Public Narcissist Report

public.NARCISSISTpublic.NARCISSIST

3........................... Project Area

4........................... Site Analysis

5-24........................... Research

25-63........................... The Project

64........................... Conclusion

65........................... References

the.CONTENTSthe.CONTENTS

Public Narcissist is a spacial project located in Pin Lane that willvisualize narcissistic tendanices in online media via a bacterial pond.

The reason I have chosen this project is to investigate why webrand ourselves online and advertise ourselves to other people viasocial networks, by visualizing this through Pin Lane I hope to allowothers to think the way they present themselves online andwhether they are using social media as a tool to aid in narcissisticactivities.

Narcissism is best defined as:

‘Self-love: an exceptional interest in and admiration for yourself;"self-love that shut out everyone else"’

Narcissism describes the trait of self love based on someone’sego, self image and vanity. This is a trait that is increasingrapidly in social media. There are a large number ofpeople who believe that social networks are simply an onlinenarcissist tool, which the user can use to increase their ego andself image to a wider audience.

Pin Lane - the site of my project

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Pin Lane didn’t hold anything of great interest when I first visited.Ideas and observations I did notice when visiting were:

• Advertising/Branding

• Double yellow lines along road

• Car park

• Graffiti on walls of Pin Lane

• The windows and doors along Pin Lane

At this point I decided to find out as much history and informationabout the Lane as possible.

Pin Lane is located in an old district of Plymouth named theBarbican. The Barbican used to be the hub for all trading betweenPlymouth and the outside world as ships docked there.

New street is located just behind Pin Lane and is one of the oldeststreets in Plymouth. It used to be the main transport route forgoods between the docked boats and Plymouth shops.

It was clear that the Barbican had strong roots in tradeand transporting of goods, so I feel that it is quite apt that I havechosen narcissism as the base of my project as this is essentiallythe branding/advertising of oneself, as opposed to thebranding/advertising of trade items.

I feel that with any project it is important to take note of any historywhich can add depth to the project.

site.ANALYSISsite.ANALYSIS

Facebook - A tool used to promote yourself

the.RESEARCHthe.RESEARCH

A study was conducted by Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at SDSU. The study surveyed over1,000 college students, asking them about their social media use.

‘57 percent agreed that that people in their generation use social networking sites (i.e. Facebook,Twitter and MySpace) for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.’(Daniel Prager, 2009)

Personal branding is a word which has been used a lot recently. If you compare this to a basic companymodel you have your product, i.e. you, your online space and then you advertise this to your potentialcustomers, i.e. other people on social networks such as your friends and family. You then build a communityaround this brand, i.e. yourself.

This highlights a serious problem that some people are using social networks to improve their self-imageand advertise themselves as being better than other people. This is definitely not what Facebook wouldwant, they want to build communities rather than divisions between people.

On a personal level I always like my profile image to display me in a good light. I believe that social networksare increasing being used as narcissistic tools, the most vein people I know, all being the people who spendthe most time on Facebook. Facebook makes it to easy for people to boast about what is going on in their life.


The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, better known as ‘TheLarge Glass’ is a painting by Marcel Duchamp. The piece representsa bride which is on the top pain of glass and her 9 Bachelors in thelower pain of glass. Everything in the piece is outlined with lead wireand filled in with earth tone oil paint. There are many interpretationsof this piece, most critics however believe the piece is an explorationof male and female desire as they complement each other. Onecritic has described it as:

‘The Large Glass has been called a love machine, but it is actuallya machine of suffering. Its upper and lower realms are separated from each other forever by a horizon designated as the ‘bride’sclothes.’ The bride is hanging, perhaps from a rope, in an isolatedcage, or crucified. The bachelors remain below, left only with thepossibility of churning, agonized masturbation.’

In Duchamp’s own words:‘I believe that the artist doesn’t know what he does. I attach evenmore importance to the spectator than to the artist.’

The way that this piece has been split into two clear sections issomething which intrigued me, the idea of comparing and contrastingsomething. The piece is split in two which can be unpacked as twocontrasting sections. My project is showing people their online identityin a physical space, attempting to bring them back to reality in asense. People are constantly spending more and more time on theinternet and forgetting about the world around them. My project willaddress this by making Pin Lane a visual part of the internet’snarcissistic nature.

