@Platea: A Global Online Public Art Collective

@Platea Discussed in a Podcast and a Journal Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:03:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce that @Platea received some attention in academic circles this month via both a podcast (The Critical Lede) and a forum in a Performance Studies journal (Text and Performance Quarterly).

The glacial pace of academic publishing being what it is, a piece I wrote over a year ago is just now finding the light of day (and that is pretty fast turn-around for a print journal, relatively speaking). The latest issue of Text and Performance Quarterly has a forum on new media and performance scholarship. The brief essays include a discussion of a podcast that reviews recent communication studies publications, an online journal of Performance Studies, and a project using a Wiki site to craft a publication. And then there's my contribution discussing @Platea, with explanations of two of our projects: "Co-Modify" and "Following Piece 2.0." I was invited to be a part of this forum in part because the field of Performance Studies claims performance/art as a mode of inquiry and often advocates blurring distinctions between theory and praxis, sholarship and aesthetic production.

Now, for reasons that are briefly addressed in the forum and discussed at length in the podcast, I cannot reproduce the journal pages here. I can, however, provide a link to the Taylor & Francis publisher's website (see below), where you can either use your preexisting subscription to access electronic copies for free or pay a rather exorbitant fee per essay. Keep in mind, as a publication in an academic journal, I did not receive any remuneration for this essay and will have to pay royalties to legally reprint my own work in any format. That said, if you are interested, I would be happy to "discuss" the forum if you care to contact me by email (jmgray32 at gmail dot com). Ahem!

But really, I recommend The Critical Lede podcast as the better synthesis of the forum and a discussion that might be of interest to those outside of Communication Studies. In this discussion, we actually get to address the exciting possibilities (as well as the drawbacks) of crowdsourcing, public intellectuals, art as inquiry, and the ways new media are changing how we do scholarship, art, and professional/personal relationships. I regularly confront resistance to new media in my work; for me, @Platea has been an excellent outlet to both challenge those hesitations head-on and to move beyond them into the exciting possibilities of artistic practice.

Take a listen and maybe start a conversation in the comments below. Perhaps we can use this moment to prime our creative juices and get a new @Platea project going. It's been a while!

Links:

The Critical Lede, Episode 085 -- Roundtable on the Performative Possibilities of New Media

Text and Performance Quarterly -- TPQ FORUM: The Performative Possibilities of New Media

Liminalities -- This online journal pf Performance Studies is discussed extensively in the podcast. It is open source and free to the public. It's also worth spending a little time with. Enjoy!

Differences & Repetitions Wiki -- A site for open source scholarly writing. This is Ted Striphas's project that rethinks open source scholarly writing and crowdsourcing peer review.

Locked in the Ivory Tower: Why JSTOR Imprisons Academic Research -- Although not a part of the the podcast or forum, this timely and recent The Atlantic article makes quite clear some of the problems we face with accessibility to traditionally published scholarship. Nice, friendly, short background reading on what the big issues are.

@Platea Featured in ARTnews This Month

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:02:00 +0000

An Xiao and Hrag Vartanian Tweet during "The Artist is Kinda Present" (2010) -- photo by Joanie San Chirico

Barbara Pollack has written an excellent article on social media art for ARTnews this month. An Xiao's "The Artist is Kinda Present" is the lead image for the article and the only image included in the online version. @Platea's "Tree-Blogging" project is also discussed.

As I look over the article and consider some of the work we've done with social media art, I am struck by two observations. First, that almost everyone doing this work is simultaneously troubled and enthralled by social media. That is, social media is always already a mixed bag of good and ill. As a result, art and creative expression seems to be a particularly productive way to negotiate those rocky shores. Second, that social media art struggles a bit with pre-existing interpretive frames for making sense of art. At the simplest level, this might be summed up in the (fabricated?) disagreement between An Xiao and Lauren Cornell about whether this work is something new or something we've always been doing. At another level, I think the article features individual works when the "work" is often the interplay between artists and sites of sharing/production. So, for example, I think one of the central tensions in "Tree-Blogging" is whether the art is at the nodes of the emerging tree (so much easier to share in photo documentation) or in the branching relationships between those nodes. Like some kinds of performance art, social media art seems to revel in the ephemeral, in art that exceeds "objectness."

The article is well written and demonstrates the considerable breadth of ways artists are working with social media. There are several provocative quotations from a variety of sources about the purpose and emerging prevalence of social media art. Enough fodder, surely, to start a conversation in a Web 2.0 platform such as this...

Anarchy Tree (2006) -- Photo by Jonathan Gray. One of the "trunk" prompts from "Tree-Blogging"

Sunflower Seed Tributes for Ai Weiwei

noreply@blogger.com (Joanie Gagnon San Chirico) — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:37:00 +0000

It's been over a month since the disappearance of Ai Weiwei, and on this day with the opening of Ai's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads in New York City, it seemed fitting to showcase some of the other "sunflower seed tributes".

@platea member Jonny Gray posted some of his images in a previous post. In addition to Jonny, An Xiao and I have also been posting images and keeping track of the hours lost. The jars are getting full.

An Xiao

May 4, 2011, 8:04am. It's been 744 hours since @aiww and, later four associates disappeared.
An's images to-date can be seen here.

Joanie Gagnon San Chirico
April 26, 2011, 3:04pm NY. It's been 571 hours since @aiww disappeared. More associates now missing.
Joanie's images to-date can be seen here.

Others participating:

André Holthe (@houan)
April 28, 2011, 8:04am. It's been 600 hours since @aiww disappeared, and, later four associates disappeared.
André's images to-date can be seen here.

Laura Vermeeren (@lauravermeeren)
382 Sunflower Seeds, 382 Hours
Laura's images to-date can be seen here.

Maritza Ruiz Kim is keeping track of days on her blog.

A running clock of Mr. Ai's detention has been keeping time at http://happyfan.dmolcn.net/487.html

NYC Mayor Bloomberg stated at the dedication, "Today we stand up for those lacking in the most basic human right: free expression." as reports are coming out of Li Xiongbing, yet another human rights lawyer, having disappeared.

Even with the momentous events of this week, we should not forget. If you are participating in some way, and I've missed you, please add your url to the comments in this post.

