Transart Institute Student Projects: Plans, Responses, Papers and Evaluations

The following should give students and prospective applicants an idea of what to expect from their mentors and faculty while going through the program. These examples can also serve as a guide to writing your own plans, proposals and evaluations.


One Student’s Study Plan - Semester Three
Another Student’s Study Plan - Semester One
Faculty Response to a First Semester Student’s Project Plan
Mentor Response to a Third Semester Student’s Project Plan
Faculty Response to a First Semester Student’s First Research Paper Draft
One Student’s Final Art Project Documentation
Another Student’s Research Paper (new window)
Yet Another Student's Research Paper (new window again)
A Faculty End of Semester Evaluation
A Mentor's Final Evaluation
One Student's Art Project Self Evaluation (First Semester)
A Student Research Self Evaluation (Second Semester)


One Student’s Study Plan - Semester Three
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ART PROJECT

1. What is the (working) title of your art project?
Briefly describe the project. What do you want to create and why?




LifeCycles (Part 1: "At Your Service")
Reflective Interventions in a Culture of Convenience and Conformity

Every weekday is going to be dedicated to one specific series of small-scale, interventionist, public action directly tied to my everyday life. Each action is accompanied by a report sheet to be signed (stamped) by potential witnesses and participants. The actions will be scheduled and announced, so that the attending public can become the documenting element.

MON: Mobile Tea Ceremony (keitai-no-otemae). Doing a simplified version of this traditional art of Japanese hospitality, I prepare whisked tea and invite passerbyers, homeless, the police, etc. to participate (Tatami mat is provided).
TUE: Happy Trash Day (lucki-gomi-no-hi). The uniformly blue trash bags of Kyoto will become a canvas for my spray tags in white with friendly messages and signs dedicated to the trash men.
WED: Water Town (machi-no-kawa-nobori). I organize and invite the public to barefoot walking tours in creeks and canals around town.
THU: Coin Mosaic Session (ichi-en-zutsu). Laying one-yen coin pieces on tactile floor systems for one hour on various subway stations around town, encouraging others to contribute.
FRI: Guard Man Day (gaadoman-no-hi). I will dress up in a security man's uniform (with sun glasses) and 'protect' specific natural enclaves in town like trees and flowerbeds.
SAT: Bridge Sitting (hachi-suwari). Alternating among all major bridges in town I will bring two folding chairs and sit for one hour, offering the spare seat to passerbyers, with a note reading "vacant for you") .
SUN: Vending Machine Reading (jidohanpaiki). After sunset I will read stories from my ongoing actions in front of a brightly lit vending machine on alternating locations for one hour and offer complimentary Q&R in Japanese, English and German.

2. What is the point of the art project for you?
What will you try to find out, develop, explore or resolve?

Mere locations turn into places through the initiation with the unusual, the mini-spectacle – be it obvious or not. Through play, obsessions, delegated documentation I engage a public into a situation of conscious encounter and a shared life moment.

Personally I want to learn to better accept and work better with failure, and the random and aimless in my public actions. The experiments help me further build up my repertoire and later utilize screwed up logic and behavior patterns for increasingly conceptual interventions.

LifeCycles will take on manyfold incarnations on various realms in my life to deepen a sensibility for the connections to my surrounding factors. I seek to establish action art IN THE SERVICE of everyday life, or the subversive version thereof. In an effort to make documentation efforts a compatible part of the actions, I will explore collective narrative, meticulous reports, and the collection of relics to supplement audio-visual media.

3. How does the project connect to your past and future projects?

In my previous project I ended up in the role of a producer and manager of an ongoing collaboration. In order to regain my sensibility and better integrate my art practice in everyday life I opt for a broad experimental and uncanny approach in Part A of LifeCycles. The reaffirmation of routine and pleasure will lay the basis for Part B in the second semester where I plan to implement strategies of multiplication to the project with more guided interactions towards the audience.

4. What criteria will you use to evaluate the art project? This directly relates to question 2 above.

- Apply an art practice that 'infiltrates' my own life routine on a day to day basis.
- Explore pointlessness, silliness, aimlessness as a valid approach of art-in-life-practice
- Expand and delegate the issue of documentation through collecting relics, 'book keeping' (form entries) and voluntary appointments.
- Offer the possibility for involvement to individuals and groups on various levels and stages of the project.
- Establish 'learning piece' within the emergent laboratory of Momentarium.org geared towards educational contributions.
- Investigate the role of art in the service of everyday life endorsed by my research project.

5. Production Plan

AUG 15 ~ SEP 10:
- Preparation phase for art project (performance plan/announcement, report forms, props, costumes)
SEP 11 ~ NOV. 30: (12 weeks)
- Begin with performances (one series per weekday, Monday through Sunday, 1 hour per day)
OCT 01:
- Work status report and discussion #1 with mentor
- Mid-Term Art Project Documentation
OCT 15:
- Mid-Term Art Project Documentation
- Art Description
- Work status report and discussion #2 with mentor
NOV 01:
- Work status report and discussion #3 with mentor
NOV 15:
- Work status report and discussion #4 with mentor
NOV 01:
- Work status report and discussion #5 with mentor
- Completion of performances
- Post-production (video, photo, relics) for final project presentation
DEC 15:
- Final Art Project Documentation/Statement
- Work status report and discussion #6 with mentor
- Final Evaluation - Mentor and Student/Art

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RESEARCH PROJECT

1. What is the (working) title of your research project?
Briefly describe the project. What do you want to create and why?
Service in Action: Dialogical Art in the Service of the Public or What?

PREMISE: Within socio-historical developments the role of the artist has significantly changed over time. From artisan, to genius to modernist signature artist. In response to an increasingly consumerist climate the past two decades brought a new generation of artists who view themselves as some sort of Public Service Provider. The early days in the 90's brought artists dangerously close to commerce. But in todays Zeitgeist of disillusion this service-oriented art works towards social transformation on small scale which is relatively undocumented.

