The Builders Association and dbox, SUPER VISION: VIRTUAL SPACES
SUPER VISION tells three stories
1. As he crosses successive borders, a solitary traveller gradually is forced to reveal all of his personal information, until his identity becomes transparent, with no part of his life left outside the boundaries of datasurveillance.
2. A young woman (Jen), addicted to the white noise of constant connection, maintains a long-distance relationship with her Grandmother. As she makes efforts to digitally archive her Grandmother's past, the Grandmother slips into senility.
3. A father covertly exploits his young son's personal data to meet the demands of the family's lifestyle. This ploy escalates beyond the father's control, until he is compelled to disappear. His wife and son are left with a starkly diminished data portrait, and his escape is shadowed by the long reach of the datasphere.
Nick Kaye: What was it that drew you towards dbox’s work?
Marianne Weems: Well, probably their ability to manufacture reality - the idea that what they enjoy the most is creating virtual spaces rather than actual buildings. It is very apt for this kind of work and very much about utilizing electronics to create a rich parallel world. James Gibbs and Matthew Bannister are incredibly smart and very forward thinking, probably because they are not burdened with the history of avant-garde performance, and their practice hasn’t been hemmed in by the non-profit lifestyle - so it’s fun for me. What we created was a virtual world that could be staged to interface with live performers in a convincing way. Specifically, what was so potent in this idea was that the live performer could be shadowed by their data body. That seemed like a great place to start with dbox.
see also: architecture | projection | the family room |
Onstage: Kyle deCamp (Carol).
Photo by dbox
Left to right: Rizwan Mirza (the traveller) in projection
and onstage; Joe Silovsky (the TSA agent) mediated live
and on forestage.
photo by dbox
Left to right: Moe Angelos (the Grandmother) on forestage and
mediated in close up; Tanya Selvaratnam (Jen) mediated live to
window and onstage; Moe Angelos mediated live to computer screen.
photo by dbox
