LICENSE 2 DRAW – WORLD TOUR in ONE PLACE – LOS ANGELES IN YOKOHAMA
*please note this event will take place upstairs during the Barbara Streisand Portrait Bender. All are welcome.

For the first time in Los Angeles, our creative community can become participating creators. You can participate directly in an international exhibition by creating and drawing on a surface that is thousands of kilometers away. This event is organized by Human Resources Los Angeles (HRLA) , Koganecho Bazaar and the artist UuDam Tran Nguyen.

License 2 Draw is an innovative interactive artwork drawn by the public on a global scale, 24/7, using IOS and Android app to physically move a pen in YOKOHAMA

Each time a License 2 Draw app user presses a button on his/her smartphone, it sends a signal to a server in Singapore and the server will direct the signal to the drawing car in Yokohama, Japan. This makes it move forward, backward, left or right; basically, drawing what the user wants.

Anyone from anywhere can draw in Yokohama from where they are. They can be physically in Africa, Europe, Americas or Antarctica and they can still draw in Yokohama via wifi and the License 2 DRAW app. In order to emphasize the global scale and the instantaneous concept of the work, the artist UuDam Tran Nguyen entitled this project as: WORLD TOUR in ONE PLACE – YOKOHAMA.

LICENSE 2 DRAW project breaks down the division between sole proprietorship and the public. The public does not usually take an active role in making an international exhibition. However, in this occasion, the public can make and direct changes in the work even from the comforts of their own homes. It is a world-collective-creative effort. Without physically being in Japan, a person can use the License 2 Draw app to control and move a drawing car on a blank canvas in Yokohama at any time of the day.

Statement from the Artist UuDam Tran Nguyen:

” I would like to propose this project as a parody of the US deployment of drone technology in war making. It is a parody that challenges and gestures towards an alternative: instead of the US imperial reach, it’s participation by people in diverse locales whose history has some entanglements with US imperialism (which is to say everyone). For example: Vietnam, Japan and Thailand all have this entanglement with US military presence (Japan in WWII, and now as chief ally of US in the pacific; and Thailand as R&R space for US soldiers in the VN War, etc). This way, rather than being targets of US drones, they are in control of the joystick, reversing their fortunes, at least in a social imaginary.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

License 2 Draw app (L2D) is now available on Apple iTunes and Google Play stores. As you are reading this article, this License 2 Draw project is currently on display at the Koganecho Bazaar, an international exhibition in Yokohama until the 3rd of November. You can participate NOW. This exciting drawing project is ON for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the duration of the exhibition of 3 months. It only takes a few seconds to install License 2 Draw app on your phone.

In order to see what is being drawn in real time via Skype, participants from any part of the world can just add: License2Draw to their Skype account and use Skype to video call License2Draw. Through a 24/7 Skype webcam in Yokohama, one can see the drawing car moving in Yokohama in real time.

To participate in this exciting WORLD TOUR IN ONE PLACE – YOKOHAMA, please complete these 5 simple steps:
1. Install License 2 Draw on your Iphone, Ipad or Android devices
2. Open the License 2 Draw app, select Yokohama 4
3. Click on LOST to sign in with User: abc Password: 123123
4. To view your actions in real time, add License2Draw to your Skype account. Then video call License2Draw

5. Start drawing by using the Forward Backward arrows and Left and Right turn symbols on your phone, and see it moving in real time on your Skype screen.

The link below contains the video instructions and an overview of the exhibit’s installation and 3 sculptures:

https://vimeo.com/103691467