processing burden of VR visual rendering on gaming consoles; adding motion-track to the mix will prove to be a challenge that will be solved in the near future.

Update 2/29: Sony just filed a patent on VR gloves indicating their heavy research into tactile experience; in particular, their patent states that the glove can sense "a flex of at least one finger portion...as well as contact sensors" allowing a user to have more articulate control.

In 2016, Oculus has already begun personal consumer preorders for the Oculus Rift gaming system, after its wild Kickstarter success in 2012. While many tech news outlets report hiccups and delays in the preorder release, Oculus' popularity from Palmer Luckey's basement pet project and ever-increasing pool of supporters and funders (such as Facebook's acquisition in 2014) are a very promising sign that virtual reality is the future.

Implications & Questions Arising from VR: I interviewed Ken Perlin on 2/18/16 with some questions about his involvement and research in virtual reality at Courant at NYU. 

Perlin has been hesitant to dive into virtual reality, with a background in computer graphics & animation, until he felt that display & computer graphics to get fast enough & small enough for the platform to reach multitudes (approx. September 2014)--now that we have an amazing graphics machine in every pocket via smartphones, we can start making VR/AR widespread. In the future, people will spend a lot of time in a "resynthesized" reality meshing what physically exists (chairs, tables) with things that can be modified by VR/AR (the color of the walls, the objects and people in the room). He also pitches the idea that we could all have VR contact lenses or eye implants, something that would be ubiquitous in a couple decades (Facebook is already exploring these avenues). I asked him if he felt that idea dystopian; he explains: "technology" is what comes after we were born, but what comes before us is normalized--we don't consider speaking to "John" on the phone as unusual, we just think/say "I spoke to John," even though we were really speaking to some electrical signals and not John himself. So this idea can be extended to a conversation with visual virtual reality representation of "John" in our room and we aren't speaking to "a representation of John," we are just "having a chat with John." Once our society normalizes this idea, we no longer worry about the dystopian aspect of it (like smartphones). He focuses his research & development on "shared social reality:" in his words, he says that "I'm interested in life, and life is other people." That last statement really impacted me. His games & VR environments often involve two people wearing restrictive helmets/headsets who cannot see each other, interacting in a virtual environment. How can our interactions with others be enriched by virtual reality? By breaking the geographic boundaries and allowing us to be "in the same room" with those we love? What about when a roomful of people are all experiencing something in VR but not interacting with each other in the moment? (See this creepy photo here)... What do we gain & lose when we promote, as Ken does, the idea that VR and AR are "bringing people together?" The notion that such a seemingly restrictive experience, where you are often in a helmet that limits your sight, can be considered a 'shared social experience' is still troublesome for me: the old traditions of interpersonal social interaction being something that takes place in person has been worn down for the past few decades since the advent of the telephone, but the changes in our social fabric and our ability to interact with each other seems to be deteriorating as we become more and more reliant on devices to keep us connected to those we care about while blocking out those we do not. My thoughts on imaging art & creation in the VR & 360 environments are better found on the 360 Collaborative Travelogue so I've focused more on the social implications in my reflection. I think VR is going to be a hot new "media trend" in the coming decade. Just the fact that Facebook has poured energy into Oculus, the rise of Unity gaming graphics & Steam has allowed more accessibility to VR games for those who own headsets, and Google created Cardboard as a low-cost entry into VR viewing have shown that the tech industry is very optimistic about the future of virtual reality. I think it's important to remember why we use these technologies, whether it is to stay connected with one another or stay engaged and participatory in the world at large or escape from the world into a fantasy game for a little bit. I'm looking forward to see what is coming, but I don't want to evangelize about it as a "game-changer" because we've had new technologies coming out constantly. VR is only at the infancy of its development and adoption, and I'm curious to see how it influences our lives as it matures.

Citations: Burke, Steve. "The History of Virtual Reality & The Future: Rift, Omni, STEM, CastAR | Gamers Nexus - Gaming PC Builds & Hardware Benchmarks."GamersNexus. GamersNexus, LLC, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Link.

