Artwork #3: Intervene

Score

1. Attend a class presentation
2. Actively listen to the presenter
3. Once presentation is finished, stand up and give a round of applause and verbally compliment the presenter
4. Sit back down as if nothing happened
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each presentation 

Artist Statement 

Our intervention, Standing Ovation, was heavily inspired by Uncle Roy All Around You which served as a commentary on our willingness to help out strangers. The essential question “Would you be there for a stranger in need?” was asked to Uncle Roy participants and if they answered yes, then a couple of weeks later they would then have to help out a stranger in need. This idea of encouraging people to support those they are not close to inspired us to think about environments where we are surrounded by strangers/acquaintances. Almost instantly, we brought up our classes and how we feel removed from the lives of classmates that we sit next to. When you’re simply listening to a lecture that feeling is irrelevant but once you have to present, the lack of a comforting face can sway your confidence. It feels like no one is actively listening to you speak since you’re not friends with them, so our main goal was to stage an intervention that revolves around changing this common feeling. Presenting isn’t something everyone is comfortable doing, so when your audience shows that they are listening to you and clap at the end can be reassuring and encouraging for future presentations. 

We were also inspired by Eric Andre’s and Impractical Joker’s ‘interventions’ in society and how they influence the bystanders around them. We wanted to explore how our intervention, standing ovation, would affect our fellow classmates. Specifically, mob mentality, which is the inclination that in certain large group situations, humans often neglect their own individual feelings and in the process adopt the behaviors and actions of the people around them. As this iteration of Standing Ovation was performed by two individuals, the likelihood of this mob mentality taking place significantly increased. At the end of Max’s presentation, we acted on the game rules and gave a standing ovation. We observed a massive increase in class applause/engagement than in prior presentations where the standing ovation did not take place. Funny enough, when the ‘late-comers’ entered the classroom soon after, the entire class ended up giving them a standing ovation. In future iterations of the game, we plan to explore individual scenarios where only one player is aware of the game rules.

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Intervention Artwork:

Create an educated guess/hypothesis as to where your cat would spend its time in your domicile with you in its environment

Repeat step one but for when you are not in your home

Track and record the location of your cat over some decided amount of time with you in your home

Repeat step three but without you in its environment

Create visual representations of the collected data (I prefer a heatmap for visual aid)

Compare your findings to your hypotheses

By Sophie Uldry

Artist’s Statement:

I’ve always wondered what indoor cats do when you remove human stimulation, and this artwork offered me the perfect opportunity to finally uncover the truth behind what my cat does “behind closed doors.” I’ve created a piece which displays how my own interactions with my cat will influence it’s decisions, in almost a scientific way. This piece was (once again) inspired by my cats and my incessant love for them, but also my understanding of how cats adapt their behavior for humans specifically. For example, cats are not known to meow at each other, if anything this is a behavior which only appears between mother and kitten, but not among full-grown cats. I want to know more about my cats behaviors, and especially understand the variations between their behavior around me versus alone. Thus “HeatCat Tracker” came to life, with the goal to learn about my cat’s behavior differences! I created hypotheses for where my cats would prefer spending their time and made diagrams to better visualize my assumptions, then I recorded and tracked their actual locations both with me around and without me in the apartment. Initially, I tried using a cat GPS tracker for accurate readings on my cats location without me in the apartment, however this proved unsuccessful since GPS is accurate outdoors, not indoors. My cats are entirely indoor cats, so I had to swap to a more DIY approach. I literally recorded (with a motion detecting video camera that works in the dark) my cat over the course of a few days with and without me around. chose a few time intervals to work with, and used this information to create a more accurate (not most accurate) reading of my cat’s location throughout the apartment.

HeatCat tracker took inspiration from a number of works discussed and shown in lectures. The idea of using tracking or location as a main feature of my artwork was perhaps unexpectedly from a game which also attempts to track players throughout their adventure: Uncle Roy All Around You. Though my game is set strictly within my domicile and only involved my cat, the idea of using location in general as the main data point used in this artwork came from Uncle Roy. I was also inspired by discussions of other animal interventions such as the store alarm cockroaches which used roaches dressed in capes containing material that set off store alarms to, well, set off store alarms. This artwork is also fitting of the Fluxus movement’s focus on chance and randomness, as my heatmap outcome will change every time I record new information of my cats location, and once again leaves the outcome in control of a cat, rather than the person creating the heatmap. I’ve included images depicting my process below, including the failed attempt at using the GPS tracker.

