Participatory installation & audiovisual instrument for spectators, CCTV system, custom video mixer, sonification and av projection.
Cast:
db0 - voice, mask, objects, live electronics
Kay Zhang - voice, megaphone, alto saxophone
Catalina Gutiérrez - voice, clarinets
Nikola Lutz - turntables, alto saxophone, electronics
Remmy Canedo - audiovisual instrument (Objects of Information)
Recorded at Projektraum Wagenhallen as a part of Hotspot_C
My Behavioral Surplus
11.07.21. Stuttgart, Germany
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About Objects of Information:
In his book »Discipline and Punishment« (1975), M. Foucault uses J. Bentham’s Panopticon to illustrate the way in which citizens are dominated by disciplinary societies. He points out that target people suffer the consequences of asymmetric surveillance: people cease to be a subject in communication, instead they become objects of information. Once we are aware of this, the problematic begins:
How does our behavior change knowing that we are being surveilled?
What happens when our subject is transfigured into an object?
Do we agree to share our information within an intangible surveillance network?
From this, I created ›Objects of Information‹: a participatory installation that represents the implicit dichotomy of CCTV surveillance and the role it plays in our lives. An examination of the action and meaning of observation, the power of visual perception and the paradox of privacy.
The installation deals with the psychological experience of visitors, confronting the paradox of privacy. They will transit through an architectural space full of video cameras, becoming ‘objects of information’, thus a different self-consciousness arises among them that can influence their behavior, thoughts and perception.
Their participation is fundamental since their image will be used as the source material of the installation: all visual data will be collected, processed in real time and manipulated with custom video mixers and sound controllers by the author. The result will be presented as a large scale visual projection. At some point, the visual data will be transformed into audio through sonification algorithms, turning the installation into a huge audiovisual instrument that will be used during a collective performance with other artists.
