The Cluster Method - Statement / Participation Summaries

Globalization is here. The ‘canon’ of the art world has exploded and name dropping has become harder than ever before. With over 7 billion people on this planet, the number of visual artists and the diversity they bring to the work they produce is continuously expanding. As technology advances, verbal and written languages are being compacted and/or eliminated entirely from aspects of daily life. Our attention spans are getting shorter, memorization skills are waning, and we are well on our way to becoming a largely image-based society.

The Cluster Method, developed by a group of soon-to-be graduating photography students at OCADU, is a proposal for a new method for dealing with this plethora of imagery. It is a way for us, as the creators, to hone in on our own curatorial expertise and aesthetic tastes to organize and reorganize inspirational works we feel that more people should see. At the same time, The Cluster Method serves as a visual segway for research, guiding visitors through images of contemporary fine art photography, photo-based, and mixed media works in a variety of ways. Images are organized by the user’s own navigation through both linguistic and purely visual systems of navigation. Each image posted is directly linked to the website of the artist or of the representing gallery, pointing them in the right direction to get the information they need.

Over the development of this project, we have looked at numerous sources to influence and inform our publication (noted at the end of this article). We have made use of Wordpress and iWeb as our primary platforms to build our site, in addition to consideration of the feedback we have gotten from various professors and students at OCAD University. Following is a breakdown of our individual participation in the production of this publication. 

For my personal role in this assignment, I assisted in posting images directly to the website as well as adding to the master list, clusters and compositions.. Furthermore, I helped in the creative process collaborating with my fellow group members on ideas to contribute to the development of the publication. I also worked on the email that will be sent to the many artists we reference in our site explaining the purpose of the cluster method. For the site we created several documents on Google that allowed us to communicate when we were not in class as well as organized meetings between class where we could run ideas and concerns past each other and work together to resolve any technical problems we encountered. I found working on this website a wonderful experience. I thoroughly enjoyed working with a group that was so dedicated, ambitious and productive in ensuring our brainchild could manifest itself into a working product by the end of this semester. Everyone in the group worked so hard to develop ‘The Cluster Method’ . I look forward to continue working on the site, as it is not something that will end when the class is over, but something we will continue to work on as we add more visual information to which the possibilities are endless.
-Meghan Vanderzwaag

First of all, I have to say that this has been the most productive group project I’ve ever been a part of. All four of us have been super involved and seem to have high hopes for our continuation into the future. Over the course of this semester, I have participated in a number of roles in this project: researcher, poster, editor, creative, brain-massager, debate-starter, and have done my best to translate our ideal image-based clustering method into the Compositions portion of our site. Working with numerous online Google documents, we were able to provide contributions to this project on our own time. Working in this manner has definitely enhanced our ability to collaborate effectively and we have a detailed history of process notes as a result. The end of this semester and final critique does not signal an end – Critique day is the day we launch our site, with hopes that we can begin to do great things for students and anyone, actually, who is willing to discover the amazing artwork we have to share. This semester I have been involved in an art education course, in conjunction with the AGO, which has definitely done its part to inform and inspire my participation in this project. I intend to pursue a career in education through the arts and see The Cluster Method as being well on its way to becoming a valuable resource.
-Sydney Taylor

The creation of ‘The Cluster Method’ has been the most positive and exciting experience from beginning to end, and by end what I really mean is the birth of our cluster baby; that which I feel we are all proud of how it has materialized thus far. I took part in researching artists, creating linked posts, adding to existing clusters and the organization and reorganization of the artists gathered into what we entitled “Compositions”. I participated in the creative process that got us to where we are now, which is a conjoined product of enthusiasm, productivity, and dedication from all contributing members. This included the many Google docs that were created and meetings outside of class time that we all attended, that were utilized for communication between us to figure out any glitches we may have come across. I also assisted with the email that in the near future we plan to send to notify and request formal permission from the catalogue of artists we have accumulated about our intentions with the site/publication (note the copyright information on the site). With that being said, I look forward to the boundless potential our project represents, seeing as we all plan to continue contributing long after the semester ends. It’s refreshing to have the opportunity to work with such creative, hard-working ladies on something we all feel has been beneficial for us; and hopefully will be useful to a vast roster of users, the more our site grows. 
-Tegan Tough
My role in the establishment of  The Cluster Method involves a lot of technical problem solving. I had some limited knowledge of Wordpress, CSS, PHP, HTML, and Javascript before enrolling in Digital Publications at OCADU. Working on this website offered me a wonderful opportunity to expand my technical skills. We knew that we wanted to create a photographically based index of inspiring art works that went beyond the usual classifications of portrait, or landscape.
I worked with my group members to discuss our goals for the design, interface, and lay-out of the website. I researched free Wordpress themes that lined up with our visual and interface goals for the website. Once we found a pre-designed theme that worked for our publication, I edited the CSS and PHP files to customize the site’s functions. We went through a few different Wordpress themes before finally deciding on the one we have now. I have added plugins that modify aspects of the site such as: search parameters, menu functions, tracking site data, logging user queries, and slideshow possibilities. I also set up official e-mails for our publications, each of us have an e-mail, ie. melissa@theclustermethod.ca. These small details present a professional, well designed site for our audience to experience.
We used Google Documents to discuss the site’s progress, and brainstorm ideas for our finished publication. These documents really helped us to collaborate and work together without being physically present with one another. Tegan, Sydney and I are graduating this semester. By using Google Documents, we are set up to continue collaborating after we leave OCADU. We have all worked together to create a website we are proud of, and passionate about. In the future we plan to continue improving the site by adding a catalogue of artists, contact artists we have featured, and more. I look forward to expanding my web development knowledge while we work on The Cluster Method as graduates of OCADU.
- Melissa Jean Clark

 

References:
Adams, Andy http://flakphoto.com/
Bram, David. Spees, Joshua http://fractionmagazine.com/
Brook, Pete http://www.americansuburbx.com/
Camp, Garrett. Smith Geoff   http://www.stumbleupon.com/
Currier, Danielle  http://www.noplasticsleeves.com/
Jobaon, Christopher http://www.thisiscolossal.com/
Hamada, Jeff http://www.booooooom.com/
Manovich, Lev http://manovich.net/
Rickard, Doug http://www.americansuburbx.com/
The Practical Art World http://www.americansuburbx.com/ __________________________________________________________________________
The Cluster Method Team,

Melissa Jean Clark

Meghan Vanderzwaag

Sydney Rose Taylor

Tegan Tough

http://theclustermethod.ca