InDigest: Is LTLYM still a collaborative project for you? Do you work
closely with Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher?
Yuri Ono: Yes, I do. Harrell and Miranda periodically come up with new
assignments. And when we have things like the book or a big exhibition
they’ll go through the site and pick out favorites. What I'm mainly
responsible for are the day-to-day goings on of the site. I go through every
single submission and make sure that the instructions were followed. I'll
let them know if they need to add anything more or less to what they¹ve sent
in. Then I post it to the site.
ID: How many submissions do you deal with in a week?
YO: About sixty.
ID: What was the initial idea behind LTLYM, why was it created?
YO: The idea was to create a place where people could easily make art, where
they didn’t have to feel like they were responsible for coming up with an
original idea or concept; this place would just give them instructions to
do something.
ID: So you want to create the box in which to create.
YO: Yeah, the idea is that people can make something, get it posted, and
have a piece that they’re hopefully proud of. Our hope is that through
making the thing they get inspired. You know, by their community, or even by
themselves. So generally I think it’s been successful with that. People are
really pleased with the site, and their involvement.
ID: It feels as though the scope of the site, since I’d first come across
it, has expanded. Was this the original intent, did you see LTLYM becoming
what it is now?
YO: I think initially we weren’t really sure how people would take it on, if
they would be receptive to following instructions, making something and
sending it in. So, we did a trial run with the Maine College of Art's summer
program. We had about twenty students and started them off with five
assignments, actually the current five assignments, one through five on the
site. We tested the involvement of the students, to see how they liked it
and how easy it was to receive and post work. It seemed to go pretty well,
so we expanded it to ten assignments after the summer program was over. And
the site grew from word of mouth. We didn’t do any kind of advertising or
promotion people would just blog about the site or link to it from message
boards. Slowly it grew, and now we’ve gotten almost 7,000 submissions, from
all over the world. We were worried at first, we didn¹t think anyone would
do it, so we’re pleased with how it all turned out. Over time we’ve refined
the technical aspects of the site, everything is done with PHP to keep
coding to a minimum.
ID: So all of the expansion has been essentially organic? The grants page,
the Oliver family blog, gallery exhibitions and now the book?
YO: Yeah, things have happened very organically over time. The grant thing
happened because Harrell and Miranda apply for a lot of artist grants and
they sort of have a rule, that whenever they receive a grant they devote
some of the money towards LTLYM... it’s mostly a labor of love for me, I
don’t get paid very much. So, from time to time, we’ve been able to have
money for grants. If someone does something particularly amazing we’ll give
him/her $500 that they can spend however they want, hopefully towards making
more stuff. Generally we’ll pick five or so people to give grants to.
Then the Oliver family thing happened, I think through Miranda, I'm not
really sure. Somebody from Bumbershoot knew The Olivers and knew they were
very creative. So they set us up, they got in touch with Miranda and
Harrell, and asked if they wanted to collaborate on LTLYM. We asked them if
they would do all of the assignments that we had at the time, which was 63.
Then they showed their work over the festival weekend, in their own
exhibition hall.
ID: The addition of the grants seems like a really amazing idea, how did
that materialize?
YO: Harrell does this when he gets a big grant. He has a lot of friends that
make amazing work but aren’t well known, so he puts aside money to give to
his friends or people that really inspire him that wouldn’t otherwise be
able to get money. It’s the same idea behind giving grants at LTLYM. These
people probably wouldn¹t ever apply for an artists grant, and it’s not
likely they’d get free money for being creative. The grant giving, for us,
is a way of encouraging people to not lose hope and to keep creating things.
ID: Are you still posting new assignments? How does that process work?
YO: Yes, we are still posting new assignments. Sometimes we’ll replace an
assignment if people aren’t following the instructions very well or if no
one is even attempting the assignment. Putting new ones up there happens
once every five or six months.
ID: What don’t people respond well to, in terms of what they are willing to
create?
YO: When we ask more from a participant, like grow a garden, and take
pictures of the garden, over time. People just don¹t want to bother with
that. They don’t want to spend the time to do it. We go for a happy
medium not assignments where its really easy, but not ones that ask for too
much. Generally we like assignments that try to involve the person in their
community, or asks them to share themselves with us.
ID: You bring up the garden assignment, and that was one of the assignments
I thought had some of the most interesting responses on the site, especially
from the Oliver family.
YO: They’re really honest and creative.
ID: Are there any assignments you’re particularly proud of, that there has
been a strong reaction to?
YO: The sun ones are great, [Assignment #27: Take a picture of the sun]
because of the simplicity of the image. I like #55 too, take a picture of a
significant outfit. The scar one turned out well [Assignment #11:
Photograph a scar and write about it] because there are so many stories that
happen.
