The Exquisite Corpse Next Door
Arlo Goldman
Within many genres of online communication, there exists a sea of people trying to connect—to an audience, to each other, or to a cash flow. Much of this content is intentionally released to a wide group, but much of it seems unconsidered and unintentionally personal. Much of it contains authentic and sometimes very personal details, but much of it seems inauthentic, contrived, or simply advertising fuel.
Because of the vast excess and repetition on the web, we often overlook or even loathe what other people put on it. By sampling from online content within a familiar category, patterns and unexpected individuality are revealed together. Accumulating, then reconstituting this content into a digestible format forces a reconsideration of its perceived value. Specific topics—such as an individual recipe title, or a repeated phrase on a community message board—reveal the true quantity of what people release. Online communication that deserves our attention is plucked from obscurity and given its time in the sun.
The Exquisite Corpse Next Door consists of a series of design experiments that both criticize and celebrate the original intention of the collected content from its creator. Each uses compilation and organizational techniques to reveal these human patterns and occasional absurdities hidden in plain sight. Each of the objects subvert a familiar form—a recipe card, cut paper chain, etc. Expandable and interactive objects are not used the way their form suggests they should be, but instead utilize repetition and emphasize the endless personal content that people share online.