[ DGW ]

Lost pet flyers around Lake Merritt in Oakland. By Doug Garth Williams. Subscribe for more.

March 2011 Society for Self Surveillance president, Douglas Garth, delivered a speech to the public from the temporary SSS headquarters at 266 West 37th street in Midtown Manhattan

This is a video installation intended to be seen by one viewer at a time. It can be installed in any environment with a large enough space. An "X" on the floor marks the spot for the viewer to stand. Once there a motion sensor triggers the video to play. The video seems to be a live feed from a surveillance video showing the viewer from the side in real time. Doug seems to approach the viewer from behind and stare. He is not really there. The live feed is seamlessly composited with a pre-recorded video shot earlier from the same camera. Upon seeing themselves on a surveillance camera the viewer has very little reaction. People are recorded on camera so frequently that it is no longer unsettling. However, when Doug seems to approach and stare at them within the space it still provokes a visceral reaction. It may take several minutes but the viewer will eventually be compelled to turn around. At that point they will realize there is no one behind them. This installation serves as a reminder of our attitudes towards the surveillance cameras that intermittently record the banalities of our daily lives. It also references the concept that video can never be trusted as an accurate documentation of reality. Special Thanks to Brendan Aanes.

We tend to buy bottled water without really thinking about exactly what we are buying or why we are buying it and the plastic that comes with it. I decided to make my own brands of bottled water and drop them in some shops. I made "Lake Merritt Water" and "Oakland Tap Water." Lake Merritt is a beautiful and unpleasant smelling Lake in Oakland, CA that you could not pay me to drink from. Oakland tap water is the perfectly good water I drink every day. This is meant as a reminder that the perception of any health or quality benefit from buying our water in millions of little plastic bottles with uncertain origins is highly dubious, but the lasting impact it has is not.

Writer/Director: Doug Garth Williams Editor: Doug Garth Williams Makeup: George Schminky DP: Jason Beckwith Featuring: Michael Paim Chloe D. Bunnies Additional Crew: Jordan Epcar Jasmine Marrow Drew Levin Special thanks to Aggregate Space, Pete Hickok, Conrad Meyers, and Sarah Willis