As ‘The Large Glass’ is created on a window pain it’s possible toview the piece from multiple angles. By viewing the piece in thisway you get the effect that you are looking out of a window, muchlike the film ‘Reat Window’, being able to view people through thewindow, in this case ‘The Large Glass’ itself. The piece still holdsthe ability to be used as a window.


Marcel Duchamp’s piece - ‘The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors’(The Large Glass)


Salvador Dali’s piece - ‘Metamorphosis Of Narcissus’


Salvador Dali’s painting ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissius’ is the one most important reference for my project. Thepainting has been unpacked many times:

‘Narcissus (from greek mythology) fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. As he was unable toembrace the image of him in the pool (as it was a reflection) he pined away from it.’

The painting is thought to have been based on a greek myth about a young man named Narcissus. Theremultiple versions of this myth, one of the most well known is that Narcissus was an incredibly attractive manwho disdained all those who loved him. As a punishment the gods created a pool of water which displayedhis reflection. He was so overwhelmed with the beauty of this image that he couldn‘t leave it. He didn’t realisethat this was a reflection of himself and the myth states that he eventually died by the pool as he couldn’t bringhimself to leave an image of such beauty.

It’s this almost split personality which I will be revealing in my project. Using Pin Lane to reveal the true you, theinner you. No longer will people be able to hide behind their online identities. Some people’s use of socialnetworks is very similar to this ancient myth in that certain indivduals will spend all day on facebook, much likeNarcissus, in being unable to leave his reflection.


Diego Velázquez’s piece - ‘Las Meninas’


Las Meninas is a painting by Diego Velazquez, the painting raisesquestions about reality and illusion. It has a very unique take onemersing the viewer into the painting and creating a relationshipbetween the two.

It has been painted in such a way that the viewer of the paintingfeels as if they are actually in the painting itself, with thecharacters all around them. The characters in the painting havebeen painted to give the impression that they are looking atsomething behind you (the viewer). Within the painting some ofthe characters look through you, out of the canvas while othersinteract together within the painting. You have the artistwho is essentially looking through the viewer at the King andQueen who are painted as if behind the viewer. You can tell thisbecause you can see them in a mirror at the back of the painting.

There are so many small details to the painting that can be readin many different ways. The painting gives a certain selfawareness, that invisible relationship between you and thepainting. This invisible relationship has been seen to represent theKing and his rule over the Kingdom.

This idea is something which I feel is important to my project. The relationship which society has with their online profiles. Forexample the relationship between people as physical beings andour virtual identities can range from a strong relationship to analmost invisible one. Many profiles simply hint at what they are likein real life, the hint of an invisible bond between physical andvirtual indentities, like the invisible relationships which can befound in ‘Las Meninas’.



If you start to compare my three major artistic references you cansee the progression of my project. ‘The Large Glass’ being createdin a window frame is viewed on a vertical plane, compared to‘Metamorphosis of Narcissius’ which is viewed on a horizontalplane where Narcissus is looking down at his reflection in thewater pool.

Being on a vertical plane makes ‘The Large Glass’ more of a socialpiece as it’s easily viewed by many people at once, compared to‘Metamorphosis of Narcissius’ which is more personal as only oneperson can get a good view into a pool of water at any one time.

In this situation the panoramic views which I created (p 32) act in asimilar way to ‘The Large Glass’ in that they are easily viewable bymany people on a vertical plane. The fish pond (p34) is closer to‘Metamorphosis of Narcissius’ as it is viewed on a horizontal plane,more intimate and personal to the viewer. The pond being moresubjective to each particular viewer. The reflection in a pool ofwater acts as a mirror, these are very personal objects as you geta reflection of yourself.

