driven by the immense power the digitization of media and its effects have on societies all over,
the crisis of visual authenticity became one of the large social and ethical topics. i doubt ways to ensure authenticity by distributed, open information
systems, dogmatic set of rules or even legislative force. I face this overwritten problem with just an installation. an installation, that refers to
platos cave and brings it back into focus. I dared the apparently utopian. I seize
the shade of others. I wanted the shade to become independent, to abolish its simultaneity, to
let him carry off by the wind that blows, to let him return. things, otherwise the shade
does not do and therefore irritates us, let us feel differently our relation to this particular
image and thus images in general.
the human strive aims at an enriching realization of reality and truth.
the more completely the real world is opened to the own realization, the safer we
feel; the more responisble, the more reasonable we are. authenticity is a guarant
for credibility and reliability. thus, authenticity posseses a key position in establishing a
society based on free will, a society of reasonable and responsible citizens. where there is no
authenticity, there is no freedom at all.
manipulation of medial used images in order to manipulate the public opinion is no domain of
totalitarian systems. despite the fact that the 'damnatio memoriae', originating from the
antiquity, is brought there to its perfection, oligarchical administered democracies no less
uses manipulations to make public opinion. however societies of these western
democracies lull, even encouraged by the breakdown of communism, themselves in a false
sense of security; and are rarely shaken by scandals that follows the uncover of such medial productions. not these few incidents make me worry, but rather the dark number, which we fall
victim to, most likely.
the occidental thinking always have seen the shade as somewhat metaphorical,
and thought it capable of more than it actually physically does. despite the laws of optics,
on which the shadow obeys, its sight, perhaps by the incomprehensible, volatile, lets us
associate somewhat unreal, scheming. the shade is somewhat uncanny as familiar at the
same time. despite its outstanding position as one of the first pictures noticed in early childhood, the shadow remains always dark and uncertain.
in the infancy the own body shade represents one of the first contacts with the image of
the own body and builds up trust into the figurative image. the body seems to double itself
in the picture of the shade. children assume it lives an independent existence,
you can play and compete with. children try to outwit their shade and even adults
from time to time attempt to get the profile of their shade by turning the head rapidly to
the side. the shade hides as blind mirror physical details and feelings and suggests in that
way to be another independant one. in the shadow we find the projection of our dark zones, the
shape on our inner negativity.
as said the installation - lies, all lies - works with the picture, which is
next to every human being: the own image in the shade. it encourages us to interact with it on a trusted way, but manipulates it and disturbs it and uses it in this way as means to reflection over the own relationship to every image.
the installation - lies, all lies - seeks to alienate us from our own shade. by the break
of lifelong developed confidence into our figurative image, it seeks to free us from deception. the installation questions our perception for figurative information and thus makes visible the inherent manipulation. it encourages to distrust, to be alone with a concept of the world that corresponds the personal process of understanding, so unintentional and unconscious it might be, instead of mere a antizipation. instead of pulling a border between medial production and authenticity, between material and virtual world, it bridges these antipodes.
the installation - lies, all lies - has to be subtle in order to achieve its goal and to convince.
it needs o be developed in a environment, that is not suspected to be a 'mediaartlocation' in order to convince. the installation should not be seen as such, but must integrate itself modestly into the environment. simply as it shows up, - lies, all lies - requires a just as complex as expensive production. the production of a situation, in which artificial image is provisionally accepted as the own body shade, requires a maximum of assimilation to the real world.
'lies, all lies' works with 2 databeams, 2 infrared cameras, several infrared headlights (with friendly support of art and com) and a very strong computer. it generates a distorted virtual shade and an undistorted selective light on the silhouette of the human being entering the installation. the whole thing is built in max/jitters and some own objects. a third videocamera is used to get the position of the human being within the installations area.
the body shade actually makes no great demands on texturing and materiality. its perception is limited to the phenomenon of simultanity, as well as to its perspective drawability, out from the understanding of optical phenomena . the human shade in the installation is a genarated one, because manipulatable one. so there should not occur a real shade caused by the light of the data projectors in the scene. thus a virtual shade must be created as well as a real light on the outlines of the 'shadethrowing' object.
the use of infrared light as well as an infrared sensitive camera is not a plaything, but rather an integral component of the work. only by that it is possible to seperate humans in the installation inspite the disturbing change of light , that results from the projection.
the perception of the own body shade as belonging to my person is also caused by an appropriate scaling of the shade, apart from simultaneity. this arises from the position of the light, the 'shadegiving' object (e.g. the visitor), as well as from the 'enshaded' object (e.g. the wall). since light and 'enshaded' object are constant, for a 'faked' shadow the position of the 'shadegiving' object (e.g. the visitor) becomes relevant.
for this I established a bitmaptracking system (e.g. a piece of software or program), which transmits the 2d position of an object in the material world into 3d coordinates of a virtual scene. in this special context only the x - z coordinates are relevant to me , so I work with just one camera, attached above the scene.
the work has been developed in spring 2003, as diploma thesis at the university of the arts Berlin. it was supervised by Professor joachim sauter and got a first public on july 17.03 for public diploma presentation . furthermore I had the great possibility of producing 'lies, all lies' in Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. this particular place works against the thought of the work, as formulated above; however this temptation, to see 'lies, all lies' in this art temple, was inhuman. and beside that; the technical equipment here is just unbelievable. a great THANKYOU to Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, particularly the man at the door.
I would like to assist the said by some movies rightnow. nevertheless it is definetely the best to experience this very physical installation by oneself. therefore here come the dates, if there are some, where and when 'lies, all lies' is to be seen. unfortunately there is no such date for the moment. hopefully that changes. for so long have fun with the movies.
as said, the character of this location counter-cross-hatched the basic idea. anyway. the surprising and confusing moment, that provides the manipulation of the own shade picture, is nevertheless shown here quite impressively.
as mpeg4 :
allesluege.mp4 | 42.9 MB (mpeg4 - large and great)
allesluege.mp4 | 16.8 MB (mpeg4 - small and ugly)
as well as mov :
allesluege.mov | 82.2 MB (sorenson - huge but mediocre)
I believe 'lies, all lies' knocks our socks off. despite evident incompleteness of the new menmade shade, it is identified as the old, familiar and personal one. it seems that we want to see, what we know, or just know that we want to see. all the same. however; it seems to be impressing, almost shaking to be no longer the cause of the own shadow. but this is as with the wind smallpox, the sooner you go through, the better.
I assure that everything is true.
really.
I PROMISE
hannes nehls
berlin, august 1, 2003
© 2003 hannes nehls