III. B. Daniel Eatock: Contributions

The creator and the work

‘Using my background knowledge from working as a graphic designer, I employed a rational, logical and pragmatic approach when making work’ (eatock.com, n.d).
Daniel Eatock is a UK based visual artist and graphic designer. One of his better-known designs are the original logo for Channel four’s Big Brother.
Eatock's works usually have a strong, clear concept, which inspires the final outcome. The way he achieves this is by creating a set of rules, which are used to direct a kind of experiment. He rarely analyses the results, instead he publishes them on his website (www.eatock.com) in an on going process.
In his book published in 2008, he describes the website as ‘a box where the most recent project is on top and the oldest one on the bottom’ (Eatock, 2008). The website format allows everyone to see Eatock's past work which is finished, as well as works in progress. Those ‘uncompleted’ works fall under the artist’s category of participatory projects. It is these kinds of projects that I will focus on in this study.

The process

The projects under Eatock's ‘participate’ that I will be focusing on are those, which require the participants to produce a visual art outcome. These works displayed as a series of thumbnail galleries, the images enlarge when clicked. Under each photo or illustration Eatock names the person who submitted it. At the top of these gallery pages there is a description of the work. In ‘Holley Portraits’ (Eatock, n.d), a project that has concluded in 2012, the artist provides a back-story, which explains that the work is inspired by a friend’s work. He then proceeds to instruct would-be participators in how to contribute. The aim of the work is to produce a self-portrait, which consist of a written description of the subject in the shape of his or her own thumbprint. The result is a gallery of self-portraits, on first impression similar to each other, yet in fact completely individual. It himself did not submit his version for this work.
In ‘No photo’, a more recent on going project, Eatock provides no back-story. The top of the page feature the instructions ‘Photograph the signs that tell you not to’(Eatock, n.d). It seems that eatock does not want to impose a deeper meaning to this project, instead he allows the witty nature of the instructions, and the subsequent submissions (credited photos of many ‘please do not take pictures’ signs) to be their own justification. The gallery is a bizarre and ironic sight. It presents the viewer with an assortment of photograhs, which theoretically were never supposed to be taken.
Eatock's site features three completed ‘participated’ works and six on-going ‘participate’ projects. Some, like ‘Lens Touch’, which calls for submissions of photographs featuring a finger touching the lens, seem whimsical and maybe even pointless. Yet, the fact that they do attract the crowd’s participation lends them a kind of meaning, which is deeper than is initially apparent. This deeper meaning is hard to define, but it does well in drawing users to revisit the website and follow Eatock's work. The artists work truly involve the crowd the exposes a large part of his personal (if public) work process.

End result

The front page of Eatock's website features two pictures, one titled ‘picture of the week’, the other ‘thank you picture’. Both change weekly, end the picked some interesting visual element, like cars with different coloured doors, street signs, which have been vandalised in creative ways. The difference is that he posts the first picture the latter is submitted to him by a stranger. Eatock's online platform represents how deeply he appreciates the value of participation. The works are often not finished as such but in some respects they needn't be. They serve as a kind of mirror of what participators have achieved and what they can do collaboratively. His minimalistic instructions also highlight how easy it is to work together. The message his work seems to advocate is that all we need is a platform for sharing and a simple idea.