For the Appropriation Within Digital Worlds class I have done several small projects instead of a big one, and chose a main one to present at the Summaery. Here I present some documentation on each project separately by name.
Tinder
This is a project originated from a personal experience of being powerless over identity appropriation online. When I was still living in Brazil for a several months (around 5 months) I had struggled with trying to control fake Tinder profiles that appropriated my identity by using photos and personal information. Whenever the fakes where reported, the profiles were brought down by Tinder, but after a while a new one would be made. I have made two different police reports in this case but nothing could be done about it.
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Since I could not reclaim my own image on Tinder, perhaps I could appropriate the image of myself as a fake and exaggerate it to the point that I can discredit my image on Tinder.
The proposition is to make several Tinder fakes using prints of the original Tinder fake as photos. I have made one test profile and changed the GPS location to simulate being at my hometown. With the use of a scrip I enabled automatic like on everyone on the Tinderweb app. Initially I intended on continuing this project by trying to develop a chatbot to respond to any matches made, but due to the time available and no prior experience with this, it was not viable. The test profile was reported and the account is now blocked.
Source of the script for automatic liking: [1]
I’m the Mountain
Inspired by Youtube videos and a admiration with the game The Mountain by David O'Reilly, I wished to appropriated and insert myself in gamer youtube culture by making a game-play video of The Mountain. Several game-play videos were made when the game was released (2014) but all of them expecting the game to work as usual games do. After playing the game for quite a while, it is very clear that, if The Mountain can even be called a game, to play it is to live with your mountain and not to actively accomplish anything besides companionship and the perception of the mountain as an (existential, maybe a bit depressed) human relatable storyline. For this reason I believe that a game-play video should be adapted to fit the game, a game that is not played but lived. I made a setup for recording the game-play with the visual reference of Pew-Die-Pie, in which he records in a corner of the screen a live of himself playing. Instead of recording audios of myself speaking and narrating the game as it is usually done, I mimic the mountain and added a text window where I could share my personal thoughts the same as it does.
To watch this video is to accompany the Mountain living it’s life and sharing some of its thoughts, while I, as the player, do the same.
After several hours of game-play recorded the end result is a 3 hours video of continuously game-play of the Mountain with live video-audio recording of myself with a texts comments. This video was uploaded to Youtube but was instantly blocked worldwide for infringing several copyrights for the music playing in the background during the recording.
Famous Song (n#)
This posters series was made after the I'm The Mountain video was blocked by copyright infringement on Youtube. It's origin is the questioning of how can one not change a music to the point it would be considered a remix and yet make it unidentifiable by copyright detection programs. Is it possible to make it unrecognizable to computers but not to humans?
In the attempt to seek privacy from computers, we might be developing content that is unrecognisable even for humans.
This is a poster series that uses the most iconic parts of lyrics from Top 500 Greatest Musics list by Rolling Stone Magazine with the ZXX font designed to work as CAPTCHA. As soon as you know it/learn how to read it, can you still listen to the content in your mind? Is it the same? Only the Famous Song 1 was printed, in Riso, and left to be taken for free during summaery.
ATTACH PHOTOS printed version, process + files with other version
NotMineNotHere
NotMineNotHere is about playing around with appropriation by using data from one platform in a different social media it was not made for. A instagram account that only posts printscreens of youtube videos was made, but the NotMineNotHere concept can be expanded to work in several different medias.
Instagram account: [2]
ATTACH PHOTOS instagram print
i_want_to_live_in_a(…)movie.gif
Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth
You are mesmerised by a scene that flourishes the fantasy of wanting to live this brief poetic, romanticised, funny, cinematographic moment yourself
Gif inspiration (live gif? gif performance?)
A clip of a movie is performed over and over again in a scene-loop for a predetermined time
This developed into the GIFLife project
GIFLife Interactive piece. A series of GIF are performed over and over again in a scene-loop for a predetermined time. Gifs represent what you feel and act, you act and feel what they represent. Please comment, like or dislike. I want your attention.
Initially gifs were only a reference, but became the subject itself. This piece is in a way also a clickbait to take photos of viewers. Photo: Print of the interface presentation mode and app. Exhibition photos. GIF LIFE background Mudar: mensagem de feedback para quem interage, margem nas mensagens de texto, instalação deveria ter sido over the top bem kirsch e brega que nem a interface. Real life internet ambient. Pontos a aprofundar: reflexão sobre arte auto-referencial, milenial, kirsch virtual, o meio de comunicação com o meio artístico e ao mesmo tempo como o tema de produção. Relações virtuais, iluminação das fotos e rostos. Ambientação da exibição. Fotos finais tb no estilo kirsh virtual, mesma identidade. Mais pareado visualmente.
ATTACH PHOTOS
User.jpg Whenever someone likes, dislikes or comments on the interactive piece "GIFLife" a photo is taken and saved together with the input. This is some of the data collected. Read the comments, no one is anonymous.
Printed in A4 paper, photo above the comment and pinned to the wall by the side of GIFLife
ATTACH PHOTOS summaery + print of files
GIFLife.mov Video collage. A series of GIFs are performed over and over again in a scene-loop for a predetermined time. Gifs represent what you feel and act, you act and feel what they represent.
A video of the performances made with gifs. Duration of about 1 hour with gifs performances varying between 13 to 15 minutes.
GIFLife video online: [3]