MMD2133
Digital Media Design 3
Project 1
Case Study - Interactive Art & Installation Design
Artist biography
Marie Sester
Marie Sester is an artist working primarily with digital technologies to create works in a variety of media and formats.
Born in France, Sester studied to be an architect, earning a Masters Degree from the Ecole d'Architecture in Strasbourg, France. After traveling through Europe and Africa, she settled in Paris and established an art practice creating mainly drawings and paintings. After receiving a residency in Japan in 1993, her work shifted toward an exploration of public space, creating installations and experimental interactive works.
In 2000 she moved to the U.S., living first in San Francisco, then Los Angeles. She currently lives in New York City.
Installation art pieces/ projects
ACCESS
ACCESS is an interactive installation that lets web users track anonymous individuals in public places, by pursuing them with a robotic spotlight and acoustic beam system.
Access is a public art installation that applies web and surveillance technologies, allowing web users to track individuals in public spaces with a unique robotic spotlight and acoustic beam system, without people wearing any gear, exploring the ambiguities among surveillance, control, visibility and celebrity.
ACCESS presents control tools generated by surveillance technology combined with the advertising and Hollywood industries, and the internet. It refers to political propaganda and media manipulation.
Source: Access Website: http://www.accessproject.net/
Choice of media
Interactive art installation
-Computers, cameras, robotic spotlight, robotic acoustic beam, Internet, custom software
Concept
The content of ACCESS calls for awareness of the implications of surveillance, detection, celebrity, and their impact on society. The structure of ACCESS is intentionally ambiguous, revealing the obsession/fascination for control, visibility, and vigilance: scary or fun. ACCESS was primarily influenced by the beauty of the surveillance representations (x-rayed bodies, luggage or vehicles, 3D laser scans, satellite reconnaissance imagery, etc.), the invisibility of the collected data, and the power generated by means of surveillance practices.
Description
ACCESS is a public art installation that applies web, computer, sound and lighting technologies in which web users track individuals in public spaces with a unique robotic spotlight and acoustic beam system. The robotic spotlight automatically follows the tracked individuals while the acoustic beam projects audio that only they can hear. The tracked individuals do not know who is tracking them or why they are being tracked, nor are they aware of being the only persons among the public hearing the sound. The web users do not know that their actions trigger sound towards the target. In effect, both the tracker and the tracked are in a paradoxical communication loop. The ACCESS spotlight system travels from one undisclosed public space to another. The exact location of the public space is revealed only after ACCESS moves to its next location. The ACCESS website, which contains the webcam view and spotlight control, keeps an updated list of the locations visited as well as a video archive.
Access addresses and explores the impact of detection and surveillance within contemporary society. It presents control tools that combine surveillance technology with the advertising and Hollywood industries, creating an intentionally ambiguous situation, revealing the obsession-fascination for control, vigilance, visibility and celebrity: scary or fun
Analysis of the interactivity in the work
A robotic spotlight automatically targets certain individuals, following them through the public space. Who is tracking them? Why are they being tracked? They don't know that users of the web project ACCESS have spotlight control and an overhead webcam view. They are also unaware that they are the only ones who can hear sound from an acoustic beam triggered by the website. Instead of choosing to step into the spotlight, the "performer" in this case appears to be chosen by it.
Materials/ technology/ equipment/ gadget/ system
Personal comment
ACCESS is a robotic spotlight and acoustic beam system that tracks individuals in public places. The beam is either activated as people move through the space under surveillance, or it is piloted remotely using a Web interface. This installation art combined with my interest in art, led me to installation, which allowed me to be closer to my subject. For me, this installation art is so fun but may be some individuals may not like being monitored so they might not like it. For some individuals may love the attention, I think they might like it.
I think this installation art can be improve by add in something else. By changing the design make the installation art more interesting. For example, the spotlight of tracking people is round shape, may be it can change to other shape like square, triangle or love shape. It can also keep changing color too. Another one is the audio, it is pretty cool if add some background music.
Images
Singapore Biennale_01, 2008
Photo by: Marie Sester
Photo by: Marie Sester
Singapore Biennale_02, 2008
Photo by: Marie Sester
Photo by: Marie Sester
Ars Electronica 2003
Photo by: Marie Sester
Photo by: Marie Sester
Ars Electronica 2003
Photo by: Marie Sester
Photo by: Marie Sester
Screen Shot Web Interface
Ars Electronica 2003
Screen Shot Web Interface
Screen Shot Web Interface
SIGGRAPH 2003
Screen Shot Tracking View
Screen Shot Tracking View
SIGGRAPH 2003
Screen Shot Tracking View
Screen Shot Tracking View
SIGGRAPH 2003
Screen Shot Web Interface
Screen Shot Web Interface
SIGGRAPH 2003
Screen Shot Web Interface
Screen Shot Web Interface
Softopia Center, Ogaki, Gifu, Japan
Photo By Shawn Van Every
Photo By Shawn Van Every
Photos source: http://www.accessproject.net/access11.html
(media-based) interactive installation pieces/ projects
Threatbox.us
Threatbox.us is an interactive installation with web surveillance interface in which a movie frame from a montage of violent excerpts from films, news media, and computer games "attacks" visitors via a robotic video projector and computer vision tracking system.
