IN REALITY
KASIA KLIMPEL
02.06.2013 - 17.08.2013

in reality, by Kasia Klimpel shows a picture construct consisting of an overlay of live webcam images. From time to time we can recognize one of the layers, which show us different locations around the world. Nevertheless, the image resists decoding, as the layering brings it close to a diffuse abstraction.

Kasia Klimpel presents a montage of real-time images from live webcams that can be accessed via Internet. The images of the different transmissions are transparent, and with this the individual images in the resulting overlay are visible, creating a digital abstraction. By means of an algorithm, the images of this webcam transmission are continuously layered over each other anew, in various combinations. Kasia Klimpel has put together a pool of several dozen webcams, displaying a selection of images that could not be more different: they show industrial landscapes, architectural interiors or nature images.

Images from real-time transmissions made possible through webcam technology have been a part of our everyday lives since long. In the public space of the Internet, the webcam often emerges in the role of a medium for communication or representation. The latent triviality of these images – a result of nonstop transmission – is revalued through the possibility of the media-based distant view. The digital channels, which allow us to relocate ourselves to a geographically distant place, imply an extension of seeing. With this project, Kasia Klimpel questions these putative extensions of seeing and points to the fact that the digital distant view also brings with it an extensive reduction of perception. Ultimately, we never know whether what we see is real or is actually taking place.

This image construct is Kasia Klimpel’s answer to the resulting unease. The artist questions our demand for a media-enabled extension by bringing together different locations, which are reproduced in real time, in one image. The resulting digital collage stands for a veiled perception of our world, brought about by the digital distant view.

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