Surface Tension

"Surface Tension" is an interactive installation where an image of a giant human eye follows the observer with Orwellian precision. The piece was made using stop-motion animation of over 500 photographs triggered automatically by a computerized tracking system. This work was inspired by a reading of Georges Bataille’s text The Solar Anus during the first Gulf War: the first widespread 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 flat screen or rear projection and with computer vision tracking of visitors.

General info

Spanish name:
Tensión Superficial
Year of creation:
1992
Technique:
Plasma or rear-projection screen, computerised surveillance system, custom-made software
Dimensions:
Variable
Keywords:
database, performance, tracker, indoor, projection, interactive
Edition:
5 Editions, 1 AP
Collectors:
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Daros LatinAmerica, Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and private collector

Exhibitions


Credits

  • Programming: Conroy Badger
  • Production: Susie Ramsay, Will Bauer, Tara DeSimone
  • Model: Bruce Ramsay

Links


Bibliography