Research notes for project planning
What the project record tells us
Participatory digital mural
Participants can help determine their representation
The Chronicles of San Francisco combined portraits with recorded personal accounts, allowing people to decide how they wanted to appear. JR’s project documentation describes consistent photographic conditions across participants and a scrolling digital mural presented at SFMOMA. The precedent is useful when a commission promises to represent a community: participation can include decisions about appearance and voice, not only being photographed. A project brief should identify those choices before recruitment begins. Which decisions will participants control, and how will that control be communicated clearly?
JR — The Chronicles of San Francisco ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10
For your project briefWhich decisions will participants control?
Big Art Partners planning prompt Collaborative prison-yard installation
Assembly can bring different participants together
For Tehachapi, The Yard, JR’s team assembled portraits in a California prison courtyard in 2019 with incarcerated participants, guards and studio members. His documentation describes 338 paper strips forming an image coherent from above. Installation itself became a shared activity. A commission using this approach should define how participants join, understand its purpose and share tasks within the setting’s permissions and supervision.
JR — Tehachapi ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10
For your project briefWhich tasks can be shared within the setting’s permissions?
Big Art Partners planning prompt Temporary material and documentation
A brief lifespan can be intentional
JR records that the Tehachapi courtyard image disappeared after three days of foot traffic. Its temporary paper surface and aerial perspective made documentation central to later encounters with the project. Agree on the intended lifespan and distinguish the physical event from its photographic record. Specify what must be documented before use transforms the surface and who will preserve that record.
JR — Tehachapi ↗ · Reviewed 2026-10-10
For your project briefWhat must be documented before public use transforms the surface?
Big Art Partners planning prompt 