DaisyChain
Participating artists : Kevan Lemire, François Parra, Nao, Guillaume Stagnaro, Fabrice Galice, GH Hovagimyan.
DaisyChain was created in 2001 when Martine Robin invited Peter Sinclair to exhibit at the Château de Servières culturel center in Marseille, giving him carte blanche to invite other artists. Instead of envisioning a group exhibition where each artist would present their individual work, he preferred to invite artists, engaged like myself in experimentation with new media, to create a networked installation within the gallery space. The operating principle of this installation was as follows: each artist contributed an element of the installation, equipped with an input and an output, to create a kind of cadavre exquis (heads bodies and legs), a chain artwork, using data collected either directly on site (sounds, images, and interactions with the public) or remotely via the internet. Thus, visitors were first greeted by the face of GH Hovagimyan on a screen, live from NYC, asking them questions, collecting the sounds of their voices and their image. Then, while visiting the exhibition, these same visitors encountered these sounds and images, accumulated with others and manipulated through different interfaces.
“Daisychain refers to the childlike practice of stringing daisies together to make a necklace for a sweetheart. In computer terms, it's a principle of parallel connection, linking different devices in a cascading fashion through a single access point. Daisychain seeks both to exploit and draw inspiration from digital techniques. Thus, the network principle, which connects the computers of the various participating artists, is analogous to the initial approach. Each artist incorporates inputs and outputs for their artistic contribution so that it can join others in a kind of chain. It is a living, shared system, while also having modules that reflect different sensibilities and approaches. Daisychain is not an exhibition in the ordinary sense of the word. The artists “inhabit” the space for the established duration, building the work progressively, modifying their initial intentions in response to an evolving situation. You are included in the entire process, engaged both through interactive elements that require you to participate in a space/action to bring the artwork to life, and through audio and video recordings and other documents (texts, questionnaires) that remain after your departure.
To better welcome you, the team schedules appointments during which they switch to presentation mode. These moments are also opportunities to take stock of what has been accomplished and to invite other artists to participate.”
