Anything that you have an accumulation of can be a collection. An archive is a collection of historical documents or records. Not all collections are archives, but many become relevant with time. For our next project you’re tasked with creating a collection of 25 items. Any time you see a multiplicity of an object, you begin to notice similarities and contexts in a new way. Seeing multiple of an object allows for this kind of in depth research that observing one object does not. The way the object is documented(consider the various image making techniques we’ve explored this semester) and organized helps direct the viewer on how the object is meant to be experienced.
To help us get started, let’s observe a few examples of collections. Consider the formal qualities of how they’re presented as well as how the content, design, and organization helps provide meaning.
Ulises Carrión
a Mexican artist who believed creating an archive of artist’s books is an act of art itself.
An ongoing collection of mysterious and alluring screenshots taken using Google Street View. Nine Eyes of Google Street View is both an archival project and a conceptual meditation on the state of photography in a time of automated image making on a massive scale.
During the rise of AirBnB, an international style formed that was ubiquitously accepted. AirBnB was intended to show real people’s homes, but instead ended up creating a generic aesthetic.
Anything that you have an accumulation of can be a collection. An archive is a collection of historical documents or records. Not all collections are archives, but many become relevant with time. For our next project you’re tasked with creating a collection of 25 items. Any time you see a multiplicity of an object, you begin to notice similarities and contexts in a new way. Seeing multiple of an object allows for this kind of in depth research that observing one object does not. The way the object is documented (consider the various image making techniques we’ve explored this semester) and organized helps direct the viewer on how the object is meant to be experienced.
To help us get started, let’s observe a few examples of collections. Consider the formal qualities of how they’re presented as well as how the content, design, and organization helps provide meaning.
Ulises Carrión
http://9-eyes.com/ by Jon Rafman (2008 – )
Modern Life Space – Laurel Schwulst (2011)
Introduction/City Street Sounds/People Sing, Dance and Pray – Tony Schwartz (1956)
Take One Last Look at the (Many) Plastic Bags of New York – NYTimes
Speck – A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things – Peter Buchanan-Smith
Agency of Unrealized Projects, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-Jones, Julieta Aranda & Anton Vidokle Hans Ulrchic (2012 – )