Charlotte Lybeer

About
The Belgique photographer catches the interaction between the virtual world and the ‘real’ world. Inspired by films and games these people dress them selfs up to live in between those worlds of fantasy and reality, to escape the last one. they surround them selfs in a setting, were they dress their selfs up in fluffy costume’s or in a zentai suite. Charlotte catches them on photo in a different setting (in her own houser anonymous hotelroom), to show the contrast between these worlds.

Creator
Charlotte Lybeer

Rules/Restrictions
-Anonymous
-has to wear a suite
-Has to be in an environment that has nothing to do with the costume.

Comments
It gave me an inside look of how this look like. It is a fascinating aspect to escape the world in a costume, some use drugs others use costumes. To catch this idea, of living in a certain way, is very interesting because you do not see this very often on the streets…right?

 

PostSecret

ABOUT

PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Selected secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret’s books or museum exhibits. The site, which started as an experiment on Blogger, was updated every Sunday with 10 new secrets, all of which share a relatively constant style, giving the artists who participate some guidelines on how their secrets should be represented.

CREATOR

The founder of PostSecret is Frank Warren. Warren hosts events at numerous colleges to speak about the many different secrets of today’s society. An art exhibition also travels the country, showcasing many of the hundreds of thousands of secrets he has received. In his book, My Secret, Warren talks about his experiences with encounters with people all around the world who were inspired by the postcards, and how it got many people addressing things that they would otherwise never discuss.

RULES / RESTRICTIONS

The confessions must be written on postcards. No restrictions are made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before. Entries range from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to confessions of secret desires, embarrassing habits, hopes and dreams.

COMMENTS

Whether sharing secrets with an anonymous mass is beneficial to the poster is debatable and depends on the poster itself, of course. But judging by its growth and exhibitions, PostSecret has been succesful in creating relief in some sorts. I don’t know if I would personally ever want to participate in this kind of project, but for those who found benefits in PostSecret: more power to you.

The Mind Art Project

ABOUT

The Mind Art project took 16 handicapped individuals from around China and harnessed their mental prowess and concentration to help them express themselves on canvas. The participants, recruited via social media, first chose the paint colors that they wanted to use. The paint was then poured into balloons that were strapped with small detonators, and the balloons were lowered into an open-air enclosure created by the coming together of four large canvas panels.
The participants were each outfitted with a headset, which used a NeuroSky processing unit to capture electronic signals from the brain and relay them to the balloons. By concentrating intently, the participants triggered the detonations. The exploding balloons then created magnificently abstract paintings, full of color and character.

CREATOR

The project is a collaboration between Chinese artist Jody Xiong and acrylic paint supplier Winsor & Newton, in an attempt to raise awareness of the everyday struggles of the disabled population, while earning recognition and respect for these individuals.

RULES / RESTRICTIONS

The tools are already decided for the participants: four canvases and one or more colours of paint. The only way the participants can express themselves in art is through mind power; however, the results are still very diverse and unique for each participant.

COMMENTS

A wonderful way of raising awareness by letting them create art. The project makes you think about how disabled people need to go around their day – without the project explicitly asking you to. Also a great aspect of the project is that the paintings got exhibited with great success.

Collective Collection

Kate Bingamanburt – Obsessive Consumption

About
Kate is an illustrator/graphic designer who mostly create her own project rather than work for a client. She had a problem with her spending and that got her in dept. To get her out of dept she decided to do a few project. For example she’d draw every bill she got. she hated drawing them so much she would pay them as soon as she could so she didn’t have to draw any more (Kate Brammer did a post about that). Another project that helped her was photographing everything she bought and post it on a blog. All her close friends and family knew about this blog so they could check up on what she bought. She would be ashamed to put anything on that she didn’t really need to buy so she would not buy these things. (it is a bit like a panopticum because you don’t know if anyone is looking at the blog but the thought of your close friends and family being able to look at it makes you aware to not put anything up you are ashamed of (so don’t buy anything you should not buy))

Rules
photograph everything you buy until you’ve payed all your bills and are not in dept anymore
put all the photographs on a blog and give the link to the blog to your friends and family so they can check up on you if you want.

comment
I think it is an interesting project to do. making this collection helped herself getting out of dept and it helped other people as well. Not only her friends and family knew about this blog , but a lot of people she doesn’t know as well. It made people think about their consuming behaviour. So what started out as a personal project ended up helping other people to reconsider the things they were buying.

links
http://katebingamanburt.com/aiga-national-conference

Collective Collections

Media

About
365 dagen declutteren is a project by the dutch illustrator Anne Staal (known as Anne Stalinski). Last year she graduated from the university of Minerva in Groningen. She makes illustration, comics and zines (just like her sister Eva Staal).
For this project Anne Staal decided to clean up her tiny room day by day. She would throw away something everyday and draw it before she’d thrown it out. The series is called 365 dagen declutteren (365 days of throwing away). She posts the works on her facebook and a separate blog.

Rules:
Choose an object in your room that you don’t need anymore and haven’t used for a while.
Draw the object.
Throw the object away
Repeat everyday for 365 days

Comment:
I’m a fan of her work, she make a lot of collections of her illustrations (just like the Heel Holland Bakt series where she’d draw a quote of the show every week and post it on her facebook). She hasn’t posted anything she threw away for 2 months, so that is too bad. She kind of failed a bit on that aspect of the rules.

Links
https://www.facebook.com/AnneStalinskiIllustratie
http://annestalinski.blogspot.nl/
http://annestalinski.blogspot.nl/2015/02/365-dagen-declutteren.html

Kindersurprise-ei

MEDIA

ABOUT
Wereldwijd verzamelen Vier miljoen volwassenen de figuurtjes van het Kindersurprise-ei. Dit chocolade-ei word verhandeld, vervalst en gesmokkeld en wie een zeldzaam exemplaar in handen heeft, doet er goed aan dit in een kluis te bewaren. De marktwaarde van sommige oude speeltjes is inmiddels tot duizend euro per stuk gestegen.

CREATOR

De verzamelaar van het Kindersurprise-ei.

RULES / RESTRICTIONS

Fanatiekelingen verzamelen alle Kindersurprise-ei speeltjes van de serie. de serie is pas compleet als de boekjes er ook bij zitten.

COMMENTS
Ik vind het fascinerend om te zien hoe volwassenen zo vol kunnen zijn van een speeltje wat bedoeld is voor kinderen. Het hele leven en hun totale inkomen van de verzamelaars draait om deze verzameling.

LINKS
http://www.npo.nl/holland-doc/24-03-2008/NPS_1096794