What qualities must a project have to be part of bigguest?



polylogical - socially relevant - physically strong *

po - observing the telecommunications (artistic) projects presented in recent years it becomes immediately obvious that: many of these projects don't work by way of interactivity, but by 'closed interactivity'. In other words, with a type of interactivity that does not allow the production of a real effect, rather just the arrangement of prescribed effects. In this way it is possible to formulate an initial criterion: bigguest.net wants to expose projects which really are interactive or, better, polylogical (from dia-logical, poly-logical). The individual isn't just engaged in a human-machine relation; they 'give' and 'receive' in a space which produces effects.


so - we observe the same projects in view of their social effects, or in terms of their qualities which have an effect upon the community, i.e. changing it. In this way, we could say that there are very few projects which have an effective presence outside the net. Obviously there are numerous ambitious projects and guide-projects (especially from the US west coast) that use the telecommunications network in the concept of a counter-culture to create an effect of social transformation, but only very few of them place any real importance on concrete problems or social opportunities. There is a sort of technological enthusiasm, by which everything arranges itself, as long as everything has been connected and networked correctly (i.e. 'global awareness'). This is why we want to announce big social game in a special and exemplary way, so as to discover which of its (artistic) projects belong to the 'flux and reflux' to and from the social sector.


phy - Few projects, when they are conceived, take as a fundamental consideration, the notion of creating an effective 'physical passage' between our real world and the 'world of the net'. This is why all the 'primary' projects selected as part of bigguest.net conserve a strong interactive physical presence with consequent effects. This involves the research and development of 'other interfaces' (in quality of 'solitary screens'), like research to find out which are the best packing materials and real platform, to make entry into the net more interesting, tempting and seductive. The bigguest.net projects show a strong physical presence in the metropolitan space, or in urban, social and architectural space.


* Naturally we are clearly aware that we must not constrain these criteria with moral connotations. We don't want to prescribe a methodology for interaction at social level, but rather provide a platform for a wide range of approaches, positions and suggestions.