QUESTION: Focus of this research is on how the paradigm of Service is effectively being adopted in contemporary relational art practice. What methods make it possible to deviate this functional economic continuum into an artistic (or activist) agenda? The juxtaposition of artistic action and applied service offering, infuses a spirit of entrepreneurship and marketing into the realm of social art practice. Service-driven art has moved beyond the cynicism of the 90's towards a tactic of subversion, replacing the resistance and sabotage of previous periods, when dysfunctional systems and social issues were easier to identify than today. But how do art practitioners open pragmatic service provision into a meaningful process of transformation?

HYPOTHESIS: It is not a coincidence that mistakes and the opportunity for learning are inherent both in the service industry and in relational art. This emergent learning to recover bring about memorable experiences which is often undervalued. 'Service recovery' starts with identifying problems and deviate from conventions in dealing with unusual situations towards creative solutions to realistic problems. In stark contrast to its consumerist context service offerings in relational art often embody austerity, obsessive perseverance, and negotiated affinities. Potentially this very 'service offering' in itself is the political statement of relational art today.

METHOD: My research will draw from analysis of art critic and social theory. But since this is not a widely researched field I will generate first-hand source material and work mainly with concrete case studies generated from interviews with service-providing artists and art groups.

3. List of Potential Interview Candidates:
- Sachiko Abe (performance artist subverting roles of Japanese service female), Fukuoka
- San Keller (action artist, negotiating life services), Zurich
- Lori Gordon (social practice artist), San Francisco
- Ion Sorvin, N55, Copenhagen
- Ben Kinmont, New York
- SUPERFLEX, Copenhagen
- Sarah Carrington/Sophie Hope B+B London
- Jacque Van Paplo
- Shelley Sacks (activist artist)
- Temporary Services, Boston
- Lehan Ramsay (Art Harbor), Hakodate

4. Interview Questions (subject to changes):
- Do you see your work as a service to the public?
- How do you adopt or utilize the paradigm of service in your practice?
- Do you view yourself as a service provider and what is your relationship to audience and public?
- Isn't 'art in the service of life' a contradiction to the experimental character of your creative activities?
- How did you develop your working approach?
- Service is generally based on a promise and commitment. What do you think about that?

5. Connection of art project and research:
- Artistic actions in social context have the nature of service
- It is relevant to analyze role of the public artist; the artist who provides a service to the public
- Recognize the means of service (entreprenerurism, marketing etc.) as a mechanism of labor with transformative and creative potential
- Embracing the service model as an antitode to art elite and exclusion
- Learn to differentiate, utilize and subvert typologies of service

6. Annotated Bibliography:

PRIMARY READING:
De Certeau, Michel. 1974 (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life.
Berkeley: University of California Press. 253 pages.
The author, former Jesuit, historian and member of the Freudian school, develops a theoretical framework to analyze how creative tactics can subvert dominant forces of commerce, politics and other systems of sense-making. Initially geared toward sociologists the book resonates in the art community for setting out practical procedures, in which we are all implicated, and create a sphere of autonomous action and self-determination within these constraints imposed. Central to this classic landmark book is the strategies of resistance and it is promising to revisit them through the paradigm of the service-obsessed society.

Bourriaud, Nicolas. 1998 (2005). Relational Aesthetics.
Paris: Les Presses du Reel. 128 pages.
Derived from his established curatorial work, this relatively young French art critic attempts to locate and legitimate an art trajectory which explores the realm of human interaction and relationships as the form and subject of its art. The book exemplifies a shift in art practice since the 1990s within the context of an ever-pervasive service industry where the notion of consumption expands increasingly onto experiences and inter-human relationships. Despite the regrettably elitarian character of Bourriaud's case studies (all samples are limited to the 'white cube' and conceive the artist as a sort of mastermind manipulating a beholden audience) this highly debated and contemporary relevant book make it instructive and motivational for the artist practitioner working with and within social systems.

Purves, Ted (editor). 2005. What We Want Is Free. Generosity and Exchange in Recent Art.
New York. SUNY Press, State University of New City. Series in Postmodern Culture. 185 pages.
As an independent curator and current professor with the Social Practice Dept. at California College of Art (CCA) in San Francisco, this collection of essays examines contemporary artists' use of the "gift" – the distribution of goods and services – as a medium for artistic production. Contrary to the interventionist, socio-critial approach of De Certeau and Bourriaud, the author collective offers a detailed survey on 50 artists and compares methods of generosity (in times of hyper-consumerism) which connect participants to tangible goods and services that they might need, enjoy and benefit from.

SECONDARY READING:

Roman Krznaric. 2004. Empathy and Contemporary Art.
Oxford. The Oxford Muse (Theodore Zeldin's Journal). 4 pages.
In the heated debate around Bourriaud's 'Relational Aesthetics' this emerging political scientist and novelist points concisely to the problem of power and authority often overlooked in this art genre. This article expresses the need for an art as a public service, which facilitate social depth and fabric through sustained 'service relationships' for building meaningful human interactions. In the pre-context of wide-spread cynical art making this young voice suggests that it's time for art practitioners to measure up to 'Relational Aesthetics' by identifying and working on empathy as an applied service on the public imagination.

Kapustra, Dora. Küenzli, Urs. Schelling, Ulrike. 2004 (German).
San Keller: Aktion & Alltag (San Keller: Action & The Everyday). 26 pages.
Zurich. Studies for Theory of Design and Art. School of Art Zurich.
The three graduate students from the School of Art in Zurich present a review on the work of the Swiss 'action artist' San (Stefan) Keller who positions himself openly as a 'service provider' of actions in the everyday. Through historical analysis, critical reviews and detailed interview Keller's international work is put in a social, entrepreneurial, and methodological perspective.

FOR SELF-EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE AND PURE INDULGENCE:
Cook, David. Goh, Chon Huat. Chung, Chen. 1999. Service Typlologies: A State of The Art Survey.
Camden, New Jersey. School of Business Rutgers University.
The three professors of business operation management provide a primary study on the development of service typologies and their deployments over the past four decades on a macro- and micro-economic level. These categories and models of service should not only seen in a historical and capitalist context since they govern cultural and artistic production as well. Furthermore the article can harbor potential inspiration and raw material for future art projects.

