Venelin Shurelov (Sofia, Bulgaria): One Person :: Urban Electronic Corpus

  • 28 Mar 2021 5pm UTC
  • dur 10 min

The system broadcasts live what the cameras see in the whole silhouette of the figure every hour for 5 minutes. This allows in the role of performers to be random bypassers or intentional visitors. The project presents the installation itself as a living performative media, which can contain many other identities of the people who interact with it. “One Person” is under constant video surveillance provided by the EarthCam – global leader in live streaming. Their platform can be used for the presentation within the festival.

One Person :: Urban Electronic Corpus is a living system, forming a collective body in the process of constant self-actualization. The computer algorithm combines video and dataveillance. The relationship with people, the environment and the information flow I call datafied interaction, it is a consequence of the human-computer symbiosis, which is based not only on choice, but also on coexistence. “One Person” is a ruthless mirror that presents society as a gigantic, interconnected, living system designed to facilitate unification and communication throughout. One Person is a process-orientated interactive installation, pilot project for the Program “Outside” of Sofia Municipality for support of temporary artworks in an urban environment – Site “Mausoleum”, “Knyaz Al. Battenberg I”, Sofia, Bulgaria. The project is a 13-meter human-like figure with 42 LED screens on both sides of the 8-ton metal construction. The project lasts about a year: 06. 11. 2020 – 31. 12. 2021. The electronic body broadcasts dynamic visual content, generated via a specifically developed computer algorithm that combines video-surveillance, data-analysis, and AI-generated text.

BIO: Venelin Shurelov (1977) graduated in Scenography (PhD) at the National Academy of Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria. He is a co-founder and lecturer (Assoc. prof.) in the Master’s program “Digital Arts”, co-founder, part of the curatorial team and technical organizer of DA Fest – International Festival of Digital Art, co-founder of DA LAB Foundation, SubHuman Theatre and art group Via Pontica. Venelin Shurelov is the author of various interactive installations and performances, some of which are “Drawing Machine” (2005), “Fantomat” (2008), “Orthoman” (2009) “Tabula Rasa” (2010), “Peripatetic” (2018), “Rotor” (2016) – presented at Ars Electronics Center, Linz. In 2011 he realized the cyber lecture “Man Ex Machina”, and in 2016 realize a performance installation “Post-Everything”, as a guest lecturer at Towson University, USA. His projects are multifaceted and include paintings, interactive installations and performance, digital technologies, video and art theory. He has a number of stage design projects, individual and group exhibitions and participations in numerous festivals in Bulgaria, Europe and the United States. Awarded many times for his work in theater and contemporary art. He lives and works in Sofia. ARTIST’S WEBSITE