The idea for this project came after a class brainstorm about things that animate the city.
What better source of inspiration than the micro-crushes and broken hearts that are so specifically tied to all corners of Montreal through Craigslist’s ‘Missed Connections’?
We data-mined Montreal’s Missed Connections listings throughout March and the beginning of April, eventually coming up with ten examples that we thought would translate well to the constraints of our chosen medium: the overhead projector.
The team worked together to design the scenes in Illustrator, print them, and then cut them out by hand. The goal was never to create a perfect set of assets, but rather to draw attention to our analog interpretation of the internet by giving the pieces a hand-made feel.
The fact that the scenes are meant to play out on the overhead projector adds a playful, nostalgic quality to them.
In adding an element of animation to each scene, we have invited the viewer to interact with the installation as much as possible.
Sometimes the animation can be as simple as having a set of small and bizarre props to play with and position at will. Other times we have provided jointed paper puppets. Finally, people themselves can become part of the animation, whether by using their hands to create shadows, or by becoming part of the projected scene.
In keeping with the very plain aesthetic of the Craigslist Missed Connections website, we decided to keep the ‘interface’ of our project quite stark and mundane. What makes the site interesting is not the appearance of the archive but rather the stories that it contains. We have essentially tried to create a tangible, physical archive: mundane in appearance, engaging in content.
We took pictures of people interpretations of each scene which we have added to our website to create our own data bank of sorts. And in efforts to reach out to the original post, we have responded to them via Missed Connections and email.
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