Today we discussed our initial ideas for projects.

First: James and I spoke about creating an interactive augmented reality game using similar technology to topography sandboxes. The game would use blocks or other 3D printed objects to build a city in order to defend against opposing armies.

Second: Reggie had the idea to create a kind of "digital mirror". The idea is not currently very fleshed out but it would involve projecting a live feed of participants onto the walls and distorting it using Open Frameworks in order to convey the idea of technology and social media distorting how we see and present ourselves. We also discussed creating 3D sculptures of bones and skeletons to confront the viewer with not only their digital self, but their physical self.

Today we had a tutorial with Chris. We spoke the idea of other people influencing self image, particularly on the internet and the idea of sound surveillance, being listened to all the time.

Chris recommended we look into the works "Observation of the Observation" by Peter Weibel and "Zoom Pavilion" by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. These are both works that I really love and I think they encapsulate the essence of our project and the type of thing we are looking to make.

Zoom Pavilion is an artwork created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko in 2015. It involves 12 images projected onto three walls in an immersive exhibition. The images show footage from security cameras which use facial recognition algorithms to detect participants in the exhibition space and zoom in on their faces, displaying them on the walls for everyone to see.

This work is a big inspiration to us in this project. We hope to recreate the feelings of observation and confront the viewers with the image of themself. However, instead of drawing attention to ideas of surveillance, we wanted to encourage the viewer to think about technology and reflect on how their relationship with technology affects their view of themself.

This week, we started by working with first person movement in Unity. Chris had created a prefab of a character with a camera bound to it that could be controlled using the WASD+Space keys. I downloaded some assets from Unity Hub to create an environment and added some lights. We then started created an NPC. We added a robot model that Chris had made and learnt how  to apply animations which changed depending on where the player was standing.

Hybrid Media, Interdisciplinarity and the 'Post-Digital'

Lev Manovich - Software Takes Command

- metamedium

Jay David Bolter & Richard Grusin - Rememdiation: Understanding New Media

Florian Cramer - What is 'post-digital'? 

Today we had our Dragon's Den pitch where we presented our project idea to Chris, Tadej, and John. In the discussion, we spoke about the idea of digital twins, transmediale, Mark Farid, and John Rafman. 

I think they liked our ideas overall but didn't quite grasp the core concepts. Chris said we should focus on a "metaphor" and think more about what we're trying to say.

In the afternoon, we had a workshop in the greenscreen studio learning how best to use a greenscreen in the filming stage to get the cleanest results. We were shown how to light the greenscreen and the subject. We then filmed a short clip of ourselves each which we will learn to edit next week.

This morning, we had a workshop with Tadej looking at what goes into exhibition production on both a creative and practical level. Particularly with installation art, it's important to consider the way viewers will feel when they enter the room. Do you need set dressing and decoration or should the art speak for itself? Do you need an invigilator? How involved will they be in the experience? Are there any health and safety issues?

We also let Tadej know what type of room we will need in the gallery so hopefully we will get one that works well for our project.

In the afternoon, we had a workshop learning how to edit the greenscreen footage we had filmed last week. We used After Effects to chroma key the greenscreen out and mask unwanted elements like a light stand which was in frame. Since I was wearing a semi-reflective black coat in the footage, it took a lot of trial and error to adjust the footage in the right way in order to get a clean outline with as little fuzz leftover as possible. 

Today, I set out to start working on the audience interactivity element of the project. I spoke to a friend who is familiar with coding and after describing the idea, they suggested I use C# and recommended a beginner course video, timestamped with relevant parts. I downloaded Visual Studio and began following the course, learning the basics of C# since I have never used it before.

My intention for this piece is to create a constant scrolling feed of messages which viewers can add to in the exhibition. Messages posted by viewers will be added to the continuous scroll, their feelings becoming lost in the sea of other words much like on the internet. Aesthetically, I want to keep it very simple, using the basic black and white message box that C# runs by default. I feel this gives off a very technology focused energy, reminiscent of the BIOS screen on a computer.

