about the project

Can you derive originality through remix, through iteration?

 

This project tries to answer that question. Using a wide range of talented artists, each one iterating on the last, I felt that this could rapidly derive a result that either supports the question above or disproves it entirely. Through my current research in remix studies, I have my assumptions that the answer to this question is yes. Many artists, including the late David Bowie, claim to take ideas from others and make them their own, new works. Another name is Kirby Fergison who has a whole youtube series called Everything is a Remix detailing how our species has copied, iterated, and built off of what came before.

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The idea of a game of telephone came from a need to have fun with the project, especially in the social climate of late 2020-early 2021. I needed to have a good amount of people and to have them be excited to participate in a project like this. Through many discussions with friends, family and colleagues, I was able to assemble the ideas of taking a piece that exists, having people create in a chain and see if through enough iterations that original, new art can come from what came before.

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While on a photo shoot with Lindsey Rae Thurston, we went to a location that would eventually become the keystone piece for the project, the piece that would spark the chain. It's called Spaceman with Floating Pizza by Mike "Truth" Johnston in Austin, TX. I love the hard, cartoony lines. I love the surrealism with it being in a parking lot. I love the floating pizza. It was perfect for a whimsical spark to the project.

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I had been learning Blender, a free and powerful 3D modeling software, and decided to recreate this piece in using this tool. Ripping the spaceman off of the wall and having him float along with his pizza, setting the parking lot in space, breathing life into the piece with subtle animations and blooming lighting effects. Taking this piece from 2D to 3D somehow made the piece something new. This is a common thread in remixing. Changing mediums acta as a sort of commentary on the original piece.

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Once my piece was completed, it was time to pass this along to the next person. I was floored when I got the first piece back and how breathtaking it was. Each time the piece was passed to the next, it shifted in ways that I wouldn't have imagined. 

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I encourage you to scroll through the timeline of pieces or walk through the 3D virtual gallery on Mozilla hubs and see for yourself how art can be iterative. While you scroll or virtually walk through I want you to ask yourself, is this piece original? Do these pieces build off of eachother or it is all derivitive? 

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Thank you again for stopping by and enjoy this DimensionalTelephone!