Where we are. and who I am.

I
am sitting at the empty exhibition space of Eyebeam at 23rd street of
NYC. I will be presenting my work to about a dozen teenagers from
Liverpool (via FACT.org) tomorrow. I am not nervous about the
presentation, but recently I have been having trouble concentrating on
anything and everything. I have found peace only while moving from one
place to another. I am nervous that I am actually getting some work done
today, inside of this big warehouse building. It must be the
familiarity of space and comfort with the people around. Aaron M is
working on laser cutting some dozen thousands of lines into wood and
Mushon Z is hacking on Shiftspace project. Jamie O is reading some
physics theory and the fellows and staffs are walking around. Now it’s
very late and just me in a dark hallway, just the sound of ventilation
and smell of halal cart chicken and rice.

In
tomorrow’s talk, work in progress related to <first person
perspective> will be main topic. Some other random thoughts and ideas
and experiences of previous projects will also be shared. Here are some
incomplete notes for the talk, which will be accompanied by slide show
and videos and live demonstration.  (this is just notes, and all the sources must be credited soon)

Few
months ago, it must be around March or April of 2010, I realized I can
not believe what I see. My life was often filled with unimaginable
moments. I was meeting extraordinary people and seeing incredible
places. I was too busy living my life that I had no time to make record
or write diaries. I was loosing memories of those moments because there
was nothing left of it. I started thinking of First person perspective
film making.

As
an ill-practiced artist, I migrate from one medium to another, often
times not investing enough energy and time in to one of the medium. A
lot of my recent projects have been without physical form, not because I
was practicing metaphysical or relational or conceptual aesthetics, but
simply because I never got around to making anything substantial out of
an idea and tool. Around that time of March or April, I was obsessed
about making a video of a performance work. I realized that performance
work is often too short lived and I never have the right audience or
stage to present my idea. So, I decided to make a killer quality film.
However my interest shifted away too soon, in few weeks I was obsessing
about graphic novels and comic books, and in few months I was invested
in researching about race riots in the U.S.

Then
I realized, in order to make a film that I wanted to make, I had to
build the tools myself. I was overwhelmed by the technology and
necessary procedure involved in making the ideal film, that I gave up my
idea for a newer obsession. I did not have many friends around to help
me with boom mic, lightings, or even carrying around a tripod. Out of
realistic necessity, I was bound to do everything myself. I had not had
the money or techniques to make the tools I wanted and especially to
make the film I wanted. However, upon this revelation of my migrating
interest, I realized it was not money or labor that I was in short of.
It was that I could not make the film that was in my mind with the tools
that could be purchased or rented. Or, at least that the tools when
they are used in an orthodox way of film making had no effect for my
purpose. And it was not a film per se I was hoping to make. It was the
act of making moving image that is part of a performance I was
envisioning. I was questioning my idea, the method of creating an art
project, and the reason for doing so. The process was very much of self
reflection and criticism, and I am experiencing a learning that would
have otherwise been undiscovered.

First Person Perspective Filmmaking

I
got into this ‘first person perspective film making’, simply because I
wanted to show my world to the people who are far away from me. I wanted
to share what I love to the love them better by remembering them in
certain way.

(it
was an accident when I had no idea what to do for a performance
presentation in Paris, I put the camera on my bicycle helmet and
recorded my apartment. And things began to come in right places as I
visited Paris and performed a ‘mega tourist’ walking camera person. -
reference to earlier projects on topics of tourist and camera:
camerautomata and object of desire)

On
the other hand, I became curious to ‘see’ the world in another person
or another object’s perspective. For example I wanted to see as a bird
will see the landscape, as a fast train sees the developing world. I
wanted to give eyes to those objects, thus making them human to certain
degree. I wanted to go and see the place where I could not go. places
that are either far away of forbidden. such as inside of Hassidic Jewish
community, or labor camp of North Korea, or other places and times.

To
begin with such a journey, <First person perspective> is growing
into a workshop and a tool to make my film. Finally I have the means and
needs of making the film. I am planning to go to San Jose next month
and allow some young people to take the camera with them, to show their
world. (Props to Eyebeam roadshow, Zero One San Jose, and Adobe Youth
Voice. )

Hiding what you see

First
person perspective in films show certain things, but also deliberately
leaves out some other things. In other words, First person perspective
is interesting in there are things not shown. It’s like a story where
the protagonist, or narrator is only telling part of the whole story.
Unreliable storyteller is the best ones, like Holden Caulfield in the
Catcher in the rye. What remains untold and unseen is where secrets live
and the truth hide. Doubts about the narrative details, and possibly
the general structure of film is where audience’s participation comes
in.

