The TINT Arts Lab. This is something I am glad to have done.

In my initial Project Overview, I wrote:

“Akhil assigned me a task in which I would make a video about the best fighter jet in the world. While keeping true to Akhil’s interest in and knowledge of fighter jets, the video I am working on takes the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor as a starting point in a network of associated histories, relationships, and concepts.

The F-22 Raptor opens into a discussion of the centralized military state, while my relationship with Akhil opens into a discussion of the globally networked neoliberal economy. These two intertwined paradigms are approached in a nonlinear history that feeds forward and backward to cybernetics and the emergence of digital computing to consider their influence on both the jet and the technosocial conditions for my relationship with Akhil. The video includes movements through contemporary military trade and entertainment, the commercial internet, and the militarized family histories of Akhil and I.”

This description still stands for the work I have presented here in the TINT Arts Lab. No radical changes have been made to my idea or the work I had done …

In this excerpt, you will see that the ARPANET section is followed by a section of dialog between Akhil and I. These sections will appear throughout the video, as a sort of break from the usual information overload. I will be using video game footage featuring the f22 raptor jet for these sections.

This is the “Two Paradigms” section of the video that will follow the introductory section in my first post. In it I intend to present the broad conceptual concerns of the video through narration while using imagery that reveals particulars that will emerge later in the video. In this excerpt, the “Two Paradigms” section is preceded by a transition consisting of Southern California beach footage and my narration.

Frequently asked questions about Virtual Assistance

-Does this project make you uncomfortable? yes
-Is that a big part of why it is interesting to you? yes
-Do you want to share that discomfort or ambivalence with your audience? yes
-Is your intended audience everyone who has ever bought a pair of sneakers made overseas, or everyone who has used a computer, especially the internet? yes
-Did Akhil know that this is a research-based art project from the beginning? yes
-Is all of your communication able to be monitored by Akhil’s superiors? yes
-Do you have a good relationship with the general manager of Get Friday? yes
-Does Akhil have a disposable income from his work at Get Friday? yes
-Does Akhil have a nicer cell phone than you do, with games, video, and web access? yes
-Do the other assistants at Get Friday know about the work Akhil and you are doing? yes
-Are you getting anything out of this relationship? yes
-Is Akhil getting anything out of this relationship? yes
-Are you more transparent than the corporate entity in this relationship? yes

-Have you ever been to …

There is a company based in Bangalore, India, called “Get Friday.” It has “managed to take global outsourcing, which was previously meant for Fortune 500 businesses, within the reach of ordinary people – an individual, an entrepreneur, or a small business owner.” Get Friday typically provides remote executive support, wherein a largely American client base is assigned a “virtual” personal assistant. I am a part of that client base, paying monthly fees for an assistant who works out of the Get Friday office in India.

My assistant is a 24-year-old male Bangalore resident named Akhil. In paying for our relationship I am not attempting to lighten my work load, but rather to engage in creative collaborative projects and even reversals of the normative outsourcing flow. In its growth and expansion, my relationship with Akhil is resulting in a visual dialogical consciousness that is further manifested and trackable in the work we create for and with each other.

Akhil assigned me a task in which I would make a video about the best fighter jet in the world. While keeping true to Akhil’s interest in and knowledge of fighter jets, the video I am working on takes the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 …