Paul Sermon’s Telematic Dreaming is an interactive installation that allows two individuals to interact virtually in separate locations via video projection onto a bed. Participants see themselves and their remote counterpart lying together in the same space, despite being physically distant. This project fascinates me because it explores intimacy and presence in a virtual world, emphasizing the ethereal nature of human connection in an increasingly digital age. It captures not only a moment in time but also transcends physical boundaries, creating a dreamlike experience of togetherness.
2. Stefan Draschan’s Photography of Museum Visitors
Stefan Draschan’s photography is renowned for capturing museum visitors whose clothing or posture coincidentally aligns with the artwork they’re observing. Draschan patiently waits for these serendipitous moments where the viewer unintentionally becomes part of the artwork itself. I find this project interesting because it plays with the idea of temporality and synchronicity, turning candid, fleeting moments into art. The subjects aren’t posing, yet their interactions with the art they’re viewing create natural, yet curated, compositions that offer new ways of perceiving both viewer and artwork.
In Carl Knight’s Instagram series Moving Pictures, the artist creates cinemagraphs—still images with subtle, repeated motion. These moving portraits capture a moment in time that feels continuous, as if frozen in an ongoing loop. In this example, the use of motion adds a hypnotic quality to a seemingly static scene. I am drawn to this project for its ability to merge stillness with movement, capturing time in a way that feels both suspended and in constant flux, offering a deeper reflection on the passage of time within portraiture.
“Boyhood” is a coming-of-age drama directed by Richard Linklater, filmed over 12 years (2002–2013). It follows Mason Evans Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) as he grows from age six to eighteen, with his divorced parents.
Linklater wrote the script year by year, incorporating the actors’ real-life changes into the story, creating a unique portrayal of growing up in real-time. It was very impressive to watch this unique portrayal of the characters growing up in real time, highlighting how small, everyday moments shape a person’s identity, making the film a powerful reflection on the passage of time.
2. “Following Piece” – Vito Acconci
This is a month-long performance art piece by Acconci in 1969 in which he randomly followed strangers through the streets of New York City until they entered a private space. Acconci described the experience as losing his sense of self, becoming almost an extension of the person he was following. It’s an exploration of human behavior over time, with a focus on the mundane and transient nature of public and private space.
3.”Underground Circut” – Yuge Zhou
Zhou has created several pieces centered on the theme of temporal changes, and this is one of my favorites. It’s a collage of hundreds of video clips shot in New York subway stations. “Station to station, the movement of commuters in the outer rings suggests the repetitive cycle of life and urban theatricality and texture.”
I found this absolutely incredible project by an artist who takes an individual’s Instagram picture and uses a surveillance camera company called EarthCam to show the real-time process of that individual attempting to capture the very image they posted to Instagram. Depoorter essentially exposes the real-time workflow behind an Instagram capture, illustrating the the ironic relationship between personal photo consent and public surveillance consent.
The Follower
It delves into the disconcerting nature of surveillance, revealing that not only are individuals monitored in their everyday lives, but the very moment they take a photo to later upload for their followers is also captured and watched. It visualizes the capture process, an individual walking around, chasing poses, checking out the camera, and highlights the damaging implications of surveillance in connection to social media. I absolutely LOVE this project because it underscores the irony that, while taking an Instagram photo, individuals often remain unaware of the broader watchful eyes observing them. It’s so easy to piece together someone’s digital footprint, it’s scary regarding the possible implications: stalking or used as a resource by police to track convicted individuals/solve a case.
To perform a version of the artist’s experiment, a New York Times photographer was captured, Instagram ready, in popular tourist spotsA screen grab from an EarthCam camera in Times Square showing the photographer, John Taggart, to the right of the TKTS sign.
Depoorter would download public photos from Instagram using the locations individuals tagged in their posts. Deeporter collected the live online feeds from Earth Cam over a two-week period. He then developed a software that compares the Instagram images with the EarthCam recorded footage.
Interestingly enough, Instagram responded saying that ” ‘collecting information in an automated way’ is a violation of the company’s terms of use and can get a user banned… We’ve reached out to the artist to learn more about this piece and understand his process. Privacy is a top priority for us, as is protecting people’s information when they share content on our platforms.”