When
I was trying to make a film in first person perspective, it was like
trying to make sense of an incomplete picture made only out of negative
spaces. The negative spaces are like disorganized pieces of puzzle that
is really hard to make sense of.

Going
back in time, I grew up in a time when the way we watch moving images
became drastically different and predominantly a mobile act. IPODS and
laptops are so common in many developed countries and urban places. It
is almost taken granted that I can watch a film as I wait in the bus or
walking around. As matter of fact, that is a relatively new phenomenon,
watching a moving image was a static act, prior to this mobile
revolution. It has changed not only how we look at moving image, but
also how the moving images are made. That transition to expecting to
watch moving image while moving around was very radical to me at early
age.

On
the other side of moving image, there is change in production of such
film. It used to be the case that one needs an ample amount of education
and training to make a film. but it is quiet different now. Amateur
filmmakers are creating interesting moving images that are watched by
many people. My interest is dissimilar to most of amateur filmmakers
making DIY tools, where they imitate Hollywood techniques on a budget.
My interest is about using means of producing a film (or an art work per
se) to understand how we have been trained to see things in certain way
and to invent new ways, intervene in to the system of visual literacy.
And that process is so called ‘art’ practice for me as a performance
artist. I am not a DIY evangelist or expert in crafting cinematic
inventions. Although I see value in their work and appreciate their
knowledge, my main concern is not on perfecting DIY steadycam or making
dolly in my garage. I am interested in crafting a narrative, a unique
method of storytelling that I can only do by myself, all alone.
That said, and that thought out loud, it made perfect sense to make this movie in first person perspective.

Inventions are product of hopeful imagination, not practical calculations.

‘a lonely man’s imagination becomes a wise man’s invention. which soon becomes a market intervention.’
It
was not that important that my first person perspective cinematic
machines are built well, or that the machines are sophisticated. Some
machines were built to last only one shoot and that was good enough for
that case. My machine might not make a good film in the end and it
doesn’t matter. However some other things matter to my practice, and
here are some thoughts that smart people have wrote in their search for
the meaning of first person perspective.

Alex
Galloway (from the book on Gaming) is right that first person
perspective in film making did not succeed as a genre or story telling
method well, because the audience can not associate with subjectivity of
camera. The third wall between camera, stage and audience can not be
broken because traditional cinema is a passive act. I also agree that
‘where cinema left off, game picked up first person perspective’ (exact
quote needs to be worked) and made good advantage of it. His book on
gaming has a chapter in first person perspective that is very
informative about the history of such film making, with heavy references
to oldies like ‘lady in the lake’ to first person shooting games
running on real time 3D engines.

Steve
Mann is a researcher of computational photography, who was credited as
‘the world’s first cyborg’ a term that could have made sense before the
millennium. He has done some interesting research about Wearble
computers and wearable cameras, which in turn became something of a
common commodity at this point. His early wearable computers look
something like what I envision my first person perspective film machine
will look like. His machines are far more advanced in it’s precision and
computational capability, but it is not his technological works but the
crafty and often times wacky experiments that hold some kind of delight
to me.

A
bit different but related, third person perspective film making, in an
unorthodox example is Surveillance camera players or artists like Jill
Magid. They use the static perception of surveillance camera to play
with or to tell a story. Idea of gaze and power, often times with strong
sexual connotations, are prevalent in Magid’s work. She is a master of
telling, and sometimes not telling, stories which sound to be
interesting.

Near future: Where this is going

My project is not
about inventing clever and odd devices for first person film making.
 Much of such devices has already been invented and industrially
produced at certain cases. It might be not even about making a film. My
interest is specifically on

1. Performing the
camera, or the point of view of a subjective lens. I am interested in
making films that the camera man is performing. (a beautiful piece at
the Whitney’s projection art show way back, where a couple shoots each
other with 16mm camera and projected next to one another)

2. Experiments in
story telling that method that the given facts are considered to be
questionable. This means: I want to make a film with narration that the
viewer will question what degree of truth is the story evolving around.

