May 2000. My first website project:
http://www.geoffnet.uklinux.net/randomsample/

The writing and drawings on Random Sample were made and/or found during my travels to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Barcelona, Genova, Milano, Venezia, Wien, London, Glasgow and Birmingham, October 1999 – May 2000. Geoff Webb, my old buddy/collaborator/linux maven, taught me HTML coding, and did the back-end coding to create the “randomisation effect”.

Most of the drawings on the site are created with the mouse – mainly because I had no scanner.

I wanted to make an online “artist’s book” that had the feel of flipping through the pages, rather than the very predictable “click and you know what you’re getting” effect of stuff on the web.

There are about 60 poems and drawings in the database, and the code Geoff wrote calls them up randomly. When you’ve seen them all, the process begins all over again (in a different random order!).

Random Sample was created as part of the inaugural London Biennale (directed by David Medalla) and was launched at STUFF Gallery in London (run by Bec Neill and Rohan Stanley).

At STUFF, I also hosted an evening of super 8 films; a small exhibition of video works (including a video by Austrian artist Sabine Jelinek); and a special screening of the incredible Dandy Dust by Hans Scheirl.

Random Sample Credits:
Besides Geoff Webb’s technical wizardry, thanks are due to Gianna Murazzo for some Italian texts and translations, Birgit Lang and Marcus for German translations, Zunzi Wong and Billy Chan for Cantonese translations, and Tim Hilton and Michelle Seamons for some of the drawings.