The Lies Project
About The Lies Project:
The Lies Project, an interactive website that collects and displays lies submitted by participants, is dedicated to revealing and exploring the ubiquity of deception.
The Project is a continuation of the textile-based installation Lies, lies, lies.... In the original installation, viewers entered a lying booth to submit handwritten lies. The collected lies were then embroidered, mounted, and shadowed. In this electronic version, the physical and tactile qualities of the original installation are translated into moving text and image.
The Lies Project allows participants to experience the act of lying in unusual and creative ways. Viewers enter a virtual lying booth where they can submit their own lies and also alter the content of lies others have submitted. In soliciting and encouraging lies, and in allowing them to be manipulated by participants, The Project fosters an interactive, anonymous, and strangely intimate virtual community built entirely from lies.
How it works:
The first page of the website that participants will see is see more lies. Submitted lies that have been altered are displayed on this page. A lie submitted by a participant is displayed only after another participant has altered it. Viewers may click on a lie to activate its shadow, where the modification appears. The see more lies page can hold up to 6 lies on screen at any one time. To see a new batch of lies, simply double click on the see more lies button at the bottom of the screen.
To submit lies, participants enter the lying booth. All submissions are anonymous. First, the participant is randomly assigned the lie of a previous user and asked to alter it. Once the assigned lie has been altered, it will appear in the see more lies section. Next, the participant is asked to tell a lie as well as choose a category for his or her lie. (The categories are used to produce statistics about the lies.) All submitted lies are assigned an ID.
The participant may search for his or her lie at any time by using the lie tracker. By entering the lie ID, the lie tracker shows the history of changes to a given lie, whether it has been modified and whether or not it has been assigned to a new category. A single lie may have several modifications.
Credits and Acknowledgments:
This project was first realized during an artist residency at Studio XX, Montréal, QC, 2004-5. Generous Studio XX technical support provided by Eric Hortop, Jacqueline Hewitt and Radmila Rodojovic. Additional assistance provided by Jonathan Levine. All programming updates by Eric Hortop, 2007. Concept and design by Emily Hermant, 2004-7.
Many thanks to Studio XX, Eric Hortop, Jonathan Levine, Heather Hermant and Ben Klaff for their help and support of the project.
To enter The Lies Project, click here