Post-videos to London: curatorial project document

Clouds Express Delivery

- Exhibition info -

22th July, 2017

Title of exhibition: Post-videos to London Curator: Hubery Ko (huberyko@gmail.com)

goo.gl/ktsPQX

Proposed location: Online exhibition and Soho London Exhibition dates: Online Exhibition: start on 15th July Busking Performance on 22nd July Scale of exhibition: - Online Exhibition - Busking Performance at Soho (Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus) *Also use the livestream to synchronize the process of the performance on Facebook.

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- Project Concept -

- Credits -

‘Post-videos to London’ is a mobile projection programme using short video art as the postcards, sharing their perspectives on Soho London streets. This project would like to show how videos can lead people to communicate with each other, using them to create the dialogues for discussion, and how to receive more information on the artwork as well as the artists by networking on social media.

All the context by Hubery Ko

Thanks to the technological development and the popularity of smart phones, we can use videos to record the content to share and communicate with people from all over the world. These videos become one of the ways to instantly deliver our messages to others vaguely instead of the text. In order to celebrate the convenience of using videos, this program took Online Exhibition and Busking (street performance) as its exhibition platforms, showing how it gathers the video artwork and shares them in the real world by projecting on the street. Also, it demonstrates how it shares the process in virtual world by live-streaming to engage with the audience who are not at the venue.

/// Busking in Soho /// Busking Performer: Alfie Dwyer Live stream Camera man and Anchor: Kiki Huang Documentary Videographer: Chao Lu Volunteer: Annie Huang, Clara Tsai, Haillie Cheng, Victoria Chang.

Clouds Express Delivery ‘Clouds Express Delivery’ is a curatorial group which dedicates itself to trying different formats making the artwork available to the public. With technological advancement, we want to use the tools which can contain the objects and the information broadly, as well as making the audience involved with the artworks; experiencing not only through the Internet but also at the live venue. This provides a different viewing experience to promote our program. /// Social media sites /// Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/CloudsExpressDelivery Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cloudsexpressdelivery/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CloudsExpressD Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/cloudsexpressdelivery

/// Online Exhibition /// Layout Design, Graphic Design: Hubery Ko

Special Thanks: The program is inspired by the artist Chun-Yu Chen.

This project cannot complete without the help by Yun-Ling Chen, Shu-Yuan Fang, Liz Huang, Jana Scholze, and Donna Loveday.

The last but not the least, thanks to all the artists who have the willingness to join this show! *This publication is taken from the dissertation ‘Post-videos to London - a mobile projection programme demonstrating Video Art works in Public Sphere between the street and the Internet’ by Hubery Ko.

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WHY DEMONSTRATE ARTWORKS ON THE STREET AND THE INTERNET? Posting own opinions in public sphere

Nowadays, the platforms of a curatorial project are not only at indoor venues, but also at different platforms such as streets or websites to engage with different audiences. Curatorial projects could be in many formats, from the exhibitions to the public programmes; its contents could be many themes, from arts to the dinner.

(Online Depot, 2017) Therefore, there are many possibilities for curation, where venues seem to be flexible for holding the curatorial project.

For museums and the galleries, they attempt to gain more attention by holding the exhibitions and the events, and using the social media to promote their programmes for those who might have an interest in the topics. These processes have one final purpose, they are as the branding tools for the institutes, telling the public what they do and demonstrating their goals. (Wallace, 2006) In addition, programming the exhibitions and events is important for the museums, whether large or small, it is the way to meet the expectations from internal members and external associations. This could focus on what events are currently happening, from the local to the whole world in order to seduce new audiences and build up the relationship with other organisations and communities. (Clader, 2008) Hence, if the curatorial project could be held at different platforms to demonstrate the same contents, it might be possible to approach more audiences without the single venue limitation for promoting the project itself and the institute broadly.

‘Post-videos to London’ is a video programme taking street performance and online exhibition as the formats to show video artworks that engages with the public. In April 2017, the artist Chun-Yu Chen requested a curatorial project that uses video artworks projected on the streets by a performer with a mobile projector. There are some reasons to why he wanted to do it in this format as an exhibition. One of the reasons, was due to the limited budget, where it is difficult to build up or join the exhibition to museums or galleries. On the other hand, he wants this exhibition to include other artists’ works to see more possibilities in this format. In order to make this programme without these limitations and seeing different perspectives, there are some problems that need to be considered. Due to the

venues being the streets, without the stable condition for interpreting the programme, as well as including many artworks from different artists, it is difficult to explain the details clearly. Besides, without any resources and budget, it is difficult to commission or request the artworks from artists. After arranging these reasons and the format for forming the concept, there are some elements which provide the opportunities for doing this project: mobile devices and the Internet. With technology development, our communicative ways instantly transform into multiple media, people can contact one another without the limitation of place and time. Mobile devices use the Internet as a communicative tool to help people deliver messages that contain the information. Therefore, this project takes the online exhibition as another platform, which can contain full information and video artwork, as well as using the social media sites to promote itself for appealing the artists and others who are interested in the topic.

