It's fair to say that if there's one thing I advise in life to do it's not writing things withing 48 hours of their hand-in dates, I say this with complete honesty because, to lie and claim that I have been on the ball writing this long post that should hopefully encompass the entirety of my art's conception would be, in a way, against the spirit of the ongoing battle that has been between me and this evil fucking task I have set myself; a task that despite the panicking, financial losses, stresses, and occasional breakdowns it has caused me, is one that, with less than 72 hours to go before the main prototype's performance, is leaving me nervous, waiting for last minute parts through the post, and unquestionably proud of!
The fact is that, as the previous posts have shown, with all the influences of stellarc and artists that enjoy the involvement of their audiences, the true inspirations are that of the "twitch plays" series of video game experiments, it was such a bizarre movement but so inherently engrossing and fascinating because you felt both as part of a team and as an enemy to all those around you, the struggle to set a direction was legitimate and, when things went well would cause immense satisfaction due to the agonizing frustration of trying to get anywhere when hundreds of people didn't always agree, yet each one had a say in that direction anyway; as much as one would like to say their ideas were wholly original I in no way can say that; this was, in a way, my take on such a movement, and I'd like to precede this whole post by saying thank you to all the wonderful people out there who laid the foundations; created the engines and code; adapted that code for various games and scenarios; and those who've participated and spread the word for such a marvelous little adventure on the internet. The ultimate truth is that I doubt I'm the first person to consider an adaptation of the idea involving real-life actors in some form and I'm sure I won't be the last, but to be able to have the dedicated time, resources, and motivation to actually proceed with such an idea that, I am genuinely surprised to see (as far as I've researched) has never properly happened before, is truly humbling.
Design Evolution
The actual piece's design, since it's official presentation have stayed relatively the same to it's original ideas, for technical reasons it is still, and has always been Grid Based as both an homage to the original inspiration and for ease of use, after some basic instructions and a few minutes getting used to it, it's fair to say that practically anyone can be the avatar which, given the use of anonymity, allows the experience to be shared, potentially allowing people to become the artwork itself as opposed to just adding to it. However, while the work and play aspect had always existed in some form, they existed as a way to separate 2 sides to intentionally divide an audience causing the pushing around effects that I desired. Despite the fact that you need cooperation to complete a goal in this piece, the idea is actually on the contrary, I want to motivate people into a sense of conflict that accidentally will make 2 teams of people, those who want entertainment, and those who want something else....the problem was finding that something else, for fun activities play was obvious, fun things like adding music to the stream, dancing, playing with drums and lights etc. These activities are enjoyable to see and hear, they excite the senses, so why would people trek to the other side with almost no motivational reason to? The answer, like with most things, is money....well in this case charity.
This dynamic came out of serendipity, because of the constant talk of opposites and conflicts i keep discussing I began adapting the piece as a chess-board (although on 7x7 grid as it adds a center "recalibration" square that makes it a lot easier to see where you are in relation to it) and, in buying a lot of garden chess sets I found myself with a lot of counters which look quite a lot like large poker chips. Gambling is a fascinating thing, the simple incentive of monetary changes creates a lot of tension out of something that is actually incredibly dull to watch, in the end all you're actually performing is the movement of representative items of value based on a set of rules that lead to gain or loss via odds. That may sound a bit pretentious but to me the fact that as a method of keeping track of money it is simple, easy to understand as chips, and intentionally uninteresting adds to the battle that is work vs play; in this case letting chips be constantly passed across to the end table will, for each one that makes it, go into a pool that donates my own money to charity (in this case cancer research u.k.). That, in a way completes all of what I want/need for that understanding of masochism, I am consistently on financial edge and doing something like this is arguably quite dangerous (even though I've calculated the max amount at around £40 (very unlikely to happen)) but, by having something at stake to lose (and incentivising people to make it actually happen) I am forced to give up all control. I set up to have some understanding of masochism, and as much as I was always thinking about the experience of the viewers and the visual styles the ultimate goal was, interestingly, an experience that should hopefully feel uniquely uncomfortable.
The technical times
This is where all my time has been and I honestly don't know what to say, I got the engines, got the test channel and just kept working on it, with server switches and different channels it was a nightmare and the wonderful instructions were now, thanks to a new partnership between twitch and amazon, outdated, so with the main website ( https://github.com/Francesco149/OpenTwitchPlays ) as reference, I had no choice but to trial and error my way through all the new servers, and then days later some pixels on my screen moved, in all honesty it was just a blur of emotions and as much as I'd like to say every minute detail I honestly can't, it was merely perseverance, a lot of googling, and a fuck-tonne of internet usage for streaming.
