Agora in the Sky
This is a performance concept for Atlanta Celebrates Photography done in collaboration with Mary Stanley & Lisa Thrower.
A series of colorful spheres will be paraded down Peachtree Street, similarly to the aerial floats of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Each sphere will be a helium filled balloon that would be guided by a “team” of strategic art partners who would collaborate on choreographing the spectacle. This collaboration is symbolic of the essential teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration that is necessary to realize BIG art initiatives. The immediate reaction of any casual observer would be to whip out their phones or cameras and snap a photo. These images would then be tagged and uploaded to Facebook and Flickr; resulting video would be added to YouTube, and reactions would be posted on Twitter. Agora in the Sky could get the whole world talking about Atlanta and ACP and a larger audience would actually be participating in the public proliferation of the photo-based work documenting the movement of the huge balloons through the city of Atlanta. This public art initiative could engage all photographers in the city of Atlanta - from the casual camara-phone user to the talented professionals in helicopters like Vincent Laforet who capture amazing aerial videos.
In this project “the people” or “public” will participate and create the art in response to the beautiful spectacle created by these perfect circles floating through the sky in the streets of Atlanta. The enthusiasm that can be generated by this photography frenzy will snowball into an extremely news-worthy event. The parade can culminate in a large public space and the balloons can return to earth for additional community interaction with the spheres where even more unusual photo opportunities could ensue.
Agora in the Sky will be collaborative, interactive and inclusive project engaging the public on many levels from the very simple observer to the most sophisticated art enthusiasts including curators, educators, critics and artists. The photo-based work generated from this happening on the myriad of social networking vehicles will allow Atlanta and ACP to cement its place on the world map as a center for photographic inspiration and excellence.
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Each balloon will be tagged with a GPS transmitter so that their location and movement can be tracked through a dynamic graphical map. This map can both be projected locally, as well as accessed remotely through the web for a truly global spectacle. Live web cams can be set up at key locations to be accessed through the online map, so viewers anywhere in the world can participate, and even take their own screen captures to share their favorite moments. Geotagging of mobile picture uploads through Twitter and other social media outlets can be tagged with realtime balloon location data. The possibility of mobile applications detailing the balloons location would enable anyone in Atlanta with a web-enabled mobile phone to intercept and participate in the parade.
A series of colorful spheres will be paraded down Peachtree Street, similarly to the aerial floats of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Each sphere will be a helium filled balloon that would be guided by a “team” of strategic art partners who would collaborate on choreographing the spectacle. This collaboration is symbolic of the essential teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration that is necessary to realize BIG art initiatives. The immediate reaction of any casual observer would be to whip out their phones or cameras and snap a photo. These images would then be tagged and uploaded to Facebook and Flickr; resulting video would be added to YouTube, and reactions would be posted on Twitter. Agora in the Sky could get the whole world talking about Atlanta and ACP and a larger audience would actually be participating in the public proliferation of the photo-based work documenting the movement of the huge balloons through the city of Atlanta. This public art initiative could engage all photographers in the city of Atlanta - from the casual camara-phone user to the talented professionals in helicopters like Vincent Laforet who capture amazing aerial videos.
In this project “the people” or “public” will participate and create the art in response to the beautiful spectacle created by these perfect circles floating through the sky in the streets of Atlanta. The enthusiasm that can be generated by this photography frenzy will snowball into an extremely news-worthy event. The parade can culminate in a large public space and the balloons can return to earth for additional community interaction with the spheres where even more unusual photo opportunities could ensue.
Agora in the Sky will be collaborative, interactive and inclusive project engaging the public on many levels from the very simple observer to the most sophisticated art enthusiasts including curators, educators, critics and artists. The photo-based work generated from this happening on the myriad of social networking vehicles will allow Atlanta and ACP to cement its place on the world map as a center for photographic inspiration and excellence.
{image 3 Each balloon will be tagged with a GPS transmitter so that their location and movement can be tracked through a dynamic graphical map. This map can both be projected locally, as well as accessed remotely through the web for a truly global spectacle. Live web cams can be set up at key locations to be accessed through the online map, so viewers anywhere in the world can participate, and even take their own screen captures to share their favorite moments. Geotagging of mobile picture uploads through Twitter and other social media outlets can be tagged with realtime balloon location data. The possibility of mobile applications detailing the balloons location would enable anyone in Atlanta with a web-enabled mobile phone to intercept and participate in the parade.