My hypothesis of my cat’s location with me active in the apartment.

My hypothesis for where my cat would be without me in the apartment

observed location of cats with humans in the apartment. (similar activity to without, but more concentrated around the two bedrooms)

observed location of cats without humans in the apartment. (mostly sleeping within eyeshot of the apartment entrances).

The entirely inaccurate data collected by a GPS (shows cats outside of apartment, which is impossible for strictly indoor cats)

This intervention is done show the weakness of this type of teaching method,”homework”. It is just very common for students to gave up on their homeworks, which means that, they’ll finish the homework but they’ll gave up to learn anything from the homework. In the end this statement is demonstrated in a way of “stuffing” the homework with itself, just like what the snake Ouroboros did in Greek legends.

I’m not attacking any specific homework, but just taking this homework as a target for assault, as a representation of all homeworks that need to be recorded and need to be submitted and gave enough freedom to students. If students failed to found something meaningful enough for they to intervene, they could have just gave up, and just “lie down”. They’ll enter a passive state of trying to finish the homework in a most time-saving or effortless way, just like how I hope to finish my homework in a comfortable and easy way by lying in front of the floor of the classroom. The problem is, the student gains too little in the process. I don’t really see the tutorial aspect of this assignment. That’s to say, if I’m doing my assignment for my excel class, I’ll learn how to write functions and to arrage strings if I want to. But this assignments, such “intervention” assignments, that didn’t taught. 

Interventions are nice. Putting black tapes on stairs is nice. Though, what does that taught? “The fun theory”? Won’t that just be obvious, since if it’s not the team won’t have the idea of doing this activity intuitionally?

Here’s the picture of me lying on the ground like a dead dog.

Me, mentally lied-down, is trying to embody that physically. And I did. If entered the apathetic mental state, people will not try to work hard or impress anyone anymore, just like how I’ve chosen this way of representation because it’s the most comfortable way. Plus, I can wait outsides of classroom rather than sitting in the classroom, which definitely gave a sense of freedom.

I was inspired by Yoko Ono and her Cut Piece from 1964. I like her idea of using herself as an experimental sample, and her bravery. Buzz, just to tell you my inspiration is not from this class.

No, No, no,,haha, definitely not, how could that be possible? I was certainly influenced by Yoko Ono, I must, I mean, I was,, inspired…no, give me the points, give me the points, give me the points, givemethepointsI’m sorry Ijust said that I’sorryyy Every one just do that, isn’t it? Many of us just seams some random reference with our work, isn’t it?

No no no that’s not the fact she’s a lier! Don’t believe her! Don’t! Please DONT!! We’ll complete our homework, we’ll complete our homework, we’ll complete our homework, complete our homework I Begged, pleaaaaaaaaaase don’t deletemy point pleeeeeeaaaase

FINAL ANSWER: YES, THIS WORK IS INSPIRED BY CUT PIECE.(

Anyway, here’s some text documentations of my actions.

I started to prepare twenty minutes before class ended because I worried that class would end earlier.  Then I posted myself in a comfortable position in front of the class’s door. I texted these words while I waited because I don’t want to waste time. I was actually resting because I think I deserve that and, I didn’t start recording till people started to leave classrooms.

One by one the people went, until beside the door I can still hear Jaliyah chatting with professor Celia. I waited for them to come out, meanwhile keep typing my future blog post.

Then discovered I didn’t clicked record. People opening the door with surprise, Yibing helping me by taking picture, Maximus and Jaliyah who says they like my idea, and other comments, I’ve lost all of them.

I sited miserably between the door and the corridor. Though not very miserable because at least I have something to finish my homework.

When I began thinking about intervention projects, I was inspired by the presentation on the CSIA game and how the booth was interpreted differently based on the context it appeared in. I was also inspired by Yoko Ono’s Painting to Hammer a Nail where the viewers directly got to collaborate with the art and contribute to it. As such, I wanted to create something that people could interact with but also add to as they wished. This led me to go for a survey format where all the elements are written in expo or pencil, enforcing no rigid structure and inviting collaboration. I made a survey about a common argument I have with my friends (What’s the best Taqueria on Campus?) but moved it out of the food context and into the classroom context. This changes the atmosphere of the classroom and ties into students’ urge to get distracted and do something unrelated during class. I even put the surveys in the back of the classrooms when possible! I was curious to see how students would interact with the survey while they had time to answer and doodle if they felt especially distracted during class.

