The Collective Body: We will create a “collective body” made up of all of our body parts randomly reassembled and reconfigured into a single composite body. Using a smart phone or digital camera, shoot nine photographs of yourself close-up: (3) face – 2 profiles, one frontal, (2) each hand, (2) each foot, (1) upper body, (1) lower body. Transfer the images to Flicker and load them into the ‘Open Source Studio NTU’ Flickr group. Over the course of the week the collective body will take shape, and each time the Flickr feed page is visited, the body will be randomly reconfigured, creating a near infinite number of possibilities. How does this project alter the way we think about the body as a malleable figure? How does the project allow us to rethink the human figure in the digital age, when the authenticity of the image has been subverted through manipulation. How might we think about the body as a “collective” entity, made up not as a single individual, but as a composite of selves. And finally how does the composite body reflect on the “deeply intertwingled” nature of social media: the intertwining of identities and relationships?
Screenshot from the project done by OSS students during the second semester 2013-14:
See the Using the Flickr Group instructions in the OSS User Manual / Media Integration for more information (scroll down the page).