General Description: Art project
Setting: Classroom, workshop or at home
Participants: Individuals or small teams
Materials: Computer with internet connection and/or tons of magazines
Completion time: >1 hour
Summary: The premise for this artwork is that every action is simultaneously an act of production and consumption, and the goal is to describe all that has led up to a particular action and all that extends from it. Start by asking participants to choose an action. What are you doing right now? What do you wish you were doing right now? Any action is fine.
There are two sets of solutions for what has led up to an action: the complete collection of people, materials and processes that have some physical relation to the action; and the collection of thoughts, ideas and so forth that have some psychological relation to the action. Similarly all that extends from an action has both physical and psychological components. What will become of its physical residue? What do we imagine we will do next after the action?
Articulating these different kinds of past chains and future trajectories in a visual form invites careful analysis. Using an image search engine, ask participants to find images that portray earlier and later stages in the “life” of the chosen action. Images should be arranged creatively on two different time-lines, one representing the history and destiny of the action from the time it is physically completed (e.g. supply chains, material trajectories), and another from the time it is conceived (e.g. memories and imaginative aspirations).
Above is an example of a collage that shows production and consumption chains and trajectories for eating an apple. The images were imported into Prezi, a free online presentation program, but any presentation software can be used. A less time-consuming approach is to download the images to a file folder and simply assemble their thumbnails in the folder and take a screen shot.
These artworks can be as intricate as time and energy allow, and have the potential to contain intriguing patterns of common and individual experience.