Digital Exquisite Corpse Project

There are 80 images in the series. Here’s the first 40. More to be added. Scroll down to read about the project and to watch the video.

Click thumbnails below to view larger image.

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The Digital Exquisite Corpse Project (DECP) is the result of a unique collaboration via the Internet begun in September 1997 between myself and two other artists I have yet to meet. Larry Parkes (Blooming Prairie, MN) and David Walters (Newbury Park, CA) and I have been creating digital works of art based on the surrealist game of the 1920′s and 30′s called “Exquisite Corpse,” in which an artist creates a drawing on the top section of a sheet of paper folded in thirds. He or she then extends a few lines down into the middle section before folding the top section back and passing it to the next artist, who does the same before passing it to the third artist. When the drawing is completed it is unfolded. The resulting work is frequently bizarre or dream-like, possibly charged with humor, surprising, and often poetic.

Here’s how our digital version works, as devised by the three of us: The first artist creates a digital image on his computer, then emails the bottom quarter inch of the image to the next artist. We call this quarter inch piece the “reference strip.” The second artist uses this strip as a reference for starting his section. When completed, he emails the bottom quarter inch of his image to the third artist, who then creates the last section. Once all sections are completed, we email them to one another and they are put together in Adobe Photoshop to form one image. There is no altering or touching up of the image after the sections are completed. They go together exactly as they arrive.

Below is a short video about the DECP. The music was composed and performed for this video by my wife, Betsy Alexander.