Public sphere has many discussions. In general, public sphere is a way for people to explore the social world in living space; helping people engage with the communities by being public with others. It can correspond to the private sphere which is individual, the public space is one of the tools for public sphere embodying its value. (Barrett, 2012) When people get together to review the aims, they might discuss something they are interested in and have some interaction for exchanging their opinions. Here is another definition of public sphere by Jurgen Habermas (1987), an important philosopher in this area, “the institutional core of the public sphere comprises communicative network amplified by a cultural complex, a press and, later mass media; they make it possible for a public or art-enjoying private persons to participate in the reproduction of culture, and for a public of citizens of the state to participate in the social integration mediated by public opinion.” Therefore, communication is one important element in this process. Furthermore, public sphere also means an ideal concept for discussing rationally, critically, and equally in society however, with different knowledge background and

social classes, the decision in many aspects is usually made by certain people.

(McGuigan, 2003) When comparing the museums or galleries as well as the public spaces, the streets and the Internet have more freedom to publish one’s own opinions. Street art usually has some colours of political criticism. The artists show their artwork as opinions in front of the public to express their perspective. (Cartiere and Zebracki, 2015) On the other hand, social media has many dialogues on posts from individuals and organisations. Through this communication process, especially for some commercial institutes, it helps them build up the brand community for people following their news through their accounts. (Schöller and Fröhlich, 2016) Therefore, this project attempts to combine both platforms’ properties to create the communities which are either temporary or permanent by busking (street performance) and social media sites in public sphere, showing the relevant information to provide the audience to explore by themselves. _

NOTE Barrett, J. (2012). Museums and the public sphere. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Cartiere, C. and Zebracki, M. (2015). The everyday practice of public art. New York: Routledge.

Clader P. R. (2008). ‘Get your programming right’, Museum Practice, Issue 43, p. 50 - 52.

Habermas, J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume Two - The Critique of Functionalist Reason, Cambridge: Polity. pp. 319.

McGuigan, J. (2003). Culture & the Public Sphere. London: Routledge.

Online Depot (2017). ALL FORMATS – ONLINE DEPOT. [ONLINE] Available at: http://onlinedepot.ch/all-formats/.

[Accessed 10 August 2017].

Schöller, C. and Fröhlich, R. (2016). Brand communities in social media - strategic approaches in corporate communication. In: Tindall, N. and Hutchins, A., ed., Public relations and participatory culture. 1st ed.* New York: Routledge.

Chapter 8.

Wallace, M. A. (2006). Museum Branding. Lanham et al.

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WHEN ART IS HAPPENING ON THE STREETS...

The history of busking in London

On the streets, there have been many art forms such as graffiti, performances, or installations. Some of them impress people, but some give many arguments for their appropriateness. Street Art, also called Guerrilla Art, are spread around the corner of the streets by anonymous artists. (Ross and Kramer, 2016) Guerrilla art, according to the Oxford Dictionaries (2017), means “Unconventional art created (often anonymously) in public spaces, usually conveying a social or political message; street art.” Also, Guerrilla art refers to graffiti art, although some deem it not art, others think it is an art form that reflects the political comments of the public. (O’Neill, 2007) Therefore, it seems that street art prefers itself to be done secretly without notification, it might also be involved in the problems of using venues for permission.

Comparing the visibility of the artists, street performance could be the most directly way for people to interact with the artists; seducing the audience to expect further steps by sounds or movement.

Busking, which is a term for street performance, predominantly means playing music on the streets or the underground. Most buskers (performers) expect people give them some tips, some of them also sell their music albums during the process. (LaBelle, 2010) In every culture, busking has provided the art form for people to demonstrate their talents in front of the public. (Martin, 2013) Besides playing music, there are still other busking performances such as juggling, face painting, and being the living statue. (The Busking Project, 2017) Though one of the serious problems for busking is its ‘noise’ , some landlords or neighbourhoods might argue this issue, to ban busking. (Busk in London, 2017) However, busking is a legal activity, although some cities or towns might ask for the licence busking for some areas. (Singleton, 2005) Furthermore, busking could allow the streets as public sphere, the buskers in the centre of the audience, building up a temporary community for people watching and discussing during the process. (Du Toit, Chambers and Edelman, 2013) It could be said that busking is the street art format which is more acceptable by the public through its interaction and having the code to follow nowadays.

Due to ‘Post-videos to London’, various artists who own the video artwork, propose to show their details in respect rather than being anonymous. Unlike graffiti, the projection of this project is movable and can easily change its position. It seems it is like the guerrilla format but more similar to busking which might need to engage with the audience, in order to show the format as same as the exhibition programming. Therefore, ‘Post-videos to London’ chooses busking as its format for interpreting the artworks, which is better than merely projecting multiple video artwork on the surfaces of streets. In addition, it aims to accentuate the objects on the streets. With many unexpected people passing by, it could be said that it also might be a way to promote this curatorial project with those unknown audiences who might have an interest in Video Art by busking format.

