You’ve Been Dumped
ART FROM INFORMATION
If you were a teenager in 2005 and posted online about your breakup, then there’s a small chance you made it into The Dumpster.
The Dumpster is an artistic glimpse at a cross section of teen culture. It is a website that offers an interactive experience, allowing you to browse through 20,000 collected posts related to breaking up. He broke up with me, I broke up with him, I was cheating, he didn’t think the right bands were cool... the gamut of teen angst has been captured in an incredibly easy-to-use piece of visual art.
Created by Golan Levin, Kamal Nigam, and Jonathan Feinberg, and using the artistic programming language Processing (page 136), the site succeeds in creating odd-but-engaging art from information.
Quivering, migrating dots cluster on the screen; simply roll over them with your mouse, click on one, and enjoy the break-up blurb that follows. Not only is the application visually appealing, it is addicting as it lets you quickly and easily browse through thousands of breakups, related breakups, and more breakups, creating a unique matrix of emotions before your eyes. You can easily spend an hour clicking and reading, getting lost among the Sarahs, Charlies, Steves, and Lisas.
If you find yourself struggling to recall your teenage years, spend some time in The Dumpster. It will all come back—guaranteed. —GRG
The Dumpster: Golan Levin with Kamal Nigam and Jonathan Feinberg (http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/thedumpster/index.html).