Description
Surface Tension is an interactive installation where an image of a giant human eye follows the observer with orwellian precision.

This work was inspired by a reading of Georges Bataille’s text The Solar Anus during the first Gulf War –the first wide-spread deployment of camera-guided “intelligent bombs”. Present-day computerised surveillance techniques employed by the Department of Homeland Security in the United States through the Patriot Act, provide a new and distressing backdrop for this piece.

The installation was originally developed in 1992 at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid as a stage module for a theatre work by the Transition State Theory troupe. Since then, Surface Tension has been presented as an art installation, typically on a plasma screen.

Year of creation
1992-1993
Technique
Plasma or rear-projection screen, computerised surveillance system, custom-made software
Dimensions
Variable dimensions. edition of 6
Manual

Exhibitions
• "Inpoliticos" (curator: Laura Bardier), Palazzo Art Napoli, Naples 2009
• Mexican Pavilion, Biennale Di Venezia 2007
• ARCO, OMR, Madrid 2005
• Art Basel, OMR, Basel 2005
• OMR, Mexico 2004
• 2!M, Madrid 1993
• Siggraph, Anaheim 1993
• Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Nüremberg 1993

Photos
Click on an image to load a high resolution version

Texts
Manual for Surface Tension

Conroy Badger — programming
Susie Ramsay, Will Bauer and Tara DeSimone — production
Bruce Ramsay — model