You may remember our Robbie Cooper: Immersion exhibition back in 2010, in which photographic portraits shot through the screen captured everyday people as they became immersed in different types of media. Having toured the world with his project and exhibition, Robbie Cooper is looking to take it to the next level.
Robbie says:
“Since 2008 I’ve been working on a project called Immersion, where we record people through-the-screen as they respond to media such as videogames, TV shows, children’s cartoons, movies, porn, horror, music videos, sports, comedy; all the various types of media that we receive and interact with through screens.
“The aim is to build up a portrait series that begins with babies and ends with the very old, taking in every type of media content along the way. Screen time takes up an increasingly large part of our lives: babies being born right now arrive in a landscape where computers, smartphones, the internet, and social media already exist, while the oldest generation alive today can remember a time before TV was a fixture of our living rooms.”
Robbie is interested in the potential of large-scale collaboration, and, since we are immersed in screen media for longer periods and with more intensity than ever before, this seemed like the perfect project to open up to anyone who wishes to participate.
The idea is to build a website which enables people to share automatically-collected images of themselves, using their webcams. It will actively promote participation by inviting people to submit calls for content, or respond by sharing content they have created.
Content created (and curated) by the Immersion community will result in installation videos, interactive exhibits, a book and a documentary, with the website itself continuing to exist as an archive once the participation element has come to an end.
Are you interested in the idea of mass collaboration around the concept of media immersion? If so, head over to Kickstarter for more information about the project and how you can support it (closes 31 March 2013).
Here’s an interview we filmed with Robbie back in 2010 for the Immersion exhibition.