I continued working on C# today. With the help of the basics course and some online research, I was able to create a program which allows a user to input a message and view that message. This is as far as I got, however. I think I will be able to use a 'method' to create the scrolling text by instructing the code to call the method periodically and run the code inside it, thus refreshing and reposting the messages over and over again. I'm not sure yet how to make it so more than one message can be posted as currently, the program ends after one message has been entered. I will do soem more research soon and ask my friend if they can help and hopefully I will be able to get it working.

James made some posters which we are going to use to promote our exhibition. I really like the way they capture the digital aesthetic, taking common internet phrases and inspiring the viewer to think about their relation with technology and real life.

We had a tutorial with Tadej followed by a meeting of everyone on the course. We confirmed that we would be given the room at the end of London Gallery West which is really good as it has three big, clear walls that we can project on as well as a projector attached to the ceiling. Reggie mentioned wanting short-throw projectors which we can put close to the walls to stop people casting shadows on the images; Tadej wasn't sure but Reggie thinks we can get them from M stores.

After the meeting, we went to the room to look around and plan out our installation. The built-in speakers in the room do not work currently but Alexandra, who runs the gallery spaces, had a set of portable speakers that she said she would put aside for us.

I decided to abandon the C# project and switch to a language that I am more familiar with, HTML and JavaScript. Not only am I more in my comfort zone with this, I think it would be a good idea to make it a website as this means it is accessible outside of the exhibition and we can use it to promote our piece.

I made an account on the website Neocities which is an online web hosting service that keeps everything together online and makes building the website easier. I started by setting up a simple form which asks users to provide their name and a comment in response to the question "How are you feeling?". I then began to research how to display responses below the form. I made a post on reddit which got a few responses telling me I would need servers and a database, most of which cost money. 

I looked for other solutions such as third party chat widgets and guestbooks however, none of these had the look or level of customisation I was looking for. They also required subscriptions to remove branding. Despite this, I feel like this idea is more promising than the C# application so I am going to continue working on it.

We had a tutorial with Chris updating on the status of our project. He felt our project might be too open-ended and lack a clear theme/message. Particularly with the website, he was unsure whether people would use it to post about the art. We want the website to be an open forum where people can anonymously post about whatever they want, but I decided to add placeholder messages in the text boxes to point the users in a more introspective direction. I also added a word filter to censor anything extremely inappropriate and a checkbox and terms and conditions page which the user is required to agree to in order to post. The terms themselves are a generic template that we took from a website with a line added to the end about the exhibition. With the project as a whole, we want to encourage reflection from the viewers. We don't want to write the meaning out for them but rather, give them the opportunity to experience the art and take the meaning for themself. I think what we have will be clear enough that this will succeed.

Afterwards, we went to the gallery to start setting up our exhibition. We collected the projectors from M stores so that we could start trying out different arrangements. We had booked a short-throw projector and a regular projector from M stores and there was a projector already in the room.

We ran into a problem when we turned on the projector attached to the ceiling and found that standing within around 3 metres of the wall would cast a shadow on the projection. This was really annoying as this was the wall we wanted to use for the main effect and we want people to be able to walk around and immerse themselves in the room. We tried turning it towards one of the other walls but this, of course, resulted in the image being skewed. 

To try to overcome this, I installed MadMapper in my computer and attempted to use it to display the website chat on the wall by the door as this would allow us to change the shape of the projection and stop it skewing. This was difficult, however, as MadMapper does not have a built-in function to allow a desktop window as an input. After some research, I tried to use the NDI tools and Syphon as well as OBS Studio's virtual camera, but I couldn't get any of them to communicate with MadMapper. Luckily, Tadej came in and explained the issue so we went to Chris Fry's office and got another short-throw projector. This was really helpful as it meant we had enough projectors to no longer need the overhead one and having two short-throw projectors meant we could position all of tech equipment quite close to the walls and out of the way of everyone walking through.

