Kevin Jacques - Birmingham, England
Co Co: Cube of Constant Observation (2002)

Media: expanding foam, speakers, receiver, microphone

Privacy, he said, was a very valuable thing. Everyone wanted a place where they could be alone occasionally.
- George Orwell, 1984

Britain has the largest CCTV (close circuit television) network in the world - approximately 1 camera per 25 people.  We are under constant observation, in our private telephone calls, private emails or private conversations. A law has recently been introduced to allow any email to be viewed by a government body if they feel they have ‘just reason’ to do so, without informing anyone. My work looks at how we readily accept and positively embrace these intrusions, influenced by what we hear on the radio, television and read in our newspapers.

In this project the theme is based around surveillance and the possibilities that citizens are under constant observation in the name of public safety. A comfort zone is created using expanding foam, which kills the outside noise and allows you to become absorbed within the sounds that are being transmitted into the cube. But from the outside the piece has a menacing appearance working with the notion that, once you are inside a system, you become unaware of the potential dangers.

Kevin Jacques recently graduated from the University of Central England in Birmingham. He has been in a variety of exhibitions throughout the U.K and is very excited to be part of L’Objet Sonore, his first exhibition in the U.S.A.  Although he uses sound extensively in his art pieces, he has never received any formal training in music; this allows him the freedom of not knowing the traditional formulates of sound production, so these constraints are not ingrained within him. It also gives him a fresh approach to the possibilities of what sound is and how it can be used within art.  Kevin creates interactive sound sculptures, allowing the viewer to be a part of the art piece so that the ideas he is trying to portray remain with the viewer as they help create the experience.

Kevin Jacques' participation is made possible with a grant from the Regional Arts Board of the West Midlands in England.

www.kevinjacques.freeserve.co.uk/INDEX.html

 

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