Another Student’s Study Plan - Semester One
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The Creator
An interactive performance piece.


Synopsis

In a post-apocalyptic scenario, a creature is created by its creatures, which consider it their god. As the creatures evolve, questions of freedom and identity arise. Rebellion ensues as one of the creatures tries to sabotage the process of creation by escaping. The attempt is unsuccessful as the creature soon realizes the intricate interdependence of its world.



The action

The Creator dominates the scene with its panoptic gaze. Nothing escapes its control, or so it seems. At times it enjoys the frantic movement of its creatures, other times pensively reflects on the meaning of it all. There is a sense of emotional involvement expressed by its strange laughter, which sometimes turns to anger or frustration as things don’t turn as expected.

Working on its latest creation a new creature emerges. We can see it resembles the Creator. This makes the Creator happy.

As a master puppeteer the Creator controls the new creation and manipulates it with ever increasing energy, testing the creature to its limits. The creature reacts by trying to escape its control and as the Creator realizes this, it forces the creature back into the box.
A sad lament emanates from the box confusing the Creator, who has never experienced such emotion.
It decides to let the creature out, this time granting it freedom. The creature, hesitant at first, flees away into the unknown. As the creature vanishes the laboratory becomes a projection of all the imagery flowing from the Creator’s mind, which is fed by the media streaming from the outside world. The laboratory turns into a projection of hell.

When it all implodes and turns into silence and darkness the creature returns, bringing with it the original eerie glow. The Creator and the creature reunite, and as she goes back into its box the lights fade out and the sound dies out leaving only the echo.
Concept

This recursive scenario deals with myth and reality in a post-apocalyptic setting, projecting issues of transgression, freedom, control, negative identities and ultimately destiny in the long tradition of social and cultural fears expressed by stories such as Golem, Frankenstein, Blade Runner, Bicentennial Man and other contemporary sci-fi.

As an artist I am enacting the subject matter by taking the role of the creature that creates an autonomous entity, which in a way takes control of the performer. The autonomous hybrid (physical/virtual) actor/s-character/s then respond interactively to user or performer actions.

The work utilizes the medium of puppetry, robotics and digital media in a theatrical performance. The Creator’s World, represented by a volumetric grid, is the a-priori environment where the action occurs. This physical, objective world, structured in space-time, is the basis for the inner subjective experience of the characters as they at first conform and then try to make sense of it.

The external, unknown world is the uncharted territory of user interaction. Both local spectators-participants as well as remote performers-spectators (via telematics) represent the sensory neurons that inform the Creator as it relates to its “world". The actuators which correspond to the sensory apparatus of the Creator, are activated by the input from both the virtual (e.g. remote interaction) and the enveloping environment, controlling the movements and decisions of the robopuppet.


Production schedule

The schedule reflects major milestones but implies working in parallel different aspects of the piece.

2006
September
Breakdown of story into elements to be built. Production research (materials, sources) October
Description of technical needs and plan of action for software programming and hardware development.

November
General set, costumes and prop design. December
Sound and light design description and allocation of resources.
2007
January-March
Construction of main character
April-June
Construction of secondary characters and props
July
Residency and presentation of work in progress. August-November
Hardware and software development.
December
System testing of robots and puppets
2008
January-February
Debugging and integration of live action March-May
Rehearsals
June
Performance preparation, packaging, shipping. July
Residency, performance.


RESEARCH PROJECT
Mentor:
N.N., Director, Machine Intelligence Laboratory.
University of NN.

Robo-ethics and performance.

The ethics of emerging technologies, which in many cases originate as artifacts of war needs to be examined. The exponential increase in robotic application in major fields and disciplines today, including the performing arts, makes it an urgent argument to study the different physical, psychological, philosophical and spiritual impact of these emergent technologies and how this affects not only the technical approaches to my work but also the content decisions.

By confronting issues brought about by the convergence of genetic manipulation, nanotechnology and telematics I try to gain insight into how, in a post 9/11 scenario an artist can be critical and ethic in the face of the gradual erosion of the self to help bring about a truly collaborative planetary consciousness.

One of these issues and a central part of my research is the question of Robo-ethics or Machine ethics, in particular as it applies to the theatrical realm and specifically to the integration of puppetry and performing objects and robotics.

So far the discussion revolves around the issue of responsibility for machine actions and who should take responsibility for such actions. As the current robotic and machine intelligence research focuses more on autonomous and emergent behaviors that escape operator control, the issue of original design intentions and responsibility becomes more pressing.


Throughout the past state
Of innate ignorance of the many,
The informed few
Told the uninformed many
What to do
So that the many's coordinated efforts
Could produce most effectively
The objectives of the few.

R. Buckminster Fuller (1973 "Ethics "SATURDAY REVIEW/WORLD, November 6.)


OUTLINE

In response to the state of fear, control and misinformation imposed after 9/11 it is important to understand how the artist can explore and implement with creative freedom technological solutions on mediums that are currently being developed primarily as tools of war. By bringing into question the ethical implications of robotic technologies and their utilization as performing objects in the arts we can transform the metaphor to point to a higher goal.


Why robo-ethics?

1- As technology accelerates towards the singularity [1] with an ever-increasing autonomy, the artist, in his role as a communicator and visionary has the opportunity to influence, through an interdisciplinary interaction, how tools are conceptualized so that a net positive transformation may result. By studying the different theories and positions that are currently being considered in the field of machine and robotic ethics, artists will be better able to participate in the discourse and integrate their own perspectives or visionary solutions through their artistic praxis.

2- It is possible to evaluate the success by which a tool achieves its objective which is an intrinsic aspect of design. Given that computer and informatic technologies are normative in principle and given the pervasive nature of such technologies it is likely that as they become integrated into practically every aspect of our daily lives, we will accept without question the norms imposed by the machine. Before it becomes impossible to do so we should examine the options that we have to incorporate ethics into the core design of the machine.