• History of Busking Performance in London London city itself is deemed to be the biggest art gallery in the world. As one of the most influential cities in guerrilla art, London has its own abundant culture of street art, with some artists such as the well-famous graffitist, Banksy. (Marić, 2014) On the other hand, London has many busking performances happening at various spots from the underground to the streets, where most of them are welcomed by the public. The types of the busking are diverse, the main form is playing music, others include juggling, dancing, living statues, or even drawing on the floors and blowing the big bubbles by the winds. This shows the freedom of busking in London. Therefore, choosing London as the area to do busking would be suitable for the platforms of demonstrating the artworks on the streets for this project. In order to clarify the evolution of busking in the urban environment, the following paragraphs will start to explore the history from the Industrial Revolution in London.

The Industrial Revolution, was a period of great prosperity during the Victorian period (1837 - 1901). Caused by urbanisation in London, the living spaces became crowded to contain many more labourers, which increased the pollution, the noise, the illness and decreased the comfort of living conditions. Though it did not make the social class flowing significantly in the previous period, eighty percent of London’s population are from working class. However, still brought much wealth for the society, the middle class appeared to show a new lifestyle. (Lloyd-Jones and Lewis, 2014) Besides, home had turned into the safest place to escape from the messy workplace, and families provided the function to support the individual emotion. (Cleary, 2013) Therefore, with the limited spaces and the diverse noise, there were many debates of ‘street music problem’ by different fields of professionals and individuals in the mid-nineteenth Century. (Simpson, 2015) There was a legislation, the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839, allowing landlords to ask busking performers to leave when they were being disturbed by ‘the noise’, it stimulated many debates between the professional class and the street musicians, and this case reveals that street noise can be avoided by those who can afford it nowadays.

(LaBelle, 2010) However, since the Medieval times, street music had already been playing in London. It had the value of cheering and entertainment for the poorer classes (Etheridge, 2016) In other words, busking has the potential to provide the art form which is welcome all classes to break the boundaries of approaching arts.

Due to the legislation, the London Underground became the new playground for buskers, it allowing them to have another platform to get attention whilst being protected from the changeable weather.

Unfortunately, the professional class who were the biggest group being served in the tube often confused the identity between buskers and beggars; seeing busking an annoying behaviour to disturb them, therefore gathering the arguments to ban the busking. (LaBelle, 2010) It seems that it did not make the balance between the freedom of busking and the comfort of living spaces at that moment, without the supports by the authorities and the public, the buskers found it difficult to survive on the streets.

Clouds Express Delivery Luckily, in the 1960s, due to people embracing folk music, some musicians and artists began performing on the streets to wake up this dying tradition. (LaBelle, 2010) In addition, some bands started to use guerrilla gigs as the promoting form to perform their latest music without notification. In 1969, the world-famous Beatles appeared on the rooftop of atop Apple Studios at Savile Row, playing their latest album ‘Let It Be’. After finishing, they were asked to leave by the police who received numerous noise complaints. (Nash, 2014) Nevertheless, with popular culture blessing, busking become more acceptable by the public. Facing this transformation, some authorities and relevant organisations also made the busk code in response to the public. In order to find out more possibilities and the executive abilities for ‘Post-videos to London’, this next section will explore the busking regulation in London.

concept of this project which proposes to promote for engaging other communities broadly.

• Busking Regulation in London

Busk in London (2017). About Us | Busk in London. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// buskinlondon.com/about. [Accessed 26 July 2017].

There are many busking performances happening in London everyday, people might stand at a place to watch them or continue and walk away, it seems to be the normal response. However, to make sure the venues are available, and to reduce the interference by other arguments and its legality, it would be necessary to look on the relevant codes of busking in London.

Busk in London. (2017). Buskers’ Code | Busk in London. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// buskinlondon.com/code. [Accessed 28 July 2017].

‘Busk in London’ is a non-profit organisation which was established in 2015 by the Mayor of London, dedicating itself to supporting busking performance with a legal code for buskers, landlord, polices, local authorities, and other key agencies to follow. The Code they show on the website not only briefly introduces what busking is, but also lists the rules for buskers to follow. The code takes a big part of sound issue, which is the most arguable point of the neighbours, where buskers should check their sound condition all the time to avoid people get annoyed, and having to stop the use of amplifiers after 21:00. On the other hand, the busking spots are diverse, they have different operations which depend on the local business and traders.

The license is required in some spots, where the important thing is to avoid to offending anyone at the venue. In addition, no products should be sold during the busking performance. The gratuity should seem as the recommendation of the audience, this is to avoid the begging behaviour. (Busk in London, 2017) Below the streets, in the London Underground busking has been legal since 2003. However, they require the buskers to have the license for performing, they then release a limited number of the licenses for the buskers applying by auditioning. (Transport for London, 2017)

• Busking Venues in London In order to decide where a project could be in, one must find venues where the crowd would assume to be the largest. Also, before selecting the venue suitable for the project, the type of the audience should as well be considered. The London busker Charlotte Campbell (2016) listed the best busking pitches on her blog, where she not only provided the pitches but also introduced three types of the busking formats. Firstly, ‘large shows’ are for the buskers who are doing some big movements such as juggling, or making a big circle of the audience. Next, ‘small shows’ are for the street musicians who attract a small crowd to join. Lastly, ‘walking-by’ is the form for those living-statuses who make less noise, people are attracted by them momentarily.

