TITLE: Fancy a Skype chat?
DATE: 25.03.2007
DURATION: 6 hours
ABSTRACT: The event “fancy a skype chat?” was an online social event I created; it took place on Sunday 26th March, between 6pm and midnight. It used the online communication system Skype to connect people from their home environments, internationally, into a shared virtual space, through conversation.
INTRODUCTION: The scenario of a social drinks event was introduced, as a way of connecting everyone through other senses, I asked everyone to explain what they were drinking, what they were listening to, and what websites they were looking at.
I researched Skype and its protocols, to find out the possibilities of sharing conversations, numbers of possible participants and any restrictions.
“Skype is a little piece of software that lets you make free calls to anyone else on Skype, anywhere in the world.” 17
The term ‘Chat’, in Skype language means texts, similar to instant messaging. You can host a ‘Group Chat’, this is a chat between up to 100 Skype users. A list of all chats is shown on the Chats tab of Skype, which all participants can see, and which is saved as documentation automatically by Skype. The term ‘Call’ refers to a voice call, where the Skype users speak to each other, this can be between two people with the option of using webcams, or through a ‘Conference Call’ with up to 3 other Skype users, however the use of webcams is not permitted.
METHOD:
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION: Group chat, calls with webcam and conference calls
APPARATUS: A computer with internet and Skype downloaded. A microphone and web camera (this is not essential). Drinks and food of your choice.
THE EXPERIMENTER: My role was moderator. To become part of the chat, participants were asked to contact me, in order for me to add them to the chat, this role of moderator didn’t seem to affect any interactions, however, it was needed for one occasion when a chat became slightly inappropriate, and also to start and end the event.
PARTICIPANTS:
- HOW WERE THEY APPROACHED?
I sent the invitation for the event over email, multi-media text message and posted it in the online community Netbehaviour. The invitation read:
“Rebecca Gamble would like to invite you, and friends to ‘fancy a skype chat?’ an online social drinks event on Sunday 25th March 2007, 6pm – Midnight.
This is the first event in a series, for the project ‘An Event for a Conversation’, which celebrates social networking, and explores the social and technological methods we use to communicate.
‘fancy a skype chat?’ explores the online communication method of Skyping; by specifying a time and virtual space for a social drinks event, it hopes to encourage dialogue between people, and connections between places. The conversations and those you share them with are not prescribed, to participate, you are simply asked to:
Download: Skype
Bring your own: drinks
Plug in: Your speakers, microphone and webcam
Log on: to Skype anytime between 6pm and Midnight, on Sunday 25th March 2007
And start chatting…
This event will be documented by the participants, through text sent to the artist and through screen grab images of desktops.
The conversations themselves will not be recorded.
For more information on what Skype is and how to use it, and for more details on this event, please check out http://an-event-for-a-conversation.blogspot.com/”
- HOW MANY?
ENVIRONMENT: Peoples homes or offices, worldwide, were connected through a virtual, online social environment of Skype. This included Germany, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the UK.
DOCUMENTATION: Skype documented all the chats and even made these available to people who joined the event later, Skype also documented the timings of the calls I made and received, I didn’t want to record the content of any of these as I thought it was too close to surveillance, and could make people feel uncomfortable. The other method of documentation, which I invited others to do also, was take screen grab images of their desktops while participating in the event.
DISCUSSION: During the 6 hour event, a social network was created between the participants, some of whom were friends, some artists, but mostly strangers, some of whom were very informed about this type of art work and collaborative events, others who were completely new to it, some who used Skype everyday, and others who were using it for the first time. The places connected were worldwide, including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Spain and England. The types of communication used during the Skype event, included calls, conference calls, chats, and group chats, as well as sharing web links and photo and music files.
I am pleased with the vast documentation I have from this event, as it offers the chance to use all the data to make a piece of work. I am experimenting with ways to represent this data, such as in an artistic version of a scientific report, including graphs mapping the levels of interactivity.
CONCLUSION: The key concerns I have identified in my work include, conversations, social networks, telecommunications, spatial connections, and events. My work has been influenced and informed by many artists and artworks, which share similar artistic concerns around communication, networking and events…
APPENDICES:
Action Research Methodology
Quantitative and Qualitative research