 Drummond, Katie, Ellis Hamburger, Thomas Houston, Ted Irvine, Uy Tieu, Rebecca Lai, Dylan Lathrop, Christian Mazza, Casey Newton, Adi Robertson, Matthew Schnipper, Melissa Smith, Sam Thonis, and Michael Zelenko. "The Rise and Fall and Rise of Virtual Reality."The Verge. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Link.

"Keynote Remixed: What Happened to Virtual Reality." MxR Keynote Remixed What Happened to Virtual Reality Comments. USC Institute for Creative Technologies, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

Perlin, Ken. Personal interview. 26 Feb. 2016.

"VIRTUAL REALITY - History." VIRTUAL REALITY - History. University of Illinois NCSA & EVL, 1995. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Link.

[newmedia-janesun]

Process: I choreographed this with the help of my friend Neil in about 2 hours; we filmed a preliminary test-run/rehearsal footage using a Ricoh Theta camera lent to me by Tom Small. The RICOH system comes with its own free stitching software which is really convenient for quick editing and exporting. Then about a week and a half later, I filmed the final version at the Gallatin Dance Studio in about 2 hours using an iZugar rig with 2 GoPros modified to have a 190 degree fisheye lens on either side. I had to send the raw footage to Tom for stitching, and then the resulting stitched video was edited in Final Cut Pro X for color correction and audio overlay. The whole process, from choreography and idea conception to final release, took me 2 and a half weeks. 

I’m very grateful that Tom Small took an interest in my idea when I pitched it to him at the VR Film Festival and I do hope to work with him again in the future. My final thoughts—I’m waiting for 360 video technology to become more widespread, so that I won’t have to explain to people why it has to be viewed on your phone or tablet or within the YouTube/Facebook apps; it’s hard for people to engage with something that takes extra effort on their part. I’m also not 100% pleased with the way the video itself turned out, from the very obvious stitch lines (I won’t tell you where) to the color-cast issues on either side of the camera. The truth is, I was very disappointed when I initially released the final product. However, after seeing everyone’s genuinely excited and impressed reactions as I showed many of my friends, I became proud of it. Alas, I still live for others’ approval. I know this is just the beginning and I’m really excited to see where this technology goes next. 

P.S. I just wanted to say thank you to Cynthia, for introducing me to so many cool people and amazing new frontiers of technology this semester. I feel like I’ve opened a lot of exciting new doors for the future and that gives me so much hope as a college student who is very lost. 

[newmedia-janesun]

MUSEUM OF FOOD AND DRINK - Brooklyn 11.14

It’s a quick trip out to Brooklyn in a delightful neighborhood; I had a great time adventuring with my roommate. Props to the print design team that put together such a cohesive exhibit; I really appreciated the little details in typography and interior design that made this itty-bitty warehouse museum feel like a complete package. Highlights were the interactive stations where you could get tiny powder-sugar pills with real vanilla versus vanillin flavoring, or where you could press down multiple buttons to understand how smells are created using a variety of notes that chemistry can replicate and your brain can differentiate. (Might I suggest “smoky” and “alcohol” and “maple” to create a very pungent whisky scent?) I love that they kept it short, because the mini-exhibits aren’t at all overwhelming and I came away hoping for more from MOFAD and I’m really excited to see what they roll out next. I would particularly love an exploration of history & types of Chinese cuisine, because I’m tired of the Western world lumping all types of Chinese food into one category of ‘Chinese’ haha.

P.S. Best meal I had this semester would either be the pizza for two at Ribalta on 12th St. or the Chinese noodle soup with roasted duck legs at this tiny hole-in-the-wall beneath the Manhattan Bridge.