On the other hand, Charlotte lists four pithes which do not need a license: Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and Oxford Circus, these are the spots which are surrounding Soho.

Soho, has many entertainment stores and shops, with an abundant culture background and history. It is appealing many tourists that makes its population become more complicated; it is related to the

Apart from busking, ‘Post-videos to London’ also attempts to use the online exhibition to contain its full information completely which busking cannot do for the audience physically. Moreover, the Internet takes an important role in our daily lives, where communities of social media make the young generation increasingly addicted year by year. In order to link the platforms between the streets and the website, this project will also discuss how we use videos to communicate through reality to virtual world on the social media sites. _

NOTE

Campbell, C. (2016). London’s Best Busking Pitches – diaryofalondonbusker. [ONLINE] Available at: https://diaryofalondonbusker.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/londons-bestbusking-pitches/. [Accessed 28 July 2017].

Cleary, V. (2013). Modern World History: The Industrial Revolution. [ONLINE] Available at: http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/modernworldhistorytextbook/industrialrevolution/IREffects.html#livingconditions. [Accessed 31 July 2017].

Du Toit, S., Chambers, C. and Edelman, J. (2013). Performing religion in public. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Etheridge, S. (2016). Street-Music in Manchester: ‘Spy Fever’, the First World War and the Decline of the ‘Peripatetic Professors of High Art’ [ONLINE] Available at: https:// musicmcrww1.wordpress.com/2016/08/01/street-music-in-manchester-spy-fever-thefirst-world-war-and-the-decline-of-the-peripatetic-professors-of-high-art/. [Accessed 31 July 2017].

LaBelle, B. (2010). Acoustic territories. New York [u.a.]: Continuum.

Lloyd-Jones, R. and Lewis, M. (2014). British Industrial Capitalism Since The Industrial Revolution. London: Routledge.

Marić, B. (2014). HISTORY OF STREET ART IN THE UK | WideWalls. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.widewalls.ch/history-of-street-art-in-the-uk/history-in-themaking/. [Accessed 26 July 2017].

Martin, M. (2013). B. FFTB Advertising: Chicago.

Nash, A. (2014). Guerrilla gigs: Past, present and what’s next? | Virgin. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.virgin.com/music/guerrilla-gigs-past-present-and-whats-next.

[Accessed 10 August 2017].

O’Neill, B. (2007). Backstory: A London scene set by guerilla art - CSMonitor.com.

[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0109/p20s01-alar.html. [Accessed 26 July 2017].

Oxford Dictionaries, (2017). guerrilla art - definition of guerrilla art in English | Oxford Dictionaries. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/guerrilla_art. [Accessed 2 August 2017].

Ross, J. and Kramer, R. (2016). Routledge handbook of graffiti and street art. 1st ed.

Oxford: Routledge.

Simpson, P., (2015). The History of Street Performance: ‘Music by handle’ and the Silencing of Street Musicians in the Metropolis. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gresham. ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-street-performance. [Accessed 31 July 2017].

Singleton, M. (2005). The art of gigging. Victoria, BC: Trafford.

The Busking Project (2017). The Busking Project. [ONLINE] Available at: https://busk. co/. [Accessed 2 August 2017].

Transport for London, (2017). Busking - Transport for London. [ONLINE] Available at: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/culture-and-heritage/busking. [Accessed 28 July 2017].

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The Sections & The Video Art works

The initial step for this curatorial project is making the projection on the streets, busking is the solution for it to follow the format to build up the programme. Streets, are public territory where it can be temporarily occupied by individuals or groups. This allows people to have a social interaction during building up of crowds whilst busking.

12 It could be said that busking provides the street with the freedom to express one’s talents in front of the public. This links itself to the modern platforms, where social media provides the means for people to post their perspectives through multiple materials such as contexts, the photos, the videos, or the links. In this case, the objects that are taken for this project are videos. Due to the allowance of mobile devices and the convenience of the Internet, it is possible for videos to be showcased not only on the streets but also on the World Wide Web. Therefore, in order to develop the concept for the exhibition, this section will attempt to make the connection between the streets and the Internet of the videos; discussing how we use videos as a communicative tools to bring the contents in reality to the Internet in order to approach others on social media.

- The Open Call In order to reflect the situation of sharing videos on social media, this project has collected the video art from the Internet, holding the open call on 3rd June 2017, in order to appeal the artists who have an interest in the topic ‘Post-videos to London’ from other countries. To make this project encompass more different perspectives, it also includes a Chinese version of open call to approach the artists. On the other hand, this open call posted at various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, seeks artists who are active or also search the opportunities to join the exhibition. Especially on Facebook, there are some groups that usually post many Artist jobs opportunities and open call information.

