From:
Alberto Gaitán <[email protected]>Peter Laugharn, Executive Director of the Firelight Foundation, has
written me with a request for one or more volunteer artists to create a
cradle-based interactive during the upcoming International AIDS
Conference, taking place in DC in late July. Firelight Foundation
supports about 150 grassroots organizations in Africa helping children
and families affected by AIDS and poverty
The idea is to use canvas++ to create a cradle and project onto it a
word cloud. People attending three conference events would type into the
projecting (OS X) laptop running the word cloud software. They need
someone who can fabricate the canvas cradle (and apparently provide the
canvas/cradle) and install/integrate the word cloud software (also
artist-provided) on a provided Mac hooked up to their projector. The
project would have to be ready for the July 18th & 25th receptions at
the Washington Studio School, and during a private showing July 20th.
If you think you can contribute your craft and time to this worthwhile
project, please email me or contact Peter at
[email protected]. I'm Cc'ing the local, DC,
coordinator, Jessica Carstens, and the foundation's communications
person, Robin Dixon.
Peter writes:
"I would really appreciate your help in identifying an artist who could
create a special type of cradle for us: an "interactive" cradle which
would combine solid and digital material, and allow members of the
public to add their comments and impressions.
"What we're initially thinking of is a simple canvas cradle, with a
large enough expanse of canvas that we could project a word cloud onto
it. At the exhibit, there would be a laptop where visitors could enter a
word or two about their reaction to the exhibit and the issue. We'd use
a word cloud creating software to project those words onto the canvas,
and also use those same word clouds on our website and social media.
"That's the concept. I am not expert in either working with canvas or
with word cloud software, so it's just a broad idea - I'd be happy to
hear their versions of it. If you could point an artist or two my way
who could be interested in working on this, I'd be very happy to talk to
them. Turnaround time is relatively short - the exhibit opens on July 18."