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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: Is the video mixed live in performance?
Tanya Selvaratnam: No. Things get very set, especially by the time we have got up to BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music, November 2005) – there is very little that we can improvise because we are all cuing off each other. There is too much room for error and we have had that happen too. If a cue doesn’t happen, if a video cue or if one of the screens doesn’t close properly, as happened last night, it throws everyone off slightly. We are all very attuned to each other so we cover quickly. We are performing live, but our score is very set.
Nick Kaye: Norman Frisch suggested that where there is the option to play a cue live, Marianne Weems will make that choice, rather than running continuous, recorded sound or visual sequences.
Tanya Selvaratnam: We are all cuing off each other, but the score is set – I don’t think that is particularly a Builders Association thing. I think the difference is the total immersion in a technological landscape. I think the thing Marianne Weems is better at than most people I have worked with is really creating a technological landscape that is coherent and relevant to the subject matter as opposed to just decoration.
Nick Kaye: I felt that was very powerful - that the subject matter came over in the way the stories were told, at least as much as in the stories themselves.
Tanya Selvaratnam: I do feel like the technology stands out more than the stories. It is a different approach to performing - you just know that you are not quite as prominent.
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