Thoughts

Reading #1

Maya Man, How to use a computer artist talk - Reflection

Maya Man’s comments on the mindset of “posting with the audience in mind” resonate with me a lot. An individual is shaped and formed under the influence of social and cultural aspects surrounding them. The true authenticity of self is thus constantly mediated through various contexts. Just as Maya Man indicates that “we are different in different contexts,” we are always reminding ourselves of any potential thoughts from others, be it online or in person, and adjust the identity we project to them. The relationship of seeing and being seen thus interferes with self-perception and modifies our behaviors. I enjoy her artwork Glance Back, a browser plugin that automatically shoots an image of the user whenever they open their webpage. It is simple in terms of technique yet it comes strong and effective along with Maya’s critiques on the true self under the complex social context. The random and unexpected images could be the most realistic representation of ourselves being relaxed at the specific moment. The interactive web-based artwork forces the audience to collect the unconscious self and invites them to think about their true identity critically. I am inspired by her criticality and look forward to creating my own work based on my observations and experience.

Discussion Questions

1. As AI kept evolving, how can you define generative art? Right now, we can use human language rather than computer language to generate graphics and images. Everyone now can use their language to generate things but is everyone an artist now?
2. Now Y2K style is viral. As we come to Y2.01K and Y2.02K, how has the evolvement of user interface contributed to the new aesthetics of the current web-based art?
3. Now it seems like we are always required to have a story to call our work as “art.” I wonder for the generative graphics we have, what qualities and features made it consider as “art.”

Reading #2

Reading #3

Yehwan Song's Design Series Lecture at CMU - Reflection

It is inspiring to watch Yehwan Song’s workshop at CMU; it definitely opens my eyes to see the possibilities of creative web coding. We tend to consider a webpage as a 2D surface but Song broke this perception. Her works are really intriguing since she created websites that combine both 2D and 3D aesthetics. I was inspired to see that she took all those architectural shapes and turned them into websites. I like the way she utilized the inherent traits of these shapes and built up the interactivity on the top of that. For example, in the cake-like page, users can interact with it by playing with the cut side. Besides, the concept of “anti-user friendly” webpage is also interesting. In today’s UI design or any webpage, designers seem to follow the tendencies of users; I found it fun when designers or artists like Song challenge the norms and still create absorbing sites.

Discussion Questions

1. What she does seems to be complicated; as new coders, how should we work with the knowledge we have to create artworks that can reflect the inspiration we got from artists like Song?
2. How can the concept of anti-user friendly design challenge while also being incorporated into traditional web design?
3. Anti-user friendly design seems to be user friendly in a way so that users can understand how to use it; how should we find the balance between instead of confusing users?

Reading #4

Molly Soda’s Digital House Tour - Reflection

I watched Molly Soda’s introduction to her virtual home and her website. What I found interesting is how Soda’s website can serve as a lens to learn about her personality. She curated a cyber space and it feels like a house tour, where the audience may have a conversation with Soda. It is an unorganized space, contrasting with her organized digital house tour video. It presents an idea related to self-surveillance to me: people tend to present the best aspect of themselves to other people. After browsing her artist website and then watching her videos, it feels quite disjointed when she is introducing her digital room in a clean manner.

Discussion Questions

1. How does Soda’s outdated social media interface aesthetics play a role in her exploration of artist identity?
2. In what ways does Molly Soda blur the line between art and everyday digital life, and how does this influence the audience's understanding of what constitutes art in the digital age?
3. Molly Soda’s works remind me of the concept of “anti-user friendly” webpage. How does this feature of “anti-user friendly” contribute to her voice?

Reading #5

Winnie Soon, Unerasable Characters - Reflection

Unerasable Characters by Winnie Soon is an interesting piece to me. The captured symbols, despite being without actual language, serve as a clear representation of people’s sentiment. The combination of symbols, emojis, and textual characters contribute significantly to the voice of the netizens. I found these abstract symbols have been given essential meanings during the developing history of the internet and have been an integral part of the new language. Connotations are often implied through different ways of combination to use symbols in a sentence. For example, a series of question marks “????” can naturally indicate the rebellious and angry mood by the commenters. I found this artwork related to the whole new media world in general. It is somehow connected to the Glitch Studies Manifesto. They both discuss certain abstract symbols that have extended meanings developed during the digital era.

Discussion Questions

1. How does the visual design of Unerasable Characters III indicate and emphasize the tension between visibility and invisibility in online spaces?
2. How have emojis developed different connotations in different times and cultural contexts?
3. How has Unerasable Characters managed to deliver the idea of censorship through different cultural backgrounds of the audience?

Reading #6

Joy Buolamwini, How I'm fighting bias in algorithms - Reflection 🎥

I watched the TED Talk of How I'm fighting bias in algorithms by Joy Buolamwini. The representation of different communities has been an increasingly urgent issue we have to pay our attention to in this era, in which almost everyone around the world engages with the internet. The rise of generative AI encountered problems of representation initially since they would not correctly generate certain pictures related to races or they inherently incorporated stereotypes in the real world into the generated images. For example, some of the programs would generate pictures of Asians with stereotypical small eyes and other negative facial traits; they could not generate a picture of an Asian husband and a white wife but vice versa; they could not distinguish the aesthetics of Japan and China while generating the architectures. Generative AI is a reflection of the people behind the algorithm. While more people have gained access to the AI generation, we should be aware of the cultural representation we always long for and we have been working for in the past decades, rather than letting technological advancement backfire.

Discussion Questions

1. There are laws and regulations regarding racism in reality; how can laws be applied in AI image generation to prevent racial stereotypes?
2. What data has various AI programs been fed to curate their algorithm and how does the stereotypes penetrate?
3. How has the national and linguistic boundaries been a problem preventing inclusion in algorithms and letting the western perspective dominate the game?

Reading #7

- Pecha Kucha on Morehshin Allahyari -

Reading #8

Neta Bomani, Artist Website

I usually perceive coding art as a medium to present abstract visually stunning works. Neta Bomani’s website and her works inspire me since it presents other possibilities of websites in storytelling. I like her works presenting the unknown or neglected stories in history, such as Black Photo Booth. She made her website a hub for these archives in an interactive way. For example, when my mouse hover on certain historical information, there will be related photos shown in the bottom right corner, helping me visualize the scene or people. I like this form of website documentary. It reminds me of the strength of the web linking these small pieces together. By compiling and presenting these lost data, Neta Bomani’s works are fighting for representation for the community she cares about.

Discussion Questions

1. What are the limitations or challenges of using the web as a storytelling medium for historical narratives?
2. How does the creator’s role as a curator and storyteller affect the authenticity and integrity of these histories
3. How might the need for continuous maintenance for a website impact the sustainability of Bomani’s work as a hub for historical resources?

Reading #9

Neta Bomani, Artist Website

I took the time to watch the documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution and learned such an inspiring story of the disabled people, who fought for their rights to live in this society with equity. The documentary motivated me by showing people Camp Jened and their anecdotes. Now when I see all these accessible facilities in schools, apartments, and restaurants in the US, I would think of these memorable lively people who devote themselves to promote the enforcement of 504. We are not always given the rights by society but we should always fight for equality for ourselves.

Discussion Questions

1. How can we, as individuals, contribute to furthering accessibility and promoting equity in our communities, whether at schools, workplaces, or public spaces?
2. Reflecting on the journey of the disabled rights movement, what lessons can we learn about overcoming systemic barriers, especially using web narratives in the context of this class?
3. How can we use storytelling as a tool to continue advocating for disability rights and other social justice causes?