The Johnny Cash Project is a global interactive website where participants are invited to create drawings that will be woven into a collective tribute to Johnny Cash, who was an influential American singer-songwriter in the 20th century. Participants choose from randomly selected images on the website, and using a simple drawing tool, they create personal portraits of Johnny Cash. Their works will then be combined with more drawings from other participants to be integrated into a music video for Johnny Cash’s posthumous song “Ain’t No Grave”, which was released in 2010. As the drawings submitted from all over the world are played in sequence over the song, the music video becomes an ever changing homage to the late musician. Also, each web user becomes a director by personalizing the music video. Created by Aaron Koblin and Chris Milk, this project represents Johnny Cash’s immortality through his music and his fans. Just like the song’s central lyric, “ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down,” the man in the music video will never stop evolving, thus the video will never stay the same.
Aaron Koblin is an artist and designer specializing in data and digital technologies. He also leads the Data Arts Team in Google’s Creative Lab. Chris Milk is an American music video director and photographer. He has directed videos for many internationally renowned artists including Kanye West, U2, Green Day, Courtney Love, and Aud ioslave.
