WHAT'S ON / REZZ - IMAGES BY PETE CARR

13 MAY 2011 - 14 JUNE 2011

Rezz is an interactive photography project discussing the ways in which we interact both online and offline. It asks the question whether social media helps or hinders our ability to interact with each other.

The project achieves this through the use of portraits of random strangers taken on the streets of Liverpool with an iPhone. These portraits are embedded in the real world and the virtual world for people to discover and interact with through a use of the location app Gowalla.

The use of Gowalla is integral to this project. By using this app anyone can physically visit the location of the portrait. They can live and breath the location of the portrait.

Once someone has found a ‘Rezz’ spot in Gowalla and visited it the project invites them to submit a photograph of their own. There is nothing to stop them going up to someone and asking to take their photograph, nothing except potential social issues. In doing this they are literally put into my shoes in a way that normal photography exhibitions cannot do. They may feel the same fears that I did in going up to a stranger and asking to take their photo. It isn’t easy going up to a stranger and asking to take their portrait, but it is easy to say hello to a stranger on Twitter. The project allows people to experience these issues first hand and think about them.

There is also an exhibition of the portraits in the Bluecoat in Liverpool. These are so people can meet these people in the real world instead of the virtual.

http://www.rezzd.com