Sight & Sound 2013 - Installations

NICOLAS MAIGRET + BRENDAN HOWELL - THE PIRATE CINEMA

In the context of omnipresent telecommunications surveillance, “The Pirate Cinema” makes visible the hidden activity and the geography of peer-to-peer file sharing. The project is presented as a control room, which instantly reflects P2P exchanges happening in real time on networks, which use BitTorrent protocol. The installation produces an improvised and syncopated arrangement of files currently in exchange. The immediacy of the presentation of digital data, including fragmented information about source files and their destinations, depicts the topology of digital information use and the global reach of data dissemination.

JEAN-BAPTISTE BAYLE - TERMINATOR STUDIES

This project proposes a reinterpretation of the science-fiction series “Terminator,” whose narrative reveals itself as a veritable almanac, prophetic in nature. In analysing the links between history and fiction, “Terminator Studies” poses a critical eye on the domination of machines and the intrusion of surveillance systems in private life. In addition to Bayle’s performance on May 12, a map depicting the socio-historical connections between “Terminator” and contemporary politics will be on exhibit in the gallery space for the duration of the festival, alongside a visitor-accessible Web archive of the entire project.

CONSTANT DULLAART - TOS (TERMS OF SERVICE)

The neutral appearance of platforms such as Google, that is, their clean and tidy landing pages devoid of advertisements, make them appear as harmless research tools for browsing the Net. Their true opposite nature is, however, quickly revealed through “Terms of Service”, a work where Google’s landing page dictates the prominent search engine’s rules and conditions out loud. Google’s search bar becomes the Mouth of Truth, revealing its terms of service with a chillingly neutral, machine like voice.

CONSTANT DULLAART - NERVOUS NEWS

“Nervous News” is a practice in manipulating live online content as Dullaart appropriates displays from news sites — usually graphically attractive — to shiver with fear. By letting the webpage tremble, the news becomes hard to read but also seems to become part of the image, thus forcing the viewer to recognize that this website only offers a narrow depiction of reality.

CONSTANT DULLAART - CRYSTAL PILLARS

“Crystal Pillars” is a video essay comprised of “real” social encounters Dullaart experienced through his Facebook life. As a voice actor recites a range of social media “sages” — from Mark Zuckerberg to Lil’ B to Dullaart himself — the resulting narrative takes viewers on a journey through personal experiences, corporate promotion, and an apocalyptic perception of the contemporary social landscape. For Dullaart, social network citizens readily give up their privacy in return for potential contacts, as though these were tangible and exchangeable commodities. In this way, Dullaart points out that the idea that we control our identities and how we are perceived online is merely an illusion.

MELISSA CLARK - SILA

“Sila” is a generative multimedia installation about Arctic ice and Greenlandic culture, evoking imagery of shape shifting, melting, falling ice, and climatic cycles. The Greenlandic ice sheet is the second largest ice body in the world. Today, many focus on the Arctic as related to climate change as well as to the region's politics over resources such as oil, minerals, and gas. But there is also a human element to be considered and a culture embedded in this ice, water and terrain. “Sila” is divided into two areas: one documenting daily Greenlandic life through hundreds of small photographs of ice, hunters, youth, soccer games and family dinners; the second representing a mixture of water and oil dripping slowly into a suspended sculpture of glass and paper. Over the course of “Sila,” paper will disintegrate; pieces of glass will fall and break. The sculpture will change analogously to climatic cycles. Video and sound will go through cycles of audible textures and recognizable images into washes approaching nothingness.

Ed Bear collaborated on the engineering and fabrication design of “Sila.” R. Luke DuBois consulted on building the video software's algorithm.