Final Project Update

Here is some rambling thoughts that I was having about the project. That I wrote into a word document over the weekend. More updates, videos and links will be following as soon as I can get the time and find all the documentation on this computer.

“I Do Not Understand You”

The initial idea of the project was an exploration of communication and the understanding between people. The interaction that goes along, the nature of technology as a medium to communicate as a focus. The focus and the thought was also to explore complex scenarios and see that from a third perspective that answers were obvious or that what was attempted to be said is obvious. That technology would enable and disable the communication process. That translating what something means and is said can be achieved if only seen in a certain way or light. Some things just don’t work. The biases and exploration of cultural differences continued to play a role. That technology and different forms of communication has their advantages and their weaknesses. That for instance the subtle hints or body language is lost in translation when someone is sending a text. That in theory it is impossible for anyone to fully understand and communicate exactly what they mean. That there is something always left out even when being direct the subtle auxiliary information that came to the various conclusions or reasoning to draw upon are seldom known by the audience. These factors cannot be all known and then the complexity for what the other person draws on and brings to the table of communication adds even more complexity to communication. In essence from the various research and thought and observation of communication is very complex and hard to fully grasp. A communication fully and perfectly is dang near impossible for one to achieve. “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

The research proved a doubting proposition in exploring or showing this complexity of communication. What was determined to be needed is to simplify to look up and see what are tools to clearly communicate a message effectively and understandably. Concise, direct and relatable were the goals in creating such a piece of art, for public/private consumption, along with the goal to obviously learn something greater than oneself and grow as a human. The notion of talking and discussion while hinting at the idea that technology can be a disabler was deemed to be discussed. After a failure on many things with the original idea and the secondary idea and the third attempt the final piece was conceived and worked out to totality.

The piece illustrated the saying “I do not understand you” being play via audio to the viewer once a card was swiped over a certain location. The cards would be a digitalized stereotypical image of a nationality and the audio would be a stylized technological accident for the nationality depicted. The purpose would be the notion technology and a social commentary on our reactions to stereotypes and how they can be drawn into technology. That the voices were computerized digital auto created programs when certain text was added. The goal is to simply evoke questions of how the world is connected via technology and the common currency we all have and misunderstandings that can be developed between various people.