Local Writers: an invitation to collaborate

Yet another project for local writers, Tim Burton's Cadvre Exquis, reposted from Mashable ~ Tim Burton tells crowd-sourced tale via Twitter. 

So what is a cadavre equis? Among Surrealist techniques exploiting the mystique of accident , believed to unveil the working of the unconscious mind, was a collective collage of words or images called the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse) based on an old parlor game. Each player would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for his contribution.

How apropos for Twitter! Write it in 140 characters, minus #BurtonStory hashtag, tweet to pass it on.  A tidy transposition of Lautréamont's classic verbal collage to a cyber collective level

Ever had the burning desire to collaborate with Tim Burton? Well, now you can, as the director/producer/artist/writer has taken to Twitter to create a crowd-sourced tale to promote an upcoming museum showing of his work.

The Twitter project is titled "Tim Burton's Cadavre Exquis," which translates to "exquisite corpse." An exquisite corpse is a game adored by the Surrealists in which a group of people add phrases to a slip of paper in turn to create story. Images can also be used to create eclectic beasts.

That's pretty much how Burton's Twitter experiment functions. Burton has started off the game with a sentence detailing the adventures of "Stainboy," and is asking people contribute a line to the story with the hashtag "#BurtonStory." The best tweets of the day are chosen to continue the story, which will run from today until December 6.

This experiment is meant to coincide with an exhibit of Burton's work that will be opening in Toronto on November 26 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The exhibit previously opened in New York City at MoMA, where it drew the third-highest attendance of any exhibition in the museum's history.