‘Las Meninas’ is more of a blend between the two, being on avertical plane but still maintaining the intimate, personal relationshipwith the viewer. It does this by using mirrors in the painting to helpdescribe what is going on in the scene. The painting is viewed ona vertical plane however, with the people in the painting lookingback at you as if the viewer is looking through a window into thepainting. So the painting retains a social aspect, but there aremany personal stories going on within the painting and the factthat the majority of the characters are looking at viewer gives theimpression that they are looking directly at you and you are partof the painting. This is similar to my final project piece (p38-61) asit maintains a personal relationship with the viewer as its viewed ona horizontal plane, looking down into the pond, seeing themselves


Las Meninas(Bacterial Pond)

The Large Glass(Panoramic Views)

VerticalSocial

PanoramicOpen

ObjectiveMacro

Metamorphosis of Narcissius(Fish Pond)

HorizontalPersonalFocused

SubjectiveMicro

Blend of both

reflected back. This is mixed with the social data collected whichdisplays a number of different people in the form of bacterialgrowths within the pond iteself, keeping an open feel to theproject. Giving the data the form of bacteria also makes theviewer the focus rather than the small micro bacteria, making theproject again more intimate to each viewer helping them reflectand relate to the messages in the project.

The film ‘They Live’ by John Carpenter has been a strongreference for my project, the film looks into the idea that alladvertising is the media/government bombarding us withmessages and subtly brain washing everyone to their ownideologies and way of thinking. I want my project to expose thisbrain washing ideology, for example people who use their onlineidentity for narcissistic means will be exposed through Pin Lane.People often use their profile as a way to push their ownideologies onto others.

Another film which has been a big influence is the film ‘RearWindow’ by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is based around a manwho becomes confined to a wheelchair, viewing the world pass bythrough his rear window. Whilst observing people through hiswindow he learns a lot about the people he watches. The aim ofmy project is to enable people to learn about others in terms oftheir self-image and ego, viewing from their windows into the pondI will be creating, showing clear similarities between my projectand the ideas within ‘Rear Window’.

A number of windows which can be found along Pin Lane


The film ‘To Die For’ is one of the most famous films with a clear narcissistic element to the plot line. The plot of the film follows thelife of an aspiring TV personality named Suzanne Stone (NicoleKidman). She will do anything to get her dream job as a TVpersonality. She marrys a man involved in the Mafia in the hopehis connections will get her the job she craves.

When the husband asks her to take time from work she plots tohave him killed. Suzanne Stone in this film is massivelyself-obsessed and narcissistic. This is shown throughout the filmand shows albeit on enlarged scale just how narcissists think.

John Carpenter’s - ‘They Live’

Alfred Hitchcock’s - ‘Rear Window’

Gus Van Sant’s- ‘To Die For’


An example of one of ‘Descartes’ vortexdiagrams. These diagrams are used toexplain celestial phenomena

An example of bacteria which has beenblown up under an electron microscope

Neuron cell structure underan electron microscope


‘Descartes’ vortex theory of planetary motion proved initially to beone of the most influential aspects of Cartesian physics, at leastuntil the mid-eighteenth century. A vortex, for Descartes,is a large circling band of material particles. In essence,Descartes’ vortex theory attempts to explain celestial phenomena,especially the orbits of the planets or the motions of comets, bysituating them (usually at rest) in these large circling bands. Theentire Cartesian plenum, consequently, is comprised of a networkor series of separate, interlocking vortices.’

Descartes vortex theory diagrams are often highly annoated, andcontain huge amounts of information whilst still looking quitesimple in structure. I believe that it is important for my project thatthe final outcome is something which is pleasing on the eye, yetstill holds a large amount of information which can be extractedquite easily.

Descartes vortex diagrams when compared with images ofneurons and cell structures under a microscope look very similar,as narcissism is often described as a psychological state, I wantmy project to have the look and feel of electrons/neurons.

By giving my project this look and feel, it will allow me tovisualise this psychological state in a physical space, whilst stillmaintaining the strong link between our mind and bodies. Makingit clear that narcissism is strongly linked to the brain.

A facebook profile is something which grows slowly, a socialnetwork community grows and multiplies in a very similar way tobacteria, in that you add one contact, then you may gain two morecontacts from the first and so on. It’s these linked connections Iwant to visualise.


D-Tower Installation located - Doetinchem, The Netherlands

D-Tower diagram - Shows emotional links through this diagram


Las Meninas

The D-Tower project is a project that I like very much, it is a hugeorb which has been built in the middle of a small town in theNetherlands. Current feelings of town residents are collected viaquestionnaires and a website. This data is then displayed throughthe 12 metre high orb via colour.