Furthermore, in order to give people an idea of the venues we might project at, it would also briefly introduce the Soho area, helping them to submit the artwork which interact with the venues. _ Open call website: English: https://cloudsexdel.wixsite.com/cedhomepage/open-call-page Chinese: https://cloudsexdel.wixsite.com/cedhomepage/open-call-page-ch

1 Nugent, P. (2017). What is PUBLIC TERRITORY? definition of PUBLIC TERRITORY

(Psychology Dictionary). [ONLINE] Available at: https://psychologydictionary.org/publicterritory/. [Accessed 28 July 2017].

2 Back, J. (2015). The Embarrassing Act of Becoming a Street Performance Audience. [ONLINE] https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/ social-interaction-5/understanding-social-interaction-50/understanding-social-interaction-314-5912/ [Accessed 28 July 2017].

- Nomination After the selection, it shows that the artists come from various countries, there are 4 American, 4 Taiwanese, 2 French, and 1 Greek. Most of them are the artist who have many exhibition experience, some of them are curators and educators. Most of them found this open called by Facebook, some of them linked to the hashtags on Instagram or Twitter, one of them found the brand account liked his video artwork so that submitting the video. Due to the information of the artists is massive and diversity, this project tends to provide the website links of the artist for the audience to explore more details by themselves.

According to the concept and the videos we have received from the artists, they have been categorised in three sections: ‘Human Behavior: Mobile Interaction’, ‘Living spaces: the transition between the real and virtual community’, and ‘Messages: the ideas we share!’.

Furthermore, in our busking program, we have a special collaboration with artist Alfie Dwyer, whose works usually combine performance art and video art to explore the relationship between people and Information Technology.

In order to show how we use the hashtags for internet posts, this program asked the artists to hashtag their own work, providing the audience with the tool to discover more information through these shreds of evidence.

‘Post-videos to London’ attempts to describe how we use ‘share’ as a term to communicate with each other on the social media nowadays; exploring the reasons behind the movement through three sections. Above all, the tools we use to share our content instantly and broadly using mobile devices, allowing us to post our messages at everywhere, any time. Next, the social media is a medium for us to receive messages from others, where people can exchange their opinions. Lastly, this project is to point out what we share in the videos and to stress the reason why videos have become a popular communicative tool.

In addition, busking (street performance) is welcomed in London city, where it attracts many tourists and residents to see the performances during their leisure time. Soho has many spots for busking, This project chosed three popular spots for the performance location: Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus. Each spot for the theme which has some relevance to the properties of the venue.

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Human Behavior: Mobile Interaction / How we share?

Nowadays, mobile devices blend with our lives. We smoothly use them in different ways to arrange many things everywhere; secretly replacing the traditional ways, mobile devices gradually become the essential equipment in contemporary society.

The mobile devices have multi-functions that provide people with a good time by themselves, such as instant messaging apps and mobile games. In addition, the function of video cameras change the way we communicate with each other.

Enabling us to video chat and share everything that happens around us immediately. Besides, when people do selfie, how we use the video to build up the self-image. Therefore, the relationship between people and mobile devices become intimate, it merely changes our behaviour and lifestyle.1 1 Murray, K. J. (2011). Breaking Boundaries: A Study of Human-mobile Interaction. Stanford University.

Emoticons “HELLO” 00:39 Carlos Cuellar Brown _ #CellGames #VirtualReality #VideoOfTheDay

Affordable Dreams 01:21 Sandrine Deumier _ #CommonDistraction #SuspiciousSuggestion #ConditionsOfIllusion #SharedIgnorance #MagneticProof(explicit)

at Leicester Square Leicester Square is a pedestrian zone where there are nearby bars, restaurants, and cinemas. Leicester Square Gardens located at the central of the square, is a place where many people sit on the platforms surrounding the gardens to chill out.

(More information about Leicester Square: http://myparks.westminster.gov.uk/parks/ leicester-square-gardens/)

Evolutionism 人魚的願望 1/2 01:48 / 02:11 Szu-Yu Liu (Milly Liu) _ #mermaid #plastics #garbage #bright #dream

Candy Crush 01:17 Carlos Cuellar Brown _ #candy #Brooklyn #MobileGames #VideoOfTheDay

Soft butterfly 00:39 Sandrine Deumier _ #SoftwareToMakeYourLifeBetter #AnotherLifeEvent #SaveYourself #HumanDecisionRequired #CareIsInTheAir

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History Crease - National Gallery 00:33 Po Cheng Liao _ #digitalart #architecture #cityscape #cyberpunk #cityofthefuture

Modern Art 01:01 Matthew Eric Mendez _ #artoparts #anthropocene #post-truth #borderzones #landart #performancesculpture #liminality #undermining #marginality #site-specific

Living Spaces: LAVYRINTHOS the transition between the real and 02:46 virtual community / Where we share? Theodora Prassa Everyday, we spend a significant length of time on the internet. What we see becomes a part of our living space.

