Projects
Relative Connections-September 2008 at the Kimball Gallery, de Young Museum
a collaboration of Laura Parker & Chris Leib
We plan to be launching the website for this project by the end of February.
A person’s individual history is the universal string, tethering each of us to today and to our hope that we are more than ourselves. There are many reasons a person’s past can be lost. This is a project of the possibility of what can be found.
Relative Connections is a multidisciplinary project focused on the thirst for heritage. History is assembled from many sources and each is a relative construction, yet it is through history that we view the future. Relative Connections is an interactive art installation that engages us in the sharing of ancestral stories to be woven into a larger story or narrative.
How it works:
To begin you enter your own or someone else’s history into the project database. These can be real or fabricated artifacts and data, showing some of the unexpected moments in the relationships of those we search to discover, their deeds, actions and influences. You will put your information, stories, photographs, or memorabilia into the computer database. When another person enters his/her information, connections both real and fictional will appear be made. You will then be able to elaborate on what you think the connection was or could have been. We will also have additional source materials like photos, postcards and other memorabilia available to substantiate the creation of invented or symbolic encounters. A copy of your entry and the connections made will be created. As the project grows emails will be sent to you as new connections are made. You can also log in any time adding material, stories or new people to your group expanding the possibility of connections.
Example: David inputs his grandfather’s data and a connection comes up with another person, Alice who was a restaurateur from the same city and time frame. You could choose to make a story about how David’s grandfather came to know Alice, the restaurant, or other people in the restaurant. To enhance the elaboration the visitor can choose supporting items from your own or our source materials. This story is added to the database and the artists begin working on artifacts to verify the story’s existence.
Stories and objects will be incorporated into a diagram and continue to evolve as the art installation grows. As the number of individual histories increases, so will the possibilities. This is the material the artists will work with to weave a fabric of associations that may or may not have actually happened.
