Tag: andrea vascellari

This is a video (below) that I directed, shot and edited for YouTube Play, a collaboration between YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum to unearth and showcase the very best creative videos from around the world. Leah D’Emilio worked together with me as producer adding her insights and helping me turn the concept I wanted to express into something magic.

The video is called Privacy.

Social media is one of the primary vehicles through which we interact with society. This is redefining the concept of privacy. My intention is to discuss how privacy is being redefined using the following 3 aspects of private self:

• Watching others/sharing our physical self through video.
• Written thoughts on personal profiles.
• Private conversations in public spaces.

– With a Panasonic GF1 I recorded various angles of a woman’s body as she laid in a dimly lit room. It is a test of the viewer’s perception as to which part of the body she is being shown and from which perspective. She symbolizes our desire to watch others and how we become “naked” as we expose our lives online.

– The text scrolling along the bottom of the screen are real updates written by random facebook users who have kept their profiles public and therefore searchable on youropenbook.org. Using key search terms I was able to find very personal written statements from complete strangers who would probably never say what they wrote in public, yet their thoughts are available for public search.

– Finally, the third element of “Privacy” is the audio recording of a public space in New York City. The audio element of this project reflects how anyone can listen in on private conversation in the “real world”, paralleling the idea that anyone can “listen in on” what would be considered “private conversation” in the virtual world.

In this project the video’s role is elevated as the primary vehicle bringing these aspects together to discuss the future definition of privacy.

“Privacy” will be examined by a jury of experts that will decide which works will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on October 21, 2010 with simultaneous presentations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. The selected videos will be on view to the public from October 22 through 24 in New York and on the YouTube Play channel.

I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts on “Privacy“. Feel free to share them here on my blog, via twitter @vascellari, on my Facebook profile or on my Facebook Page.

Andrea