Project 3: Interactivity

Kristin Seymour
Intention Statement: Interactivity

            A Seahawk’s Panoramic View was a community based art project with the intention of creating a tapestry of collective images from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. This was to be a photographic collage of images in tapestry form with an element of technology. Within the tapestry there would be QR codes that lead to a website that housed all the images that were submitted. The tapestry images would be abstract enough that you could tell what they were depicting but would wonder what the real image was like. This is where the QR code would come into play and transfer viewers into interacting with the interface I created.
To make this project as interactive as I could with my control freak tendencies I chose to not use my own photos, but to use other people’s photos. I asked SMCM students to send me images of things that they would miss once they left St. Mary’s. I prompted for more objects than people and feelings but in the end I got images of everything from people to animas to landscapes. I used Facebook and Email to ask the community for their own photos. I created a Facebook page specifically to collect and display the images that people sent to me and to create an open inviting source. In this day and age and within the SMCM community, Facebook pages and events are used regularly to interact with large number of people and to get community response. Social media is the best way to reach a large number of people fast and to target groups of people. I intended to receive photos from people within the community and post them on Facebook. Then create a two tone negative space design of the photograph and use those abstracted designs to create a colorful tapestry that was aesthetically pleasing. I did not want to use just printed photographs because to me that was too strait forward and did not push the images any further. I chose a tapestry because it is made of cloth and by hand. Cloth is a very communal substance. Cloth signifies family, warmth and caring. If I had just printed shiny photographs the interpretation would be different and less communal. I intended to take the interaction between contributors, myself as the artist and the viewers to an additional level with the addition of a QR code in the tapestry. I put all the images and the two tones designs on a page of my website and linked the QR code to that. The images are in grid form, much like that of Facebook and other social media sights. I chose to contrast the grid form to the collaged tapestry to reinforce the differences between technology and a hand made tapestry and their underlying meanings.
The focus of this project was interaction and I engages this focus through a three fold interface. The first layer consisted of using social media and technology to ask SMCM students to send me photos of their favorite places on campus, the places they would miss once they left SMCM. I then posted their photos to the Facebook page to show the world what SMCM students’ value on our campus. The second step was making the physical tapestry using the photographs people sent. The QR code within the tapestry is the direct link to the third step. The final step of this interactive process is when viewers scan the code, they are taken to my website which shows all the submitted images as well as the black and white original designs that are on the tapestry. This process led to multiple steps of interaction between contributors, artist and viewers.
            As an artist I always try to create products and finished pieces. I am not an abstract or conceptual artist who creates art without a physical work to hold and touch. I am also a control freak who does not like collaboration. Creating an interactive piece was a challenge for me. How I compensated for the interactive element was to ask for photos not my own but to still edit them in my own way. I also created a tapestry myself. In the end the tapestry did not turn out how I wanted it to or expect it to. The collation and format did not create a pleasing art piece. I was surprising pleased with all the images I received and how I chose to display them on Facebook and my website. I rarely ever create a physical work that I am not pleased with. This was definitely a new experience for me to like the conceptual piece of my work over the physical representation of it. If I were to do this again I would still ask for photos form the community but I think I would print the tapestry instead of hand inking and screen-printing it. The images needed to be crisper and clearer to be readable and be considered successful. I would also reconsider the format of how I laid out the images within the Tapestry.
Overall for an interactive work I was pleased with the results. Many people participated and sent me their photos. It was interesting to see what people valued here on campus and the lack there of as well. IT was a challenging experience for me but in the end it helped me be a well rounded artist.