3- One possibility is to incorporate implicit ethical agents both at a hardware and software level by which a robot will implicitly support ethical behavior. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are an example of such proposition, and the fact that Asimov tested 29 variations of the Laws to accommodate diverse circumstances, attests to the difficulty of conceptualizing a functional ethical solution that can be implemented as a general set of rules or behaviors [2]

4- Another option would be to investigate how explicit behaviors can be designed into the machine itself so that it can eventually become an autonomous full ethical agent. However for a machine to become a true ethical agent it would not be enough to implement a rule based system if the machine itself is not able to understand the implication of its action in the real world. This of course brings into question the nature of knowledge, an issue that has been debated for centuries. Work on the field of robotic ethics and the urgent need and pressure to address this problem is likely to shed some light on the inner workings of our own human system of cognition.
Thoughts

The question of the ethical application of knowledge has troubled humanity throughout recorded history. Archimedes, considered by historians of mathematics as one of the greatest mathematicians of all times, was better know in his time as the inventor of many war machines of enormous destructive power [3]. The same is true of some of the greatest artists-engineers of the Renaissance, like Leonardo, whose weapons were designed to inflict the most physical and psychological damage to the opponent.

The most iconic case in modern history perhaps is the application of a small equation, which unleashed the atomic age, an event which truly changed the course of history. In today’s race towards a fully autonomous robotic future [4], machines might soon determine who is to live and who is to die.

At this point there is no clear answer to these questions. But there is also no room for complacency. Even imperfect solutions are better than none. A sharp knife with no handle is dangerous and does not fully comply with its stated function. There is no one-fits-all handle that can satisfy all possible uses.


Conclusion

Finding the right approach to the viability of ethical decision-making by autonomous robotic agents implies asking the right questions and experimentally testing the applicability of a diversity of ideas currently under consideration by the Robotics and AI community and educational and military institutions around the world.

By revisiting the design principles that made the tool evolve in a particular way to begin with we might perhaps find along the way different solutions that seemed inappropriate at the time or whose value was not understood or perhaps come up with a novel approach to the understanding of the basic question of our own destiny as a species.

What options are available or need to be explored so that the relationship between art, science and technology can create a healthy dependency and inform each other for the greater good of humankind?.


You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
--R. Buckminster Fuller


Bibliography

Planetary Technoetics: Art, Technology and Consciousness
Ascott, Roy
Leonardo - Volume 37, Number 2, April 2004, pp. 111-116 - Article

Abstract
As the planet becomes telematically unified, the self becomes dispersed. The convergence of dry silicon pixels and biologically wet particles is creating a moistmedia substrate for art where digital systems, telematics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology meet. A technoetic aesthetic not only will embrace new media, technology, consciousness research and non-classical science but also will gain new insights from older cultural traditions previously banished from materialist discourse. In the present post- 9/11 crisis, collaborative transdisciplinary research is needed if a truly planetary culture is to emerge that is techno-ethical as well as technoetic.

Machine Ethics
Anderson, M. Anderson, S.L.
University of Hartford
Intelligent Systems, IEEE
Publication Date: July-Aug. 2006
Volume: 21 , Issue: 4
On page(s): 10 - 11

Abstract
Machine ethics is concerned with how machines behave toward human users and other machines. It aims to create a machine that's guided by an acceptable ethical principle or set of principles in the decisions it makes about possible courses of action it could take. As ethics experts continue to progress toward consensus concerning the right way to behave in ethical dilemmas, the task for those working in machine ethics is to codify these insights.

Why Machine Ethics?
Allen, C.; Wallach, W.; Smit, I.;
Intelligent Systems, IEEE
Volume 21, Issue 4, July-Aug. 2006 Page(s):12 - 17

Abstract
Machine ethics, machine morality, artificial morality, and computational ethics are all terms for an emerging field of study that seeks to implement moral decision-making faculties in computers and robots. Machine ethics is not merely science fiction but a topic that requires serious consideration given the rapid emergence of increasingly complex autonomous software agents and robots. The authors introduce the issues shaping this new field of enquiry and describe issues regarding the development of artificial moral agents.

The Nature, Importance, and Difficulty of Machine Ethics
Moor, J.H.;
Intelligent Systems, IEEE
Volume 21, Issue 4, July-Aug. 2006 Page(s):18 - 21

Abstract
Machine ethics has a broad range of possible implementations in computer technology--from maintaining detailed records in hospital databases to overseeing emergency team movements after a disaster. From a machine ethics perspective, you can look at machines as ethical-impact agents, implicit ethical agents, explicit ethical agents, or full ethical agents. A current research challenge is to develop machines that are explicit ethical agents. This research is important, but accomplishing this goal will be extremely difficult without a better understanding of ethics and of machine learning and cognition.

Computational Models of Ethical Reasoning: Challenges, Initial Steps, and Future Directions
McLaren, B.M.;
Intelligent Systems, IEEE
Volume 21, Issue 4, July-Aug. 2006 Page(s):29 - 37

Abstract
Computational models of ethical reasoning are in their infancy in the field of artificial intelligence. Ethical reasoning is a particularly challenging area of human behavior for AI scientists and engineers because of its reliance on abstract principles, philosophical theories not easily rendered computational, and deep-seated, even religious, beliefs. A further issue is this endeavor's ethical dimension: Is it even appropriate for scientists to try to imbue computers with ethical-reasoning powers


A Kantian Prescription for Artificial Conscious Experience
Stuart, Susan A. J.
Leonardo - Volume 35, Number 4, August 2002, pp. 407-411 - Article

Abstract
Research in artificial intelligence, artificial life and cognitive science has not yet provided answers to any of the most perplexing questions about the mind, such as the nature of consciousness or of the self; in this article, the authors make a suggestion for a new approach. They begin by setting their project in the broader cognitive science context and argue that little recent research adequately addresses the question of what are the necessary requirements for conscious experience to be possible. Kant addresses this question in his transcendental psychology, and although Kant’s work is now over 200 years old the authors believe his approach is worthy of re-examination in the current debate about the mind.


The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
Third Edition, The University of Chicago Press.

