Social Dress Network – Latex Messenger Connects Virtual World Real

This chain-link style workshop will be run in multiple communities and locations, crossing national borders. The workshop process is as follows:

1. Choose a location—a site, monument, building, or object—that members of the community want to cast in latex.

2. Initially, we will congregate and community members will talk casually to each other and workshop leaders about what is currently going on in—what concerns them, what changes they’ve seen, etc. Eventually we will collectively narrow down one or several topics to talk about. The theme can be selected by the moderator, Horisaki, or chosen by participants in previous workshops in the chain.

3. Once community members understood the theme or question for themselves, they will start casting the selected location/object in latex. They will first write words responding to the topic in colorful latex on the surface they want to cast. They will then repaint over the letters several times to build up several layers of latex. Eventually they will also include a thin cloth layer—either gauze Horisaki provides or a similar local material—to add reinforcement to the latex.
4. After the set of layers has been painted, we will enjoy the moment of the latex drying. We might have casual conversation over food and drink.
5. After the latex has dried, we will carefully peel off the latex and dust it with baby powder to prevent it from sticking to itself.
6. We will then examine the completed latex cast, enjoying looking at backward letters on the latex and discussing our thoughts of the process and finished work.
These are the basic steps are for each workshop in each community in the chain of workshops.
During this process, we will make certain we documents the processes, both recording voices of participants and taking process photos with GPS info embedded within so that later we can identify the location of the work later through Google Maps.
In addition to the steps above, in certain locations and with certain communities, we may also start looking at the works produced by other communities. Whether we start from step No.1 (above) or from looking at other communities’ works (step No.7, below) will be determined by each community in consultation with Horisaki’s organizational suggestions.

If we start looking at already completed pieces by other communities, the below steps will preceed step 1 above:
7. We will examine the finished work carefully and start talking about what it is and what the other community might possibly have talked about.
8. Horisaki, as a messenger, will explain select details of the conversation and show certain selected photos and recorded voices from the Social Dress Network archive. However, this is not meant to report the total of the previous community’s experience; rather Horisaki will serve as a storyteller, conveying the essence and certain details of the previous workshop.
Members of community imagine this distant other community and expand their conversation locally through what they understand of the other community, moderated by Horisaki.
9. Based on that conversation, the group will begin their own latex casting process.
Depending on the time available and scheduling, we will connect members of the previous community and current community via some form of internet broadcasting, such as Skype, https://appear.in/, or Zoom. While handling the physical product (latex piece) from the previous community’s workshop, paricipants will talk with each other about both the project and their respective communities. In this way, rather than the abstract and combative fast pace of Twitter, Instagram, or other social networking systems, virtual space could become a bit more of a physical space with more personal interactions.