A Social Experiment: Social Group Dynamics 

 Inspirations were drawn from Ripcurl Masters in Newquay, crowds, music fun, and plenty of social interaction. The art project will be totally web based, as it is accessible for most people to test the site.  The initial concept involved in users viewing various images with black outline and hollow white spaces of people, similar to the IPOD advert but the image is totally white.  The users are invited to write comments on the body parts to reflect an imagine.  For example, there may be a girl with short funky hair and posed in dance position.  The user may write something like sociable, outgoing on their heads to reflect the profile of Miss X.  The data will be saved, so that the user will be able to see the previous comments on Miss X and gradually a profile is being built by the public.  The aim for my project was to create a social environment for the public to interact with.  After some reconsideration, the concept proved to be too static.        

Music is a great source of medium in provoking emotions.  It almost deletes all the ‘isms’, it removes any discrimination and it is good method to attract the mass public.  The final concept is to create analysis on pr between strangers and to stage the project in a sociable environment.  I had approached the manager of Cuba café and informed him that I like to invite his customers to participate in a social experiment with painting feet and music.  Fortunately, he agreed immediately.   

The list of equipment required:

-       The Panasonic camera and a digital camera to document it.  

Paint materials -       A3 x 9 on the first canvas, then it was decreased to A3x6.

-       Washable paints in red, blue, green and yellow

-       A pack of paint brushes. -      

Lots of newspaper

-       Sellotape and masking tapes, to ensure the paper sticks to the ground.    

Cleaning of feet and equipment

-       Soap, washing up liquid, clean wipes         

Initially the aims were to measure distances between individual personal space to strangers in a social environment.  I had invited individuals to paint feet in their own chosen colour. Then to dance with a stranger for a duration of a song approximately 3mins or so.  I would take photos of where their initial footprint is and when they stop dancing I would ask them to be stationary, then take a final photo of where their footprint is, so that I can measure the distance between 1^st footprint and last footprint.      I had approached the general public inviting to engage in this experiment.   Unfortunate that majority of the people I had asked turned out to be shy people.  There were groups of both gender in Cuba Air, maybe my persuasion technique was weak.       In order to invite the public to create the feet painting, I had informed the following:  

- To explain to participants that I am creating an art project in the form of a social experiment. 

 -This involves in inviting participants to paint their feet and dance on the white canvas (sheets) for the duration of a song (approximately) 3mins or so. 

Software used in the production:  Photoshop:

1. To manipulate the images for the flash project.

 Flash:  

- on the 1^st page: this consist a brief explanation of the purpose of the project

- 2^nd page is the game page which enables user to select the individuals and drop it onto the empty cells, so that they can organise the groups with the user perceive is the correct one.   I had wanted to create some analysis on social structure and dynamic groups. 

According to Durkheim (cited in Jones 2003, page 32), that social structures consist of ‘norms and values’ forms the foundation, therefore individual must fulfil (a prophecy) a role.  For example: she is a doctor so she must help the patient.  She must be a very compassionate person.  In a sense it is stereotyping.  Book by Tawardros (2004) contained a lot of art work which I felt was challenging the boundaries of the society.  One piece of work featured an artist who is black, he based his concepts on Hogarth paintings and inserted himself in photographs which he recreated with other people who dressed in that era. (I am uncertain to address person who is black, do we say he/she is black or colour?) According to Wetherell (1996) that groups are formed by members who have ‘commonalities of a purpose’.  Erikson states that the purpose of the groups act in various ways, on both psychological and sociological, it various from the content of these social groups, for example if the members are there to build confidence, project positive images, assist in academic developments then the individual will progress too (e.g. a sports group at school).   

