Consider in what ways you hope your final work engages its audience and communicates a key concern of the studio? Draw upon your experiences from attending the studio exhibition.

“Performing Futures” is a studio focused on how live performances can help us imagine, visualise, and embody possible futures. Furthermore, it puts an emphasis on how media can be used in innovative ways to help achieve this goal. I believe that the use of speculative design, as defined by Dunne and Raby (2013) may be one method of achieving this studio’s goals. More specifically, Dunne and Raby (2013) describe the use of props in speculative design as paramount to its function, as they serve as triggers that can ease us into constructing ideals, values, and beliefs in our minds that we can entertain and reflect on.

“Playing Dead” is a performance based around theatrical plays, with the use of screens to add to the atmosphere and immersion of the play. It was primarily based around the idea of a service where an actor (with the help of artificial intelligence software) is employed to pretend to be a deceased person. Our goal with this performance was to introduce the audience to this concept, and the potential repercussions and consequences for a service like this being widely employed.

Through the narrative, we explore it’s use as a device for interacting with deceased loved ones, either as a tool to seek closure or as a coping mechanism. With the use of some worldbuilding, we made references to how capitalism may corrupt such a service, how people would discuss the morality of it (through a podcast), and how a service like this may affect both the client and actor mentally. I hope that the inclusion of these elements made it easier to conceptualise the concept; by creating a suspension of belief as we made the concept more “real”.

Outline the singular most successful and singular most problematic aspect of your process/finished work.

I consider our use of innovative media techniques to be the most successful aspect of our work. Primarily, I consider our use of screens and OBS Studio to immerse audiences into our performance by visualising the technology used in our speculative fiction as a major point of success in comparison from the first time we performed it without any additional media techniques.

In particular, the use of this media technique that I received the most feedback from audiences, peers, and tutors was the visualisation of the artificial intelligence software working in the background and giving prompts to the actor live. It further elaborated on how this speculative technology may function if it existed, which I feel serves to ground this concept, making it easier to conceptualise it in reality. Schneider, the creator the one person show YOUARENOWHERE puts this into words: “(Tech is) the same as the text. We’re using all these things to tell the story at the same time” (Tran 2016).

One problematic aspect of our performance was the lack of a cohesive message. The first scene sets up the company providing the service as a greedy, exploitative force, and the scenes following it engage with how this affects the clients who use this service, However, our final scene focuses more on the philosophical implications of engaging with this service, i.e. “Does it matter if it isn’t real if the emotions are?”. While both concepts are valid venues of exploration, I feel we could have improved the performance if we stuck to one exploration.

Imagine you are going to keep working on that media piece, what would be the core things you would want to improve and extend and why?

If we were to move forward with our performance, I believe that we should implement more physical props to the performance. Currently, what is happening on stage is mostly left up to audience imagination. Sets that invoke the spaces the characters are inhabiting will serve to further immerse audiences in the performance, hopefully so they spend less time filling the gaps in imagination and use that brain power to engage with the concept.

Outline one key thing you’ve learnt from your studio experience that you will take into your future thinking and practice.

The main skill I’ve attained throughout this process is the use of OBS Studio. While I may only have a basic understanding of its uses and functions, I am now familiar enough with the program to be aware of the potential it has. This will enable me to explore and discover new applications of this software for my future work, especially if it involves live performances.

What’s one key takeaway about working collaboratively?

While everything worked out in the end, I believe our team effectiveness was slightly inefficient. We all had different visions of how the narrative and message would look like, and I feel this led to a performance that could have been a bit more cohesive than it was. While no major conflicts arose, as everyone was willing to compromise and set aside differences, I believe that amending the teamwork process may prove useful to prevent future conflicts in a potentially more confrontational dynamic.

Harper (2018) outlines 5 stages in team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. I would like to focus on the storming stage. In the future, I believe it will be important to create an environment where discussion is encouraged, where people feel free to share their ideas even if they may conflict with other’s opinions. That way, a consensus of the vision and direction can be defined before the dynamic is normalised, and the group can work more cohesively and efficiently.

