Thursday 7 January 2010

WEEK 6: Unity Panda




This week we explored the digital from several different angles.




Keir Williams, Chris Poolman and Jonnet Middleton, presented several art projects they have been working on over the past few years. They focused on the 'unity panda' project for which all of three of them are collaborating.




You can read more here:




This is what the organisation refer to as  "Peer panda production - a collaborative knitting event in online and offline communities" identifying a connection between the organisational benefits of the internet and real community projects. The use of bringing people together to be creative through the age old craft of knitting using the present benefits of new technology and communication over the internet units people from different age groups and with different cultural back grounds.  It organises groups of individuals who meet up and knit pandas. The purpose of knitting a panda might be because they are rare endangered species. The unitypanda blog also promotes other knitting groups, which are all aimed at encouraging community activities in public spaces such as galleries, pubs, bars and museums. 


The playful collaborative work of Chris and Keir is engaing by nature through their enjoyment of and through performing comic and misbehaviors body offers, looking to engage with the flip side of the equation: what happens when the body isn't revered, but a site for the comic, ridiculous and compromising. Some of their works is almost reminiscent of Trigger Happy TV or has a similar interactive feel. The internet is used to communicate and almost reflect this and add some much obliged nonsense to the internet in a similar way to that they do do their physical environment.

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