On the Edge
Århus Kunstbygning, International
Digital Art Festival, Catalogue p. 30-34 by Marie
Nipper, Annette Damgaard, Thorsten Sadowsky, 2006
Tine Bech, Sam Woolf, Dave Lawrence:
Mememe
The work Mememe is the fruit of collaboration between
the Danish, London-based artist Tine Bech and the
British artists Sam Woolf and Dave Lawrence. Their work
is characterized by a predilection for interactivity
and for installations that explore the relationship
between work and viewer through a combination of sound
and movement, robots and everyday materials, complex
interactive technology and visual simplicity.
The installation Mememe is based on a Real Time
Location System, RTLS, a tracking system used by, among
others, the military, hospitals and department stores.
Four sensors are placed so as to form a quadrangular
space containing various pairs of shoes that the
visitors can put on. The shoes are tagged with an
advanced RFID chip that via the tracking system tells a
main computer where the shoes are located. Each of the
shoes communicates with a sensor that generates a
sound, depending on where in the room the shoe is. The
sounds are programmed to change according to how fast
you walk and where you are. Different sounds are
generated in different zones, and the installation
encourages you to play with the volume and tempo of the
sounds, using your own body as an instrument. Each pair
of shoes has its own recognizable sound, and, as
indicated by the title of the work, the shoes seem to
be doing everything possible to attract the
viewer’s attention: Me-me-me! Choose me-me-me!
The shoes likewise react if they get too close to each
other, or if you try to leave the room.
During the exhibition period, the sounds change in four
phases, so that in the end the sounds for all the shoes
will have changed. You will notice this extra sound
dimension only if you see the installation several
times in the course of the exhibition period. The
sounds of the shoes change in step with their being
worn in, so to speak.
Mememe encourages not just play, but also reflection on
what technology is capable of doing, for better or
worse. The work is primarily articulated as an everyday
practice – that of putting on shoes and walking,
running or dancing - but is based on a complex and
advanced technology. Tracking technology can be useful
for some purposes, while for others it seems to
encroach on personal freedom and civil rights. The
technology can thus be said to operate in a continuum
between helpful tool and surveillance instrument, and
Mememe seems to comment mainly on the latter, since the
idea of invisible surveillance and unnoticable tracking
is denied with every noisy step taken.
In the encounter with Mememe you are not a distant
observer, but an active participant, and soundless,
invisible surveillance is replaced by noisy play,
freedom and movement. This constitutes a break with
formalistic views of art, according to which the
surroundings and the context are not especially
important to the aesthetic and subjective appreciation
of art. In the case of Mememe, it is precisely the
performative relationship between work, viewer and
space that seems to be the all-important starting point
for the creation of meaning. It establishes a visual
and auditive dialogue between work and audience, a
dance between technology, art and man. Mememe proposes
a phenomenological appreciation of art that activates
the whole body and all the senses - where the artwork
becomes something more than just a visual and
intellectual experience.
Danish version
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