news and updates
Found photos
We recently discovered a collection of photographs, old home movies and memorabilia. There are very few names or dates but they seem to span all time…
Check our Flickr for the goods.
Feed the Head
We were bored so we jumped on Google and did a search for “head.” What did we find? An amusing website called www.feedthehead.net
After spending about 30mins on the site, we decided it was certainly worth sharing with you. So go… feed the head. And when you’re done, if you feel like sending us any other links to fun ‘head related’ websites, shoot us an email and we’ll add them to the site.
theheadproject [at] gmail.com
This will give us all something to do while we wait for real updates!
Share using AddThis
Okay sure, we’d love to believe that people around the world have already told their friends and family about The Head project and that some have even gone so far as to appeal local governments to adopt THP as their primary focus for the upcoming year but the reality is, that probably hasn’t happened. But these days there are ways to make ’spreading the word’ a LOT easier. Gone are the days of simply posting a link on our blog or copying some web banner html code… it just took us a few months to realize this!
You’ll notice that we’ve added a new button to our sidebar. With the help of AddThis.com you can now share the project with EVERYONE using any one (or all) of the most popular social bookmarking and networking sites with just a few clicks.
So help give head to the world. Get out there and start sharing!
Ebb and flow
We suppose as with most things, The Head Project too must ebb and flow. There are periods of time we have nothing to update on but the fact that we are waiting; waiting for the postal service to deliver a head, waiting for a contributor to mail a head, waiting for a contributor to post an update or merely waiting for our next paycheck here at THP HQ. And then there exist those moments when everything is happening all at once.
This is one such moment.
001 Francesco Parolin finished up with 001 and due to some issues with his Flickr, we’ve uploaded them to ours here. We’re constantly amazed at the creative response to The Head Project and Francesco’s contributions are no different. In fact, his photos actually gave us an idea but we’re not going to tell you what it is yet.
By Francesco Parolin
He’s turned the head over to Sara Lando who participated in the first installment of The Head Project, the travelingheadproject. Which reminds us, we still have a LOT of old contribution photos that we need to show you! Sara has already started updating her Flickr set and we’re excited to see what else she’s got planned.
002 After a longer wait than we anticipated, Dan Busta has mailed out 002. He’s excited about his contribution and so are we. But in his own words, “I’ll get it up asap.. which in my terms might be a while!” We had to laugh. At least he’s honest.
Almost as soon as Chrissie White received 002 in the mail, she started shooting. She’s already offered us an initial forray into her world and although she claims, “… I’ve got no ideas” we’re still pretty excited. Her first photo has already been viewed nearly 2,400 times as well as received over 100 comments and 183 people have called it a favorite!! We’d say for having no ideas, she’s doing fine. Plus we love it… and that’s all that really matters.
003 After having been detained by the customs office in Iceland for some time, Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir finally got the head. She’s even claimed she knows what she’s going to do with it and if this photo is in fact a reference to The Head Project, we’re curious. We should know in a week or so. We’ll keep you posted!
004 We had asked Justin Rodgers to hold on to 004 until we lined up the next contributor, to which he responded, “No complaints here.” With 46 THP photos to his name, it’s obvious that he’d been enjoying himself. In the words of Carey Kirk, one of our previous THP contributors:
“Justin took the head, and just went with it. I love the versatility and craft in all of his … Head Project photos. I can feel the excitement both from Justin and the project exuding from these prints. Amazing!”
We agree. But sadly, his run with 004 has come to an end and it’s time to ship it off to Loren Carlile from Coppell, TX!
THP & Redballproject
We’ve always wanted to make The Head Project about more than just heads. We want it to be a platform for other artists, projects and events.
Today we headed to downtown Chicago in search of a big red ball, the key ingredient in the Redballproject by Kurt Perschke. Not only did we find the big red ball, we also found Kurt Perschke (but didn’t realize it until later)!!
As creator of The Head Project, one would think that I’d be comfortable taking pictures of a mannequin head in public. Truth is, I still haven’t gotten used to the idea. When I removed the head from my backpack, I took a few deep breaths and went into ‘work mode’ (otherwise known as tunnel vision). I knew I needed to get some pictures of the head with Kurt’s big red ball but I didn’t want to know that people were staring at me!
As I was taking pictures, I heard Carey explaining the project to someone and got up off the ground rather embarassed. I said something like “Yeah, I don’t usually take part in my own projects” to which he (Kurt) responded “That’s usually the best idea.” I had the feeling we had just bumped into the owner of the big red ball but my suspicions weren’t confirmed until we got home and I did some more research. Aw crap.
As the red ball is moving to another location this coming week, we’ll be there with another head and maybe we’ll bump into Kurt and I’ll be a bit more prepared!
Click here to see the pictures!
Introducting “WHITE”
We’re proud to introduce WHITE, a new phase in the evolution of The Head Project.
