L'enfer c'est les autres
Participatory installation
Description
Artist: Nourathar Studio
Authors: Caen Botto & Marta Rupérez
Title: L'enfer c'est les autres
Date: 2023
Medium: Augmented reality. Mixed media; metal shelving unit + 8 glass jars. Software*, computer, projectors, custom electronics, camera & stainless steel stand, lights, micro-controller.
*Custom application developed in Max/MSP/Jitter by Caen Botto.
Dimensions: variable (site-specific). Video booth: 1,5m (h) x 1m (w) x 1m (d)
Edition: unique within a series of 6
The phrase by Sartre, “L’enfer c’est les autres” is at the base of this participatory installation that explores how the gaze of others conditions the construction of our identity. Furthermore, it refers to how Big Tech companies intervene in this process, take advantage of our weaknesses and transform us into products displayed in their shopfront.
Interaction
As visitors enter a dark room they encounter a shelving unit with seven glass jars; a label identifies each jar with one of the 7 deadly sins. An 8th jar, placed on the top shelf, displays a moving eye. The “video-booth”, equipped with a camera, lights and a button, is installed across from the shelves.
Participants are invited to stand on the platform and have their image recorded on video. While they press the button, the lights next to the camera turn on and their image will replace the eye on the top jar. At the same time, Sartre’s phrase, which is projected onto the wall, changes from a statement to a question. Each participant’s video-selfie is then automatically mapped onto one of the seven jars, where it will remain “captured” until another visitor takes their place.
Concept
The captured images of visitors make up a collection of bottled faces, which are displayed as in a shop window. Each jar and its face are associated with one of the deadly sins and with the technological companies that, in a certain way, enhance, commercialize and feed on them: pride by Instagram, greed by Binance, wrath by Twitter, envy by Apple, lust by Tinder, gluttony by Glovo and sloth by Netflix.
Sartre's phrase “L’enfer c’est les autres” (Huis clos, 1944) explores the concept of the influence of other people's views on the personal psyche. It stems from the idea that the gaze of others has the ability to undress us and expose the reality of our being. This situation of vulnerability causes the individual to feel judged and condemned. When we observe our image reflected in the eyes of others, what we see is the monster in the mirror that confronts us with our darker side, our weaknesses, defects and fears.
The installation examines how the construction of our own identity, in a relationship of inter-subjectivity, is conditioned by how others see us. It highlights how social media currently embody the role of the gaze of others in our networked social spaces. At the same time, it ironizes about how large tech companies take advantage of our vulnerability by manipulating and nourishing this construction. In this way, the artwork denounces the absolute commercialization of our augmented techno-social environment.
On the other hand, the installation inverts the relationship between the observer and the observed: viewers, who attend the gallery with the intention of seeing an exhibition, find themselves staring at the captured gaze of previous visitors. As soon as viewers decide to interact, they become part of the installation and will also be observed by future participants.
The meaning of the installation is completed when participants share their captured faces on social media networks. This exposes how the commercial machinery finally absorbs and commodifies everything, including the very criticism that it generates.