Abstract
This essay as the writer calls it (it intended originally to be a volume of the Encyclopedia of Unified Science) is an attempt to discover the source of the controversies over fundamentals in the sciences and promote or urge a change in the perception and evaluation of familiar data. Utilizing a historical perspective and focusing primarily on the physical sciences it explores the potential of novel forms of research, both historical and sociological. It suggests that scientific revolutions alter the historical perspectives of the communities that experience it.

Stelarc, The Monograph
Edited by Marquard Smith; texts by Julie Clark…[et al.].
The MIT Press, 2005.

Abstract
In these collection of essays, the authors, critics and theorists comment and analyze the technoperformative work of an artist whose influence is shaping our perception of our cyborgized future. When Stelarc modifies his own body by letting technology invade it as an “aesthetic adornment”, in agreement with medics and technicians, the medical establishment itself is subverted in their stated goals. His directly challenges ethical and political views by reclaiming the right of his own body to contain art.



How do my Art and Research Project Connect.

Synergy is a basic principle of all interactive systems. I intend to explore how art influences science and technology by analyzing such synergy in the context of storytelling. Throughout pre-historic and recorded Art History, tools and the art they enable are inextricably linked.

This inevitably leads me to the study of tools and technology, where form and function are most closely related. Thus an important part of my research deals with the study of tools and how they relate to and influence our most basic esthetic and ethical decisions.

Artists are prescient witnesses of the future, and as such they can be a very valuable source of information for those currently studying the ethics of robotics, machine and artificial intelligence, who can find inspiration in the many questions raised on the subject by the literature of science fiction, movies and the manifests and critical questioning of new media artists who are active participants in the debate.

From the point of view of the artist, various hypothesis can be implemented in the narrative utilizing currently available technologies. The art piece becomes a test bed for conceptual postulates that guide the exploration of technological solutions to aesthetic, philosophical and ethical problems.

By questioning morality and ethics in the use and development of tools, interviewing users of such technologies and participating in forums which hold interdisciplinary discussions on the pressing issues of machine ethics, I hope to draw a better picture that will allow me to frame and contextualize my work within the bigger issues of our society today.

The most effective way to understand the tool is to put it to use and master it by constant experimentation. This is how I see my research informing my artwork. I intend to establish a direct correlation between my understanding of the tool, and the form that follows the needed function.

- Evaluation criteria

I intend to use a heuristic approach to obtain the most effective solution through the simplest possible means. The test will be that, “if the solution is not beautiful then it is wrong” [5] Beauty in this case means that the form follows the function in a most effective manner as the function has evolved informed by our current technological means.

- Past and future connection

As an artist, my focus of interest has been the synergy between art and science and technology. This current project allows me to experiment and contribute in a small way to the understanding of things to come, which are already in our minds midst. I can see a direct thread in the continuum of time where I stand, looking one way or the other and acting in the present with the inspiration that I can gleam from the past as well as from the future.

Notes

1- R. Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Viking Adult, 2005.
2- James Gunn, Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction. Scarecrow Press (February 28, 2005)
3- Archimedes’ (whose great contemporary fame rested chiefly on his war machines, not his mathematics) engines are known to have inspired terror during the siege of Syracuse by the Romans from 213 to 211 B.C. A typical reaction of the time was that of the Spartan general Archidamus, who watched a catapult being fired and then exclaimed prophetically “Oh Hercules, human martial valor is of no use any more!”
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/war/Catapults.htm
4- see DARPA’s Urban Challenge http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp
5- R.Buckminster Fuller


Faculty Response to a First Semester Student’s Project Plan

Dear N, thank you for posting your research project. I have read it with attention, and below are some thoughts on it.

The project plan has a clear hypothesis and research questions which are a good point of departure. I can see these four questions:
1. why graffiti artists turn to the
streets in order to create their works?
2. Why not use other venues to
express themselves?
3. What is their ideal "canvas?"
4. find out when graffiti is considered art and when it is considered
vandalism: what line must be crossed in order to make the public
audience appreciate an artist's graffiti?

There is a difference between the first three questions and the fourth one: the first three questions concern the perspective of the artist, and the fourth one are a question that relates to the perception of graffiti art by the larger public. The first three questions, therefore, are questions you can ask artists in interviews, the fourth one is one that will require the study of literature on the subject, of which you have already collected some. It is a more general question with a history: the question whether something is art or not has vexed artists and theorists for a long time, and there has never been a conclusive answer, although there seems to be a tendency in the 20th century on the part of contemporary artists to attack exactly the conceptual boundaries that society applies to art. What is new in this question is that art here borders on vandalism, and this is what makes the question a particularly interesting one.

So question 1-3 and question 4 require different resources, and they work into different directions: 1-3 will yield answers that are particular to individual artists, and the question will be: can you draw unviersal conclusions from these particular answers? With question 4 it is the exact opposite: this is a general debate, and the question will be what are its particular manifestations and concrete consequences for an artist's work.

I am pointing at the difference in the nature of these questions because it is likely to become important as you go along, and it is useful to bear this in mind from the beginning.

Here are some more practical hints: I think the literature that you have included in the proejct proposal are very good starting points. You should read those books with great attention and not forget to make notes, mark pages, and highlight important passages. Often we lose a lot of time because we forget where we have come accross a particular idea or quote. You should then work on the questions you want to ask your artists. You can ask them more than just a few, and there should be the same questions you can ask each of them (although you can also ask each individual artist questions that you have not asked the others, but don't forget the core questions, so that you can compare the answers!).

I would think that it is useful to have more than just two interview partners: if you can come up with 4 or 5 I think you get a more complete picture and useful results. Can you think of a few more potential conadidates? If so, approach them and include the names of all your selected interview partners in the next draft (after verifying that they are willing to do the interviews - give them an idea of how much time you will take). Think about how you want to record the interviews.

What should also be included in the draft due on 1st October is a brief social and cultural history of graffiti, and a discussion of the status of graffiti as art/vandalism.

