MICHELLE LEE HO WING 李可穎
With the support by <Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018>
The project comprises an Art(ist) Searching Engine (archiveme.art), and an array of affiliated events, encounter, collaboration with art practitioners and publication. The project marks a beginning of a long-term research on the constitution of “archive” in general, and calls the archival governance in public art institutes in question, as well as how the materials are managed in physical repository and online platform.
To manifest that art can be a constructive and subversive form of engaging the notion of archiving, AOP is developing a robust Art(ist) Searching Engine, which
1) facilitates searching scattered artist information on internet;
2) analyses artist website with statistics;
3) engages various art practitioners to collectively constitute the keywords database;
4) allows artists to review searching relevance and revamp the keywords;
5) eventually builds a rhizomatic network that connects institutional online database and artist websites.
The installation is consisted an on-site web station that allows audience to navigate through our search engine, a collection of promotional commercial videos, an encounter with 50 Cents Party, who is a group of notorious mainland web commentator renowned for providing online click rate service, interactive split flip counters that connect to the keyword database on the engine, an art archive kit that explores the boundary of professional/institutional and amateur archiving in art.
Dancing with 50 Cents Party
Single-channel video | color | 8’15” | 16:9 | English and Korean subtitle
A Guide to Archive Me originates from the concern about how artists being archived in both internet and physical repository, in that aims at unearthing the scattered or hidden information about art. Being part of this project, Art(ist) Searching Engine - www.archiveme.art - is built as a platform to connect artists electronically. In order to review internet and search engine as a record system, the platform engages artists in contributing metadata. However, in 50 Cent Party engagement, it is justified that the correlation does not always imply causation. In general, search engine scans content all over World Wide Web and systematically selects the most relevant to certain topics and keywords, this is regarded as algorithm. Akin to archivist to history, algorithm varies on every single search engine, which determines materials that are visible to internet users. In order to reach potential users and deliver the content efficiently, Archive of the People (AOP) expands artists’ online visibility through www.archiveme.art; Art(ist) Searching Engine is otherwise in need to gain a ground in the ocean of internet. Preliminary AOP hired the infamous 50 cent Party to boost our popularity and visibility among conventional search engines.
Art Archive Kit
is for everyone involved in creative process of art-making, including audience, teachers, students, administrative personnel, artists, curators, scholars, etc. The kit introduces how art projects can be organized, archived and eventually being utilized or open for public access.
Aim of the kit:
To demystify archive;
To give a very comprehensive introduction;
To introduce straightforward archiving procedures;
To relate to our research about Archives.
50 cent Party is a colloquial term describing a group or freelance internet commentators. The major reason of engaging 50 Cent Party in this project because its affiliation with Chinese authority on manipulating public opinion and internet surveillance; on the other hand, the party provides services to generate textual content that specifically designed to satisfy search engine algorithm. The major differences between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and 50 Cent Party are the quality of content, and how the content is linked to the website in favour of the algorithm. When the negotiation with multiple 50 Cent Parties continues, we are told that www.archiveme.art is inaccessible, very likely to be blocked by the Great Firewall of China. One 50 Cent Party points out that the first page of the search engine is a blank page. In such case, they can provide very limited service in contributing contents. AOP could have looked for other service providers outside China, but we find the engagement very symbolic. As an upshot of building a rhizomatic network for artists, www.archiveme.art reaches out to various internet users and does not limit to any regions; unfortunately, the search engine is wiped out and becomes invisible.
The existential invisible
Archivists have described the experience of dealing with documents and records as being secluded. The inaccessibility of the island is one of the reasons for being idle. One must pay a visit to the invisible island to envision its uniqueness and existence. Visitors may need guidance to navigate the features and landscapes of the unknown territory, 'Archive of the People' is here for you, paves the path and opens up the entrance to the island.
Rhizomising underneath the floating island. Akin to a mediator or gardener, AOP connects those cramming roots, the islands are therefore enabled to flows, cluster, and elongate by the hauling impact. Collision compels the islands to various directions to encounter other islands.
Open Call Promotional Video Screen Captures
Room 404 is a myth that relates to an office of CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, the European organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland) on the fourth floor, where they placed the World Wide Web’s central database. When a person that requests a file with a wrong name, these faulty requests will be answered with a message ‘404 file not found’. AOP sees ‘Room 404’ as an accessible space with an invisible door