PHOTOGRAPHIC RESOURCE CENTER at boston university

yellow arrow

>>>Curator's Statement Artist's Statement Images

curator's statement
As stated on their website, yellowarrow.net, Yellow Arrow merges "sticker culture with wireless media.” Participants place arrows at sites of their choosing, and are invited to post photographs to their website. Each arrow has a unique code, and by sending a text-message from a mobile phone to a number a short message becomes attached to a site. If someone encounters an arrow when ambling about, he or she can send the code to the number and immediately receive the phrase, fact, or musing someone wished to associate with the location. Cities from Berlin to Zürich to San Francisco are included in their database, with new additions added daily.

Remarkably, after learning about Yellow Arrow, I began to notice them everywhere: on the BU Bridge (text=“Perspective helps us see the way. We choose bicycles to discover every angle in our urban playground”) and in a classroom at the Art Institute of Boston. On display at the PRC is a live-feed slideshow from their online photographic database, which during the Cyberarts Festival will showcase only Boston-area submissions. In a city known for its established landmarks, this project puts the control in the hands of the people who know it well. New landmarks will be created and the city activated in a recipe that is one part subjective mapping, one part annotated environment. In essence, Yellow Arrow allows Boston to curate and narrate itself. More information and stickers can be obtained via yellowarrow.net.

Yellow Arrow has participated in Art Basel in Miami as well as featured in Newsweek, Wired Magazine, Metropolis, Mass Appeal, TimeOut NY, and countless international publication publications including Le Figaro, Liberation in France, RAI in Italy and Diari de Barcelona in Spain. Yellow Arrow is a project initiated by Counts Media, a mobile art, entertainment and theatre company based in New York City that networks with communities around the world. Their combined background includes photography, experimental live performance, urban exploration, computer programming and location-based storytelling.

- Leslie K. Brown
artist's statement
When does an object become art? What makes an landmark? Who says what counts?

Yellow Arrow is the global public art project of local experiences. It creates an open and interactive forum for people to leave and discover messages on location that point out what counts.

Participants place arrows to draw attention to different locations and objects — a favorite view of the city, an odd fire hydrant, the local bar. By sending a text-message (SMS) from a mobile phone to 1-646-270-5537 beginning with the arrow's unique code, Yellow Arrow authors essentially save a thought on the spot where they place their sticker. Messages range from short poetic fragments to personal stories to game-like prompts to action. When another person encounters the Yellow Arrow, he or she sends its code to 1-646-270-5537 and immediately receives the message on their mobile phone. The website YellowArrow.net extends this location based exchange, by allowing participants to annotate their arrows with photos and maps in the online gallery of Yellow Arrows placed throughout the world.

Yellow Arrow first emerged at the Glowlab psy.geo.Conflux (glowlab.com) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in May, 2004. Since then, the project has grown rapidly internationally, developing an avid culture of users throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. By collecting and sharing these spaces of personal significance, Yellow Arrow allows the collaborative creation of a subjective atlas, a dynamic M.A.A.P. (Massively Authored Artistic Project)—that expresses the unique characteristics, personal histories, and hidden secrets that live within our everyday spaces.

The PRC shares Yellow Arrow’s views on the use of stickers and individual participation in the project—that is, solely at your own discretion. Please see yellowarrow.net for more information, extensive press clippings, and terms and conditions of use.
iMAGES
Click on an image to enlarge.

Captions, left to right:
Yellow Arrow #g3034 by "newurban." "Oh, if only I had the words of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But sometimes, you just don't need to say a thing." Courtesy of "newurban" and yellowarrow.net

PRC Installation: Photographs and texts by Yellow Arrow authors, a global public art project initiated by Counts Media. Dynamic Flash video feed from yellowarrow.net database (over 1,000 images, texts and locations from around the world) via television monitor, computer, ethernet as well as 128 4 x 6 inch c-prints (photographs and text and location prints) on the gallery walls.