[H&R] Sophie Calle

[Joseph Gray]

a follow-up stumbled upon page to yesterdays post:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/weekinreview/04green.html?pagewanted=2

City life has always been to some degree a public performance, and one  
of its pleasures is the opportunity to catch a glimpse of other  
habitats, to watch the movie of others’ lives through a half-drawn  
curtain, as Jimmy Stewart did in “Rear Window.” But in the same way  
overheard phone conversations used to be tantalizing until cellphone  
use reached saturation point — “I’m on 14th and Fifth,” bellows the  
guy into his Bluetooth, and your ear — ogling other people’s  
apartments is no longer so appealing, and holds about the same  
narrative punch as the inane muffin video (homemade by some teenager  
in his kitchen) my daughter watches over and over on YouTube.

...

Indeed, the computer is an eerie (or dull, depending on your point of  
view) twin to the glass apartment, the Facebook profile page with its  
status updates its closest emotional kin — Mary is asleep! Jim is  
working hard! Lucy has “friended” John! There is a behavioral  
connection between the unconsciously “for show” lives of those living  
in glass condos and the consciously “for show” lives of those spending  
more and more of their time online, where domestic activities are  
recorded in achingly specific detail. The result is a cultural  
confusion about private and public.

...

Sherry Turkle, a psychologist and the director of the M.I.T.  
Initiative on Technology and Self, sees the glass towers as  
expressions of “a turning point in form.”

  “There is real confusion about intimacy and solitude,” said  
Professor Turkle, who for more than two decades has been studying  
computers and the people who love them. “Are we alone in these  
buildings, facing the anonymity of the city, or are we connected to  
the city? What do we show and what do we hide?

“That mirrors what happens when we’re on the computer, on our networks  
in Facebook. We are no longer able to distinguish when we are together  
and nurtured and when we are alone and isolated. I can be in intimate  
contact with 300 people on e-mail, but when I look up from my computer  
I feel bereft. I haven’t heard a voice, touched a hand, for hours or  
days. I think people are no longer certain where the self resides.”

That last line is what really gets me: "I think people are no longer  
certain where the self resides.”  which hints interestingly enough to  
many pre-enlightenment spiritual traditions attempting to codify the  
phenomenon of the "I" and its expansion.  Is the suggestion that we,  
as a species, through our technologies, are becoming inevitably aware  
of the connectedness, and sameness, of all things?  That perhaps these  
cold machines we create from the material are allowing us to see  
beyond the strictly material?  Duuuude.






On Oct 5, 2008, at 12:24 PM, Joseph Gray wrote:

> Anyone else here ever heard of this lady?:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Calle
>
> Found the description of her work to be fascinating, particularly in  
> this age of social networking networks etc.  Recently I have been  
> collecting artists that I admire as friends on facebook (and I  
> suppose they have been collecting me as well), one of them has  
> listed herself as a "fan" of this Mademoiselle Calle, which is how  
> the work came to my attention.  How delightfully self-referential!
>
> From the article:
>
> "One of Calle's first projects to generate public controversy was  
> Address Book (1983). The French daily newspaper Libération invited  
> her to publish a series of 28 articles. Having recently found an  
> address book on the street (which she photocopied and returned to  
> its owner), she decided to call some of the telephone numbers in the  
> book and speak with the people about its owner. To the transcripts  
> of these conversations, Calle added photographs of the man's  
> favorite activities, creating a portrait of a man she never met, by  
> way of his acquaintances. The articles were published, but upon  
> discovering them, the owner of the address book, a documentary  
> filmmaker named Pierre Baudry, threatened to sue the artist for  
> invasion of privacy. As Calle reports, the owner discovered a nude  
> photograph of her, and demanded the newspaper publish it, in  
> retaliation for what he perceived to be an unwelcome intrusion into  
> his private life.
>
> Who's watching who?
>
> Cheers,
> -Joe
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Facebook <confirm+msy2m45r at facebookmail.com>
>> Date: October 5, 2008 4:42:11 AM PDT
>> To:
>
>
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