This is Your Life (For Five Bucks)
Concept
A army of artist-cartographers (five or so) are chosen to roam around AGWA at different times in 3 hour shifts within AGWA and the Cultural Centre area nearby. These cartographers offer the public one-to-one “drawings of their life for five bucks”. Cartographic drawers interview audiences one-on-one about their life, take notes and draw a map of their life while interviewing them. The weird hand drawn map of the participant’s life is interpreted by the artist - cartographer. Each drawing will be different and could be seen as "mapped life portraiture”.
Installation
Interactive
Roaming
Performance
Exhibition
Concept Phase
In Development
Previously Exhibited
Sculptures
Your Second Hand
VR Imaginary Friend
Hear the Call
Speecheoke
Your Second Hand
VR Imaginary Friend
Hear the Call
Better Version of Yourself
Speecheoke
Dance Literacy
This is Your Life
Equal Opportunity
VR Imaginary Friend
This is Your Life
Equal Opportunity
Speecheoke
Dance Literacy
This is Your Life
Equal Opportunity
Sculptures
Your Second Hand
VR Imaginary Friend
Hear the Call
Better Version of Yourself
Speecheoke
Dance Literacy
This is Your Life
Equal Opportunity
Better Version of Yourself
This is Your Life
VR Imaginary Friend
Hear the Call
Dance Literacy
Your Second Hand
Speecheoke
Equal Opportunity
Sculptures
Audience
Roaming within other live events, festivals, times where there are higher amounts of people in and around the Cultural Centre.
Space
Roaming cartographers can move around most spaces in the Cultural Centre. Finished maps can potentially be exhibited.
Development
TESTS
Test maps and methods are tried out by Danielle to establish methods of interaction with public, troubleshooting and drawing styles which could be implemented.
CALL OUT
Call out for a handful of artists to be the "cartographers" of this roaming life mapping piece. Cartographer artists chosen should have vastly different drawing styles, involve different ethnic backgrounds and ages, with at least one child/teen and one elderly person.
WORKSHOPS
Workshops run by Danielle to practice life map drawing with the other artists. This involves not only developing adhoc cartography drawing, ability, but also practice with interviewing the public about their life, performitivity, ethics, risk assessment and safety measures in delivering the work.
PRODUCTION SCHEDULING
Once artists are ready to be out there as cartographers roaming in the public, artists will be scheduled in depending on expected amounts of audiences for the time.
One or two artists might be scheduled in on different days on rotation.
Benefits
- High Perth community one-to-one interpersonal live engagement.
- High private engagement with Perth Artists through cartography.
- Price gap filled, general public can buy an artwork for 5 bucks, affordable. Bridges class divide in art purchasing.
- AdHoc surprising works produced continually while work is on.
- Great for high traffic events, work moves among people well.
- Public space wildcard spontaneous work.
- Flexible, roaming drawing people, no installation in the space required necessarily.
- Easy and quick performances/drawings to produce once up and running.
- Archive of “This is Your Life” mapped drawings of the lives of Perth public can be displayed later.
- Arcs back to hand drawn map making and portraiture in public - old roaming street vendor style.
Challenges
- Copyright on drawings (shared ownerships) must be clearly established with contract. Negotiations on copyright need to be established well before call out. Who gets a copy and who keeps the original? does AGWA, the participant, the cartographer or Danielle keep either originals or cony receive copies of these drawings?
- May be challenging selecting the right drawers (people to draw maps, not drawers in a desk) who have both the personality, engagability, performativity and drawing abilities.
- Will AGWA's public liability insurance cover this? if not, public liability insurance must be arranged for Cultural Centre roaming.
- Payment. Some maps may take longer than others to construct. A payment plan should be organised to assure cartographers payment is at award wage or above, regardless of "five buck" payment from audience. There should be a base rate to cover any windfall.
- Risk assessment and risk measures in dealing with the public live in the cultural centre one on one.
Covid Accomodations
- This could happen online but works best in person offline, where people spontaneously come across a "life map drawer".