Under Scan
Relational Architecture 11
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.
General info
Installation version
Prints
Indoor version
Exhibitions
- Under scan, Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom, 2008.
- Some Things Happen More Often Than All Of The Time, Mexican Pavilion, 52 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2007.
- Under scan, East Midlands Development Agency, Castle Wharf, Nottingham, United Kingdom, 2006.
- Public art commission.
- Under scan, East Midlands Development Agency, Market Square, Derby, United Kingdom, 2006.
- Public art commission.
- Under scan, East Midlands Development Agency, Humberstone Gate West, Leicester, United Kingdom, 2006.
- Public art commission.
- Under scan, East Midlands Development Agency, Brayford University Campus, Lincoln, United Kingdom, 2005.
- Public art commission.
Credits
- Conroy Badger, Matthew Biederman, Natalie Bouchard, Olfa Driss, Ben Duffield, David Lemieux, Matthew Marino, Gideon May, Susie Ramsay – Production Team, Antimodular (Montreal, Canada)
- Kevin Roach (Director), Ian Brame (Technician), Eamonn Byrne (Technician), Gerry Coles (Technician) – Stage Right Productions (Northampton UK)
- David Hill (Director), Tom Bailey (Production Manager), Emma Jones and Poppy Muir (Project Manager), Carol Sutherland (Administrator), Aoife Daniels (Marketing and Project Administration) – ArtReach (Leicester and Maidenhead UK)
- Marko Daniel (Public Programmes), Kelli Dipple (Intermedia Art Curator, Tate), Ayehsa Ghanchi, Tobias Ingels – Tate Modern and Tate Media Video Portrait Team
- Jim Boxall, Steve Friendship, Matthew Humphreys, Rachel Jacobs, Sam Lindley, Juliet Preston, Lesley Stableford, Juliette Winter – Tate Modern and Tate Media Video Portrait TeamMidlands Video Portrait Team
Bibliography
"Rafael Lozano-Hemmer", Rue Descartes, Vol. 57, Paris, France, July 2007 (english). Text of 2 pages. (Magazine)
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Annual Review 2006: Sixty Years Celebrating the Arts, Arts Council England, United Kingdom, 2006 (english). Text of 2 pages. (Book)
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