The Knitting Vigil by Laura Isaac

noreply@blogger.com (Joanie Gagnon San Chirico) — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Editor's Note: I was writing a post about responses to the prompt to show support for Ai Weiwei by using sunflower seeds. That post is still coming, but when I saw Laura Isaac's powerful new avatar on Twitter depicting her Knitting Vigil, I knew that I had to find out more. I asked Laura for an image and some information and decided that her email warranted being posted in full.

-Joanie Gagnon San Chirico

From Laura Isaac:

"I have always enjoyed Ai Weiwei's work and his Sunflower Seeds (2010) had quickly become one of my favorite works of all time. It's such a powerful and touching statement about individuality and mass consumer culture. I remember watching his interviews and sessions at the Tate during last October and really being afraid for him when he returned home to China. I have met many people who were "detained" by the Chinese government; they were lucky to survive. With Ai's arrest we have the opportunity to get a massive protest going because he is so well known internationally. The trick is to not lose focus and not let up. The Chinese government is good at playing the waiting game and they're hoping we'll forget. We can't forget about Ai, his associates, or the countless others who have "disappeared".

I was really moved when I saw the first Sunflower Seeds Hour Count photo on Twitter. I thought it was a such a beautiful way to peacefully protest. I wanted to participate, but I wanted to mark the hours he's lost in a different way. I wanted to spend time with each sunflower seed. I decided to write a knitting chart. (I've never written one before, since I only started knitting in February for another project.) I stayed up one night, charted out the sunflower seed, and the next afternoon I taught myself to knit the image from YouTube videos.

I decided to post the pattern for free on Ravelry for anyone else who would like to join my knitting vigil. As of this post, the pattern has been downloaded 45 times and there are 23 members of the Ravelry Knitting Vigil Group and more from my website. Members of the group have decided to knit the pattern on squares and send them to Chinese embassies. Others have proposed knitting the sunflower seeds while pacing outside of the embassies. (You have to knit and walk at the same time since it is illegal to "obstruct the flow of traffic" on the sidewalk.) Another member is going to knit it on little cushions and give them to her friends as a way of spreading awareness. I think these are all beautiful ideas. Sending in a knitted protest is powerful. It says, "I have taken a lot of time to tell you that I think what is happening is wrong", but it's also soft and comforting. It's about as non-violent as a protest can get. I would love to see some group "yarn bomb" a public place with sunflower seed squares, and maybe include a "Release Ai Weiwei" sticker.

Meanwhile, knitting a little more on my sunflower seeds each day helps me cope with the idea that the world is not a safe place, that there are people I can't protect, and that time is precious. I sincerely hope that Ai Weiwei and his associates will be released safely very soon, and that they will be able to see how so many people across the globe have made sure that they didn't completely "disappear".

Here is the link to the pattern on Ravelry for free download:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/release-ai-weiwei

Here is the link to the Ravelry Knitting Vigil Group where we'll be posting pictures of our projects and sharing news about aiww: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/release-ai-weiwei---kal "

Laura Isaaac's website is: http://www.lauraisaac.com

Social Media, Protest, and Art: The Case of Ai Weiwei

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:33:00 +0000

"Sunflower Seeds" by Ai Weiwei at the Tate Modern

Many of us at @Platea were stunned by the arrest and detainment of Ai Weiwei in Beijing earlier this month. That Ai Weiwei was taken as part of an ongoing clamp-down on citizens critical of their government only makes it worse. Ai Weiwei embraces the important function of art to comment on culture and sees the potential for social media not only to make art but as significant activists' tools.

"Study in Perspective" (1995) by Ai Weiwei (via Artobserved.com)

His critique of the Chinese government is pointed, especially when holding bureaucrats responsible for cutting corners in public construction in Sichuan Province where an earthquake in 2008 resulted in the deaths of at least 5335 children. This critique has found expression in interviews, installations, video, street protests, and postings on social media. He has suffered grievous abuse at the hands of the Chinese police before, but his voice still rises in the name of social justice.

I could say more, but there are plenty of sites to find information about his work and his arrest. Try here, here, here, and here, for example.

257 Hours. Photo by Jonny Gray

What interests me and seems relevant to @Platea is an emerging social media protest concerning his continued detainment. It doesn't have a name. It doesn't have a central organizing body. It's not my idea. It is not a project that is sponsored by @Platea. Rather, it is the kind of organic eruption of solidarity with artists and activists that is, potentially, at the core of social networking. Around the world, artists and activists are marking the hours of Ai Weiwei's disappearance at the hands of the state by filling jars or other containers with sunflower seeds. Periodically, these artists post pictures of the jar with a count of the seeds/hours to Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc. accounts.

Porcelain sunflower seed via Pascale Petit's Blog.

Using sunflower seeds in this protest is a direct reference to Ai Weiwei's recent installation at the Tate Modern gallery in London. Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of individually crafted porcelain sunflower seeds produced in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Consider it, in part, a commentary on the relationship between unique individuals and the masses.

And so, the sunflower seed becomes a potent symbol for protesting the disappearance of Ai Weiwei. Marking his hours of detainment with seeds via social media demonstrates the power of a networked mass to defend the rights of individual freedom, to speak in support of human rights and social justice for all. It is important to note that these seizures and detainments are happening all over China, that Ai Weiwei is not alone.

281 Hours. Photo by Jonny Gray.

So, if there are folks following @Platea concerned about the plight of Chinese freedom activists and Ai Weiwei in particular, I invite you to join the collective in defense of outspoken individuals. Collect sunflower seeds in a jar or other container of your choosing. Collect as many as there have been hours since Ai Weiwei's detainment (he was seized at 8:04 am April 3, local time Beijing). Post a picture of your seeds to whatever social media account you use most often. If posting to Twitter, include the hashtags #aiww or #aiweiwei.

China is a growing world leader with significant cultural and economic power. But with great power comes not only great responsibility but also accountability. Ai Weiwei is not on trial; China is.

