“ChainReaction: An Interactive Collaborative Internet Art Experience” by Mitchell
Conference:
Experience Type(s):
Labs Type(s):
Title:
- ChainReaction: An Interactive Collaborative Internet Art Experience
Program Title:
- Digital Atelier
Organizer(s)/Presenter(s):
Description:
ChainReaction is a worldwide collaborative art project that involves digital image manipulation and networked integration of visual communication and the visual environment. Participants from around the world collaborate with SIGGRAPH 95 attendees to create a nonlinear progression of digital images. Using the World Wide Web and network technologies, they collaborate to build a structure of images that reflects the multiplicity of the experience.
Background
ChainReaction is based on the successful ChainArt Project (1 993), Digital Journey Project (1994), and Diversive Paths Project (1995). Each of these projects utilized the Internet as a means of collaborative creation and exchange of visual imagery. They focused on inclusion and development of a collective experience, and demonstrated how the creative process is altered by digital communication and visual collaboration. ChainReaction focuses on individual creative decisions and maximizes the integration of digital input devices and networked visual communication, thus enhancing the creative possibilities.
Process
The project began as a complex World Wide Web interface that included numerous starter images and interactive methods for inputting information. Once the project was underway, participants could download an image, manipulate it, and then upload it back to the ftp site. Using scripting, the image was then connected back to the chain, displayed as a link to the image from which it began, and made available for viewing and manipulation on the WWW. Each time an image was manipulated, it created another link in the chain. As the chain progressed, the images continued to branch off and create a more diverse selection of images to manipulate.
SIGGRAPH 95
For SIGGRAPH 95, ChainReaction participants can choose from a variety of digital input devices to include their visual environment in their expressive reactions to other participants’ images. They can manipulate another person’s image by drawing on it using a digital tablet, incorporating video recorded at SIGGRAPH 95, or capturing images from a CU-SeeMe video session. They can also scan in images or capture digital images using a digital camera.
CU-SeeMe sessions involving participants from around the world and video performance events are captured for inclusion on the WWW ChainReaction site. Some images become part of other images while other CU-SeeMe images become part of pages, visually documenting the individuals who manipulated the image.
Participants from locations around the world can collaborate with SIGGRAPH 95 attendees in manipulating images and communicating via CUSeeMe and email. Because hardware, software, and networking capabilities vary from location to location, involvement in the project ranges from ftping manipulated images to networked video performances merged into the manipulated images and documented on the WWW site.
This project is a journey into the creative process, and the results document a collective experience that can only be achieved through international digital networking technology and expressive responses to digital images on the network
Other Information:
Contributors:
Melody dos Santos
Drew Farris
Heather Elliott
Wayne Fidler
Joshua Jones
Scott Mager
