"One of the Web's basic tenets is that small contributions from lots of people can amount to something powerful in the aggregateNow, a growing group of writers, musicians, visual artists and videographers is turning this Wikipedia-era philosophy into online collaborative art.
Twitter users are banding together to write an opera for London's Royal Opera House. Bands like My Morning Jacket and Sour, out of Japan, are turning to fans to help film their music videos. Programmers are pulling quotes from online social networks to make automated poems.
More than 50,000 animators are divvying up work on an upcoming animated film called "Live Music," and amateur videographers are re-filming "Star Wars" in 15-second bites.
This crowd-sourced creativity online is putting a new twist on traditional ideas of artistic ownership, online communication and art production.
"What's exciting is that it's being tested out by a lot of people who have access to [the technology]," said Mary Jane Jacob, executive director of exhibitions at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. "I think that we're in a great communal workshop."
In recent months, the collaborative projects have been showing the professionalism it takes to get noticed amid the clutter of content on the Internet, said Ze Frank, an online personality who orchestrated several early online art projects. Sign up for a CNN art project
Frank said people have been making collaborative online art "since the beginning of the Web." But much of it wasn't worth looking at.
Some collaborative books proved to be too much work for even herds of people to tackle. Efforts to create massive drawings with thousands of contributors sometimes ended up looking like random scribbles, for example.
Twitter users are banding together to write an opera for London's Royal Opera House. Bands like My Morning Jacket and Sour, out of Japan, are turning to fans to help film their music videos. Programmers are pulling quotes from online social networks to make automated poems.
More than 50,000 animators are divvying up work on an upcoming animated film called "Live Music," and amateur videographers are re-filming "Star Wars" in 15-second bites.
This crowd-sourced creativity online is putting a new twist on traditional ideas of artistic ownership, online communication and art production.
"What's exciting is that it's being tested out by a lot of people who have access to [the technology]," said Mary Jane Jacob, executive director of exhibitions at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. "I think that we're in a great communal workshop."
In recent months, the collaborative projects have been showing the professionalism it takes to get noticed amid the clutter of content on the Internet, said Ze Frank, an online personality who orchestrated several early online art projects. Sign up for a CNN art project
Frank said people have been making collaborative online art "since the beginning of the Web." But much of it wasn't worth looking at.
Some collaborative books proved to be too much work for even herds of people to tackle. Efforts to create massive drawings with thousands of contributors sometimes ended up looking like random scribbles, for example.
But for some reason -- either because people are getting savvier with cameras or because the projects are getting more visibility -- things are starting to click, Frank said.
Even if some of the latest collaborative efforts fail to produce masterworks, the real value is the process, he said.
"Even if the [Twitter-written] opera ends up sucking as a performance, the value may have already been played out in the theater of the creation of it," he said.
Many of the projects aim to hit on universal themes.
"The little elements that aren't synchronized" in the group art projects remind people that our differences are what make us interesting, said Matt Maloney, associate dean of the school of film and digital media at the Savannah College of Art and Design, referring to this music video, which features fans of the Japanese band Sour......"
Even if some of the latest collaborative efforts fail to produce masterworks, the real value is the process, he said.
"Even if the [Twitter-written] opera ends up sucking as a performance, the value may have already been played out in the theater of the creation of it," he said.
Many of the projects aim to hit on universal themes.
"The little elements that aren't synchronized" in the group art projects remind people that our differences are what make us interesting, said Matt Maloney, associate dean of the school of film and digital media at the Savannah College of Art and Design, referring to this music video, which features fans of the Japanese band Sour......"
