Project #1 (Sydney)

Assignment #1: Description/Proposal

I’d like to create a relatively simple, image-based conversation network, providing artists with the opportunity to anonymously collaborate with one another, at random, to develop what I will refer to as ‘conversation’ portfolios. Similar to traditional chainmail, individuals will sign up to participate by inputting either a valid cell phone number or email address. This information will be added to a hidden directory containing the contact info for all users. In the preliminary stages, the network will remain relatively closed. I will recruit a limited group of artists to participate and will probably collect the contact information via email, while I work out the logistics of developing this project.

To “speak” or begin a conversation, a user will upload a jpg image of original content (this project is intended to be a communications technology-based means of collective art production amongst practicing artists, not necessarily an open outlet for re-blogging and mash-ups). The uploaded image will then be forwarded along with the conversation number to a second user, selected at random. The recipient will then have the opportunity to respond by uploading an image to the website under the same conversation thread. If the recipient uploads an image, the original image that they are responding to is posted on the website as a numbered conversation for the public to see or eavesdrop on. At the same time, the response image uploaded by the second user is forwarded to a third user via the randomized directory, with hopes it will ignite a response.

If a user receives an image and decides not to respond for whatever reason, the offer will time out after two days and the image will be forwarded to the next random user on the list. If an image is not responded to within fourteen days (if seven users in a row miss the opportunity to respond), the image will be posted on the website as an open conversation – any user can pick it up where it left off by uploading a response image to the same conversation thread.

On the conversation directory page, visitors to the website will be presented with a layered web of images from the various conversations that have taken place. The directory will be cluttered but the newest conversations will be at the top. Picking out a particular image or conversation to focus on will be much like trying to eavesdrop on one conversation in a restaurant filled with people who are talking. There will be all kinds of conversations going on at once and images that are newly added or closest to you in the web will be easier to read than those that are older or further away. Eventually, if conversations are continuously being initiated, the early images will be lost behind a dense web of linear conversations through images that are continuously being added to and replaced by more recent additions to the web.

The website itself will be comprised mainly of images and very little text. Options such as “speak up” (to post a new conversation), “respond” (to add to a conversation), and “eavesdrop” (to view the conversation directory/web), will probably be the only words on the site, along with the conversation numbers. Users will remain anonymous and no titles will be given to the works. This will be an experiment in visual interpretation and rather secretive communication between artists. My hope is that the site will attract a range of artists who actively participate in this anonymous visual collaboration.

As an extension of this project, the conversation portfolios could be extracted and printed as accordion books. A gallery exhibition could also be held, with invitations to all participating artists. The anonymous digital imaging conversationalists would be given the opportunity to verbally converse in person and disassemble their image threads not only by figuring out who did what, but by discussing what each of the artists’ intentions really were.

I don’t have much experience creating web-based works, so I assume that much of this will change as I work through it and discover how to make it work. I like the idea of leaving the conversations a little more open to responses so that they aren’t all completely linear, but I’m not quite sure how difficult that will be to do. Regardless, I’d like the work to be a random, continuously growing collection of creative visual communications where the older posts get more difficult to read as they become buried by the newest additions.