How
did you start doing this project?
Did you do a project that had parts of this in it and it evolved in what you
are doing now?
It started out with a
project in Toronto where I was working with wireless cameras. However, in this
case, the roles were reversed. I was the transmitter and the bars, restaurants,
banks, cafes, and stores were receiving.
Later on, I started do walks where I was on the receiving end, throughout cities
in Europe, in
Amsterdam and
Berlin. I'm planning other walks in the near future in
Brussels
and
Gent.
Do
you have any questioning from the police or from the owners of the cameras?
Questions like what are you doing?
What are these people doing walking around with these monitors and receivers?
Occasionally some of the people that I have been walking with have wanted to
find and talk with the shop owner.
Most of the owners find it quite amusing.
There was the shoe store owner that was describing how he had met his neighbour,
the owner of a video store. His neighbour's camera interfered with his and was
being displayed on the monitor in the shoe store.
And this causes problems?
No, it's a matter of acceptance.
There are some that don't really understand the technology that they are using
and some that do, or understand the potential for interference, and what happens
(like suddenly receiving the video signal of your neighbour)
You get to find out what they do and do not know.
Another example was with an electronicshop. As soon as they saw us walking by,
they knew what we were doing. They started waving at us and came out onto the
street to talk with us. It was friendly.
We
had another festival in Utrecht last week where there was another installation
called "Voyeur's Lounge"
We made a room with four screens in the same building were there were cinemas.
We had these surveillance cameras and microphones installed in each cinema and
people can zoom in and zoom out, look at the public and listen to them.
In the same building downstairs there was a room for the local people, kind
of a bad neighbourhood in Utrecht. There was a wedding one night. I sat for
two hours with this camera fascinated by the body language, all of these things
happening, people getting drunk.
They had this band and it was quite amazing to look at.
[truck
passes by]
Check out this man dancing.
[laughs] it's really nice
But
there is a fascination with these normal things especially when they are framed.
You are looking more at scenes.
The people that are inhabiting these spaces.
Reality that is almost unreal.
