olaf val: this could be yours.your personal property

‘this could be yours/your potential property’ galerie könig, berlin june 9th – 27th august, 2010

brad pitt, one of the most downloaded images is put through custom built software to create pixelated canvas image © designboom

‘this could be yours/your potential property’ is an exhibition by german artist olaf val that looks at the advent of digital media and its effect on everyday life. according to val, the effects of technological changes is not yet clear in the collective consciousness of society. personal property is a topic for every citizen. this exhibition strikes at exactly this idea as it explores, through a simple demonstration, the real world impact of digital media.

image © designboom

in val’s research of this project, he found that the concept of ‘personal property’ takes on a completely new dimension when observed through the digital world. a simple example of this were the recent headlines that a criminal investigation must be pursued in the theft of virtual belongings in an online role-playing game.

on electronic storage media, whether an internet server or the flash drive of an ipod, people deposit data in a quantity that is beyond count. at first glance, content and authorship are obvious. an ‘up.mov’ datafile can be the newest blockbuster film or a home video. opening such a file happens simply through a piece of software also known as the ‘player’. in the best case scenario, the disclosure of the author of a work is included. indeed, a few people take the time and effort with a digital camera to film or photograph audio-visual pieces with a visible digital watermark so that their authorship can be recognized. on the other hand, electronic data has become much easier to share. on a personal homepage, for instance, the photo ‘mama.jpg’ is in an attributable context. when an acquaintance finds this photo and publishes it in another place with a new context then the traces of authorship are quickly washed away. the project ‘this could be yours/your potential property’ delves into this dilemma. with computer technology everyone has access to an overwhelming abundance of data that does not belong to them. within the framework of the project, people are invited to work with external material, to put it through a processing mechanism and draft a new conception of authorship.

kylie minogue image © designboom

the exhibition consists of digital images of photos and videos shown on canvas-like self made screens. large format pixels create a drastic reduction of visual information. the source material put through this player, much like through a filter, takes on a completely new aesthetic. the original image loses meaning, but is still not completely unrecognisable. intrinsic to this concept is working with images that are not self produced.

the artistic process begins with the sorting and combination of source images. in the next step the player is assembled. with the design of this technology, the surface and implementation of pixels for each source receives its very own ‘your potential property display’. in the cross-section between curator, engineer, and artist a game is created that plays with authenticity and abstraction.