Proposal for final project installation.

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Alex Manescu
3/18/13
New Tech Lab
Anti-Social Media
For this revision of my final project I have decided to focus in on a singular theme
from my former proposal. I intend to explore the feeling of being voiceless despite being
surrounded with social interaction. This concept was the basis for my form construction
involving projection of visual and audio distortion using Max MSP Jitter based on the
number of people in the room at any given moment. I plan to keep this structure
relatively intact, with changes in content and context being the major revisions.
To keep this theme relevant to the exploration of ethics in technology, which is
deeply rooted in this course and throughout our text, I plan to focus on the breakdown of
empathy and intimacy in interpersonal relationships as a consequence of Social Media.
This topic is currently the subject of a heated debate in the scientific community as well
as popular opinion. However, it remains to be seen what the long term affects of the level
exposure to and immersion in this technology will be. A University of Michigan study
suggested that the statistical decline of empathy in the past thirty years could be a result
of the relatively recent hyper-exposure to media—specifically social media. In addition in
1992 anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed a scientific theory that suggests humans and
primates alike are only mentally capable of maintaining a mean “group size” of around
one hundred and fifty individuals.
This is also largely a personal exploration as much as it is relevant to emerging
technologies. Having struggled with clinical depression throughout my life and grown up
alongside this technology—I feel it is potentially a definitive aspect of myself as well as
my generation. It seems clear to me that the gamification of social interaction inherent in

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social media has made it that much more difficult to sincerely communicate with others,
despite being more connected than ever before in history.
In terms of aesthetic elements of this project I have several ideas. First the
correlation between amount of people present and the volume and type of distortion of
visual and audio elements being projected is very important to me. This represents the
core theme of the breakdown in communication and loss of empathy for those you are
surrounded by.
Some potential concepts I have for what is to be projected include,
• Using face-tracking via the cv.jit object library to literally capture the image of
faces entering the room and projecting them, perhaps visual obscuring or
distorting them, to create a sense of uneasiness regarding personal image
• Voice over readings of actual statuses from various social media outlets that
could be relevant to my concept, though do not necessarily need to be, for
authenticity and to attempt to instill empathy using this medium
o My thought is that the volume and pace of these sound bites could
increase as more people enter to mimic the feeling of anxiety and
frustration I have felt when I feel unable to express myself
• I have other possible considerations, however to give a concise idea of my
project, I will save those to be explored as I come to a head with the limitations of
both technology and ethical use

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Webliography
http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/7724 - University of Michigan study on empathy and
social media
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/04/136723316/dont-believe-facebook-you-only-have-150-
friends - NPR Article on Dunbar’s number in relation to social media
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number - Information on Dunbar’s Number
http://jmpelletier.com/cvjit/ - Information on the cv.jit object
http://cycling74.com/forums/topic.php?id=26006 - Cycling 74 forum topic on cv.jit
for reference