In the meantime, Reggie and James went to the photography department and printed out 24 copies of James' posters in A3. We had added a QR code to the corner which linked to the website so that people could follow the link and start nposting messages on the site in the week leading up to the exhibition. We used the guillotines in the library to cut them to size and put them up around campus in places we thought people were likely to see them.

Reggie is going to come in later this week to pick up a laptop from EMS and test the TouchDesigner effects with the projectors.

Over the last two days, Reggie has been in the gallery working on setting up the cameras and computers. He sent us updates on what he was doing. One decision we made was how to position the camera tripod. The options were to have it completely in the gap between the pillar and the wall, or with either one or two legs sticking out. We liked having it completely hidden, like an unseen observer, but the view was slightly obscured by the pillar. We decided to go for having one leg sticking out as it seemed reminiscent of something lurking in the corner, peeking out and watching. We want the cameras to be somewhat visible as we feel the audience will start looking for them as soon as they realise they are being filmed but we don't want them to be too obvious or intrusive and distract from the projections.

We have also decided not to use the microphones to control the effects as we feel this will be difficult to set up and maintain and also encourage people to shout and make loud noises which is not something we want to do. Instead, Reggie is going to add the crowd sound effects that we had planned to implement for the second day of the exhibition to TouchDesigner. The volume will rise and fall periodically, triggering the effects.

Today, James sent over the soundtrack he has been working on and I think it sounds really great. The music is atmospheric and has a really unique sound. It's quite relaxing but has an uncanny element that makes me feel very slightly on edge while listening. I think this really lends itself to the feeling of the project and will add a lot of immersion to the final installation.

We first presented our exhibit to the class, allowing them to experience the work as well as listen to us explain the choices we made when putting it together.  The audience spoke about feeling intimidated and vulnerable when being confronted by the images of themselves. They said they felt a desire to perform for the cameras and, upon realising they were being filmed, instinctively looked around to see where the cameras were located. Viewers also commented on how immersive and cohesive the installation is and how, from the moment you walk in, you feel like you are part of the piece. In particular, the main setup with the PC and projectors in the centre and the cables laying or hanging around it was said to reflect the other aspect of a "digital mirror" besides the projections which is the technology itself. One viewer commented that it reminded them of a stalker's room - feeling strange and observed with the repeated images of themself on the walls. Ideas of surveillance were brought up, questioning how it feels to see yourself being watched and analysed by the cameras and how we act differently when we go about our day normally, when we know we are being observed, and when we ourselves physically in front of us. An audience member commented that it was like hearing your voice on a recording and knowing it's you but something about it feels different or unfamiliar. Chris commented on the fragile tape and our thought behind it and we discussed the connotations of the word and how it could refer to both the technology and the viewers, perhaps their Ego. He suggested we could find the blind spots in the room where the cameras can't see you and create spaces that you can go if you feel 'fragile'. We thought this was an interesting idea, however, we decided not to do as we wanted people to feel watched and drawing attention to spaces they can go to escape whilst still in our installation would go against our hopes for reflection and introsepction from the viewer being confronted by their image.

We were really pleased with the reactions to the installation as we felt they aligned well with our intentions as well as understanding the messages and themes we were hoping to put forward. Ultimately, the work gives very little in the way of guidance to its viewers and is instead left to speak for itself so it was great to see our efforts in cultivating the desired atmosphere come to fruition and be recognised by the audience. 

In the private view, we decided not to change anything major about the installation after the crit as we felt it was already exactly as we wanted it. We added our description card which I suggested we put on the main plinth, thereby encouraging the audience into the exhibit and bringing them into view of the camera.