The project is visualized in two ways:

‘The website is a visualization of the responses of the 45,000inhabitants of Doetinchem to a questionnaire, written by theRotterdam based artist Q.S. Serafijn, which deals with dailyemotions like Hate, Love, Happiness and Fear.Every month the questions become more precise, and all theanswers are graphed in different "Emotion Landscapes" madevisible on the website to show how this city is dealing with itsemotions.’

‘The four emotions are represented by four colors: Green, Red,Blue and Yellow, which are also the colors of the lamps illuminatingthe building.’

This ability for the project to visualize someones feelings in aphysical way is something which I want to recreate in my project.Narcissism is not so much a feeling but an emotional state but isstill something which isn’t always easy to visualize. The way thatdata was collected and displayed through the use of colour are other areas which I am interested in incorporating into my project.The D-Tower takes personal emotions and displays them in a verysocial way, it’s taking these two contrasting styles and intergratingthem together which is similar to my project, displaying personalinformation on social media for all to see.


As my project looks into how people are viewed, I started tolook at more abtract ways of viewing the world. Michael Webb hasa very interesting project named ‘Temple Island’ which involvedrevealing parts of the world as people journied down the Thames inhis submarine/boat style object. These references have been usefulfor my project in helping me to visualize ways to view the worlddifferently, i.e. how I can visualize the online world in a physicalspace.

Temple Island uses a vessel to allow users to view the island. In asimilar style social networks act as a vessel for people to displayinformation and photos about themselves to others. Using my profile as an example, I upload a lot of photos for others to viewthrough sites like Facebook and Flickr, these photos are alwaysimages that I believe show me in a good light. With social networkslike Facebook one of the more interesting aspects is the ability forother people to upload photos and tag you in them, you have nocontrol over the photos they upload and these could have anegative effect on your image.

Facebook photo - Uploaded bysomeone else

Facebook photo -Uploaded by myself

Facebook photo - Uploadedby myself


Michael Webbs piece - Temple Island

The Vessel used in Temple Island

Michael Webbs piece - Temple Island

Facebook photo - Uploaded by someone else

Facebookphoto - uploaded bymyself


Another project which I have been working on is ShockCube, atouch table, with a number of mini games with losers receivingshocks to their arms. The actual table itself acts as a mirror of sortswhich users can directly interact with. Much like the film ‘RearWindow’ the table allows the user to look through and view a digitalworld. Looking down at the table also gives back a reflection to theuser, almost that they can see themselves in the digital world aswell as the physical. The touch table being an object that you lookdown into again gives that intimate feel that you are the only oneable to look into the table at that time.


ShockCube during an exhibition event

ShockCube surface

The ambition of my project is to look at narcissism and to visualiseforms of narcissism using Pin Lane as my medium. The way inwhich we advertise ourselves online for other people to seethrough social networks, has been seen as a form of onlinenarcissism by some.

‘The term narcissism refers to the personality trait of self-esteem,which includes the set of character traits concerned withself-image or ego. The terms narcissism, narcissistic, andnarcissist are often used as pejoratives, denoting vanity, conceit,egotism or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it issometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plightof others.’

An example of narcissism and how it is changing our thinkingtowards material objects can be seen through a sub category,corporate narcissism. Alan Down is a leading organizationalpsychologist and has a wrote a book called

‘Beyond the Looking Glass: Overcoming the Seductive Culture ofCorporate Narcissism’.

This book looks at two high profile corporate leaders Al Dunlapand Robert Allen and how they are so obsessed with profit andmoney and think about nothing else.

The problem which I am defining is that social networks havebeen transformed into a breeding ground for people who wish tomassage their ego and vanity.

‘Social Media , Pure Narcissism?’ (Daniel Prager, 2009)

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Not all narcissism is regarding as bad however, there is a healthymiddle ground between narcissistic and lack self-confidence.

• Their lack of empathy colors everything they do.They may say, "How are you?" when you meet, butthey are working from memory. They are not interestedin how you are. • Virtually all of their ideas or ways of behaving in agiven situation are taken from others, people they knowand perhaps think of as an authority (mirroring).

