Artwork #3: Intervene

Goal:

• Manipulate and weaponize existing bots to impede upon the experience of other Twitter users
• Demonstrate the prevalence and omniscience of bots on social media, in this case specifically Twitter
• Show the predatory behavior of “Essay Writing Services” and their ease of access

Procedure:

• Acquire the permission of the selected affected user
• Go to a recent tweet and reply with some variation of “I will pay someone to write this essay for me”
• View the almost instantaneous response by various bots

Artist’s Statement:

My initial inspiration came from the widespread activist practice of needing to slightly exacerbate a problem or nuisance in order for the proper authorities to notice it and fix it. Sometimes one must make an issue worse so that it either actually steps into the sight of an overseeing organization, or so that it creates enough justification for resources to be spend dealing with the issue. This practice can be seen in a multitude of ways and with varying levels of severity. It might be as simple as widening a pothole or crack in the sidewalk so that the city determines it to be enough of a hazard to merit repair. One man in England taped raw fish to broken ATMs so that banks were forced to service the ATMs when they came to remove the dead fish. It could also be the demonstration of backwards, outdated, nonsensical, or hypocritical laws. The practice of “sit-ins” during the Civil Rights Movement are a fantastic example of exacerbating what was perceived “as a nuisance” to demonstrate the illogicity and backwardness of excluding black customers from restaurants. While no where near as noble—or hard fought—as such a practice, my intention with this intervention was the demonstrate the prevalence and lurking nuisance of web-crawlers and bots on the internet. The selected environment, and specific issue to highlight, was the presence of bots on Twitter; More specifically reply bots offering a service, in this case “essay writing services.” These bots masquerade as authentic people, but are—for the most part—actually a highly networked service of web-crawlers auto replying to individuals lamenting the difficulties of their essay and then connecting users to a paid essay writing service. In this way, these bots act in a particularly malicious matter, as someone not even explicitly asking for such a service—possibly just posting to vent their essay related frustrations to their friends—could find themselves deluged with accounts offering their services at competitive rates. Thus to demonstrate this, I had a friend reply to various Twitter posts with some variation of “I will pay someone to write this essay for me.” Each time resulted in a multitude of bots replying to him, offering their services, and we even saw some other genuine users commenting how my friend had “summoned the bots” or saying something to the effect of “here they come.” This demonstrates that this issue of auto-replying bots is a widespread and known issue on Twitter, but rather than being cracked down upon, they are instead tolerated and ignored as their annoyance is only minor and temporary. Hopefully this intervention helped exacerbate this issue in some individuals’ eyes and compelled some to try and act to resolve this nuisance.

Documentation:

For my activist game, I want to explore the life of another person. 

The activist game starts with a person documenting their day; they capture themselves with pictures and videos. They share the information online to a maximum of 10 people and pose the question: how am I feeling at each given moment? Each participant has to provide responses  of what they think the pictures and videos convey. Each participant is now eligible to participate in the game by posting pictures and videos themselves creating a chain reaction. A day in the life starts with a person that shares their most revealing and vulnerable experiences that allows everyone to learn and grow from each other. One of my inspirations for this game comes from talk show host Carson Daley who shared a picture of himself during a live television show when he was experiencing a panic attack while everyone thought he was having the time of his life.

My game illustrates the artwork of  Linda Montano and Tehching Hsieh who tied a rope around each other and did every move together. This artwork was particularly inspiring to me because of how they stayed connected for over a year. They say, “They take out the dog, they  run, they have tea, watch a lot of TV, spend hours at the work tables sitting back to back. For pleasure, they watched  movies and rode their bikes around, one following behind the other (4).” Through thick and thin, this connectedness was therapeutic, but at the same time caused a rift between the participants. I’m not insinuating that there has to be a conflict between the posts, I just want it to be open to all emotions and themes. Linda and Tehching togetherness still created a bond with each other by sharing their lives. I want my game to capture this same meaning and experience.

Another example is Burden’s “ Five Day Locker” piece where he curled up in a two-by-two-by-three-foot locker which he endured for five consecutive days. The text, On Edge, quotes, “… to his surprise, people he didn’t even know came unbidden to sit in front of the locker, to tell him their problems and the stories of their lives. … Certainly, those who came were projecting something onto him. And Burden’s been extremely conscious of audience behavior ever since (Carr 18).” Burden’s artwork shows that everyone has a story to tell even though the person may not look like they do. I want to invoke the same emotion by making the viewers question and critique others’ lives and how it relates to themselves.

Requirements:

1.Maps app (Google or Apple Maps)

2.Money to buy food

3.Discord

Rules:

1.A player selects a location nearby to get food for, the player must not buy a drink

2.All players enter the food they bought into the discord on server

3/One of the other players enters a drink that they would like to combine with the food on the discord server

4.The player must then try and find said drink, buy it and enjoy their meal with it

5.Pictures of the full meal are then posted on a separate channel on the server for full meals

6.Players then share their reviews of the meal combo on that channel

Artist Statement:

  One of my main inspirations for this piece was the game Uncle Roy All Around You. The premise of Uncle Roy All Around you is that the city in which the player is in serves as the arena in which the game takes place. They are then instructed online to complete a number of tasks to help find Uncle Roy. This puts forward the question “Would you be there for a stranger in need?”, to which most players would answer “Yes”. Although I drew inspiration from this game, I decided to go for a generally lower stakes premise which is allowing your meal to be completed by a stranger. In my game, players allow other players to select the beverage to be drunk together with their meal. In response to the question asked of the players in Uncle Roy All Around You, “Would you let a stranger select the beverage for your next meal”. The answers to this question were less straightforward with players in my playtests asking to what extent is the other player a “stranger” etc. Although I chose food and beverage  to lower the stakes, it creates a paradox in the sense that  lending help in some cases is something people are more willing to do for strangers than allowing to choose what they consume, because of course you wouldn’t eat a random meal or drink a random glass of unknown liquid lying in the subway simply because it could contain all manner of harmful substances. To this end I created the balance between reducing the high pressure environment of a seemingly life and death situation to a more lighthearted one which still bore some weight.

  Another source of inspiration for this game is the plethora of online arcade cooking games in which players are meant to put together different meals when given multiple ingredients and are then scored based on the coherence between the meal they made and the standards that were being requested in the game. However, I took out the scoring aspect as a objective element whereas if certain ingredients or combos don’t match in particular meals then a certain number is given as a score and rather opted for the more subjective route where players write their own reviews based on how they feel after they tasted the meal.

As you can see, all sorts of interesting combinations arise from the game, with some players aiming more for humor while others are genuinely suggesting a combination that they like. Either way, it is great fun and everyone is a winner.

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.”