[newmedia-janesun]

YOUTUBE VISIT WITH TOM SMALL 11.13.15 (Class #12)

This visit took place at the YouTube Space NYC inside Chelsea Market on Friday, November 13th. Our tour guide/benefactor extraordinaire was Tom Small, head of New Technologies at Google/YouTube Space NYC. This day is significant for a number of reasons, most importantly we were visiting YouTube right around the time the Paris terror attacks occurred. Additionally, that was the first day that Facebook for iOS supported 360 video viewing, and I uploaded my 360 video that day to fantastic results since you can view it directly within the iPhone app. I’m really impressed with the layout and interior design of the YouTube Space NYC; as Tom explained the interiors are designed for multi-purpose filming; any meeting space can be used as a backdrop for someone’s videos in order to encourage content creators to film on their premises. In particular, the conference room that doubled as a boardroom/antique drawing room was really beautiful and clever in the different ways the furniture could be moved around to create pleasing sets. Oh, and I loved the diner of course—would’ve been nice if we got some fries and a shake with that too haha.

We got to play with a Facetime/Skype robot meant for face-to-face teleconferencing (slightly alarming, as it’s really just an iPad screen on some plastic PVC tubes and wheels), the Valve Vive room loaded up with plenty of games from Steam (which was my personal favorite), and we took a tour of the offices which all have names from the 70s (Ken Perlin explained this to me but I totally don’t remember what they’re named after anymore).  I’m eternally grateful to Tom for lending me the camera/rig and software assistance for my 360 video final project - more on that later (scroll up, my most recent blog post should be about the making of the project).

[newmedia-janesun]

INVISIBLE THREAD 12.6

This show was enjoyable; I won’t rave about it on the same level as An American in Paris only because I’m dissatisfied (a little) with the trope-y plot. Although **spoiler alert** I never would’ve guessed that the outcome with Jacob would be so dissatisfying, I enjoyed many aspects of this show. Again, big props to set design with the ladders and multi-tiered seating for the orchestra, the tangible dirt/sand on the floors, and phenomenal choreography with its African and hip-hop influences all played their part in making this a great production. THE SINGING WAS SO PHENOMENAL I definitely felt the air palpably change when the woman from the church choir sang; in that moment my eardrums felt pure bliss and the musician in me trembled with admiration. However, the dialogue is lackluster at best, although I did love the exchange between Jacob’s older sister and Griffin detailing her sacrifices to keep Jacob in Pastor Jim’s compound.

My biggest problem with this show is that it falls into all the traps of stereotypes—from “I’m going to Africa to find myself,” to “lonely white boy sings alone on the piano about his non-struggles,” to Griffin’s four ‘children with happy, promising futures’ as the ending, I just didn’t feel like this answered any questions for me. This was particularly apparent in the lyrics of songs between Ryan and Griffin, I just wasn’t as moved as I wanted to be. As someone who often asks, “What can I do to create lasting change in the world and benefit someone other than myself?” I feel like I watched someone make mistakes and foolish assumptions that I would be very prone to make, yet in the end Griffin and Ryan still got to pat themselves on the back for succeeding even though I feel like almost nothing was truly resolved.

[newmedia-janesun]

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS ON BROADWAY 11.7

I AM SO OBSESSED WITH THIS SHOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS ON POINT. First of all, Robbie Fairchild is a gorgeous human being, such an amazing dancer, and his voice isn’t shabby either. So jealous of his talent. More importantly, Leanne Cope as Lise Dassin was a flawless cast because she’s just the perfect delicate gamine and I envy her dancing ability endlessly as well. Her character was, although cliche, a strong female with wit and grace, given good dialogue (THANK GOD), and doesn’t let herself be walked all over the place by the 3 men who are enamored with her.  The acting was pretty solid, the book had a lot of great moments (although to be fair, a lot of the funnier one-liners were marred by the poor delivery or incoherent accents of the actors haha), but this show is all about the dancing. CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON IS A GOD. The dream sequence ballet was absolutely breathtaking (super props to the set & costume designer/demi-god Bob Crowley) as well as the first dance that Lise and Jerry share by the river…it’s all so poetic, so little dialogue is needed because Wheeldon has found such an incredible way to communicate the story through movement. The costume design, with its clever nods to Modern artists such as Mondrian, were a nice touch, and I definitely noticed the parallels between George Gershwin and Adam Hochberg, loved his dry & dreary humor. I’m in awe of so many moments, in particular the opening scenes that set the scene through large fabric runners with projection mapping and choreography only. There’s also a fantastic tap number replete with showgirls in leotards with feathery fans a la Chicago’s All He Cares About is Love with Max von Essen’s character Henri, and I just had such a fantastic time watching this show with my mom, who was visiting that weekend. Shows like this remind me why I enjoy the arts so much and why dancing is a passion that I’ve never given up.

