Access, Ars Electronica, September 2003, Photo: Marie Sester [Enlarge in New Window]

Marie Sester: Access

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.

Access addresses and explores the impact of surveillance and detection within contemporary society. It presents control tools that combine surveillance technology with the advertising and Hollywood industries, creating an intentionally ambiguous situation, revealing the obsession-fascination for control, visibility, and vigilance: scary or fun.

Some individuals may not like the ideal of being under surveillance, and some individuals may love the attention.

Technical Background
Access utilizes computer vision, robotics, sound, lighting and the Internet. A web site displays a real-time video of the public space installation. Through this interface, a web-user can select a person in the real world (in the public space). This action triggers specially designed computer vision technology to move a robotic spotlight and an acoustic beam system to pursue the person, not wearing any marker, in the public space. This is the first system of this kind.

History
A version of Access was on view in June 2002 at IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences), Japan, during a 10-month artist in residence program. Access received a Creative Capital Foundation project in 2002 to help build a traveling exhibition of twelve venues in 2003, and is an Artist in Residence project in the Eyebeam Emerging Fields Division Residency Program (winter 2002-2003). Access is a co-production with ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Venues
Access is ideal for museum venues that wish to extend their presence into the public domain. Some of these spaces could include government or private office buildings, schools, large restaurants, theaters, atriums, or malls. The museum houses the Access web site and controls marketing and publicity, while an undisclosed public place that is running the Access spotlight and audio system, catches people unaware. The public, and among them the tracked people, are entirely surprised.

THIS PROJECT'S CATEGORIES: Emerging Fields > Installation | Products & Consumerism | The Built Environment | Fantasy & Myth | California | 2002