"In the time of reality shows, of stars exposing their private life with no restraint, and of common people that just happened to be caught by a camera on the right moment to become “stars” - one wonders who wants fantasy anymore, when reality surpasses fiction - it is assumed that we are all potentially famous if we have a connection, a camera and a potential viewing audience. Just get the voyeurs identified or morbidly curious towards the “show”, and you have a hit!" Virtual Bonds 1.0 is an example of the software used for this display of virtual-exhibitionism.
Full Description
Through the setting of a remote network by TCP protocol, a webcam situated in Lima, Peru, sends images from a garden (my house) to a gallery in Stockholm, Sweden.
People in the gallery are able to send sounds back to the garden in Lima, maybe altering the normal course of things (if someone or something listens to it).
Completely immersed in the images, they won’t expect the sudden loss of connectivity.
When the connection is lost, a torturing beep fills the room, while a big text covers the screen with the words:
SYSTEM DOWN
My choosing of electronic devices for this project is evident: there is no better way of approaching the subject of “connection” in the telecommunication era we currently live in; to discuss the tools by the use of those tools themselves turns to be a meta-analysis. But these technologies are fragile. And this fragility is what I principally want to point out this work.
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2009
- Submitted to ArtBase: Sunday Apr 29th, 2012
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Work Credits:
- autodios, primary creator
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Artist Statement
“Disconnect, unplug… and bring the system down”.
The concept of “Connection” is embedded in the notion of network, being this symbolic (“we are all connected by love”) or taken as the actual configuration of a communicative system (natural or artificial). And a communicative system, in these days of unfolded linguistic structures, is equivalent to everything; to all what we perceive as real.
I wonder: What would happen if, one day and all of a sudden, we get disconnected? Will that, nowadays, mean some new form of death?
The interpretative levels within the piece:
Level 1- On the surface, the main thing being discussed by this networking experience is the ability of spying “from the distance”, of being a witness without being there… That factor so appreciated in our current culture - not only the “real-time/live” attribute, but the voyeur one.
Why do we want to know about other people’s lives?
Is this a way of knowing us better, or it is just entertainment?
Level 2 - We could even talk of a “being connected” imperative; online or by phone, in a passive way (watching tv) or in an active way (posting in a forum on Internet or chatting). To be connected means to be a witness, to know. Even if you are not able to be there, in the same place where the event happened.
Voyeurs get connected to watch others private acts.
Exhibitionists get connected to expose themselves.
We get connected to fulfill a need.
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