Monday, September 14, 2009

Artist Entry: Jason Sloan

[cloud.s]v1.1

http://cloud-s.net/
What Sloan has done is to take the micro-blogging site Twitter and pull posts with the word 'cloud' on to a webpage as links arranged to take the form of a cloud. The page initially loads as a simple blue gradient similar to a clear sky. Then the text begins to appear in varying size and spacing across the page, stretching it out so you can scroll back through it. But instead of just having the text, each line links directly back to the original tweet it came from.
One of the fascinating aspects of this is that not only is the content generated by internet users, but it gives each and every author credit. In an environment where taking 140 characters or less without giving proper credit is (unfortunately) common practice, this is really pretty neat. It gives the work a much more interactive and explorative nature. Another interesting thing is that in network diagrams the internet is almost always depicted as a cloud. Also, cloud computing is a term that has grown out of our tendency to keep more and more of out documents on the web, so that eventually all we will need is machine with basic hardware and just enough disk space for an operating system.
So I think that this piece is very successful because it is on one hand so simplistic you can't avoid talking about the core of the piece (the internet and blogging), but it is also very complex with its links and the layers of meaning from the name and format. The only thing I can think of that could make this piece more dynamic would be the inclusion of more  blogging and micro blogging sites, but even that may over-crowd the work.

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