After receiving the 2017 Dot Award for Digital Literature in January 2018 for the #NERDSproject [Never Ending Retelling through Digital Stories], I created three social media accounts for this interactive project. The #NERDSproject is now active on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/nerdsproject/], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/nerdsproject/] and Twitter [https://twitter.com/nerdsproject]. The – ambitious but adaptable – idea, as the website’s tagline [https://nerdsproject.com/] states, is to build over time a ‘Visual Encyclopedia of the Collective Imagination’. This project thus needs to be widely accessible, and its content easily sharable at all times.

The website and social media accounts were officially launched early February. On Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, I regularly suggest a particular title. It can a book, a film, a TV show, and why not something else altogether in the weeks to come…? Suggestions from the public are welcome and may significantly shape the future of the #NERDSproject. After a title has been suggested on social media, anyone interested is invited to post a picture on the platform of their choice to show the image that comes to mind upon hearing those words. In addition to sharing the image submitted on all social media platforms to maximise interaction and inspiration, I then archive all submissions on the website [https://nerdsproject.com/] for convenient access and browsing.

So far, the project has focused on 4 different titles: “The Shining”, “Frankenstein”, “The Color Purple” and “1984”. Or, in the hashtag language: #NERDSTheShining, #NERDSFrankenstein, #NERDSTheColorPurple, and #NERDS1984. So far the title suggested which received the highest number of submissions is “The Shining”. The film by Stanley Kubrick seemed to have had a particular resonance in the audience’s minds. [https://nerdsproject.com/category/the-shining/]

At the moment, the #NERDSproject still needs to gain visibility and attract more participants. This is the reason why I have recently chosen to invest part of the funding associated with the award on advertising: first through Facebook, then Twitter.

I very much look forward to seeing how the project develops over the next few months. What can already be noted at this stage, though, is an interesting variety of formats and sources: the project has received memes, borrowed material, original photographs by contemporary artists, recreations of famous scenes or of general atmosphere, … That’s where the project seems to me most fascinating: it’s all about sharing influences, and echoing varied imaginative worlds. The comments about the project on social media have also shown a keen interest in being empowered to reinterpret and, in a way, appropriate or add to, a major piece of art.

There is no deadline for submissions, this call for pictures is constantly open, so feel free to join and contribute to the #NERDSproject at any time!