12th June 2012 - Summary of Entire Project

Summary for Assignment 2: Make Me Like You

Well...well...what a ride. There were definitely occasions where I thought we had bitten off more than we could chew, as there were so many component to the approach we took with this assignment. The Facebook component really took a lot of planning and due to the nature of the beast required regular interaction. To some extent Beck and I adopted different approaches towards this component of this project. Beck was far less active within the group, whereas I took a far more active role. With the exception of the initial posts and a couple of random entries, she took a backseat as she wanted to see what would happen if after the group was set-up, it was left to its own devices. However, I found this was not enough to get the interaction happening and there was very little participation. I had a few people private message me on FB as they were not sure why they had been invited and seem confued as to why there was not more direction being given.  Beck also mentioned that the friends and family she had invited into the group did not seem to understand what they were supposed to do either. At this point, I decided to take the opposite approach to see what interactions and reactions could be generated. I happen to know a women by the name of Charlie Helen Robinson who actually uses 'Facebook' as a social media tool to network her business and believes it is a great asset, if you apply it. Her members all actively participate regularly, but she leads the way. So with this in mind....I tried a little experiment of my own....I directly contacted about a dozen of the members I had invited through PM - private message and explained what we required of them, but did not contact the others, in order to see how the interactions would vary. Once this had been explained in detail these participants were very active, whilst the others were not. Although, I have since found out many more have been following the posts, but just not participating. There was a small number that removed themselves from the group. 

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Over-view of Tasks

Task 1: Download the ‘ArtSwipe’ app (free) on your mobile. Complete an activity by creating an image from the famous artworks provided or use images of your own and then upload the completed survey to this facebook group to share.

Comment: It seems I was the only one to actually participate in this particular task, although it was posted early in the project before the PM's had been sent and this could be a contributing factor. However, the imagery provide was also quite limited and this may also have been an issue, although the app was very easy to use. 

 

Task 2: Download the Pici Booth app (free) on your mobile. Take pictures of yourself or friends, then apply various effects and upload to this facebook group to share.

Comment: This app had a small selection of people who became involved  and was also very easy to use. It was another task assigned early in the action, but did seem to generate some interest which then dominoed with the Instagram app being used aswell. I actually like both of these apps and found them a bit of fun. 

 

Task 3: Answer this question – What constitutes as ‘Art’ and what makes ‘Art’ great? Question 2 – What is art? ......“Art is life and life is art”

Comment: These questions did intimidate some group members, who not being artists thought they had no authority to comment on such an intellectual question and therefore were not qualified to answer. Again I had some members PM me directly to whom I explained any thought they had was valid and relative as they are the audience and therfore their opinions mattered....I explained there was not or wrong answer and that we are just having a conversation. As a result there were some responses.

Task 4: “Make me like you”

As the actual name of this very assignment is "Make Me Like You" we thought it may be interesting to see how the members would respond to this task if it were left open to interpretation without any guidelines to direct them. It was our deliberate intention not to elaborate on this comment and to see what our participants would say, if anything.

Comment: I did have a couple of members comment on my wall in relation to this task; one fellow explained he was having trouble with his computor and thus was participating from his mobile phone which meant he was limited and so apologised for not being able to join in on that task; another woman commented that she should be liked for who she is without having to perform to get acceptance and claimed this comment was a manipulation to feel something. I explained in my opinion art is exactly that....a manipulation to create, cause or incite responses and therefore sucessful in its intention.

Corpse drawing               

Originally this was Beck's idea, however we were both really keen for this particular app to work, but unfortunately it seemed to have quite a lot of glitches which posed way too problematic and frustrating. Unlike, me Beck is not the most patient person and definitely did not have the tolerance for the issues we came across with this app. I gave it a really good go and spent many hours trying to see if we could over come the issues, but in the end even I gave it away frustrated and annoyed. How could we expect to the group members to struggle with this function, if even we could not get it to work effectively. After realising this idea would not make it past the drawing board (pardon the pun), Beck  sugggested applying this idea to a continuous story and I then expanded by suggesting we could also do a poem. Although these ideas are similar to the exquisite corpse, the continuous story could only work if each person participating can see what the previous individual has already written, otherwise it would not make any sense. 

Good Golly Miss Molly - tell me your secrets

This particular idea was inspired by the movie "Letters to Juliette" and one we were both quite excited about. Initially we had wanted to assign an actual physical location and document the expeience with video footage, but decided with all the other activities we were initiating it would be to hard to monitor and so decided to apply it as another fb activity. It was all intended to be very tongue in cheek and the limited activity responded to this premise. Again I did receive a couple of funny suggestions via PM, but both Beck and myself thought it would have generated a lot more traffic than it actually did.    

