ACCESS


Marie Sester creates interactive artworks using digital technologies.

Artist Bio

ACCESS addresses and explores the impact of surveillance and detection within contemporary society. It is a public art installation in which a robotic spotlight controlled by web-users tracks individuals in public spaces. An acoustic beam system directs sounds onto the same tracked persons, projecting audio that only they can hear. The individuals do not know who is tracking them or why. Nor are they aware of being the only person among the public hearing the sound. The trackers don’t know that their actions trigger sound towards the target. In effect, both the tracker and the tracked are in a paradoxical communication loop.


Award Year
2002
Status

Completed

Marie Sester

Marie Sester

Forest Hills, NY

Marie Sester creates interactive artworks using digital technologies. Born in France, she began her career as an architect and holds a Master Degree from Ecole d’Architecture, Strasbourg. Her interests soon shifted from designing physical structures to the study of ideological ones and how culture, politics and technology affect our awareness, emotions and beliefs. Most recently her highest interest focuses on the nature of consciousness. Sester received grants from LEF Foundation (2004) and New York State Council on the Arts (2004 and 2011). She was in residence at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) in Gifu, Japan (2001-02) and Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, NY (2003). Her work has earned an Honorary Mention in Interactive Art from Ars Electronica (2003), a Webby Award for Net Art (2004) and was among the ”50 Coolest Websites” on Time Magazine Online (2004). Recent installations have been included as part of the Seoul and Singapore Biennales (2008) and installed at Glow Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2009); SFMOMA, San Francisco (2010-2011); EMPAC, Troy, NY (2010-2011); and Z33, Hasselt, Belgium (2011).