Britglyph
Put simply, Britglyph is a networked artwork, created across all of Great Britain. There are 61 points across the country to which people travel with a rock. Once there, they take a photograph of themselves and their rock and then send it in to the site with the GPS location of that site. The main site is a map which dynamically updates with these images as they are posted. As images are posted, an image of a timepiece becomes clear, drawn across the map connect-the-dots style.
Why a rock? Well, one of the oldest forms of art is that of Geoglyphs. The Britglyph project represents one of the newest forms of art: locative art. As well as this homage to our ancestors attempts at leaving a lasting record of their existence, there is another more practical reason for using rocks as part of the work: by taking rocks to these locations and leaving them there not only does the artwork exist online, but it is made a physical reality.
Before I set out on this, I needed expert guidance on whether what I was attempting would actually be considered a Geoglyph, so I needed to track down a Landscape Archeologist. I managed to speak with Dr Joshua Pollard, Dept. of Archeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol and he said
“Historically Geoglyphs had physical faces and their size was restricted. The Britglyph project is a wonderful innovation, bringing Geoglyphs to life using modern technology on a grand scale.â€
So in at least one experts opinion, what we’re doing can certainly be considered a geoglyph. Don’t you think that’s wild? That we’re creating a work of art which *is* one of the oldest forms, but can only be viewed through the mediating lens of a web browser and online map? I think that’s just WILDLY COOL! It questions the nature of public art, and even art itself: If the only way you can see the work created is through this web browser, and people have left a rock in some field somewhere, is that really art? Does it even exist?
The title above is not exactly misleading, but in many ways the Britglypyh projects stated ambition of creating the world’s largest image is just a headline grabbing trick to get people talking about the project. What it actually is is an experiment in how social networks can be exploited to engage people across large geographical regions to achieve a shared aim. Certainly yes, when completed the Britglyph project will arguably have created the largest image ever made, but it is an experiment in social media on a massive scale, networked collaboration, rather than an attempt at some kind of Guiness world record.
By fusing mobile blogging, geotagging/geolocation, physical travel and a shared aim, the Britglyph project is an experiment in mass collaboration, bringing people together to participate in creating an image across all of Great Britain. The aim itself is something of a red herring though; what if this combination of technologies and networks was harnessed for mass activism?
Imagine: 500 people, each at a specific location, at a specific time, somewhere in the world, armed with nothing more than a cameraphone and a persistent connection to the internet. Imagine that their positions when taken together and plotted on an online/mobile map as in the Britglyph model created a protest image; a peace sign or Bob’s face for instance. What else might now be possible at the interstice of art and these technologies?
I am hopeful that I will be able to raise the funds to make the technology we created to power the Britglyph project (as well as the Find Me project) available publicly. There are only a few parts to the whole platform:
- the moblog backend (we need to do some more work on our API to make this easier) for media/locative stuff
- a mapping interface where you can add/remove map markers and “draw” the image you are setting out to create
- a list of lat/long data which is then used by participants
- a flash/flex environment using open source map data to display the artwork created
- What also needs to be created to make it a truly useful platform is a mobile discovery tool – probably a QR code generator and sticker printout so that each participant can physically tag their location with something that other people can then discover.
- Participative hooks – a way for people to discover locations yet to be visited and posted from
I don’t know whether this is something a lot of people will do, my gut tells although there will be many who will, it’s not some massive socially networky thing; it’s a collaborative locative art platform that can be used in a number of ways: Imagine, hidden images drawn by thousands of people all over the world, peeking out from just below the surface of reality on the streets we all walk along, personal stories, mysterious narratives you can explore and take part in.
Britglyph has been an awful lot of fun to do, but more than anything I hope that it helps in demonstrating how these fairly basic underlying technologies can be used as the basis of a new paradigm of mass participation.