when seeing is not always believing
On June 28 Laura's breathy, conspiratorial voice says: "I'm in the library now. It's a strange building sort of based on the Parthenon. I'm going to look for a book by Julio Cortázar." She wants to find "Blow-Up," Cortázar's short story about a crime solved by the enlargement of a photograph (and the basis for Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film, "Blowup.")
Why that book? Because she has been photographing a cute, unrepentant thief she calls Rabbit. (She posts videotape of Rabbit stealing someone's Walkman.) When he drops his wallet one day, she picks it up and finds inside it Rabbit's library card and a "Spock five," a Canadian five-dollar bill that has been altered to create the face of Mr. Spock from "Star Trek." (In case you have never seen one, she includes a picture.) She wants to meet the thief.
When Laura is not examining all the odd things people around her do and drop, she does some pretty odd things too. She makes audio recordings of herself walking around in stilettos on a hard floor, drinking water, reciting the alphabet. She is so bored by her job that she will even let you take control of one of the security cameras where she works.
If this sounds intriguing, you might want to stop reading here and just go visit the site.
The Web site, named after the 1978 murder-mystery movie "Eyes of Laura Mars," is actually a work of art. What a disappointment to learn that Laura is not a real security guard. She is the creation of Janet Cardiff, a well-known, widely reviewed Canadian artist living in Berlin who mainly works with sound. You can experience another of her projects, "Her Long Black Hair," a sound walk through Central Park, through Sept. 11. (For details visit publicartfund.org.)
"Eyes of Laura" differs from some of her other pieces in a few big ways. First, it is on the Web, not in real space. And second, Ms. Cardiff has assumed a named persona, Laura, and taken pains to hide her authorship, as well as that of the sponsor, the Vancouver Art Gallery. (Despite her subterfuge, people familiar with Ms. Cardiff's voice will recognize it and also her favorite themes: surveillance, language, libraries, identity, fashion, mystery, crime and place.)
But the most important difference is this: despite all the trouble Ms. Cardiff has taken to camouflage herself, in this case the Laura fiction does not hold. The illusion breaks and it breaks completely.
This is odd. After all, in Ms. Cardiff's sound walks you know right up front that the work is art and that it's hers. Nonetheless, the illusion works. You are drawn into the vague and ominous stories whispered into your ear. You believe that there is someone walking right behind you even when no one is there.
So what's the problem with Laura?
Maybe the illusion of the Web site collapses because it is, paradoxically, too complete, too fleshed out. In the past, Ms. Cardiff homed in on one sense - hearing. You had the feeling that she was boring her way into your head. With this work, she uses audio, video, text and photography, and this multisensory experience dissipates the effect.
Or maybe the problem is autonomy. With other works, you had no choice but to walk around with her at her speed. With this work, you are free to explore at your own pace. You move between the diary, the videotape and the surveillance camera as you please, and thus never have the sense of being carried along on the wings of someone else's fantasy.
Or maybe the problem is the Internet. The Web is a hotbed of hoaxes, false identities and illusions, and this is just one more. Who cares if this fiction happens to be the work of a master sound artist?
One aspect of the site does retain its magic long after the Laura illusion shatters. And that is the surveillance camera. It's a real one. It shows what is going on in real-time at the Vancouver Art Gallery. And it gives the viewer complete control. Here is your chance to be Laura, the security guard with her eyes on the camera and her mind on crime. (Indeed, you have to log in as Laura to gain control of the camera.)
Among the camera angles to choose from is one labeled "the spot where Rabbit stole Walkman." Here, in a classic Cardiff gesture, illusion and reality are pressed together. Yet it is not the fiction that prevails. The live camera with its ability to spy on unsuspecting pedestrians proves so addictive and powerful that the story of Laura and Rabbit fades into the background.
All this just goes to show that there is only one thing better than a really compelling illusion, and that is the plain old truth.
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In other laissez-faire security news...
CEO promises 2010 Games will be about sport, not security
The Vancouver Province
Sunday July 10 2005
By Ian Bailey
This week's terrorist bombings in London won't change unfolding security plans for the 2010 Winter Olympics in B.C., says the head of the Games' organizing committee.
John Furlong said organizers are planning to stick with their $175-million security budget, which is being shared by the federal government and province.
Security planning for 2010 is being co-ordinated by the RCMP.
"We have no reason to believe today, none, that the costs will go up as a result of anything that has happened in the last 24 hours," Furlong told reporters in a conference call from Singapore.
The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was in Asia attending a meeting of the International Olympic Committee where London was selected as host city for the 2012 Summer Games.
"We decided quite a long time ago that we did not want security to be the story of the 2010 Games. We want this to be about sport, about celebration, about culture and nation building," he said.
Furlong also said 2010 organizers have decided to look for ways to try and boost their projected revenue stream from $1.35 billion to $1.7 billion.
"We have no choice but to approach it this way because no one can predict what it will cost to do something five years from now," he said.
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Vancouver Won't Increase Security Budget
By Associated Press
July 08, 2005, 8:12 PM CDT
TORONTO -- The bombing attack that killed at least 49 in London won't force organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics to increase security spending, the CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Committee said.
John Furlong said Friday he purposely left any mention of security out of a report he gave to the International Olympic Committee during its meetings in Singapore.
"We have no reason to believe that anything that happened in the last 24 hours is going to affect our plan," Furlong said in a conference call.
"For us, today was not a day to talk about security," Furlong said. "I wasn't prepared to. It was a day for feeling very badly for the people of London. It was far too premature to do an evaluation of what happened.
"From our position, we have a comprehensive security planning process in place that is working. It has been applauded by the IOC."
VANOC has budgeted about $147 million for security for the 2010 Games.
That is figure is low compared to the estimated $300 million spent at the Salt Lake Games in 2002 and the staggering $1.6 billion spent on security at the Athens Olympics.
Furlong maintains the 2010 security budget won't increase.
"We have no reason to believe today the cost will go up as a result of anything that has happened in the last 24 hours," he said.
"We are optimistic we can deliver a safe and secure games for the budget we have."
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posted by Nutana at 7/11/2005 12:16:00 a.m.
2 Comments:
Does anybody else think Colonel Furlong is being a tad naive and/or perhaps even reckless in his glib assessment of what level of security might be required in 2010?
Guess not.
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