• Their sense of self-importance and lack of empathymeans that they will often interrupt the conversationsof others. • They expect others to do the day-to-day chores asthey feel too important to waste their time on commonthings.

• Listen for the constant use of "I", "me" and "my"when they talk. • They very rarely talk about their inner life, forexample their memories and dreams.

• They feel that the rules at work don't apply to them. • They will always cheat whenever they think they canget away with it.

• If you share workload with them expect to do the lion'sshare yourself.

• They love to delegate work or projects, then interfere bymicro-managing it. If it goes well, they take the credit, if itgoes badly they blame the person they delegated it to.

• There tends to be higher levels of stress with peoplewho work with or interact with a narcissist, which in turnincreases absenteeism and staff turnover. • They get impatient and restless when the topic ofdiscussion is about someone else, and not about them.

Characteristic Healthy Narcissism Destructive Narcissism

Self-confident

Desire for power, wealthand admiration

Relationships

Ability to follow aconsistant path

Foundation

high outward self-confidencein line with reality

May enjoy power

Real concern for others andtheir ideas; does not exploitor devalue others

Has values; follows throughon plans

Healthy childhood with supportfor self-esteem and appropriatelimits on behaviour towardsothers

Grandiose

Pursues power at all costs, lacksnormal inhibitions in its pursuit

Concerns limited to expressingsocially appropriate responsewhen convenient; devaules andexploits others without remorse

Lacks values; easily bored; oftenchanges course

Traumatic childhood undercuttingtrue sense of self-esteem and/orlearning that he/she doesn’tneed to be considerate of others

My project requires the public to fill out my online questionnaire,the questionnaire creates a narcissistic rating for each person, thequestions are based on traits of narcissists which you can seebelow. I chose however to simplify these traits into simplequestions which seem almost innoquous.


Pin Lane is surrounded by flats and apartments that all look downonto the street. Relating back to the film ‘Rear Window’ everywindow tells a story, so I mapped out a rough viewing arc froma number of windows overlooking Pin Lane to establish which partsof Pin Lane were viewable from certain windows.

Diagram displaying the viewing arcs from a number of windows along Pin Lane


At the beginning of the project I was looking more towards advertising and branding in general rather than specificallynarcissism. A lot of items were being bought from the Co-Operative store at the bottom of Pin Lane. The lane was mainlybeing used by shoppers from the Co-Operative using it as a traderoute from the houses behind Pin Lane to the food store.

I started to map peoples movements along the lane to see howmany people actually used it, and which parts of the lane theywere using. This can be seen in the image here, the redlines represent the paths which users of the lane took whilst thewhite lines represent cars which passed through. All thisinformation was taken in a 30 minute time frame, the image isannotated with the times that people used the street during thetime period.

This allowed me to start looking at Pin Lane as an advertisingspace for something, at first focusing on using it as a space forthe Co-Operative to advertise their special offers and products.

Pin Lane the advertising space


Diagram displaying the movement through Pin Lane over a 30 minute period


After looking at Pin Lane as an advertising space for Co-Operativeproducts I evolved the project more towards people. I liked theidea of adding something to ourselves through advertising. Ifadvertisement could be added to a human as an attribute thatfollowed the person as they moved through the lane, whether thisbe on an emotional or physical level.

To try and represent this I put together a number of images whichcontained floating cubes working their way up and down the lane,these cubes represent the narcissistic attribute attaching itself toa passer by as they moved along the lane and then releasing itselfwhen they move away from the lane. The idea of being influencedby these cubes in that they allowed you to visualize for examplesomeones ego or self-image. How to visualize narssistic traits?

Displayed Pin Lane as an advertising space for products sold at the Co-Operative


Narcissistic cubes - These follow Pin Lane users along the lane

Narcissistic cubes - These act as visible attributes attached to users of Pin Lane


Bottom of Pin Lane - Panoramic image of Pin Lane displaying only windows and doors viewable from Pin Lane (Movie viewable on Blog)

Top of Pin Lane - Panoramic image of Pin Lane displaying only windows and doors viewable from Pin Lane (Movie viewable on Blog)

Car Park of Pin Lane - Greyscale panoramic image of Pin Lane with only reflections from car windows and lights in full colour (Movie viewable on Blog)See References for links to panoramic videos.


