In Search of a Better Moment in Pop-Culture History

by Art Fag City on July 12, 2007 · 27 comments Events

data-tracking.jpg

Something about Even Roth and Ben Engebreth’s open source project The White Glove Tracking gets under my skin, and like virtually everything else that evokes that turn of phrase, it’s not in a good way. Granted, the stated objectives sound great, which I suspect sold quite a few people initially, but just what are we looking at? Roth and Engebreth explain:

“W.G.T. is an effort to isolate just the white glove from this moment in pop-culture history. Rather then write unnecessarily complex code to find the glove in every frame of the video I am asking for the assistance of 10,060 individual internet users to simply click and drag a box around the glove in one frame. In the end this data will be shared freely for all to download, visualize, and use as an input into other digital systems.”

Now, Roth and Engebreth certainly nail what the Internet does best with this statement — engage over qualified geeks to document trivial minutia in their free time — however it remains to be seen if anything interesting will be generated from this project, and it’s not looking good for the pair. To begin with a small but important point, I can’t imagine either artist ever had any illusions that they would actually solicit the help of 10,000-plus unique users, and indeed their list of the 100 best contributers suggest that not only did they only solicit the help of a few hundred friends, but that the combined results of the top three participants exceed the number of isolated frames needed. So far W.G.T. findings show what anyone familiar with digital video editing tools would have suspected — that one person could have completed the project in less than a week. It also illustrates the self-evident point that you really don’t need too much incentive to waste a whole lot of time on the Internet.

As far as what’s been done with the data since, I have to say I haven’t noticed anyone’s done anything that approaches the realm of good visualization, and frankly, it’s not surprising given such an uninspiring pop culture reference. In the game of citing interesting entertainment phenomenon, it’s hard to go lower on the totem pole than Billy Jean, the anthem of dorm room celebrations across North America. Focusing on Jackson’s glove only adds to the banality of this project since as a Halloween party prop it comes second only to vampire teeth and witches hats in its popularity. It’s possible the artists would tell me I am a pop culture snob who is missing the point — the project glorifies the mundane — but the bottom line isn’t that the source material is too well known to be interesting, but rather, that given the project’s parameters, its commonality gives the subject matter the feel of something chosen almost at random. And that’s a big problem because it only underscores the contributer results, calling into question the rationale for asking a community to collect and work with the gathered data in the first place. As far as I can tell, the only place Roth and Engebreth’s voice shows up with any success is in their website design, and even that is pretty basic.

The White Glove Tracking project is a Rhizome and Eyebeam commission.

{ 27 comments }

Jeff July 13, 2007 at 2:39 am

it is interesting that when viewed as a technique knowingly applied to “random” subject-matter, this project could theoretically be the first higher-level critique of the benefits of “crowdsourcing”…all the more poignant, given its attention from “Web 2.0” websites (Digg, etc.). though this angle seems sorta unlikely

Jeff July 12, 2007 at 10:39 pm

it is interesting that when viewed as a technique knowingly applied to “random” subject-matter, this project could theoretically be the first higher-level critique of the benefits of “crowdsourcing”…all the more poignant, given its attention from “Web 2.0” websites (Digg, etc.). though this angle seems sorta unlikely

Art Fag City July 13, 2007 at 5:45 pm

LOL! It is pretty unlikely – I rather like it for that.

Art Fag City July 13, 2007 at 1:45 pm

LOL! It is pretty unlikely – I rather like it for that.

Evan July 16, 2007 at 4:03 pm

http://whiteglovetracking.com/gallery/artFagCity_WEB.mov

Ha, ha, just kidding. Thanks for the thoughtful review, we’ll see what comes out of it.

Evan July 16, 2007 at 4:03 pm

http://whiteglovetracking.com/gallery/artFagCity_WEB.mov

Ha, ha, just kidding. Thanks for the thoughtful review, we’ll see what comes out of it.

Evan July 16, 2007 at 12:03 pm

http://whiteglovetracking.com/gallery/artFagCity_WEB.mov

Ha, ha, just kidding. Thanks for the thoughtful review, we’ll see what comes out of it.

Art Fag City July 16, 2007 at 4:12 pm

Well, you’re not really kidding, but that’s okay. Your video is hilarious! Thanks:)

Art Fag City July 16, 2007 at 12:12 pm

Well, you’re not really kidding, but that’s okay. Your video is hilarious! Thanks:)

smqt July 20, 2007 at 2:20 pm

You’re right: soooooo easy to snob songs like this or the white glove.
Trying to marginalize the importance and meaning of contemporary icons, by implying that their work or presence is superficial – or mundane.

Value the long gone, the classics, the dead poets.
Quote their biographers and make it seem like original thought.
Talk about mundane and overused imagery.

I suppose you prefer to dress up in a yellow vest for Halloween.
Nobody will EVER get the Goethe reference, clever you!
I bet you dance like an old man too.

smqt July 20, 2007 at 2:20 pm

You’re right: soooooo easy to snob songs like this or the white glove.
Trying to marginalize the importance and meaning of contemporary icons, by implying that their work or presence is superficial – or mundane.

Value the long gone, the classics, the dead poets.
Quote their biographers and make it seem like original thought.
Talk about mundane and overused imagery.

