i propose an adaptation of the surrealist technique, cadavre exquis, as a basis from which a methodology to archive collective experience could be developed.
the spirit of uncovering the relation between the individual and the collective through a subjective, unordered method of collecting information which also provides an alternative to traditional archiving methodology, was what in part inspired me to choose the cadavre exquis technique as a basis for the method to be developed.
the aspects of this method which lend itself to archiving collective experience are that it is participatory; it rejects authorship; it questions the 'singular viewpoint'; it contests established norms (of the context that it addresses); and it encourages a certain play with language.
to explain the project briefly: during my train commute, breaking the sacred 'vow of silence', i asked my 'fellow commuters' to kindly write three lines of text on a piece of paper which they would pass on to the next passenger, folded in such a way that the next would only see the last line of what they had written. thereby creating a story, somewhere between fiction and absurdity, reflecting to some extent the thoughts, dreams, banalities and discontents of the passengers on that day.
a blog containing all of the contributions from passengers, sorted by date, can be found here .
there is not a linear storyline, but one story containing many different branches, beginnings and ends. as the passengers on the train writing contributions, getting on and off at different points, with no definite shared start or finish, and as the train tracks themselves branching in and out of each other, the method reflects the context as well as the participants. view diagram [PDF 480Kb]
the presentation of the project is conceived as an installation, featuring the passengers' handwritten contributions, audio recordings of each segment, and video footage (view from the train). the story you will find here is an excerpt from a collaborative effort of more than a hundred passengers traveling the dutch rail system. it shows all components of the eventual installation together for the purpose of viewing from the browser window. view video [MOV 73,2Mb] | tiny version [quicker load]