A superb concept in collaborative art is the "Exquisite Corpse."  It is amazing to see the variety of images that this art form generates.  This is a fantastic use of the new digital medium.

Exquisite Corpse website   :   My contributions

A corpse is composed of four panels (each 450 pixels wide by 200 pixels tall) submitted consecutively by four anonymous contributors.  The top panel is created from a blank page and each subsequent panel is based on the merest scrap of information from its precedent.  This critical information is in the form of a 15 pixel high image strip from the bottom of the previous panel.

I like to think of each corpse as a family with the parent panels begetting child panels and the 15 pixel strip is the genetic material linking generations.  In other words, a whole panel is the phenotype and its 15 pixel lower band is the genotype.  To continue the metaphor, the phenotype of a panel could be outstanding, but if the genotype is weak, successive generations could suffer or vice versa.  Of course, each contributor adds new "genetic material" to the inherited 15 pixel strip to create a brand new phenotype.

These corpses also suggest a sports metaphor wherein teamwork is critical.  In basketball, for instance, one tallies players' goals as well as their assists.  I suggest that the same can be done for corpses.  Sometimes players intentionally turn in a relatively bland panel that serves to highlight the work of others, and this can lead to a fine gestalt that is superior to two adjacent, competing panels.  It takes considerable restraint on the part of players (too much for me most often), but the result can be quite pleasing.

Finally, the Exquisite Corpse website allows commentary on each completed corpse.  This dialogue can be even more entertaining than the subject corpse due to the complexity of evaluating artistic quality.

With that said, below are nine favorites of those to which I made no contribution.  Mouse over thumbnail for my commentary.  Each thumbnail links to the original publication.

  Click here for details on corpses to which I've contributed.