A Crowdsourced Manifesto

 
 

This crowdsourced manifesto takes anonymous one word responses and inserts them into a brief manifesto unknown to the contributors of the one word responses. The result is a static manifesto with changing words looping through it, which change the meaning of the manifesto making it representative of the aims, ambitions and actions of multiple and disparate voices.

The project takes as a precedent the classic party-game “Mad Libs” in which words are sourced from the crowd to fill-in blanks and create what is often nonsensical and absurd text. In this project, the absurd quality is removed, and that pivot – between crowd response and actual text – is used to distance the crowd members from the public nature of the manifesto and make them more likely to respond.

To achieve this, custom software was created to take the responses and randomize them into the manifesto. This script ran live on (3) computers during the public presentation.

Content Gathering

Directions given to respondents for filling-out Google form – Please respond by filling in only one word, or a maximum two words if one is not enough (eg. neighboring countries), as grammatically correct as possible, in the spaces below. These phrases relate to how you feel right now, in this post-presidential election moment.

Format

The piece is projected on an internal wall of Gund Hall to relate to the internal space, and stepped to mimic the flow of the building. The sound draws on the digital and coded nature of the project and creates an audible crowd of words, which were broadcast into the studio trays and outside. The building becomes a manifesto, a platform for changing meanings, reflecting a diversity of opinions and concerns.

 



Manifesto Content

  • We declare our ___.

  • We are ___ about our future.

  • We need greater protection for ___, and demand more ___.

  • ___ has to stop now. We are ___.

  • We will ___!

Crowdsourcing Question

  • This post-election moment has left me filled with ______.

  • I feel ______ about my future.

  • ______ are most at risk in society.

  • The world needs greater ______.

  • The worst issue facing the world is ______.

  • When reading the news and discussing politics, I feel ______.

  • The best way to take action is to ______.

Sample Words Gathered

Anxiety, Confusion, Fear, Worry, Unease, Sadness, Concern, Despair, Disconcert, Dread, Uncertainty, Outrage, Commitment, Apathy, Sorrow, Overwhelmed, Disillusioned, Melancholy,   Agitated, Numb, Rebel, Intolerance, Ignorance, Inequality, Division, Isolation, Compassion, Empathy, Minorities, Identities, Doubtful, Conflicted, Depressed, Angst

Concrete Dialogue

 

Concrete Dialogue is a public projection to the facade of Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, the only building on the North American continent designed by the famous architect Le Corbusier. The architecture is a compilation of his concrete forms. The light-colored concrete reflects morning sun and captures afternoon shadows from trees and surroundings, and the curved surfaces compress or elongate these shadows, giving them visual life as the angle of the sun changes.

The projection overlays the concrete texture on the ramp to the concrete texture on the square grid walls, creating a dialogue between the two. The projected texture syncs with the movement of the performer ascending and descending the ramp, back and forth, caressing the architecture body. The sound of foot steps creates a symphony, an impressive experience, and a sequence of spatial events with the ramp — the heart of the building that encourages public circulation and provides views into the studios without interrupting the activities in progress.

 
 

Eye

 

The performance and projection Eye inquires the invisible surveillance in our daily life. Endless censorship, overwhelming data, social media, even technology, especially in the form of wearable cameras and computers, are detrimental and leave people without any privacy in public and private space. We are voluntarily and involuntarily exposed to the eyes of others. The omnipresent surveillance which regulates all public and private spheres of citizen's life brings us back to the time of “1984”.

Inside this private room, she is trapped under the inescapable gaze of the eye. She walks around to test it — the eye steadfastly staring back at her. She tries to disrupt it, hide from it, tear it off, yet the eye is unaffected. She discovers the way to cover it by her shadow, but the eye appears on her body instead — she can never get rid of it. Utterly desperate, she pulls down the blind — suddenly, the light from outside kills the eye. She opens the window. With a self-satisfied smirk flickered at the corner of her mouth, she jumps out. She seems successfully escaped, but we never know what’s outside.

 
 

Advisor: Krzysztof Wodiczko