Exquisite
Crops
UPLOAD
Collaborative art for the
artistically challenged.
By Charles Platt
Collaboration by Charles Platt, Jim Markowich, Sandra Mayer, and Richard Kadrey
A
Surrealist artists in the 1920s used to play a collaborative game. The first
person would draw a human head at the top of a sheet of paper and then fold
the paper over. The second would draw the upper half of a body, and again
fold the paper over. The third and fourth artists would complete the body —
at which point the paper could be unfolded, revealing the complete drawing,
which they referred to as an “exquisite corpse.”
As André Breton remembered the process, “Absolute how it could enhance the process. Each person
nonconformism and universal disrespect was the could create a slice of the work on a separate
rule, and great good humor reigned. It was a time for Photoshop layer, merging the art seamlessly from
pleasure and nothing else.” He added: “Ill-disposed one section to the next. You can do it too, even if
critics in 1925–1930 gave further examples of their you have little artistic ability. All you need is some
ignorance when they reproached us for delighting in clip art or a digital camera. You don’t need a recent
such childish distractions.” version of Photoshop, since the software has
Since I liked the idea of art that was fun, I pursued supported layers for more than a decade.
a similar technique with some friends during the In reference to the surrealists, I named this project
1990s. Then I discovered Photoshop and realized Exquisite Crops.
Make: 93
