Artist Studios – Page 20 – VITAL CAPACITIES

Digital Library of Banned Books in Minecraft

This video is a fly-through of the virtual library in Minecraft. With interviews of banned writers and journalists from Russia, Vietnam and Saudi.

An image from The Uncensored Library project. This is a view of the front entrance of the virtual library in Minecraft. A virtual sculpture of a raised fist holding a dip pen in a garden with trees and grass is in the foreground. The library itself is slightly of focus in the background in order to emphasize the sculpture. The library is built using a neoclassical architectural style with big columns and a domed rooftop. It is intended to resemble well-established institutions such as the New York Public Library, as well as stylistically allude to the authoritarian structures the project aims to subvert. — An image from The Uncensored Library project. The library is intended to resemble well-established institutions such as the New York Public Library, as well as stylistically allude to the authoritarian structures the project aims to subvert.
https://uncensoredlibrary.com/en

Media freedom activists have built a 125 million block library in a Minecraft map called the “Uncensored Library” which contains a collection of banned publications and is available to read for users within oppressive regimes that otherwise censor such information.
The publications are available in English and the original language. The texts within the library are contained in in-game book items, which can be opened and placed on stands to be read by multiple players at once. These articles generally discuss censorship, unjust punishment, and other critiques of the writer’s government.
The Uncensored Library works because though many of the works currently within the library are censored, the Minecraft software is not currently censored in any country.
The Chinese government may try to lean on Microsoft to remove the map from within the game. Worst yet, the Chinese government may leave the map up and instead use their powers to log information on who accesses the Uncensored Library within Minecraft and China and forward that information to their internet police.

10 November 2020

by Angela Su

A message from Minecraft that says my character Rosy Leavers fell out of the world and died. — Rosy fell into void on 10 November 2020 and died.

In trying to free the animals and save them from falling into the void, Rosy died in the first week of her residency in Cattle Depot.

Part 1: Protests in Animal Crossing

by Angela Su

A scene from Animal Crossing. A masked female protester stands in front of a banner with the slogan 'Liberate Hong Kong, Revolutions of our times'. The protester has an eye patch that references the first-aider who was shot in the eye by police during a protest in August 2019. The colourful post-its on her clothes reference Hong Kong's Lennon Wall. — A scene from Animal Crossing. A masked female protester stands in front of a banner with the slogan ‘Liberate Hong Kong, Revolutions of our times’. The protester has an eye patch that references the first-aider who was shot in the eye by police during a protest in August 2019. The colourful post-its on her clothes reference Hong Kong’s Lennon Wall.

Burning torches and a protest banner, that reads 'Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now', on a beach in Animal Crossing. Gamers are free to whack the portrait of Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong on the beach. There are 5 characters in the background cheering for another character who is destroying a portrait of Lam. On the left, here is also a small painting on an easel with the image of a piggy (one of the mascots of Hong Kong protest). — Burning torches and a protest banner on a beach in Animal Crossing. Gamers are free to whack the portrait of Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong on the beach.

Gaming activism is not new. It started as early as 2004 when video games broke into the world of politics, advocacy, and activism. In April 2020, Hong Kong protesters began to shift their protest actions to the virtual world of Animal Crossing because of the restriction of public gatherings in the name of health security. The game was used by Hong Kong activists to spread pro-democracy messages, and consequently it was removed from sale on websites in China.

In July/August, protesters in the US also started to voice out in Animal Crossing and other video games such as World of Warcraft, Splatoon, ToonTown, Grand Theft Auto, and NBA 2K20. In The Sims, a BLM rally hosted by Ebonix (as her avatar is known) was attended by at least 200 players. (from The Guardian)

A screenshot from a Black Lives Matter Animal Crossing rally with 2 black-clad protesters wearing BLM caps and t-shirts. — A screenshot from a Black Lives Matter Animal Crossing rally. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/aug/07/black-lives-matter-meets-animal-crossing-how-protesters-take-their-activism-into-video-games

