Premiering at Isea 2006 in San Jose, California, August 7-13

SIMveillance: San Jose elicits the viewer’s consideration of a normally fleeting urban phenomenon: the passage of strangers through a public space. Who are these people and where are they going? How does their traversal affect one’s perception of the vitality and nature of a place? This project seeks to make the viewer more aware of this phenomenon, as transmogrified when viewed through the lens of a computer game.
By repurposing surveillance footage of a real-world place very close to where the viewer will be experiencing the work SIMveillance also asks the viewer to consider the increasing presence of recording devices within the urban landscape, and the possibility of leaving traces that linger in unexpected ways.

SIMveillance brings the local urban population back into the show in a unique way—locals may be able to see themselves as captured in the prior month. Whether or not a viewer catches a glimpse of his/herself, s/he is bound to reconsider the impact of wandering the urban landscape. The project seeks to evoke feelings of curiosity, voyeurism, discomfort, and a jolt into the perspective more typically inhabited by city planners or sociologists. The work also explores the territory in which simulated-avatars co-mingle in the landscape with “the real” to produce a hybrid community with potentially unexpected results.

View SIMveillance Video preveiw >>

Related Links:
ISEA 2006
San Jose Museum of Art