Artist: Sara Diamond (Banff, Canada)
Project Title: CodeZebra
January 5, 2004 to April 12, 2005

CodeZebra is a visual chat and threaded discussion software, performance events, and responsive fabric fashion designs. The software/website enables participants to see and organize conversation themes and histories meet other participants and track emotional and social dynamics of on-line conversation. It provides simple animal entity games that participants and moderators may use to enhance communication and change dynamics. Each participant will be able to create their own pattern variant in a conversation, which they can print as distinctive fabric, thus wearing their heart on their sleeve. CodeZebra includes an emerging domain thesaurus and pathways for topic identification and suggestion. Originally built to facilitate debates between artists and scientists, CodeZebra is based on a visual aesthetic that draws from zoomorphic imagery and reaction/diffusion forms. Among the performances, Sara Diamond initiates habituation cages, where locked up artists and scientists collaborate over an intensive 24 hour period, streaming out to the world, dialoguing with moderators and using CodeZebra to chat. There are dance and text performances, where the characters in CodeZebra come alive through text and movement, playing with audiences in house and on-line. Also, there are themed club events where DJ's play and audiences chat. At such events, Code Zebra responsive fabrics, costumes and fashions are on parade. Designed from the emerging patterns and identities created within CodeZebra, participants can print their patterns, order designs and attend fashion/chat events.

From June 14th to July 31st, 2004, Sara, along with the BNMI and her team of collaborators, renovated the visual and structural aesthetic of the CodeZebra site, documented and edited video material, and conducted a six-week residency on responsive fabrics and fashion design. Joey Berzowska, Susan Jenkyn-Jones, Vincent LeClerc, and Victoria Lawton were all involved in the fashion/wearables development. Andrew Salway was be an off-campus technical advisor on CodeZebra development.

Also see:
CodeZebra