Flock.org
2005
Reality Show
DURATION
12 days
CURATORS
Kontejner - bureau of contemporary artistic practice
The work was performed in September 2005 in Zagreb at the Touch Me Festival OutInOpen - Intersections of Technology, Science and Art: "Intelligence Abuse", which was part of the "Operation: City" project.
Flock.org is a reality show in which seven sheep participated: Nevinka, Prozerpina, the ram Josip, Staša, Tihana, Veselka and the lamb Vjeran. During 12 days, spectators could follow what was happening in the pen and vote directly or via the Internet. After the sixth day, the sheep with the least number of votes had to leave the corral. Every following day, the sheep with the fewest votes left the corral. Those who had to leave were given to one of the voters in the prize draw.
If the voter did not claim the sheep, someone else could redeem it, but in that case the sheep had to spend at least 24 hours in his living space. If no one appeared to redeem the sheep, there was a danger that the sheep would end up in the slaughterhouse. The main prize for the winner of the reality show is a natural death guaranteed by a contract with a guardian. The winner was Josip the ram. All sheep had names and individual profiles posted on the flock.org website. The page also published news about everyday life in the herd and corral. The sheep had daily tasks and programs. As part of the "Day of Culture", 16 contemporary Croatian writers read their poems and parts of novels, plays or short stories to the sheep. During the "Day of Creativity", the sheep painted a canvas in the spirit of abstract impressionism under the guidance of artist Vlasta Žanić. They also had a "A Day of Critical Television Viewing" with a television set up in the corral and a "Karaoke Day" when they could imitate the voices of geese, pigs, birds and other animals. On the "Day of collegiality" they were visited by colleagues from the reality show "Bar".
All the sheep survived the reality show.
(In order for the reality show to maintain the seriousness and sharpness of the content, as well as a realistic insight into traditional and contemporary social, economic, media, ethical, political and other moments that accompany sheep and human (co)life, we have kept the information that there is no realistic possibility that sheep end up in the slaughterhouse as the biggest secret.)
The reality show "Stado.org / Flock.org" attracted a lot of attention from the Croatian and international media.