Long Duration Observation (Prospective)
Overview
“At my request, my mother went to a detective agency called “Duluc”. She hired them to follow me, to report my daily activities and to provide photographic evidence of my existence. The investigation was conducted on April 16, 1981.”
In 1981, the artist Sophie Calle requested that her mother hire a private detective to log her movements and photograph her activities as she, without his knowledge, recorded her experience of being watched.
She later assembled the two reports side-by-side in her piece La Filature (The Shadow).
Instructions
Using Sophie Calle’s La Filature as a model, work with a partner to produce two different reports of the same unfolding events. These could be structured, as Calle did, with one partner surveilling the other. You could also devise another way to relate to one another -- for example, surveilling each other, or recording your own impressions. That’s up to you. Regardless of how you choose to relate, both partners must be precise in maintaining (1) a leger of observations, noting the time of day and perhaps durations of each entry, and (2) a visual companion to the notes, which could take the form of documentary drawings, photographs, sound recordings, or video.
Ideally these written and visual ledgers would unfold across several days, or weeks.
Upon completing the independent ledgers, put them together into new composition. Depending on the visual medium, this composition could be resemble La Filature (The Shadow), or be mixed into a film, sound piece, or other form/format.
Relevant Tutorials
If editing images or drawings, Photoshop and InDesign might be helpful.
If editing sound, Audacity might be helpful.
If editing video, Adobe Premier might be useful.
Required Reading:
Jean Beaudriard, Please follow me, 1983.
Optional Reading:
Sophie Calle, The Detective.
Doreen Massey, Some Times of Space, 2003.
Other References:
N/A