The king has..

Krister Olsson, Takashi Kawashima
2005 Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia - MULTIMEDIA '05  
Synopsis "The King Has..." gives individuals the opportunity to anonymously unburden themselves of secrets they are otherwise unable to divulge over the course of one month. Focused around the 7th Street area of Downtown Los Angeles, the piece encourages individuals to text message their secrets to a central server where they are printed on panels of wood using a slab printer. These panels are mounted as they are printed on the side of a building in a high foot traffic area, creating a growing
more » ... orest of text reflecting the innermost thoughts of individuals in the community. Production Production of the "The King Has..." can be broken down into 5 parts: 1. Scouting an appropriate location for the installation. It is important the site of the installation have high foot traffic and be frequented by members of the surrounding community (i.e., it is not solely a tourist destination). It must be a location where individuals can stop and absorb the content of the piece without extreme distraction. 2. Creating the server infrastructure to receive SMS messages, format the text of those messages, and send the formatted output to a slab printer. 3. Procuring the wood onto which the secrets will be printed and preparing it (via sanding, oiling, etc.), as well as procuring the ink required by the printer. 4. Preparing the installation wall by selecting an appropriate mounting technology that will keep the panels in place over the life of the installation, while at the same time making it easy to mount new panels on a daily basis. 5. Producing fliers with tear-off tabs announcing the project and advertising the phone number to which individuals should SMS their secrets. These fliers should graphically reflect band xeroxes. lost pet fliers, and guitar lesson advertisements commonly stapled to telephone poles. The style of the fliers reflects the project's community focus; fliers will be placed in areas within reasonable walking distance from the installation site. Timeline Scout appropriate installation sites: 1-2 weeks Locate local vendors for materials (wood, installation hardware): 1 week Develop visual aesthetic for installation: 1 month Develop robust system for handling SMS messaging, design, and printing: 2 months Develop strategy for engaging the public (develop flier designs, scout advertising locations, create Web site with privacy policy to assure contributors that they will remain anonymous): 2-3 weeks Procure and prep materials for installation: 1-2 weeks Concept
doi:10.1145/1101149.1101384 dblp:conf/mm/OlssonK05 fatcat:l3bw7d3lqvehth3ouvoe2w6la4