The Department of Smoke and Mirrors

• Sculptural Projection Installation

• Description

  The Department of Smoke and Mirrors (DSM) is a meditation on the effects of contemporary media on our collective and individual relationships with contemporary political discourse and action. This work draws on the spectacle of journalistic firepower that hijacks today’s politics: from Washington and Wall Street to the network of satellites and screens that report, to the protests that Occupy; the whole world is watching what a few of us are producing.  DSM is comprised of animated video— featuring a parade of sprinting demons, crowds responding chaotically, and images from recent protests— projected onto a vellum scroll hanging from the ceiling. The scroll is faced by surveillance cameras which feed back into the projection, causing repetition and distortion of the image.  The audience can walk through the spectacle, causing further video distortion chaos as the surveillance cameras read and the software loops and layers their physical interference with the spectacle. This project investigates the relationship between authority, protest, the lens, and the screen.  The rhizome of surveilled objects and subjects in this work reflects on a culture where there is no time or distance separating the artifact, from the experience, from the spin. This exhibition is generously supported by Wellesley College Friends of Art.

• Acknowledgements

  This work was created collaboratively with Jenny Schmid and curated by Lisa Fischman.

  • Software development by Ali Momeni
  • Media Design by Ali Momeni
  • Imagery by Jenny Schmid
  • Sculptural design by Ali Momeni, with fabrication and installation assistance by Drew Anderson.