Suggest a Friend
Introduce two people who've never met and take a photo to tag on Flickr & Facebook
Baltimore
Maryland
United States of America
I'll travel between major cities in North America (with an unlimited Greyhound bus pass) to meet up with at least a hundred pairs of people who I know off- and on-line but don't know each other. Eventually, I'll photograph both people together to post and tag on whatever photo sites they both use, most likely Flickr and/or Facebook.
Social media websites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. progressively attempt to suggest friends based on explicit online social connections and shared online personality traits, but the suggestions are often based on criteria so general as to be meaningless. Also, some users don't use social media websites as intended and throw suggestion algorithms way off. Other sites use methods so dumb that they'll suggest friends you already have (Twitter).
In Suggest a Friend, I'll choose pairs of people to tag together based on subtler connections hidden within and across online systems and, thus, meaningfully suggest a friend, person-to-person, online while simultaneously and symbiotically suggesting friendship offline.
Furthermore, by adding unforeseen and possibly wildcard connections to the online social landscape, I'll suggest future friend possibilities to the algorithms themselves, person-to-algorithm.
Social media websites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. progressively attempt to suggest friends based on explicit online social connections and shared online personality traits, but the suggestions are often based on criteria so general as to be meaningless. Also, some users don't use social media websites as intended and throw suggestion algorithms way off. Other sites use methods so dumb that they'll suggest friends you already have (Twitter).
In Suggest a Friend, I'll choose pairs of people to tag together based on subtler connections hidden within and across online systems and, thus, meaningfully suggest a friend, person-to-person, online while simultaneously and symbiotically suggesting friendship offline.
Furthermore, by adding unforeseen and possibly wildcard connections to the online social landscape, I'll suggest future friend possibilities to the algorithms themselves, person-to-algorithm.
- $1,000: 4 months unlimited greyhound
- $1,000: better camera/smaller netbook, internet/phone fees
- $1,000: food
- $1,000: inner city transportation (airfare if necessary)
- $1,000: artist's fee (most likely for emergencies/unexpected costs)
Suggest a Friend should take about 6 months total to complete (~2 months planning in advance and ~4 months for the trip). I can post and tag pics and do further research on the road.
Bio 
Travis Hallenbeck
1981, Atlanta, Georgia
BA in Cognitive Science, University of Georgia, '04
www.anotherunknowntime.com, '06-
www.possiblebitmaps.com, '11 - ??
Review 
2010
Tinypic video thumbnails @
Post-Internet, by Gene McHugh
2008
I Don't Care & hey get off me / Because in
Surfing Clubs: organizing notes and comments, by Marcin Ramocki
Internet Aware Art; Emotions in Net Art, by Tom Moody
"To get back to the long form
["equivalent of a novel or opera" in Internet art], Travis Hallenbeck's
bookmarks have hundreds of examples of "not ready for prime time" art
that evoke struggling "little guys" or "lonely girls" right out of
Tennessee Williams. The bookmarks alone define the artistic sensibility,
there is no self-conscious shaping."
Interview with Guthrie Lonergan @
Rhizome, by Thomas Beard
"Basically, Nasty Nets was all the
surfers I'd met through trading links on del.icio.us who'd already been
developing a special "taste" in surfing: a fascination with defaults and
a certain kind of banal deadpan. (I'll point to Travis Hallenbeck as
the obvious best example of this kind of surfing.)"
We Did It Ourselves! @
Light Industry
by Guthrie Lonergan
"We will look at a vague Internet art
movement (moment?) still growing -- critical of but subject to
technology -- artists in relationship to The Big Database, collecting
tiny home video thumbnails, or posting difficult metaphysical questions
on Yahoo! Answers (a lot of Travis Hallenbeck and Joel Holmberg), etc.