Branches, Rhizomes and Roots: Project VIII Tree-Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Joanie Gagnon San Chirico) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:12:00 +0000

Trees grow and change. Forests can be safe havens; meditative environments for visitors to contemplate the patterns of leaves. Forests can be menacing and frightening. Trees have historically held symbolic meaning since the beginning of time. We use the word tree as metaphor. Trees are omni-present.

The trees that grew in this project created allegorical images of environmental consciousness, references to gun violence, and thoughts of sadness and loss.

Project VIII, Jonny Gray's concept of Tree-Blogging, broke new ground for @platea by creating a mash-up of work ranging from text, images, video, sound, installation and more. It also included a visual map documenting the performance both as it happened and after the final day. Previously, our performances have concentrated on primarily one type of media; for instance, "Hopes, Dreams, Fears" featured text and "Co-Modify" relied on photos.

From Jonny's original prompts the tree branched out, slowly at first, with a flurry of additions in the last days. Most of the content stayed consistent with the tree theme, yet when I saw Jonny's "Gradient Trees" prompt, I only saw blood vessels and veins. The Tucson shootings had occurred two days earlier and I had seen diagrams of brains used by gowned surgeons who demonstrated the small survival odds of taking a bullet to the head.

From here, many of our performers morphed this image to make it their own. Here is a small sampling:

Nina Melandandri's eerie painting incorporating the brain-tree image can be seen on her tumblr.

Jonny Gray wrote a beautiful and touching poem in response:

I must not argue with her,
I tell myself.
Just listen,
Be present,
Tell the truth.

She is losing so much:
Not just the car
And the independence it represents,
But the ability to read,
To connect,
To recognize.

The gaps of memory,
Fill in with stories
And fears
Leading to "spells"
Of paranoia

Impossible things
Seem possible to her,
Or at least seem preferred alternatives
To the missing
Time
Checkbook
Faces
Medicine
Money
Words
Life.

I do not argue with her,
Evidence being too fluid
When experience cannot be shared.
She forgets reasons
But not the slights
Nestled deep
In the family tree.
They are her only weapons
Fighting a family
Fulfilling her fears.

I want to tap that fire,
Turn it away from dread
and focus it on creation.
Lose inhibition, Ma,
Lose the internalized editor,
The constant critic,
The doubt and the depression.
Lose anxiety;
Let go of concern.
Lose the illusions of identity
and embrace the you that remains.

But she cannot choose
the gaps.
And I cannot fathom
her suffering
despite my listening and
commitment to empathy.
This is a truth
I cannot argue with her.

There were many more mixtures using the brain-tree and all can be seen on the final image of the tree map.

A tree is never still, it grows without our seeing it, and it moves in the wind. It was fascinating to check the blog to see how the tree had grown overnight, seemingly by magic. Of course, the magic was easily explained, Jonny had posted the day's additions late at night and revealed them every morning.

One such discovery was the haunting melody created by Salt Theory (Craig Gingrich) using software which created a midi file based on processing the Anarchy Tree prompt, adding his own original score, and lastly, including the woodpecker sound prompt. You can listen to "Last Word to the Bird" here.

Maritza Ruiz Kim used the John Muir prompt since she lives near Muir Woods north of San Francisco. Incorporating the "A Walk in the Woods" video prompt, photographs, wood vellum, song lyrics and text, she created an installation which was wracked with unexpected side trips. Visit her blog to see Maritza's entire transformation of the original prompts.

As always with @platea performances, the unexpected relationships that form during the projects are what make them so interesting. Sound morphed with imagery, installation was added to text prompts. On the last day, an anonymous artist named Bread Crumb posted one of the prompt images in various locations around New York City (at least it appears to be NYC). It could be any large city, thus bringing the forest to the streets.

All 16 of Bread Crumb's image links can be seen on the final tree-map.

Trees have traditionally been used as symbols of life. Roots grow into the ground while branches grow into the sky. The @platea tree developed similarly in all directions creating an existence of its own.

Project VIII: Tree-Blogging, Final Map

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 11:58:00 +0000

And so we come to the end of our mapping of the Tree-Blog. It grew quite a bit over the week, with several branches moving away from the tree theme (although that arboreal presence was never far behind). The tree, of course, could keep growing even though our attempts to map it have come to an end. Of course, even if inspirations aren't marked by links, those roots and branches have a way of working through our creative minds.

As always, if I missed any work that came in before the end of yesterday or any of the links in the map below are broken, let me know. And please, feel free to share comments below about your experience with the tree.

TB Map Day 5

Tree-Blogging Map -- Day Four

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:38:00 +0000

Interesting growth with new challenges for the cartographer! For example, it took me a while to figure out how to create a link for a specific tweet with "New Twitter," but I eventually figured it out.

There's been some uncertainty about where to post links. When in doubt, post a link where you think it is appropriate. In your own post, post link(s) to the material(s) that inspired you. But also post a link to your work at the locations on the internet where that inspiration resides. It also helps to post a Tweet if you use Twitter with a link to your work and the # "treeblog" and/or "treeblogging." Redundancy of links is not a problems if it helps us find your work. It also helps me (with the less obvious reworkings) to figure out how you are placing your work in the tree.

I think I caught up with yesterday's activity and the Wednesday posts that I missed. Still, if you see errors in the map, let me know.

TB Map Day 4

Tree-Blogging Map -- Day Three

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:50:00 +0000

Quite the growth on the tree. And quite a few discoveries.

For example, Tumblr which thrives on the concept of "reblogging" makes it notoriously difficult to comment on posts or indicate links forward. You can embed "click-through links," but unless you enable a third party discussion application (e.g. Ask, Disqus, etc.) on your Tumblr blog, posting a link forward is difficult. It helps if you link your Tumblr blog to Twitter and use the #treeblog in the caption or early in the post.

In general, Twitter (with the #treeblog or #treeblogging hashtag) is a good blog promotion tool and back-up announcement for new contributions. That said, this morning my Twitter searches keep timing out. So. I may have missed some work posted last night to or through Twitter.

All of which to say, the tree may be growing in ways not immediately visible. That happens, right? If I've missed a branch or root, please let me know.

TB Map Day 3

Tree-Blogging Map, Day Two

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:07:00 +0000

Below is the interactive map of Day Two. We've got an interesting secondary trunk forming around Joanie San Chirico's "brain branch" image. If I've missed anything, let me know. As the branches proliferate, keeping track of additions becomes more challenging.

