PIXELATED PRESENCE
MEDIA ART

graduation project, photo installation, 2013
shown in Tent Rotterdam, 28 June – 28 August 2013

Content

The work is shown as a photo installation. Each row is originally a very short video clip converted into a series of photographs and printed frame-by-frame on 15x8,5 cm consumer photo prints.
Each row shows the process of an anonymous museum visitor taking a snapshot with its photo camera, tablet or smart phone of a well-known traditional painting – works by Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrand van Rijn, Jan Vermeer, etc. The user presses the exposure button, the device’s LCD screen blanks out – or imitates an animation of a traditional analogue diaphragm – for a ‘moment’ while processing the photo. In the end of the process the LCD screen lights up again.

The length of a row is defined by the processing time of the photo device measured in video frames: the longest processing time is 36 video frames therefore 1,4 seconds (25 frames per second) through this time the photo device shows a blank screen for its user.
Therefore the width of the rows are unequal: the narrowest consists of 9 photos and the rest ranges between 9 and 36 prints. The installation does not form an easily recognizable form.

Dimensions

Pixelated Presence photo installation consists of more than 800 (15x8,5cm) consumer photo prints installed in the corner of the exhibition space.
The photos are arranged in 42 horizontal rows. The rows are divided in the middle into two symmetrical sides by the corner of the space. The rows are mounted directly to the wall with double tape precisely on top of each other building the installation from ground to the height of 3,5 meters. The photo prints are touching each from each side creating a grid surface covering the wall completely.