Don't want to see Ads? Register for your free dotSUB account here!
DIVVY/dual.symposium.03 [Endo]
Duration:
32 minutes and 13 seconds
Country:
Japan
Language:
Japanese
Genre:
Instructional
Producer:
NTT InterCommunication Center / NPO Gadago / Mozilla Japan
Director:
Dominick Chen
Views:
665
(21
embedded)
Posted by:
dominick on Apr 22, 2007
DIVVY/dual symposium at NTT ICC on 09.24.2006. Takumi Endo, DIVVY/dual's participating artist for 'TypeTrace', describes his past and present works. Transcription and initial translation by: - Ashley Rawlings - Tomomi Sasaki - Lena Oishi - Chihiro Murakami - Dominick Chen Related links: 0] DIVVY/dual 1] TokyoArtBeat 2] NTT ICC 3] Mozilla Japan
Translate and Transcribe
-
Sign In/Register for dotSUB to translate this video.
Share
- Embed Video
- Embed normal player
- Embed a smaller player
- Advanced Embedding Options
-
Embedding OptionsSize:Language:Embed Code
- Embed transcript
- Embed transcript in:
-
Invite a user to dotSUB
Your invitation to join dotSUB was successfulThere was an error inviting that user to dotSUB
Video Transcription
Show in new window
- My name is Endo
- Firstly, I will explain the
software - and then talk about my position regarding today's topic.
was created by myself and the engineer, Matsuyama san - Matsuyama san is also a programmer and artist
- I studied classical music, but now I mainly work on media art.
is a software that memorizes the way you type - For example, corrections, touch-ins, editing and so on
- or how you write and re-write text is replayed identically, both temporally and textually.
- The reason why I wanted to create this software is because
- I wanted to capture the rut between a thought and its manifestation through media technology
- and visualize the traces of thought processes.
- I will now start the software.
- This is the actual data that was exhibited last week in Ginza.
- This is what I was typing in the first half.
- It simply memorizes information like writing emails or texts, as is.
- You can see all the mistakes so it's embarassing.
- The font size depends on how long it took to write.
- If you pause, the font gets bigger. This is how time is visualized.
- Some people wrote some interesting things.
- For example, this person wrote out the Japanese constitution by memory
- You can fast-forward by using the slide below.
- I found Tsubaki san's presentation about the history of Japanese writing revealing.
- It's interesting to actually see our constant act of conversion.
- Computers automatically use the previously selected conversion
- so if you were writing a love-letter previously, those words would appear.
- That's embarassing. In contrast to writing, sending, and receiving,
- this work captures the trajectory of the original thinking behind the text.
- Please see the 2 computers at the back if you're interested in seeing the software.
- This is the screen that I was using just now.
- This is what was displayed at the exhibition, and the left shows the list of comments.
- Usually they are played randomly, but you can also select specific comments to play.
- The right screen shows the text, and the floating screen is what was projected.
- There were various comments, like people saying 'I'm here' when they came.
- People know that the text will be distributed via a CC licence,
- and the application itself is also open source.
- Why did I come up with this?
- I have been involved in a project called
which relates to speech-languages - It is a system that lets you search the globe via random chains of speech. It's the spinning installation downstairs.
- Currently, there are 6-7000 languages in the world.
- For example, the French word 'Ca va' means hello, and 'saba' in Japan means fish.
- When I was in France, I always thought of this fish when I heard 'ca va'.
- I found it funny.
- Apparently the same word means 'owl' in Russian, or 'elderly' in Sindhi
- I thought that it would be interesting to make a phonetic dictionary.
- If a word sounding like 'saba' exists in a minority language with only 200 active speakers
- we might be curious about their habitat, lifestyle, culture, and politics.
- I wanted to make an encyclopedia that brings out such curiosities.
- The subtitle for this project is 'Serendipity Enhancer'
- Around 50-90% of the 6000 languages mentioned are endangered, and will disappear in decades.
- UNESCO and the library at Stanford University are currently archiving languages,
- but my project links random words and information through similar sounds.
- For example, if your name is 'Anne', and the word means 'sun' or 'breeze' in Africa
- you may feel an affinity and one day actually visit that country.
- Recently, I feel that this art creates such opportunities.
- Please see it downstairs. Type in your name in the interface and similar sounding words will appear.
- If you select 'Russian', the speaker will pronounce a similar word in Russian.
- Matsuyama san from
also created this technically complicated monitor. - Actually, I got the idea for
when creating . - Back then, I thought of making a kinetic keyboard that physically moves.
- A PC version of those automatic mini-pianos where the keys move along with the music.
- I bought a stand-alone keyboard and tried it using electrical magnets.
- I thought it would be weirdly intriguing, especially if it was a message sent from far away.
is an extension of this idea to simulate and reproduce the computing process. - We exhibited this for a week at Ginza's Space Kobo& Tomo, last week.
- There were 3 laptops and a projector on autopilot and play mode, and another to actually type on.
- Some people may feel self-conscious, but more people participated than we imagined.
- I haven't read through all the comments yet, but we have been able to collect interesting data.
- In future, I want fiction writers and critics to write 'stories' with this software.
- If a famous writer types up their entire novel on
, maybe we can show it at ICC. - Tracing their thoughts and writing processes would be interesting, although for the writer it takes courage.
- I want to show this at galleries, or openly release it online and collect responses.
- The text-based
is an offshoot of the speech language-based . - Both are based on 'temporality'.
expresses the chronological sequence of text, phonetically. - Through research, I found that a linguistic scholar called Takao Suzuki once said
- 'Humans are a rare species that finds pleasure in rhythmically vocalizing words'
- I'm sure many of you like karaoke.
- Even now, I am speaking rhythmically.