General posts, found articles and video's shared

I was really pleased at the level of activity by some members and the interesting articles, videos and insightful comments that they shared. Some members shared works they had already created, whilst others created some images specifically for the group which was very pleasing. It was encouraging that people had taken the time to participate to this extent, even though one bizzare image was of a hare's corpse....eeek. Among others, there was one that we have all fondly dubbed the 'Hairy Cactus' and is a fluro computorised sketch that has phallic tendencies.

Comments on images and video footage

There was really quite a broad variety of material shared, from historical art to modern, from applications for grants, to documentary to inspirational and educational videos. Some of the post were of images or video footage and others of simple text that raised various social commentaries. Regardless of the type of material all posts made clearly tried to engage with what was asked that they thought was relevant. One particular fellow who had participared regularly made a post of a comment that he sourced that essentially stated that "regardless of our choice in sexual preferences or our personal position, we are all just people". Now I should make it clear, this chap is a bit of a gay activist and believes that both art and the written word are great forums to raise awareness and have the opportunity to incite change. He very deliberately posted the page without any comment of his own and let it run its course. within about 17 hours it had pretty much gone viral and had received an influx of comment that were both supportive and then to the extreme of vile, abusive, violent comments and threats from all over the world. The interaction was amazing! Sadly, the fellow who posted it meant to upload it to the group and accidently uploaded it to his own page (wall) instead. When I tried to upload from his page to the group it only bought over the actual post and not all the comments. At the time I thought it did not matter as we could re-direct to it, but as it turns out 'Facebook' removed it due to the inflammatory nature of some of the comments. On a positive note it has been the inspiration for another project I have discussed with Beck that I would like to undertake.

Survey

Beck and I had many discussions about facebook and whether or not we thought people would accept friend requests from someone they dont know and furthermore the type of interactions individuals choose to have or not. In order to gain a more accurate assessment where people feel free to say what they really think....we decided to set up a survey where the members could answer anonymously in order to get a clearer picture of why thry choose either option. Additionally, both Beck and I decided to indulge in the 'art of deception' as part of our experiment. In order to do this we both created alter-ego's to assess if our friends would accept a 'friend request' from someone they do not know, in essence a stranger. This deception only goes to further prove the influence of this particular social media and how it affects peoples choices. Interestingly, Beck did not have the same level of success with this deception due to the fact the image she chose to upload as a profile pic many of her friends and family were familiar with being connected to her. Whereas, I was fortunate to have more success with my anonymous friend requests, to the point there are still some close friends who are not aware it is me. 

The Key - Video Production 

Initially I had the idea to capture video footage of us approaching people on the street in an interview type of senario in  more of a documentary style of approah. We were going to apply the same online questions and task to a real life application as those given to the group online and compare the responses when you remove the anonymous element. The installation may have had the two interacting with video footage. However the moment that first story started was created...I had a light-bulb moment....and suggested we let the intetactive, immersive approach of using the continuous story be the basis for the video. The entire premise for the video is based on the continuous story created in the group. There are infact two stories and we have been able to tie them together, once again bringing everything full-circle, including uploading the completed video back into the group. The actual filming, making of the video and capturing some great still shors in order to create a final piece to present was a load of fun. Obvioulsy there was a great deal of planning involved, but it just added to the sense of ownership and sense of pride. From inception up, this part of our project was truly collaborative, from the creation of the story, to the participation in filming and even the interaction of a genuinely accomodating stranger (Ben), who is now also a member of the group. (Full circle). We have been blessed with the level of interaction from the members to create the story, great models and the support of family and friends. Beck and I are already keen to start another project. 

In Conclusion 
I have learnt that I am far more capable than what I often give myself credit for and for that matter, what other people give me. The professional social media networker that I mentioned earlier in this post, belives I have a real talent for networking and work well with social media.... In her words...."I am a natural". I have also realised you cannot place a pre-determined expectation on how you think people will interact with this type of activity because you just dont know....you could be selling them short as well as yourself. You are bound to be disappointed in some and pleasatly suprised by others. The continuous story was a great idea and although we had to repost the stories a couple of times to get it moving and although it took a little bit of encouragement to begin, it was successful.  Generally, I would have to say this has been an enjoyable, exciting and interesting experience and without doubt....informative. Throughout the process, I believe both Beck and myself have learned a lot more about what works and what does not.  Twenty...twenty vision is a wonderful thing and in retrospect, there are clearly things we would have done differently or activities we would not have included. It is my genuine opinion that if you invest well and guide the project properly to begin with, then once the group is more established, it definitely has the potential to develop into something self-sustaining.