"DISPLACED_PERSONS is an interactive, online environment centered around the interfaces between PHYSICAL and VIRTUAL spaces and focused on the field of INTERHUMAN COMMUNICATION. Contrary to custom, interaction is not the result of an activation message, but simply: DO_NOTHING, NO_ACTION.

In a room constructed as temporary and 'placeless', one finds 8 loudspeakers and 8 red signs with the words engraved: north, south, east, west, up, down, in, out. Concepts of placement in physical spaces and simultaneously the most important commands to navigate within virtual worlds. Visitors hear a computer-generated, multi-voiced polylog of different synthetic characters, in which, among other things, questions arise concerning absence, truth and lies, sex, appearance, identity, and detection.

When people enter, the polylog abruptly breaks off until they either leave the space or remain completely motionless. Only the ABSOLUTE IMMOBILITY OF EVERYONE triggers the sound installation. In this way, a situation of INTERDEPENDENCE (NET_WORKING) develops, mediating itself again and again. Every individual influences the entire happening, and the result is a joint expression of everyone involved.

From the moment of collective HOLDING_STILL, visitors become fixed in the space as LIVING SCULPTURES and thus, at the same time, EXHIBITS themselves. Essentially, the options exist to either enter the space or remain at a distance: to become PARTICIPANT or OBSERVER.

Through 4 spyholes, events in the space inside can be monitored. The observer notices that the distance is only a relative one if he becomes, by observing, the one observed. All of this can also be tracked on the WordWideWeb via 6 surveillance cameras. In an analogy to the local environment, the cameras of all logged-in users are also collectively controlled so that every individual can influence all in-coming video. This is projected parallel to the exhibition via beamer. The arising 'cuts' result directly from the user's clicking behaviour and also document their activity. Likewise, texts can be fed into the website and immediately be heard through a loudspeaker found in the room, thus furthering the 'POLYLOG OF FICTITIOUS IDENTITIES'" (Christin Lahr).

Christin Lahr
born 1965 in Munich; lives in Berlin. Since 2001 professor of Media Arts at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig. Exhibitions a.o. WHEN TEKKNO TURNS TO SOUND OF POETRY, Shedhalle Zürich, KunstWerke Berlin (1994/1995); CLUBBERLIN, Biennale di Venezia Teatro Malibran, Venice (1995); VIRTUALITÄT DES VERSCHWINDENS, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst Berlin (1997); ZONEN DER VER-STÖRUNG, Steirischer Herbst, Graz; CROSSLINKS, Marstall, Berlin (1999); rFACE_to_vFACE, Kunsthalle Bremen (2000), V2_Lab for the Unstable Media Rotterdam (2001)