CURSORWORLD

CURSORWORLD is a collaborative art installation and web app I exhibited as a participating artist in the Computer Mouse Conference in Fall 2019. Through a short drawing exercise at an activity station, I invited guests of the conference to design a mouse cursor that aligned with their personal values.

Background

The Computer Mouse Conference, organized by two of my peers at ITP, was held to gather artists, students, and people in technology around the theme of the computer mouse. The computer mouse was a lens through which attendees reflected on histories of computing and the relationships between bodies and computers.

As opposed to the physical computer mouse itself, my project focused on the design of the computer mouse cursor. While the physical computer mouse fades into obsolescence, the design of the mouse cursor (or pointer) is likely here to stay. If the computer mouse mediates exchange between body and computer, then what can the design of the mouse cursor say about desire and intent? Examining the mouse cursor as a site for personal modification - CURSORWORLD is a mouse cursor creation and sharing tool, guided by our collective values as computer users.

Installation

I set up an activity section with two laptops, accompanied by drawing tablets, with the cursor creation web app. In the background, I set up a projector with a gallery of the participants' custom cursors that filled up over the course of the evening.

Participants were invited to create a custom cursor, choosing a prompt and drawing a personal cursor that responded to the statement.

• I want to create a cursor that encourages a good habit.
• I want to create a cursor that is authentically me.
• I want to create a cursor that reduces my screen time.
• I want to create a cursor that other (choose-your-own-adventure).

By the end of the night, I had over 50 people contribute their own custom cursor design to this gallery! Below are a few selected cursors. Feel free to view the whole gallery here (and design your own cursor!)

The web app

For the conference, I created a simple web app to let people draw cursors and upload them to a shared gallery. Since I prioritized making this closer to a prototype than a deployable app, I used the Meteor framework to quickly get an app up and running, focusing my energy on the cursor creation experience. Check it out at cursor.world!

Creating a cursor