I wish I had a third eye...

As I mentioned in a previous post, the internet is changing everything and for once it's changing for the better. Internet art (or 'net art') in it's simplistic description is digital art made available via the internet, subsequently bypassing art galleries as a means of displaying your work.

Want to get your artwork viewed? Stick it online where millions of eyes can gaze upon it, more than a gallery visit will ever give you.Internet art can also be created outside of the internet as generally most internet art projects involve peoples interaction or multi-media.

During class we had the opportunity to create some internet art as a group. We were all given a post it and on which we had to write a secret (Anonymous of course). The secrets ranged from 'Taking the piss' to 'I don't even know what to say about this' and it was very interesting taking part. What we did in class is very similar to a popular website known as http://www.postsecret.com/ which people can anonymously send homemade postcards that are then posted on the site. As the website got more popular the creator Frank Warren got emails about how secrets on his website have changed either their lives or other peoples, it's interesting that such a simple idea can have such profound effects on people and could only be made possible by the Internet.

I think it's about time I mentioned the madness(or genius) of Stelios Arkadiou, better known as 'Stelarc'. Stelarc believes that the human body has become obsolete so he tries to give his body extra capabilities, usually involving robotics or some sort of tech attached to himself. An example of one of his robotic inventions is a third arm which I'm sure I seen a picture of him writing with all three arms at the same time. He's done alot of performances but the one I want to show is where he...wait for it... connected his body to internet while wearing electric muscle stimulators  where anyone could remotely control his body.

Did you ever say to yourself, 'Man I really wish I had a third ear, having two like everyone else in the world just isn't working for me?'. Well Stelarc must have because in 2007 he had an ear grown and surgically attached to his arm, again madness or genius? The ear has a microphone in it with an earpiece in Stelarcs real ear but the microphone can also be connected to the internet so someone could hear what his ear is hearing across the globe. I'd recommend visiting his website http://stelarc.org/?catID=20242 where he documents the whole surgical procedures needed to get an ear on his arm. 

Ear on arm

Robotic third arm

Stelarc connected to the internet

Did you see that sound?

Ah sound, the forgotten medium. I don't think it was ever a medium to start with for people to forget that is is one... but it is now with birth of VJ's... and no, I didn't mean to write 'DJ'. 
Before diving into VJ's first let's take the time to ask ourselves "What is sound? How do we hear it? How does it imbue meaning?
Well let's see;

• Sound has 3 elements to it: Vibration, Context and Pressure change.
• It also has 3 phases: The initial noise, the sustain and the decay.
• Sound is immersive, cannot be shut out and has no directionality.
• It can be physically felt- At a nightclub for example.
• For many, sounds can prompt memories and evoke emotions.

Sound can be alot more than just the noises you hear everyday; "All sound is music, music is all sound". You just have learn how to hear the sounds everybody else is missing, which is hard...

And now we can dive into VJing (Is that a word?)
VJ's or 'Visual Jockeys' create or manipulate imagery in realtime in sync with music using just about every visual tech going; VHS tapes, DVD's, Hard drives, computer generated visuals and even live camera inputs. Using an analog mixer to make the magic happen a VJ can manipulate all these inputs and blast them into your eyeballs via projector or moniter. The sky's the limit here as there is so much technology that you can make use, in fact there's probably so much that it would be pretty difficult to find somewhere to start.

An example of a video mixer

There are many VJ's out there but one of the few we looked at were the 'Light Surgeons' who operate as a multi-media production company based in East London. Say 'Light Surgeons' fast and it sounds the same as 'Lysergic' which if you don't know is what 'L' stands for in 'LSD' (Lysergic  Diethylamide). LSD is known for making you see weird, psychedelic things and during many of their performance the Light Surgeons attempt to recreate such things with real-time manipulation. 

Example of a light surgeon performance

A basic idea of how VJing works can be seen in these categories below;

• Source- As mentioned earlier; VHS tapes, DVD's, live camera feeds etc
• Playback- Usually a computer so the VJ can see what's being manipulated
• Mixing- A device which allows sources to be mixed e.g A video mixer
• Effects- Computer programs that can add special effects to source material
• Output- Displaying the manipulated sources e.g projector, monitors, LED displays etc

The technology used is constantly evolving with artists such as the Light Surgeons experimenting with new ways of  giving you visual LSD.