(844 words)

References

Dunne A & Raby F (2013) Speculative Everything : Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Harper H (2018) The Stages of Group Formation, and how they Aid Your Teams Success, WorkStyle. https://www.workstyle.io/stages-of-team-development

Tran D (2016) 6 Shows That Perfectly Combine Tech and Text, AMERICAN THEATRE. https://www.americantheatre.org/2016/07/06/6-shows-that-perfectly-combine-tech-and-text/

Week 7:

COMM2627 – Week 7 Blogpost (Written Reflection)

Week 8:

COMM2627 – Week 8 Blogpost (Written Reflection)

Week 9:

COMM2627 – Week 9 Blogpost (Written Reflection)

Week 10:

COMM2627 – Week 10 Blogpost (Written Reflection)

Week 11:

COMM2627 – Week 11 Blogpost (Written Reflection)

Week 12:

COMM2627 – Week 12 Blogpost (Written Reflection)

Major Performance Development

This week was our major performance before our exhibition. Before performance day, I worked on the different visual elements that needed completing, and our group familiarized ourselves with the script. As we were setting up, I realized the importance of writing down the hotkeys of what I needed to click on top of the script, and promptly added those. While the performance was an overall success, there are still a few kinks to iron out. Firstly, we need to be cognizant of the camera, as actors that were meant to be off stage could be seen through it. Next, the implementation of stage directions, namely for the lights, should be added to give more clarity for our performance. Lastly, I should remember to set up the camera’s settings before the performance, as with shifting lighting the look and coloration of the camera often deviates from what I expect it to be. Overall, we are set up pretty well for next week’s exhibition, and despite a few smaller issues to work out, I am proud of what we’ve achieved and confident that we’ll give a great performance for our exhibition.

Weekly Reading

For our reading, we were introduced to “The Adaptation Game”, a board game played not for entertainment, but as a means to prepare for climate crises in your town. Similar to Dungeons & Dragons, it involves a creation of a character sheet, and for the player to roleplay as themselves during a climate crisis. Compared to an infomercial, I feel that this is a much more engaging way to involve people in climate crisis preparation, not only is it more interesting, it forces players to envision how they should handle a crisis rather than give them a vague set of rules to abide by. As a form of education, I believe it to be useful, not just for it’s use of engagement, but also as a means of local community building, deepening the relationships between neighbours, which could be beneficial in the event of a crisis, climate or no.

Independent Research

In the same vein, I researched the use of virtual reality as a means of training for medicine. Pottle (2019) states the increasing importance of VR as a means for training medical practitioners, as it is cost-effective, repeatable, and standardised. From personal experience, being able to practice a skill repeatedly at my own leisure has always helped in the development of that skill. I believe the use of simulation could be useful in the future, especially for activities that involve a high-barrier of entry, such as medicine.

(425 words)

References

Major Performance Development

Developments for our major performance this week consists of finishing our final version of the script and recording the audio for our prerecorded scene. In regard to script writing, I believe our methodology of having everyone write their own versions of the script to have been useful, as I struggled to communicate with the rest of the on what they wanted the overall theme, emotions, and message of the final scenes to be. Reading their versions of the scripts, and contrasting them from my own, gave me a much clearer picture of what they were envisioning. Despite this, I do find that our workflow is not as collaborative as I’d like, as any changes to the final script are sometimes not communicated well amongst the group and we might only find out when we meet in class. I believe a more central online collaborative space could be useful to remedy this. This was also my first time using the on air studio in RMIT to record audio, and I learnt a few useful things, such as how far I should be from the mic, that I feel will be beneficial in the future.

Weekly Reading + Independent Research

I chose to delve into the alternative reading provided this week, a podcast focusing on AI’s cultural takeover. The topic centred around the concerns of AI’s ability to create cultural artifacts, as it threatens humanity as the shapers of history. I disagree with the sentiment that AI might overtake humanity’s role as creators, because it lacks a distinctly human element. To delve into this topic deeper, I did some independent research and found an article from The New Yorker titled “Why A.I. Isn’t Going To Make Art”. This ‘human element’ as I described, is defined by Chiang (2024) as sincerity. While human’s might not be great at originality, given that like generative A.I., we rely on the bodies of work that came before us, it is our sincerity in the creation of art that makes it art, as it is a medium of communication we use to express ourselves in one another. I believe that this perspective gives me more insight to the nature of communication, and could be used as a component of out performance, as it involves a human interpreting the calculations of a machine.

