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Monika Sziladi

LET THE FREE WORLD SPIN : Statement

Let the Free World Spin (2012)

The intention of this series is to explore the intersection between publicly displayed commercial video imagery, public surveillance and the urban landscape through the use of photography and digital montage.

Billboard size video screens that have been rapidly replacing printed posters all over New York City provided me with new raw materials for montages. I photographed buildings alongside video advertisements on the street in an effort to capture individual frames of moving images – moments that we might not register consciously but likely pick up unconsciously. They then made their way into montages put together from architectural elements containing street surveillance cameras. As a last step, I digitally erased any appearance of text and logos to make the final compositions feel quieter and subtly virtual. Surveillance cameras and oversized screens become to buildings what hand-held cameras and pocket size screens become to people: closed-circuit streams of recording and broadcasting, as if public and private have merged into a single interwoven continuum.

Images