Monitor Man | yassine

Monitor Man Project 2016, ongoing

In Monitor Man, I created an embodiment of virtual communication in public space. During the performance, I wore a helmet affixed with an iPad, which offers a real-time connection to a person outside of Europe and Western world. Through the use of technology and my own body, I used the performance to transgress actual, national borders which separate people. The performance is an opportunity for people to meet with someone who is physically far away and restricted in their freedom of movement. Monitor Man was inspired by the current refugee crisis and how it is unfolding in relation to the internet, social media, and the omnipresence of technology. The project began on the streets of Helsinki, but is ongoing, as the artist presents the work in different locations around the Western world.

Technology offers the possibility to connect more people than ever before, yet paradoxically, the rise of smartphone technology is linked directly to a rise in depression and anxiety, particularly in the West. My aim is to pare down the ambition of technological platforms like social media. I focus on one-to-one connections over vast networks of loose connections. In this work, technology is used as a means to connect people, with reactions ranging from deep empathy between geographically distant bodies to subtle gestures of avoidance and dismissal. The role of Monitor Man’s physical body merging with the face and speech of someone elsewhere heightens the feeling of human confrontation, which can disappear in cyberspace. By merging the physical presence with the digital projection of another, the performer confuses his or her own identity and lends his body to a common subject.

Monitor Man -performance and the video have been presented at the following festivals: Stuttgarter Filmwinter (2019), Germany, Digital Weekender Festival (2018), Watermans Arts Centre, London, CyberArts 2018 - Prix Ars Electronica, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria, SALTS (2017-2018), Birsfelden, Switzerland, Research Pavilion (2017), related to 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, CHART Art Fair (2017), Copenhagen, Denmark, curated by Helga Christoffersen, Supermarket Art Fair (2017) Stockholm, Sweden, Arabia Street Art Festival (2017), Helsinki and Baltic Circle, International Theatre Festival (2016), Helsinki, Finland.

2018 _ Monitor Man project receive Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica 2018 (Austria), Interactive Art

Yassine Khaled

Visual Artist