"There is an old adage that crisis brings both danger and opportunity. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this has proved true for many politicians.
As the coronavirus has spread, many governments around the world have sought to tackle the pandemic by broadening their powers and abilities, according to data collated from the Covid-19 Digital Rights Tracker and Civic Freedom Tracker...
To monitor rule-breakers, 22 countries have used surveillance drones. Facial recognition programmes have been expanded, internet censorship has occurred in 28 countries, and internet shutdowns in 13. At least 120 contact-tracing apps are in use across 71 states, and 60 other digital contact-tracing measures have been used across 38 countries.
Many of these are examples of emergency powers: exceptional actions that states can invoke during a crisis to deviate away from existing laws. Legally, emergency powers vary by country. Many are enshrined under a constitution, give specific powers to the executive, and require time limits. Many (but not all) require the declaration of a "state of emergency"..."
Text by Luke Kemp 28th April 2021. The 'Stomp Reflex': When governments abuse emergency powers, BBC Future [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210427-the-stomp-reflex-when-governments-abuse-emergency-powers > [Accessed 21 November 2021].
Links for further reading
KO.VIDi - TO.ZNA 21.22
(WHO.SEES - IT.KNOWS.)
One-channel video with sound.
Digitally processed and then animated a collage of drawings.
Definition: HD, Ratio: 16:9 and 9:16, Duration: 2 min, play in a loop.
Two versions are created:
I video Vertical projection, Year 2021
II video Horizontal projection, Year 2022
Sound: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Technical support needed: Projector with speaker OR monitor with headphones
Animated collages and drawings using a smartphone motion design app.
Youtube links:
Vertical version: https://youtu.be/sTYP92QatbM
Horizontal version: https://youtu.be/GctxvVbKawo
This piece alludes to the workings of our bilateral negotiation between data footprints and an identity matrix powered through mis/information around transmission and processing. The power dynamics that fuel this process are highlighted in the way partial animation feeds into still images to create the illusion of what and who comes into being. Surprisingly perhaps, in an age of information overload, there is a growing ambiguity around the participants involved, which the pandemic, with its global outreach equal to that of the internet, has highlighted even further. Ko-VIDi (who sees in Serbian) is symbolic of the anonymous eye in the ‘cloud’ that tracks, traces and constructs selfhoods with unknowable futures.
Exhibitions:
2021 STATE OF EMERGENCY -The 90th Autumn Exhibition of ULUS Art Pavilion "Cvijeta Zuzorić", Belgrade
Curators: Dr Jelenom Stojanović i Dr Dejanom Sretenovićem (I)
Leopoldo Gotuzzo Art Museum - MALG, in Pelotas, Brazil (I)
2023 The LAR Chronicles: Radical Domains of Anima, Lab for Animation Research CUT, NeMe Arts Centre, Limassol (II)
2024 Diapo Gallery, Nice, France group show Digi-art organized by Les Créatives de Demain France, EDI Belgium, CRU Creative Hub Portugal, EKA and EFTA Turkey. (I)
2024 Sirena, DUMPHAUS, TOKYO, The Wrong Biennale pavilion at ONA Project Gallery, Tokyo (I)
2024 POMA Platform of Open Media Art, Košice, Slovakia (I)
2024 Genesis, 56th May Exhibition, ULUPUDS, ex Cinema Balkan, Belgrade
Ovo delo aludira na funkcionisanje naših bilateralnih pregovora između otisaka podataka i matrice identiteta zasnovane na pogrešnim/informacijama oko prenosa i obrade. Dinamika snage koja podstiče ovaj proces je istaknuta u načinu na koji se delimična animacija unosi u nepokretne slike kako bi se stvorila iluzija šta i ko ulazi u biće.
Možda iznenađujuće, u doba preopterećenosti informacijama, postoji sve veća nejasnoća oko uključenih učesnika, što je pandemija, sa svojim globalnim dosegom, jednakim Internetu, još više istakla. Ko.VIDi je simbol anonimnog oka u „oblaku“ koji prati, traga i konstruiše sopstva sa nespoznatljivom budućnošću.
Dr Frosoulla Kofterou