Year: 2011

Through A Glass Darkly: Epilogue

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I am premiering this “Epilogue” for Through A Glass Darkly today in New York at Flux Factory.

Here is an excerpt from the script:

“In my short film, Through A Glass Darkly, I steer the focus away from the narrative, away from the explosions and violence, away from the masculine overload, and towards the serene landscapes where hollywood produces its fictional wars.

Through A Glass Darkly is a remix of landscapes from popular films that depict conflict. The chronological compilation relies on the influence of cinema to access a collective memory of images of war. While peaceful, they are frightening moments in their original context, used to contrast tranquility with chaos, beauty with destruction, and property with the actions that attempt its acquisition. Seen in this form, they remind the viewer that war is violent and chaotic while questioning the idea that conflict is a means to an harmonious end.”

Geographical and Social Landscapes of Conflict, Both Real and Perceived @ Flux Factory, Thursday April 14

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If you are in New York this week go see this screening and exhibition curated by Elizabeth Larison at Flux Factory (in Long Island City near PS1). In addition to screening Through A Glass Darkly I will also be premiering a special Epilogue to accompany the film.

Geographical and Social Landscapes of Conflict, Both Real and Perceived:
A Special Flux Thursday
Thursday, April 14
8 pm +

Join us for Flux Thursday, our monthly potluck and salon. Dinner starts at 8, with presentations to follow. As part of The Typhoon Continues and So Do You, we are happy to present Geographical and Social Landscapes of Conflict, Both Real and Perceived, a pair of videos curated by Elizabeth Larison. Through a Glass Darkly, a short film by Owen Mundy, brings together over one hundred of the most popular war films edited into a chronologically correct survey of landscapes of conflict, at least according to Hollywood. Untitled part 2: beauty and the east, a documentary by Jayce Salloum, addresses issues of nationalism and the nation state, alienation, ethno-facism, polarities of time – among others – as described in a series of interviews with individuals from former Yugoslavia.

Owen Mundy, Through a Glass Darkly, 2011

DATAPOLIS Art | Science | Tech Biennale

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Give Me My Data will be included in the upcoming exhibition curated by Pavel Sedlák at DATAPOLIS Art | Science | Tech Biennale in Prague.

DATAPOLIS
Exhibition of the 5th International Art | Science | Technology Biennale Prague ENTER

DATAPOLIS is a one evening and three days of full-size experiment in art and technology. The exhibition addresses interactions of media technologies, novel visualization practices and urban realities. Exhibiting artists from all over the world discover moods and rhythms of our cities, bodies and planet. They innovatively mash both visible and invisible data that re-present individual and collective lives and actions. Keywords: data, city, communities, mapping, social, geographical, economical, political, sentient, ambient, mobile, ubiquitous, embedded intelligence, architecture, fashion, quantified selves, body & environment monitoring, robotic systems, trash, transport, pollution, open innovation & design.

Exhibition Opening: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 18:00
Exhibition dates: April 15 – April 17, 2011 (Limited version of the exhibition will run until Sunday, April 24, 2011)
Location: National Technical Library (NTK)
Address: Technická 6,160 80 Praha 6 – Dejvice, http://www.techlib.cz/

Curatorr: Pavel Sedlák (CZ)
Co-curator: Andrej Boleslavský (SK/CZ)

ENTER website: http://festival-enter.cz/

Artists in the exhibition:

Alessandro Ludovico, Paolo Cirio (IT): Face to Facebook
Mark Shepard (USA): Sentient City Survival Kit
Mark Shepard (USA): Serendipitor
Varvara Guljajeva (EST) & Mar Canet(ES): The Rhythm Of The City
James George(US), Alexander Porter(US): DepthEditorDebug
Eric Conrad (USA): Palbable City
Eric Conrad (USA): Bark Rubbings
Teresa Almeida (PT/SG): Modes for Urban Moods: Space Dress
Jenny Chowdhury (USA): 802.11 Apparel – Wifi Jacket
MIT SENSEable City Lab (USA): Trash Track
Secret Cooks Club (SG): FoodMatch
Dušan Barok (SK/NL): FaceLeaks
Owen Mundy (USA/DE): Give Me My Data
Jaro Dufek (CZ): Reality Ends Here
Aram Bartholl (DE) & Ivan Floreš (CZ): Dead Drops
Niki Passath (AT): Zoe
Dardex Mort2Faim (FR): Machine 2 Fish
Saša Spačal (SLO): 7K: New Life Form
Marie Polakova (CZ) & Jonathan Cremieux (FI/FR): Mimodek
Scott Hessels (USA/HK) & Gabriel Dunne (USA): Celestial Mechanics
Pedro Cruz (PT): The Morphing City

 

Give Me My Data: A Facebook Application Inspired by the Stasi Files Controversy, talk at DAAD Meeting in Dresden, Germany

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Giving a talk today in Dresden, Germany titled, “Give Me My Data: A Facebook Application Inspired by the Stasi Files Controversy.” Here is the abstract.

During the final days of the German Democratic Republic (or GDR) it became evident that the Ministry for State Security (more popularly known as the “Stasi”) was destroying incriminating evidence from its 40-year history of domestic and international surveillance. These documents, which the Stasi was attempting to destroy using shredding machines, as well as by hand when the machines failed, included information gathered through various clandestine methods about lives of citizens of the GDR without their knowledge or consent.

On January 15, 1990, protestors stormed the Stasi headquarters in Berlin in attempt to prevent the destruction of personal records which they felt they should be able to access. The phrase, “Freiheit für meine Akte!” (in English: Freedom for my file!) spray painted on the Stasi guardhouse during this protest embodies a desire by citizens to open this closed world of state surveillance in order to understand the methods of control employed the Stasi

This moment in history inspires my ongoing project, Give Me My Data, a Facebook application that helps users export their data out of Facebook. While clearly utilitarian, this project intervenes into online user experiences, provoking users to take a critical look at their interactions within social networking websites. It suggests data is tangible and challenges users to think about ways in which their information is used for purposes outside of their control by government or corporate entities.

At the height of its operations, the Stasi is believed to have hired, between spies and full- and part-time informants, one in every 6.5 East German citizens to report suspicious activities, almost 2.5 million people.1 At this moment, the ratio of people entering data on Facebook to non-members is one in fourteen for the entire world,2 introducing possibly the most effective surveillance machine in history.

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