[newmedia-janesun]

PICASSO SCULPTURE EXHIBIT @ MoMA 11.27

I always have a spectacular time at the MoMA. This time, they’ve brought together a diverse canon of Picasso’s sculpture work spanning 5 decades. My personal favorites were the sheet metal sculptures in the main foyer prior to entering the exhibit proper—several of them were reminiscent of his Cubist paintings, the distortion of face and eyes that make Picasso’s paintings so intriguing, the same quality is present in these 3-D transformations of those paintings. Additionally, (photo #2) the monochrome woman’s face in anger had a similar emotional expression and composition as Picasso’s painted Guernica. The other room that completely enthralled me was the room of sculptures that he created during World War II while in hiding from the Nazi advance in France. The room is dimly lit and painted in a bleak grey with stark lights casting dramatic shadows on sculptures that were made out of found materials (particularly interesting is a bull made out of a bicycle seat and some spare metal pipes [photo 12]). The atmosphere of sadness and depth in these wartime sculptures really hit me in my heart.

[newmedia-janesun]

PARIS TERROR ATTACKS 11/13/15 (Class #13)

warning: very long post ahead.

I found out about the terror attacks in Paris right as I was walking out of Chelsea Market finishing up our YouTube visit; I got a text from my family asking if anything seemed out of the ordinary in New York City since there had been heightened security. The hostage situation was still ongoing, and I immediately got in a cab to head to work at Kimmel. Sitting there behind the desk helplessly, reading minute-by-minute updates on BBC, I felt a multitude of emotions—I could not understand the actions behind these senseless killings, but I also felt uncomfortable that these attacks occurring an entire ocean away brought such a sense of anxiety here in New York and I was bitter, angry even, that I felt unsafe.

There’s a number of things that must be considered when talking about the Paris attacks — most importantly, the international backlash and heightening of combat against ISIS/Daesh. (From here going forward, I will be referring to them as Daesh). I don’t know a lot about foreign policy, but that week I did more reading and research than I have in the last 6 months combined.

The French barrage of bombing against their stronghold in Syria (Raqqa, I believe) were expected, and the city had been mostly evacuated and left in ruins. The collateral damage affected Syrian citizens who are already suffering in the most devastating conditions with total destruction of their infrastructure and basic human needs. No wonder these attacks increase those who convert, turn themselves over to Daesh’s ranks, believing that the Western world is indeed trying to sow a seed of hatred and intolerance towards all Muslims and therefore we must be exterminated.

I hate that the emotional backlash of fear and anti-Muslim sentiment was exactly what the organizer’s were going for—we, the collective public, played right into their hands. I understand that the fear is inevitable, felt around the world in many metropolises (particularly in Brussels, Belgium, where the hunt for the main organizer of the Paris attacks left the city in total lockdown for over 24 hours). But the outpouring of anti-Muslim bigotry, particularly heinous from the 2016 GOP Presidential candidates, is absolutely foolish and plays directly into the desires of Daesh to prove that the entire Western world is a conglomerate of Muslim-hating heathens. Honestly, I feel hopeless, I doubt that the inflammatory rhetoric will cease before the elections occur, but I can only pray that most people with any sense understand that Islam as a religion has nothing to do with the brand of extremism that Daesh promotes and practices.

