Technologised Bodies-Kazuhiko Hachiya

Undoubtlly, to build a link between the art and the science is an idea sounds unique and challenging. This art work created by Japanese artist Kazuhiko Hachiya called "Inter Dis-Communication Machine" which is a conmmunication system composed by a video camera, transmitters, head mounted displays, batteries, and feathers. One who wear this equipement will view the sight and hear the sound from the other one's perspective. That makes the user feel confused about "me" and "you".
Duringt the conmmunication in daily life, we always imagine that if we could get the feeling from others to close the distance among souls. As a result, this dream is achieved in some degrees by this art work. What is unusual for me is that this technology's show makes the viewer become part of the art work itself, and what's more, it create a space for the experiencer and the art will be accessable and available only while it is experienced by it's users.

Horror Chase-Jennifer and Kevin McCoy

Artists:
Jennifer and Kevin McCoy

Work's Name:
Horror Chase

Produced date:
2002

Introduction:
 "Jennifer and Kevin McCoy" is a husband-and-wife team comes from Brooklyn, New York, starting their working in interactive media, mass media and global commerce.

Just as this data-based art work created by re-examining the classic scene of a stylish horror movie "Evil Dead 2" (1987), this couple are good at getting the idea in multiple ways.
The main content of this 5-minutes movie was abstracted from the horror-movie element: chasing, which is regarded as the epitome of horror. The desperate man seems like being chased by someone who never appears in the frame. He runs towards, then away from, then towards his attacker and there is no way that he goes by in twice.

As an "electronic sculpture" they suggest by themselves, it leaves an unexpected impression to the viewer at the first time by using the home-brewed software to switch at random and reverse playback.

The similar points:
1. It is still a cinema based on the visual impression as the traditional film, which means the visual impression is still the main way to transfer the idea from the artist or editor;

2. The screen's form is a traditional one without multi-screen, dome projection. If I didn't notice that this is a new media object, people might think this is a part cut from a traditional horror movie;

3. Majority part of this work is based on reality.

The different points:
1. The main structure of this cinema is too simple to be suggested as a story or documentary. It makes a piece of event from a traditional film becomes the whole part of this work (no beginning, no ending; no question, no answer; no reason, no result). It is beyond the traditional definition of cinema that "telling story" in some degrees;

2. By using the unique technology and equipment designed by hemselves, these couple-artists create the immersive feeling that they want. For this reason there are something unusual that you can observe from this work, for example, the door the man had broken restored in the next second seems like the time was going backwards, is something beyond the reality. It can be suggested as a symbol of digital cinema.

Pros:
1. With the support from technology and equipment, digital cinema gives a different way to tell the story. The story we could hardly imagine to build at once. 2010 was the big coming out party for 3D. Hot on the heals of Avatar, just about everyone was eager to offer movies, consumer electronics, services and television content in 3D. The booming of the digital cinema increase the visual enjoyment of viewers and also extend the market for the filmmakers;

2. The showing style of digital cinema is more flexible and more portable without the limitation of the traditional projector. Just as McCoy's other work, the high-tech hardware is packed in a hard-shelled black suitcase for the convenience to travel different galleries and exhibitions. That means by taking this small case, this video work can be displayed anywhere on a screen or even on a wall.
What is more, digital cinema based on data but not the celluloid, just like the "Horror Chase" we mentioned here, gives a possibility to show the film work on internet video platform. That means more people will get the useful information of this media art for the wide-spread access. It is not hard to imagine that enjoy a digital cinema only by a PC or even your i-Phone. The IDC study presents the current forecasts for U.S. and worldwide households that have at least one high-definition television, digital video recorder, or 3D-capable HDTV. The development of digital movie becomes part of our life now, and that will be a good new to every filmmaker as the more efficient dissemination of cinematic culture.

