anaBlog is is an electro-mechanical community blog (weblog) originally developed as a site-specific interactive installation for Peterborough (Ontario) Artsweek.
Part confessional, part message board, part soapbox, anaBlog is a DIY network that stands at the intersections of private and public space, personal and community standards, revelation and surveillance, graffiti and communication, vandalism and intervention. Mimicking the internet but physically structured around a clothesline, anaBlog is a playful examination of the web phenomenon of anonymously bearing ones soul in a public space.
anaBlog, was presented as a part of Blink, Peterborough Artsweek, 2006.
While the high cost of access to technology often leaves online communities stratified by economic class anaBlog revels in low tech. anaBlog is a no-bandwidth system designed to facilitate open dialog and community engagement. The march of progress demanded the clothesline be displaced by a robotic replica, the clothes dryer. Now, in a self-affirming reversal of technological advance, the automated clothesline of the anaBlog provides pedestrians in Peterborough's downtown core the opportunity to air their dirty laundry.
A city by-law wedged itself between the ideal realization of this work and its final form (see statement). Regardless, the piece was embraced by Blink participants and I collected nearly 250 posts during the 7-day festival.
anaBlog was produced just as blogging was exploding as a cultural phenominon. In fact, blogging was new enough in 2006 to still be called weblogging by many. It is fascinating to see how rapidly the context of blogging has shifted (2009).
[DOWNLOAD original artist statement]
anaBlog (detail, page server), 2006
Gallery
Mockup (left) and final post-card with server mechanism.