Remember, if you are posting work primarily through Twitter, please use the #treeblog hashtag. Do your best to provide links forward and links back -- the link forward should be to your specific treeblog post and not just to your blog, Tumblr account, etc. No worries, though, as I tend to catch and correct these when making the map.

Have a great Day Three of treeblogging!

TB Map Day 2

Tree-Blogging Map -- Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:57:00 +0000

Okay, here it is. If the embed is glitchy, follow the link to my Scribd account where you can view the PDF file. Each node should be an active hyperlink, so just click on it to go immediately to the content. And of course, if I missed any content, let me know so I can add it in to tomorrow's map.

TB Map Day 1 pdf

Project VIII: Tree-Blogging. The Trunk

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Use this material to begin branching out. While the trunk material has a "tree and nature" theme, your work need not.

Sound:

68391 Ohrwurm Chainsaw Tree cases by Bungy32

[Copyright free, Creative Commons sound file. WAVE version and attribution information available here. MP3 download available here.]

65883 Benboncan Woodpeckers Pecking 2 by Bungy32

[Copyright free, Creative Commons sound file. WAVE version and attribution information available here. MP3 download available here.]

Images:

Text:

The Remix Tree

When you add a sample which is a remix of another sample, it will appear in this tree...Remixed samples appear as branches in the tree. (The Freesound Project)

"The Big Trees"

So far as I am able to see at present only fire and the ax threaten the existence of these noblest of God's trees. In Nature's keeping they are safe, but through the agency of man destruction is making rapid progress, while in the work of protection only a good beginning has been made. (John Muir, The Yosemite, 1914)

Video:

A Walk in the Woods from Jonny Gray on Vimeo.

[Download this video here. The download link is on the right, close to the bottom of the page under the heading "About This Video."]

Project VIII: Tree-Blogging -- A Brief Reminder on the Protocol

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:45:00 +0000

I will be posting the "trunk" material this evening at approximately 00:00:00 GMT. Use this material to begin making your own work on whatever sites of your choosing. There are no rules about how you use this material (from a spur for your own entirely original work to material that you collage/remix); we look forward to seeing how the ideas in the trunk branch out in different conceptual directions.

As a quick reminder, here is what you need to do/have to participate in the "Tree-Blogging" project:

Your “original” art in response to either the @Platea prompting material or art produced in the course of this project. The art can be in whatever form you can share on-line (text, image, video, sound, etc.). Create as many different works as you like.
A place (or places) to post your work: a microblog account, an image or video sharing account, a social networking account, and/or a blog. With the exception of microblogs (e.g. Twitter), this site should have a comments section so people can leave links-forward.
Link-Back. The ability to indicate with URLs or active hyperlinks where you got your inspiration(s) or material(s) you are sampling. In Twitter or other microblogs, you can either include a shortened URL or use the “reply” function.
Link-Forward. Be sure to leave a link to your work in the comments section of the site(s) where you found the material you are sampling. If you are using material shared in a Tweet or other microblog, you can use the “reply” function to Tweet your work.

Note: BOTH Link-Backs and Link-Forwards are important. Viewers and participants should be able to trace back or trace forward in the network of mutually inspired works.

Event Dates: Monday, January 10 to Friday, January 14. (The end date is when @Platea will stop mapping the project; of course, there is nothing stopping anyone from continuing to grow this tree if they so choose.)

@Pla-TREE-a: A Brief Meditation on Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:38:00 +0000

In anticipation of Monday's kick-off of "Project VIII: Treeblogging," I thought I would take this opportunity to stir the creative juices by contemplating the tree as a guiding metaphor for human interaction, from the digital to the spiritual. There is something about a tree's form that offers a primordial organizing principle, whether for files or for the universe. And somewhere in all those branches and roots is a palpable metaphor for social networks, as well.

Image courtesy Ancestry.com

My father, in his retirement, has taken up genealogy as a hobby. It is a recent passion for him and one sparked, I believe, by constant advertising from Ancestry.com. The map he is making of our ancestry, of course, is called a "family tree." Certainly, those concerned with pedigree have been making these sorts of diagrams for centuries, but what interests me about my father's new-found hobby is the role that social networking plays in filling out the tree. Ancestry.com takes this process of family tree mapping on-line, recognizing that family trees intertwine and that sharing information is required to make that family tree bloom. And so, the company helps my father connect with other users who may share hints for building our family trees and finding these connections. In this case, the connections in the social network are less "immediate friends" and (potentially) more "distant relatives."

Image courtesy of Mind42.com

Determining your ancestry isn't the only place that tree diagrams show up on-line. I have been fascinated with the proliferation of on-line mind-mapping and brainstorming sites that encourage a structured free-association to creatively process ideas (see the sites on this list, for example). The predominant image in most of these sites is the tree, a core idea with a series of branching ideas developing out from the center. These sites (or their software) encourage a kind of visual thinking with (often) the tree as the central metaphor.

Image courtesy of Time-Management-Guide.com

Similarly, time-management sites and advice for management in general offer "decision tree" graphics that provide organized ways of processing, well, processes to arrive at an optimal outcome. Modeled off of flow charts and process diagrams, these decision tree maps feature that familiar arborescent metaphor -- the tree with its trunk and branches leading to the most fruitful decision.

And all of this arboreal imagery can be found much closer to home on your own hard drive where your directories are nested in the organized pattern of a "directory tree." Consider the C: drive the trunk and branching out from there user files and administrative files and program files and document files and so on. Some of us are better than others at keeping those directories neatly "pruned," so to speak, and organized like a good topiary. As the information on our ever-growing hard drives increases, we recognize the benefits of a carefully managed orchard over getting lost in a wild and unruly forest of tangled information.

"The Ash Yggdrasil" by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine

So, yes. The tree as organizational tool and metaphor has a palpable presence in our digital lives. But it also resonates in our collective unconscious as a powerful archetype of creation. The Buddha sits under the Bodhi Tree to achieve supreme enlightenment. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is the world tree and holds all creation. In the Kaballah, the Tree of Life is a map for the structure and creation of the universe. And then of course poor Adam and Eve transgress in eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, defying the ultimate information gatekeeper. The sacred groves, the Druids' oak, the Yule evergreen, the Lakota Sundance from the sacred Cottonwood, and so forth -- trees proliferate in human metaphysics.

