#dawnchorus365 – collaborative experiments in text, time and Twitter
Artist collective Seven Art Writers (Mary Paterson, Natasha Vicars, Tamarin Norwood, Sally Labern, Eddy Dreadnought, Tiffany Charrington and Joanna Brown) is pleased to announce the launch of #dawnchorus365 – a yearlong collaborative artwork commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art.
Launching on 15 November 2013 at www.dawnchorus365.com, this online artwork reinterprets the dawn chorus, every day for a year. Each morning #dawnchorus365 will perform a 'chorus' of tweets during the dawn hours. The tweets combine with a visual representation of the changing light conditions and the locations of the SAW artists.
#dawnchorus365 reinterprets birdsong at dawn, which is thought to be for defence of territory, redrawing boundaries after the cold night when many birds perish. The work is an artistic intervention into Twitter and its relationship to public space, geography and identity.
The artwork will perform the tweets to fit the precise timings of dawn on each day of the year. On 15 November 2013 the work will begin with first light at 5.25am and conclude with sunrise at 7.25am; on 15 May 2014 it will play from 1.54am to 5.09am.
In addition to the SAW artists, anyone with a Twitter account can contribute by tweeting to #dawnchorus365. Their tweets will then be accumulated into the online artwork the following dawn. As a result, the project will build an international and virtual performed text that explores the meaning of dawn in the digital environment.
"The content of the writing will shift with the light; we'll be making live observations about the time and place where each of us is situated. We will be in different cities and rural locations spread across the UK - Sheffield, New Forest, London, Oxford, Dunfermline and in Fermyn Woods. We will watch, listen and sense the environment out of hours, and craft tweets from our observations and explore language in relation to this. At times we will respond to each other - stealing phrases from each other's tweets and reworking them live," said Natasha Vicars from SAW.
The online artwork will use colour, space and text to present the 'chorus' of tweets. Each daily performance will only be visible during the hours of dawn GMT. SAW are collaborating with creative technologists Wired Canvas who will develop a dedicated microsite to present the artwork.
#dawnchorus365 was commissioned by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art as an individual work for their fourth annual online exhibition, this year exploring different ways that we engage with our own social, urban and rural environments. Fermynwoods Contemporary Art is an independent arts organisation that works with artists and audiences to develop a programme that explores and reflects on art and ecology to enhance understanding and engagement with these environments. The project has been funded by Arts Council England.
#dawnchorus365 will be online from dawn on 15th November at www.dawnchorus365.com