"Reporters With Borders - installation version" (2008) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer"Reporters With Borders - installation version," 2008 HD projectors, sensors, computer, custom software dimensions variable also available as shadow box Installation view at Haunch of Venison, London, UK. A high resolution interactive display that simultaneously shows 875 video clips of news anchors taken from TV broadcasts in the United States and Mexico. As the viewer stands in front of the piece his or her silhouette is shown on the display and within it all reporters begin to talk (this is the first shadow box to have sound). Every 3 minutes the piece switches the videoclips --from a database of 1600--and classifies them along gender, race and country, so that for instance on the left there are only American reporters and on the right only Mexicans. The Shadow Box series of works are interactive displays with a built-in computerized tracking system. Derived from Lozano-Hemmer’s interest in portraiture, surveillance and phantasmagoria, they are autonomous artworks but often are used as “platforms” or “digital sketches” for larger installations or environments. Each box measures 104 x 80 x 13 cm and is made of steel and black anodized aluminum. The display itself is 30 inches in diagonal and shows 2560x1600 pixels --about 2 to 3 times more resolution than a typical plasma screen. Two processor computers are embedded in the system, and these are programmed to start up automatically and operate without maintenance. A high-resolution digital camera with a pinhole lens is hidden just above the display and detects the presence of viewers. This work exists both as a Shadow Box as well as an installation with projectors.