From Monday (1/10) to Friday (1/14), then, we encourage you to join @Platea in both the very mundane and very archetypal practice of growing a conceptual tree together. In doing so, we embrace the collaborative process of creation, the organic structures of connection and innovation, and the fruits of such individual and collective labor. Follow this simple protocol to include your blog(s) (or whatever other on-line groves in which you practice your art) in "Project VIII: Treeblogging."

"A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots, whose flower and fruitage is the world." Ralph Waldo Emerson ("History," Essays: First Series, 1841)

@ Platea Project VIII: Tree-Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:30:00 +0000

On Twitter we “retweet.” On Tumblr we “reblog.” On YouTube, videos go “viral” and are often “embedded” into other sites. On Facebook, we “share” others’ words, images, and links. In these ways, discrete works circulate and spread, pushing roots and branches across the Internet.

We also sometimes “remix.” We create mash-ups and digital collages. We rework others’ works into something of our own and share it, knowing that it too may be reworked by someone else. In this way, our creative expressions spur other creative expressions and grow organically, like a tangled hedge, like a tree, like a forest.

For this @Platea project, we plan to investigate the intangible tangibles of connections between art works. We encourage participants to make work out of each other’s work and to create links between sites where these works are shared. We hope to grow a conceptual art tree through reblogging, to fill its branches with the music of retweets, albeit reworked more than simply repeated.

Procedure:

On January 10, we will post some prompting material (sound file, image, text, etc.) to this web site as a trunk. Participants can use this material to branch out and make their own art on their blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, etc. As the event proceeds, participants can also use the material produced by other participants. Post a link-forward to your work in the comments section of the participating site(s) where you borrowed inspiration material. In posting your work at your site, include a link-back to the inspiration material.

With the obvious exception of Twitter (or other microblogging sites), where you post your work should include a comments section, preferably one that allows active hyperlinks. This will allow any folks who use your work to post a link-forward to their re-working. In Twitter (and similar microblogging sites), the reply function will be the best way of indicating link-forward, although a shortened URL could be included in the Tweet for a link-back.

If you are planning to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Ravelry, or other restricted social networking sites, you can include information for joining your network in the comments below. Or, if you prefer, you can allow branches/roots to cross into your private domain and disappear from public view. This happens all the time with real trees, right?

Your work can be in any media that you can share on-line: text-based, image, video, sound, or any combination of these. How you “sample” the inspiration materials or others’ works is completely up to you, from mash-ups to meditations. If you take the branch/root in a puzzling “new” direction, that is great!

Documentation:

To the best of our ability, we will attempt to map the growing network of linked works. Our plan is to produce an interactive map that will allow users to link directly to the work being produced while also demonstrating the connections between works. As with all cartography, we expect some discrepancies between the map and the territory.

Event Dates: Monday, January 10 to Friday, January 14.

Following up: Sorry We Couldn't Be There!

noreply@blogger.com (An Xiao) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:55:00 +0000

Couldn't go to Miami? Neither could we. After an open call for video submissions, we received 16 videos from around the world from artists who couldn't attend Art Basel Miami Beach (and two who could but still wanted to join us!). The video was screened at SEVENMiami in the Winkleman Gallery space, as part of Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida's #rank.

We received a very positive response to this piece, and it was definitely one of my favorites. I had drinks recently with Christi Nielsen, and we talked about the power of video, how it really puts a face to the names we've been tweeting with all this time. The art "world" is much larger and more geographically diverse than the major art centers, and hopefully this video was successful in bringing that out.

Many thanks to all our amazing performers!

Project VII: Sorry I Couldn't Be There

noreply@blogger.com (An Xiao) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:21:00 +0000

Image courtesy mbshane on Flickr

Love art? We do. Always wanted to go to the Miami art fairs? We have, too. Can't go, though? Yeah, us too.

This month, Miami is once again opening its doors for the contemporary art world to swoop in and look at, discuss and purchase art. Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida, organizers of the very popular #class earlier this year, are organizing yet another event to critique and comment on the nature of the contemporary art world. #rank, situated in the Winkleman Gallery's SEVEN Miami booth, will feature a host of events, including one with @Platea's own Joanie San Chirico.

Image courtesy Cameron Bennett on Flickr

But what about those who can't attend? @Platea has an answer for you all! Attend virtually through video. Here's the scoop:

* Interested? Sign up below so we can get a general sense of who's participating.

* Record a 5-10 second video of yourself saying: - Hi, my name is______ . I live in______. Sorry I couldn't come to Miami. I had to_________

- eg: "Hi, my name is An Xiao. I live in Los Angeles. Sorry I couldn't come to Miami. It's way over there, and I'm way over here, and... you know."

* Then send me (thatwaszen@gmail.com) the video file via YouSendIt.com or vimeo.com (preferred), ensuring it's no larger than 20 MB. The format I would prefer would be .mov or .mp4, but I can accept other formats.

* I'll then line up the videos into one giant video and place it on Vimeo and send to the #rank organizers. The video will play on loop throughout the course of the Miami show.

* Send your video to thatwaszen@gmail.com (no attachments please!) by Saturday, November 20. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Ultimately, the video will highlight concerns around geographic access and about who's left out during these large art fairs. For too long, the influential art centers have been located in major metropolitan regions such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, London, Beijing and Seoul. We want to highlight the parts of the world where artists are working.

http://www.hashtagclass.com/rank/sorry-i-couldnt-be-there-by-platea/

#FlatAnvatar's Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Joanie Gagnon San Chirico) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:28:00 +0000

Here's a compilation of the trek that #FlatAnvatar made going from NYC to LA. Map courtesy of @platea member Christi Nielsen.

