THE OBSERVER EFFECT
The Video Installation Room
Today, we are under the influence of the “observer effect”. Never before were human beings so connected to social networks that monitor their individuality. The database created by this network contains information about everything: from a person’s physical and psychological parameters, his/her facial features (face recognition), lexicon, personal contacts and interests – to pinpointing his/her movements in space and in time. Who, then, is watching us? Whom does the consciousness of the observer belong to? Is the “observer effect” a new human phobia?
The “Observer Effect” art project creates the conditions for a concentrated experience of the sensation of total surveillance over the visitor. Three walls of the exhibition space are screens onto which we project a video pattern of eyes belonging to nobody, appearing and vanishing slowly and inexorably. These eyes, being a three-dimensional computer model, are not individualized, and do not serve as “mirrors of the soul”. They are watching you impassively, no matter which point in space you occupy. The fourth wall has video monitors broadcasting footage from a drone camera that flies under the ceiling along a predetermined trajectory. The visitors obtain a bird’s eye view of themselves by randomly falling into the drone camera’s field of vision.
The technical specifications of the project and the equipment
– A separate, windowless room, with a ceiling height of at least 3.5 meters and smooth white walls without relief, onto which the footage can be projected.
– 4 video projectors.
– Fifteen 14-inch video monitors (tablets).
– A drone equipped with a camera.
– A computer system that enables the transmission of footage from the drone camera to the 15 video monitors.
The necessary technical support
– A specialist in the field of video equipment, who can ensure the functioning of the system detailed above.
– A worker to install and fix the elements of the construction in place.
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 1
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 2
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 3
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 4
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 5
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 6
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 7
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 8
The Video Installation Corner
Information about total surveillance takes on the form of a certain message in the social consciousness. In our case, it is a “text balloon”, which transforms the usual reality thanks to the optical righting of a right angle, in the same way that the realization that somebody is watching you can change the stable order of things.
The technical specifications of the project and the equipment
– 2 perpendicular, smooth, white walls without relief – or, alternatively, 2 large screens reaching down to the floor, at least 2.5 meters in height.
– 2 video projectors.
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 1
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 2
THE VIDEO INSTALLATION ROOM 3
© Galina Bleikh & Elena Serebryakova