It has forever been our interest to include all varieties of artistic expression and not just photography. I mean really, how can you have a worldwide collaborative project and not include EVERYONE! With WHITE we’re finally able to extend an invitation to the illustrators, painters, graffiti artists and graphic designers!! There are a lot of really great artists out there and with the popularity of custom painted vinyl toys, we thought, “Why not paint a head?”
Although they’re not vinyl (yet), these heads are all set to be painted up by some of our favorite artists!
How it Works
If you’re chosen to participate in WHITE, we’ll ship you one of our special WHITE heads and let you do your thing. We don’t care how you do it. Paint just the scalp or the entire head, it’s up to you. It’s your own blank canvas.
Unlike our standard heads, with WHITE there is no two week time limit. You can keep your head as long as you need. When you’re done, let us know and we’ll even pay for return shipping back to us. This way we can photograph your head and put it up on our site.
With WHITE, we’re obviously looking for artists that create work we love and although we’ve already got a few artists in mind, if you’re interested in contributing to WHITE, go ahead and check out the participation page and follow the simple instructions.
And of course, we’re still doing the photography thing too!
So if you wanna play too, just CLICK HERE!
All tied up
If we’ve learned anything since we started this project, it’s that four heads just isn’t enough to provide a constant source of updates. We expect there to be a few short periods of time between updates due to things like heads being en route, people going on vacation, people being busy with life and needing a bit more time (which we’ve granted), problems with the postal service etc. But looking back over the last few weeks (months?) it seems more often than not, the heads are being tied up somewhere. Again, we’re cool with that so long as it means we’re getting something out of it.
The reality is… we feel bad. We feel bad that folks come to the site for updates and we’ve got nothing to offer them. The obvious answer is, we need more heads. More heads means more updates… even if the new heads just get tied up somewhere too.
So consider this our official apology. We need more heads… and more updates. Even if the updates have nothing to do with the project it’ll at least give you something to read.
If you’re interested in helping us purchase more heads, we accept donations.
High stakes
We’ll be honest, there are moments when it’s hard to justify the work we here at THP HQ put into this project. These moments tend to follow things like misplaced heads, heads being held captive by the Iceland Customs Office (as is currently the case), contributors not communicating, things generally taking longer than expected between updates or any number of other mishaps along the way.
Happily enough, we usually change our mind as soon as something GOOD happens. And by something good, we mean something so amazing as to make us laugh out loud. And that’s just what happened when we saw the first batch of Justin Rodgers photos.
His images are sarcastic and witty and for a moment, we actually thought Elle Moss (previous contributor) was crazy enough to simply wrap the head in brown paper, cut some eye holes, throw a Priority Mail sticker on it and send it off.
We salute you Justin. Thank you for momentarily renewing our faith in the work we do here at THP HQ.
Leaving on a jetplane
That’s right, starting tomorrow THP HQ will be closed for an entire week! We’re taking a vacation. And we can assure you it breaks our heart to be leaving the project in the hands of, well… you, for an entire week. We’re used to babysitting. We’re used to advertising and promoting and dreaming about ways to make the project better, cooler, faster, more accessible. But oh well, we’ll be on vacation!
Out of respect for those dedicated few visitors to our humble home, we thought it’d be nice to leave an update before we go.
001 Laura Manchuni shipped the head out last week and it should actually be arriving at the home of Francesco Parolin today (according to her email). So in theory, two weeks from now, we’ll have some new stuff from Francesco!
002 We’ve been trying to get an update from Dan Busta for 5 days now as his two weeks ended on the 7/31/2008 but to no avail. 002 is scheduled to be passed to Jed Johnson but timing is important because Jed will be on vacation starting the 8/15/2008 and he’s also not heard from Dan… we’re guessing Dan is busy.
003 We shipped 003 out to Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir in Iceland on 7/18/2008 but she’s still not received it. Sad part is, we paid $35 to get it there quickly (6-10 business days). So far it’s been 15 business days. Maybe in another week…
004 Elle is all finished with 004 and tomorrow she’ll be shipping it to Justin Rodgers so he can play with it for 2 weeks.
In conclusion… at this point, we’re really just waiting for things to happen.
But while we wait (and while we’re on vacation), feel free to do what I do normally… advertise, promote and dream about ways to make the project better, cooler, faster, more accessible. AND FIND MORE SUPER-AMAZING CONTRIBUTORS!
Leave a comment or send us an email at theheadproject [at] gmail dot com.
(A)whimsical Elle
When we first approached Elle Moss with the idea of participating in THP, we specifically used the word ‘whimsy’ to describe her current collection of photos… and now look what she’s gone and done!! She’s gone from whimsical to disturbing and yet, her contributions are still very much Elle and we love ‘em.
And really, who are we kidding… what were we to expect when we send a head to folks and ask them to get creative? Butterflies and unicorns? You can check out her most recent photos here.
Of course there are more photos to come and when she’s made her final upload, we’ll be sure to let you all know!
© 2008 The Head Project. 
