Raphael Lozano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work ‘Entanglement' really interested me. It is so simple with two neon signs in galleries on opposite sides of the world that are connected through a computer so that when one is turned off the other turns on. I liked the idea of somebody controlling the conditions of a room when they weren’t anywhere near it.
He is very interested in themes of perception and surveillance. I love his series of Shadow Boxes where videos from past viewers are revealed when your shadow is cast on to the hundreds of tiny tv monitors, each playing a video of a past viewer. These pieces use tracking technology to video people at the exhibit, much like surveillance. I LOVE all of his works I don't know which one to talk about! He does a lot of relational works which he calls 'relational architectures' including Under Scan, Frequncy and Volume, Standards and Double standards etc. Read about them all on his website, the link is in his name at the top of the post :).

The over-arching theme of these is definitely surveillance, with the artworks seeming to recognise your presence, follow and interact with you. If i had a computerised surveillance system, or knew how to use one I definitely would his work amazes me. One of the projectors he used can illuminate 2000 square metres. I see now why my projection with shadows wasn't quite as smoothly finished as his.

In his 2005 work 'Under Scan' two lots of participants are involved; those that are filmed to later be projected, and those whose shadows the projections appear in.

Under Scan

Relational Architecture 11

Its funny to think that in the above video all the people are really doing is looking at another person. Technology has seperated them, made the person in the projection some sort of toy that you wouldn't relate to as you would in real life. I love how he uses local people in his works, 'normal people', it is interesting to see them being filmed, how different the impact is in comparison to seeing footage of the artwork in action. Revealing the tracking equipment as he does throughout the piece (every 7 minutes) would give me a sense of unease, as if it was all fake, all a show and I was the focus of the work rather than the people in the projection, "like being in the matrix" as one viewer remarked. You can find a lot of documentation of his works on youtube, they are quite long but the one above is well worth watching.

Interesting to note He has a BSc majoring in Physical Chemistry, could account for the technicality involved in his works! I love the way he uses shadow for interaction, so the sucess of the work is dependent on the person physically being there and what they do with their body efects their viewing of the work. One major difference is that his projections are of people and mine of text. It's hard to explain but in his installations there are many kinds of interaction, depending on which participant you are the interaction could be one way if you are in the projection, and could be whole audiences co-operating to cast a large shadow to experiment with how much of an image they could see. hmmm. It is a sort of digital interaction, but dissimilar to the internet its physicality.
I want this interaction but not so complex! Just between viewers and the thoughts from other anonymous people in text form. I don't want the text to have ownership so that nobody can accuse, nobody can judge the person by their appearance, background, demenor, all the information they get is a quote, a passing remark. The text is obviously human and not generated like Lozano's 33 questions per minute (which also involves human interaction but just as a relative example of text!), it has faults and discusses a very Human issue.