(380 words)

References

Major Performance Development

For this week’s major performance work, our group focused on outlining and fleshing out the ideas we wanted to explore in the scenes following what we’ve already done. For instance, we’ve decided that the second scene of our work will be a prerecorded podcast, both as an excuse to use a more diverse range of media techniques, and to provide worldbuilding beyond the scope of the characters. We have also outlined the general situations of the final 2 scenes and will spend our time working on different parts of the scripts before next week’s class. While this method has worked well so far, I believe we could use more communication between each other to have a more cohesive goal, although it could be argued that this week could be treated as an ideation period.

Weekly Reading

For our “reading”, we had guest lecturer Joel Stern bring us to the exhibition “The Hidden Replica”, held at RMIT Gallery. The exhibition is based off a theme or replication and imitation, and featured works ranging from video works to interactable pieces. While many pieces centred around technology and AI, the piece that interested the most was the shadow puppetry meant to mimic the Pontianak, a mythological creature from Malaysia, that represents a vengeful female spirit. Not only was it nice to see representation of the country I come from, I believe it’s play on mimicry was very layered. On the surface, we have the shadow puppetry, but the way it was presented caused the shadows to look both like grasping fingers as well as leaves in the jungle. Furthermore, it could also be interpreted that in the context of the myth, the fear of retribution from the Pontianak caused its “victims” to imagine their own fears of a being that did not exist. I believe a similar multi-layered portrayal of mimicry could be useful for my major performance work.

Independent Research

Lastly, to stay on topic, I researched into mimicry consumption. While past studies has been conceived as impulsive, often the result of peer pressure, Shin and Seock (2022) state that it can and may be more likely to occur in a positive state of mind. They suggest that mimicry consumption on social media is a method in which people influence each other, as positive emotions facilitate more interaction on Instagram. Mimicry at its core is another function of human socialization, and I should keep this fact in mind as I move forward with my performance work centred on mimicry.

(413 words)

References

In-Class Studio Time

This week, we performed an updated version of our performance from Week 3, with roughly the same script, but with increase visual elements on top of it. While I think that the performance went quite well, the main issue came with not having rehearsed the entire scene beforehand, and the lack of communication from my part in terms of providing stage directions. This led to a mix-up where a prerecorded scene was supposed to be playing but unfortunately this was not communicated properly, and the actors started their scene while this went on. I think this highlights the importance of running through a performance before it is presented, just to get everyone on the same page and mindset.

Weekly Reading

For this week’s reading, we watched a presentation about the use of AI in decoding animal communication. What stood out to me from this lecture was the speaker’s discussion of the potential of constructing a synthetic whale with AI to communicate with whales as a method of research. I believe this concept of reconstruction using AI to be closely related to my performance work of reconstructing the personalities of the deceased, and the caution that should be put for both to be linked as well, as the speaker mentions the danger of disrupting wildlife through this method. Similarly, I believe that a thorough exploration of all the potential consequences of our concept would be fruitful for speculating the future, and figuring out how to implement them into our work would contribute even more to this.

Performance Work

For the performance work researched, I decided to choose Wildness (2012), a documentary focusing on the Silver Platter, a historic queer bar in Los Angeles which had a community of primarily transgender immigrant women. In theme with the rest of this week’s reflection, much of the documentary focused on how Wu Tsang, the director of this film, inserted himself into this community with the intention of helping it, but in many ways caused it to undergo more scrutiny than it ever had and indirectly led to it’s eventual closure. This theme of actions vs consequences may be a good source of inspiration for my performance work, as a way of analysing a character who may be harmful to others despite their good intentions.

References

For this week, we had guest lecturer Marcus Ian McKenzie join us to discuss his projects, his work process, and perform a warm-up exercise for performance.