3.The pedagogic
process (workshop) is not a subsidiary part of the project, It is
equally important that the workshop is a learning and creative
environment for myself and the participants. I will not force any
participant to make a movie in first person perspective. I will make a
first person perspective movie myself, and participants are invited to
take part at any given moment.

4.As Galloway says, first person perspective
failed as a story telling genre in film. Again, I am not trying to make a
conventional film. This project may as well be about real life game-
design workshop, such as previous projects like ‘Shoot me if you can’
where urban spaces are used as a game zone, and camera phones are
killing and shooting device. At this point, I am once again deviating
from the proprietary medium, which is film in this case, and opening up
interpretation of my practice. I keep saying this is film, only because
of the romantic notion of ‘making a film’ sounds to me.

Project page for Zero One San Jose/ Out of Garage

Images from workshop with youths
from Liverpool via FACT.co.uk and EYEBEAM

Where we are. and who I am.

I am sitting at the empty exhibition space of Eyebeam at 23rd street of NYC. I will be presenting my work to about a dozen teenagers from Liverpool (via FACT.org) tomorrow. I am not nervous about the presentation, but recently I have been having trouble concentrating on anything and everything. I have found peace only while moving from one place to another. I am nervous that I am actually getting some work done today, inside of this big warehouse building. It must be the familiarity of space and comfort with the people around. Aaron M is working on laser cutting some dozen thousands of lines into wood and Mushon Z is hacking on Shiftspace project. Jamie O is reading some physics theory and the fellows and staffs are walking around. Now it’s very late and just me in a dark hallway, just the sound of ventilation and smell of halal cart chicken and rice.

In tomorrow’s talk, work in progress related to <first person perspective> will be main topic. Some other random thoughts and ideas and experiences of previous projects will also be shared. Here are some incomplete notes for the talk, which will be accompanied by slide show and videos and live demonstration.

Few months ago, it must be around March or April of 2010, I realized I can not believe what I see. My life was often filled with unimaginable moments. I was meeting extraordinary people and seeing incredible places. I was too busy living my life that I had no time to make record or write diaries. I was loosing memories of those moments because there was nothing left of it. I started thinking of First person perspective filmmaking.

As an ill-practiced artist, I migrate from one medium to another, often times not investing enough energy and time in to one of the medium. A lot of my recent projects have been without physical form, not because I was practicing metaphysical or relational or conceptual aesthetics, but simply because I never got around to making anything substantial out of an idea and tool. Around that time of March or April, I was obsessed about making a video of a performance work. I realized that performance work is often too short lived and I never have the right audience or stage to present my idea. So, I decided to make a killer quality film. However my interest shifted away too soon, in few weeks I was obsessing about graphic novels and comic books, and in few months I was invested in researching about race riots in the U.S.

Then I realized, in order to make a film that I wanted to make, I had to build the tools myself. I was overwhelmed by the technology and necessary procedure involved in making the ideal film, that I gave up my idea for a newer obsession. I did not have many friends around to help me with boom mic, lightings, or even carrying around a tripod. Out of realistic necessity, I was bound to do everything myself. I had not had the money or techniques to make the tools I wanted and especially to make the film I wanted. However, upon this revelation of my migrating interest, I realized it was not money or labor that I was in short of. It was that I could not make the film that was in my mind with the tools that could be purchased or rented. Or, at least that the tools when they are used in an orthodox way of filmmaking had no effect for my purpose. And it was not a film per se I was hoping to make. It was the act of making moving image that is part of a performance I was envisioning. I was questioning my idea, the method of creating an art project, and the reason for doing so. The process was very much of self reflection and criticism, and I am experiencing a learning that would have otherwise been undiscovered.

First Person Perspective Filmmaking

I got into this ‘first person perspective film making’, simply because I wanted to show my world to the people who are far away from me. I wanted to share what I love to the love them better by remembering them in certain way.

