Art & Surveillance /// Michelle Teran – Friluftskino (2009)

Friluftskino is open lucht cinema, maar niet in de klassieke betekenis. Voor de projecties op de muren van Oslo onderschepte de Canadese kunstenares Michelle Teran (Ubermatic) de beelden van onbeveiligde bewakingscamera’s. De beelden worden live op straat getoond voor een publiek dat zich, net als in een klassieke cinema, mag nestelen in een gemakkelijke stoel met een zakje popcorn.

“Using a powerful video beamer and video scanner, live surveillance intercepted from wireless CCTV cameras is captured and then rebroadcasted upon the city walls. The live transmission ideally lasts as long as a feature length film and also takes it’s title from a cinematic source, according to the scene created by the surveillance camera. Chairs are laid out and popcorn is served.

The extended time of the intervention is intended to allow one to contemplate the live image which, contrary to being titillating and action-filled, is actually empty and still, a place of non-action. They are spaces to be filled, through subtle shifts that take place within the observed scene, or through the viewer’s own physical or imagined intervention.

Spatial boundary conventions of private and public, inside and outside are challenged by the reality of the radio transmission which moves beyond walls and onto the street. By accessing these images one is also offered a view into how the public depicts and represents itself through surveillance while also bringing questions of permission of access and ownership of these transmissions.”

Friluftskino: Experiments in Open Air Surveillance Cinema