CODE LIVE 2 Review: *glisten)HIVE

firstly, i must give my apologies for my tardiness with this assignment. the last week of the break- which started out really promising with my 21st birthday on monday- spiraled into bouts of chronic exhaustion and me being REALLY ill. i’m still beating off the exhaustion, to be frank, so i’m pretty glad this first week back is kinda mellow. but yea, i feel like hell.  again, my apologies.

so without further ado, here is my CODE LIVE 2 Review of *glisten)HIVE [you really think i was gonna choose something else? aha!]

A small video clip for your viewing pleasure.

*glisten)HIVE is an interactive digital installation piece presented by Canadian artists Julie Andreyev, Maria Lantin and Simon Overstall, which was displayed in the Intersection Digital Studios room at Emily Carr University.  The exhibition ran from February 4th until the 21st, as part of the Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition [CODE] LIVE 2 Exhibition, in conjunction with the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.

The  exhibit consisted of 4 transparent screens, suspended in mid-air, in a pitch-black room.  Participants either on-site, or at their leisure at the project’s webpage, submitted their thoughts about their pets or rescue animals- how they imagined their animals’ thoughts when happy, sad, conflicted, etc,-  as Twitter-styled tweets.  These entries are then randomly projected onto one of the four screens in pairs, appearing as a jumble of both random letters and the chosen phrases, creating the illusion of swarming insects- gradually getting closer [and sounds getting louder!] to the viewers before slowly fading back into the background- only to repeat the cycle again.

Outside of my love of animals, this exhibit holds a special place in my heart because I was able to assist in the research of material for the launch of the project.  From January to the middle of February, I scoured through Twitter to find tweets about animals, or accounts set up to in the name of someone’s pet so that the pet [in actuality, of course, it's the human acting as a medium for the animal's supposed thoughts] can ‘communicate’ with their fellow ‘anipals’, or any other human who is interested in their Twitter-based antics.  These accounts in particular turned out to be the most successful source of information, as they were rife with content about the pet’s thoughts about their owners, their other animal companions [some friendly, others akin to sibling rivalry!] and other events in their life like feeding time, the weather, or whether or not bath-time was fun or not.  Through my research I found nearly a hundred [if not more!] accounts of parrots, dogs, cats, bunnies, ferrets, even some odder finds such as turtles and hedgehogs!  Whenever I found a suitable account filled with content, I would compile my findings in appropriate lists on Twitter [which I have provided for you all to take a peek at], then alerted Julie to them so that she could comb through them as well, and select the tweets that she wanted to use.  My job as an intern for this project also entailed me constantly sending out the link to the website to my friends and animal organizations in the Bahamas to enlist their participation.

What I believe was Julie’s intent with this project, was to bring awareness to the idea of an animal having consciousness- akin to the capacity of a human’s.  Instead of thinking of animals as simply ‘dumb beasts’ who are incapable of feeling like a human feels, by searching for these accounts from ‘animals’ on Twitter, as well as encouraging on-site participants to word their tweets as if they are not speaking, but their pets are, you unknowingly start the process of empathy- you put yourself in the position of your animal and you start to think “What if?”  What if I was my bird, trapped in my cage all day when my owner normally lets me out in the afternoon?  Would I be irritated?  Upset?  How would I feel when he finally walks in the door and opens my cage, greeting me with a kiss on the beak?  Would I be happy with that?  Would I still squawk like hell to voice my displeasure? You may even start to change your actions based on your tweets, and be more conscious about letting your bird out for some exercise, maybe even give him some treats to get on his good side.  You become more aware of your animal’s needs and you react accordingly- you’ve become more humane without even knowing.  At least, that is the hope, after participating or viewing the various tweets.

…And even if you are already a caring pet owner, it’s always quite thrilling to see and hear- amidst the mass of swarming letters and the rising cadence and clashing of flute, bell and dog’s whine- to suddenly spot your tweet- your pet’s thoughts suddenly become visible, and you smile knowingly [or let out a little squeal, as I did].

I’ve asked some fellow ECU students how they felt about the exhibition, and most responded with positive remarks, although one girl did express dismay that she never got to see her tweet about her dog appear, even though she sat in the room for nearly an hour.  As far as a technical critique is concerned, I believe that rectifying that issue would be the best course of action- to have the tweets cycle through randomly, but also allowing newly posted tweets to be seen within a few minutes of submission- after all, the anticipation in seeing your entry float around the screen for a few minutes shouldn’t be dampened by the simple action of ‘random selection’.

In closing, I can safely say that working with Julie on this project was the highlight of my first term here at Emily Carr [how many can say they helped do research for Olympic art, after all?], and that I felt the exhibit was a rousing success.  If you missed this particular presentation, you missed out on something very thrilling and innovative.  I can’t wait to see this project return in the near future, or to see what new innovations the team can come up with.