the_living

the_living is a project initiated and created by Debra Solomon that manifests itself in CU-SeeMe, software that enables online chat boxes with live video connections. Created in 1998, this groundbreaking work within digital art history was ahead of its time, fantasising of being online 24/7 and blurring the boundaries of the physical and the digital world.

The work consists of a series of performances mediated on the computer screen and built up from web pages, images, ongoing chats, computer code and sound. Solomon’s digital persona appears through streaming video from unusual physical environments such as an ice cave, in a swimming pool, or on a boat cruising through the Amsterdam canals – all while holding a laptop with which she interacts online with her audience in virtual video conference environments.

With this project, Solomon investigates the collective online environment that was becoming more common in the late nineties and shows the possibilities of online communication.

the_living is curated by media art platform LI-MA as part of REBOOT, an exhibition at Nieuwe Instituut. During the festival, the work will pop up randomly on various narrowcasting screens across the different festival venues.

– Vanja Kaludjercic

Would you like see the full REBOOT exhibition? Visitors who can show an IFFR 2024 ticket or an accreditation badge at the Nieuwe Instituut box office, can enter the museum for €10 instead of €16.50.

Interested in more? Join our Art Directions Talk on Friday 26 January. Click here for the details.