Mr. Taggart on Mulberry Street in Little Italy in Manhattan
A screen grab from EarthCam. Mr. Taggart is wearing black with his hands up.Credit…
When I logged onto EarthCam.com, I was amazed to discover it provides the public with real-time surveillance from various landmark locations worldwide. Originally intended (with good intentions) to allow people to experience places they may never visit in person, I was shocked to learn that it also features surveillance of major landmarks not only in the U.S. but also in hundreds of countries abroad such as Brazil and Bali. EarthCam’s live broadcasting of people’s activities in public spaces without their knowledge—and making this technology, and livestream footage from the previous days, publicly accessible—is absolutely insane. When probed by the New York Times to answer questions on the project and the risk their camera’s pose to individual’s privacy, the marketing director only sayd that Mr. Deeporter used the “imagery and video without authorization and such usage is in violation of our copyright” (nyt). Depoorter responded by saying that “It’s not only EarthCam… There are many unprotected cameras all over the world.”
From the comfort of my couch, I’m currently watching individuals in real-time on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on a Saturday night. EarthCam operates cameras in all 50 states; and Pittsburgh has several, including one at Andy Warhol’s grave, where unknowing visitors come to pay their respects, while others who know EarthCam, turn around and wave. Depoorter’s project forces us to confront the uncomfortable truth about our digital lives and the extent to which we are all under surveillance, raising critical questions about privacy and consent in an age dominated by social media.
1. Max_woanygolf (TikTok), Two Guys, Golf, & an Egg (2023-2024)
I came across this moving video on Twitter where two guys are playing golf, aiming to hit an egg. The camera is positioned directly behind the egg, making it feel like you’re standing right there, with the golf balls flying toward your face. As I watched, I couldn’t help but twitch and flinch, instinctively pulling my head back, thinking a golf ball was coming straight at my face. I even had to remind myself to breathe! I bring up this particular piece because the placement of the camera in this shot induces stress of the experience, you keep feeling like this object is coming right towards you, fueling an adventure with adrenaline, capturing an experience that most people wouldn’t normally willingly choose to be part of. The part where I had realized I let out a breathe was when the egg was finally hit. The camera angle, not necessarily a moving camera, captures the movement of the golf ball, almost watching as it slows down in the air. Not only is the action caught by the single camera behind the egg, but there is another camera capturing the upclose reactions of the golfers as they hit the ball.
Best Video of Bruce from Art Basel Exhibition https://www.facebook.com/M23Projects/videos/bruce-nauman-walks-in-walks-out-2015-brucenauman-tate-tatemodern-london-03-octob/415913112189000/
Approaches to temporal capture and portraiture that interest me
01 NYT ATHLETE PORTRAITS
I’ve enjoyed NYT articles in recent years that show, freeze, and analyze an athlete’s movements over time. Here are two articles about Olympic runners, titled “How Noah Lyles Won the Men’s 100-Meter Gold by a Fraction” and “How Julien Alfred Beat Sha’Carri Richardson for Gold.” I like these pieces because they freeze, analyze and animate a person. I think this could be fun to do on a subject that is not necessarily a star athlete and not on a race track. What if we took this serious analytical approach to the movements of common people (non olympic athletes)? I think we could make something interesting and fun! I also like it that in this article line graphs are presented.
I also enjoy “Richarlison, Messi and Pulisic: Three Stunning Goals Frozen in Time” as a piece that not only shows and stops goals in a soccer game, but also allows us quickly pan around a 3D view of that critical moment and understand it in a way that is impossible for a spectator in real time. I do like soccer, but I think we could isolate and analyze other human, or maybe even animal movements (or plant movements?) in this way and find something really interesting.
I was incredibly moved by Nicholas Felton’s careful crafting with various forms of data to tell a story about his father, who had passed away the previous year, in an “annual report.” On a 99% Invisible episode, Felton describes his information design work and the annual reports he creates. “He took 4,348 of this father’s personal records and created an intimate portrait of a man, using only the data he left behind.” I love this project because the subject is so personal and the presentation is so clear.
Overall, I think Felton’s other annual reports are versions of a person in time (himself usually, over the course of a year). It was interesting to learn how the collection of data for these reports influenced and perhaps interfered with Felton’s life. Though maybe not as extreme, it reminded me of Tehching’ Hsieh’s One Year Performance 1980-1981 (Time Clock Piece).
03 LOOPING TIME
I really loved Naren Wilks, One Man, Eight Cameras. because it shows how a person and their movements can be rearranged and synchronized, especially to some kind of music (for what purpose, I’m not sure, but it’s so pleasing to see). Here we get to take a subject and the path of their movements as a material. Then we get to see how we can array and recombine those movements. Time loops are often explored in literature and cinema and I think they are very interesting to consider. Sometimes our lives feel like time loops.
