Eworical New Media Scotland
Invisibleknowledge has received the Alt-W fund from New Media Scotland to produce a new work called The Eworical. This will be shown at Inspace gallery during the Edinburgh International Arts Festival 2011, the show will open on the 5th August. The private view will be on 4th August.
Summary
Eworical is a self networking sculpture.
Filled with the latest technologies, The Eworical is a purposefully ridiculous sculpture made to prompt viewers into questioning how sculpture will be presented and produced in the future, it puts itself forward as a new model for art production in a technologically evolving environment.
Designed as a cross between an Ewok and an Oracle resulting in something not dissimilar to a glorified answer-phone. The Eworical is installed with its own personal brand of popular culture interest from which it sources questions from the web, operating a Skype call-line it then calls friends on Skype to ascertain the answer. Whilst also calling people on Skype they will post questions on Facebook and Twitter for friends to post replies to.
With this piece Invisibleknowledge’s loosely termed ‘Made in China‘ aesthetic questions what the future of sculpture production is. With increased access to new technologies, manufacturing techniques for the masses and global knowledge sharing just how confused can things get?
Community
This is an experimental project that that will be largely driven by it’s community and the people that choose to become a part of it’s friendship circle. Anyone can join The Eworical community and have it call them via Skype or receive questions to be answered on Twitter or Facebook. It is recomended that users wishing to become part of the Eworical comunity first go to the Eworical home page>>
In A Nut shell
“The Eworical is a sculpture about finding identity and searching for enlightenment in a virtual culture.”
Do More With Eworical
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Facebook users may receive the latest Eworical messages by becoming a Facebook friend they may then reply by posting answers to its questions for The Eworical to read out. |
Twitter users may receive the latest Eworical messages by becoming a follower on Twitter they may then also reply by posting their answers for The Eworical to read out. |
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Skype users may receive calls from The Eworical by sending a friend request to ‘eworical’ they may then answer The Eworical questions live! |
To View The Eworical live please click on the icon above. dddddd dddd ddddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd ddddd dddd ddd ddd ddddd ddd ddd ddd ddd |
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The detailed description
To set the scene
Imagine the Empire has given their knowledge of technology to the Ewoks, and they have tried to develop a new world with this technology….the result being, a glorified made-in-china style answer phone which seeks answers to questions using vacuous internet forums topics aiding them on a journey to enlightenment.
With changing values of knowledge and Identity The Eworical aims to explore the notion of becoming a new gatekeeper of knowledge. It aligns more with Wikipedia or Google rather than the traditional view of a gatekeeper, a professor in a room surrounded by books that he has ingested. It is with this new emersion in the internet, the allegedly unparalleled knowledge that it holds and the now endless possibilities for enlightenment that can be found there, that we also find new opportunities to create a virtual identity.
Previously we have been able to develop our physical identities through consumption using the internet but now with greater emersion we have the option to create a new form of identity, a super/hyper identity further merging the fictional with that of reality.
The Eworical is a purposefully ridiculous sculpture that explores the idea of developing a super identity through becoming the gatekeepers of knowledge. The Eworical adopts the role of the gatekeeper of internet subtopics using social networks to find the answers to the questions generated by this subtopic whilst an eagle adopts the role of the forum moderator tracking the traffic flow to the Eworical.
How does it Function?
Essentially what The Eworical is doing is finding questions from the internet and using social network sites to enhance its ability to connect with people and get these questions answered. In doing this it is creating a networked identity leaving a unique profile trail that people can trace back to The Eworical and in doing so become part of The Eworical network; a vacuous network that seeks enlightenment in the answers to popular internet biased questions.
View The Eworical blog >>