I made note of the following discussions that I had with visitors to our exhibit:

• "Different perspectives on daily life, how other people see it"

• "The vinyl makes you feel like part of the simulation, with "save changes" it's like you've put an impression down 

  • This viewer suggested we have some of the footage delayed by a few minutes to make the audience really feel like they are being recorded and that the things that they do will be seen by others after they have left the exhibit. We thought this was a really interested idea and if we exhibited this work again, I would love to try this.

• "The chatter is like society" (referring to crowd noise audio)

• "Always being watched"

• "Lack of consent"

• "Encourages introspection"

• " It has the vibe of those immersive experiences you see advertised"

I really enjoyed the private view, especially since I have never exhibited work in this way before. I felt it was really valuable to see reactions and feedback of people who are not involved or knowledgeable about contemporary media or installation art like the other people in the class or the lecturers are. Seeing the way the general audience interacted and connected with our work, picking up on the meanings in deliberate details we had chosen and engaging with the piece and with the chatroom made me feel immensely proud of what we had created and I really feel that we succeeded in realising what we set out to create.

Having reached the end of the project, I am really proud of what we were able to make as a group. I feel we all contributed to creating a fantastic, immersive and atmospheric installation. We set out to make a project which would ask our audience to look at themselves and reflect on their relationship with technology and I believe we achieved this with great success. 

The final product is almost exactly what we were hoping to create from the very beginning. In terms of compromises made, I think it is a good thing that we didn't end up doing the sculptures that we talking about in the beginning as I think they would have distracted from the main attraction which is the Digital Mirror. Having everything focused on the technology led to a more defined and streamlined artwork as well as keeping the room free from visual clutter; having the plinths, cameras, and cables was enough to dress the room and stop it feeling empty whilst still keeping attention on the videos and the chat. 

In terms of the chat, I think it worked out well that the original idea didn't come to fruition. While it would have been really nice visually, I think the result we ended up with was more practical. If we had used the other version, we likely would have needed instructions somewhere to let the audience know they can add messages which would have detracted from the clean look of the installation. The little experience that I had with C# allowed me to see what a powerful and flexible language it is and I would like to revisit it in the future but I did enjoy the opportunity to expand and improve my knowledge of HTML and JavaScript. I also think the week of having it linked on the posters and the Instagram account was really valuable for promotion and seeing the way people responded when presented with a faceless anonymous forum. We received 41 responses in total ranging from memes and copypastas to genuine expressions of deeply personal feelings. The forum acts as a microcosm for the internet and social media as a whole, displaying how humans choose to behave when given the opportunity to be and say anything behind a mask of anonymity. 

One element I would have liked to have worked is the microphone in the main gallery room. While I think having one in the installation room would have been a bad idea due to it likely causing shouting, having one hidden in a location which makes it unobvious that that is what is even controlling the video would have added an interesting element that I would have really liked to see working. That being said, I think the crowd noise over the soundtrack added something to the work that we wouldn't have had otherwise. It inspires feelings of vulnerability - seeing your face projected on the wall and hearing audio of people talking, wondering if they are talking about you.

As I spoke about earlier, I really enjoyed the private view and the opportunity to present our work to people outside our usual circles. I think it was a really valuable experience and opened my eyes to how much maintenance is needed to keep an exhibition running (for example, the PC and laptop both timed out and shut off, luckily before the private view began, and we had to constantly check the laptop because we couldn't change the time out settings). It was great seeing people come through and engage with our work, listening to the things they had to say and seeing that they enjoyed it. It made me feel really proud both while I was there and also seeing people posting pictures from our exhibit afterwards on Instagram. 

If we were to present this work again, I would like to try the idea suggested by one of the viewers of having some of the footage delayed. I think this is a really great idea and would definitely add to the feelings of vulnerability knowing that other people will see you after you have left the room.

Overall, I am immensely proud of Digital_Mirror:Virtual_Stranger. If the opportunity were to present itself, I would love to display it again. I think we created an excellent piece of work which is not overt and obvious with its message but allows the viewer to experience it for themself, looking into their digital reflection and finding meaning.