an interactive archive, public artwork, & action-research study
regarding the human capacity for remorse
CONTRIBUTE YOUR REGRETS HERE
regrets.org.uk
team@regrets.org.uk
Le Cube Festival
• 03 - 08 JUNE, 2008
• contribute your anonymous regrets
• get feedback of similar regrets
• watch for regrets on public display
mobile units roaming Paris & satellite communities:
Issy-les-Moulineaux, Ville d’Avray Chaville, Meudon et Vanves
Paris placards • Daniel Buren • REGRETS
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JUNE 2008, PARIS, FRANCE: Mobile units roaming public space in Paris
collect and display anonymous regrets from the public to comprise
a sociological database of time- & site-specific sentiment in the community.
Regrets Paris is an interactive archive, a public conceptual artwork, and
a study of communally shared but typically private recollections.
private
Instant feedback to the individual user based on other locals' similar
concerns is algorithmically generated and calculated to 'share the burden'. A
wireless connection queries a central database located on a remote server.
Using keywords from the submitted text and other self-describing user
input to define similarity, the server returns to the user the
five most similar of others' regrets. An incongruous element to some
of the returns lends a thought-provoking, poetic character to
the user feedback.
public
Through existing signage, text, network, and broadcast facilities, random
selections and groupings of regrets sampled from the archive
are made public across the city. The Paris Public will encounter
fellow citizens' most personal misgivings in the spaces usually occupied
by communal information, advertising, publicity, & entertainment.
By engaging local users in revelations of a problematic but potentially
constructive nature, REGRETS Paris aims to bring specificities
of individual lives, in this case personal regrets, into the realm
of public debate, shared learning, and community. In particular, remorse
is seen here as a positive entity, incorporating recall, reflection, error
correction and learning. Far from retrograde, remorse promises change
for the better...
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