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An interactive
collaborative drawing ‘machine’ designed on the
concept of a neural network, allowing participants to experience
a shared creative process, using the principles of open-source
and social networked communication through an analogue string
system. The underlying concept of the Neural String Network
is to introduce participants to the idea of collaborative-shared
drawing practice, a dispersed collective that draws on Roland
Barthes ‘The Death of the Author’ (1967) whereby
each participant plays an equal role as both viewer and artist.
Played out like a surrealist ‘Exquisite Corpse’
game of consequences or as a piece of Haiku poetry, the drawing
participants contribute marks, signs and signifiers to an
open-content drawing, akin to the development of open-source
software on neural networks. The string network consists of
five drawing table ‘nodes’ within a room/studio
space measuring eight by eight metres square. Each node is
linked to the other four via pulleys and washing lines, making
it possible to peg a sheet of A4 paper to a line and winch
it across to any one of the other nodes. The network system
uses 10 string connections between the five drawing tables,
creating a pentagram within a pentagon neural network design.
Representing
the interconnected synapses and neurons of the brain the role
of each participant is that of cause and effect, a single
instruction initiates a series of consequences that unfold
in drawings, marks and patterns that are created whilst being
hoisted simultaneously across the room in quick succession.
The Neural String Network project was first set up in February
2012 to coincide with the centenary celebration of Alan Turing,
a project undertaken by students from the BA Graphic Design
programme at MediaCity Salford University. Each participating
student was given a single word drawn from the Turing theme,
such as machine, brain, code and apple that were interpreted
as a drawing by a collective consciousness.
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