- In Takashi Tachibana's book 'Current Ape Studies', he says that gorillas sing
- not because they want to mate or are hungry, but because they simply want to sing.
- I read this in University and was shocked. When I studied music,
- I thought that music was a human desire for expression. But I realized that music came before man,
- and that going to karaoke or humming a tune fulfills our innate instinct to sing. I was deeply moved.
- So I thought that the act of typing keys continuously also fulfills a certain desire.
- I aim to cater to this.
- Dominick mentioned the word 'Type-do' (art of typing) in a discussion,
- in contrast to 'sho-do' (art of calligraphy). I love seeing people write on paper, and...
- Sorry Endo san, we have to cut you off. Please go on to the general comments.
- Okay. I'd like to add functions like email, blog, different playback speeds, normal editing functions,
- and make it an extension to Firefox.
- I'm thinking of distributing the files made through open source via Creative Commons.
- I will now talk about my personal opinion, including this project.
- First, about open source art.
- There is various art based on democratic processes, but I'm not interested in them.
- I think that getting the viewers involved in participatory art is also politically correct, but not my thing.
- I also wonder about creating art that is viewer-friendly.
- I prefer seeing craziness, nonsense, and self-indulgent, overwhelming emotion when I see art.
- Now, the question of whether open source is possible or not.
- My interests lie in whether you can find craziness and emotions within the varying structures.
- For example, John Cage's work '4 minutes 33 seconds' may be perceived as open source art.
- The classic rakugo 'sandai-banashi' (three-topic) piece 'Shibahama' too.
- The sandai-banashi requires the speaker to improvise from 3 topics suggested by the audience. This is 'open'.
- 'Shibahama' is based on the topics 'drunkard', 'purse' and 'lawn beach'. Now it is regarded as a classic story.
- Everyone always struggles with the punchline, but the audience enjoys the 'here/now'ness of it all.
- This can also be considered as open source.
- This reminds me of the famous paper-cutter, Shoraku Hayashiya.
- He picks topics from conversations with people, and cuts while making jokes.
- My keyword for open source art may be a sense of 'live'ness.
- My next example is the activist/artist duo, The Yes Men.
- They created an identical homepage to WTO's 'GATT.org', but the content is entirely contradictory.
- They get a lot of emails from people who think that they are the real WTO. One day,
- they received an invitation to a conference, and made a shocking presentation there.
- They recorded the ordeal and made a documentary.
- For example, at a Finnish textile trade meeting, they presented an erecting uniform
- as the newest WTO solution.
- Here, they hacked a BBC interview.
- The reason why I introduced these works
- is because the method of playing with large organizations like the WTO and hacking mass media
- seems somewhat related to today's symposium.
- With magazines like Shonen Jump, questionnaires filled by readers is reflected on the content.
- It's a collaboration of sorts between the writer, the reader, and the editor.
- But people don't realize this because they have a low sense of ownership.
- We just discussed my project
. - In terms of using the web openly to collect words and knowledge from around the world,
- the keyword here is 'collaboration'.
- To wrap up,
- My interest lies in whether the crazy, overwhelming affect of art can still exist in an open structure.
- The keywords here are liveness, collaboration, and social hacking.
- We are currently examining these possibilities through
and . Thank you. - Thank you very much.
- Kusumi san first talked about fluxus and the current remix culture, contemporary art and internet culture.
- Tsubaki san talked about Web 2.0, and his activities regarding the correlation between society and art.
- We hadn't talked much about media art,
- so we asked Endo san and Matsuyama san to feature their work.
- Whether this can be categorized as media art is open to discussion though.
- Endo san mentioned that his initial vision consisted of a moving keyboard.
- This work shows the progression of the realization of this vision.
- In other words, by collecting text written by visitors
- which visualizes the physical or mental trajectories behind each word
- is in itself a platform, a software.
- This content will have a CC licence and is free.
- The software will also be open to the public with a GPL licence, shortly.
- How does the work stand? Where is the author?
- The work provokes such discussions.
- Kusumi san is here with us today.
- Can you tell us your thoughts about the various practices of writing text?
- Did you read my comment?
- I wrote about stuttering.
- Linguistic disfluency.
- Usually you don't realize that typing is a reflection of your own text-writing brain.
- When the typing stammers, that's your thinking process that's stammering.
- I was taken aback that such processes are reflected through this work.
- Thank you.
- Yamagata san, you have yet to experience this software, but please offer your thoughts.
- How will the contents be perfected through this software.
- Text is a very simple media. If you cut the text up, or replay it chronologically,
- both the reader and writer's attitude towards the text will shift.
- Please offer your thoughts and suggestions about Endo san's presentation.
- I think the changing font size depending on time is extremely interesting.
- Until recently, Natsume Souseki's handwritten text was more expensive if it had corrections.
- It's an attempt to regain the aura of the text.
- Well, how about selling an email that includes the Yamagata PGP signature?
- You probably won't buy it, right? It can be duplicated.
- I can duplicate any text files on my hard drive oo.
- One issue here is aiming for something uneven, rather than flat or unoriginal.
- You position yourself depending on how you express your originality.
- So then, I think about whether I can create a one-off file that contains one author's entire thoughts.
- In a sense, this tracks back from the surface text to the core thoughts, the source of the text.
- It's a different concept from the flat, all-access idea of open source.
- Regarding how to clarify the thoughts behind the text.
- Almost half of those thoughts are not conveyed in the text.
- If you take a Freudian view of why you always make the same mistake when converting words,
- it might be because I was once abused by my father, and this prevents me from typing the word 'fridge'.
- Or else, I have yet to clarify my thoughts in my head. It's an interesting method to explore creativity.
- And interestingly, it focuses on uniqueness rather than flat, free-for-all accessibility.
- If we refine it, perhaps we can sell it one day.
- Thank you very much.


Report this video as offensive