Through my research I found that a lot of my references made a point of having multiple perspectives in theoutput. ‘Rear Window’ with the view from the window and the view outside, Duchamps piece which was splitinto two clear sections and not forgetting the ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissius’ with the real world and thereflection in the pool. My project will follow in this vein with narcissism displayed from a virtual perspectivethrough a physical means.

With this in mind I looked into different perspectives of the street and carried on looking into the windowsalong Pin Lane and how the street could be viewed from them. I also took this one step further and started tolook into other forms of windows such as car windows and mobile phones as a window of communication.Online narcissism can be seen to have two perspectives, one being the physical person and the second beingtheir online identity, using the internet as the medium between the two.

To visualize this I put together a number of images of the lane to create a 360 degree view. The first two displayjust the windows which can be seen from Pin Lane. The windows were the part of the lane I was mostinterested in so I removed everything else from the image. The windows could act like gateways for informationto flow from the lane through the windows and to the people living in the surrounding houses. The third imagedisplays possible views from car wing mirrors and windows to help visualize how information can be collectedfrom Pin Lane through these windows as they drive into and out of the street.


The public fill outnarcissism questionnairevia the website, this datais then used within theproject(www.public-narcissist.co.uk)

A later version of the projectwith movement capturedvia the webcam

Fish Pond version of my project with plantlife and fish swimming about the pond. Thefish flash program can be found here:http://wizzer711.wordpress.com/2010/0123/public-narcissist-early-fish-variation/


Part of the final code used to create narcissist spacial diagram

It has taken a number of variations to get to a project output whichI am happy with. First the website was created to allow the publicto fill out a narcissism questionnaire to collect data for use within myproject.

Next I focused on a fish pond idea, taking close reference from thegreek myth ‘Narcissus’. Each piece of data represented by a fishwith a colour relative to each specific piece of data. This versionalso contained a reflection in the background to recreate the greekmyth.

The next iteration was to look into motion detection to allow userssome form of control in the output of the project.


The final variation of my project which I am now happy with takesthe form of a pond which will be projected onto the floor of PinLane.

This pond will reflect the user back into the pond, as the usermoves bacteria is created at positions in the pond wheremovement is detected. Each bacteria represents one piece ofdata collected from the online questionnaire, the narcissistic scoreis also represented by the number of tentacles within eachbacterium. The more tentacles, the higher the narcissistic score(the more narcissistic that piece of data is). The colour of eachbacterium is also relative to data score, a higher score being adarker colour compared to a lower score being a lighter colour.Once all the data has been converted into bacteria, data ofa similar score is connected together, once this has beencompleted you end up with a number of bacteria which are allinterconnected into one network.

This one bacterium merging into one larger bacteria isrepresentative of one social network user joining into other groupsand communities within the network (joing Facebook groups orevents).

So the final project takes strong reference from the greek myth‘Narcissus’ and Salvador Dali’s ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissius’, I have however given it a modern take, allowing the user toinfluence bacteria which is grown within the pond.

To give follow through with the ‘Narcissus’ reference, the streetlamps along Pin Lane will be covered with theatre gels to changethe colour of the lamps and give a more atmospheric and fantasyfeel. The colour being reflective of the current narcissistic score.


It also takes reference from ‘Rear Window’ and Marcel Duchamp’s‘The Large Glass’ as windows are important to my project. Thepond acts as a window between the physical and virtual worlds,physical and virtual identities respectively. ‘The Large Glass’ is splitinto two clear sections, this relates to my project again as a splitbetween virtual and physical identity but it could also be viewed adifferent way. The bride as the narcissist and the bachelors as thefollowers/friends, i.e. the bride being their profile page and thebachelors being friends and followers of that particular profile.

In terms of ‘Rear Window’ the idea that someone is alwayswatching is never more true than with the internet and socialnetworks. The pond acts as a window into the virtual world almostlike a portal which you can look through, you can influence thevirtual world from the physical through the pond via the usersmovement. You can also view the project as a window into themind and psychological state of the users who filled out thequestionnaire. I think that it is important that the project is highlyvisible from Pin Lane, allowing the windows all around Pin Laneto view the project. The project allows not just the pond to actas a window to the virtual world but also all the windows aroundPin Lane as well as they look down onto the Lane and onto thepond.

