[ISEA2011] Paper: Karen Anne Lancel – Tele_Trust

Abstract

“I am part of the networks and the networks are part of me…I link, therefore I am.”                           _William J. Mitchell, ME++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City.

How do we trust each other as networking bodies?
In our contemporary networked society, interaction increasingly takes place through wireless, social networked media. The possibilities of tele-presence have made place and distance irrelevant for the experience of social proximity and allow ‘networking bodies’ to be present at several locations, temporalities and social settings at the same time. At the same time the public space turns into a ‘smart environment’ that increasingly interacts with the electronically and digitally enhanced body.
These developments cause profound changes in the role of the body and physical presence since mediated presence leaves little or no room for touch, face to face encounters, and body language that are, according to many philosophers and social scientists, core components for the building of trust and reciprocity, which are in turn the foundations of social structures.
Tele-Trust is a research into how mediated and tele-present society bodily based experiences of presence, reciprocity, and trust can be generated, mediated and maintained.

Tele_Trust is a critical and sensitive exploration in how we can intensify networked affective experiences in relation to the mediated body. It looks for new forms of interaction, participatory systems and interfaces, in which the conditions for ‘trust’ can be recognized and acknowledged or differently perceived. New insights, innovative technologies, and the human body meet to initiate and inspire (yet) unimaginable types of intersubjective engagement.

Tele_Trust contains both a theoretical and artistic experiential research.
The theoretical context are media-theories emphasizing the central position for affective and receptive sensory processes in the body experiencing the world – and perceiving the other. The artistic experiential research takes place in artistic ‘Social Labs’ in dynamic public spaces, where the parameters for body presence are tested using networked wearable devices. The testing takes place in multi actor systems in different social and geographical cultures. The ‘Social labs’ participants contributions are added to a data-base and website, creating an engaging, intercultural agora on new parameters for a hybrid, networking bodies’ trust.

Video :Tele_Trust

  • Karen Anne Lancel & Hermen Maat design ‘meeting places’ in city public spaces. These ‘meeting places’ are designed as seductive, visual performances, installations and participatory networks. Each ‘meeting place’ or social sculpture functions as an artistic ‘social lab’ in which the artists invite their audience as co-researchers. The audience is invited to experiment and play with social technologies; and to reflect on their perception of the city, and their experience of body, presence, identity and community.
    Through their artworks Lancel and Maat research contemporary social systems in a mediated society. For every ‘meeting place’ they deconstruct existing communication technologies and strategies; and design a new innovative montage of physical and virtual interaction. Through audience interaction Lancel and Maat show social portraits of urban mediated life. Shows (selection):  Ars Electronica Linz, Austria // ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany // De Appel Amsterdam, NL// Transmediale Berlin, Germany // Eyebeam, New York, USA // Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NL // Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, NL // Artfair Artforum Berlin, Germany // Urban Screens 08, Melbourne, AUS // ISEA2004 Helsinki, Finland // Biennale Villette Numerique, Paris, France // Art Center Nabi, Seoul, South-Korea // Smart Project Space Amsterdam, NL // Chinese European Art Center-CEAC // DCC Shanghai / Expo 2010, China // The Second Art @ Science International Exhibition/Symposium, Beijing, China // V2_LAB for Unstable Media Rotterdam, NL // Urban Screens 05 Amsterdam, NL // Dutch Institute for Media Art Amsterdam (NIMK), NL // ISEA2011 Istanbul, Turkey // Second new media Art Exhibition at Millennium Art Museum Beijing, China. Lancel is PhD Candidate at the Technical University of Delft, NL; she is member of the Art Practice and development ARTI research group of Marijke Hoogenboom at Amsterdam School of the Arts, NL; and core lecturer MFA interactive media art 2005-2008 at Frank Mohr Institute Groningen, NL. Maat teaches media art at Minerva Art Academy Groningen. lancelmaat.nl

Full text (PDF) p. 1462-1466