{The Wish Machine}---{HOW TO PARTICIPATE}---{Other Critical Details}

This year's on-line presentation is created in conjunction with artist Chrysanne Stathacos' The Wish Machine project which will be located in New York City's Grand Central Station (December 1st - 18th). Wrapped in the image of a wishing tree from India, this customized vending machine dispenses the artist's wish multiples that are intended to conjure the desires of the urban commuter. Each artwork includes a printed photocollage depicting a plant that evokes the essence of the wish (Rose=Love) along with a small vial of the plant's essential oil to extend the wishing ritual into a multisensory experience.

Using the vending machine mechanism to shape the interface of this year's web project, DWA Web Action 1997 will offer a web site for personal and collective action and contemplation. Instead of hard currency, the user will be invited to submit a wish to activate the powerful energy of imagination and hope.

In addition to The Wish Machine, the web site will also offer a plentiful resources section which includes access to up-to-date medical information, specific services for artists, and youth outreach information, as well as a linked list in formation of all DWA Web Action participants. Other DWA Web Action highlights include The Time Capsule, facilitated by Ming Wei Lee. ArtAIDS (UK) and Visual AIDS will collaborate with Creative Time and the Museum of Modern Art to create an interactive web site which preserves for posterity personal accounts of the impact of the AIDS pandemic at this specific moment, December 1, 1997. Another DWA Web Action 1997 participant, Queer Arts Resource (QAR), will launch "AIDS: Making Art and Raising Hell" written by Robert Atkins which examines the impact and consequences of the epidemic on the art of the late 20th Century. While hundreds of artists have produced personal, often moving responses to AIDS, other artists and activists have revitalized public art by creating symbols, icons and memorials that reached millions of people.

How To Participate:

1. Copy the Day Without Art logo from our logo page.

2. Copy the code from beneath the logo you pick.

3. Paste the logo and the code into your home page.

4. Email us your URL (web address) so that you can be included in the participating sites section. This will also serve as a return link to your site.

Other critical details about DWA Web Action.

When should I put my link up? World AIDS Day/Day Without Art is officially December 1st; however, we will begin previewing the site mid-November. Since December 1st is the Monday following Thanksgiving (US), we highly encourage everyone, especially USers, to post their DWA link by November 25th.

How long will the Day Without Art Web Action last? We plan to proudly feature DWA Web Action on our site year round.

Why am I doing this?This is a question you get to answer for yourself. Creative Time annually coordinates DWA Web Action to facilitate the coming together of individuals as well as organizations to defy geographical boundaries and publicly unite and express a global solidarity around the grave impact of the AIDS pandemic.

Does this mean that I have to replace my site for the day? How you choose to observe DWA/World AIDS Day is up to you. Here are several strategies DWA Web Action participants have used in the past:

• For the most radical observance, disable entry to your web site for December 1st and post the linked DWA logo on a black background.
  
  
• For an elegant solution that doesn't deny access, create a buffer page for the user to "pass through" that features the linked DWA logo and also offers entrance to your site.
  
  
• Shift your backgrounds to black for the day and post the linked DWA icon as a special addition to your site.
  
  
• Simply post the linked DWA icon as a special addition to your site.

© 1997 Day Without Art Web Action Project  212/206-6674 x201 staff@creativetime.org