The Adventures of #FlatAnvatar

noreply@blogger.com (Joanie Gagnon San Chirico) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:41:00 +0000

@Platea's founder, An Xiao is embarking on a new adventure. She's moving from New York to Los Angeles where she'll be attending Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in the fall. To ease her transition from East to West Coast, the members of the group concocted a fun performance showing #FlatAnvatar on her very roundabout travels across the country with some unexpected side trips. So far, Flat An has been to places in England, Rome, Paris, and all over the US.

Here are a few photos of her stops so far:

Flat An started out on the High Line in New York City.

Here's Flat An in a poppy field in Sussex, England.

Flat An was seen hitchhiking in Adirondack State Park, in Upstate NY.

Flat An waiting to get a tour of the Louvre, Paris, France.

There's no telling where Flat An will pop up next, so stay tuned. You can follow her travels either by using the hashtag #FlatAnvatar on Twitter, or on the @Platea flickr page.

Mrs Miniver and the #Plateaknits by Ingrid Murnane

noreply@blogger.com (IngridMurnane) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:21:00 +0000

No, it's not a new band...

: Friendsocks © Giles Babbidge Photography.

Remember #plateaknit? Remember that I said that I would knit a full-instruction scarf from the archive of #plateaknit tweets?

Well, I did. Then I was asked to exhibit it and the other items which I'd made too.

I currently have an exhibition on at Prick Your Finger which is a brilliant and quirky yarn and haberdashery shop in Bethnal Green in London.

I'm showing both the Mrs Miniver series of socks which talk about relationships between people, and also the final pieces from the #plateaknit performance in January.

: Setting up the Plateaknits © Giles Babbidge Photography

I went up to London last Wednesday to put the show up with lots of help from Giles who was also kind enough to document it all for me. Rachael and Louise and their shop staff were lovely and made us very welcome with cups of tea throughout the day and put on a great private view in the evening.

: Mrs Miniver and the Plateaknits © Giles Babbidge Photography

The exhibition is on for the rest of April, with the #plateaknits in the window, so if you are in London, please do visit and let me know what you think.

As always, you can follow @platea on Twitter and Facebook and take part in discussions on Ravelry too. Check back on the blog soon for details of our coming performances!

PS My lovely chap, Giles took all of the photographs for me. Please do visit his blog here.

participant view, by Nikki

noreply@blogger.com (JuzNik) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:12:00 +0000

My participation in #plateaknit has made me think specifically about a few key things, but not limited to; nostalgia, stratification, interpretation and networking/collaboration.

Nostalgia: I come from a large family of knitters however don’t knit myself. It was something I always wanted to do as a kid; but as the only left-handed person in a whole family of right-handed people; as you can imagine the attempted teaching/learning became a source of frustration for all concerned. We used to all congregate at my Grandparents house on the weekends and there didn’t seem to be a weekend in my formative years that brightly coloured yarns - with symbolic tin cans - didn’t connect us all in some form. It seemed to me that the ability to make something from wool was akin to a rite of passage in our family and I would experiment with other ways of forming yarn into objects so as not to miss out on the experience altogether. I still think of knitting as quite mystical yet at the same time social and have fond memories of garments and toys that were created during that time.

I also feel that the resurgent interest in handcrafted items (I include knitting in this broad category) is partially driven by nostalgia. Many environmental (and also in some part economic) concerns have driven me personally to seek alternatives to mass-produced items, preferring to opt for something a little more unique, or thoughtful, when considering gift options.

Stratification: I’m interested in archaeological matrices and their formation through palimpsests of data, which bears an interesting correlation (I feel) to a crowd sourced knitting pattern. As assemblages of cultural and environmental information stratify in an archaeological record you could perhaps view this as mega-tweets of social instruction/trends overlapping each other as displayed in some of the pics of #plateaknit pieces on the @Platea Flickr pool. I hadn't really considered the application of archaeological process to an artistic endeavor before, but its certainly something I'll give a bit more thought to on the back of this project.

Interpretation: I was fascinated to watch how the reader interpreted the data presented to them and translated it to fit within their working model, particularly when both literal and metaphorical instructions were provided. All the makers involved in this project produced very distinct pieces from basically the same instructions. But then, I do still have a childlike awe for knitting viewing it as alchemy!

Networking and collaboration: With so many social networking sites opening up greater avenues for exploring many crafts/arts/hobbies it only takes minutes to find a community of people from all over the world happy to share their knowledge with the uninitiated or those rediscovering a forgotten passion. With this too comes an increase in collaborative ventures that, I feel, strengthens not only our relationships with each other but gives us a greater visualisation for what we can achieve as individuals. For example, through the work of the collaborators on this project – and in deed a great many friends whom I see (in person) regularly - I’ve been inspired to have another shot at knitting!

(apologies for the lack of pictures with this text)

#plateaknit: the aftermath! by Ingrid Murnane

noreply@blogger.com (IngridMurnane) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:50:00 +0000

#Plateaknit Wristwarmers by Ingrid Murnane

Well, it has been a month since #plateaknit took place and I'm only now feeling able to wrap it up. I must admit to having had total knitting burnout, not to mention writer's block over the project. Five intensive days of knitting, knitting, knitting for hours took the fun out of it, to be honest. But eventually, as with all things, it worked itself out and here I am again.

If you missed it at the time, or if you would like to follow the entire performance and knit or make something from the tweets, you can visit the hashtag vault for #plateaknit, archived on twapperkeeper.

From 25th-29th January, @platea's Project 6, #plateaknit took place. The idea was to perform #plateaknit by crowdsourcing knitting instructions and make up designs via the Twitter hashtag #plateaknit. There were two types of participants in #plateaknit: instructors and makers. @Platea asked the instructors to use the hashtag #plateaknit when they gave the makers abbreviated knitting instructions in a tweet. These were be picked up by the makers and incorporated into the piece they were knitting, or making in some other way. Although we primarily made use knitting abbreviations, it was important that makers used whatever media they liked to interpret and perform.

That is all very well on paper, but how did it work in practice?