In landscape architecture, I think one of the big challenges is to intentionally choreograph possibilities for change and movement within a setting. People try to choreograph the bloom times of plants for example, but you could also try to choreograph people and their movements in space. This makes me think of the landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, and his wife, the dancer and choreographer Anna Halprin. Here’s an interview with the couple where Anna Halprin talks about her study of the nature of movement and the nature of the human body.
They used 4 volumetric time-of-flight cameras that captured extreme three dimensional detail in sync. These cameras were exposed with a thousandths of a second delay from each other, 30 times a second, to not to disrupt the exposure from opposite cameras. I really like how this looks either like a ghost house or a doll house because we are able to see through the walls and the people inside the building moving.
02. Sympoietic Bodies
This film explores the anthropocentric and a post-anthropocentric point of view of our relationship between our human body and physical surroundings. In order to create this effect they used a digital camera, motion capturing, photogrammetry, point cloud scan, Kinect camera. It almost seems like we are peering into a very microscopic world and I was really interested in how there is constant slow movement with the piece.
Another project that I thought was analogous to this theme was Kamil Czapiga’s works. Kamil Czapiga uses magnetic fluids to mimic the sort of movements of a microorganism. He also composes sound effects that matches these videos. Although these two projects are very different aesthetic and pacing styles, both works feel like they are uncovering a world we don’t normally see in a microscopic level.
03. Volumetric Selfie
I could not find an external video link for this work, but this project is also working with volumetric cameras. It also reminded me of one of the depth cameras/ and the touchpad we have in the lab because not only is the facial feature disintegrating they only emerge once the person has entered a certain parameter.
ElonJet is a now suspended twitter account that used to track the real time private jet data of cartoon villain Elon Musk. Musk publicly feuded with the creator of ElonJet since 2020, in several instances trying to buy him out and shot him down. This raises important ethical points, specifically the fact that it’s ok to be unethical towards billionaires. The accound exists today as @ElonJetNextDay, wich has a 24 hour delay to accound for (Elon’s own) restrictions on automated twitter users. Other than its obvious effect of revealing the insane reality of travel afforded to billionaires, ElonJet also played a role in showing people how childish and incompetent Musk is, and by extension breaking down a lot of meritocratic assumptions people have about capitalism.
2. A Cow a Day, Pejk Malinovski
A cow a day is a podcast by poet and radio producer Pejk Malinovski, in which Malinovski spends his day following a cow around the Ganges River in India. We’re used to content in which one main character, the narrator, is a ‘constant’ while other thigs move around them, but here the narrator is mostly passive, observing the cow and the scenery changing around it. This creates an interesting portrait with an unclear subject, merging Malinovski and the cow into one.
3. Still Water, Roni Horn
this one is kind of a stretch, but this piece creates a capture of its audience and comments on the way they interact with images and text in a way unlike anything I’ve ever interacted with before.
Probably coming from the Artist’s Grandfather Eating a bowl of Soup work, I am thinking of homes and very slow accumulation. Also still “passive capture” techniques. A few examples of sun-bleaching from r/mildlyinteresting:
I think sun-bleaching is good at translating immense amounts of time into incredibly subtle things. I like the idea that a shadow isn’t passive/ephemeral. Mrs. Homegrown posts about dust.
The one by Benglis (above) is her narrating over old videos of family, and has a quality of dissociation both through time and the motif of watching her life play back through a screen. It’s interesting to be more personal with the viewer than to her own experiences. [link to full video, requires login]
The one by Steele (above) functions a lot like a combination of sun-bleached home-places and Bengalis’ narrative style. Bodies and houses are fairly equivocal, so I’m sure finding the specific differences leads somewhere. [link to full video, requires login]
A few more pieces that came to mind mostly thinking about time-passage capture-methods:
Francis Alÿs, Zocalo, May 22, 1999 (1999)
Portrait of many people, representing any individual’s drawl/likelihood to standing in the shade. [link]
Ben Kinsley, Street With A View (2008)
Using google-street maps as a camera. Proves that the street-map photos aren’t ambiguous in time. [link]
Nina Katchadourian, Monument to the Unelected (2016)
Election cycles as a time-measuring metric. Also yard-signs as passive-capture of a house’s residents. [link]
I’ve never worked with long exposures myself and as it’s a pretty entry level kind of temporal capture it seemed like a good place to start. I particularly liked this collection of pieces by Dennis Hlynsky as it chose a duration and frequency of capture that aligns well with its subject.
