Verena Friedrich: ENDO

Title:

ENDO

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Creation Year:

2007–ongoing

Art Event Overview:

ENDO is a recording device that captures and logs the surrounding situation from its individual point of view. Equipped with various sensors and a terabyte hard drive, the object continuously
gathers information about its environment: sound, camera images, GPS-coordinates, brightness, temperature, air pressure and humidity values are archived within this black box without observers ever knowing what happens to the stored data. In the course of time the machine produces a huge pool of information whose content or usage remains unknown. Does the record serve any secret purpose? Could it be exploited to act against us? Is this a trap? What remains is endless speculation – about the nature of information, the construction of a media dominated reality, the ‘ghost in the machine,’ and a potential loss of control. ENDO hence mirrors a situation we are all in: data – also about us – is gathered continuously. These mountains of data are rarely evaluated, yet they remain piled up, beyond the control of any single individual.

Full text (PDF) p. 29-34