(see also: backlash against Facebook’s “French flag” profile filter as a sign of ignorance towards the concurrent attacks in Beirut, as well as the Eurocentric lens through which media views terrorism. There’s such a lack of coverage about the true plight of war-torn Syrians who have lost all of their basic human dignities; people have the audacity to say that refugees are just looking to either cause trouble or snatch a government handout. Yet the moment someone blows himself up in a European city it’s worthy of 24/7 coverage, but the same occurrence in Iraq or Syria appears as a moving-text headline in small font on the nightly news. But this is not an op-ed or a political commentary; perhaps another day.)

On encryption and privacy vs. national security:

I’m not sure what my opinions are just yet. I do believe that Apple’s “unbreakable” encryption systems are foolish only because there are regular people who lock themselves out of their encrypted backups and then forget the password, thus rendering any backups useless in the first place. Whether or not the government should have access to this data… I can’t really decide because I simply do not understand the scope of their surveillance and the ways this data is being put to use. Am I scared of the American government spying on my every text and call? No, not really — my life should be of no interest to them; it would be a waste of time to pay someone to spy on me. However, do I think Homeland Security should have access to everyone’s phone/text/email records and ban the encryption apps that proliferate communication within Daesh? I think that it may be a reasonable move right now, but taken one step too far we will find ourselves in that dystopian 1984 that we’ve always been afraid of. Quite frankly, I think DoHS has a TON of internal issues they must work out to improve their efficacy and to do their jobs, that I’m not too worried about the implications of spying right now. They’d probably forget where they put our records anyway. (I couldn’t find the link to the most recent Congressional hearing that was featured on the news.)

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HISTORY OF THE WORD APP / Binge-Watch (Class #11)

The word ‘app’ is short for application, as in something that is APPLIED to an underlying software system (ex. the Facebook ‘app’ for the iOS software/operating system). Earliest known usage was in 1985 for an Apple computer. (Good work, Steve). Here’s what I gleaned from the article you sent us: 

MacApp was, according to Wikipedia at least, arguably the first object oriented application framework, first released in 1985.

Binge-watch, the Collins Word of the Year 2015. Derivation: The word ‘binge’ is of Eastern English origin, used to describe someone who consumes anything in excess. Nowadays used to describe an eating disorder in which a personal irrationally overeats to the point of sickness or vomiting, which is called purging. Of course, nowadays the term binge-watch is best used to describe someone who hasn’t changed out of their pajamas in a number of days due to the fact that *insert TV show name here* just released their nth season on Netflix and now is obligated to watch every single episode ever released consecutively. While I don’t quite understand the psychological motivations behind such behaviors seeing as I don’t really watch any TV at all, I totally understand the pleasure of Netflix when sick or or out from a wisdom tooth surgery...?

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HISTORY OF YOUTUBE (Class #11)

YouTube was founded on Valentine’s Day 2005 (Happy 10 Year Anniversary, YouTube!) by 3 ex-employees of PayPal who all look like nerds who don’t get enough sunlight (seriously, Google it. Their photos come up, 10 bucks to anyone who doesn’t laugh.) Their names are Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. However, they started YouTube in my hometown of San Mateo!!!!!! Above a pizza parlor and a Japanese restaurant which no longer exists. Ah, San Mateo. They got bought by Google for a whopping $1.65 billion in 2006 (one of Google’s biggest and best investments), and the rest is history! Although the monetization of ads was inevitable, I think I still support YouTube more than channel TV as a source of entertainment because it sustains people who feel more real & genuine, and content creators on YouTube (especially the Asian female beauty guru community) feel more relatable.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_YouTube

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MARKETING AND GRAPHIC DESIGN (Class #10)

Loved the projection-mapped tattoos. I wonder if, in the future, our VR ocular implants will allow us to view everyone’s tattoos as animated. (Once again, very reminiscent of the “Pretties” series by Scott Westerfeld which I have previously mentioned in a blog post below. They all have different tattoos that slither under the skin, if I recall correctly). I wonder how dystopian it would truly be to all have VR ocular implants though…our fragile hold on reality and the frailty of human perception have always been subject to movies and books about what “the truth” really is (i.e. The Matrix, etc). Add in “VR contact lenses” or ocular implants and you have a superb dystopian novel, or perhaps, our new reality.

