2010
Interactive installation with camera robot (custom camera, camera dolly and software), LCD screen and projection
Marnix de Nijs
co-produced by V2_ Lab / V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media (Rotterdam, NL)
The design of the installation 15 Minutes of Biometric Fame is inspired by the camera dollies employed in the television and cinema industries. A camera crane moves autonomously over a large circular track and points the camera at visitors in the exhibition space. The installation scans each visitor’s facial features, using biometric video analysis software, and compares them to those of a vast array of preselected persons in a database. The database features “celebrities” harvested from the Internet through online searches performed in all the world’s major languages.
The comparison process is visualized on an LCD monitor at the back of the camera dolly. The faces of visitors who match preselected persons in the database are displayed on a large public screen and added to the database – elevating ordinary visitors to the status of newborn celebrities.
In the installation 15 Minutes of Biometric Fame, artist Marnix de Nijs ironically deconstructs the processes by which stardom and fame are created by the modern entertainment industry, as well as by ordinary Internet users through various Web 2.0 applications. In our contemporary Internet-driven culture, celebrities include not only glamorous actors and pop singers but also ordinary people who achieve their 15 minutes of fame through participating in reality shows or uploading videos that become YouTube hits.
Artist bio:
Marnix de Nijs is a Dutch artist whose work explores the dynamic clashes between bodies, machines and technology in contemporary society. Many of his artworks are interactive experience machines that play with the perception of image and sound. De Nijs’s work has been widely exhibited in the Netherlands and abroad. He has collaborated with artist Edwin van der Heide, Time’s Up, the Netherlands Media Art Institute, V2_Institute for the Unstable Media, the Center for Art and Media (ZKM), Technische Universität Darmstadt and, recently, Tsinghua University.
http://www.marnixdenijs.nl
