kyle /danm 224

Kyle McKinley
January 10th, 2009
DANM 224
Prof. EG Crichton

Project Proposals: “Mutoscope” and “Bicalogues”

My plan this quarter is to pursue two projects somewhat simultaneously. My hope is to most efficiently utilize my time in this course by finishing one project that I have already begun and accomplish substantial work on a second project that (I hope) will eventually become my thesis work for DANM.
The first of these projects, The Mutoscope Project, I began last quarter in Sharon Daniel's Project Design Studio (DANM 210). I did a great deal of thinking and some writing about it in that course, as well as a couple of prototypes (pictured here). By the end of this quarter I would like it to be a finished piece that is ready for show in a variety of contexts.
The second project, titled Bicalogues (for now, at least) will be on-going for the next two years or longer. My aim is merely to prototype the technologies involved and begin collecting source video materials for future display. Read more about the Bicalogues project here.
Though these two projects would likely appear quite separate to most viewers, in terms of technologies involved and in terms of conceptual orientation they have a great deal in common. Technologically, both of these projects aim to construct an interface that is robust and fun while minimally technical; it may well be the case that the same simple bit of programming will power the software interface for both projects. Both of these projects emerge, conceptually, from my ongoing interest in what I have termed “radical ontology.” By “ontology” I mean rather simply “being-in-the-world,” (although the connections to Heiddeger's “In-der-Welt-sein” may be limited to a shared distaste for subject/object dialectics). Thus “radical ontology” here refers to an immanence-based ontology that aims to transform the world without recourse to teleological metaphors such as 'transcendence' or 'revolution'. At a practical level, it is my hope that these projects offer viewer-participants a context that emphasizes embodiment while exploring relationships between particular bodies and the space(s) of lived environments. For more about these projects, please follow the links below:

• bicalogues
• mutoscope