Cons:
Here comes the problem:
What we mentioned here is not only the digital cinema, but also the new media art exactly. Towards history of the cinema's birth, we can find that it was stabilized as a technology for it was originally a automatic projector to show the illusion of fast-moving images. Furthermore, the digital cinema's developing was also beginning with a solution of technical problems while traditional cinematic language can't change.
As the progress and evolution of the digital cinema, new media arts face two serious problems: how to identify themselves; how to make people accept this new kind of art.

The classic definition of movie was given by French film theorist Christian Metz who wrote in 1970s that "Most film shot today, good or bad, original or not, 'commercial or not, have as a common characteristic that they tell a story; in this measure they all belong to one and the same genre, which is , rather, a sort of ''super-genre.'" Should the new media work break this rule or just looks for another way to tell a story?
From the point of my view, before finding a good enough way to change the original definition, the attempt can be done based on the reality, in another word, coming from our real life. That is also an important element  for the solution to the second problem.

As the other kinds of arts, cinema, no matter which genre it is, needs viewers. Nowadays, artists have created many new style or way to build a new media culture, but most of people still prefer to accept the style similar to the traditional one: telling a story. For instance, the Hollywood movie with the most advanced cinema technology is a digital movie without any doubt, but the core of it, which is the basic style of telling the idea, is still a storyboard. What's more, the filmmaker will try their best to hide the trace of using the digital technology to ensure the perfect show of the story.
Art comes from life. Life makes us feel more things. That is also art should do. As a result, if we have to give the "story-mode" up to make innovation, the foundation basing on reality should be retained at least. It makes digital cinema be more acceptable for people. That will be crucial for new media art as a new object that needs more time to go further.

Quotations:
 "Most film shot today, good or bad, original or not, 'commercial or not, have as a common characteristic that they tell a story; in this measure they all belong to one and the same genre, which is , rather, a sort of ''super-genre.'"

------ Christian Metz, 1970

References:
Mark Tribe, New Media Art, 64-65;
Peter Lunenfeld, The Digital Dialectic, What is digital cinema, 173-192;
http://www.zkm.de/futurecinema/index_e.html
http://www.marketresearch.com/map/prod/7078276.html
http://www.marketresearch.com/DIGDIA-v3443/Digital-3D-Entertainment-Practical-Realities-7063369/

"Mission on Earth"

This 23-minutes' short film can be summed up as a story of  young girl from Alpha One trying to do a mission on the earth. All the scenes are placed in several spuares which can't be shown in a traditional film. The use of sesimu Haneous screens is creative. These screens working connectively give different perspectives in one screen to increase the feeling and thinking from viewers. I also think the interacting among these spuares is interesting and brilliant. As the changing of the main scene's white balance, the color of other quarters are also changed to match the basic color for the whole work. It almost like a painting or design for the pstel color and the low saturation color to impress the melancholy, low mood. What is more, the story structure is not as clear as the traditional film I watched before. It more like pieces of a story, and the editor focus more on the feeling or impression for the viewer but not care the logical fictional things. During our disscusion, we all built a link between this video's screen-form to Mondrian's painting art work. Mondrian is a dutch well-known as his series of work that the canvas were seperated by several black lines and each squares were colored in primary colors.The multi-screens using in this video creates a confusing atmosphere for the viewer, feels like we can discover this world towards this girl's different perspectives. For the disordered story board, it also leaves a lost-feeling in this city as the main character is a stranger for earth.

Dada Peom!!!

As we made a dda-style video in the class, I have gotten more impression about this specific art form. It is a little bit ashamed that I still can't give a proper definition for it for it's unknown origination and multiple way to present the main concept of it. It match the description from the Dada artists: Dada was, officially, not a movement, its artists not artists and its art no art. No matter my classmates or myself are not a professional media-artists at all, but we can make a Dada art work which is fulled of fun without too much sense. I think we should be more creative next time by not following any known rules. Anyway, I can feel about the abstraction and expressionism deeply towards this performance created by ourselves.

