This Is Something You Should Know... Call Out

As part of the “reverse=bread.from(crumbs)” group show that opens at the Vanishing Point Gallery on July 21, I’m going to install a version of my augmented reality artwork, The Information Virus. At previous shows, this work has presented punters with random images and audio recordings pulled from the internets, but this time it’s going to do something different – it’s going to provide content created by you.

What I’m after are short audio recordings (no more than a minute or so) and associated images on the following very broad theme:

“This is something you should know…”

You can interpret this in any way you choose. It could be a declaration of love; some piece of wisdom that life has taught you; a statement about a political issue that isn't getting the airing it deserves; an observation about how amazing it is to do something as simple as lay in the grass or look up at the stars; a restaurant recommendation; an evaluation of a favourite piece of
music/literature/art; a set of tips about fashion/cooking/gardening/sewing/robot-building; a short philosophical/critical rumination; a prediction about the future; whatever.

Just record yourself passing this information/knowledge on to the world (if you don’t have access to an audio recorder, a video that I can pull the audio from will do) and take a picture that relates to it. (If you want to go beyond a simple monologue and create a poem, musical piece, or sound art composition, that would also be welcomed… Actually, that would be freaking awesome.)

Your contribution will become part of the artwork, and you will be credited as one of its creators. (I’m not getting any funding for this, so unfortunately I’m not going to be able to remunerate you for your efforts. I would if I could though…)

The deadline for submissions is July 10. Send any contributions you have to filmcement@gmail.com, and include a short description in the body of the email.

And yes, you'll need one of those elitist smartphones to see the work, but I'll try to get an iPod that anyone at the gallery can use to check it out. And I'll also have some kind of audio player with headphones in the gallery that'll loop through the contributions.

I'm reserving the right to exclude anything that's obnoxiously racist, sexist, homophobic, defamatory or so poorly recorded that it can't be made out, but those are the only limits I have.

Final note about the images: I'll be cutting small triangular thumbnails out of them to texture the virus, so an image with a strong single focus, or detail that looks good when zoomed in on, works best.