1. We hope between 4 and 6 people will be involved with each corpse. Depends on how many people want to play, how the numbers work and how crappy our math skills are that day.
2. Don't offer to help us with our math, because you can't. All you have to do is wait for an email from Corpse Central once you've signed up. It will inform you that it is now your turn to make a segment of the emerging work.
3. There should be a list of names and email addresses in the message. Your name should be the top one. If the top name is not you, someone fucked up. I don't know what we'll do. Fake it or something.
4. Corpses are constructed from the top down. Each player is responsible for filling a 450 pixel X 200 pixel space. You space may contain anything that can be contained by a photoshop file. Photoshop is not required, but whatever image manipulation software you are using must be capable of producing a file — .jpg files ideally — readable by photoshop. Scan a drawing. Use photography, clip art, whatever. So long as it the right size and the right format, no imagery is proscribed or prescribed. Unlike some historical examples of Exquisite Corpses we are not using any strict anatomical model. It's pure free form.
If you are the starting a Corpse all you need do is fill your space as you see fit, keeping this in mind... DON'T FINISH IT!. By which I mean, don't get to the bottom of yr 200px depth and have everything nice and buttoned up. Because then the person after you doesn't have anything to play off and the whole exercise becomes pointless. leave trailers and things leading off into the nether space that will become the next person's contribution. Because what you are now going to do is snip off a 15 pixel high strip from the bottom of your section and email it to the next player on the list.
Now, if you are *not* the first participant, the person previous to you will have composed their segment and snipped off the bottom 15 pixels to get you started on yours. If there is not a 450px X 15px attached to the email you got, again, someone fucked up. Heads will roll. But let's assume you got it. That strip of pixels will now dictate to some degree what you can do with your space. You have to pick up where those tail ends leave off. If you don't, nothing will join up later and what the hell was the point, right? As long as you are employing what was given you, in whatever way you like (that isn't ignoring it), you can do anything you want.
5. You get seven (7) days to finish your bit. If you don't get done in seven days something unspecific but very drastic will happen to you. No question. It is important that these corpses keep moving. When you are done violating yr alloted space, all you need do is snip a strip off the bottom 15 pixels high and send it to the next person on the list (Unless you're the last one, obv). For maximum compatibility with other people's system/software save your strip as a jpeg file with the HIGHEST QUALITY your software allows. Do not compress the hell out of it, not even to spare your weak little dial up connection. It won't be a big file anyway. It's important to the final product that we not have jpeg artifacts more than we absolutely have to.
In the email in which you pass along your strip, retain the subject line of the original email (see rule 7) and name the file that is the strip you are passing with that subject line/which section you made (so it will look like EXQUISITE CORPSE 0002/3) and most importantly include the list of players working on that corpse so the next person knows who to pass it to.
6. Right, so you've sent your 15px high strip to the next participant. Now send either a MAXIMUM quality jpeg or a FLATTENED photoshop file of your entire corpse segment to assemble@anexquisitecorpse.net But that's not all...
7. In the email you send back to corpse central the subject line needs to be the name of your segment. The original email (with the list of players working on this corpse) will have a subject line along these lines: 'EXQUISITE CORPSE 0002' Your email should retain this subject line and the attached file should be named EXQUITITE CORPSE 0002/1 with the number after the slash indicating which section of the Corpse it is. Then, at the top of the content of the emails include one, two or three words. Not five. One to three. Words. Preferably in English, but I won't make a fuss if they aren't.
The first line of your email should look something like:
TITLE: A ZIGGURAT MANDIBLE
See? Three words. They can make sense or not. Why one to three words? Because your words, strung together with those submitted by the others working on your corpse will become the title of the work. See? It's a corpse *within* a corpse! Oh, profundity! My head spins!
8. When all is complete, your segment will be joined in proper order with the others and the world will behold a new and completely unforseeable work of surrealist bliss. It will subsequently be posted to http://anexquisitecorpse.net for your perusal and that of the general public, who can then discuss the amazing symbolism and synchronicities emerging in the piece. Then we will all be famous.
Questions? Confusion? Problem? Email Corpse Central!