(it was an accident when I had no idea what to do for a performance presentation in Paris, I put the camera on my bicycle helmet and recorded my apartment. And things began to come in right places as I visited Paris and performed a ‘mega tourist’ walking camera person. - reference to earlier projects on topics of tourist and camera: camerautomata and object of desire)

On the other hand, I became curious to ‘see’ the world in another person or another object’s perspective. For example I wanted to see as a bird will see the landscape, as a fast train sees the developing world. I wanted to give eyes to those objects, thus making them human to certain degree. I wanted to go and see the place where I could not go. places that are either far away of forbidden. such as inside of Hassidic Jewish community, or labor camp of North Korea, or other places and times.

To begin with such a journey, <First person perspective> is growing into a workshop and a tool to make my film. Finally I have the means and needs of making the film. I am planning to go to San Jose next month and allow some young people to take the camera with them, to show their world. (Props to Eyebeam roadshow, Zero One San Jose, and Adobe Youth Voice. )

Hiding what you see

First person perspective in films show certain things, but also deliberately leaves out some other things. In other words, First person perspective is interesting in there are things not shown. It’s like a story where the protagonist, or narrator is only telling part of the whole story. Unreliable storyteller is the best ones, like Holden Caulfield in the Catcher in the rye. What remains untold and unseen is where secrets live and the truth hide. Doubts about the narrative details, and possibly the general structure of film is where audience’s participation comes in.

When I was trying to make a film in first person perspective, it was like trying to make sense of an incomplete picture made only out of negative spaces. The negative spaces are like disorganized pieces of puzzle that is really hard to make sense of.

Going back in time, I grew up in a time when the way we watch moving images became drastically different and predominantly a mobile act. IPODS and laptops are so common in many developed countries and urban places. It is almost taken granted that I can watch a film as I wait in the bus or walking around. As matter of fact, that is a relatively new phenomenon, watching a moving image was a static act, prior to this mobile revolution. It has changed not only how we look at moving image, but also how the moving images are made. That transition to expecting to watch moving image while moving around was very radical to me at early age.

On the other side of moving image, there is change in production of such film. It used to be the case that one needs an ample amount of education and training to make a film. but it is quiet different now. Amateur filmmakers are creating interesting moving images that are watched by many people. My interest is dissimilar to most of amateur filmmakers making DIY tools, where they imitate Hollywood techniques on a budget. My interest is about using means of producing a film (or an art work per se) to understand how we have been trained to see things in certain way and to invent new ways, intervene in to the system of visual literacy. And that process is so called ‘art’ practice for me as a performance artist. I am not a DIY evangelist or expert in crafting cinematic inventions. Although I see value in their work and appreciate their knowledge, my main concern is not on perfecting DIY steadycam or making dolly in my garage. I am interested in crafting a narrative, a unique method of storytelling that I can only do by myself, all alone.

That said, and that thought out loud, it made perfect sense to make this movie in first person perspective.

Inventions are product of hopeful imagination, not practical calculations.

‘a lonely man’s imagination becomes a wise man’s invention. which soon becomes a market intervention.’

It was not that important that my first person perspective cinematic machines are built well, or that the machines are sophisticated. Some machines were built to last only one shoot and that was good enough for that case. My machine might not make a good film in the end and it doesn’t matter. However some other things matter to my practice, and here are some thoughts that smart people have wrote in their search for the meaning of first person perspective.

Alex Galloway (from the book on Gaming) is right that first person perspective in film making did not succeed as a genre or story telling method well, because the audience can not associate with subjectivity of camera. The third wall between camera, stage and audience can not be broken because traditional cinema is a passive act. I also agree that ‘where cinema left off, game picked up first person perspective’ (exact quote needs to be worked) and made good advantage of it. His book on gaming has a chapter in first person perspective that is very informative about the history of such film making, with heavy references to oldies like ‘lady in the lake’ to first person shooting games running on real time 3D engines.

Steve Mann is a researcher of computational photography, who was credited as ‘the world’s first cyborg’ a term that could have made sense before the millennium. He has done some interesting research about Wearble computers and wearable cameras, which in turn became something of a common commodity at this point. His early wearable computers look something like what I envision my first person perspective film machine will look like. His machines are far more advanced in it’s precision and computational capability, but it is not his technological works but the crafty and often times wacky experiments that hold some kind of delight to me.

A bit different but related, third person perspective filmmaking, in an unorthodox example is Surveillance camera players or artists like Jill Magid. They use the static peception of surveillance camera to play with or to tell a story. Idea of gaze and power, often times with strong sexual connotations, are prevalent in Magid’s work. She is a master of telling, and sometimes not telling, stories which sound to be interesting.

