Replicators

Replicators invites you to make an original work of art, to make an object that will become part of an unlimited sequential edition of "replicators." Confounding traditional methods of facture and meaning, Tyson gives you a set of directions that involves making one object based on the description of another. Then you take a picture of your object, write about it, and send this documentation to Tyson, who returns it to you with a certificate of authenticity. Tyson's project makes the children's game of "telephone" or "chinese whispers" concrete.

Tyson complicates issues of artistic process and intention by annexing his audience -- not just as receivers or perceivers -- but by making them complicit as makers and interpreters. The material results stay hidden from view as private property, accessible only in the form of description. The first Replicator, a desk-top sculpture Tyson made from readily available materials, has permutated like genetic material based on the quirks of individual interpretation.