I performed #plateaknit as both an instructor and a maker. The project gave myself and others the freedom to instruct in uncommon ways and without necessarily knowing how others would interpret it or indeed if they would at all. Due to none of us knowing how the finished items would turn out, the conventional order of succession of the pattern, and even the usual abbreviations within the language of a knitting pattern were suspended. Several things stood out from the volley of instructions given across Twitter. As well as the conventional knitting recipes tweeted, there were instructions which pertained to transient events which even now are no longer current and that may in the future defy easy explaination or interpetation. The two main examples were Apple's launching the iPad and the UK's Iraq Inquiry. These gave rise to tweets such as:

#plateaknit INSTRUCTION wrap & turn (a short row) when anyone in your twitter stream mentions #Blair #IraqInquiry (@brendadada)

and

#plateaknit kfb every time someone tweets about the Apple tablet (@thatwaszen)

Detail of #plateaknit project by Ingrid Murnane

The temporal nature of the project came out again in the use by @InnBrooklyn of instructions to be interpreted first via morse code and then knitting. Knitting into your hat what you had for lunch on a given day will change whenever you knit this, but unlike our interest in Tony Blair's apparant misdoings, lunch remains a constant. There was also the option of ReTweeting an instruction at will, in order to repeat it:

RT @Bungy32: Weave an 8" bit of yarn into the next 9 stitches. Let leftover tails dangle on RS of piece. RT this instr. to repeat. #plateaknit

I felt that the instructions given by those who were not knitters were particularly interesting. Although some did make use of 'conventional' abbreviations, most gave us rather more out-there tweets including @newcurator's 'knitting interlude' the results of which you can see on his site.

Hello #plateaknit crew! For the next row only: close yr eyes & trust yr inner-knitter (@sortingtrolley)

Plateaknit2 by joaniesanchirico. Used under Creative Commons licence.

...and how did all of this translate when making something from it.
As knitters we are used to following a pattern: this was DIFFERENT. Oh yes. In being a maker, I dipped in and out of the feed, as and when I was on twitter. I knitted for about 5-6 hours each of the five days and ended up making two hats, some wrist-warmers and starting a full-instruction scarf too. Initially I had chosen two greens as my base colours and knitted predominently with them. Changing colours when instructed, adding and subtracting stitches and yarns, and interpreting others' instructions as I pleased. I did wonder though, whether my instructions were being influenced by what I was making, rather than the other way around. For instance, I fancied a bit of zing in my hat, so I tweeted an instruction to 'make the next five rows sparkle'. I'm not sure whether that matters or not either.

There were a lot of scarves knitted from the instructions and a long, flat item does lend itself to the instructions rather well: much like a visual print-out.

#plateaknit scarf by itsokadascat. Used under Creative Commons licence.

@_randomthoughts made a great interpretation of the tweets in her drawing, below.

'Hat' by wecome_to_my_own_little_piece_of_heaven. Used under Creative Commons licence.

I think that Christi Nielsen summed up the project best of all when she described her #plateaknitting as 'a roadmap, of sorts, of your tweets the last few days'.

@plateaknit by Christi_Nielsen. Used under Creative Commons licence

You can see more of our #plateaknits in the Flickr group pool.

I'd like to extend my thanks to all participants in #plateaknit, both instructors and makers, and say a big thanks you to An Xiao for letting me be the first resident for @Platea Project Space.

#Plateaknit Performers, by Ingrid Murnane

noreply@blogger.com (IngridMurnane) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:37:00 +0000

Magic Loop by InnyNaney on Flickr

In order to get the best out of an @platea performance, each performer needs to follow the others. This is especially important in #plateaknit for getting your instructions as a maker and also for seeing what the makers are doing with the instructions.

Below are the performers so far, and it isn't too late to sign up now: we will add you into the list and make announcements of new performers via the @platea Twitter feed as we go along (so be sure to follow us too!).

The Performers

Brooklynne: Instructor: @grrlshapedyarns

CassieLouise: Instructor: @CassieLouise

Ingrid Murnane: Instructor and Maker: @InnyM

Jonny: Instructor and Maker: @bungy32

Yael David: Maker: @yberryfurrealz

Brenda: Maker and possibly Instructor: @brendadada

Dawn: Maker: @dlad2002

Joanie San Chirico: Maker: @joanie_s_c

Betsy Mitchell Henning: Maker: @FunkyFatGirl

D: Instructor: @sortingtrolley

Jim: Maker: @RaggedJ

Neene: Maker: @_randomthoughts

Talia: Instructor: @innbrooklyn

Amy: Instructor: @plainsight

An Xiao: Instructor: @thatwaszen

Lisa Risager: Maker: @risager

Glenda Greenhouse: Instructor: @G_Greenhouse

Elseline: Maker: @ElselineT

NewCurator: Instructor: @NewCurator

Aaron Chen: Instructor: @clockity

Christi Nielsen: Instructor and Maker: @christinielsen

Runfox: Instructor: @Runefox

Amy Barnes: Maker: @dr_amyjaneb

Ideas for #plateaknit Instructions and How to Use Them, by Ingrid Murnane

noreply@blogger.com (IngridMurnane) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:12:00 +0000

In a follow up to my last post, here are some basic knitting abbreviations and an explaination of how to use them. There are also some other instructor/maker ideas to help you in #plateaknit.

Basics

K = knit

P = purl

These are the two basic stitches. Tell us how many stitches you’d like us to knit or purl like this: k15 or p4.

You can also make a set of instructions as follows: k2, p6, k2, p6, k to end of row.

You can specify the number of rows that we need to knit like this for as well, by adding (for three rows) or suchlike.

If you’d like something repeated, do it following a formula something like this: (k2, p3) 5 times

You can do more than just get us to make patterns with the knit and purl stitches. You can ask us to increase or decrease the amount of stitches in a number of ways, make eyelet holes, ask us to change colours, turn the knitting round and go the other direction or make a buttonhole.

Increase stitches

m1 = make one by picking up and knitting a stitch between two other stitches

kfb = knit front and back

yo = yarn over

yf = yarn forward

Decrease stitches

k2tog = knit two stitches together

p2tog = purl two stitches together

ssk = slip two stitches knitwise, transfer them back and knit them together

Other things to do

Eyelets: yo k2tog = makes an eyelet

Buttonholes: specify the number of stitches width eg: bh5

Change direction: as it says, turn the knitting and work back the other way (as in short row shaping)

Change colours: to make stripes or coloured patterns

Change needle sizes (to larger or smaller ones)

There are many more things you can do in knitting than just these, but these basics should help both the instructors and makers in the performance.