Now as I say this with less time until the performance I just got wonderful news....my server for the chat has been changed..........
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Engine-wise I now have to do what took me a week in a day if i want everything ready and testable on set-up day....
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for never updating my blogs I must say, karma is a complete bitch sometimes, still, at least the news had pretty decent timing in terms of a narrative........
One Second Please....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ
Okay...where were we?
Oh Yes, technical stuff...
The streaming interface from Open Broadcasting software is, once the plugins are installed, extremely flexible and luckily not too tricky to interface with,it's mostly a case of understanding the overlays, and that's where we get to the wonderful world of server lag:
Streaming and actually watching is, due to rendering and upload times, basically guaranteed to have a delay, this can be between 10 seconds and 10 minutes, and while, at home tests I can vouch for a 32 second delay, I still have to wait until setting up to get proper corded access to the university's internet from my main PC, this means that delay-wise I genuinely have no idea. In most streams with people playing games it merely delays when the chat see their questions answered, but here we have a system that acts on the chat, that means that chat-control can have an entire 30 seconds worth of time before their action is shown to them, this is why using OBS I made the chat log:
The chat log is a virtual screen-cam that looks at the engine interpreter, it says when someone said an action, and who said it, this means that real-time people can see and check the delay but know when an action was, in fact, actually theirs. It is a small thing, but incredibly valuable at mitigating frustration. Interestingly enough those who are in the room and typing will actually get instant feedback, so, in a way the use of twitch could arguably be seen as a compromise for the viewers, and those present to the performance are perhaps the only people truly experiencing the intended product. As much of a case as that may be, however, the need for such safety nets is very valuable to those watching, as it demonstrates and provides an understanding of genuine control, and not just a fake one.
The Props, The Set-Up, The Waiting...
There are some things that it's hard to plan for, the English postal service is one of them, and currently part of my floor and 2 of my props have, at most 2 days to get here due to shipping delays. The fact is that I have to adjust accordingly no matter what. So here's the Plan B for current disasters:
-If there is not enough flooring I redesign the grid to be thinner, while the webcam is set to 4:3 so the square flooring fits better for the stream it is still possible to readjust accordingly, this includes last-minute changes to the map interface, luckily the RPGMaker engine can be very flexible, this will, however mean the visual assets will be lost and I'll have to use place-holders, however this will only be visible to those in attendance at the event for this prototype, by gallery-time last minute adjustments should not be needed.
-If parts don't arrive then I go to the charity shop and buy temporary ones, then change the text boxes in the instructional parts of the RPGMaker Map
-If I can't get the internet to work properly when I'm there....Then I have 24 hours to get al software loaded and configured on someone's mac who actually wants to connect1
-if the green morph-suit doesn't arrive (green helps it stand out from the black and white aesthetic), I luckily have a black and whit skeleton morphsuit that, while perhaps might be a bit odd, fits the colour scheme and with some extra lighting on the floor should allow me to still stand-out in the space!
So What Else....
Expect a blog on Thursday, as much as I want to evaluate the work now I just can't. I've planned as much as I can and at this point I've just got to set up and see what needs to change because of circumstance. Unlike making a film or normal performance here the problem is that I can test the engine, the systems, the servers and channel adverts but, setting up today, this space is everything, and seeing it, adapting it, and being efficient is all I can do, once I see it you'll all get your lovely evaluation but, as dumb as this sounds, I have to know this works, and now that I finally have a space to build the thing, I have to see it through to the end. In terms of a Gallery space it's currently planned to be basically the same as it should hopefully be presented, but I honestly can't change that until it's made. I can plan all I want but reality is going to hit soon, and I need to make sure I'm ready. Now if you'll excuse me I have a server to reconnect to, a set to build, and a whole lot of PC parts to transport.
I must admit, this is the most ambitious art-piece I've ever done....
And this is some of the most nervous and stressed I've ever been in my life...
I am scared...
I am exhausted...
and I will do anything to see this working one way or another...
I may have been absolutely disgraceful at logging what I've done, and I know that's going to bite me back horrifically in the coming days....
but right now that's not what's in my head, as much as it should be, my head is filled with one thing right now:
No matter what goes wrong, Do It Right, and Do It Well!
Because as much as this is all for university I'm honestly not making this piece to get a good grade anymore, I'm doing it to finally make something I can be proud of, and I'm not stopping until I am!
Also sorry for all the stress I've caused you Rosie, you deserve a better student, but I hope when it works it'll make up for something.....perhaps because I'm tired I'm getting sentimental but genuinely, to everyone who's helped me with this, thank you all so much, I will do everything in my power to not fuck this up!
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