I suppose you prefer to dress up in a yellow vest for Halloween.
Nobody will EVER get the Goethe reference, clever you!
I bet you dance like an old man too.

smqt July 20, 2007 at 10:20 am

You’re right: soooooo easy to snob songs like this or the white glove.
Trying to marginalize the importance and meaning of contemporary icons, by implying that their work or presence is superficial – or mundane.

Value the long gone, the classics, the dead poets.
Quote their biographers and make it seem like original thought.
Talk about mundane and overused imagery.

I suppose you prefer to dress up in a yellow vest for Halloween.
Nobody will EVER get the Goethe reference, clever you!
I bet you dance like an old man too.

Art Fag City July 20, 2007 at 2:52 pm

You’ve managed to miss the point entirely.

Art Fag City July 20, 2007 at 10:52 am

You’ve managed to miss the point entirely.

smqt July 20, 2007 at 2:57 pm
smqt July 20, 2007 at 2:57 pm
smqt July 20, 2007 at 10:57 am
Art Fag City July 20, 2007 at 3:15 pm

Yeah, I saw this today on boing boing. I wish they posted more background on how and why this was made. I mean, was this part of a prison program?

Art Fag City July 20, 2007 at 11:15 am

Yeah, I saw this today on boing boing. I wish they posted more background on how and why this was made. I mean, was this part of a prison program?

Jon August 17, 2007 at 5:25 pm

They should have used a throw of the I Ching to give their choice of subject some gravitas.

Jon August 17, 2007 at 1:25 pm

They should have used a throw of the I Ching to give their choice of subject some gravitas.

Jon August 17, 2007 at 5:36 pm

Oh, Paddy — there’s an article in Vice (don’t ask) a few months back about that prison.

Jon August 17, 2007 at 5:36 pm

Oh, Paddy — there’s an article in Vice (don’t ask) a few months back about that prison.

Jon August 17, 2007 at 1:36 pm

Oh, Paddy — there’s an article in Vice (don’t ask) a few months back about that prison.

tom moody August 1, 2010 at 10:05 pm

I realize I am commenting three years late but Paddy’s doubts about this project are well-expressed and spot on. If Jeff were correct and if it were a spoof on crowdsourced art and/or simplistic jokes that go on far too long it might be redeemed. but it isn’t that. I’m not sure what it is. I only watched a few of the excerpts to see what people were doing with the white glove. Big glove, OK. Trails, OK. I can’t even get through the excerpts, much less watch the individual videos.I suppose I could hire some Amazon Turk serfs to watch all the different versions of the performance so they could make a list of what they are. “Billie Jean” is a cliche cultural moment to begin with, as Paddy notes, but this isn’t a comment on the cliche, or computerized labor, or bad CGI technique, or bad mashups: it’s just “we had this idea and we did it and this is how much effort was required.” That the best Roth can muster in his own defense is an extended “FU” in the same clumsy style as the rest of the videos shows how empty this is. “I got this fellowship and I did this work and you’re supposed to like my art” is what he is saying. So tired of the presumed success of all new media art.

tom moody August 1, 2010 at 10:05 pm

I realize I am commenting three years late but Paddy’s doubts about this project are well-expressed and spot on. If Jeff were correct and if it were a spoof on crowdsourced art and/or simplistic jokes that go on far too long it might be redeemed. but it isn’t that. I’m not sure what it is. I only watched a few of the excerpts to see what people were doing with the white glove. Big glove, OK. Trails, OK. I can’t even get through the excerpts, much less watch the individual videos.I suppose I could hire some Amazon Turk serfs to watch all the different versions of the performance so they could make a list of what they are. “Billie Jean” is a cliche cultural moment to begin with, as Paddy notes, but this isn’t a comment on the cliche, or computerized labor, or bad CGI technique, or bad mashups: it’s just “we had this idea and we did it and this is how much effort was required.” That the best Roth can muster in his own defense is an extended “FU” in the same clumsy style as the rest of the videos shows how empty this is. “I got this fellowship and I did this work and you’re supposed to like my art” is what he is saying. So tired of the presumed success of all new media art.

tom moody August 1, 2010 at 6:05 pm

I realize I am commenting three years late but Paddy’s doubts about this project are well-expressed and spot on. If Jeff were correct and if it were a spoof on crowdsourced art and/or simplistic jokes that go on far too long it might be redeemed. but it isn’t that. I’m not sure what it is. I only watched a few of the excerpts to see what people were doing with the white glove. Big glove, OK. Trails, OK. I can’t even get through the excerpts, much less watch the individual videos.I suppose I could hire some Amazon Turk serfs to watch all the different versions of the performance so they could make a list of what they are. “Billie Jean” is a cliche cultural moment to begin with, as Paddy notes, but this isn’t a comment on the cliche, or computerized labor, or bad CGI technique, or bad mashups: it’s just “we had this idea and we did it and this is how much effort was required.” That the best Roth can muster in his own defense is an extended “FU” in the same clumsy style as the rest of the videos shows how empty this is. “I got this fellowship and I did this work and you’re supposed to like my art” is what he is saying. So tired of the presumed success of all new media art.

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