A scene from Animal Crossing where protestors sit and chant for Black Lives Matter. 7 characters are sitting in a backyard with a sign at the entrance that says Black Lives Matter. Photos of George Floyd and other victims are one the ground with small bouquets of flowers. There are 2 speech bubbles, one says 'BLM!', the other 'No justice, no peace!'. — A scene from Animal Crossing where protestors sit and chant for Black Lives Matter. With photos of George Floyd and other victims. https://www.businessinsider.com/animal-crossing-users-are-having-virtual-black-lives-matter-protests-2020-6

Lipreading in the age of COVID-19

by Damien Robinson

I was taught lipreading before I began using BSL (British Sign Language) and use the two communication methods contiguously. The term “lipreading” is somewhat misleading, as it’s not just lip patterns that contribute to understanding – you pick up information from the rest of the face, from body language, and from the contextual environment (context is something I’ll be picking up on again). My biggest obstacle is dark sunglasses that block the information you see around people’s eyes; if lip patterns provide information on words, the eye area often gives the equivalent of tone of voice, and lipreading people wearing sunglasses translates as a monotone to me.

During 2020, the ratio has been flipped, with masks preventing lipreading, but often leaving the eyes and surrounding areas clear; I’ve started to notice that I still pick up information, so can (sometimes) recognise tone, even if there’s no way to pick up words. I’ve also noticed hearing people struggling with understanding (with masks muffling voices), and am wondering if this will impact on people’s thinking about hearing loss in the longer term. Will their own difficulties lead to more understanding? Will they turn to D/deaf people as communication experts they can learn from?

I’ve been playing with images from the 1986 edition of “Lipreading – A Guide for Beginners”, masking the lip patterns illustrated. I’m planning a duotone risograph print, perhaps using several of these images – due to local lockdown I can only prep my files at present, so anything shown at this stage is an approximation.

Black and white photo showing a woman's face. Superimposed is an orange facemask. Only her eyes are visible. On the bottom left are the letters "OO"t ar — “OO”- Lipreading in the age of COVID (study for risograph) 2020

香城Online (Heung Shing Online) Part 2

by Angela Su

Screenshot of the Heung Sing Online App. The key image is an illustration of a black bloc leveling up to a frontliner in full gear with gas mask, helmet and umbrella. These two characters stand on a grassland with a blue sky. The illustrations are created in the style of pixel art, with game energy bars. Underneath the key image are tabs that are available in the app such as 'Frontliners' Duties', 'Protest Schedules' and 'Map of Yellow Shops'. There are 2 QR codes and also facebook, instagram and twitter links. — Screenshot of the Heung Sing Online App. The key image is a black bloc leveling up to a frontliner in full gear with gas mask, helmet and umbrella.

A spin-off of ‘Heung Shing Online’ was launched on 31 December 2019 (with revenue from advertisements donated to the cause). This time it is a real game but in a milder/more peaceful form. It’s actually an information sharing app in disguise of a game. In the app, protesters can find a timeline of major events, memes, information about protest schedules, frontliners’ tasks and a map of all the yellow shops (shops that voice out for the movement) etc. Once you enter the app, you can create your own character like in any other game. There are both tasks online and in real life that you can complete. For online tasks you can tweet info or ‘like’ a post on other protest apps such as LIHKG; for real life tasks you can participate in street protests or visit yellow shops. Once a task is completed, points can be earned.

香城Online (Heung Shing Online) Part 1

by Angela Su

First page of the strategy guide of Heung Shing Online, with an image of the adaptation of Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People. A protester with a yellow helmet holds a makeshift shield in one arm and waves the Black Bauhinia flag. Designed by pro-democracy protesters, the flag is a powerful symbol of the fight for freedom. The flag bearer is leading other protesters in full gear (helmet, gas mask, shield, umbrella) to march forward despite poisonous smoke coming out from tear gas canisters on the ground. The night sky is full of smoke, with a hint of a blazing fire in the background. One protester reaches out his arm to help a fallen protester, while a few others hold up an angry fist. There are banners and also road blocks made out of makeshift materials such as orange-coloured barriers, traffic cones, and yellow metal fences that are commonly found in construction sites. — First page of the strategy guide of ‘Heung Shing Online’, with an image of the adaptation of Delacroix’s *Liberty Leading the People*

The story of ‘Heung Shing Online’ is fascinating. It’s a perfect demonstration of how the virtual and physical realms are blurred. The yellow text in the above image reads,