Social media is considered as a platform for communities to gather individuals to form groups. With technological development, people are able to share their opinions and details in their daily lives, posting their photos or videos on the various social media sites publicly or privately. On the other hand, many shops, publishing companies, and even some governments have established their own official accounts to post their latest news or relevant information in order to engage with their audience.

Though the platforms have changed, the concept of the communicative process is still similar. People choose the way in which is most convenient for them to contact with one another.

_ #theodoraprassa #lavyrinthos #videoart

This section will compare the spaces of communities between the real and virtual world. Discussing the structure of buildings and spaces, as well as the materials we use for the different platforms; rethinking the relationship between human and living spaces.

at Trafalgar Square

Rock Rock Brick 01:00 Laurel Beckman _ #resistance #rock #brick

Trafalgar Square is encircled by many historical buildings, sculptures, and the galleries; attracting many people to come and see this spectacular scenery. Due to the crowds, many buskers choose this place to perform, such as playing music, juggling, doing living statuses, or even drawing on the floor however, people only can do them on the platform in front of the National Gallery.

(More information about Trafalgar Square: https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/ourbuilding-and-squares/trafalgar-square)

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Bubble pop 01:00 Jean-Michel Rolland _ #videoart #chewinggum #experimental

UP UP and AWAY 00:46 Carlos Cuellar Brown _ #Trump #SuperTrump #Superhero #newmedia #digitalart

Messages: the idea we share / What we share?

There are many videos appearing in front of our sights on the Internet.

People are sharing and researching the videos which they are most interested in. They could be on the video websites, such as Youtube, where the top three video types are Product Review Videos, How-to Videos, Vlogs.1 We can see how people enjoy watching the experience from others, sharing the information with one another.

In addition, 80% of how we experience the world is through sight.2 This means that visual stimulation can make us more familiar with the information which is presented through videos. For instance, many news media use videos to report the details of a condition fluently in a short amount of time, showing actual or animated news screen to explain directly.3 Additionally, advertisements use videos to demonstrate the vibe of the product they want to describe, the function that the product can be, and the target audience they want to reach. The above illustrates that video could allow us to see objects closely and clearly to receive the messages that the providers want to imply in the communicative process.

Alive 01:09 Rosary Solimanto _ #alive #adaptation #handyishuman #rosarysolimanto #disabilitypride

Flow 03:30 Wen-Hsin Teng _ #幽谷響 #YUGU #taiwanvideoart #tengwenhsin #flow #waterpollution

at Piccadilly Circus 1 Mediakix. (2016). The 13 Most Popular Types Of YouTube Videos. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// mediakix.com/2016/02/most-popular-youtubevideos/#gs.S9u=Gsk. [Accessed 11 August 2017].

2 Lester, P. M. (2006). Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// paulmartinlester.info/writings/viscomtheory.html.

[Accessed 14 June 2017].

Global wife 00:59 Chun-Yu Chen _ #globalmarriage #poster #vapor #cyberg

3 Multiple Journalism (2017). Next Media Animation | Multiple Journalism. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.multiplejournalism.org/case/nextmedia-animation. [Accessed 11 August 2017].

Piccadilly Circus is an intersection point for many streets that have numerous shops. Many tourists like to sit on the steps of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain to see the street scenes of Piccadilly Circus. The nearby empty space also has some buskers randomly performing and interacting with their audiences. There are many advertisement billboards which are surrounding this area that use large LED screens, playing promotional clips of international brands. A new screen will soon switch on at Autumn 2017.

(More information about Piccadilly Circus: http://www.piccadillylights.co.uk/)

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Alfie Dwyer is an artist who is graduated from Kingston University BA Fine Art. He performed for the videos and did some experimental recording screens to form his artworks. In his works, he used many materials and themes which are related to Information Technology, as the artist who observes the current situations on the devices or the Internet, using his way to response them.

Due to the feature of his works is similar to our concept, we are appreciated to have him as the busker for demonstrating all the video works from this programme on the Soho Streets.

Pow Pow 02:18 Alfie Dwyer _ #VirtualKicks

Just How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go? 00:54 Alfie Dwyer _ #EnterTheHole

How to Touch 09:41 Alfie Dwyer _ #TouchTheReal

Breach the Firewall!

00:28 Alfie Dwyer _ #SuccessfulBreach

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Behind the Scenes Before starting the programme, there are many things have to check to make to process fluently. Here are some inportant problems having to face and check.

- Security checking Although this programme is a setting for a busking performance, in order to make sure its legitimate, I have also researched the regulations for holding the event within the Westminster Council (the location of Soho).

After we have asked the Westminster Council for the definition of our programme, whether we should apply the permission for holding event, their response to our project is that it is more like busking rather than an event. However, they have not allowed us to do projections in the area. After asking the projection artist Ross Ashton from The Projection Studio in London, she explained that we should project on the floor, using the grey area as art. This is because they are trying to stop the Guerrilla advertising projections from happening. Therefore, for security reasons, we projected every work on the floor rather than on the walls of the buildings.

