For their latest project, artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard attempt to instigate cultural evolution through the exchange of influential ideas. They do this by inviting participants to exchange an object that has in some way changed their life in return for an object that has changed someone else's life. The proposition promotes the perpetuation of influential ideas, inviting participants to actively seed the evolution of those around them and to be hosts to the influences of others.

Forsyth and Pollard installed the first physical manifestation of The Exchange at Walton's New School of Music during April 2005. The second exchange takes place June to July 2005 at Context Galleries, Derry. The project, titled Change My Life, forms part of the exibition Rhythm-A-Ning curated by Declan Sheehan. Find out more about the Dublin Exchange here and the Derry exchange here

Thousands of Change My Life leaflets have been distributed in and around Dublin city centre and Derry city centre. In the leaflet the artists invite everyone to participate in The Exchange. They ask that first you select something to donate to the exchange. This can be anything that has had a positive influence on the way you think or something that has affected the person you are and has, in some way, changed your life. It might be, for example, a book, a CD, a film, a musical score or a poem.

You are then asked to use one of the leaflets provided to write a little about what the object is and how it has influenced you. This is an opportunity to participate in educating and influencing another person - a chance to perpetuate a good idea. Next you attach the message to your object and donate it to The Exchange. Finally you select an object donated by someone else to take away with you and record these items on The Inventory.

The artists propose that as each item exchanged is loaded with significance it can act as a host for a self replicating pattern of information, infecting its new owner with a spark of its original meaning and potential.

There are no absolute rules about how The Exchange works. It is an experiment, and as such will be whatever the participants collectively make it. Find out more about how The Exchange works here.