Mark Napier’s ‘Shredder’

This work is typical of much digital art because it is a n artwork that places importance on the event and audience participation.
The Shreder web interface was created to be both an interactive exhbit as an artwork generator. The discription of this work, as the name called, 'Shereder' works as a cutting and mixing machine which shoeing the images and words from website, and shows it in a disordered way. I think the importance of the interaction betweem the artist and viewers get a good explaination in this work. This kind of mordern art is deconstruction, because it makes us think about or notice the conventional order of things. And the form that to get the art work by clicking the mouse and  showing on the screen is creative and worth exploring. Everyone can get an art work created by himself or herself with a computer no matter a proffessional education about art being taken or not. 
However, there are still some adoubt for the Shreder. First, it can hardly deny that due to the progress of this art producion it is less aesthetic. What's more, the way to present limit the exhibition form of it. More or less, an art work which can only be seen in a spuare screen seems wierd and I am not sure whether this could be accepted by people.

What are some chalenges digital art presents to art world (ie galleries, exhibition goers, art critics and scholars)?

1.      Technical problems-difficulties to drive right equipment, software or resolution;

2.      Harder to judge merit good or nor comparing to traditional media-anyone has access;

3.      Difficult to see who actually made it;

4.      Issue of originality is important-so easy to copy;

5.      Audience may not know how to understand it, for it is too abstract to understand as a media art;

6.      There is going to be a growing need of more advanced equipment which is expensive;

7.      It need a special space to get interactive showing;

8.      Galleries need some educational program to help people understand;

9.      There is no many galleries just for this kind art so people won’t see it as art;

Gamer Revolution(CBC ducumentary, 2007)

Pros:
To encourage people create future or change their life by trying something might impossible in the real life (people give an agency to build or explore a world fantacy without limitation);
Gain achievement or confidence by playing an important role in the game(as mentioned: the master of universe);
A practical and usefull substitution of some enviroment which hard to be built in the reallity(Eg: train the soider by showing the vedio games or imatate the sceens unavailible in low cost).
To spread knowledg in an accepted way for teenagers, it's more like a new consept of education(as mentioned: 'remission', a vedio game designed to give knowledges about cancer and encourages people to fight with)
Cons:
Some of the imitation are too similiar to the real life to be distinguished, and it makes people easier to do some excessive things which means nothing in the game but influence deeply in the real life (as mentioned: the first person shooter give an exciting impression; the test named 'Funditionnal Magnetic Imagining' discovered the relationship between agressive brain activities and violent activities in the real life);
The position of games' builter and the standpoint of the viewer might be different for the countrarary, religionary or cultural background, so here comes the conflict which became the motivation of aggressive and anti-social actions;
The game starts to be a tool to advocate the thought or idea from the government for the new-technologies development and popular culture. That is adverse effect on the keeping of peace and avoider of war('U.S Army', the free-donwload vedio game created by armies in order to encourage people to join the army to fight for the liberty);
The majarity of games' customers are teenagers who are getting used to gain the knowledges or accept the aggressive value from the game firsthand. (Especially for the problem-child, eg: the boy at age of 15 shooted 8 persons and 5 of them were shooted on head to blur the identity just like in the game)
Other:
The game plays in the way we live, play and think, it worth seriously treated. This is a contemperary society with the booming development of new technolegy, so it might not a suficiant way to ban all of the vedio games for it's possibilities to raise the crimes. However, as there are so high percent of PC user chooce the video game to kill their time and the majority of them are under 18, the issue to limitted the violent and exsessive one by preventing them entering the games' market or be open to everyone.
About favourite game:

It mentioned 'Angry Birds' during the disscusion of our group, and it was suggested as the most popular phone games in the past few years and it worth peoples' love. The game is designed in a very cute style without any bloody sceen like any other shooting  games, and the designer also give a season change during some interesting events. What's more, it is one that easy to begin with but give a achievement following the class becoming more and more difficult. It not unexpected that many people are addicted to this game and waste all the spare time just want to gain three golden stars.