À l’intérieur/Inside (São Paulo)

DATA consists of a collection of multimedia works that incorporate images obtained using highly specialized scientific instruments, that is, scanning electron and atomic force microscopes. Such technology makes it possible to explore matter at its most fundamental level and observe molecular structure in terms of its chemical, magnetic and geometric components. At this scale, images can be obtained using viewing tools and by energy transfer, in addition to optical methods. The images that result from these processes engender curiosity and fascination, and give rise to questions about the power of representing what cannot be seen. The DATA project is adapted to each exhibition space in order to promote observation and elicit reflection about such images, the level of reality they present and the techniques which allow them to emerge. This project is part of broader research into the invisible and the inaudible, and levels of reality that are not immediately perceptible. Access to technology and acquisition of the documents were made possible by a residency at the Nanolab in McGill University’s Department of Chemistry, with the collaboration of Vicki Meli and Dr. Bruce Lennox. This project benefited from the support of the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology.

Digitale is an interactive installation comprising a wall projection and a bench on which an old still camera is placed. A touch-sensitive screen, incorporated into the bench, shows a video image picked up by this continuously operating camera. When a visitor touches this screen, concentric circles superimpose themselves on the image, making it shimmer as if it was reflected in the water, giving the image a new sense of materiality. The water’s fluidity suits the changing nature of the video image and highlights its mobility. Moreover, when participants press the camera’s shutter release, it produces a black and white still that is projected onto the wall. This photo gradually fades, giving way to an increasingly abstract representation. This fading process gives rise to reflection about the fragility of the memory evoked by the photographic image.

Participants can incorporate themselves into these images by turning the camera on themselves, then witness the transformation of their own image and connect with the effect of these devices on representation. Digitale thus invites an examination of the technologies used to capture and process the real (analog and digital photography and video) and a consideration of their ability to redefine the world.

Credits: The artist wishes to thank Mathieu Bouchard for his assistance.
 

Giving rise to an immersion environment and performances that vary with spectator involvement, habitgram presents a mise en abyme of the exhibition space. habitgram is a surveillance coat that all visitors are invited to wear in turn. The coat contains several camouflaged mini-cameras that pick up the immediate environment. The images captured by these cameras are multiplied on the gallery walls through real-time projections. The immediate area, thus multiplied, offers various perspectives of the site simultaneously; all perspectives change as the coat moves. Enshrouded by the moving, staggered images, participants can be disoriented and sometimes experience dizziness.

While the person wearing the habitgram becomes the performer and a producer of images, visitors in the same space are integrated into these images and participate in the installation as well. By donning the habitgram, participants are encouraged to “wear” the place in which they are standing, to become one with it and to redefine it while visitors who appear in these videos become actors, also appropriating the space. They actively become aware of their position in this space.
 

redTV, a Brad Todd installation, uses a computer application to capture a television signal in real time and present a garbled image next to a miniature TV that displays the source of the image. The moving red surfaces that emerge on the projected image result from changes wrought by the computer application. They leave traces, creating a history and map of their fluid appearance.

Tact is an interactive video installation that can be controlled using a touch-sensitive screen. It sets up a meeting between the participant and an anonymous person located on the other side of the screen. The Tact program links video sequences in response to the participant’s various manipulations. Without using words, participants are invited to engage in gesticulative dialogue. By touching and rubbing, they eventually discover they are provoking unusual reactions from their virtual partner.

Literally, the word “tact” is synonymous with the sense of touch. Figuratively, however, it also means an intuitive, spontaneous and thoughtful appreciation of how it is appropriate to behave in a human relationship. The Tact project demonstrates the increasing presence of electronic mediation in interpersonal exchanges. The recent emergence of various network communication services (e-mail, forums, electronic chat) is giving rise to a particular type of public space where social relations are often filtered by anonymity or artificial identities. In many cases, these can be seen as an opportunity for openly expressing ourselves with others without actually exposing ourselves personally. Technology then plays a paradoxical role in that it provides direct access to others while maintaining a protective distance. In this kind of relationship, a strange mixture of inhibition and exhibition seems to appear.
 

Perversely Interactive System consists of a life size video projection that is controlled by a participant with a biofeedback handset. The handset measures galvanic skin resistance (variation in sweat gland activity). The participant can control the image (and associated sound) by lowering his/her internal stress level - for example by conscious muscle relaxation, breathing, meditation etc. The video projection begins with the image of a woman with her back turned. If the participant’s level of stress lowers, the (image of the) woman in the video will turn around and advance towards us. (If the participant then gets excited by this success however, the she pauses and waits).

This work plays on the symmetry, and the engagement, between the image of the person on the screen and the individual in front of the screen. The fact that the person on the screen is controlled by the body functions of the participant sets up a kind of empathy, an intimacy. At the same time the virtual other remains fugitive and difficult to control. The piece also focuses on the idea of appearance (or surface), in particular women’s appearance, as something that is both seductive and yet surprisingly opaque or resistant.