So the project’s called “This Exquisite Forest” and it comes from the inspiration
of the “exquisite corpse” this idea that the Surrealists came up with a kind of collaborative creation.
Aaron and I did the Johnny Cash Project. It was a crowdsourced music video for Johnny
Cash’s final album.
After we built the Johnny Cash Project, we were approached by the Tate Modern, and they
said, “What could we do?”
So the idea for this really came about two years ago when I met with Chris and we talked
with Aaron.
Both Aaron and I and the team were really interested in figuring out ways to use technology
to build things in a different way that perhaps we haven’t seen before or tell stories in
another way that we haven’t told them before.
I think what’s exciting is that our team has built a unique collaborative animation
platform that I think people will be excited about, and interested in playing with, and
we’ve done that using that technologies that the Chrome browser makes available to
people.
So, when you first come to the website you see the forest, and you can pick any individual
tree and you’ll immediately see the animation that started off that tree as well as the
instructions and guidelines that were provided by the artist.
And then, you’ll be able to follow along and rollover any segment of the tree and see
the animation that was contributed from a number of different people. And if you click
on any of the leaves you can actually see the entire pathway, the story that’s been
created by everybody working together to create something new.
The project simulates a natural selection process, only for narrative, where the strongest,
most engaging versions of the story are the ones that ultimately survive and prosper.
So we’re kicking-off the project with a number of amazing artists from the Tate Modern.
It’s a real cool opportunity because they’re creating these short seed animations and guidelines,
and people can collaborate with them and put their work into the Tate Modern.
I’ve been talking to a number of artists, who have work in Tate’s collection, and
inviting them to come up with an idea to start one of these trees.
My seed is going to be an image of a landscape with a river running through it.
I tend to work a lot with text, moving image and animation actually lends itself really
well to reading, writing.
These drawings or animations are going to be made within an actual space by an actual
person, who’s bringing all their life experiences to that series of drawings.
The beauty of the exquisite forest is it’s a web based project that we’re taking to
a physical manifestation.
The basic idea is to create an immersive environment in Tate where we can display projects.
Aaron and Chris start talking about this idea, “what do you guys think about making a version
control for animation”
From there, it comes down to how you’re actually going to implement it. Start with
the big idea and then work backwards to solve problems as they go.
One of the challenges was how far do you with design and art direction of the actual interface
that people see when they come there. Because you don’t want to try to push them into
a style. You don’t want them to feel like, “oh, the site looks like this so I have
to create something that’s fitting with that.” So you almost want it to be a little
more transparent.
I think in a lot of ways the timing was really right for this. Because we had Google App
Engine hosting the entire project with account authentication, so it’s really easy to get
people signed up. We’re using features of Chrome like Canvas and Javascript and Web
Audio API. I think the convergence of those technologies create an opportunity where people
can collaborate in a totally new way.
The music tool is really important to me because music lining up with picture is one of the
most powerful recipes that we have as artists.
When you create a tree you are able to select some instruments and basic patterns and intensities
that will go with your seed animation.
When people are adding to an existing animation, they have the possibility to change how the
music sounds. They can remove an instrument they don’t like. they can increase the intensity
and even change the chords.
I think the most unexpected part of this journey is about to come.
Any project where you open it up to the audience to be able to participate in, you sort of
open yourself up to the unknown.
I mean, that’s the most exciting thing to be doing, is something that you’re not really
sure if it’s going to work or not.
My hope with this project is that people will actually create some new and novel uses of
this technology. I think it’s a big experiment.