MEDIATED PRESENCE

"Why would presence be so desirable? The idea of presence invokes the promise of unmediated communication, the glow of uninhibited existence, a seemingly unalienated experience and authentic encounter between humans". (Steyerl, H. The Terror of Total Dasein, 2015)

 

Tied in with the alleged authenticity of experience comes presence. I have identified the importance of the collective experience for the participants being situated together, but what of the artist and the affects of their presence and absence in this.

Instead of searching for what Steyerl called the "unmediated", some of my work explores a
mediated contact model with communication often relayed between the artist and participant via media or physical absence. Control within a situation hangs on this mediated presence. Looking
back to voice control and the instructional, I have become aware of the exchange (co-operation) in
an encounter, both its importance and its potential to compromise. If I can limit the potential for
co-operation between artist and participant I can expand the extent and duration of control. The recorded voice, or the severed live voice, provides this limit yet perversely creates a reassuring intimacy at the same time.

 

Not all my work has involved this mediated presence. Here Is Where We Meet, Paid Opportunity and Think of Someone You Know opted for the physical presence of the artist but it was clear that being overtly situated with the participant as the artist did compromise the control over the work. With this in mind I converted Think of Someone You Know from a physical encounter, between artist and participant, to a mediated one before implementing it as part one of What Are Other People like...