Marie Sester's Access [Enlarge in New Window]

Interview with Marie Sester, July 2003

Creative Capital grantee Marie Sester presented her piece ACCESS at SIGGRAPH 2003, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in San Diego, California (July 27 - 31). Toni Sant caught up with her for this exclusive interview during the final preparations.

Access is a public art installation that applies web, computer, sound and lighting technology in which a robotic spotlight controlled by web-users tracks individuals in public spaces. An acoustic beam system directs sounds onto the same tracked persons, projecting audio that only he/she can hear. The individual does not know who is tracking him/her or why he/she is being tracked. Nor is he/she aware of being the only person among the public hearing the sound. The tracker doesn't know his/her action triggers sound towards the target. In effect, both the tracker and the tracked are in a paradoxical communication loop.

Toni Sant: You are an architect by training. How did you become drawn to media art? What is the connection you make between architecture and media art?

Marie Sester: I am not primarily concerned about the connection between architecture and media art. Yes, I am an architect by training, and it impacts my work in the way I deal with space, but I chose to be a media artist because I did not want to work to follow a program that was proposed by a client. I am more concerned with how society expresses its ideologies through culture. I am less concerned with building viable structures than I am with how architecture affects our understanding of the world. What do these signs, these forms, these things that surround us mean? What do they say about ideology, or about capitalism? I realized after I finished my degree that I was interested in architectural forms on all levels, from the concrete elements such as city streets to ideological values, and how they evolve together.

TS: Does your work relate to theater technology?

MS: The relationship is more with Hollywood industries and video games than with theatre.

TS: Would you elaborate on this aspect of your work? Is the relationship purely aesthetic?

MS: I see technology as the result of values and ideas that a community promotes highest. This culture is very power-driven. Look at the movies and video gaming culture, at the way people train in gyms: it all exudes an urge to conquer, an urge to attain the superman. It creates addiction in people. Video games are not very different than military simulations; the most developed ones are in fact developed for military training, and the entertainment industry operates within many of the same rules of the military. Look at the agreement they had after September 11. What we watch in movies is a picture of what the government promotes. Technologies are now about data retrieval, meta-databases, very much geared toward getting information about people, thus very military related. Even biology is becoming about data retrieval.

TS: ACCESS, your current piece, brings into question various issues raised by surveillance technologies. What attracted you to work on this aspect?

MS: Ambiguities around surveillance and detection within contemporary society inspired me to work on this project, along with the combination of control tools and surveillance technology in military and entertainment industries. ACCESS reflects the obsessive fascination that has developed around visibility, celebrity, control, and vigilance, capturing them as being entertaining and fun or scary.

TS: Art that depends of "liveness" as a key component is always hard to document without compromising the original concept. What makes documenting ACCESS problematic?

MS: ACCESS is all about live, personal, private experiences. It’s a private public experience. Documentation is secondary and mainly needed for marketing purposes.

TS: Do you think that your website and other documentation you've generated about your work conveys the essence of your installation as experienced by anyone walking through your designated physical space?

MS: For me, documentation is not my first priority. My primary concern is about the personal experience of the project. It explores the values promoted by culture. I see technology as a reflection of culture; as a tool that develops as a result of culture. I am using it to reflect what the culture is about. Surveillance technology is about retrieving information on a person or a situation; I would like to reveal that to the people in my work. The computer vision technology that ACCESS has developed allows people to actively target other people without the targeted individuals knowing about it.

TS: What are your plans for ACCESS after SIGGRAPH 2003?

MS: ACCESS was awarded a Honorary Mention in Interactive Art by Ars Electronica, and will be installed in Linz, Austria, September 6 through 21, 2003. After that, ACCESS will be shown at the Bank Gallery in Los Angeles (October 25 – November 29, 2003), a show curated by Peter Seidler.

TS: How will the installation of ACCESS in Linz be different from what you're currently showing at SIGGRAPH, other than the obvious fact that the space at Ars Electronica Festival is different than what you have in San Diego right now?

MS: ACCESS passed the beta test. Nevertheless, complex technology is always subjected to surprises. Only minor improvements should be necessary for Ars Electronica.

TS: Are you planning a new project after this?

MS: Sure, and it’s called BEAMED, and it extends the live web and public element of ACCESS into something such as a video game where web users can drive real people. We have a team and we are fundraising right now.

Toni Sant is a licensed observer of the feedback loop between new media and creative culture. He teaches about the Internet and performance in the Digial Communications and Media program at New York University.