June 20, 2007
Red Line Surveillance
Birmingham
RED LINE SURVEILLANCE - As part of FESTIVAL OF EXTREME BUILDING and NEW GENERATION ARTS FESTIVAL :: June 23-29, 2007 :: Birmingham / UK; On Site (The corner of The Priory Queensway and Moor Street Queensway).
Red Line Surveillance are out to provide security for the city of Birmingham; from a surveillance tower erected on site, mobile monitoring units will emanate through the surrounding urban environment. This project is a collaboration between nine European artists, and has been developed in partnership with the Festival of Extreme Building and New Generation Arts.
Surveillance literally means "watching over", and can be seen as the art of watching over the activities of a person or group from a position of higher authority. Commonly used to describe observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, it can also involve simple, relatively no- or low-tech methods such as direct observation, observation with binoculars or similar methods.
The surveillance tower will be a monitoring station occupied by personnel 24 hours a day, providing 'security and surveillance' for the site; this presence will be clearly visible through signage, uniformed officers and increasing levels of activity emerging from the tower. These roving patrols will expand from the base into the wider landscape of the city centre, with each reconnaissance mission seeking to find the effective range of this security service and its impact on its surroundings. The collective observation of the city will ensure that no event goes un-noticed!
This process will involve: Ana Benlloch [UK], Pelle Brage [DK], Sabine Hagmann [CH], Andreas Kebelmann [GER], MACHFELD (akaMichael Mastrototaro & Sabine Maier) [A], Ed Orton [UK], Niki Russell [UK], Eliane Rutishause [CH], and Stuart Tait [UK].
Posted by jo at June 20, 2007 11:39 AM
