iPak: Testimony artist launches particpatory project on racism and mental health

Ajaykumar, one of the artists who contributed to Testimony's series of art exhibitions launches a new art project by issuing this invitation to play and display your art:
 
iPak - 10,000 songs, 10,000 images, 10,000 abuses
generative art as re-generative force, art as medicine,  polyphonic narrative
 
A Turbulence New Media Gallery Commission 
 
An Online Exhibition Curated and Engendered by Ajaykumar  ©2008
 
at: http://turbulence.org/Works/iPak
 
14 March 2008 - 13 March 2010
 
          
 
This is an invitation to play and display your art. iPak - 10,000 songs, 10,000 images, 10,000 abuses
is a playful, inter-active internet art work, that synthesises your creativity, the random generation of
works by a computer, and art composed by Ajaykumar.
 
iPak integrates conceptual innovation, social engagement and therapeutic process - in an open,
participatory work exploring global themes:
 
- the re-generative force of art, of art-making as a medicine to transcend suffering, pain,
and trauma; and of inspirational art and original ideas emerging from tragedy.
 
- the notion, as evidenced by recent scientific research, that social factors - such as
marginalisation and racism - cause mental illness.
 
iPak is open to all. You do not have to be ‘mad’, 'disabled', or have experienced racism to submit a
work. You just need to be interested, playful and imaginative. 
 
Together with its playful inter-activity, and generative processes, iPak facilitates a space of immersion
and contemplation. iPak involves three inter-connecting works – chaos, jukebox, and platform: 
 
chaos and jukebox involve random generation of images, texts, and sounds, to create an entirely new
composition each time you view it. jukebox also allows you to select and play with combinations of
material: creating your own private chaos: unique and different with each play.
 
platform is an online gallery where you can exhibit your works in response to the themes, as well as
upload your biographic information. You can upload still images, videos, animation, texts, music,
sounds, and ideas on the themes. Your art becomes a part of chaos and jukebox: creating an organic
ever-changing, evolving, relational entity in cyberspace. It is easy to do: Just go to the website and
see how simple it is. All this art contributes to a ‘polyphonic’ narrative: one work that is a synthesis of
many tones, colours and ‘stories’: yours essentially. iPak belongs to nobody ultimately but is a
relational work that is a testimony to a tragic global phenomenon and testimony to the power of art.
 
Ajaykumar is an artist; academic at Goldsmiths University of London; member of TrAIN - the research centre of
the University of the Arts London in Transnational Art, Identity and Nation; curator; and co-director of shapes-
design: a studio designing playful furniture, lighting, and gardens, and items that come into 'being' through the
play of those who acquire or frequent them. He is also an Artsadmin digital media artist.
www.ajaykumar.com ajaykumar@ajaykumar.com