Christine Meierhofer: Pretty Good Privacy

Artist(s):

• Christine Meierhofer

Collaborators:

• Max Kossatz

Title:

Pretty Good Privacy

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 1996: The Bridge

Creation Year:

1996

Category:

• Installation
• Interactive & Monitor-Based

Artist Statement:

Pretty Good Privacy is an instal­lation in which a computer and a video camera are installed in an empty room. Outside the room, a monitor displays a virtual reproduction of the room where the visitor is standing, but the room on the monitor’s screen is not empty; it is filled with things from the artist’s private life: furniture, pictures, shoes, and other intimate miscellany. The artist virtually moves into the exhibi­tion space for the duration of the show.

To experience the installation, the visitor points the camera and looks through the viewfinder. The camera captures the spot in the room that the person is pointing to, but the image in the viewfinder is a computer-gener­ated rendition. The visitor is invited to explore the artist’s private life by poking, prying, and snooping around via the camera’s viewfinder.

The “video” taken by the camera is transferred to the monitor outside the room, where it can be watched by a larger audience. The artist’s private life is being broadcast, echoing so-called “Reality TV”.

Sponsors:

The Austrian Cultural Institute

Markus Bruederlin
The Federal Austrian Curator for
Fine Arts

Other Information:

Programmer
Max Kossatz