SEE PROJECT VIDEO DOCUMENTATION HERE IN CAIRO: https://vimeo.com/72616842
AND THE SECOND INSTALLATION HERE IN DC:
https://vimeo.com/239352257
I exhibited a computer-vision & Twitter based interactive installation called “Gestures of Change (2013)” with “Max is a Pushover” at the Di-Egy Fest in Cairo, Egypt ( di-egyfest.com/exhibition.html ) in April 2013. In “Gestures of Change (2013)”, when visitors enter a semi-lit empty gallery space with the words projected near the ceiling of one wall “{ Check Twitter #GESTUREofCHANGE for these automated Protest Tweets }” with real prerecorded sounds of protest from Tahrir Square in Cairo. Once they turn their face towards that wall to read the text, they a projected spherical outline made from rotating letters and words appear in English reading “In God We Trust – In God We….” and in Arabic words taken from the Egyptian Pound. In the center of the circle reads “Dictator #1 – #MuhammadMorsi” with a live feed from the #MuhammadMorsi Twitter account jumping back and forth from a range of twitter posts in Arabic and English. When a second person enters the room, a second sphere with the same rotating text from US coins and the Egyptian Pound reading “Dictator #2 – #MMorsi” with a live feed in the center from the #MMorsi Twitter account appears, with a line connecting it with the other sphere, reading the Arabic word “Inshallah” or “if God wills” or “God willing.” After a moment, each visitor realizes that the sphere is following each their movements exactly, like a mirror. Next visitors notice that a number of multicolored dots begin to swarm towards your head or sphere or Twitter feed. If there are two or more visitors, the dots move/swarm between them. Every few seconds, after the many dots have been swarming the sphere for some time, the dots scatter to the edge of the screen, then there is a sound and a flash of an explosion, only to again gravitate towards the rotating sphere. This gesture implies and confuses whether the dots or masses are the cause of the explosion or victims of it.
Gestures of Change seeks to reveal the ever growing byproducts of the confusion that intensifies during revolution. Social networks have been seen to exacerbate and be a source for expressing individual’s discontent in this environment as well. Being situated in the heart of a revolution, sometimes based on our gestures, associations, and affiliations, we can be seen to wear and reflect others beliefs in this storm of confusion.
This exhibition and festival took place after Muhammad Morsi was elected and before the recent resurgence of violent events in Cairo.
See emedia.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/exhibited-gestures-of-change-at-di-egy-fest-in-cairo-egypt-in-april-2013/for more documentation of Gestures of Change and other works by Kazemzadeh in the exhibition.
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