‘Disclaimer: We urge all netizens to be clearheaded. Please distinguish reality from fantasy. Don’t indulge in gaming to excess. This webpage is only for the purpose of gaming, we don’t instigate nor encourage real violent acts nor criminal behaviour. We take no legal responsibility in the usage of the content of this webpage’

On 19 July 2019, one month into the Anti-ELAB movement, a netizen on LIHKG posted about their idea of creating an online game like Sim City, that mimics the street protests in Hong Kong. (LIHKG is an online forum much like reddit. It was highly influential, generating images, slogans, discussions and strategies. I would say LIHKG was the leader of the leaderless movement, especially in the early months.) On the same LIHKG post, they also uploaded a ‘strategy guide’ created with excel.

‘Heung Shing Online’ was never meant to be a real game, only the strategy guide exists. However it was labeled by pro-Beijing media as the ‘Biggest real life RPG (role-playing game)’ that instigates violence against police, the strategy guide as a training manual for frontliners, especially secondary school kids who ‘do not’ have the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy.

This image indicates Some of the roles in the 'game', including 'Painter' (to create protest art), 'Sentinel', 'Combat Medic' and 'Keyboard Fighter'. The background colour is yellow with 4 illustrations of a piggy in 4 different attires. This particular piggy ('Li-Pig') is one of the mascots of the protest. As an example, the Combat Medic Li-Pig wears a white helmet with the symbol of the red cross. Illustrations of the different supplies (saline solution, bandage, scissors, gloves, isopropyl alcohol, scissors.. etc) floats around the piggy. The texts underneath the illustration list out in details, the supplies needed and the medic's duties. — Some of the roles in the ‘game’, including ‘Painter’ (to create protest art), ‘Sentinel’, ‘Combat Medic’ and ‘Keyboard Fighter’.

In the following months, netizens continued their discussions of strategies on LIHKG with gaming terminology as if the protest was a real RPG. This was to minimise the risk that one day the posts could be used against these netizens in court.

Dutil-Dumas Message

by Angela Su

A table of symbols that represent different physical concepts such as energy, density, temperature, etc. All the symbols are built using a 5x7 bitmap. — A table of symbols that represent different physical concepts

The 1999 and 2003 messages explained by S.Dumas Download

The Dutil-Dumas messages were sent out by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) scientists in 1999. Different messages about the conditions on planet Earth were represented with special symbols designed to maintain a high level of information even in a noisy reception. The whole set of characters is made by small bitmaps of 5×7 pixels.

For my residency, I will selected a series of symbols and re-create them on the virtual art space of Hong Kong’s Cattle Depot Artist Village. I will also compile my own glossary for these symbols on the studio page.

Miku made Minecraft

by Angela Su

A screen shot of a website that tell the story of how Hatsune Miku created Minecraft. Miku looks like a Japanese anime character with long, turquoise twintails. She stands in front of a scene from Minecraft. — A screen shot of a website that tells the story of how Hatsune Miku created Minecraft. https://noise.thehardtimes.net/2019/08/29/miku-created-minecraft-how-queer-vocaloid-fandom-brought-a-parody-account-to-infamy/

In 2017, the original creator of Minecraft Markus ‘Notch’ Persson made a series of controversial comments on social media, such as referring to feminism as a “social disease” and claiming that most feminists are “overtly sexist against men.” In March 2019, he made a number of transphobic comments that eventually triggered backlashes including Hatsune Miku declaring herself creator of Minecraft.

Hatsune Miku is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media (Japan) in 2004. The face of the Vocaloid is a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Soon after Notch published his tweets in March, queer Minecraft players decided to have the virtual superstar Miku as Minecraft’s creator.

A tweet by Miku claiming that she is the creator of Mincraft

Subsequently, Minecraft update silently removed references to Persson from the game’s menu, though his name is still in the credits. Persson was not invited to be part of the Minecraft tenth anniversary event later that year, with Microsoft saying that his views “do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang”

WE’RE IN!

by Clifford Sage

I managed to get into the Videotages Minecraft realm and be part of past residents Cattle Depot creation zone realizing I accidentally let all the animals out! I’ll try and get them back in!