The project will exposes narcissistic tendancies in people andvisualize this back to the user through the pond in Pin Lane, allowing people to look and think:

‘Do I use Facebook as a narcissistic tool? Am I narcissist?’



One of the outputs from my project, thefloor can just been seen in the backgroundwhilst the smoke and tubes on the leftrepresent the emotional part of our brains.The bubbles pushing out from the ‘brain’represent emotions and thoughts beingreleased, whilst the bacteria like objectsrepresent narcissistic emotions and traitswhich are pushed out of the brain on asubconscious level to be seem by the worldin a physical state. Each of these narcissisticemotions being linked by small connectionsbinding them together. The small amount ofcoils and their wide spread dicates a lownarcissistic rating from the data applied tothe project in this instance



One of the outputs from my project, thefloor can just been seen in the backgroundwhilst the smoke and tubes on the leftrepresent the emotional part of our brains.The bubbles pushing out from the ‘brain’represent emotions and thoughts beingreleased, whilst the bacteria like objectsrepresent narcissistic emotions and traitswhich are pushed out of the brain on asubconscious level to be seem by the worldin a physical state. Each of these narcissisticemotions being linked by small connectionsbinding them together. The medium amount ofcoils and their wide spread dicates a normalnarcissistic rating from the data applied tothe project in this instance, the increasedconnections between the nodes howeverdisplays all the data as being much closertogether than the previous image



One of the outputs from my project, thefloor can just been seen in the backgroundwhilst the smoke and tubes on the leftrepresent the emotional part of our brains.The bubbles pushing out from the ‘brain’represent emotions and thoughts beingreleased, whilst the bacteria like objectsrepresent narcissistic emotions and traitswhich are pushed out of the brain on asubconscious level to be seem by the worldin a physical state. Each of these narcissisticemotions being linked by small connectionsbinding them together. The large amount ofcoils and their wide spread dicate a highnarcissistic rating from the data applied tothe project in this instance, along with relativeclose positioning of nodes on top of each other




These images are mock ups of how Ienvisage my project to look when Iset up the installation for real. Showinghow exactly the user is expected tointeract with the project within PinLane. The Public Narcissist flash program can be found here:http://wizzer711.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/public-narcissist-flash-application/



With these images i started to play withthe light so that it acts as another addedreflection of the narcissistic data whichis being pulled in from my application.The idea is to locate the project so thatwindows all around Pin Lane can lookdown onto the project and get a feel ofcurrent narcissistic tendancies fromsimply looking out of their windows



These images show the project workingin Pin Lane, you also get the lightingchange in the images to reflect the datafrom my online questionnaire. You canalso see the location of project allowsthe people living around Pin Lane tolook down onto the project. This allowsthem to view current online narcissisticfeeling from their own windows. A similareffect to the film ‘Rear Window’. A Shortvideo of my project in Pin Lane can be seen here:http://www.vimeo.com/10843323



Here you can see the bacterium growingin Pin Lane, certain bacteria linkstogether to indicate people who havesimilar narcissistic personalities.The blue colour of the bacterium indicatesthis data is representative of people witha fairly low narcissistic personality,possibly lacking in self confidence


Bacteria growing in the pond located on the floor of Pin Lane


Installation working in Pin Lane, along with change in lighting to reflect narcissistic feeling



In this image you can clearly see thereflection of the user and how thebacteria has positioned itself accordingto the users interaction. A Short videoof my project in a second locationcan be seen here:http://vimeo.com/10879532



In this image the bacteria has positioned itselftogether, this indicates that the user movedaround in one location, you can also see theconnections the bacteria has made to meldinto one larger bacterium, the high numberof tenticles represent higher than normalnarcissistic tendancies in the data collected


The smaller amount of bacteria in this imageindicates less people in this collection of data.The number of tenticles on each bacteria isless than in other images indicating a lownarcissistic value also




This image displays a user interacting withthe project. The bacteria growing aroundtheir hand, the idea that you can lean downand almost touch the pond.


