Seeing I – Interview with Mark Farid, Artist in Residence at Ars Electronica Festival 2019

The British artist Mark Farid, 27, was at the Atelierhaus Salzamt during Ars Electronica Festival 2019 in Linz. In an interview he talks about…

the project and the aim of the project (MP3 / 05:38 / 5,2 MB),
the experiences during Ars Electronica Festival (MP3 / 06:38 / 6,3 MB),
the difficulties and the positive experiences (MP3 / 02:15 / 2,1 MB),
the support by the clinical psychologist Dr. Tamara Russell (MP3 / 07:16 / 6,8 MB),
the different trial runs and the lessons learned (MP3 / 02:49 / 2,6 MB),
Mark Farid before and after the project.

Interview/Production: Hildegard Griebl-Shehata
Fotos: Milla Lewis

Website of the project 'Seeing I' 
Website of Mark Farid 
More photos on our Salzamt Blog

„Seeing I is a psychological art experiment that examines the implications of surveillance technologies on our experience, and questions how much of the individual is an inherent personality and how large a portion of the individual is conditioned through a cultural identity.

For seven consecutive days, British artist Mark Farid is living in the exhibition space. In the morning he puts on a virtual reality headset and watches the first person point-of-view perspective of seven different people (the ‚Other‘), from the moment they get out of bed in the morning, to the moment they go to sleep in the evening. Each day, Farid will watch a different person’s life, eating when they eat, and sleeping when they sleep. Otherwise, Farid is free to do as he pleases within the exhibition space, so long as the headset remains on.

Each night, after the Other goes to sleep, Farid will take off the VR headset and speak to the projects‘ clinical psychologist, Dr. Tamara Russell“ (Booklet: Ars Electronica Festival 2019)