Near future: Where this is going

My project is not about inventing clever and odd devices for first person filmmaking.  Much of such devices has already been invented and industrially produced at certain cases. It might be not even about making a film. My interest is specifically on

1. Performing the camera, or the point of view of a subjective lens. I am interested in making films that the camera man is performing. (a beautiful piece at the Whitney’s projection art show way back, where a couple shoots each other with 16mm camera and projected next to one another)
2. Experiments in story telling that method that the given facts are considered to be questionable. This means: I want to make a film with narration that the viewer will question what degree of truth is the story evolving around.
3. The pedagogic process (workshop) is not a subsidiary part of the project, It is equally important that the workshop is a learning and creative environment for myself and the participants. I will not force any participant to make a movie in first person perspective. I will make a first person perspective movie myself, and participants are invited to take part at any given moment.
4. As Galloway says, first person perspective failed as a story telling genre in film. Again, I am not trying to make a conventional film. This project may as well be about real life game- design workshop, such as previous projects like ‘Shoot me if you can’ where urban spaces are used as a game zone, and camera phones are killing and shooting device. At this point, I am once again deviating from the proprietary medium, which is film in this case, and opening up interpretation of my practice. I keep saying this is film, only because of the romantic notion of ‘making a film’ sounds to me.

test

I'm participating in the Munrae-Manual project. Research and art projects in and around Munrae district in Seoul. 
Munrae district has been a heavy industrial zone, most known for its metal shops. Recently, artists have been occupying the warehouse in the neighborhood. 
The complex affair between the local, artists and squatter, and the urban renewal program is investigated in this project. The project is funded by Arts Council Korea.

Some process info in Korean. Here

<Photo courtsey of Christian Butler and EYEBEAM>

Complete CV as of April of 2009 HERE

New works!모든 작업은 새 작업은 http://camerautomata.org

What are you doing now? 지금 뭐하고 있니? http://twitter.com/tchoi8

Wanna be friends? 친하게 지내고 싶어 http://facebook.com/taeyoon.choi

Profile 프로필 http://www.linkedin.com/in/taeyoonchoi

DIY Urban Camping

WEBSITE Major Upgraded Under the way.

for Archive of past work

http://tyshow.org/web/index2009.html
http://tchoi8.cafe24.com/

Personal stuffs

http://www.facebook.com/taeyoon.choi
http://www.cyworld.com/tchoi8

Blog

http://blog.naver.com/tchoi8

Today at Medialab-Prado Madrid, on the occasion of <Interactivos? Garage Science> seminar, I want to talk about a period of time in South Korea between two great fires within roughly in a year. In January 2008, Namdaemun, the southern gate to the old city and the landmark of Seoul for more than 600 years, was destroyed by a malicious fire by an unhappy man. In January 2009, five protesters and one riot policeman died in a fire caused from a violent evacuation at a squatted commercial building in Yongsan. Between two tragic events, the 'Candlelight protest (also known as the candlelight rally)' continued for more than 100 days, and brought more than 20 million citizens to the public spaces in Seoul at the peak moment, while the police estimates about 5 million. My interest in the protest began from personal anger about state terror and police brutality. I began to research on the topic, and found a broader interest on the cultural phenomenon of the protest, and creative use of technology, eventually examining the potential of new public spaces.

The core of my argument, reflecting the theme of 'Garage Science' symposium, is the potential of grassroots activism using D.I.Y new media technologies and open source art-culture practice, to create alternative space between existing public spaces. In Urban Protest 2.0, the boundary between physical and cyberspace is blurred, by citizens creatively appropriating mobile technologies. Low cost new media, specifically WIFI network and mobile device, can be used to protect citizen's rights, against the violence and fear imposed upon them from the state. The first part of the talk is background information on the political situation and culture of protest in South Korea. This chapter illustrates new kind of activism happening in the Internet and the physical space at the same time with comparable cultural phenomenon. The second chapter is documentations from a workshop on Urban Protest 2.0, which I conducted December of 2008 in Seoul.

Original Document with images http://camerautomata.org/web/urbanprotest20_TaeyoonChoi.pdf

Video Documentation of the talk http://medialab-prado.es/article/protesta_urbana_20