Dear Visitor,
My name is Valia Fetisov . I’m a media artist and software engineer interested in the intersection of social psychology and technology. More specifically, my passion is constructing artificial situations to explore people’s reactions. If you don’t want to read further, here is an old video that introduces my work.
Currently I’m working on a tiny exhibition space called Space in transition as an artist and a curator. Recent works include User flow – a research-based project conducted on Social Credit System and Call to action.
User flow is an interactive installation that mimics the look of a security line and blends itself into the infrastructure of an exhibition, rather than presenting itself as a content of it. The project is based on the research compiled during residency in China and published online.
The installation represents the development of a physical security systems in our current times and questions the limits of that evolution as well as its general design choices.
Slide 01 of 04. Installation view: three security guards and one visitor
Slide 02 of 04. Installation view: inspection of the visitors’ body
Slide 03 of 04. Installation view: inspection of the visitors’ intentions
Slide 04 of 04. Installation view: the dispensing machine
The linear structure of the path through the installation that visitors have to take represents different historical stages of a ubiquitous security procedures. It starts with the inspection of a visitors belongings: visitors should take off their shoes and stand in front of a security guard, giving access to their body. As soon as it’s done, they proceed to the next step: inspection of the their intentions, where they have to answer questions that build a psychological profile and sometimes found in visa applications. The third step is designed to uncover domination of the design and visitors' aptitude to comply.
The final step is a metallic frame with a screen facing a visitor that first invites them to come closer, and as soon as they are close enough text on the screen changes to a requirement to take a liquid. Visitors asked to turn their head up and open their mouth as soon as they’re ready. When they do that, a small amount of pure water is dispensed into their mouth using automated system build using 3D camera, face alignment neural network and a computer-controlled 2D manipulator.
But the key work for understanding the origins of my interests is still the Installation of experience (2011). It is a room with an automatic door at the entrance, which closes each time someone comes in, so people are trapped there for an unknown amount of time with no instructions for how to get out.
Some of my other works include: a voicemail community Diane (2017); an online-activity tracker of my friends Be my friend (2016); a way of entering into a video surveillance system Control yourself (2012); and Paranoiapp (2015), a tool for the social psychology experiment in the form of a mobile application.
List of the previous events can be found here.
Write me if you have any questions.
Thank you for reading,
Valia