Documentation: Research Project, 'Invitation to a voyage', participatory installation (posted on 22/8/12)

'Invitation to a voyage', interactive installation / mixed media; dimensions variable. Photo by N. Georgopoulos.

Invitation to a voyage represents the final outcome of my research project and it is designed on the occasion of Camberwell College of Arts' MA Visual Arts 2012 Degree show. For the purpose of the Postgraduate Summer show, I revisited June 14, 2012 and decided to re-exhibit it or to re-run it if you like -since this project is based on people's participation and therefore it is a performance. On the basis that on June 14th the event was considered to be a success, I kept all the elements that worked and abolished any aspect of the project that did not work or I considered it to be unnecessary. What is more, because the context within which the installation has to work now is not as much time specific as it was on the 14th of June, but it is an Art School's 14-days period degree show I did the following:

1. Changed the title from June 14, 2012 -which is something time specific- to Invitation to a voyage -which is something more coherent and basic, that refers more directly to the concept of an existential journey and that is conceptually flexible enough so as to allow to the installation's framework to fit into a 1-day period exhibition scheme, 1-week, 2-weeks and so forth.

2. Instead of using a ready-made but still D.I.Y photo booth -as I did the previous time, I designed/constructed a physical manifestation that refers to the concept of a photo booth. By doing so, I could control the overall aesthetics and visual language of the installation as opposed to the other way round. What is more, even though it required more work that it would require if I were hiring a booth, it kept the cost considerably cheaper and my stress levels normal.

3. Instead of contacting the participants after the installation in order to interview them as I did for the June 14, 2012 catalogue, I came up with the flexible solution of the exhibition book -archive if you like, which is realised by a ready-made green Ring Binder carrying A4 photocopied writing forms. That said, participants could use them for completing the exact date of their performance -from the 5th of Sept. - 13th, the object that they chose as well as the reason why they considered that particular object a personal point of reference to who they are. In that respect, the interview is live, the writing is live and every 'element' contributes to the overall synthesis.

4. Because the visual framework of a degree show is more dominant than the framework of an individual project I did not have to design a web site. In that respect, I set up a tublr -an online platform that behaves as an online journal- and every day I am going to post the identity photographs of the people who participate in the performance.

In conclusion, my Degree show project is designed so that it can be considered as a workshop; performance; interactive installation; event within an event and so forth. All of the above are important and relevant because they presuppose their experience.