-- regular Internet users as artists -- artists using Google.com -- And
with just-as-powerful pieces of online 'amateur content'...."
flickr.com/photos/cosmic_disciple & flickr.com/photos/cosmic_disciple/favorites/ in
Best of the Web 2008 @
Art Fag City
by Tom Moody
2006
Travis Hallenbeck @
qotile.net
by Paul Slocum
"Travis Hallenbeck ... is the king of surfing"
Offline
2010
Mario Paint demo simulation
(in Nasty Nets video mix) @
Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE
curated by Aram Moshayedi
Brick Mural @
Extra Extra, Philadelphia
micatravFINAL
collaboration w/ Micaela Durand in
Bring Your Own Beamer NYC @
Spencer Brownstone Gallery, NYC
curated by Rafael Rozendaal
2009
1.AVI, 27.AVI, 39.AVI, 32.AVI, 45.AVI, 11.AVI, 40.AVI, 42.AVI & 17.AVI in
Nasty Nets DVD, published by Rhizome @
Sundance Film Festival, Utah
11.AVI, 40.AVI & 45.AVI in
Telic Arts Exchange's
Distributed Gallery @
The Public School, Los Angeles, CA
curated by Guthrie Lonergan
glow-in-the-dark LDPE tiles,
"Mario Paint demo",
MIDI Users' Group &
Effected Mario Paint @
The Church of Crystal Light,
Richmond, VA
curated by Brian Blomerth
Mario Paint demo simulation in
Rave Simulation @
And/Or Gallery, Dallas, TX
curated by Paul Slocum
summer thumbs 09
collaboration w/ Guthrie Lonergan in
S.A.S.E. @
Printed Matter, NYC
curated by ASDF (Mylinh Trieu Nguyen & David Horvitz)
2008
1.AVI, 27.AVI, 39.AVI, 32.AVI, 45.AVI, 11.AVI, 40.AVI, 42.AVI & 17.AVI in
Nasty Nets DVD, published by Rhizome @
NY Underground Film Festival
2007
Flickr favorites in
Nasty Nets LA @
Telic Arts Exchange, LA
organized by Sean Dockray
"MIDI DJ" & Effected Mario Paint
in Internet Sleepover
@ Eyebeam, NYC
organized by Bennett Williamson
1-bit bitmaps and monotimbral MIDI music (General MIDI demo, etc.) in
ICE Open House: Net Art @
University of Georgia
w/ John Michael Boling & Rick Silva
organized by Mark Callahan
Effected Mario Paint @
Eyedrum, Atlanta
2006
smopigha in Microtel (Teletext
pages for the Dutch TV station NOS)
35th International Film Festival Rotterdam @ Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art &
the TENT Centre for Visual Arts
organized by Lektrolab
Online 
2011
Total Distortion @ Rhizome
posted by John Michael Boling
2010
wmf.zip @ intermittent stream
curated by Petros Moris
2009
General MIDI Demo @ Rhizome
posted by Brian Droitcour
html.html @ Rhizome
posted by John Michael Boling
2008
www.anotherunknowntime.com in
First Selection @ clubinternet.org
curated by Harm van den Dorpel
11.AVI @ VVORK
"compressed video thumbnails, 2006-2008" (from Tinypic thumbnails) in
Free Fall @ clubinternet.org
curated by Harm van den Dorpel
ankh.jpg in
Tag Team @ clubinternet.org
curated by Guthrie Lonergan
2007
cosmic-disciple.livejournal.com in
Time Shares: Professional Surfer
@ Rhizome (co-presented by the New Museum, New York)
curated by Lauren Cornell
spider web & 11-19-06 (from Tinypic thumbnails) @ VVORK
General MIDI Demo @ Rhizome
posted by Marisa Olson
my posts, 09/2007 - ?? @ Nasty Nets
2006
Another Unknown Time @ Rhizome
posted by Marisa Olson
woof woof @ Rhizome
posted by Hanne Mugaas
- In Twitter Faves, 2011, I compiled my favorite Twitter posts from about 240 users in a 500+ page book. It present users to non-users outside of Twitter but also serves to connect disparate users with highly abstract yet vital similarities.
- Flickr Faves, 1st edition, 2006 - 2010 (2nd edition forthcoming in 2012), is a lot like Twitter Faves but more insidious. It's a huge collection of thumbnails from my Flickr favorites in a full-color book, but I haven't asked users for permission. Many of my favorite photos on Flickr are obviously intensely personal - either candid photos of friends and family or photo art, but I use only thumbnails in the collage to obscure, simplify and intensify the originals at the same time.
- flickr.com/photos/cosmic_disciple, 2006 - ?, is about 1,800 photos, scans and graphics - testimony to my interest in photography online. It's mostly cellphone photos, because I like convienience as well as digital artifacts.
- superamiga.tumblr.com/archive, 2009 - ?, is my exploration of image browsing/passive search in tumblr networks of fluid identities.