Though the temporal capture of “The Forty-Part Motet” by Janet Cardiff is pretty simple – just audio recording, I find the way that they are displayed and work together to be very attractive. I like how each individual’s voice is it’s own uniquely subjective capture of pem in alium numquam habui and how these can all then interact with one another.
I really like Jason Shulman’s “Photographs of Films” because it has that “how come I never thought of that” feeling which is always a great sign for a piece in my opinion. I really love a capture techniques that are somehow a re-encoding of an existing object in a novel way that maintains elements of the original object in some way.
The Life— a 19-minute performance realised through volumetric capture and presented in Mixed Reality — was the first large-scale public exhibition of anything in this new medium.
I find it interesting to use augmented reality technology to turn the very presence of an artist into a collectible artwork. However, I think this piece mainly relies on the artist’s fame and the novelty of applying new technology to art as its selling points. Personally, I prefer her 2010 work The Artist Is Present. This piece uses silent eye contact to convey the tension between people, which reminds me of the word “gravity.” It is a dialogue and fusion between the aura of the artist and the viewer.
The Artist Is Present, 2010
2. Dolly Zoom
The dolly zoom creates the illusion of a changing distance between two objects through a combination of zooming and adjusting the camera’s distance. This technique effectively conveys a character’s inner tension by shaping an irrational perception of spatial distance. I’ve also seen this technique used in old sci-fi films without CGI to create a scene like “shrinking a spaceship down to a nano-scale.” I have a personal connection with this technique. In a TRS course project during my freshman year, I accidentally discovered and intentionally used this technique to create a project about the perception of distance. At the time, I had never heard of the dolly zoom and didn’t know what it was. It was only later, when I learned about the work Serene Velocity, that I realized I had a similar approach to that piece, though I was 50 years late.
3. The Encounter of Two High-Speed Trains
I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely love this work. It is a piece that captures the chance encounter of two high-speed trains running parallel to each other purely by coincidence. I highly, highly, highly recommend others to watch it. I believe it is one of the best examples of what this project represents.
The two trains run parallel, overlapping repeatedly; in the darkness, every brightly lit window frames a diverse array of human figures. It is a grand collective memory, where many small individuals live their vivid lives in this era of Chinese high-speed rail. In a sense, it resembles life itself: traveling alongside many others, sometimes in sync, sometimes surpassing them, sometimes drifting apart, and ultimately, we part ways.
High-speed rail is a significant symbol of this era in China. During the 2024 Spring Festival travel rush—a short period of massive population movement as people return to their hometowns—the national rail system is expected to transport 480 million passengers. High-speed rail has become a symbol connecting “development” and “home.”
Whenever I’m on a train and experience an encounter like the one in the video, I always wave vigorously to the other train. Sometimes, there is someone waving back; more often, no one notices at all, but I don’t mind. Because I understand that people meet by chance, then part ways, never to see each other again. It is one of the most ordinary things in life. If you have ever encountered someone waving to you when the trains crossed, that fleeting moment might have been the only intersection in your entire lives.
(Here is the original video link. The original video is on Bilibili, which is kind of like YouTube in China, with 4.5 million views. The version on YouTube is a re-upload by someone else, and the video quality is very low.)
Calle finds an address book on the ground, belonging to a certain “Pierre D.” She photocopies the book before returning it anonymously, and then goes around tracking down the names in this book, interviewing any who will respond to find out more about the owner. Chaos ensues, etc… I personally really enjoy the perversion of this project and how naturally it meshes with the rest of Sophie Calle’s “spying,” body of work.
The Inflatable Crowd Company
Maybe a bit of a stretch to call this temporal capture or portraiture, but in my defense they are creating temporal “portraits” of non-real people to be captured in the background of a cinematic event. Also I just really wanted to include them because they’re so weird and I think cheap movie-trickery can be really beautiful as fine arts. Company that creates inflatable dolls to fill the background of crowd scenes in movies for a price cheaper than creating the same effect with CGI.
Jenny Holzer — Cursed (? There are a few different ways it’s being titled online and I did not take a picture of the info-plaque-thing when I saw it)
Lead and copper plates with tweets stamped into them. Kind of a portrait of the president’s digital footprint made permanent. I’m not the biggest fan of the very on-the-nose choice of subject, but I understand the decision and think it does it well. Big shocker to anyone who’s taken at least one class with me — I’m a big fan of poetics and the temporal digital made permanent physical.
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