I hope these observations may be of use when you write up your first draft. If there is anything else you want to clarify or you think I can be of help, plese do not hesitate to contact me through e-mail, or phone or skype me if you prefer (you find my details in the moodle).


Mentor Response to a Third Semester Student’s Project Plan

I preferred that the study plan not undergo further significant changes once approved. The original proposal was unacceptable: unwieldy, at times wrought with inconsistencies. As it stands now, the project is well-structured and do-able within the limited time-frame; the themes are relevant to her interests and fall within her scope of skills, yet still set new challenges. The process of refining the study plan has provided an opportunity to know N, as an individual and as an artist, as well as see the potential for establishing a good working rapport.

On first reading her proposal, I suspected that she was living through a turbulent period in her life. Her response confirmed this. The ensuing exchange proved indispensable: it clarified a great deal and suggested some ways to focus what were otherwise scattered ideas, albeit with potential. She felt that she was floundering. Though this may be so, I found that she was anything but incoherent. Effort went into showing her how her sense of floundering and loss be recognized as a searching, could be turned around to serve in a constructive and creative study and allow her to complete a project within the time allotted.
[Should you be interested, I will forward pertinent excerpts from a few of our exchanges.]
I encouraged N to pursue those elements that were in flux, to test context and limits as a process without closure; as an aside I encouraged her to construct a lexicon of experiences that she could build on and draw from in her future work. Some methods she proposed here had already been applied in her previous work at the NN Studio Center; these could be carried over, providing continuity in her development.
Much that she perceived as impediments, negative issues, I attempted to turn around, show them to her as holding potential for positive application. For example, she was disturbed by what she saw as changes in the local landscape of her native California since she left for New York six years ago. She was concerned over the fragmentation, the destruction. I suggested seeing fragments as tesserae, as evocative of something greater, a means for confronting the real and the imaginary (subjective memory); and destruction as belonging to the natural process of entropy – in which the only way a thing that is lost can survive is through the recurrent exercise of memory by those who have been/are witnesses. These issues are relevant to N’s interest in experience of place, events, and associations made by suggestion.
We discussed her making her scattered feelings work for her, not to undermine, but a condition that could underpin. The issue was to build a strategy around this. I feel that her finalized proposal shows that she has successfully done so.
We have delineated two goals: treat this semester’s project as a basic prototype that will serve future projects, start an ever-evolving lexicon as she builds a body of work. I suggested that she delimit the project’s components by referring to her immediate experience – to those she knows best, and selecting subjects (individuals and topics) that are not disparate but that can be interwoven. She has honed in on elements that are essential to this project and not collateral (such as her initial proposal to also produce a series of paintings).

I continue to refer her, as she requested, to visual artists who work with place, memory, and language in installation an/or multi-media art, as well as to a number of authors who may be of use.

I am satisfied that the art study plan as now presented satisfies all criteria for graduate level work, and that N has the tools and the focus to accomplish a very interesting project. We have arranged a mid-semester meeting in one month in New York.


Faculty Response to a First Semester Student’s First Research Paper Draft
Dear NN,

Houston, we have a problem. But one that can hopefully be remedied. And it is very good that you did submit early. You are trying to do way too much. You're clearly reading an incredible amount and it really isn't necessary for you to get all of that down in your paper. As it stands, it's a mess -- with no cohesion, many errors, confused and garbled readings of Adorno, Kant, Loos, etc. Not only is what you're attempting here not necessary, it's impossible. The outline you've given me would involve not only a tome of writing, but lifetimes, to accomplish. You can't expect to address the entire history of ornamentation, all the historical and philosophical debates around the topic, and somehow tie this to contemporary pattern painting, imperialism and passenger pigeons, to boot. No wonder you're overwhelmed. Leave the books on the shelf for an afternoon, scrap the first attempt at a draft and start from some very precise little writing exercises.

NN has cc'd me some of your correspondences and it's clear from those that when you start with a pointed question, you're able to elaborate an answer. Have a look back at those and try to apply a similar method to your writing. From here on in, I will try to ask you very precise questions. But to get you started and to give me something more to work with here are the exercises I'd suggest you sit and do. Small tasks, think of each like a complex and detailed motif you're painting. Take these steps (in this order) over the next couple of days and email me the results.

1. start with one painting by Philip Taaffe or Judy Pfaff -- ideally it should contain one of the motifs you've been thinking about like damask or the fleur-de-lys and describe it in as much vivid detail as you possibly can. This piece of writing will eventually enable you to anchor your argument soundly.

2. describe your reason for valuing ornament and be very precise here -- all you, no Kant, Adorno, etc.. You already began to do this in one of the explanations you made to NN -- go back and have a look at that.

3. state your thesis which should be very specific. Something like: "the development of a single motif of ornamentation like damask runs in close historical analogy to the plight of passenger pigeon..." You did seem to be closer to this right after the residency when your goal was, in part, to make a link between the passenger pigeon and the historical fate of ornamental motifs as your annotated bibliography seemed to suggest. Here is it: "I will draw connections between victorian patterns such as damask, passenger pigeons, and human action." that last term is too vague. Try to make it more precise then concentrate specifically on what those connections are.

4. write a paragraph for yourself about why pattern painting, disparaged by Modernists, has come to the fore in the postmodern moment. or if you don't want to get into that terminology, just trace out why you think pattern in painting is experiencing a resurgence in the contemporary moment. You might end up with a different thesis, something like... "pattern painting is experiencing a resurgence and re-evaluation due to x factors in contemporary culture." Then we can take it from there. But you need to somehow come up with a single line that states an argument, from which an entire paper can be spun out -- not the other way around, searching for a needle in the cosmic haystack of history.

5. figure out how the history of the passenger pigeon relates to all this in the context of the paper if it still does. does this parallel the way an ornamental motif enters and then fades from a visual vocabulary? are you using the pigeon as an analogue, a metaphor, or a parallel process to your selected ornamental motif?

possibly 6. did Audubon paint a passenger pigeon? If so, an excellent way to begin might be to launch into a detailed description of this work, somehow working with your language to emphasize ornamentational aspects of the work even though it was the artist's intention to be purely descriptive. This is just a speculative idea on my part and may not work.

posssibly 7. Or even try writing about a Walton Ford image, since his interests parallel some of yours.

