Crowdsourced Mini Project

We were given a task, in groups of three to four we needed to produced a crowdsourced project in a week. Including a minimum of 10 participants of people we do not know ourselves. I was in a group with Humyra, Ella and Amber. We were inspired by the works of Penelope Umbrico, especially her pieces around the sunsets from Flickr.

Penelope Umbrico

Suns from Sunsets from Flickr, 2006 - ongoing

"I began the project Suns from Sunsets from Flickr in 2006 when, looking for the most photographed subject, I searched the photo-sharing website Flickr and found “sunsets” to be the most present (tagged) resulting in 541,795 in 2006 hits. I thought it peculiar that the sun, the quintessential giver of life and warmth, constant in our lives, symbol of enlightenment, spirituality, eternity, all things unreachable and ephemeral, omnipotent provider of optimism and vitamin D… and so ubiquitously photographed, is now subsumed to the internet – this warm singular object made multiple in the electronic space of the web, and viewed within the cool light of the screen" -Penelope Umbrico [1]

Sunset Portraits from Sunset Pictures on Flickr, 2010 - ongoing

The images in Sunset Portraits from Sunset Pictures on Flickr are from the same source as the Suns from Sunsets from Flickr. For Sunset Portraits I found images where technology of the camera is exposing for the sun, not the people in front of it, thereby erasing the subjectivity of the individual. I use the entire photograph for this work, thinking of the relationship between the collective and the individual, the individual assertion of ‘I am here’ in the process of taking the photograph, and the lack of individuality that is ultimately expressed, and experienced, when faced with so many assertions that are more or less all the same. - Penelope Umbrico [2]

What inspired us particularly about these pieces is how similar in reality these pictures are. That we all subconsciously take the same photos, with similar angles, framing and composition. Perhaps we take images like this because it's what we're used to seeing on social media as well as in films and tv, or maybe having the sun directly in the middle of the image is more aesthetically pleasing. The similarities shown together in a big collage looks super interesting and beautiful. Therefore we wanted to create almost a homage to Penelope by doing a similar thing, but with fridges.

The Fridge Collective

We decided the use of fridges would be interesting as we all own one so it would be easy for us to receive images. Differently to Penelope Umbrico, we got permission and consent to use all the 35 photos shown below and they were directly sent to us through direct messages on social medias. Some being from us ourselves to kick off the collection and some from complete strangers.

We created an instagram page to showcase all the images we received in a collage style similar to how Penelope shows off her images, but with instagram you are allowed to interact and click on certain images for a closer look. But from the instagram page itself it just looks like a collage which is quite beautiful.

As you can see we got quite a lot of fridges, and it was interesting to see the similarities and differences of these images. For example the majority of these images are framed to also show what was in the door of their fridge as well which is interesting to me as we didn't specify how they should take the photo. Its also fun to look at what is inside peoples fridges, as humans we have a lot of curiosity into peoples lives and fridges can be quite personal. These images can show us what a persons diet is like, what food they enjoy, maybe even how eco friendly they are. However the point of this collection piece is not to judge people in any way, simply to observe and show the beauty of something we don't even think twice about, something that we all use daily.

I really enjoyed doing this mini project as it made me aware of how challenging it can be to try and get random people to assist you in a piece or a collection, as people generally are too busy with their own lives and might see something like this as 'pointless'. It also showed me to definitely keep requirements low when creating a crowdsourced project as, like i said, people will not want to put in a lot of effort without any reward. But regardless i'm pleased with the outcome.

References

1. Penelope Umbrico Suns from Sunsets from Flickr, 2006 - ongoing Blog< http://www.penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/suns-from-sunsets-from-flickr/ >

2. Penelope Umbrico Sunset Portraits from Sunset Pictures on Flickr, 2010 - ongoing Blog < http://www.penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/sunset-portraits/ >