Ghost_In_the_Machine
Warning:
This document is for the Museum team only. This is not for public sharing. This document is a work in progress and we will update this often. For technical issues contact us.
Physical Installation Specification: follow this link https://www.figma.com/design/c2BjuS5KiNFJ8HuU6ibDEt/GITM_layout?node-id=0-1&t=e7qoFW46c2hqH9OS-1
Technical:
The installation is composed of 4 applications:
- 1. The App that runs on the smartphones in the installation (GITM app)
- 2. The App that the audience will run on their phone. (endless love)
- 3. The app that controls the state (Mission Control)
- 4.. The scripts that will run in the background. (Ghost)
Backstory
the aesthetics of the installation is inspired from the troll farms, like farms etc but with a rugged feel. The ruggedness is inspired from our old studio in Cebu from 2012-2020. That studio was inside a Japanese surplus car shop workshop. The walls were just gi sheets and cheap plywood. That is also the time we first tinkered with computers and microcontrollers.
We adopted cats and one of them is BRUCE. In 2017 we created an AI chatbot called BRUCE (Brain Research Unit for Creative Environments) for a show in CCP-Manila.
Bruce the cat used to play inside the car engines and meowing. maybe he is the ghost in the Machine.
Also the topic of AI and creativity is very popular at of the moment so it would be interetsting to intervene on those topic adding different layers to other contemporary issues like social media likes, vanity, in the global context of capitalist crisis.
The GITM app
This app should be installed on the every phones that will be used for installation. This app is a PWA app which is technically a website that can be installable. We made this so that in the exhibition, the museum attendant will just click the app to run the visual just like any other phone app no need to open a browser and type url.
the app is composed of 7 visuals or more. and this will evolve in the duration of the show. We will discuss those in the future updates of this doc. Those visuals will be displayed on the phone screens.
To install: Go to this website and click the install pop up.
Endless Love: This app is for the audience
We need a QR code and paste it somewhere outside the room so that the audience can access it. The website is https://kolown.net/endlesslove (as of the moment it is still under development) but we can try to tap the center of the screen. In the show duration this app will trigger visual changes in the installation and in the ghost server application.
The Visuals
For this project we try to visualize the idea of invisibility. This is to play with the idea of ghosts in the traditional meaning. So the research and process composed of reusing old concepts shown in the past exhibitions as well as using the Leeum Museum website collections archive as a reference for the visual language of this project.
In this projects the themes of blur, glitch and abstraction is common technique being used. For example we choose abstract artworks from the Leeum Collection as a basis in Visuals 5 and 6.
The borrowed visuals also of red screen, loading, and blue screen of death, and glitched images are references to the inaccessibility of information.
The visuals rendered on the screens are real-time-rendered, they are not videos. They are like video games that react to user interactions. In this context, the user interaction came from the audience using their phones.
We also want to limit the visuals to the devices that they are running. Phones especially the old ones don’t have the power compared to gaming laptops to render high end real-time graphics.
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These are the different visuals that will be seen on the app:
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visual 1: Ghosting – it features a loading screen. This work we used it in 2017 Low Pressured Areas at Cultural Center of the Philippines (halfway, 2017) when we play looped loading video on existing screens as form of spatial interventions.
This is also a reference to the internet in the provincial area where the access of data is very limited in the pre-pandemic era.
visual 2: Red Alert – Red screen, reference to alert/alert lights.
visual 3: Death – it features the windows Blue Screen of Death.
visual 4: ColorField – random colors
visual 5: Ghostify – features abstract works from the Leeum Museum Collection. The blurring is a reference to the experience of blurry loading in accessing images on apps like Instagram that don’t have enough connection or signal at the moment.
visual 6: soon will features collage from Leeum Museum Korean Art Collection. the objects from collage will be very small and would look abstract from a distance.
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RoadMap
the app will grow as we learn more how the audience are interacting the installation. we will update this roadmap section
Mission Control: This app is only accessible by curators and museum.
What is a state in the context of the installation?
State in this context refers to the group of visuals/ relationship of visuals played in the whole installation.
Visuals refers to the individual video/image/interactive visuals displayed on a screen.
The Ghost
We don’t need to do anything. its just sits on the server.
Updates
deployment of updates and minor bug fixes of the apps will be every Wednesday of the week during the duration of the exhibitions. Major bugs will fix it asap.
Concept:
Ghost in the Machine” is an art installation that combines physical and digital elements to delve into the themes of remote work, troll farms, virtual assistance, and the effects of the digital age on our daily lives. The project seeks to highlight the often overlooked yet essential workforce that operates behind our device screens.
The artwork will feature a minimum of 20-30+ smartphones affixed to the walls, their wires conspicuously exposed, evoking the image of troll farms. In addition, an interactive browser-based application will be developed to exhibit a series of digital works. This application will be interactive, enabling audience members to control it using their phones. This serves as a metaphor for global connectivity, underscoring the dual role of our devices as tools for connection and a potential sources of harm.
Furthermore, the project prompts us to question the roles of the human laborers performing menial tasks and the AI performing intellectual tasks in the virtual world. It asks us to consider who are the ghosts and who are the machines in this digital age.