The virtual site of Cattle Depot Artist Village in Minecraft

by Angela Su

Photograph showing the entrance to Cattle Depot in Hong Kong. The entrance is an archway inside a red brick building on two storeys, with two smaller outbuildings either side. The roofs of the buildings are covered in a dark rough tile, which is in parts covered in a red moss. Behind the buildings are tenement buildings, each approximately 10 storeys high; the one on the left is pale blue and grey, the central one is cream with orange stripes running beneath the windows, and the one on the right is pale salmon-orange/pink. The sky is overcast, pale grey-blue. — The physical space of Cattle Depot Artist Village in Hong Kong

Cattle Depot Artist Village was originally used as a slaughterhouse from 1908 to 1999. It was renovated and developed into an artist village in 2001. It is now home to around 20 art groups including the media art organisation Videotage.

For its first digital residency program, Videotage recreated in one-to-one scale the virtual site of Cattle Depot in the sandbox game Minecraft.

Screenshot of the virtual site of Cattle Depot in Minecraft. Buildings in digital red brick showing the Cattle Depot, with grey roof tiles and trees in the courtyard at the centre.
Behind the Cattle Depot is a small park with trees. And to the left of Cattle Depot is another red brick building with a dark green roof. Buildings a re a mixture of one and two storeys in height.
A grid structure was built in the sky above the site by the previous resident artist. This forms a matrix against the blue sky. — Screenshot of the virtual site of Cattle Depot in Minecraft

I downloaded Minecraft today and got into the realm of Cattle Depot. What you see here is the aerial view of the site. The glass grid structure was build by the previous resident artist. I basically wandered around, tried to get familiar with all the keyboard commands, broke a gate by accident but managed to find a very hidden passageway that led me to the top of the grid.

Cosmic Call

by Angela Su

For this residency, I want to create a series of symbols from the Dutil-Dumas message as an intervention in a virtual art space. The work will reference a previous work Cosmic Call. (An audio description of the visuals in the trailer is available)

One minute trailer of Cosmic Call

Audio description of the images in the trailer

Installation view of Cosmic Call with a flatscreena and two cube monitors. The seats are designed based on a code from the Dutil-Dumas Message — Installation view of *Cosmic Call* at Tai Kwun, Hong Kong

Cosmic Call is a work commissioned by Wellcome Collection in 2018

The main video weaves together facts and fiction to create an alternative understanding of epidemics. Cosmic Call resists the dominant narrative of a disease outbreak – a formulaic plot of a detective story about disease emergence and eventually the triumph of western medical science – and suggests multiple belief systems in which science is only one of many ways to understand communicable diseases. It points to the danger of reducing all knowledge to scientific terms while addressing issues that are pertinent to Hong Kong, which is characterised by its high population density and mobility – conditions that make Hong Kong extremely vulnerable to disease outbreaks.

In the video, an interstellar message (the Dutil-Dumas message) was sent by extra-terrestrial life forms that warned human beings of epidemics caused by passing comets. Information about the Dutil-Dumas message can be found on the RESEARCH section of the website.

What On Earth am I doing?

by Clifford Sage

Well for starters it’s going to be made within a computer program (CAD)!
Continuing of my past projects shared Universe of ‘Tuner’ and ‘ProDancer’ we may find our selves in an off world sorting office re-distribute saved animals from past realms and sending them off adequately!

Hope to conclude as a downloadable executable both VR and Monitor based! As a wide narrative I’ve often related works on signalling and ever find it captivating in a virtual sense, here are some past worlds I may extend their essence into this currently unnamed one.

disabled becon from Buddha Geomatry child

“He maybe did” or “He may be dead”?

by Damien Robinson

2020 has been a year of information distortion for many people in many ways. Being deaf means my focus has been around digital and physical access – or lack of access – to information, something I’ll be exploring during the residency. Originally, I had been viewing my planned areas of research – typography and dummy text, AI transcription, and sound effect captioning – as distinct, albeit with some loose links. Maybe these areas have more in common than I envisaged?

I’ve begun looking at Dr Rachael Tatman’s research around conversational AI and linguistics and have been struck by the similarities between the areas of error in AI, conventional listening, and lipreading. These are often mirrored in typographic and compositing errors.

