Beadgee
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'Beadgee' – net.art project
The book "Three Young Rats and other rhymes"(1) serves as a starting point for this net art piece. The book, accompanied by 85 drawings by Alexander Calder, is a collection of 19th century nursery rhymes. The selection was made by James Johnson Sweeny who wrote in the introduction regarding successful nursery rhymes: "It (the child) relishes the mystery of the clearly-seen but only half-understood. It thinks by image. And it takes mischievous pleasure in contriving out of these images incongruous associations that often have the quality of fresh and startling metaphors."
'Beadgee' includes a library of original new drawings.
The drawings are imaginary gizmos comprised from entangled parts that can be reassembled. Some of the parts (beads) are rigid and some seems to be alive. Each drawing corresponds to one rhyme. The users are invited to choose from the gizmos, explode them, and pick desired beads to comprise a new gizmo. Each bead within the gizmo will be associated with a word from the enclosed rhyme. (See app. A)
As long as the user is in the explode mode the words are being played (or read).
When one selects a part of the exploded drawing, a word, currently on display is attached to this part. The order of the selected beads will dictate the order of the words in the new sentence. Tools like: scale, rotate, clear, move up/down, reorder, blank word, are available in the build mode. Once a new gizmo is created by the user (can involve exploding several original gizmos) he can submit it to the gallery, where any user can follow the narrative that will be built by all participants. The gizmos will tailor a new story and a new visual landscape that will hopefully manage to use the given elements (the rhymes and the gizmos' drawings) to enfold a new story.
'Beadgee' relates to narrative art through a process of dissociation and reassembly. I have been doing these kinds of drawings since I was an art student, but never exhibited them. They are meditative and are finished only when an inner equilibrium is attained. When I juxtapose them with these nursery rhymes (some of which I read and loved as a teenager) accidental layers of meanings are created. When one lets participants explode the drawings and reassemble them in an effort to create a new meaningful sentence from a given set of words and shapes, the net.art piece becomes a vehicle that translate the spirit of absurdity and fantasy into a different form of reading. The gizmos become personal hieroglyphs, private testimonials of the choices and actions users have experienced in the site. The length and breadth of the story that will enfold will be contributed to the effort participants will invest in maneuvering a given set of choices. The link between words in a rhyme and beads in a gizmo is not fixed. A room is left for the user ensuring variant results and freedom of choice.
2004-2005
- at no/copy/right net exhibition by www.no.org.net
- 'Beadgee' received an honourable mention in netarts.org 2005competition - the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Japan
- 'Beadgee' at FILE - Electronic Language International Festival, Sau Paulo, Brasil 1-20/11/05
2003
- 'Beadgee' - net art project, winner of the 'Art of the Narrative' competition held by Impakt - Holand. Participated in Impakt festival 
Link to honorable mention
Link to archive ~ archive-rhizome
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