I love and adore and loathe and abhor the internet. How is it that we can feel so connected to the world and disconnected from ourselves if we’re not careful?
My friend, artist Oliver Warden, has a project on the crowd funding site, Indiegogo, called GLOBALL, which among other things, is trying to reclaim the word SHARE. Globall is participatory art that is both playful and introspective–a meditation on gifting and connectedness that also resembles a game. Globall “combines aspects of performance art, social media, chain letters, mass gift-giving, and something like a Guinness World Record attempt”.
Oliver is sourcing wood from all over the world and making that wood into seven pieces of art — seven wooden balls with pictograms that ask people to share the ball — to give Globall to a very good friend.
If all goes according to plan, the wooden balls will travel around the world while their trajectory is mapped by a website that tracks them and their temporary stewards, online. So the act of sharing a Globall becomes a participatory social network.
“In an interview with the terrific site, ArtInfo, Oliver says, “There is no sense of loss or sacrifice when you share something [online]. You share information, links, pictures, and so on, but you don’t actually forfeit anything. With GLOBALL, I am giving you a unique piece of art… but instead of asking you to keep it and enjoy it, I am asking you to reinsert your own meaning by giving it to a “VERY GOOD FRIEND,” as the instructions say. To fulfill that, you’ll have to ask yourself a deeper question about what “friend” means. I’m asking you to not only give away your GLOBALL but give your friend the gift of giving as well. In doing so, GLOBALL will ask you who you are truly connected to.””
Share globall.