The images in this post are taken from

Lipreading – A Guide for Beginners
Finer Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type
An AI voice transcription programme

The header text on this post is taken from a research paper written by Dr Tatman in 2017.

Black text on white background discussing hyphenated works. The example given is "camellia" This word is split across two lines so that the word initially reads "camel-".

Dark blue text on white background from AI transcription programme. The text does not make sense showing the translation is distorted

Welcome to my studio

by Jaene Castrillon

My name is Jaene F. Castrillon and I am an interdisciplinary Film based artist residing in Toronto, Canada. By story-telling through art I express what is an internal journey of exploring the spiritual, social, political and cultural issues concerning social justice, advocacy, poverty, marginalization and equality.

I examine the relationship I have to these different structures organically and present it to the audience through an experiential journey. My goal is to shift the paradigm from “marginalization” to acceptance and understanding that people like me are part of the fabric of humanity.

My work, Mourning Song, explores my relationship to the world through my blood memory as an Indigenous person of Chinese descent.

Please feel welcome to look around my studio, at the work I’ve posted up – there are images, videos and text. You are welcome to leave a comment or questions for me in the comments section.

Hope you enjoy your visit,

Jaene

Welcome to my studio

by Clifford Sage

Hi, my name’s Clifford Sage, welcome to my studio. I’m a CGI artist working in animation and world building. Although I often find technology entrancing, I’ve always appreciated the power and vastness of nature and wilderness- which fuels my interest and curiosity in the potential of virtual worlds.

Audio and visuals have always gone hand in hand for me, I started my visual practice in 2001 alongside my audio project “Recsund.” I’ve used the medium of sound as a diary throughout my adolescence but later discovered the intertwined nature of audio in my visual work. I am curious to use sound in interactive and generative ways through game-play and puzzle solving, exploring new ways of storytelling and immersion.

I am looking forward to taking part in this residency to develop some ideas that I have started to form throughout the last few years, but never had the chance to indulge. I find this opportunity very inspiring but am also overwhelmed with the potential of what can be done within the relatively new area of interactive game design I’m going to be exploring. I hope that I’m able to create an immersive piece throughout the next few weeks, while exploring and experimenting with ever-changing narratives.

Please feel welcome to look around my studio, and feel free to leave a comment or questions for me in the comments section, hope you enjoy!

Studio Sticky

Welcome to my studio

by Damien Robinson

Hand holding a white card up to the camera. Text on the card is superimposed over an orange helix. It reads "Collaboration over competition". — From “A Snapshot of Southend as a Cultural Environment for Womxn”. Damien Robinson/Ruth Kathryn Jones, 2019. Image credit: Anna Lukala

My name is Damien Robinson. I’m a visual artist who works with a range of digital and ‘actual’ media, frequently mixing things up to see what happens. As a deaf person, I’ve had limited access to learning and training, and what began as experiments to figure out how to do something has become a strategy I use in my work. Repurposing and misusing processes can be a way of discovering new processes and outcomes. Or sometimes just having fun with an idea. I’ll be experimenting with AI transcription, looking at subtitling of ambient sound, and maybe even some print-making.

Please enjoy looking around my studio, at the work I’ve posted up – there are images, videos and text. You are welcome to leave a comment or questions for me in the comments section.

INTRO

by Angela Su

This is a video still of my work 'The Afterlife of Rosy Leavers', in which my animated self with red hair and red glasses falls into the spiral of a virtual space. — Video still of ‘The Afterlife of Rosy Leavers’, 14 min 35 sec, 2017

Hi, I’m Angela Su, welcome to my studio.

As an artist from Hong Kong, having an artist studio is a luxury. The virtual studio space is really exciting as I have a chance to showcase not only the finished work but also the research process.

For this residency I will explore the sandbox video game Minecraft as a creative tool that blurs the boundary between the digital and physical worlds. In the Research tab, you will find posts about how the protests in Hong Kong and gaming interact, influence and shape each other — on one hand, street protests borrowed strategies from video games, and on the other hand, banners and slogans appeared on games such as Minecraft and Animal Crossing. I will explore the different ways to engage in digital activism by posting a series of case studies.

Angela