Data Shadows – Installation
Local Servers 6, 9, 14, 1, 17
pigment prints mounted and suspended in steel frames, LED's, mirror, false floor
Data Shadows (interactive monitor)
eye tracker, tunnel vision software
Data Shadows (floor install)
false floor with mirror boxes and monitors displaying an accumulated eye track generated by a viewer
Mirror Box 6
Mirror Box 30
Mirror Box 4
Mirror Box 28
Local Servers 14, 6, 9
pigment prints mounted and suspended in steel frames, LED's, mirror
Data Shadows (interactive video)
projection
Data Shadows, v3, eye tracker, tunnel vision software
Data Shadows, v3 (1 of 2), eye tracker, tunnel vision software
The tunnel vision effect is controlled by one viewer at a time, while the accumulated eye trails are incorporated into projections in other parts of the gallery.
Data Shadows, v3 (2 of 2), eye tracker, tunnel vision software, monitors, mirror
The accumulated eye trails created through the eye tracker control monitor shown in the previous image are incorporated into this mirror box in real-time. The viewer is initially confronted with their own reflection before looking into the box where they find the eye trails overlayed onto Google satellite imagery of data centers.
Local Server 14
pigment print on habotai silk
Local Server 1
pigment print on habotai silk
Data Shadows (interactive video)
projection
Data Shadows (interactive video); Data Trails
projection; laminated cast vinyl on aluminum
Data Trails
laminated cast vinyl on aluminum
Data Trails
laminated cast vinyl on aluminum
(X) Google, Eemshaven, Netherlands; (X) Google, Hamina, Finland; (X) Google, Dublin, Ireland
laminated cast vinyl on dibond
(X) Google, St Ghislain, Belgium;(X) Google, The Dalles, OR, USA; (X) Google, Hamina, Finland
laminated cast vinyl on dibond
Distributed Network, laminated cast vinyl on aluminum, 46 x 93 in.
This piece digitally combines twelve Google data centers through databending.
Distributed Network (detail)
laminated cast vinyl on aluminum
Klein Worm Eye Trails, from Radical Software, 1971
laminated cast vinyl on aluminum, 57 x 175 in.
Local Server 5, Data Variation 12 (left); Local Server 16, Data Variation 9 (right)
pigment prints on habotai silk, 90 x 30 in. each
User Agreement, pigment print on habotai silk, 24 x 3 ft.
This piece incorporates the text from all of the Google user agreements from the creation of this practice in 1999 through 2019.
The project Data Shadows (2014-present) is a photographic investigation into the physical apparatus of the Internet and digital surveillance. As our daily lives become increasingly mediated, connected and transparent, the trails of information we leave behind as we traverse the Internet have come to represent digital extensions of our identities. These digital identities, or “data shadows,” have significant and often hidden effects on our relationships to large institutions, our social interactions, and our daily experience. Nevertheless, we remain only vaguely aware that our personal data is both a part of us and at the same time hidden and outside of our control. At this unique moment in history, this work offers a symbolic gesture of “counterveillance” – an attempt to pinpoint the location of our data and use photography to peer back into the apparatus of the Internet and digital surveillance.
One of the core components of Data Shadows is an interactive gallery installation that uses photography and eye tracking to draw viewers into an exchange with the physical infrastructure of the Internet. To experience the installation, a single viewer stands 2-3 feet away from a monitor that contains photographs from the inside of data centers (see Figure 1). However, the screen starts off blank and the initial image does not appear all at once. The monitor is equipped with an eye tracking camera that follows the viewer’s line of sight as it moves across the screen, and only a small circular portion of the image is revealed wherever the gaze is directed. The rest of the screen remains black, creating a moving “tunnel vision” effect (see Figure 2). This tunnel vision effect is controlled by one viewer at a time, while the accumulated image trails are simultaneously projected onto a large wall behind them (see Figure 3), allowing others in the room to voyeuristically observe the movement of the viewer’s eye across the photographs.
Documentation alternating between the singular tunnel vision experienced at the control monitor, followed by the accumulated eye trail that is projected into a different part of the gallery.
Documentation of an interactive eye tracking installation that overlays photographs of data center interiors with Google Maps imagery of Google data centers. In this iteration I attempt to write “watching you, watching me” with my eyes.