In-Class Studio Time

In-class, McKenzie introduced us to the various pieces of work he has worked on or is working on and gave us insights into what his process in ideation and collaboration for these works. For his process of media making, what stood out to me was the use of Miro as a collaborative tool and his densely filled notebook. For Miro, the ability to create a whiteboard brainstorm style collaboration space seems to be beneficial for working with others, especially if there are limitations to meeting up with them physically, as was the case with some of McKenzie’s previous works. This may be a tool that I might utilize in my future projects. For his notebook, McKenzie’s reasoning for it’s densely filled nature was because of how he jotted down any creative ideas that he came up with on the spot habitually, preventing those ideas from disappearing into memory. I believe that this is a habit that I should learn to develop, as it may prove useful not just for creative projects, but for my personal life as well.

Performance Work

As for my independent research, I thought it appropriate to investigate McKenzie’s own work, namely “The Crying Room”. What’s interesting about this performance is the use of it’s medium, Zoom, as part of the storytelling. The story is meant to be an expression of grief through confusing digital visuals, and the use of Zoom as the stage the audience interacts with adds a sense of immersion to the piece, as if they are peering into the life of someone else. Additionally, I admire the sheer quantity of visual elements used in this works, as it adds to the feeling of overstimulation and portrays the confusing ways in which people handle grief in a more visceral way. I believe I’ve gained more insight into how to use different mediums and visual elements to invoke feelings in the audience through this piece.

(344 words)

References

In-Class Studio Time

For this week’s studio, we formed our groups for our final performance. I have chosen to continue with my previous group’s first idea. Beyond that, we also engaged with this week’s reading in class.

Weekly Reading

For this week’s reading, we watched a TED Talk from Liam Young introducing Planet City, a vision of a future where humanity coexists with nature by limiting their impact on the planet, with a culture based around carnivals and celebrations. It introduces a radical idea where all of humanity coexists in a singular city, occupying as little as 0.02% of the Earth, while we allow nature to overtake the rest of the planet. It also envisions the city completely sustained on sustainable and renewable energy, further leaning into solar-punk aesthetic.

I take issue with this idea’s narrow view on culture and human existence. I feel that the idea of a single, homogeneous culture flattens the cultural diversity in humanity. Not to mention that if all of humanity lives in a singular city, how will existing cultures be affected? What of the numerous indigenous cultures whose connection is to their land? While the concept is interesting, it does feel like it is heavily coloured by the presenter’s own perspective of what a utopia would be like to them.

Performance Work

On the topic of intention and interpretation, I investigated the play Hamilton for this week’s independent research. Mainly, the analysis of the play by F.D Signifier in relation to black culture. Hamilton is a musical play focused on Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers of the U.S.A. and performed by black performers using hip-hop as the vehicle. F.D Signifier points out the inherent dissonance of a black artform (hip-hop) utilised in a white medium (theatre), for a majority white audience portraying a white story, particularly one of freedom and liberation, whilst ignoring the hypocrisy of the founding fathers, many of which are slave owners. While that dissonance might be intended by the author, it is pointed out that white audiences might not always have the tools or the context to understand those intentions. I think that this gives me something to consider when creating media: despite intentions, it is important to recognise the audience you are signalling to, and adapt your work to prevent those intentions from being twisted.

(408 words)

References

F.D Signifier (2020) Black Movie Breakdown:Hamilton, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGQLryUHP0g

‌TED (2021) Liam Young: Planet City — a sci-fi vision of an astonishing regenerative future | TED, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX4ewS-YIbA

Week 4:

COMM2627 – Week 4 Blogpost (Vlog Reflection)

Week 5:

COMM2627 – Week 5 Blogpost (Written Reflection)

Week 6:

COMM2627 – Week 6 Blogpost (Vlog Reflection)

References

Pepper F (2024) ‘The insidious nature of algorithmic feeds and how they’re flattening our culture’, ABC News, accessed 30 Aug 2024 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-25/how-social-media-algorithms-are-flattening-culture/103735868

‌Shapiro D (2023) Is GenAI a Sustaining or Disruptive Innovation in Hollywood?, Substack.com, accessed 30 Aug 2024 https://dougshapiro.substack.com/p/is-genai-sustaining-or-disruptive-in-hollywood