Skeleton is a project that involves placing ribbon-tied antique skeleton keys in urban public spaces as tokens of chance and potential to be discovered by passersby. The project is inspired by a text-only computer adventure game called Zork, first released in 1980. The opening sequence of the game reads:
"You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here."
The game proceeds as players type instructions like "open window" or "get lamp," and eventually explore a great underground empire filled with such items as a jeweled sceptre, a clove of garlic, a skull, a golden egg and an inflatable boat. The discovery and appropriate use of each object allows one to advance through the game.
Created before computer graphics were possible, Zork relied on the player's creativity in visualizing an imaginary world. My interest with the Skeleton project is to take a similar approach in the public space of the city by introducing nearly invisible elements of fiction which might entice passersby to investigate or pick up the keys, despite the fact that they have no practical function or value. I place the keys on doorknobs, lamp posts, tree branches and other places where they might be easily found. I would like to think that the accidental discovery of a key might lead someone to pick it up, pass it on, wonder about its presence or have some sort of curious and unplanned pause in their day. The title Skeleton refers to the type of key, but also corresponds with the fact that these objects were once "living" as functional, practical tools that belonged to people, but have since been discarded and and remain only as shapes that hint at the secrets they may have kept locked up.
