In an urban and networked landscape characterized by algorithmic precision and economic practicalities, Missed Connections is a reflection upon the romantic notions of chance encounters and unrequited desire.
Missed Connections is a data-mining project using text from the “Missed Connections” section of craigslist.com, which will then be projected onto a roving screen and various building facades around Ballston. This website is used by the public as a last-ditch effort to contact someone that they had briefly connected with, or had hoped to connect with. Posting in “Missed Connections” is akin to saying a prayer or making a wish; one has few illusions of receiving a reply, but the act of posting a message allows one to entertain hope that this time something improbable just might happen.
The projections in Ballston will trace the shifting boundaries of private life and public space – both the virtual public space of message boards, and the physical public space of streets and squares. By making public these private desires and longings, Missed Connections reflects on, and celebrates, the human impulse to connect and the ways that serendipitous encounters in urban places can change our lives.
Meet the Artists
Chongha Peter Lee
Chongha Peter Lee was born in Madison, WI and lives and works in the Washington, DC. metropolitan area. He received his BFA at George Mason University in 2011. He has shown one of his first pieces, “Defection” in DJ Spooky’s Experimental Media Series. His new media intervention, “Barcode Orchestra” has been shown in several venues including the World Bank in Washington DC. Since 2010, He has been an integral member of the Floating Lab Collective, producing “The Collective White House” for the Museum of Antioquia’s MDE 11 Triennial in and the “ReMuseum” for the 5×5 Public Art Project, Washington, DC’s first internationally curated public art initiative. Most recently, he has collaborated on the “Modular Engagement Transporter” which was exhibited in the Art Museum of the America’s. He is currently pursuing a degree in the Transmedia MFA program at Syracuse University.
Blake Turner
Blake Turner received a BA from George Mason University, New Media. He has been a member of the Floating Lab Collective since 2008. He is currently enrolled at The Ohio State University as a MFA candidate in the Art and Technology program. He lives and works in Columbus, OH.
Technical Information
Materials: projectors, cable, processor, scaffold, generator
Dates: August 7-9, 2014 & Fall 2014
Location: A-Town Bar & Grill – 4100 N Fairfax Drive; Fall Locations TBD
Partners: A-Town Bar & Grill, James Campbell Company LLC, CBRE