Anyway, don't get discouraged. Just start very very small and be descriptive and creative as you write. At the end of the day, patterns should be emerging among these various elements, or not -- if not you'll need to scrap the elements that no longer relate. Ideally, you will have 3 or 4 little set pieces of writing in hand and you should be out of the morass and off to a better start. Try to link them together or send them to me as are and we can dig in and at that point I assume I'll be more able to comment, ask questions, and help you shape this paper.

The order of approach here is to begin with the specific and generate as much writing and precise thought there first. Hopefully you and I will then see natural patterns and connections emerging. At that point, and only then, you might want to include a well-chosen quotation by Kant or Adorno and spend some time unpacking it and strengthening your argument. But trying to start with the macrocosm has left you with a real mess. I tried to comment on the text you sent, but it reads like very raw notes. I couldn't find a consistent thread of thought running throughout.

Additionally, your annotated bibliography should be adjusted and focused as you come closer to your thesis. It also needs to be properly formatted and put in alphabetical order. I can send an example of proper formatting if you need me to.

Be in touch very soon (by Friday I'll be expecting some little miniature texts) and I will stay close to my computer.

All my best,
NN


One Student’s Final Art Project Documentation

Framed Emotions: My intention is to create new meanings conveyed in messages that are mainly from advertising and TV movies. I make photographs - time delaeyd - from moving pictures and manipulate them digitally. The “in-between” space of TV-images, like the abstract space which we experience when we turn the pages of a book, is the focus of this work.




More student artwork

A Faculty End of Semester Evaluation

FACULTY:
(...)
c. In your opinion, has the student successfully completed a graduate level research paper?
NN's writing has improved significantly over the semester in form, style and expression. A major breakthrough is to be seen in her newfound ability to be straightforward and personal in an academic paper.

d. Please give the project a final critique.
A lot of structuring was needed to get the project going. Fortunately, N was willing to try several approaches before she settled for a two piece paper that deals with historic, philosophical and spiritual aspects in it's first part and will expand aesthetic theory and a discussion of modern masters in the second semester. The paper now has a very natural flow from a discussion of writing systems which constitutes the broadest possible approach to the narrowest ones: descriptions of shodo-styles and discussions of individual, historic pieces.
The theoretical underpinning for N's projects (both, art and research) and centerpiece of her paper is the chapter on "Universal Aesthetics in Japanese Art", an informed discussion of the difficult to grasp aspects of wabi-sabi. This aesthetic of impermanence and imperfection is exemplified in various Japanese art forms, from waka and haiku to shodo. N succeeded in appropriating wabi-sabi not only as an exotic theoretical concept but as something to be found in the middle of her daily life. This constitutes the perfect outcome of independent study since the research not only informed the art work but had an immediate impact on the artist's daily live as well. 

A Mentor's Final Evaluation

TRANSART » Mentor » Resources » Final Art Project Evaluation:

a. Has the student reached his/her goals form the initial study plan? Yes, see below statement and critique.

b. The program requires a minimum of 225 hours work per semester on the art project. Does the work presented reflect that amount of time?
Absolutely. The average semester is 15 weeks long. TransArt wants its students to be spending 15 hours a week or 2 hours a day on graduate research. Just a quick review of NN’s site indicates that she spent easily this much time if not more completing her work this term.

c. In your opinion, has the student successfully completed a graduate level project? Please give the project a final critique.
The title “WATCH(ED)ING” has great resonance. The word amalgam captures precisely the active and passive aspects of voyeurism that you are interested in exploring through this multimedia installation. The small animations in the computers on the wheeled "podiums" do a wonderful job of capturing virtually the sort of space you imagine this installation inhabiting.
The webcam pictures that you grabbed load nicely and give me a much-needed way to explore the lushness of some of the camera footage. I am struck by the fact that I’m not looking at live pictures but rather, images that you selected. Sometimes I wonder if it might not be interesting for you to tag the images/cameras you select in some way so that we understand your interest in those scenes.
The movie files load quickly and are a nice way of recreating the experience you had while watching the cameras refresh. Overall, the piece is quite strong. The only weakness I see is that some of the camera links that you deem "Currently Working" are not---specifically the doggie daycare one. Perhaps you could give a date for your "Currently Active" stamp? Or something like "Active as of 12.05.05?" This is just a suggestion. Also on the front page, I have a general suggestion for your headings along the left margin. Instead of saying "The Cams" I might suggest something more descriptive like "Webcams." Also I'd suggest eliminating the "The" in front of "Footage" and "Images." It sounds wordy and gives the links some sort of hyperbolic importance that I don't believe you want.

Here are a few questions for future consideration. You don’t need to answer directly. The questions are for you to contemplate as you expand the research or move on to a new topic.
1) In an early email to me about these web cameras (sent 09/12/05), you said “Many of these [webcams] seem to be used as "security." You went on to say, “Most people are recorded every day many times with and without their knowledge, but even presented with this fact, they accept this condition in exchange for a false sense of security and safety.” A simple question is: do you think many of the people shown on these cameras know about the camera (sunset camera, town center, office building). Another question is, how might the studio research into web camera imagery begin to reflect or portray a false security? In this particular installation, there is no direct mention of the “false security” aspect that these cameras provide. Some of the cameras that you selected to show us are there to record outdoor environmental phenomena (sunset cam, the town center in Tokyo). Other cameras are set up by employers wanting to check on their business (bookstore, dog grooming).
Would you consider “doctoring” web camera images in Photoshop to alter the “real-time” image?
2) Do you think it’s a problem that over half of your cameras are sited in Japan? I know you want to convey a global perspective so I am thinking that perhaps you might consider how viewers of diverse cultural backgrounds might interpret your choices.
3) Marcel Duchamp said, “The spectator makes the picture.” Since many of these cameras are not actually accessible to the public, your installation represents a complex cycle of editorial decision making on your part. By exposing us to the wealth of material available from webcams around the world, do you hope that your spectators will take any of the following actions:
a. Go home and surf the web looking for similar cameras
b. Begin looking for cameras in their natural environment
c. Mount a web camera at home to record everyday phenomena
Overall, I’m wondering how you’d hope that visitors would respond to your piece. To speak for myself, I’m absolutely fascinated by the variety of cameras you have found, and have a sense of wonder that so much imagery is available for download. Being an artist interested in information visualization, I wonder if you might tell us what time period the collection represents, if you eliminated any cameras and why, how you arrived at the final list of 16 cameras, that sort of thing. I also am interested in the potential for your exhibition to be more dynamic, meaning, how could you get the viewers to experience what you experience as an editor in real time? Couldn’t those front computers in the installation show real time web camera grabs?