Evaluation:  In terms of interactivity, a small element in the game page, however, a larger percentage of engagement from the public in Cuba Air.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to create a dynamic game page in flash and the images.  The purpose of the game page was to enable the user to eliminate any preconception or any discrimination of characters by face value.  Using the saying “Things are not always what they seem“.  For example an individual may work for the council as an admin person, in private life they play in a punk band.  Every human have multiple layers in their lives this enable them explore their identity and may or may not reach self actualisation (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)                 

http://wahyu.com/2005/12/07/im-here-with-the-basic-of-abraham-maslows-law-about-needs/  

An example of a corporate group dynamic model oppose to a social one   

http://www.cultivator.com/page.asp?pageID=290&intSiteId=4&show=sub174&strParentId=121,174,121,0&isParent=false 

Conclusion I had researched on the well known psychology theories from Maslow, Carl Jung, Freud to Erikson.  The project itself evolved from attempts to analyze physical distance of social interaction to examining how people engage themselves in groups, and the conformity.       Due to the element of fun, paint and feet, a few people commented that they haven’t experienced this since primary school.  There were groups of people who participated in this social experiment.  Currently art projects surrounding this area are made by local communities which results in bonding experience and increases good will in the environment.          

References:  

Paul, Christiane (2003) Digital Art. London Thames & Hudson

Dowling, M (2000) Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development. Paul Chapman publishing Ltd : London  

Ball, H (1996) Flight Out Of Time – A DaDa Diary. University of California Press: Los Angeles

Kaye, N (2007) Multi-Media, Video Installation Performance. Routhledge: Oxon

Tawardros, G (2004) Changing States – Contemporary Art and Ideas in an Era of Globalisation.  Institute of International Visual Arts: London

Wetherell, M (1996) Identities Groups and social Issues. Sage Publication Ltd: London  

Bibliography:

Friedman, K (1998) The Fluxus Reader. Academy Editions: Chichester

Harrison & Wood Art Theory 1999 – 2000 Wilson, Stephen (2002) Information Arts, Intersections of Art, Science and Technology.  

Web references:  

http://www.iniva.org/season/site/project_09http://wahyu.com/2005/12/07/im-here-with-the-basic-of-abraham-maslows-law-about-needs

/http://www.colorado.edu/communication/metadiscourses/Theory/CommCulture.htmhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.htmlhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/carljung.htmlhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.htmlhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/vogotsky.htmlhttp://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/perscontents.htmlhttp://pages.prodigy.net/jmiller.cb/pr11.html      

the images of the individuals on the left hand side are supposed to have white backgrounds too.

Row 2, 3rd and 4th box

Row 3, 1st box

it is unfortunate, that I am not able to resolve the technical problems with the actionscript, as the others worked fine.  The errors occured in the actionscript were written in the same way and method, but can’t seem to resolve it.  Therefore it doesn’t appear to be as dynamic as I wish the outcome to be  

- photoshop to manipulate the images

- flash to create the interactive web page

The flash file contains the

- cover page

- game page (interactive, for user to select the images, drad and drop onto the empty cell) This enables the user to organise the individuals into the groups which they perceive to be correct

- gallery

  a sample image of the interior of Cuba

 http://www.myspace.com/bar_cuba

The initial concept invited user to build profiles of a group of people in at a gig.  The idea was to challenge the users perception of people. 

*negative film  manipulated  through photoshop   This idea appeared to be too static, as the creation process doesn’t involve public participation.  This concept involves user to type in text via an input window of body parts and insert a comment to represent or interpret   an emotion or characteristic.  For example: a girl with funky hair (static) image in a manic dance pose.  Insert on head area could be e.g. loving the current band on stage, but getting crushed by the people around me!  Arms (in a high wave position) or leg parts: very tired but I am still going.     All the data will be stored under each image    

(taking the above image for example, there are 6 people in this image)

Social identity:   -       The user is required to look at images and  to identify the profession of the people.     -       Insert images of a plain clothes policeman, postman, lawyer, doctors etc. -       There will be a blank window for the user to type in the profession of the people.  -       A pop up window to inform the user to verify whether they are correct or not. The aim is to use the saying “Nothing always seem what they are”