Shows interaction with the project and bacteria growing in the pond

You can see the reflection of the user in the pond and how the bacteria isresponding to thisinteraction


Bacteria which has grown and melded into one single bacterium

Second image of bacteria which has grown into a single bacterium

I belive that my project does a great job of visualizing narcissism andthe virtual world in a spacial project, the output is visually appealing yeteasy to understand the issues I am posing.

I believe the project has achieved what it has set out to do and will havean impact on people, in that after viewing the project they will questionthemselves, and be more aware of the way they act and portraythemselves to others, they may feel they are too narcissistic or maybethat they lack self-confidence. They will be able to see just hownarcissistic online media can be and the effect the internet is having onus psychologically without us even noticing.

To help users of Pin Lane relate to the project, residents of Plymouthwho completed the questionnaire gain double the influence thansomeone who lives elsewhere, meaning the output has more meaningto Plymouth residents.

The idea of using Pin Lane as a location works well in terms of utilizingthe windows nearby, allowing residents to look down onto the project,complementing the relationship between user and the pond, as awindow into online media. However the cobbles on the street floor didprove problematic in terms of picking up all the detail in my project.This is the reason I decided to set up the installation in a secondlocation also, to better show the detail in the project. My project canwork well in many different locations, and is not restricted to any oneplace.

Overall I feel the project has worked and bridging the digital divide andlooking at physiological aspects of social networks has made theproject an intriguing one.

If I had the chance to do the project again there are a few things I woulddo differently. I would collect more data, I would also add names to thebacteria so that people could view their exact influence on the project,making it easier to compare themselves to others. I would also continueto install the project into different locations.

the.CONCLUSIONthe.CONCLUSION

Carpenter, J (1988) They Live

Influence on Project: In this film there are glasses which expose branding and advertising as brain washingtools and controlling on the reader. Online narcissism on social networks has it’s similarities as somepeople upload all their details and best pictures to entice people to buy into their ideologies and their‘online brand’. This could be seen as a version of subtle brain washing.

Dali, S (1937) The Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Influence on Project: This painting puts forward the idea that everyone has two sides to them. One beinga side you can control and another more of a subconscious side which you don’t have much control over.Narcissism is more of a psychological attribute that people find very hard to control or change, in ‘TheMetamorphosis of Narcissus’ this would be represented by the reflection in the water.

Duchamp, M (1915-1923) The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even

Influence on Project: In Duchamps piece there is clearly two different sections, this idea that everybodycan have two sides to them, whether this be good and bad or more appropriate for my project the abilityto have an online brand and a physical brand. I.e. the online brand being yourself on a social network sitecompared to the physical brand being you yourself.

Hitchcock, A (1954) Rear Window

Influence on Project: The idea that if you watch the same area for an extended period of time then you willlearn a lot about the people who live or use that area. In the film he learns about his neighbours, in PinLane people would learn about the ego and narcissistic traits of the people who live close by or within Plymouth.

Prager, D (2009) Social Media, Pure Narcissism? [Online] available:http://www.theoceanagency.com/blog/20090826/social-media-pure-narcissism/

Influence on Project: A very good article looking at narcissism in social networks and onthe internet.

Thomas, D (2005-2009) Can You Recognise A Narcissist? [Online]available: http://www.winning-teams.com/recognizenarcissist.html

Influence on Project: Contains a lot of useful information about narcissism and ways totest yourself to check if you have narcissistic tendencies. Used information from this website to create myquestionnaire.

Descartes Vortex Theory

Influence on Project: The diagrams created using this theory give a look that is very similar to the effect I want from my project. The way the diagram is annoated, means the diagram holds a lot of informationbut can still be understood.

the.REFERENCESthe.REFERENCES

Las Meninas

Influence on Project: Painting acts as a window, makes you the viewer part of the painting.

D-Tower

Influence on Project: Collects data in a similar way to my project and also displays emotions in social setting, verysimilar to my own project.

Links To Panoramic Videos

http://wizzer711.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/panoramic-reflections/http://wizzer711.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/window-and-human-connections/http://wizzer711.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/pin-lane-panoramic-window-model/http://wizzer711.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/panoramic-pin-lane/

Documents

Public Narcissist Report