Thoughts and Precedents Expounded

Alright, I’m ready to talk about this. As discussed, I want to work with human conductivity and explore the idea of chalk outlines of murder victims. There are two ways we can go at this point: (1) a “chalk outline” that would light up when a human’s hands complete the circuit or (2) a projection mapping situation that would be highly interactive and the outline would move with the human. Though 2 has many pro’s, I’m leaning toward 1 for two reasons. The first is that I like the idea that the living human doesn’t have a choice in the position. (That’s because I’m a dictator.) To really feel the gravity of the situation, I think you can’t be moving a line around you; you have to go where the victim was. The second reason is purely aesthetic. I love the vision in my head of lights surrounding a person.

But, I’m still in the exploration period. For both, I want to have information about the victim of the area readily available either through a projection or a screen that is driven by a touch or motion sensor.

I’m including my original precedents from a previous post and the extended version.

#1 – New York Times Murder Map

New York Times map of murders in NYC for 2003-2011. This is a map that aggregates the data of murders in New York City. If you zoom in on the area, you can get details of specific murders. This relates in that we cover the same information: murders in New York.

#2 – NYC Ghosts and Murders Walking Tours

Walking tours of NYC neighborhoods focusing on historical murders in the area. Participants can embark on this journey with a tourguide as they explore the area and learn about murders. This relates in that we both focus on murders in New York and sharing information about those murders in physical space.

#3 – Colonial and Civil War era history in Fredericksburg, VA

QR codes posted on historically significant buildings that link to short informative videos about the history of the  specific building and surrounding area in Fredericksburg, VA. Heritage Media created this project and it is called ‘Storefront Stories’. Users can scan the QR codes with their phones to view the video related to the building. This is a possible way to share the history of my project: via QR codes.

#4- Body Light Kit

Human Conductivity with lights by Eastern Voltage Research. To light up the lights, this project requires human hands to complete the circuit. I want to light up a “chalk outline” using human conductivity.

#5- #deaddenah (precedent for #deaddenah- deadsquare by Michael Bettendo. #meta)

Due to a discovery of perfect alliteration and a curious proclivity toward an exploration of death, I’ve embarked on a performance piece where I photograph myself “dead” in interesting situations. Deadsquare is a social media parody and specifically a commentary on foursquare and people’s obsessive need to check-in. Users take photos of themselves “dead” and upload them to deadsquare. The users of both this project and mine have to imagine themselves in the position of the dead, via actually being in the position of the dead.