This first one was in the back of a classroom in Hayden Hall. As you can see, students began to add their own options that weren’t even on campus. There was one slight doodle but far fewer than I expected.

This next batch was in a classroom in Kariotis hall. This board didn’t have much engagement and was removed by the end of the day.

This final one was hung as a poster in West Village H. Unfortunately, it was removed before I could capture any results. This is still technically an interaction with the intervention piece, just not the one I was hoping for!

Rules

• 2 or more players choose a Wikipedia page to edit.
• Each player edits the page and adds false, but not harmful, information.
• The longer the word count of the edit the more potential points it is worth.
• After 3 days the longest remaining edit wins.
• Do not delete anything on the page wiki page.
• Do not edit anything that is “important”. For example, do not edit the Wikipedia page about a scientific concept.

Playtest

The group chose to edit the Wikipedia page on toothpaste (the following gallery displays the additions made by the four players. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothpaste#Ingredients

The winning edit was:

Artist Statement

For this intervention, I wanted to intervene in people’s search for information and show people how easy it is to spread false information. The main inspirations for Wiki Edit War are Crowd-Sourced Intelligence Agency (CSIA) and Going Viral by Derek Curry and Jennifer Gradecki. Unlike Going Viral, which uses deepfakes to correct misinformation spread about COVID by celebrities, I aimed to highlight how easy it is to spread false information. I chose Wikipedia as the medium for this game because of how easy it is to edit and because for most of my life my teachers have told us not to use Wikipedia because “anyone can edit it,” so I wanted to test this. I quickly learned that most of the “important” pages are no longer available to be edited by the public (i.e. pages about public figures, companies, organizations, scientific principles, and major historical events). However, there are still plenty of pages that are still editable, including my experimental design teacher’s wiki page (Celia Pearce). So while I was exploring this project I added a sentence or two to the page (it was actually constructive, don’t worry). It’s still there at the moment though. Getting back to the game, the rules are pretty simple. The players find a Wikipedia page to edit and each of them adds a random funny edit to it, with the goal of trying to have the longest remaining edit at the end of the 3-day period (or the last edit remaining if none of them make it the full three days). There were also some rules put in place to minimize the risk of doing any real harm. These rules were: do not delete anything on the page wiki page and do not edit anything that is “important” (though this is much harder to do because wiki won’t let you edit most pages that could cause harm). My playtesters chose to edit the page on toothpaste, and while the game was a little quicker than I expected it to be (it only lasted 30 minutes which is probably due to the heavy traffic on this page) I can happily say that it was quite enjoyable, and at least a couple of Wikipedia uses got to learn about “Democratic Toothpaste.”

The piece was inspired by Uncle Roy All Around You. The GPS equipment and the virtual avatar made me feel like a game with AR elements. A game should have a start and a goal, but what if both of them are generated by the players? Like the game rules in Uncle Roy All Around You. One player created the order, and the other one should follow it. The game designers just provided tools and basic rules. Then, I wanted to make a game with no specific rules, or the players may not feel they are playing a game.

Backroom inspired me a lot in the visual UI design. The huge black words were written beside a door, a pit, or a window. The character could choose to enter or not. Also, the words sometimes could be viewed as traps or decorations. When the player saw the black marks and started thinking about the clues behind the marks, the game was already started. So, I tried to make a similar one in the real life to see what they may do when they see the marks.

Then, I used black tape to decorate a public room with words and signs, making an easy treasure hunt. If people noticed the words, they would enter a room and look for the hidden treasure. The participants were the people who saw the words. Most of the participants were confused and ignored the information, but one of them joined the game.

When the player saw the information, he followed the “LEFT” sign to look left. Then, he found a “HEre” sign in a room. So, he entered the room and look around for more information. Finally, he went out and found the hidden candy in the public area. When I asked him about how the decorations felt, he was confused because he thought those signs were for the game.

I think the result turns out some interesting facts. A game can be started occasionally. Although there’s no clear start and goal, players still can make rules and play a game. Game designers’ job is more like building a playground for the players. When the players think it is a game, then it is a game.

Words in Backrooms

Instructions:

Switch recipes with your friends to expand your cookbook and expand your outlook.

