Field Art 001

QuickTime Video Documentation (tested on ver.7.6)
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1. OVERVIEW

The Receipt Project is an art project as well as a statistical research and sociological fieldwork.
In this project, participants are navigated to donate their unused receipts, and those are geographically and chronologically mapped as an installation. On the other hand, its information is stored into a database and visualized as three-dimensional graphics.
As a result, participants can observe diverse facts such as the range and similarity of participants’ activities, the tendency of participants’ purchase histories, and the relationship between physical object and information.
The Receipt Project explores to visualize the activities, tendency and relationship etc. of people who are related to the area, and re-edit and reconstruct its information by composing multi-dimensional perspectives.

2. DETAILS

The urban space we live in has been changing with technologies such as transportation methods and information technologies. Thus, the idea of “ourselves” and the style of communication have also been influenced by new media technologies.
For some people, online communities are more vital than physical communities. In addition, with the dramatic change of the urban environment, the role of local communities has become collapsed, and the significance of “physical space”has gradually been indistinct. We are sort of forced to have multiple personalities in both physical and information spaces.
Do you know, where actually we are? Where do we live? Who are your neighbors? What kind of place do we commute every day? Where are we standing now? Who are around us?
Following the notion, “space is a reality that endures” by Maurice Halbwachs, I believe that refiguring contemporary space / urban environment / society is to re-link multi-layered social spaces by applying artistic approaches.

“Receipt” as media has diverse values depending on a person who collects. Some keep these records and others might only put them in their purses and do not even care etc.. However, most people are unaware of the fact that receipts are the accumulation of personal information and the traces of their activities.

In this project, participants are navigated to donate their receipts if they are happy to be involved. Those are geographically and chronologically mapped as an installation. On the other hand, its information is stored into a database and visualized as three-dimensional graphics.
As a result, participants can observe diverse facts such as the range and similarity of participants’ activities, the tendency of participants’ purchase histories, and the relationship between physical object and information.

In the physical and information spaces in this case, different phenomena can be observed. In the physical space, the color of the receipt paper gradually changes and its text is also faded out with the lapse of time. In addition, the way of keeping receipts is dependent of each person: It may be dirty and crumbled, or neat and decently folded and so on. On the contrary, in the information space, for instance, the activity of participants and the relationship that people might be at the same place at the same time can be observed.

The Receipt Project explores to visualize the activities, tendency and relationship etc. of people who are related to the area, and re-edit and reconstruct its information by composing multi-dimensional perspectives.
Finally, it is expected that this experience could be a starting point to re-observe the area which participants are related to from alternative point of view.

3. PROCESS

3-1.Installation

1. Participants write down their nicknames and hand in unused receipts if they are happy to be involved.

2. The information, such as time, place, staff, comment, purchased stuff and price etc. is input into a custom-made database.

3. The database is continuously updated by the artist in the exhibition period.

4. Receipts are added to the installation after its information is input into the database.

5. As a result, receipts are accumulated with the lapse of time.

3-2.Interactive 3D Map

This three-dimensional map has various modes.

1. The individual activity of each participant (lines).

2. The vertical axis represents chronological scale.

3. If participants are in the same place at the same time, the node of participants’ traces will be turned to be red.

4. The price and the tendency of purchased stuff.

5. Shop name etc.

The interface of the project had flexibly been modified and updated depending on the information of the collected receipts.

4. TECHNICAL INFORMATION

4-1. System

Software: A custom software written in Objective-C (Cocoa) with OpenGL and Quartz
Database: sqLIte
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.8

4-2. Hardware (What I could contribute)

Macintosh G5
Digital Video Camera
AV cable (from camera to computer)
Monitor Cable (10 meters)
Materials for building the installation

4-3. Hardware (What would need to be provided)

2 – Video Projectors (over 4,000 lumens projectors are preferable)

4-4. Space Requirements

5m. x 7m. floor and approx. 3 m. of the ceiling is needed.

4-5. The Diagram of The Installation