- Installation workshop In order for the projector to be on the performer, there needs to be some sort of equipment to make this happen. After considering the position where possible, I chose to make the helmet taking precedents from tools for the miners, binding the projector to the helmet. With the help of the product designer Liz Huang who gave me some suggestions using her materials and the workshop, she was able to aid me to complete the helmet.

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- Graphic Design -

- Promotion videos / gifs -

At the first stage, I set the graphic shape as square which is sharable on many social media. Beside, after thinking about the connection between the streets and the Internet, the neon signs of the stores inspired me to do the form as gif files looping different graphics, choosing the primary colors of the light RGB and the print CMYK for the graphic. The typeface is Futura, which means ‘the future’ in Latin. Finally, thinking over the visibility, the yellow is put at the background, maintaining the other colors of the bar graphs at the middle, simply coming out the texts.

According to my observation, short videos and looping gif files are more popular than the long ones. In order to follow this rule, I edited most of the documental videos as short ones to post on the social media sites. Besides, GIF files can repeat the video content automatically, which is more sharable. Therefore, whether it uses videos or GIF files, it depends on the condition of the social media sites. For instance, Instagram does not support GIF files, it prefers to share the video files.

- Interpretative tool: Leaflet This project used the leaflet as a key to the Online Exhibition for people to explore more details about the programme. The leaflet also has a program list for the audience to read and follow our steps at different busking spots. Each artist and our members’ names are also listed on it.

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- Performance direction At the very first stage, I was asked to be a performer in this program. However, as I am the curator, I think it is necessary to ask another performer do it for me so that I can concern myself with the conditions in the process. In order to make sure the performance has a connection with each work, I had to check the artist frequently. After finding the artist Alfie Dwyer to be the performer, we began to discuss the performance content and testing the performance with the projector numerously.

Performer’s costume This project aims to make the audience focus on the video more than the performer. Hence, a full body suit costume was chosen to cover the identity of the performer. Due to the programme being held during the evening, the colour of the costume was to be silver to make sure it can be seen in the dark. This was so people can be attracted by it and then to notice the videos.

Performing movement When the performer dos too many movements, it influences the stability of the projection. Therefore, I had to asked the performer to make much more simpler movements which uses the hands or legs slightly less, and making sure the hand remained at the same place.. In addition, to make the connection between the performer and the videos, we have discussed that there will be different themes foreach video. For example, ‘Living Spaces’ which discusses the environment and where we live at this moment. There are many sculptures in Trafalgar Square, therefore it would be great to act as the sculpture to respond the venue through the videos.

Interaction parts Due to the format being busking, it is necessary to have some interaction with the audience. After browsing Alfie’s artwork, I chose the concept of ‘Pow Pow’ which the performer used the camera to record the environment, presenting different perspectives on the same screen. Similarly, when busking, using a camera to record the environment and projecting the scenes on the floor, the audience would be recorded and be projected in the screen.

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Results: Online Exhibition & Busking Performance

Online Exhibition The Online exhibition website was released on 15th July 2017 It was made by the open source website Wix.com. The layout design aimed bring the visitors who were walking into the environment of Soho through the street views.

At the beginning, it introduced the concept, the website-links of the artists, and the links of each sections. (After busking performance, it contains the documental video.) The visitors can follow the direction button to see the sections in order, which are ‘Human Behaviour’, ‘Living Spaces’, ‘ Messages’ and ‘Special Cooperation for Busking’. The visitors can also watch the videos for each section, reading their label contexts and a brief venue introduction.

At the end of the exhibition, the links were left on the social media accounts, as well as the suggestion columns for people giving their feedback.

Before and during the programme, there were already some promotions made by using social media to post as its process and to notify that the programme will happen. Though the feedback by comments and likes are few, the posts have been seen by many people, take Facebook for example, the organic reach of numbers foreach post can be from 100 to 1000 people.

On the website, installed on the page was a viewers-counter, also called a ‘Flag Counter’, where it does not only record the viewing numbers but also show which countries of the visitors coming from. Until 18th August 2017, it shows that the online exhibition has been viewed 613 times by 141 visitors. The visitors mainly came from the UK, Taiwan and the United States, respectively for 73, 26, and 22 people. The following countries are 5 German, 4 French, and 3 Italian. The other countries which only have one visitor are Greek, Ireland, Spain, South Korean, Japan, Singapore, India, and one Unknown European country.

In this case, We can find that the previous ranking countries are relevant to where the artists have come from and where the holding venues are. It might also be related to artists and the curator who have shared the information with one another on their social media accounts.

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Busking in Soho on 22th July The busking day which was supposed to happen on 16th July was delayed until the 22nd July, due to the weather report that said it would be raining at the evening of the previous date however it did not rain. Before the date, there had been an event page already made, where other can invite people to join it and announce the latest news on Facebook. The reasons for choosing the 22nd July was because it was convenient for the volunteers and performer, it was also a Saturday which means having more people on the street than on a Sunday, and coincidentally it is the International Busking day in 2017. 1 The time we decided on to busk was at 21:30, when it became dark enough for projecting. Before the time, it was dry but cloudy, the performer Alfie Dwyer and other volunteers stayed at a coffee shop to waiting and change their suits for busking. When the time was closer, we started moving to Trafalgar Square. I helped Alfie install his equipment and the projector for the opening performance ‘Pow Pow’. The camera which was installed on his right was connected to his laptop, then the scene was projected by the projector which was connected to the laptop.

