"The All-Seeing Eye"
“Zer Gut” art group, 2003, video 17 min. 29 sec.
The work imitates the video surveillance system operation. Someone is looking at one of the streets of the Uralmash area and makes textual references, trying to understand the motives of the actions of those captured by the camera. The passers-by and the residents of the houses turn into the characters of a daily city performance, intriguing both the “all-seeing eye” and the spectator in the exhibition hall. When the work was created, it referred to a reality show as one of the organizing models.
Years later, when the borders between private and public life blurred and people started sharing a lot about themselves in the social media, the threat of control is counterbalanced by the understanding that ordinary life is interesting only to the digital equipment registering the big data. As a result, the artists, who made everyday life of the people, recorded with their video camera, like a tiny adventure, demonstrate why this attention of those who see everything attracts and seduces – they demonstrate the lack of something in the lives of many people.
Years later, when the borders between private and public life blurred and people started sharing a lot about themselves in the social media, the threat of control is counterbalanced by the understanding that ordinary life is interesting only to the digital equipment registering the big data. As a result, the artists, who made everyday life of the people, recorded with their video camera, like a tiny adventure, demonstrate why this attention of those who see everything attracts and seduces – they demonstrate the lack of something in the lives of many people.
