« Stéphane Degoutin and Gwenola Wagon are Internet ragpickers, Facteur Cheval of found footage, who conduct investigations by delving into the space of hyperinformation, telling post-Cybernetic fables and tinkering with alternative lifestyles, in the form of films, books and installations. » – Clémence Seurat
They fight against mankind’s planned obsolescence (Cyborgs in the Mist), denounce the automation of the processing of products, life and data (Erewhon, The World as an Automated Warehouse, Stockorama), ask researchers to live in the forest, naked but connected to the network (World Brain), experiment alternative lifestyles in the society of hyper-information (Controlled Schizophrenia Laboratory), investigate the Umwelt of the Internet (Globodrome, Society as Cloud, Telepathic Mice, Haunted by algorithms), collect viral images of the society of trash (Dance Party in Iraq), explore the mythology of the international airport (Psychoanalysis of the International Airport, Terrorism Museum), organize burn-out parties (Neoteny Institute for the End of Work, Work Theme Park La Défense), promote inter-species love (Cat Loves Pig, What does it feel like to be a firefly ?), capture the vital energy that circulates through artificial mountains (A Visual History of Artificial Mountains), drift with counter-used geolocation technologies (Moillesulaz Full Scale, Random GPS), build habitable miniature paradises (Emma, Umwelt, Eden, On and On), analyze the city after the public space (Voluntary Prisoners of the American Dream, After Vegas), hijack a search engine (What Are You ?, Googlehouse), invent utopias for outlying areas (Hypnorama, Vincennes Zoo Research Lab, Utopia Factory Abraxas, Sex Park), survey the virtual globe (Globodrome, Blackpool-Manchester), roam the Parisian suburbs (Postcards from the Paris Suburbs, Lost in Créteil), wander through concrete islands (La Défense Endless Tour, Voyage immobile).
Stéphane Degoutin will be joining us to offer insights into his creative process and thematic exploration through the analysis of three of his films: Cyborgs in the Mist, World Brain, and The House That Wishes You Well.
Cyborgs in the Mist
The film Cyborgs in the Mist takes place in a district of Saint-Denis which concentrates different utopias aimed at transforming the world, and draws a portrait of modern society as a process of atomization. The investigation begins at the Villa Coignet, an abandoned monument to the technique of reinforced concrete, and continues in the Saria meat and bone meal factory, then explores one of the largest data centres in the Ile-de-France region, as well as delivery warehouses and evangelical churches. A group of researchers occupy the Villa Coignet and create the LOPH laboratory, which fights against mankind’s programmed obsolescence.
World Brain
« World Brain resembles a labyrinth with the idea of a world brain serving as a virtual center », Andreas Rauth, Jitter magazine
World Brain is at the same time a cinematographic essay, an online map and a video installation. It proposes an excursion through the folklore and the beliefs related to the Internet. It explores the hidden stories of data centers, animal magnetism, goes back to the original myths of the Web, looks at the inner life of rats, experiments with natural communication networks, of a group of researchers trying to survive thanks to Wikipedia, connecting kittens with stones…
Visit the map of the project.
The House That Wishes You Well
Amazon is marketing a video doorbell called “Ring”, to be installed on the front door of one’s house. Connected to an electronic lock, it allows to remotely open the door of one’s home, to receive deliveries, for example. Ring is equipped with a camera, which films what is happening in front of it at any time. You can watch it on your smartphone, no matter where you are.
The film Ring proposes a montage of the most ambiguous videos captured by the doorbells.Connected to the Internet, these countless cameras become detectors, snitches, witnesses to improbable points of view. The unauthorized capture of the neighborhood, the organized spying between neighbors and the accessibility of the videos to the municipal police are turning the great dream of the automated house into a paranoid nightmare. The slightest sign captured – the flight of a butterfly, a lost dog, the shadow of a walker… – becomes suspicious, haunting the occupants of the little white house.
Software, programmed to detect behaviors, or neural networks trained to recognize faces… (perhaps assisted by click workers paid to stalk your ex.) capture, annotate, data mine, transform the mass of data, filter through biometric detection assisted by deep learning, according to a list of suspicious gestures, throw their results to public police officers or intelligence agencies…
A private spying network is progressively being built up on a peer-to-peer basis. Voyeurism is entering its deep phase.
Practical Information
Date: Friday 27 September 2024
Time: 14:00—17:00
Venue: Pianofabriek (rue du Fort 35, 1060 Saint-Gilles)
Tickets are free, on registration only (limited space)
If you would like to attend, please email us at soundimageculture@gmail.com