The Johnny Cash Project

With the Johnny Cash Project, Chris Milk directed the interactive website, which allowed participants from around the world to draw an image of the music icon and then see it come together with other participants artworks, using the last song he had recorded.  He worked with Aaron Koblin, who is a data visualizer.  Since the piece was on the internet, it created a collective community that could all relate to the contributions of a legendary musician that can live on and constantly change through this project. There is a sense of spiritual permanence through this piece because memory and the strong internet community presence are able to keep an icon alive. The accessibility and participatory nature of this piece furthers the idea of how new media art is pervasive and almost anyone can be apart of it and create something different from other existing artworks.

Sources:

http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/

http://portfolio.chrismilk.com/#mi=1&pt=0&pi=3&p=-1&a=0&at=0

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/12/johnny-cash-remembered-in-crowd-sourced-video/