Choice of media
Interactive art installation
-Computers, cameras, robotic spotlight, robotic acoustic beam, Internet, custom software
Concept
The beam of light that technologies of vision cast upon the world is also always the line of sight for a weapon with which to destroy what the beam presents as its 'objective' -- its target. The moving projection becomes an aggressor. The merging of these technologies of vision and of destruction result in our "military-entertainment" industry. Threatbox.usseeks to question the ideological onslaught of American military-entertainment politics.
Over the past few years I have been examining the compromise, and prize of personal commitment, between self-awareness and subjection. ACCESS (2003-2005) focused on the ambiguity among surveillance, control, and visibility, celebrity. BE[AM] (2005-2007) focuses on the intertwining of military, entertainment, marketing, and the underlying political ideology. Threatbox.us focuses on the aggression that the military and entertainment industries together use to disseminate their propaganda.
Threatbox.us also questions interactivity, and therefore control, as a genre. In this work, the interacting persons are unsuspecting and have no power over their interaction. The web users are powerless as well, witnesses or voyeurs. The rules are set inside the frame of the event, or stage, or game, or – at a larger scale – the consumption economy, the "new world order", the terrorist fear, and the security industry.
Over the past few years I have been examining the compromise, and prize of personal commitment, between self-awareness and subjection. ACCESS (2003-2005) focused on the ambiguity among surveillance, control, and visibility, celebrity. BE[AM] (2005-2007) focuses on the intertwining of military, entertainment, marketing, and the underlying political ideology. Threatbox.us focuses on the aggression that the military and entertainment industries together use to disseminate their propaganda.
Threatbox.us also questions interactivity, and therefore control, as a genre. In this work, the interacting persons are unsuspecting and have no power over their interaction. The web users are powerless as well, witnesses or voyeurs. The rules are set inside the frame of the event, or stage, or game, or – at a larger scale – the consumption economy, the "new world order", the terrorist fear, and the security industry.
Description
Threatbox.us turns a space into an environment in which unsuspecting passers-by encounter video "apparitions" of popular media. A public scale video projection teases viewers with slight but noticeable movements on the wall, moving up, down, to the right, to the left, an unusual way for an advertisement or information screen to behave.
If the passer-by approaches, she enters a detection zone and is tracked by a hidden video camera on the ceiling. As soon as she is detected, the projected movie "attacks" her by swiftly moving onto her body and simultaneously transforming into a purple spotlight, while emitting a loud, threatening sound. This purple light encircling her body encloses her like a target. She cannot escape it. She becomes the center of attention in the public space and to anonymous web users watching online. She is freed of it after several seconds. The projector then moves quickly back on the wall, playing the continuation of the movie, and is ready to attack the next person to be detected.
The background material for Threatbox.us comes from a database that I have collected of popular films, animations, comic books, TV shows, TV news, and computer games. The foreground material will use effects such as explosions, plane crashes, military orders, war zones, disasters, and domestic scenes of people passively engaged in entertainment.
The web component is real time streaming of the space, its public, the movie and the attacks. As for the unsuspecting "targeted" visitors, the web users have no action on what they witness.
If the passer-by approaches, she enters a detection zone and is tracked by a hidden video camera on the ceiling. As soon as she is detected, the projected movie "attacks" her by swiftly moving onto her body and simultaneously transforming into a purple spotlight, while emitting a loud, threatening sound. This purple light encircling her body encloses her like a target. She cannot escape it. She becomes the center of attention in the public space and to anonymous web users watching online. She is freed of it after several seconds. The projector then moves quickly back on the wall, playing the continuation of the movie, and is ready to attack the next person to be detected.
The background material for Threatbox.us comes from a database that I have collected of popular films, animations, comic books, TV shows, TV news, and computer games. The foreground material will use effects such as explosions, plane crashes, military orders, war zones, disasters, and domestic scenes of people passively engaged in entertainment.
The web component is real time streaming of the space, its public, the movie and the attacks. As for the unsuspecting "targeted" visitors, the web users have no action on what they witness.
Analysis of the interactivity in the work
Threatbox.us is an art installation with web surveillance interface in which a movie frame "attacks" visitors via a robotic video projector and computer vision tracking system.
A public-scale projection moves in fluid patterns along a wall, sometimes meeting the ceiling, sometimes the floor, presenting a montage of violent excerpts from films, news media, and computer games. These scenes are intercut with domestic scenes of people passively engaged in mass media entertainment. The audio is immersive and violent.
Once a person approaches the projection wall, the projector swiftly transforms into a spotlight which centers onto her body, emitting a very loud, frightening noise. For a moment, the person is under attack and the spotlight pursues her if she tries to escape. After several seconds, the projector moves back to the wall, continuing to play the movie, and is ready for the next person to be detected.
Surveillance cameras stream video to the web in real time, showing the space, its public, and the attacks. Web users are voyeurs, and no action on their part is intended or permitted.
A public-scale projection moves in fluid patterns along a wall, sometimes meeting the ceiling, sometimes the floor, presenting a montage of violent excerpts from films, news media, and computer games. These scenes are intercut with domestic scenes of people passively engaged in mass media entertainment. The audio is immersive and violent.
Once a person approaches the projection wall, the projector swiftly transforms into a spotlight which centers onto her body, emitting a very loud, frightening noise. For a moment, the person is under attack and the spotlight pursues her if she tries to escape. After several seconds, the projector moves back to the wall, continuing to play the movie, and is ready for the next person to be detected.
Surveillance cameras stream video to the web in real time, showing the space, its public, and the attacks. Web users are voyeurs, and no action on their part is intended or permitted.
Materials/ technology/ equipment/ gadget/ system
Images
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