Monday, September 10, 2007

Art Imitates Life - Ars Electronica 2007

"Goodbye Privacy" -- Festival Ars Electronica 2007
A new culture of everyday life is now upon us, bracketed by the angst-inducing scenarios of seamless surveillance... One in which everything seems to be public and nothing is private anymore. Dates: September 5-11. Location: throughout the City of Linz (Austria).

One of the most interesting events is FACELESS - a 50 minute sci-fi movie made from CCTV surveillance footage
(100%).

Synopsis - In a society under the reformed 'Real-Time' Calendar, without history nor future, everybody is faceless. A woman panics when she wakes up one day with a face. With the help of the Spectral Children she slowly finds out more about the lost power and history of the human face and begins the search for its future.

FACELESS was produced under the rules of the 'Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers'. The manifesto states, amongst other things, that additional cameras are not permitted at filming locations, as the omnipresent existing video surveillance (CCTV) is already in operation. In fact, scenes are acted out in front of the CCTV cameras first, and the footage is later requested from whoever owns the CCTV system.

"RealTime orients the life of every citizen. Eating, resting, going to work, getting married – every act is tied to RealTime. And every act leaves a trace of data – a footprint in the snow of noise..."
(Faceless trailer)