VERVARIUM (700 word thing)

VERVARIUM, created by Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau, is an interactive web based art work created in Java.

http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent/verbarium/index.html

The work itself is hosted on the website where anyone online can access it. It consists of two main windows and a text box. Any user can choose to write a text message in the text box and enter it into the work. Once submitted, this text is used a ‘genetic code’ to create a three-dimensional art form. On the left window, the user can see his/her form start to grow and manifest, much like a living plant. Depending on the composition of the message, this form could take shape in a number of ways. It could be short, long, organic, simple complex, or abstract.
Forms created by past users are collected in a collage on the right window. Every time someone generates a new form, it is merged into the collection to create one big abstract piece of art. Users can also click on various forms on the collage to view previous text messages that people have entered.

VERVARIUM, I would say falls into the category of art. It wouldn’t be considered design, as it serves no purpose. Design is when something is created to meet a requirement, but there are no requirements to mean here. It is more of an online experiment to see how online text messages would manifest if it had more visual form.
Most things that are considered art usually have a comment or message behind it, rather than an actual purpose, but what message would VERVARIUM be trying to convey? Since it is the users who create and contribute to the artwork, wouldn’t it considered be a tool for creating art?
VERARIUM as a toy is certainly one way of looking at it, but perhaps art is in the way people contribute to the work rather than the java applet itself.

Most online art/design forms that I’ve come across, whether it’s a website or something in Flash, deal with user interaction one way or another. VERVARIUM is definitely related as it requires for users to interact with it for there to be any art at all. The users are the ones giving life to the artwork by entering their text messages, slowly evolving it over time.
Works that use the web as a medium benefit from it reaching a wide audience from all over the globe. This is especially important in VERVARIUM as it deals with communication over the web. How would it look like if text messages from over the world were turned into a visualisation.
A specific example of an online art/experiment that could be related to VERARIUM, is NAG (Net.Art Generator).

NAG can be found here: http://nag.iap.de/?lang=en

Like VERARIUM, it can treated as a tool for creating net art. Users enter a title for a piece of art they want to generate. NAG then takes the keywords from the title and browses the internet for related images and finally composites the images into a piece of net art which is then stored in a gallery.
Also like VERARIUM, it relies heavily on its medium (the internet) for it to work. Online users are required to interact with the work and they both draws stuff from the internet to form its art.

My final project deals with anonymity on the internet, how because of that, it is hard to distinguish one from another. Instead of individual identities, they form a collective identity. VERVERIUM is similarly related. When people enter their text messages into VERVARIUM, they do so anonymously, and unless the person specifically states their name, it is impossible to differentiate a message from all the other messages. The text messages and forms from various people are collected and merged together to form a single image, forming a collective identity. Users can browse through this collage and read the text messages, but original author of the message/form becomes is irreverent as it becomes a single piece of artwork.
Another theme I might like to explore in my final project is how internet anonymity typically leads to trolling. Slightly related to VERVARIUM since there is nothing stopping people from entering inappropriate messages.