Dogs' Ears

Dogs’ Ears explored the beauty and language of the dog ear. Presented as a video chat website, visitors logged in, browsed dogs and instant messaged with them online. Each dog responded in its own language, whether with an English ‘woof woof’, a Chinese ‘wang wang’, the Russian ‘gav gav’ – or the universal twitch and flap.
Dogs’ Ears both spotlighted the human attraction to dogs and foreshadowed the future of arts patronage in the digital era. Launching before Kickstarter – Dogs’ Ears was a revolutionary crowdfunding/patron style work, asking users to take the role of ‘patron’ to video chat with the dogs and offering various levels of access according to donation size. Funds collected supported another piece of data art involving dogs’ ears.