Knitting by InnyNaney on Flickr.

Here are some great examples of ways that you could incorporate knitting instructions into your tweets (with thanks to my fellow Steering Committee member Jonny Gray!)

Tweet01: sl1, k1 *m1, p2, k2tog, p1* (repeat from * three times) k to end #plateaknit

Tweet02: Do two rows in the color you are currently working with then change to something (more) green. #plateaknit

Tweet03: Change one of your needles up three sizes #plateaknit

Tweet04: Add five stitches to your next row in any way of your choosing #plateaknit

Tweet05: Bind (cast) off and start a new piece. #plateaknit

Tweet06: Do the next five rows in a k2, p2 rib. #plateaknit

Tweet07: Over as many rows as you choose, reduce the row to ten stitches wide then expand back to the original number of stitches in the row. #plateaknit

Tweet08: Do a short row of half the number of stitches in your current row. #plateaknit

Tweet09: Weave in a length of packaging twine into part of a row. Leave at least 6 inches of twine dangling on the RS of the piece at both ends of the weave. #plateaknit

Tweet10: Repeat the last instruction five times. #plateaknit

Tweet11: Make it shine! #plateaknit

Of course the makers could also, in the spirit of Lee Meredith’s Game Knitting choose not to use any of the ‘instruction’ tweets as direct instructions and instead do something (for example knit an eyelet or change colours) whenever a particular word such as ‘and’ or ‘row’ is mentioned in a tweet or when somebody talks about food. It really is up to you how off the wall you want to make it! Basically, makers will interpret instructions to the best of their abilites, including (if they choose) interpreting any part of an instruction tweet as additional guides.

Whatever you do with it, however simple or complicated you want to make it, just have fun!

PlateaKnit -- Thinking about Knitworks

noreply@blogger.com (Jonny Gray) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:08:00 +0000

About five years ago, as the result of an inspired if chancy Christmas gift from my partner, I learned how to knit. After three days of cussing at yarn and needles, I finally taught myself the basics. From there, my learning curve was steep. More than just an avocational distraction, I found knitting (and later crochet) stimulates my thinking about a variety of academic projects as well as my participation in on-line communities. Maybe it's the time involved in meditative looping and counting and maintaining a consistent tension that frees the mind to wander and make associations; maybe there's something deeply metaphysical about careful and planned manipulation of strand into fabric into garment.

So, I was very excited when a member of @Platea proposed a project involving knitting from a crowdsourced pattern generated on Twitter. Ingrid Murnane's project not only intrigues me as a knitter, but also as an artist and academic who spends considerable time thinking about art and communities. Several themes emerge for me as I contemplate the Plateaknit project and the link between knitting and on-line networks. This is by no means an exhaustive list. In fact, as with all performance inquiry, I look forward to our adding to and modifying this list as we engage in the project.

1) Networks/Knitworks -- As a textile craft, knitting (like crochet and weaving) is about creating a material network of fibers in a lattice. The kind of free-form knitting this project prefers (in crochet, sometimes called "scrumbling") is even more like the organic, chaotic networks of folks linked by the internet, (in Network Theory, sometimes called mesh networks). And if the net is still predominantly text-based, it is worth remembering that "text" and "textile" are etymologically linked. (Hey, we don't call it a "web" for nothing!) It is also worth remembering that the computers we use to have this discussion owe their data processing origins, in part, to the textile industry of weaving.

2) DiY Aesthetics -- Performance Studies folks have been talking a lot about this idea lately -- the idea of media and art production done outside traditional institutions and training for such, and often not for any kind of financial gain. The concept borrows a bit from the logic of the potlach and economies of gift-giving. In explaining the DiY aesthetic, my partner (a fellow Performance Studies scholar) and I often reference our knitting and crochet practices: we make scarves and hats for the pleasure of making them and then enjoy giving them away. The joy is a product made by the hand of someone you know and not simply bought or manufactured in institutionalized systems of exchange. In an increasingly globalized culture of consumerism, knitting (among other arts/crafts) at the very least expresses a desire for something other than the mass produced. (Although, admittedly, there is plenty about knitting that supports commodity fetishism -- as a proliferation of specialty stores, expensive yarns, and my colossal fiber cache demonstrate.)

3) Social Knitworking -- If Ravelry.com is any indication (and it is not alone in this), the relatively recent revitalization of knitting has benefited significantly from social networking. Blogs and social networking sites abound for sharing knitting resources and projects. Several folks have even taken advantage of webcams to produce (really helpful!) tutorial videos. This is the sort of hobby/art/craft that seems to thrive in and form non-geographically-bound, interest-based communities.

4) Specialized Codes -- I think the specialized abbreviations of knitting instructions (easily one of the most frustrating aspects of learning to knit) are a lot like the specialized abbreviations used in text messages and character-constrained micro-blogging. Both endure a certain amount of push-back from folks who find such abbreviation alienating and unnecessary. And yet, in both cases, there are similar motivations for the abbreviations. For texting and micro-blogging, character limits and numeric keypads necessitated the organic development of abbreviations. For knitting, abbreviations first showed up in newspapers that limited the column inches available for craft instructions. In both cases, these abbreviations have found their way into discourse less constrained by need for such efficiency.

5) But is it Art? -- Finally, at a time when digital art and social networking performance events still (occasionally) suffer derisive dismissal by established "fine" arts practitioners, knitting offers a practice similarly caught in categorical debates between "craft" and "art." Certainly, there are textile artists who use knitting to make soft sculptures, and for some this leads to a tension between knitting for practical use and knitting for an art object. Nonetheless, it is rare that knitting finds its way into a regular part of the the Fine Arts curriculum. A potentially interesting alchemy occurs when we mix the two forms -- one relatively new, one relatively old, and both viewed with some skepticism by the Keepers of the Canon.

With these thoughts looping back on each other in my mind, I find myself eager for the needles and tweets that will weave this next @Platea project.

(Posted by Jonny Gray, a.k.a. Bungy32. All illustrations in this post created by me.)