A three-month residency at Deveron Arts in Huntly, by Cuban artists Celia González and Yunior Aguiar, culminates tomorrow (June 15) at an event that will physically recreate the world of Facebook with a series of performances and talks. The artists have turned various areas of a local resident’s house into the features of Facebook, including ‘Like’, ‘Events’ and ‘Timeline’ spaces. There is even an area labelled the ‘Wall’.
Just like Facebook, these spaces require one crucial element to exist – people. “The aim of the project is to inspire more physical interaction between Huntly residents,” say the artists. “Some locals haven’t spoken to one another for five years. Ultimately, we hope to encourage more people to think about their face-to-face interactions.”
In order to engage the local community of Huntly – a rural market town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland – the duo walked from home to home, place to place, visiting people. “We have formed so many friendships throughout the project, speaking to community groups of all types and ages, including the school, the bowling club – even the local pub!
“We asked people to map their own friendships, and this has become a visual display in the ‘Groups’ section. Their comments on the community are listed on the ‘Wall’, with the ‘Timeline’ space acting as a ‘friendship tree’ of everyone who has contributed.”
Has the experience altered the artists’ perception of Facebook? “Ultimately, Facebook is a medium to create or maintain connections, but there is still a requirement for physical interaction in order to form a real friendship,” they say.
“Facebook tries to match you to new friends through probabilities and algorithms, rather than whether you have chemistry with the person, which you can only ascertain through face-to-face contact. Facebook is not about friendship, it is about connecting people; FACELOOP takes the next step.”
www.deveron-arts.com/celia-yunior