I’m a huge fan of Chip Kidd’s work. I love his flamboyant way of speech and mannerisms, and I think it’s that quirkiness that gives him such creativity. The way he explains his book cover designs almost seems like his design is the most obvious solution, when I certainly know how difficult it is to come up with a satisfying design and how many hours can be wasted sitting in front of a blank illustrator document praying for inspiration to strike. Most recently, I bought the hardcover version of Haruki Murakami’s new book, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki, and the jacket/cover design was by Chip Kidd and it was FANTASTIC. It was so well-done, harmonious with the book and foreshadowed some of the most important themes just at a cursory glance, I’ve been in awe of his work ever since. Often times we take for granted what a difficult job designers have, coordinating the client’s ideas and themes in a way that will please the publisher/distributor, every boss on the way up, and still remain true to the artist’s heart.

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DRONES - CREATIVE AND DANGEROUS (Class #9)

I was really drawn in by the wearable selfie-drone… it’s essentially a wireless selfie stick haha. Rather than those perilous and irritating poles that plague every tourist site, we’d just have a little bit of an air traffic issue with the drones flying around a large crowd. I would love to be hired to be someone’s Instagram photographer haha, thought that was pretty comical (have you seen the parody of the instagram husband?). I remember one of the days I went to the Stanford museum, there was a posse of well-dressed girls standing around being photographed for their “instagram lookbook,” and I definitely judged them for showing up at a museum not to look at the art but to use it as a backdrop LOL. Already, people are paying a premium for their weddings to be filmed via drone; however there’s quite a large speed bump with this technology because the battery life of these video drones are incredibly short (about 20 mins. maximum) and a wedding ceremony or shoot can go on for more than an hour. With time, I’m sure that the hardware will live up to our needs, and everyone’s wedding will soon be recorded with a friendly, well-decorated drone who may wear a corsage, who knows?

Regarding the ethics of drones, especially drone warfare, there is so little that the public knows and so little available knowledge, that it feels almost impossible to pass a judgment on the military use of drones. Of course, I condemn any killing of innocent civilians and I most certainly don’t have an answer to the Middle Eastern conflict, but I think that in some ways unmanned drone warfare is inevitable since the soldiers are not directly in the line of fire. John Oliver’s clip was enlightening regarding the absolute dearth of intelligence & knowledge in the US Department of Defense… it almost feels like an extension of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 war satire, the way nobody knows exactly how many drones have been deployed. I just hope that drone attacks do not drive an increase in the number of young Middle Eastern men who enlist in Daesh/ISIS’ ranks, believing that the American mindset is senseless stealth-killings of innocent civilians who live with perpetual fear.

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Class #14

1. (photos 1&2) Favorite artworks from the 3rd floor, Jim Shaw’s dream sets. Filled the room with used sets from various theaters and productions, painted over them. Loved the angry pear whose face you couldn’t see if you took a cursory glance at the room because it was angled away from the elevator entrance.

2. 5th floor - Wynne Greenwood... a feminist performer, singer, actress, artist... I appreciate the ‘aesthetic value’ of the old school TV sets but I really didn’t vibe with this piece at all. It was okay.

3. (photos 4&5) A series of paintings that remind me very much of Dali-esque Surrealism (LOOK EVEN A MELTING CLOCK ON A BARE TREE BRANCH) - Again, Jim Bernard Shaw’s dream paintings. He is indeed a prolific painter and I thought that his best ideas were expressed in oil/acrylic.

4. I loved the painted-over New Yorker cover because I think it’s still characteristic and resonant of this day and age... the little kid taking a photo with the camera could very well be using a smartphone. I don’t know if the cracked glass is supposed to signify something against the institutionalized press or the boundary between artist and viewer???

