Interdisciplinary project
Performance- Video- Ephemeral Architecture-Sound Art Casa de Lago-UNAM, Mexico City- February 2004
“Vigilance” explores dual ideas of the watchful eye, that protects or controls us.
Our daily lives are filled with vigilance. We are under surveillance, observation, security systems. This project looks at where the boundaries lie in observation and security, for the sake of control.
It explores the idea of the big-brother type ‘external watchers’: Paternalistic governments allegedly watching us to maintain national security.
It looks at religious control for the sake of faith, philosophical trends promoting mainstream thought, and empowered media that gives a biased, one-sided story.
The piece also explores internal and private observation: Our subconscious vigilance that protects us, but sometimes overwhelms and destroys us. The voyeur that indulges itself in the pleasure of private observation.
“Vigilance” was created as a commissioned intervention for one of UNAM’s cultural spaces-Casa de Lago- located in the heart of the Chapultepec woods. The aim with the project was to immerse the spectators in the art itself. Spectators could walk “through” the pieces; experiencing ephemeral elements such as light, sound, water and performance actions. By walking through the pieces, spectators became both the observers and the object of observation.
It explores the idea of the big-brother type ‘external watchers’: Paternalistic governments allegedly watching us to maintain national security.
It looks at religious control for the sake of faith, philosophical trends promoting mainstream thought, and empowered media that gives a biased, one-sided story.
The piece also explores internal and private observation: Our subconscious vigilance that protects us, but sometimes overwhelms and destroys us. The voyeur that indulges itself in the pleasure of private observation.
“Vigilance” was created as a commissioned intervention for one of UNAM’s cultural spaces-Casa de Lago- located in the heart of the Chapultepec woods. The aim with the project was to immerse the spectators in the art itself. Spectators could walk “through” the pieces; experiencing ephemeral elements such as light, sound, water and performance actions. By walking through the pieces, spectators became both the observers and the object of observation.
