The Nemesis Machine /Stanza (UK)
The Nemesis Machine is a large installation which is adapted to each place where it is displayed. It looks like a miniature city. The artwork represents the complexities of the real time city as a shifting morphing and complex system. It visualises life in the metropolis on the basis of real time data transmitted from a network of sensors. The artwork you see is a city of electronic components that reflect in real time what is happening. Small screens show pictures of the visitors so that they become part of the city. The artwork lies within the themes of the urban landscape, surveillance culture, privacy and alienation in the city.
The artwork focuses on how we consciously or unconsciously influence each other, and also the degree to which technology may in future take over control of our own bodies and our presence in the city. This is a city where there is no privacy. The Nemesis Machine asks how new technologies can imagine a world where we are liberated and empowered, where finally all of the technology becomes more than gimmick and starts to actually work for us. Or will these technologies as the machine suggests control us, separate us, divide us, create more borders.
The installation poses the question of who owns the data and speculates that virtual borders will soon create more systems of control.
The wireless sensor network is set up to "visualize" the space all around us as 'worlds' full of data. These new data-spaces can help us understand the fundamentals of our outside environment. The underlying conceptual theme is The mother of big brother.
