User:10000BL/H4-Descriptions of work

H4: Descriptions of previous/ongoing work

TE KOOP

TE KOOP (For Sale) is an online project in which I investigate the meaning of promotional images, means of looking at images and the communication between me and potential buyers on sites like Craigslist.org and Marktplaats.nl. In this project I take photos of carefully arranged spaces where at first sight the subject of the photo is a bike or a piece of furniture (e.g. a sofa or a desk). The details in the photos are of importance and these details range from little hints to my past, previous works I made or are chosen because they fit the colors of the other items in the image. The composition is finalized by including myself for the photo in the set in such a way that it might be difficult for viewers to notice. The final photos are then turned into advertisements that serve as a bait for potential buyers. I speak of bait because the intention of the advertisements is not to actually sell the products I offer, instead the advertisements are online to investigate how people respond and communicate on commodity markets. The advertisements look like any other advertisement on a commodity market. That means, it contains an image of the product I offered and a short, minimal description of the product.

For TE KOOP I made fake accounts on commodity markets in different countries around the world. Specifically I stated in the accounts that I was living in cities like New York, London and Berlin. The countries I infiltrated were choses because I mastered the language of the respective country. When this was not the case translators were helping me to reply the potential buyers. The intention of TE KOOP was not to sell the product I offered, instead it was all about the communication. When questions were asked I only answered the question not giving away any other features or circumstances of the product. After a while I started to ask the potential buyers questions, sometimes related to the conversation I had with a potential buyer and sometimes just a random question. The conversation kept on until the potential buyers stopped the conversation itself by not asking any more things or when potential buyers asked me to come by and collect the product. When the latter happened, I answered the product was already promised or sold to somebody else. In any case I tried not to make the potential buyers angry at all time.

A positive consequence of the infiltration of different countries is that it gives an insight how people use and communicate on commodity markets from those different countries. The amount and length of messages, the use of language and product preferences were some of the things that came out when comparing the responses of each country. This is something I did not foresee when I started the project.

The advertisements 'raised' hundreds of responses. Mostly the responses are about the product I offered. This counts for 95% of the responses. In 5% of the cases people noticed that the advertisement is not what it seems to be. Rarely people noticed me from the start, it mostly happened that people became suspicious after numerous e-mails send back and forth with no progression in obtaining the desired product. TE KOOP is a project that is about the (lack of use of) senses. Online the only senses you can use and must trust are your eyes. That means when it comes to advertisements online I expected people to look very good if they first can trust the advertisement and second if they like the product offered.

What I hoped/wanted is

What succeeded

What followed from it

off course language barriers decided to.

what i hoped is that people saw me more than 5%

The use of the word bait is correct in such a way that the intention of the advertisements is not to actually sell the products that I offer, instead the advertisements exist to investigate how people respond and communicate on commodity markets.

On top of the this

for the message 

Every detail is carefully considered and placed

note:

what is the differences between a pic, image, photo?

In my project TE KOOP I infiltrate online commodity markets e.g. Craigslist and Marktplaats. In TE KOOP I make photos of a furnitures or bikes in household settings. Each photo combined with a short description is turned in an advertisement and posted on several commodity markets around the world. The advertisements function as bait and elicit responses. Most responses are about the items offered. I answer the questions raised and try to start conversations with the respondents. In 95% of the cases the conversations stays around the product I seemingly offer. In some cases the conversations transform into an almost friendly conversation.

In TE KOOP both the photos and conversations are equally important, the photos of the items don’t exist without the online content generated and visa versa. The conversations differ in length and content, but are treated equally. They are all significant.

In the summer of 2015 I published my first book TE KOOP: Sprintello Racefiets.