I came across this interactive art piece whilst researching into possible ways I could expand or draw further inspiration upon for my ‘Planets of Change’ project idea.

This video explains the project in a clear way.. better than me waffling on 🙂

At heart it can be seen that the project has been formed around the same basic idea/concept I had for the ‘Planets of CHange’ idea.. to make a digital platform available to enabling the public to speak out, contribute and explore other contributions within the same project.

I went ahead and created my own message for the surface of the ‘Moon’..

The visualisation of the ‘Moon’ is something I would also like to draw from. The way in which you view the project shows the moon rotating slowly, where you can then navigate around it to find and explore the messages that have been left by other members.

I have the idea that the ‘Planets of Change’ will be visualised in the same way, with all the submitted planets in orbit around a centre object when viewing the project. Upon clicking on a planet, it will zoom in and slowly rotate on an axis, like how the moon rotates in this project.

I also liked the use of the black background, which, although it clearly relates to space, I also see feel that it creates the sense that we are alone in our thoughts. But the platform itself in this vast empty space pulls everyones thoughts together, creating the sense that we should all listen to each other.

I feel that from researching into this project, I can expand on the ‘Planets or Change’ project idea further.
Heres the link to the Moon Project for your own exploration:

https://www.moonmoonmoonmoon.com

– Michael

At this stage I also had another idea that could maybe later form a project, based more strongly around the current debates relating to the rights of a cyber-citizen whilst also pulling from the research into Aaron Koblin’s work (particularly the projects; Ten Thousand Cents, The Sheep Market and The Single Lane Superhighway).

This project idea relates to free speech and how the internet and digital technology allows people to express their opinions, either through anonymity or through the digital realm offering a safe place to do so.

With the ever growing and expansion of the internet, it would seem that problems occurring around the globe are being heard, sometimes leading to solutions being made through the global networked community.

The premise for the project was to enhance the use of digital media for good, to hopefully lead and fuel liberation, whilst also including one of the key aspects to the rights of a cyber-citizen, freedom of speech for the expression of our views.

From this the idea for a possible project, titled ‘Planet’s of Change’ came to light. A project who’s aim is to get spectators to think, explore contributions and make their own based around issues effecting the world today.

The idea for the project is that each user will draw a planet. This planet can be drawn to the specifications of the contributor.

Their individual planet is to be attached to a message or statement, relating to how they feel the world can become a better place, how it can be ‘liberated from an issue’ or a topic they feel needs to be addressed or discussed.

The contributor will be able to link their planet to a social network account under their name (or they can post anonymously). From here they will be able to send their planet off to join a digital solar system. A digital solar system that will hopefully become filled with planets contributed by a number of users.

When viewing the project, you will be able to click on each planet to bring up a clearer image of it, along with the attached message and details about the owner of the planet.

At this moment I imagine the project being displayed at the Frequency festival as a projection on a large wall inside a dark room. Spectators will view the project as a visual representation, with the contributed planets all in orbit around a centre (maybe earth for sentimental reasons or simply a sun).

During the Frequency festival spectators will also have the chance to contribute to the project, enabling them to see the birth of their planet into the digital solar system.

I feel this project can be engaged with by a range of users (including age) to bring about discussions that are formed by digital citizens themselves.

– Michael

Taking inspiration from Koblin’s projects based on anonymous contributions from various members, an early idea I have formulated for a possible interactive digital piece is based on the contribution of people who visit the frequency festival.

The idea is that each member who wishes to contribute to the project, will sign into a social media account and from this (with the users consent) pull their profile picture into the project.

Through a simple drawing program the user will draw their profile picture, in anyway they want; expressive, anonymous etc. and once the drawing has been completed, the user will also be asked to state where they are living now and where they were originally born.  From this the image will be uploaded to the project.

The individual images created for the project will be collated to form a block of images that will grow throughout the contribution of the members. These images could also be used to form the logo for the Frequency Festival.

From the extra data attached to the images (birth place and living place) it could also be presented in a visual projection, similar to Koblin’s project Flight Patterns, where each of the users locations will be linked together in relation to each other, showing the distance between the contributors in a similar visualisation seen in the Flight Projects below.

The idea of this will be to demonstrate how technology brings people together, showing that the use of social media and the internet as a whole, largely reflect and influence society as a whole.

– Michael

Upon researching into his collective community artworks, I felt the style of projects he produces set around collective community contribution are the perfect type of projects to be adapted to the theme of LIBERATION.

My first idea was based on the ‘The Single Lane Super Highway‘ project that is based simply around contributors to the project drawing a car in their desired style, which is then added to the project.

Once the cars have been submitted, they join an endless highway. Each car slowly drives across the screen one after the other. The cars themselves are animated after submission with the wheels turning as the cars drive across the screen.

When viewing the project you can select a car as it passes, allowing you to view an animation of how the car had been drawn by its anonymous contributor.

At heart this project is extremely simple, but I liked the idea of how the project was viewable to visitors along with how cars that have been contributed are produced.

First Project Idea

An early project idea I had was formulated from researching into this project.

The idea for the project would be based around a collective community of users contributing to the project.

I had the idea of the liberation in terms of human development.

From this i had a project name idea to help me develop the idea for the project, ‘Flight of The Future’.

The project would require users to draw a craft that will (when complete) join in flight with other crafts that have been drawn.

I had an idea that the project could include 3 different subsections, being ‘early flight’, ‘current flight’ and ‘future flight’.

I felt that by including these three different sections, it would allow contributors more creative freedom when participating.

With drawings being contributed to all three sections, the idea would be that a evolution of flight would be able to be seen.

I also had the idea that when each craft was selected (when viewing the project), the drawing will show information that may or may not have been left by the owner.

– Michael

The first digital artist I went and researched was the work of Aaron Koblin, who’s digital work is largely based around audience interaction, through anonymously contributing to a collective project. 

I feel his work is a fun and engaging, a good example as to how a collective group of people can be directed to work towards the same outcome. I feel his work relates strongly the three main components of the frequency theme of LIBERATION.

– Knowledge Sharing: Everyone contributing to his collective projects contribute their own working method, style or ideas.

– The Enhanced Imagination: Through the easy use digital tools, contributors to his projects are able to put their ideas out there. Also working towards a collective outcome/product.

– The liberation of the Digital Human: Other aspects of his projects relate to the physical real world. his latest project makes use of an interactive mesh that hangs in the sky, to which spectators can influence in a spectacular display of colours through touch (through the use of a touch screen phone).

The main projects I wish to pull inspiration from:

– Ten Thousand Cents: 10000 individual artists anonymously worked on an individual sector of the $100 bill, with each artist being paid 1 cent. Over the duration of the project all sections of the $100 bill were drawn in a number of different ways, eventually leading to the completion of the project. (http://www.tenthousandcents.com/)

– The Sheep Market: Focused on the creation of 10,000 individual sheep by workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Each worker was paid 2 cents to draw a sheep facing to the left. This project again focused around the anonymity of its contributors. The required 10,000 sheep were collected in 40 days, with the project being accessed through 7599 unique IP addresses. (http://www.aaronkoblin.com/work/thesheepmarket/index.html)

– This Exquisite Forest: The project is one that I find extremely fascinating. It follows the same process of previous projects that focus on the anonymous contribution of hundreds of people, for the creation and competition of the project. However this project does not simply collect the contributions of its users, it collects them for others to develop them further. The project is a collective animation at heart, with each user contributing the next frame of the animation. The end result in extremely interesting to watch, as your constantly wondering what the animation will flow into next. (http://www.exquisiteforest.com/)

– Michael