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THE SEARCH FOR MOBY DICKS, 2006-09
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In 2006, I began looking for businesses named Moby Dick in North America and Europe. After locating them on the Internet, I visited the establishments, took photographs, chatted with the owners and managers, and used the information to generate a 130-slide, 15-chapter PowerPoint presentation. In conceptualizing and composing the presentation, which uses terse bullet points and digital snapshots to chronicle the search, I adopted an undeniably contemporary perspective. PowerPoint eliminates nuance and discursive exploration; the fact that it has become our culture’s most popular storytelling tool reflects the anti-intellectual sentiment of our era.
In addition, I created a complete version of Melville's novel in a Microsoft Word document called "Find & Replace: The Searchable Moby Dick." Unlike the physical book or any other printed version, this digital document, which I downloaded from Project Gutenberg, is easily searchable for names, words, and phrases. I toyed with the idea of editing Melville's text to suit my specific interests ("Call me Sharon. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse..."), but opted to give the file to readers so that they may edit and enhance the story as they see fit. Hyperlinks can be added to the digital text to further customize the story. Since the copyright on the material has expired, readers may use the text in any way they please without fear of legal action. I encourage viewers to send customized versions to me at twocoatsofpaint(at)gmail.com if they are so inclined.
In conjunction with the projects, I created a customized Google Map called “The Search For Moby Dicks,” which includes all the sites I found named after Melville’s novel.
This project, funded in part by a fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and a research grant from Connecticut State University, was included in the exhibition "Lost & Found – Fragments Assembling Realities," organized by John O'Donnell. at the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism Gallery in Hartford, Connecticut. December 18, 2008- February 6, 2009
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