Interactive Fax
120 Chairmen of Public Limited Companies were randomly selected from an international business directory in April 1998. B + K co-opted (theoretically) the ventricular constrictions of each participant at a specified date and time; this was communicated to them by fax. Thus an easily accessible, standard, business mechanism for communication was employed to engage recipients who otherwise might not have chosen to become involved. Their participation and interaction with the artists effected networks which transcended geographical and political barriers and time zones.
Interactive Fax was a project by B+K.
B+K was founded by two artists in November 1997 with the aim of embarking upon a shared exploration and questioning of contemporary art practices, to explore ways of eliminating elements of individual authorship, to interrogate and test out collaborative strategies and approaches and the language framing such practices.
Consequently, alongside examining the language framing such practices, B+K has focused on dialogue, participation and process as means to challenge boundaries, expectations, restrictions and conventions.
Over the past 15 years B+K has gathered considerable experience of: working with ‘publics’ in complex situations; making sensitive interventions into pre-existing, conventional systems; and, involving large numbers of participants within creative networks of communication.
B+K’s working strategies continue to focus on fluidity, collaboration, dialogue and the participation of those usually outside the ‘fine art world.’
These strategies are ephemeral, temporary and involve transient, and often random, interventions and interactions with others. B+K’s activities are intended to be unobtrusive, almost non-existent and not entirely ‘serious;’ a means of subverting and questioning traditional patterns of art production, presentation and distribution.
The ethos of B+K’s collaboration is indicated by the use of ‘plus’ instead of the ‘and’ as it is more than the sum of its individual parts.
