1 year performance video (aka samHsiehUpdate)

1 year performance video is an online stream of two men in 10mx10m rooms living there for a whole year. However in reality it is edited video to make individual streams for each viewer to correspond to the time they are viewing the stream. 

This plays off Hsieh's one year performance in 1978 call cage piece, in which he did a similar documentation of where he live in a cage for a year taking pictures to document his life. This Hsieh's Update is one to bring it into the digital world we live in today.

The choices made in updating the work tell us how our society, culture, and the creative process has changed since the original was created.

 

"This work is typical of much digital art because it is an artwork that places importance on....

• Formal instructions: There are clear instruction to teach us paste links to his work in order to create your own version.
• The concept rather than the art object: His art work are combined by distorted texts and graphics, I think normal people never think about what is behind a website. People can have a different perspective of a website.
• The event an audience participation: Shredder what us to paste links to his work in order to create your own version, people need to interact with the website to experience it. People will interested on it and keep on paste different website on it.
• An interest in random event and/or in chance: Different website will create different version, there never he same effect for different website.
• Borrowing and appropriation: His work need to borrow others link to create the work.

Comment on the screening of Game Revolution(CBC documentary, 2007)

a)According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

Pros:

• Relaxing
• A interesting way of learning
• Advertising (eg. to solicit American Soldier)
• Training or gain experiences (eg. design scene for soldier to practice)

Cons:

• Addicted to the games
• Violent games may arouse bad emotion (eg. shooting games)
• Get lost to the real world

b)According the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

I agree that digital games will encourage bad effect but only to some extend,  because it depends on what the games about. In the film, it give example that people will learn things from the videogames and act in the real world, not matter it is good things or bad things. Children don't have enough knowledge to judge, if they really get in tough  with the violent games, he may become aggressive and anti-social.

c)Should governments have the right to ban a certain game or place age restrictions on it? Why?

Yes, place age restriction is needed. I think government should give more guideline to the producers to make sure that suitable videogames to appointed age group.

d)Interview

My interviewees said that she never think to much when playing video games, she just want to enjoy and have fun.

Could "Super Mario Clouds" be considered as art?

"Super Mario Clouds" is created by Cory Arcangel, which is develop from a famous game "Super Mario". He removed all the characters and design and left only the clouds and blue sky.

Cory Arcangel said that, "I knew that the clouds would be simple enough for people to latch on to, and I knew that in order to make art that dealt with technology, you had to, in a way, have the art not directly be about specific technologies. I mean, we think everyone played Nintendo, but really, hardly anybody played Nintendo. Now looking back on it all – it's about… what do these pixelated clouds represent? It represents the whole progression of humans, communication and technology. But I couldn't write that down. And it became a meme slowly. I put it up and it took years for people to see it, but it worked…" 

(The meaning of Super Mario Clouds 12.7.2009)

Art doesn't have to mean anything.  This is the conclusion on The Guardian's Keith Stuart.

Some people may think that videogames is just a game, it not art. But I think Cory's work is different. He have the intention to do his art work, he want people focus more on the background, but not only the game. There is meaning for the clouds too.