'ephemeral release' - an experiment with slit scans in p5.js

ID: Your webcam opens to a screen where your image is smearing across the screen - line by line. The words "ephemeral release" are in the left corner in white font with a black outline. The words change as you click your mouse and are positioned in the left corner in white font with a black outline. They read "can glitching" "my face?" "my body?" "make me unconsumable?"

check out my code!

I experimented with the Slit Scan technique. Golan Levin, artist and educator at Carnegie Mellon University, created an archive of Slit Scan techniques that range a wide array of artists and makers. 'ephemeral release' gets its namesake from the definition of ephemeral : "lasting for a very short time - fleeting". I was curious about using time as a medium and questioning "if a body could experience a (sort of) fleeting release through glitch?"

Thinking about the gaze placed upon the body, I was initially curious about creating a camera that recorded my face after every orgasm. I have been curious about what the camera sees when it is not in use. I often think about how the iPhone's camera is always watching and picking up information on us. What could be recorded when we are unaware? I am still curious about this idea but am moving away from it for the time being. I started to get curious about the perception of bodies on dating apps and what happens to the versions of ourselves that we choose to expose online.

As an experiment (and to explore my curiosities), I explored the app Grindr. As a trans boi, there is/was a lot of fear injecting myself into a cis male-dominated "play space." I wanted to explore how my digital body (a flattened 2D image of myself) felt inside of this space, and I learned that the act of inserting and ripping myself out (deleting the app - a couple of times) felt so unsettling. I also wondered how the 2D version of myself was "consumed" by countless "anonymous" users (the app shows a counter that increases each time others see your image).

It was also interesting to receive photos from strangers (faces and body parts), and I wondered how I was consuming these images. The spaces that currently exist for trans folks to explore pleasure are still heavily binaried. We are often asked to insert ourselves in digital spaces that overtly fetishize many trans bodies. Could this reflect the physical world where trans bodies encounter this type of consumption (stares on the street, remarks, etc.)? Thinking about these encounters on a black box in a phone felt terrifying and thrilling at the same time. At least that's how I feel in this time and space.

Design Process

I began by asking "How does this link to my experimental camera?" and set out to create a camera based on psuedo code in response to my reactions to the app.

there is a thrilling excitement that runs as an undercurrent in a taboo “hook-up” app (how do the pixels respond to the “canvas”)

The final erasure that feels satisfying (a canvas that can clean itself - mouseClicked? Canvas redraws)

The parts of self that are given away to strangers (Fragmented forms moving loosely because are they meant to be whole?)

Reflection:

It was nice to really treat this as an experiment. Looking at my guiding questions I feel like started to answer the question about fragmented forms moving loosely. I am curious about creating a reDraw feature in the consentful interface to allow the viewer to have control over how long the computer gazes on them. I also wanted this camera to work on the iPhone, but the touch feature in my code wasn't working. I tried in Chrome on the phone and still had troubles getting it to work.
I also just realized that the word in English is 'inconsumable' - how does the letter shift leave this word meaningless?

Credits

I followed the Pixel Array Tutorials by Xin and Katherine and The Coding Train's Pixel Array Tutorial. The Slit Scan effect is borrowed from the Coding Train's Slit Scan Tutorial.