5. Barbara Rossi painted these beautiful tiny dots, reminiscent of Seurat’s pointillism, on the backside of Plexiglass. I’m very fond of her color palette, and instead of Seurat’s idyllic seascapes, she creates these manic, grotesque, almost face-like forms using these dots. I’m a fan.

New museum 12.4.15

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Black Mirror - Be Right Back

I thought it was quite inhumane that she kept her artificial Ash alive in the attic for 10(?) years... for what reason? Would her daughter have preferred knowing that her real dad passed away and the artificial “Ash” was actually created from the public memories/postings of her real father, and would he be unable to have the emotional capability of loving the daughter since the real Ash never knew about Martha’s pregnancy? Anyway, I have so many questions. It’s an understandable and touching concept, the idea of being able to salvage our grief by creating an artificial avatar to stand in for the huge gaping hole of losing a loved one, especially so young. However, it’s a force to be reckoned with to make the overarching conclusion that someone’s Facebook is a whole representation of what he/she truly believed or how they behaved. I’m certain that if an avatar of myself were created using just my Facebook pictures and posts, its personality would not nearly be as complex or deep-thinking as who I truly am. 

I guess Black Mirror really hits the spot when it talks about utilizing new technologies that are already becoming prevalent (phone surveillance, VR/AR) suddenly exploding and morphing into a dystopian tool of control or life-alteration. In this case, the idea of an avatar with human physical characteristics and a falsified personality is just a little too far of a stretch in the imagination for me to feel a sense of imminent doom during this episode.

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Drones as Art...  (Posts A-D)

OK GO: I would much rather believe that OK GO didn’t use CGI to create this crazy music video and in fact it’s just some very well-disciplined Japanese dancers who are indeed coordinated enough to time their umbrella movements into this masterpiece... however, after the lie that was 10,000 iPhone dominoes, I guess everything good in this world is just CGI. *sigh* however, I did enjoy the song...

The Fallout (drone footage of Chernobyl): AMAZING. I think the artistry behind this was what initially drew me into the short film, the haunting music mixed with the ambiguous location... given no context I would still watch this, but after realizing that it was the ruins of the deserted town of Chernobyl it truly remained in my mind after the film ended. I enjoyed the visual delight of a drone weaving in and out of crumbling metal structures that were once inhabited by many people, some of whom met disastrous fates on April 26, 1986. Just thinking about the lives that were so abruptly halted, and how similar military drone strikes can permanently alter or end lives today, sends chills up my spine about how this film depicting the aftermath of nuclear disaster can actually resonate through its footage-capturing device.

Drone Orchestra: While we watched this video, I was just bummed out that the audience’s reaction was lukewarm after seeing all the work that went into the creation of the fun interactive drones that participated in the concert. I think it’d be funny and fun to be a “Drone Costume Designer” for these artistic drone displays. Interesting thought: in the future, ‘drone gallery assistants’ might have interesting and artistic costumes as they guide you through interactive exhibits... the wild future!

 Marshmallow Laser Feast ?!? ^^ see above, about ‘drone gallery assistants’ hovering around as you experience some art perhaps helping explain the art as you experience it (think a drone with an iPad and some GPS / eye-tracking software, in order to take note of where your eye is going). But the immersive experience that the artists at Marshmallow Laser Feast have created go far beyond just assisting you with the art, they are the art. I was really impressed by their ability to adapt their immense knowledge of lighting design and modeling technology to suit their gigs and artistic commissions. However, I liked Laser Forest the best because it allowed participants to walk within the “forest” and be bathed in an eerie green light. 

Lady Gaga’s Drone Dress: She’s Lady Gaga. If she wants to open a show by flying out in a quadcopter-powered dress, then she’s gonna do it. No stopping this Lady. Although I imagine it would be wildly unsafe and incredibly painful to get your hair caught in one of the rotors, god forbid. The only other question I have is whether or not they could simply put her in a bungee-jumping harness to allow her limbs free range of motion, using those “athletic” drones shown in the TED talk to calculate her shifts of weight in movement to allow her to dance while being suspended in midair by drones. Now that  would be freaking incredible.