The repetition of experience

For the past week I have been looking into and trying to understand what underlying link there might be about what I could/should focus on when it comes to someones experience. As of right now my project is still broad. I have been a bit practical (outside of reading the book Technology as Experience) by playing around with videos and giving a repetition to certain parts that for me I remember distinctly when recalling them. I see a lot of "re" work happening around experience and technologies use for it. We like to remember past memories and repeat them to others, we capture a moment with our camera to relive later and we try to recreate historical events to gather understanding from them.

                                                    Bonobo : Cirrus [Official Video]

This isn't a big lead to go with but it gives me a better purpose for experience. Someone who works with a similar use of repetition in image is a freelancer called Cyriak. Although his work does not necessarily aim for the users experience, it does flow and move visually with how I could consider a person recalls memory. Especially when that memory becomes distorted from over remembrance.

References 

cyriak’s channel. (n.d.).YouTube. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/user/cyriak

McCarthy, John C. Technology As Experience. MIT Press, 2004.

Studio V: Experience

Now that my project has been given the go ahead I better start documenting the work. To start with I will give the basis of what my project is and where I begin to start:

Experience

A theme that I am wanting to explore is based around what an experience is and what influences them. This will look at the highs and lows of impacts to the certain experience. To be more specific I will focus towards impacts by current technology, directly recording ones. This feels to be quite philosophical/psychological/conceptual and for now I believe it is. This will allow me to see what other works are out there and what I can utilise by technical interest. I don't want to be stuck to my computer and books the whole time though so I have made a decision to become indulged in events and activities outside of studio time and continually relate it to my work. Thankfully the electives I have chosen for the first semester are also quite practical based to add a mixture to the work.

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/084/cache/hands-holding-camera_8447_990x742.jpg

The research I have collected already should keep me busy. So to keep record I will give a few of them here.

Here is a one sided look at why tourists and cameras are destroying the travelling world. This actually is where my thoughts were leading towards when I thought of the idea while on holiday. Another article from The New Yorker has the author question his strength in memory without technology. Based on an experience he had without taking any snapshots he felt looking back now it still sits clear in his mind. I would like to know if taking a picture really causes for it to withdraw specifics from your memory and into the digital form.

 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_g8CMDiA3baA/SY0tZ3j6RTI/AAAAAAAAAac/JnwdAvdChTQ/s1600/cellphones.jpg

Daniel Kahneman's TED talk on memory vs experience. This talk explains the importance of the memory of the experience. After an experience has past it is believed that the largest impact and the last moment of that experience will be what we remember. This makes me question the importance of recording our experience as it looks to be a lot more important than actually being in the moment.

Some readings that will be looked into are "On Photography" by Susan Sontag and "Technology As Experience" by John McCarthy and Peter Wright. The first one looks specifically at photography and its interventions with a person and their camera, what it is they become and the affects it has. The other looks at technology and how it changes what our experiences are or how we access these experiences. While it's broad with the technologies, it has importnat information on the 'capture' aspect of technology on experiences.  

What I am creating will be under entertainment media art. This will be anything from installation to interactive game to contemporary art. I want to do this as a stepping stone towards getting my work into events and festivals and then eventually working towards project management of larger works. I know I should keep talking to tutors who are already part of similar programmes. 

References

Beller, Thomas. “Saying Goodbye to Now.” The New Yorker Blogs, December 4, 2012. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/12/saying-goodbye-to-now-how-do-iphone-photos-impact-our-experience.html.

 

McCarthy, John C. Technology As Experience. MIT Press, 2004.

 

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Picador, 1977.

 

Daniel Kahneman: The Riddle of Experience Vs. Memory | Video on TED.com. Accessed March 15, 2013. http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html.

 

“James Durston: Photography Has Ruined Travel.” CNN Travel. Accessed March 15, 2013. http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/tell-me-about-it/james-durston-photography-has-ruined-travel-361992.