“Take the Call” by Chicago-based media artist Sabrina Raaf, attempts to address the phenomenon of self-promotion and absorption on the Internet. The project monitors ambient sound levels in the space to affect the image of a large flag on an LED matrix that flutters to open and close a large eye (on the screen), that nervously surveys the room. The project was inpired by dozens of videos the artist found on YouTube of people filming themselves staring intently at the camera.
Sabrina Raaf artist site – Link
4 thoughts on “Interactive art project comments on self-absorption on the Internet”
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You should have titled this one “A Bre Pettis inspired art project” ;)
I’m always open to different interpretations about my work. It makes life interesting! Often others have insights into it that open my eyes to aspects of it that I never even saw. For ‘Take the Call’, my concept actually didn’t include notions of self-promotion and self-absorption on the Internet. It’s about a state of hyper-awareness, urgency, and emotional amplification in our super-saturated digital era. It’s about those who never sleep because they’re constantly monitoring the latest in media culture. It’s about people staring intently – eyeball to lens – into their webcams (ie, obsessively trolling the web, day and night). In the work, one sees a large eye, slightly bloodshot, surveying the room. Rising from the eyelid is a long red flag that floats above the eye like a ribbon. Not only does the flag keep the eye open, it acts as an antenna for the eye – fluttering, rippling, and whipping softly when the sound level in the exhibition space suddenly shifts or when visitors speak in proximity to it.