Description
Under Scan is an interactive video art installation for public space. In the work, passers-by are detected by a computerized tracking system, which activates video-portraits projected within their shadow. Over one thousand video-portraits of volunteers were taken in Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and Nottingham by a team of local filmmakers. For its London presentation in Trafalgar Square, Tate Modern filmed over 250 additional recordings. As people were free to portray themselves in whatever way they desired, a wide range of performances were captured. In the installation, the portraits appear at random locations. They “wake-up” and establish eye contact with a viewer as soon as his or her shadow “reveals” them. As the viewer walks away, the portrait reacts by looking away, and eventually disappears if no one activates it.
Every 7 minutes the entire project stops and resets. The tracking system is revealed in a brief “interlude” lighting sequence, which projects all of the calibration grids used by the computerized surveillance system.

The piece was inspired by representation en abîme, where the portrayed make eye-contact with the viewer, – as found in works by Jan Van Eyck, Parmigianino, Velázquez or Leon Golub. Other references for this work include the post-photographic device described in La invención de Morel, written by Adolfo Bioy Casares (1940) and the ghostly portraits created by Gary Hill, Lynn Hershman-Leeson, Paul Sermon and Luc Courchesne.

Year of creation
2005
Technique
Robotic projectors, media servers, Pani 12kW projectors, scissor lifts, computerized surveillance system, custom software.
Dimensions
Variable dimensions.

Exhibitions
• Trafalgar Square, London, UK, 2008.
•"Some Things Happen More Often Than All Of The Time" (curated by Príamo Lozada and Bárbara Perea), Mexican Pavilion – 52 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2007.
• Large scale public art commission for East Midlands Development Agency
Lincoln: Brayford University Campus, November to December 2005
Leicester: Humberstone Gate West, January 2006
Northampton: Market Square, February 2006
Derby: Market Square, February to March 2006
Nottingham: Castle Wharf, March 2006

Photos
Click on an image to load a high resolution version

Production Team, Antimodular (Montreal, Canada)
Conroy Badger, Matthew Biederman, Natalie Bouchard, Olfa Driss, Ben Duffield, David Lemieux, Matthew Marino, Gideon May, Susie Ramsay

Stage Right Productions (Northampton UK)
Kevin Roach (Director), Ian Brame (Technician), Eamonn Byrne (Technician), Gerry Coles (Technician)

ArtReach (Leicester and Maidenhead UK)
David Hill (Director), Tom Bailey (Production Manager), Emma Jones and Poppy Muir (Project Manager), Carol Sutherland (Administrator), Aoife Daniels (Marketing and Project Administration)

Tate Modern and Tate Media Video Portrait Team
Marko Daniel (Public Programmes), Kelli Dipple (Intermedia Art Curator, Tate), Ayehsa Ghanchi, Tobias Ingels

Midlands Video Portrait Team
Jim Boxall, Steve Friendship, Matthew Humphreys, Rachel Jacobs, Sam Lindley, Juliet Preston, Lesley Stableford, Juliette Winter

Acknowledgements
Sandra Badger Will Bauer, David Rose, Keith Watson

Under Scan was originally commissioned by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and was produced in London by ArtReach, with partnership support from Arts Council England, Art Lights London, the Canadian High Commission, Haunch of Venison, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Fundación La Colección JUMEX, Galería OMR México, the Mexican Embassy to the UK, the Mexico Tourism Board, The National Gallery, Science Museum, Roberto and Aimée Servidje, Tate Media and Tate Modern and Québec Government Office.