After making sure the live-stream is on air, we began notifying our volunteers that the show was about to start.

1 Busk in London. (2017). International Busking Day | Busk in London. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// buskinlondon.com/internationalbuskingday. [Accessed 30 July 2017].

When Alfie began recording the views that surround Trafalgar Square. People immediately came to see his performance, after being curious about what he was doing.

Alfie also attempted to record the reaction from the audience, where the audience can see their images on the floor.

The volunteers gave the leaflets to the viewers who seemed to have the interest in this busking.

The programme went quite well until the last video of this section. With the unpredictable weather in London, it started raining. I walked to Alfie to protect the projector with an umbrella, which does not have the waterproof function. After finishing this section, we moved to the nearby busking venue Leicester Square.

When we arrived Leicester Square, the floor was so wet that it reflected the lights which surrounded this area easily. In order to choose the better spot to busk, we discussed shortly and found a corner of the Leicester Square Garden.

Though the spot we busked was better than the previous one, the view of the audience could be effected by different positions in which they were standing. People were walking by this venue frequently, and some of them did not notice that we were busking and crossed through the area between the projector and the screen. However, there still were some people watched the videos.

As a result of the costume catching the attention easily, when we were moving to another busking spot, many people made the reaction to Alfie, some said “Hi” to him and some were shocked. Somehow, I feel people became more friendly when others wore an unidentifiable costume.

The last venue was at Piccadilly Circus. We choose the place that was nearby the exit of the underground, as well as the famous fountain nearby. Although it still kept raining, some people were up-close to see what Alfie was doing, then found the videos on the floor. During the performance, there was a girl who imitated the movement that Alfie did, standing beside him.

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The programme ended with the video by Alfie. After finishing, it had stopped raining. The anchor of the live-stream had asked us to reply to some questions and interact with the audience who are watching it on Facebook. Despite the weather being unstable, it influenced the condition of the video artworks however, still some people were interested in this format whether on the streets or on the Internet.

After the show, I have edited the clips that recorded, posted the documental video, and buying the seven-days advertisement to promote itself and the online exhibition The video has been watched by 1220 people and organically reached 4120 users.

- Feedback After finishing this busking programme, I asked the volunteers about the reaction from the audience and how they felt. For the performance, many of them felt it could have had some sounds which would better attract a greater audience. Though after 21:00 they do not allow the use of amplifiers. The process of each section were too short, that when it built up the crowds the show was finished, they suggested it might be better to gather all the videos and present it at the one venue.

On the other hand, some people did not want to receive the leaflet, they only wanted to watch the programme. Furthermore, due to the rain, and the viewing perspectives, the projection could be barely to watched; it might have been better to project the videos on the walls.

On the post of the live-stream video, one audience felt that the condition was great before the rain. However, the artist Carlos Cuellar Brown who has involved in this project felt the rain gave the projection a special visual effect.

In my opinion, this experience showed that the conditions of the streets are unpredictable and easily affected by the environment and people. Perhaps this is the fascinating part about busking on the streets. In addition, I feel it would be better to have the artists project their artwork by themselves rather than by others. It can make the format much free than this project was able to achieve however, the artists can do it in their way instead of this standard structure. Due to one aim of this project is to make more audiences see the artwork and meet the artists on the Internet, the interpretive ways or the concept seemed to be too complicated for the audience, so it would be better to tell a single story or to be a solo exhibition.

- Conclusion Using multiple public spaces as the venues can promote the curatorial project to broader audience. The public spaces can be used as exhibition platforms for social interaction in public sphere, and could build up a community whether they are temporary or random.

Busking provides the format for the artists to share their talents in front of the audience from poor to rich. Likewise, social media gives some minority groups a chance to speak their opinions loudly and to be heard by the worldwide. Both of them embody how the public sphere encourages people to make communities to discuss and interact with one another. This also can allow the curatorial project to demonstrate its concept by the specific subjects.

In this project, the relationship between the artists and the curator was mysterious. It was surprising to see that the artists were so trusting on the new, unknown virtual organisation that submitted their artworks on the open call. Perhaps people might not care about the authenticity of the identity with spending a long time on the Internet.

‘Post-videos to London’ is the first programme for ‘Clouds Express delivery’. If possible in the future, it would be better to have some partnerships with museums and galleries, or some local institutes to help them promote specific artwork such as digital art to gain more interaction with the audience at other public spaces. On the other hand, it could have the sponsorship of some brands of the projectors, to attempt a new function and give them some feedback of the use, to make a relevant concept.

This project also shows how digital technology can make the curatorial programme communicate between the real and the virtual community. With this revelation, it would be exciting to see more curatorial projects that can be demonstrated at anytime and anywhere to share ideas with the world.