Final Project Description
The goal of my project is to present the concept of Absent Presence in real time/space within campus grounds where I participants can engage in their immediate surroundings and actively experience and understand this concept. Absent Presence in short refers to the concept of being physically present, but mentally preoccupied with regards to use of technological devices.
Because the project has a strong emphasis on social interaction, it is essential that the project needs to encourage people to directly connect and participate with the social experiment. I plan to accomplish this by firstly creating a print design on a t-shirt that can draw the attention to my “Absent Presence: Making Face Time” project. Next, I will assemble a crew to assist me in carrying out this project. The challenge for the participants would be to place their mobile device in a box or turn off their device and engage in a conversation myself for a whole 2 minutes. As a student on this campus, I realize that relying on students to voluntarily participate in a social experiment such as this is fairly difficult. Therefore, as an incentive for the students there will be small prizes involved. In addition to the T-shirt print designs, I will document the process of my project through photographs, and post them on a blog dedicated to tracking my progress.
Through the interwoven courses of my double major in New Media and City Studies, I feel that the project perfectly embraces both of these disciplines involving the social aspect of city studies as well as the socio-technological influences of new media. This project is important to me because I feel that my generation is losing touch with that unique real time-space relationship. We are frequently bombarded with the new gadgets and fast paced media that we are taking simpler things for granted. That is, developing a physical or tangible relationship with physical space or people around us. The impression I want to make on the participants who engage in my project is to make them think about the way they are using technology, and the impact it has on their lives.
>> See full version of my project proposal
Filed under: Progress Updates Tagged: | absent presence, new media, social intervention
Hi
I have read Charlotte’s proposal and I am very pleased that this topic is being addressed.I often think about how isolated individuals in our society have become, even though we now have access to a myriad of ‘communications’ technologies.
I personally feel that while we must embrace technological advancement, we must not become slaves to it; we must not allow it to make us become ‘robots’ who have lost our ability to interact face to face. It is my contention that tools such as ‘Facebook’, while they have their merits, facilitate more frequent and rapid comminication, but this communication is less intimate and more superficial.Instead of focusing on the underlying emotion and human state that we all need to express, we are distracted by appearances and we seek to create extra things in our everyday life that we perceive others will be interested in.
Nice project ladies. Let me know how this all turns out.
Just one question: Where/when can I get one of those tees? – in the same cut and size
Looks like the whole project is coming along nicely. I like the t-shirt design a lot. Substantially better than the one I designed for my class. Keep up the good work!
I participated in Charlotte’s project, and when I was informed of the topic, I realize that it’s an important issue. It made me realize how much I rely on my blackberry, as I tagged with Charlotte and her team around school as they were doing the project, I found myself on the my blackberry most of my time, communicating with colleagues and friends.
Charlotte’s attempt to have a live conversation with people, and inform them of the scenario will hopefully allow users to step out of the virtual world and simply socialize with people. Rather than sit at home, using electronic mediums to communicate with people
Nice shirts btw, i wish you had given me the crackberry one!
Interesting topic you guys are investigating here. I’m wondering if there are any additional goals on top of spreading the knowledge of the absent presence concept. Do you expect those individuals who now understand the concept to change their lifestyle in any way?
At the 2008 Yokohama Triennial, there was an exhibition that dealt with this same obsession that people had with their cell phones.
On one wall, they had articles taken from the British press (the artist was British, I presume – I don’t have my notes with me) about people who were literally freaking out and breaking down when they were denied access to their mobiles.
On another wall was a piece of glass with a hole cut out in the centre of it. Visitors to the gallery would put their hand through the hole to manipulate a bunch of metal rods on the other side.
The point was to occupy people’s hands with something other than their mobiles. Poignant since the British and Japanese are both mobile fanatics.
Great work, Charlotte. Glad to see someone who can put connectivity into perspective and realize it – like all innovations – is a double edged sword.
Great job!! I think this is some piece of work and glad to see someone is taking the initiatives to wake up the world from their virtual space!
Yes, the world is definitely more convenient with all these technologies around as on a daily basis. I can speak for myself for my line of work. Having to travel around the world, without my blackberry I would be so disconnected. I wouldn’t be able to reply to my client in time. I NEED this for my business communication. I can’t imagine the business travelers in the old days how they can conduct their business without these technologies.
However, what I’m seeing from the younger generation today is that they too are also caught up in this virtual world. “Physically Present but Mentally Preoccupied” is the best way to put it. For instance, I was standing in line waiting to order my food the other day at Harvard Sq. Several freshmen were also waiting in line in front of me, but during the whole course of the wait time, all I can see from them is they were using their iPhone to replied to wall messages on facebook or “Twitts”. They were so pre-occupied with their typing that it seems like their soul were taken elsewhere and one of them just took their order and continue twitting without looking at what they got. Now that’s what I called “Physcially Present, but mentally preoccupied”.
I think it’s a great message of what you are trying to bring to the younger generations. I hope they will get it. And the best way to catch their attention is to Twitter. Ironic isn’t it?