Bravo! You have accomplished so much in a very short period of time. It was very informative for me to talk about these issues with you and I am so pleased with the progress of both your work and your statement.
Best, XX

One Student's Art Project Self Evaluation (First Semester)

a. Have you reached your goals from the initial study plan?
My goals changed from those stated in my initial study plan quite a bit due to the severe upheaval I experienced almost immediately upon leaving the residency portion of the semester. My sister's sudden death made the deeply-researched workplan I'd outlined utterly impossible to execute. I decided that, as I could think of nothing else, that I should work in whatever way I did, with and through my grief. That being said, I believe I have reached new goals outlined after my late start; I have developed a good working practice that ties together interests in writing, video, image manipulation and sound in a developing genre: video poetry.

b. The program requires a minimum of 225 hours work per semester on the art project. Does the work presented reflect that amount of time?
Although I got off to a late start and didn't get into a regular working practice until mid-October or so, I had been writing earlier, quite a bit and though I didn't know I was writing 'for the program' those 'question poems' became the foundation for the final video poems. I feel that I worked as much as I possibly could have during this time and hope the committee feels it sufficient to pass even though I got a late start.

c. Did your work change this semester?
Yes. Absolutely. I feel that I am beginning to have a process that is something I have long wanted: a method of integrating writing, photography, sound, video, etc. together, not just into a product (which I'm fairly interested in) but into a process for deepening creative inquiry. This is to say, I think by recording voice, sound, thoughts, dream thoughts, personal notes, and poems along with collecting documentation (via photography and video) of quotidian things which prompt or augment my thoughts, notes, dreams, etc. and then braiding them together in moving image/sound formats, I then arrive at a new vocabulary. It is my hope that the images do truly augment the language, and the other way around, so that it is not a gratuitive exercise, but a generative one, that, ideally, would further prompt other expression. I never did get to paint or draw much (I did one early series of six unfinished paintings in October), but I would like to find a way to add that practice to the mix.

d. How did this semester's art project help you build a sustainable praxis?
Perhaps answered above, I have learned to use digital documentation as a kind-of ongoing media journaling from which other more finished works develop. I take my camera with me everywhere and shoot what I notice is prompting thoughts and flights of fancy and I take (or did until it got stolen...will shop again) my digital voice recorder along as well to record thoughts, impressions and bits of poems. I am pleased to be combining my poetic, philosophic inclinations more directly, and more regularly, into my working practice.

e. Please give your project a final critique.
The six video-poems that I have as my final work on DVD reflect a beginning exploration, not a conclusive statement. I see in them ideas for further projects or differing creative approaches to exploring the video-poem idea (using written text, no text and just sound, narrative, etc.). I think the main problem with them at this point is that I haven't yet worked out where or how they could be shown. I do have ideas for an installation piece and am quite excited about it. I think in installation the pieces would be much more ambient and less complete as 'poems' or narrative segments. I think NN was driving me in this direction - to open up the restrictions of the poetry - but I think I wanted first to see if I could realize the poems visually in a satisfying way first, to work off of the structure they provided. I think the one piece 'crying' in which there is no poem, no words, just sound and really no recognizable images, comes the closest to capturing the raw emotion of greiving and would be more appropriate than others perhaps in the installation piece I have in mind (in which these pieces - which all have to do with alcoholism and loss - would be projected onto or into bottles). Still, I find merit in the others, perhaps most specifically in the piece 'the key' which I think describes a narrative moment that is narrative in a poetic way, not a fictional way - that is, I think the subject of a deeply inebriated moment is appropriately 'told' as a video poem. In my opinion, the genre serves and develops the subject and isn't forced onto it; I find this a validation of the 'new genre.'
I feel good about what I was able to accomplish, in no small part because I simply tried and persevered in a time of incredible handicap and upheaval emotionally, financially, physically, technologically, (moved across the country and was separated from my equipment), etc. Moreover, I think the process I have developed will be fruitful for me creatively and does, indeed, satisfy an early goal I had of getting my various creative talents to 'work and play together'.

A Student Research Self Evaluation (Second Semester)

a. Have you reached your goals from the initial study plan?
Yes.

b. The program requires a minimum of 75 hours work per semester on the research project. Does the work presented reflect that amount of time?
I sure hope so, it feels like many more.

c. How did the research project inform and influence your art work?
For the first time the artwork would have not been possible without the research. It expanded the artwork way beyond the original concept and helped to introduce 3 new projects. Although since this was not originally planned some of the actual artwork could not be finished due to time constraints, it has laid a great foundation, to be hopefully one day realized (money, location and time permitted)

d. Did this semester's research project help you build a sustainable praxis?
Well, with NN being a bit inaccessible at times, it has hampered my early energetic flow, but I was able to constantly chip away at the research and the artwork and am generally happy with the outcome.

e. Please give your project a final critique.
I have dearly enjoyed crossbreeding the research with my artwork, and am hoping I have successfully done so. My aim was to find a nice basis to support the original artwork and I have been lucky to find many new projects, which sparked the ideas for my new endeavors. Overall I think the artwork and the accompanying research have presented itself as a wonderful beginning of experimental artworks. I will build on these first experiments to create and elaborate on new, even more complex projects, thereby utilizing and combining my prior knowledge with the newly acquired.