Guevaras

concept & direction: fabian wagmister

technology design & engineering: richard a. doyon

media: darla gelof

design: alejandra leibovich

... dos tres, muchos Guevaras is a unique exhibition of works of art inspired by the life of Che Guevara. Containing over 1,000 pieces of media, it was displayed at UCLA's Fowler Museum of cultural History from October 5, 1997 to February 1, 1998 as part of the exhibition, "Che Guevara: Icon, Myth, and Message." It has also been displayed in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and elsewhere in the U.S. and South America. It is scheduled for permanent display in Havana, Cuba and will be displayed in museums Europe and the Middle East.

Patron access the system using a large (4' by 5') touchscreen display. The exhibition uses DXXS (Digital Exploratory Exhibition System)* technology to navigate through the collection of media. This innovative system allows patrons to explore the exhibits virtual gallery, guided by their interests rather than by a pre-determined structure.

The media consists of:

Visual ~ paintings, photographs, lithographs, prints, drawings
Film ~ movies and videos
Written ~ poetry, essays, short written works
Music
The Spoken Word ~ poetry, speeches, short narrations

Patrons tell the system which art they are interested in simply by touching one of the thumbnail images on the screen. The DXXS system identifies other works of art in the database which share attributes with the selected work and presents the patron with a new screen of thumbnails. By repeating this process, the patron is exposed to a variety of art, guided by their likes and interests rather than by a structured search interface. Attributes were assigned to the art works by Fabian Wagmister, the exhibit "curator." while most works of art may be assigned scores on between one to three attributes, there are over 200 attributes in the Che database (the DXXS allows the curator to create an unlimited number of attributes).

To look at a piece of art in detail (or listen to music, see a video or movie, or read text), the patron double-touches the thumbnail interest. In the "full screen" mode, the user can search the database using more traditional search criteria (artist, date, medium, country).

* The DXXS System tm was developed by Richard A. Doyon and Fabian Wagmister. For more information, contact Richard Doyon.