Tate Int ermediaA r t : V i d e o a s S o c i alAg e n t 29l OLl O9 L5:57

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Video as SocialAgent September2008

MichaelShanks

UnderScan
Publicart projectby RafaelLozano-
Hemmerinvolvinghundredsof
projectedinio
video-portraits
London'sTrafelgarSquare.
Contribute yourown portraitat Tate
Modern,19 -21 September2008

Curingthe Vampire
Lynn HershmanLeesonand Tilda
$winton interviewGilbertoGil, Dr.
FlizabethBlackburn,Larry Lessig
and ElenaPoniatowskaon

jî;, revolution,
technology
empowerment and

ji Noplace
MarekWalczakand Martin
WaftenbergpresentNoplace,
Under Scan camerastrackingsystem@ RafaelLozano-Hemmer2005 - 2008 enablingvisitorsto constructthe,r
own visionof Utopiaby drawing
At any one time in the notoriousonline world Second lr'ê, which featuresprominently imageand audiodatafromthe
ir '\e video inlerviewspresentedhere by Lynn Hershman Leeson, tens of thousands internetand compilingit intoâ movie
ô.-avatarsare busy designingtheir homes, chatting,creatingthings, buildingtheir
community.The basis of this world is the sophisticated3D visualizationtechnology
developedby the video and computer games industryfor fantasy role playing games Also read I view
fike Everquestor Wortdof Warcraftthat attract millionsof users worldwide.Companies
like IBM predict that within the nexl decade online worlds will expand massivelyfrom
Programme 2008
September
enlertainmentinto many aspects of everydaylife like shopping,education,government
and business.They are sometimesseen as "virtual"worlds or simulations,in contrast
to the "real"world. These three works commissionedby the Tate explorethe crucial MarkAmerikaInterview
issues in this evolutionof media and show that'what is at stake is much more than a Artistinterviewwith MarkAmerika
new variationon an old distinctionbetween the real world and images or discussinghis mobilecinemaproject,
representations. YouTubeaestheticsand NetArt 2.0

What does it mean to operate an avatar,your representativein an online world? ls it The Desertof the Digital
you; will it die witteÉou?Media technologiesare no longer expensiveand, like TV, Textby CharlieGere,in responseto
Radio and the Press,subject to rigorousregulationand control by powerful Noplaceby
NetAri commission,
corporationsand agenôies.Sharing one's own videos and media creationsis easy in MarekWalczakand Martin
the vast spaces of the world wide web; anyone æn gû pubticwith their most private Wattenberg
moments in a blog, a photo web site like Flickr,or a video site like YouTube;your
public avatar and personamay be an entirelydifferentprivate you. Lozano-Hemmer
puts people'svideo self portraitsin the most materialof public spaces - Trafalgar

h ttp:/ /www. t at e . o r gu. k / i n t er m e di a a n /vid e o - a s- so cia l_ a gnet.sh tm P ageJ .s ur 2

Tate Int ermediaA r t : V i d e o a s S o c i alAg e n t 29l O1.l 09 L5:57

I u l ttr g t r \g r çl g tl w g :
Square, inviting us to encounterthe implications.Walczak and Wattenberg reach out
to unknown others with participatory"Web 2.0" softwareand an algorithmto mine the
Michael Shanks'swebsite
public resourcesof the web and to create individuallycustomisedvisions of Utopia.

Certainlymany, includingthe artists here, celebratethe potentialoTwhat Lessig,

interviewedin Hershman'spiece, calls a creativecommons. A digitallyenabled de-
territorializationof informationis at the heart of this "remix"culture.Vast amounts of
cultural,social,and other information, valuableor not, organizedor random,information
that was once held in specificlocations,controlledby restrictedcirclesof specialistsor
agencies,or simply in the possessionof individuals,is now spread far and wide,
availablefor reworkingand recirculation,remixedthrough a few items of information
technology.

But there are, of course,dark sides to all this. Not everyonehas access to information
technologyand the internet(though listen to Gilberto Gil). Digiial media, with their
growing ubiquityand easy management,facilitatea society of surveillance,agencies
watching us, merging private and public (the solo authoredvideos of Under Scan
projectedinto the most surveilledspace in the world). Meanwhilepowerful interestsare
making considerableeffortsto treat informationas private property,to restrictits
circulation,to thwart a creativecommons and to captaliseon controlledcreativity.In
the new global techno-military-entertainment complex,the biggestinvestorin
simulationand video game lechnologyis the US military.

For too long we have been encouragedto treat media as institutionalized forms, such
as Televisionor the Movies.or with referenceto the materialsand methods used in the
productionof a work (oil on canvas,video, print), or in terms of messagesand
meaningscommunicaledby an author to an audience.The three works in Video as
SocialAgent challengesuch ideas.Ihey are all about locationand process:a virtual
world, a city square, systemsand algorithmsfor solicitingcreativeparticipationin
utopia/noplace,my space. They deal in archilecturesand theatersof encounter,
interactionand performance.They suggestthat media are as much about modes of
engagement between people, ideas, artifacts and settings as they are aboul the
communicationof messagesor the representationof "reality'.ln our informationage
the irony of digital media is that the task is not so much to read the signalagainst
backgroundnoise,to figure out meaning,but to establishthe arrangementof interested
parties and works, amidst the circuitsof distribution,resourcesand products.
Somelimes it is hard enough to simplyfind stuff.

In this politicaleconomyof new media we are presentedwith various roles for lhe
artist:they may act as prompt, instigatingartwork;they may be commentatoror critic, dr{Vivb$A' rL,èU'
standing back to generateinsight;above all, perhaps,they may act as dramaturgor
scenographer,setting up arrangementsand assemblagesso as to enhancethis
popular digitalpoetics of collaborativecocreation.

This performativespace is indeed about social agency- the ability of individualsand

communitiesto effect changes that matter,to exert influence,to be represented,to be
the agents at the root of the creationof values and goods. Radicaldistinctions
between real world and virtualwodd, between realityand representationare secondary
matters,because we have always lived in mixed realitiesconstitutedby imagination.
Our individualityhas always been negotiatedin terms of others - we are our
relationshipswith others. For as long as we have been human we have presented
avatarsto the world, profer1edrepresentationsoTourselves,memoriesof who we were,
stories of what we are, dreams of what we could be, worlds that we might build
together.

MichaelShanks 2008

http:/ / www. t at e . o r gu. k / i n t er m e di a a r t/vid e o _ a s_ so cia l- a g e n t.sh tm P age2 s ur 2