it all started CRITICAL REVIEW
it all started Carlos Romo Melgar MA GMD
It all started is a visual essay in response to Kenneth Goldsmith’s “Uncreative Writing”. The essay gathers stories about biunivocal relationships, questioning the idea of destination in an era saturated with authors, and the consequences of authorial decisions.
“Uncreative Writing� focuses on authorship and appropriation as main key terms. Along with other peripheral concepts; they have been visually analysed with the aim of defining areas for secondary research.
Intellectual Property Constellation
Object Constellation
The research faces the ideas of the author’s death (Barthes, 1967) and ubiquity (Basar et al, 2015), deriving into three fields of inquiry:
The duality author/reader from a prosumerist perspective, towards the definition of an adequate framework for a templated-mind audience (Siegel, 2006), leads to the idea of appropriation of websites as a language. Social authorship, as the critical repurpose of existing authorial materials (Metahaven, 2014), becomes a tool for sourcing visual elements. The interfered identity by the addition of meaning (Kruger, 1995), and the idea of the ‘first-person reality’ (Geffer, 2016), directs the overall tone of the essay.
Mapping the process strengthens the connections between sources and intentions
What is a framework for an interactive illusion?
The first visual experimentations portrayed the website as an environment where interaction happens (but where it can also be fictioned), and took into account web features such as customization or automation. The initial proposal made a parallel with the research findings. It appropriated websites, interfering its contents towards the deconstruction of author and reader. The development was mainly descriptive and lacked a strong content risking the engagement of the audience
Test 1 – Corporate Parody of LCC Website
Narrative Structure
The “I” portrayed a narcissist authorship, whereas the “You” invited the viewer to reflect on their role and existence
Other formats, that followed the same narrative, were a script-generated zine and a homothetic-readable publication. Both developed within the interaction-fiction realm.
Narrative Structure
Format testing
Homothetic Publication
how the proposed logical structure could be filled with content relevant to the research?
how can IRL experiences inform the research process?
It all started narrates power stakes in biunivocal relationships in different real life events, from the perspective of the “first-person reality” as the foundation of its critical position. Authorship is understood as a framework where “author/reader” decisions have consequences on the “reader/author” end. Personal events were shaped into four intriguing stories illustrated with appropriated materials and redundant popular culture memes, in a vibrant screen-exclusive visuality.
Alias (2008). Klute Black [Typeface] Klute is sourced from contradictory origins: Germanic blackletter and graffiti tagging. It gives an idea of the self-expression and individuality.
(2015) Balaclava Flag Gimp. [Frame from movie] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-GO6xfdduc (Accessed: 17/11/2016) [Edited]
Lee, S. (1989) Do the Right Thing [Frame from movie] [Edited]
Canal, M. (2016) Tino Sehgal. [Frame from movie] Available at: https://vimeo.com/188358755 (Accessed: 17/11/2016) [Edited]
Final proposal visual elements
(2014) Venus de Milo. Available at: http://broadacre.tumblr.com/ post/110154361221 (Accessed: 17/11/2016) [Edited]
Final proposal home URL: http://www.fake-it-till-you-become-it.club
Critique The project shows a critical position originated from personal stories taken to a common ground, using a relevant format for its purposes. It achieves audiovisual saturation, but the narrative is still visually complicated and, therefore, the UI should be improved. The lack of an explanatory screen weakens comprehension of the project. The aesthetic is powerful but requires a deeper visual research. In addition, some by-products of image processing should be taken into account in it, such as GIF noise or antialiasing. The images and content seem relevant to its context but should be clearly chosen for the project; a mapping of the actual state of the project might be helpful to understand gaps in the process. In conclusion, the project is showing a relevant connection between research and experimentation but should put means to fix the weak points that prevent a better engagement with its audience.
Research Bibliography Barthes, R. (1977). ‘The Death of the Author’ in Heath, S. (ed.) Image, Music, Text. London: Fontana Press, pp. 142-148 Basar, S., Coupland, D. y Obrist, H.-U. (2015) The age of earthquakes: A guide to the extreme present. London, United Kingdom: Penguin Books. Blas, Z. (2013). ‘Contra-Internet Aesthetics’ in Kholeif, O. (ed.) You are here: Art After the Internet. Manchester: Cornerhouse Publications, pp. 86-97 Bridle, J. (2011). Waving at the Machines [Transcription of lecture video]. Web Directions South 2011 Conference, 14 October. Available at: https://www.webdirections.org/resources/james-bridle-waving-at-the-machines/ (Accessed: 8/11/16) Bridle, J. (2013). ‘The New Aesthetic and its Politics’ in Kholeif, O. (ed.) You are here: Art After the Internet. Manchester: Cornerhouse Publications, pp. 20-27 Coupland, D. (2013) ‘Everybody on Earth Is Feeling the Exact Same Thing as You: Notes on Relationships in the Twenty-First Century’, 032c, Issue 24. pp. 42-44. Wurtz, B. (2016) History of Japan. Available at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o (Accessed: 8/11/16) Cuddy, A. (2012) Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are [Video Lecture]. TEDGlobal 2012, TED. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_ body_language_shapes_who_you_are (Checked: 9/11/16) Gefter, A. (2016). “The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality”. Quanta Magazine, 21 April. Available at: https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160421-the-evolutionary-argument-against-reality/ (Accessed: 8/11/16) July, M. and Fletcher, H. (2007) Learning to Love You More. Prestel Metahaven (2015) Black Transparency. The Right to Know in the Age of Mass Surveillance. Sternberg Press. Metahaven (2014) Can Jokes Bring Down Governments?: Memes, Design and Politics. Strelka Press. Siegel, D. (2006). ‘Designing Our Own Graves’, Design Observer, 27 June. Available at: http://designobserver.com/article.php?id=4307 (Accessed: 8/11/16)