Artist’s Statement:

This idea was thought up when I noticed that within my group of friends, when it came time to prepare food for the group, each person had their own area they stayed within. That seemed normal to me but once I noticed how different each of the styles were and how they were all from different origins and cultures I became curious about it. I began to wonder what would happen if recipes were given to one another, the person who focuses on Mexican and Tex-Mex would get the recipes from someone who focused on Slavic foods for example. This would not only expand the recipes in our back pocket but add experience we would not normally get as well as learn about a new culture potentially.

Some inspiration from this came from the Yes Men since they would impersonate others to showcase the truth, in this exercise however, we swap recipes and get to learn about new styles of cooking. Different subject matter but the additional amount of nuance and fun it added was well worth it. The Yes Men aim to bring awareness through various means and similarly swapping these recipes proved to bring awareness and knowledge of other cultures and their cooking habits.

When it finally came time to swap and cook the other’s recipes everyone was a little nervous since we all knew we stayed in our comfort zones usually, especially when cooking for others. So, one person got shrimp fried rice, one got stacks and queso, one got brownies and one got a Slavic dish known as plov. The person who got shrimp fried rice never cooked with shrimp before and was shocked to see anything more than soy sauce in the mixture. The person who got the stacks and queso, which is a Tex-Mex item that puts filling in between two tostadas and wraps it in a tortilla, had never heard of it before making it. The person who got brownies doesn’t bake much and the person who got plov had never heard of plov before. It was a learning experience for everyone involved but with the help of the original cook for each, everything turned out great. After this experience everyone had a new recipe in their back pocket and learned more about each of the dishes.

Shrimp Fried Rice

Stack

Brownies

Plov

Art Work:

• Send pictures of instructions to people around me through AirDrop in order to let them drop their phones.
• Selected locations
  • International Village Dining Hall
  • Classroom

Artist Statement:

The ideation of this project came from social circumstances around people these years. We might notice that over the years people have become more prone to hunchbacks, and that is mainly because of the existence of smartphones. People are always downing their heads and playing with their phones almost all the time, and that is a really bad circumstance. That is not only bad for people’s health and also would let them miss the environment around them. Therefore, I was considering doing something to let them drop their phones.

I was inspired by Men in Grey (Julian Oliver & Danja Vasiliev, 2009-2014). The feeling of that intervention would give the participants a strong sense of being monitored. The reason is their screens are going to be shown on the case which would let them feel unsafety and drop their phones or close their laptops unconsciously. I want that feeling to appear in my participants, therefore I select AirDrop as my examination tool.

AirDrop is a powerful tool for this project but still has some limitations. I could use AirDrop to send pictures of instructions to strangers without having their contact but the limitation is I could only send pictures to Apple users. Also, I did some variations of my project because I can’t clearly get people’s reactions and feedback if I do not know who I am going to send pictures to. Therefore, I chose to send pictures to my friends without telling them anything about the project and it works perfectly. They were feeling really weird and stunned, one of them even showed the picture to me and ask do I also received that picture, and soon they dropped their phones. The location of the project could also be diverse, I chose IV Dining Hall and one of my classes for this project. I made different pictures of instructions for different locations in order to enhance the feeling of being monitored. Overall, the intervention works perfectly, and the participants’ reactions really achieved my original purpose.

Inspiration

Throughout the development of technology and information dissemination, it is easily for people to receive the latest news on their digital devices. However, those fragmented information also cause some anxiety and stress to the viewers. Meditation is one of the useful ways to help people release the pressure. There are two main advantages that meditation brought:

• Wipe away the day’s stress, bringing with it iner space.
• Help restore your calm and inner space.

Also, the mechanics of the game was inspired by Pac Manhanttan, which is that one designated player is trying to catch or interrupt the other players, while players have to elude that player to achieve the goal.

Rules

In the game, there will be:

• n Mediataors, 1 Interruptor
• A 15 minutes meditation audio will be played. After it is finished, the game ended.
• Meditators should close their eyes and follow the instruction until the game ended.
• Interruptor is going to interupt meditators by talking around them. (NO touching or pushing)
• If the meditator laughs or speaks or opens their eyes during the game, they are knock out.

Gameplay process

We played this game in my friend’s house. In the game, there were 5 meditators and 1 interruptor. The interruptor was really good at interrupting. He knocked 2 players out at the very beginning of the game, even though at that moment he was trying to interrupt another player. The player he was trying very hard to interrupt insisted to the end, which is the only meditator who won the game.

Video: https://youtu.be/1e6ph-whpzc