cloud seeding

A Participatory Public Artwork - Green Valley Ranch Public Library - Denver, CO

Cloud Seeding is a participatory artwork that processes library patron's card catalog search terms to call up a spectrum of associative images, quotes and information drawn from the library's collection. The result is an ever-shifting real-time visualization of the library's day-to-day usage – and of the collective consciousness created through a community's participation in its local library.
Winner of national RFP. Construction in progress. Completion in 2010.

Consisting of an array of large LCD screens connected to the library's catalog search kiosks, the artwork uses custom software to parse patrons' search terms and call up associative media clips culled from the library's collection of books, dvds, music and digital image and text archives.

In theory, "cloud seeding" is the process where a volatile agent, a catalyst, is introduced into the atmosphere with the intent of producing a generative effect – literally, rain, snow or some other type of precipitation.

Cloud Seeding will serve as a catalyst, encouraging patrons to diversify and explore. The artwork will use shifting layers of content to instigate a generative experience, challenging patrons to let go of their expectations , to experience the layering that the library's resources and "collective consciousness" can provide. And it will allow them, through their explorations, to participate in the creation of the artwork itself.

BENEFITS

• Promotes the Library's collection

• Provides participatory + educational artwork for patrons of all ages

• Creates a running record of the library's usage

• Inspires new paths of inquiry

• Celebrates the multi-media + interactive nature of the contemporary library

• Draws on community's individual experiences to transform them into a communal experience