Portrait on the Fly

3.Sept. bis 31. Dezember 2015 Ars Electronica Center Linz

Christa Sommerer und Laurent Mignonneau, Leitungsteam von Interface Cultures an der Kunstuniverstät Linz,  zeigen ihr neues Werk "Portrait on the Fly".

Portrait on the Fly consists of a series of interactive portraits, plotter drawings and video sequences of well-known media art experts.    
Portrait on the Fly (Interactive Version) is composed of a monitor that shows a swarm of ten thousand flies. When a person positions himself in front of it, the insects try to detect his facial features. They then begin to arrange themselves so as to reproduce them, thereby creating a recognizable likeness of the individual.. Posing in front of the monitor attracts the flies. Within seconds they invade the face, but even the slightest movement of the head or of parts of the face drives them off. The portraits are thus in constant flux, they construct and deconstruct. Portrait on the Fly is a commentary on our love for making pictures of ourselves (Selfie-Culture), it has to do with change, transience and impermanence.  

Portrait on the Fly (Plotter Drawings) is a series of plotter drawings. Snapshots of the digital fly portraits are printed out as 1960s plotter-style drawings. Ephemeral moments of interaction are thereby secured in the form of graphical drawings. The first of them is an autoportrait of Sommerer & Mignonneau. The series include portraits of important media art experts, theorists and artists. The aim is to conserve original and precious images of the historic figures who are involved in media art – an ephemeral field that is obsessed with novelty and change.

Portrait on the Fly (Video Portraits) consists of short video sequences where the moving portrait of well known media art pioneers, scholars, artists, theorist, gallerist and organizers are turned into a swarm of flies. These video sequences include portraits by Christiane Paul, Sarah Diamond, Peter Weibel, Peter d’Agostino, Frieder Nake, Mark Wilson, Hans Dehlinger, Hannes Leopoldseder, Christine Schöpf, Edmond Couchot, Marie Hélène Tramus, Nina Czeglédy, Gerfried Stocker, Oliver Grau, Maurice Benayoun, Paul Thomas, Jill Scott, Paul Sermon, Simon Biggs, Greg Garvey, Jean-Luc Soret, Chu-Yin Chen, Dominique Moulon, Ellen Pau, Valérie Hasson-Benillouche, Wolf Lieser, Dierk Maass, Antoinette Airoldi, Anita Beckers, Georg Peithner-Lichtenfels, among many others. It is a growing personal archive of media art experts, who from Sommerer & Mignonneau’s personal point of view, significantly contribute to the development and acceptance of media art within contemporary art.